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Kristi Yamaguchi

Patricia Arquette

Valerie Bertinelli

Amanda Bynes wearing Swarovski and Jennie Garth wearing Badgley Mischka

Tori Spelling

She may have written a tell-all book, but Valeire Bertinelli was suddenly very tight-lipped Wednesday night when asked about ex-husband Eddie Van Halen’s mystery illness.

“I really don’t think it’s anybody’s business,” the Jenny Craig spokeswoman, 47, told PEOPLE at a Cincinnati book-signing for her new memoir, Losing It: And Gaining My Life Back One Pound at a Time. “He’s being proactive and that’s good.”

The 53-year-old Van Halen guitarist “is undergoing a battery of comprehensive medical tests,” the band announced on its Web site Monday. (The rocker, who has a long history of drug and alcohol abuse, previously battled cancer. In 2002, he announced he’d beaten the disease.) As a result of the star’s undisclosed illness, they cancelled four concerts, including one slated for Wednesday in Cincinnati.

In fact, Bertinelli said she’s just as disappointed as other Van Halen fans. “We scheduled the signing early so we could make the concert in time,” she said. (Her teenage son, Wolfie, is touring with dad as the band’s bassist.)

Instead, as the signing at Joseph-Beth Booksellers wound down, the former child-star and her longtime boyfriend Tom Vitale headed out in search of seafood and champagne.

They certainly had plenty to celebrate. Bertinelli had just gotten a call announcing that Losing It had made it onto the New York Times Bestseller List. (The actual list is not published until Sunday.) Upon hearing the news, the ecstatic actress screamed, “Holy crap!”

Valerie Bertinelli says despite her girl-next-door image, her marriage to Eddie Van Halen was hurt by infidelity and drug use – by her, too. “I wasn’t an angel, either. I cheated, too,” Bertinelli said on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” broadcast Monday. “He claims to this day that I cheated first, but I don’t know. I don’t know about the timing.”

Bertinelli, who starred in the long-running sitcom “One Day at a Time,” married Van Halen in 1981 when she was 20. She said she was “destroying my body,” trying to keep up with a rock-star lifestyle on the weekends and weeks off from taping her TV show.

“It got to a point where whenever I heard the birds chirp, I’d be like, `Oh, God, no.’ It took me years after stopping the cocaine before I was able to enjoy a sunrise and enjoy the sound of birds,” she said.

The couple separated in 2001. Their divorce became final in December. They have a son, Wolfgang, who’s now 16 and touring as bassist with the band Van Halen.

The actress, 47, said she has struggled with body-image issues since she was a child, but especially turned to food for comfort as her marriage dissolved.

Bertinelli is now a spokeswoman for Jenny Craig and said she’s lost 40 pounds. She has a new book, “Losing It: And Gaining My Life Back One Pound at a Time.”

Van Halen’s publicist said the musician had no comment on Bertinelli’s book or interviews to promote it.

Valerie Bertinelli is kissing and telling: In a revealing new sit-down with Oprah Winfrey, the actress and Jenny Craig spokeswoman says that she and ex-husband Eddie Van Halen cheated on each other.

“I cheated,” she tells Oprah on the episode, airing Feb. 25. “He claims to this day that I cheated first, but I don’t know. I don’t know about the timing.”

Bertinelli, 47, who’s promoting her tell-all book, Losing It: And Gaining My Life Back One Pound at a Time, also reveals that her ex, with whom she’s now friendly, wanted to take their relationship slow – at least at first. “He didn’t want to sleep with you,” asked Winfrey. Responded Bertinelli: “I know … I wanted to sleep with him … and he wanted to talk to my dad first.”

(source)

Though there is definitely less of Valeria Bertinelli these days, there may be more behind her dramatic weight loss than she’s letting on!

The Jenny Craig spokeswoman announced in a recent magazine article that she’d dropped a whopping 30 pounds from her estimated 165-pound high since joining the weight-loss program at the end of march.

But Star has evidence that something fishy is going on. And shocking new photos of the star taken on July 17 tell the story! That’s when 5’2” Valeria, 47, vacationing in Hawaii with her boyfriend, Tom Vitale, and her son, Wolfgang, stepped onto the balcony of her villa in a one-piece swimming suit- and revealed much more firth than the magazine’s photo.

“There is no way that’s the same body!” L.A. – based surgeon and fitness expert Bruce Nadler, M.D., tells Star after reviewing both sets of photographs. Edward J. Jackowsie, Ph.D., who is the author of Escape Your Shape, made the assessment after reviewing photos: “I commend Valerie for losing weight, but she still has a way to go, judging from the Hawaii photos!”

Kathryn Brumwell, Valerie’s personal Jenny Craig consultant, attributes the star’s weight-loss transformation to her fixed 1,200-calorie-a-day diet, plus an exercise plan that has her walking 10,000 steps a day, the equivalent of five miles. Yet Stuart Fischer, M.D., of The Park Avenue Diet Center in NYC says that such a drastic change is unlikely to occur on that regime and that even if she did lose all the weight, it’s unhealthy. “In general, the body fights rapid weight loss- you’ll regain like never before!” he says.

The independent experts Star consulted- none of whom has treated Valerie- believe that the magazine used “photo magic” to embellish Valerie’s “miracle” slim down! “I think the photo in the magazine spread has been doctored to show results that are not accurate and true,” insists Dr. Jackowski. Adds Dr. Nadler, “To me, it appears that she’s had her curves artificially sculpted in the photo.”

Jenny Craig denies altering any photos and insists that Valerie’s weight loss is “absolutely supported by the data.” So how to explain Valerie’s seemingly supersvelte curves on the red carpet? In a word? Spanx. Mary A-list beauties routinely sport body-shaping garments under clothing to hide bulges.

Ultimately, says experts, Valerie’s magazine transformation holds out false hope to women everywhere. “These photos send the wrong message,” says Dr. Jackwoski. “You can’t achieve a body like that in such a short time through dieting and walking. They are trying to sell an impossible dream so that people will buy their product!”

(Courtesy of Star Magazine)

Valerie Bertinelli, whose life spans the different worlds of television and rock ‘n’ roll, is working on a memoir.

“Losing It: And Gaining My Life Back One Pound at a Time,” which also documents her fight to lose weight, will be published in April 2008 by the Free Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.

“Writing a book is an exciting new adventure for me,” Bertinelli said in a statement issued Tuesday by the Free Press.

“I’ve grown up in and out of the public eye, survived some tough times, learned some important lessons, and come out – as has my entire family – in a great place. I think it’s a recipe for a good book. Ironically, as there’s less of me, I have more to say.”

Bertinelli, 47, starred as the wholesome Barbara Cooper in the 1970s sitcom “One Day at a Time,” then joined a far wilder world when she married rock guitar god Eddie Van Halen in 1981. They divorced in 2005.

According to the Free Press, Bertinelli will discuss her years as a teenage star, her marriage, “her struggles with depression, and her life-long battle with weight and self-esteem issues.”

Bertinelli is currently a spokeswoman for the Jenny Craig weight loss program.

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