Celebrity Mound

Nick Lachey and Vanessa Minnillo have split!

A source close to the couple tells ys: “It was an amicable break-up. They walk away from it still friends.”

Adds another source, “They still care about each other very much. This is what’s best for both of them.”

The couple hooked up in 2006 — the year after Lachey split from wife Jessica Simpson.

In 2007, Minnillo told Us she wanted to have kids with Lachey: “I always say I want three boys and a girl, but at the end of the day, I just want healthy kids.”

(source)

Vanessa Minnillo’s rep may say the former “Entertainment Tonight” presenter is still with boyfriend Nick Lachey — but she’s sure acting single. Minnillo showed up solo recently at Prive at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas to celebrate her friend Malin Ackerman’s 31st birthday and proceeded to have a few Grey Goose vodka drinks. Then she plunked herself on an unidentified man’s lap for “a while,” before challenging a Michael Jackson impersonator to a “Thriller” dance-off atop a dancing platform. Our spy says, “She matched him move for move, complete with a lick of her palm, grab of her crotch and other non-PG-rated moves. She even completed her dance by kicking off her shoes and climbing off the platform in drunken prom girl style.” Minnillo’s rep didn’t return e-mails.

(source)

Tongues were wagging over Vanessa Minnillo’s recent display of affection with a guy who was not longtime beau Nick Lachey. The celebutrash was spotted at the SLS hotel in LA, “hanging out in a private cabana all night” with “90210″ actor Matt Lanter. Our spy said, “Vanessa definitely wasn’t with Nick. She sat on Matt’s lap and really close to him for two hours at the party. He looks like a younger version of Nick.” A rep for Minnillo said her client knows her “Disaster Movie” co-star because “they made a film together.”

(source)

There’s trouble in paradise for Nick Lachey and Vanessa Minnillo.

A source close to the ex-boybander says the two “are on the rocks big time. They argue all the time, and Nick is done with her. He feels like she’s holding him back, careerwise.”

Sure enough, Lachey’s career isn’t as hot as it used to be. His latest single, “Patience,” hasn’t even cracked the pop charts, though a friend close to the singer is quick to note “it’s doing well on the adult contemporary.” (When we checked, it was No. 39 on Billboard’s Hot Adult Top 40 list after five weeks of airplay, and it topped out on the Pop 100 Airplay list at No. 75 back in March.)

He’s also producing a show on MTV called “Taking the Stage,” but even that hasn’t taken off, perhaps because Lachey has stayed behind the camera for much of the season. A source close to Lachey argued that the show, based around students from the Cincinnati School for Creative and Performing Arts, has become “a cult hit.”

But what the singer really needs is a mainstream breakthrough — and Lachey’s pals say that in order to launch a comeback, he needs to dump Minnillo. It was recently reported the end was near after Minnillo stormed out of an L.A. restaurant with an angry face — with Lachey chasing after her in embarrassment, doggy bag in hand. A source close to the couple told us, “After the pictures came out, Nick told friends they weren’t fighting about their relationship, that it was just Vanessa going through a tough time personally.”

But, says another source, “We’re just not sure if we believe that anymore. The relationship has been over for a while, but he’s too nice a guy to end things completely.”

That may explain why the singer keeps making an effort. In town for a recent Lachey promotional tour, he and Minnillo — who’ve been together since March 2006 — dined at The Charles restaurant. “They sat in a corner table, exchanging kisses,” said one spy. “But something still wasn’t quite right.”

Said Minnillo’s rep: “They’re fine — none of this is true.”

Lachey’s rep echoed the sentiments: “To my knowledge, everything is great with them.”

(source)

It looks as though genetically-blessed duo Nick Lachey and Vanessa Minnillo are going stronger than ever, but is Miss Minnillo ready to take the next step? The Tinseltown twosome snuck into Christina Aguilera’s Target Terrace AMAs party at and stood by each other’s side throughout the evening. According to an inside source, Ness did some hinting while hitting the dancefloor during Beyonce’s “Single Ladies.”

“Vanessa was dancing and joking about putting a ring on her finger,” said the eyewitness. “She was pointing to her ring finger! The two were very happy and sipping champagne together.” Awww.

Other guests included rekindled romancers Jimmy Kimmel and Sarah Silverman as well as Xtina herself, Sarah McLachlan, David Archuleta, Tyrese Gibson and JC

Luckily for Vanessa Minnillo, life doesn’t always imitate art.

Case in point? In Disaster Movie, hitting theaters Friday, Minnillo’s cheerleader character just can’t get her boyfriend to say “I love you.”

“He just can’t drop the L-word,” Minnillo, 27, tells PEOPLE of her character’s commitment-challenged boyfriend. “And what a girl wants more than anything in the world is for their boyfriend to say ‘I love you.’ ”

But, says Minnillo, her real-life beau Nick Lachey, 34, doesn’t have any similar hang-ups: “The L-word is not thrown around by men as easily as it is by women – but I didn’t say it first! He’s very loving. We’re very open and vocal.”

While Minnillo and Lachey may be in sync when it comes to their love for each other, their attempt to exercise together is not so harmonious.

“We used to work out together, but we stopped,” says Minnillo, laughing. “We’re doing different things. And the guy runs forever! Like, I swear, he’s running 11 miles a day. I can’t run. That’s the one thing I can’t do, because I feel like the further I jog away from my house, the further I have to jog back!”

(source)

Jamie-Lynn Sigler, Vanessa Minnillo, and Lindsay Price

Fashion designer Richie Rich and Jamie-Lynn Sigler