With the recent stories making the rounds about her, we had lost our faith in Kelly Clarkson’s brains. Today, though, we learn about some impressive decisions she made after American Idol.

US Magazine is sharing some quotes from a recent Reader’s Digest interview with Kelly.

“I have saved and saved, and I don’t have to work another day. When I won Idol and started working with a business manager, she asked, ‘What do you want?’ I was like, I don’t ever want to have to make a decision because I need money. So we accomplished that two years ago, and I’m set.”

We’re feeling nice today, otherwise we’d call her a braggart. But, it makes you wonder whether Clarkson should write a book, "Rub the Stardust Out of Your Eyes, This Ain’t Going to Last Forever: Money Rules for Reality Show Winners"

She could make millions. Not that she needs it. Miss Independent, indeed.

Catherine Zeta-Jones knew what she wanted out of life and it was more than ostentatious hair treatments. The girl can drive a hard bargain.

When she was dating Michael Douglas, she was firm about her desire for a family. The Mirror reports:

Catherine, 37, said: "I turned to him and asked, ‘Do you really want children?’ I thought for one minute he was going to say, ‘I already have a son, Cameron.’

"I would then have had to say goodbye. I remember saying defiantly, ‘I can’t live without having children’. And he went, ‘Me too’," she added in an interview with Parade magazine.

Perhaps she thought that was her escape clause. Something along the lines of "Sorry, you face-lifted old man, I would love to marry you, but I’m young, gorgeous and I want a beautiful family."

Unfortunately for the glossy-haired Zeta-Jones, the cruel trick of human physiology is that even mummified men can impregnate their wenches and silence the ticking of the biological clock. And some have the ego to want to.

Playing catch with the kiddies? That’s another story.

Kelly Clarkson is finally opening up about her battles with her record label and the venerable Clive Davis. Apparently, she thinks that she knows more about music than the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Producer.

She probably intends to vindicate herself by sharing this story, but it only servers to cast her as arrogant and foolish. (No wonder she thinks she’d make a bad mother.)

According to the New York Post:

Clarkson insisted on recording her own songs on her third album, while Davis - mindful of needing hits - wanted her to sing tunes written by others. But in the August issue of Blender, Clarkson says she told Davis: "I don’t know you very well, and I am not a bull-[bleep]er. I get [that] you don’t like the album. You’re 80; you’re not supposed to like my album."

Kelly, your album is tanking and you had to cancel your tour because nobody was interested. Despite your belief in your own business smarts, you obviously need better handlers, or this wouldn’t have come out in your interview with Blender.

Embarrassing.

It’s like a celeb epidemic. Angelina Jolie, Victoria Beckham and now Madonna blatantly dictating which questions are forbidden during interviews.

Leave it to Madge to take it one crazy step further, according to MSNBC.

“Eye contact must be maintained at all times,” interviewers were told, according to the London Mirror. “Never look down to check notes — all questions must be memorized or the interview will be terminated.”

“We thought her people were just joking,” a source told the paper. “But it soon became apparent that they were deadly serious.”

Interviewers were also given a list of questions they were not allowed to ask: no inquiries about the state of her marriage to director Guy Ritchie, about their adoption of a Malawian child, or about her religion, Kabbalah.

“She did not want to do any interviews, which I told the Live Earth folks from the start,” Madonna’s rep told The Scoop, adding that she didn’t know about any backstage demands.

Of course she didn’t know, or she wouldn’t admit it. What rep wants to be linked to this kind of nutty stuff?

Eye contact? Memorizing questions in advance? Forbidding journalists from looking down at their notes?

Feel sorry for those reporters. Have you seen Madonna lately? She’s scary like Medusa. The correspondents probably feared they’d be turned to stone.

Like a stringer statue garden, backstage at Wembley.

For once, something we can have in common with Bitchy Spice.

During one of her contractually controlled interviews, Victoria Beckham told the AP:

"There are people that are much more famous in L.A. than David and myself. We’re not out every night. We’re probably a lot more boring than people think."

Also, from the story about her show and the move to America, blah blah blah and yadda yadda yadda.

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