Sideshow: Streep, 62, Vogue's cover girl

It's become a requirement for actresses to appear on at least a dozen magazine covers a year to retain their fame. Guess Meryl Streep, 62, didn't get that memo.

The 16-time Oscar nominee appears on the cover of Vogue for the first time ever, becoming the oldest woman to do so. The conversation is all about age.

Streep says when she turned 40 she was sure her career was over. "What should we do?" she asked her husband, Don Gummer, whom she wed in '78. "Because it's over." Sure enough, the job offers changed: Streep was asked to play a witch in three different films!

Streep says we have a disturbing attitude about women's age. "Once women passed childbearing age," says the Kramer vs. Kramer star, "they could only be seen as grotesque on some level." Streep, who plays former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in Iron Lady, is anything but gross. "Her skin is fabulous and luminously pale," the mag says of the "delicate" star.

Portrait of a marriage gone wrong: Kim Kardashian's break-up with Kris Humphries could have been even more horrid, more tragic: Kim was this close to getting pregnant! So viewers learned Sunday night on Kourtney & Kim Take New York, filmed during those heady (72) days when K&K were married. "I feel like your life really starts when you have kids," Kim says.

She asks Kris if he's ready to become a dad. "This is exciting," says Kris.   

Things get ugly when Kris tells Kim they'll raise the child in Minnesota, an idea that nauseates Kim. Kris wants Kim to be a hausfrau. She wants a career.

"By the time you have kids and they're in school and all that, no one will probably care about you," Kris says before walking away. "Let's be honest." Ouch!

Later, once things cool down, Kris says, "We'll be great parents. . . . I want to have kids right away." Cut to: Kim taking her birth control pills. She's not ready.

Barry Manilow, 68, on Monday checked in to an L.A. hospital to have hip surgery, his rep tells USA Today. Manilow, who played his 1,000th Las Vegas show Sunday night, just ended a seven-year run at the Las Vegas Hilton and the Paris Resort.

Pain courses through Kate Gosselin's body every year at Christmas. Real pain. Painy pain. Philly's proudest daughter writes in her CouponCabin.com blog that doling out - and later cleaning up - gifts for eight children can be overwhelming.

"Following our mass gift opening, I know that once again this year I'll sit on the floor for 4+ hours unpacking toys and installing batteries," Kate writes. "I am not exaggerating! My 'hiney' is sore by the time the last toy has been freed from its packaging prison." The pile of detritus expelled to the curb is so enormous, Kate says, she leaves out a tin of cookies "for our ever kind and helpful trash men."

We have often questioned the social good that could possibly come from The Kardashian Clan, their insipid reality show, millions-making faux weddings, and product lines. So we are humbled to hear that the Kardashian-effekt kan kure kancer!

So says cancer survivor - and Survivor survivor - Ethan Zohn. "Whenever he's sick or having a down day we use that to keep up with our Kardashians," Ethan's gf, Jenna Morasca, tells E!News. Ethan is battling Hodgkin's lymphoma, which last month returned after 20 months in remission.

"Keeping Up With the Kardashians is curing cancer. You can quote me on that," Zohn says. "Tell Kim and Khloé and Kourtney and Scott [Disick]. Scott's my favorite."

Cameron Diaz, 39, and Sean "Diddy" Combs, 42, who reportedly hook up (to use youth lingo) whenever they are single, were spied this weekend staring wistfully into each other's eyes at Dream Downtown Hotel in New York. "They were making out like teenagers," Anonymous Witness tells Life & Style Weekly. The mag says things aren't so casual between the stars: They may actually be dating!

Former A-lister Lindsay Lohan, who was paid $1 mil to take it off for Playboy, faced difficulties this weekend during her Hawaiian sojourn: Someone nicked her $5,000 Chanel handbag, which reportedly contained $10,000 in cash. She got the (empty) purse back sometime later.

The Los Angeles Critics Association honored The Descendants from helmer Alexander Payne (Sideways) as the best picture of the year. But its star, George Clooney, didn't get the best actor prize. It went to Michael Fassbender for his brilliant performances in four films in 2011: Shame, A Dangerous Method, Jane Eyre and X-Men: First Class. Yun Jung-hee won best actress for the South Korean drama Poetry.

Philly rapper Meek Mill (Robert Rahmeek Williams), whose debut album, A Hustler's Dream a Hater's Nightmare, is due early next year, will share of himself with students at South Philadelphia High School with a concert and award ceremony for distinguished students Tuesday at 1 p.m.

Richard Hatch, 50, who has been in deep water with the IRS and the feds ever since he won $1 mil on the first edition of Survivor in '06, has been released from federal prison in Rhode Island after serving a nine-month sentence for failing to pay back taxes.

George Takei, 74, who played Hikaru Sulu on Star Trek, wants the feuding to stop between Star Trek's William Shatner and Star Wars princess Carrie Fisher. The pair have been warring over which sci-fi franchise is the best. Shatner, for one, accused George Lucas' saga of being an empty special- effects vehicle.

"The only thing is you guys forgot about story and character and plot development," he said recently. Sulu says the two sides need to unite against a dread common enemy, the Twilight vampire pics.

"Sci-fi fans be warned, there are no great stories, characters or profound life lessons to be found in Twilight," Takei says. "In Twilight, the only message that rings through loud and clear is: 'Does my boyfriend like me'?"