After more than a year of dating, Paula Abdul and her restaurateur boyfriend JT Torregiani have split due to their hectic work schedules, his rep tells PEOPLE exclusively.

“It became too hard to maintain the relationship,” says Torregiani’s rep, who adds: “They remain best of friends.”

The couple began dating in 2006 and were spotted last June celebrating her 45th birthday together at Torregiani’s West Hollywood eatery, Ketchup, where he spent the entire night by her side.

Last summer, Abdul described her romantic life to Today show host Matt Lauer as “a horror movie” but noted that “things are looking good right now.”

If you’re wondering why Tom Cruise flew off the handle about those offhand comments (refresh your memory below) that Dr Drew Pinsky made in Playboy about Tom, you only need to look at Tom’s history. The last time Tom lost it was when Matt Lauer brought up the subject of psychology. Tom roared “I KNOW MORE ABOUT PSYCHOLOGY THAN YOU DO!” Remember, Tom has a high school education. Dr Drew is not only a medical doctor and a professor of psychiatry at USC, but medical director of the psychiatric facility at Las Encinas Hospital in Pasadena. Psychiatrists (and probably most educated people) are the arch - enemies of Scientology. Tom’s insulting over the top response to the Playboy mention is intended to belittle Dr Drew. Imagine, comparing Dr Drew to a Nazi!

We have to give Dr Drew credit - although he was clearly insulted by Cruise’s grammatically challenged comeback, he simply apologized in a civilized manner and said he meant no harm. Meanwhile, Tom Cruise has lost even MORE credibility.
Dr Drew to Playboy: “A lot of people in the public eye who behave strangely have mental illness we can learn from, and much of it is based on childhood trauma, without a doubt. Take a guy like Tom Cruise. Why would somebody be drawn into a cultish kind of environment like Scientology? To me, that’s a function of a very deep emptiness and suggests serious neglect in childhood - maybe some abuse, but mostly neglect.”
Tom’s retort through his lawyer Bert Fields: “This unqualified television performer who is obviously just looking for notoriety is so grotesquely unprofessional as to pretend to diagnose Tom and others without ever meeting them. He seems to be spewing the absurdity that all Scientologists are mentally ill. The last time we heard garbage like this was from Joseph Goebbels.”

Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo and singer Justin Timberlake may not be qualified to play in the U.S. Open, but both proved they could break 100 Friday on Torrey Pines’ South Course.

The pair joined “Today” host Matt Lauer and a regular guy from Omaha, Neb., in a foursome bent on disproving Tiger Woods’ theory that it takes a pro to beat the course.

Romo, who missed qualifying for the U.S. Open this spring, won with a 13-over 84. The beefy quarterback, who boasts a 2.2 handicap index, barely broke a sweat playing the first nine holes in 5-over 40 but slowed as the six-hour round wore on.

“It got really tough to stay sharp,” he said, nodding toward the 18th hole, where he had his only double bogey after hitting into a bunker.

Timberlake, suffering from allergies, seconded Romo, although his game improved over the last four holes with two pars and two bogeys as he went into “Michael Jordan mode.” A 6.0 handicap index, he parred the 18th to finish at 27-over 98.

“It’s just inhuman, how well they strike it,” he said, referring to Woods and his ilk.

Timberlake, outfitted in a dashing black trilby hat and tuxedo-stripe pants, started hamming it up with the gallery once his taut dancer’s swing started to go south, blowing on the ball as it rimmed the seventh hole without any luck and asking the crowd to approve his drop into the rough at the edge of the fairway.

He couldn’t blame his troubles on Mother Nature, either, after he skipped off the course after teeing off at the first hole and making a beeline for the men’s room.

“Excuse me! I knew I forgot something,” he called out to laughing spectators in his soft Tennessee drawl.

Lauer scraped by with a 100 on the par-71 course despite playing with a 6.2 handicap index. He came back from an early quad and a series of double bogeys to make a par 5 on the final hole.

“It’s not easy,” he said. “I didn’t think Tiger made an outrageous statement.”

The only one of the four who didn’t seem to mind the scores was John Atkinson, a medical salesman from Omaha, Neb., who was chosen from 56,374 essay applicants to play in the challenge. He finished with a 43-over 114.

“At some point I just didn’t really care,” said Atkinson, who is undergoing treatment for advanced inoperable lung cancer. “I just wanted to enjoy it.”

Atkinson had a 56-person cheering section with him. They shouted “C’mon, Johnny!” when his ball hit the green and gave sympathetic claps and “awws” when he disappeared into the bunkers.

His friend, Dave Leahy, said the crowd joined Atkinson as he trained in Omaha to prepare him for the pressure playing in front of an audience.

“He was out there every Saturday with 50 people pretending to be the gallery and wearing a mike so he’d get used to it,” Leahy said.

He gave his caddy, noted sports psychologist Bob Rotella, a sweet shrug after chasing the ball around the green before making his putt on the fifth hole.

“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience for him,” said his wife, Lori. “It doesn’t matter.”

Woods told reporters last year at Oakmont, generally considered the toughest golf course in America, that no 10-handicapper could break 100. With Torrey Pines refurbished into a 7,643-yard “monster”—the longest in U.S. Open history—it served as a suitable stand-in for the challenge, hosted by Golf Digest magazine and NBC.

Torrey Pines, named for the rare gnarled trees that dot the cliffside course, will be the first city-owned golf course to host a U.S. Open starting next Thursday.

Oprah Winfrey went there with Tom Cruise.

I can exclusively report that Ms. Winfrey’s upcoming interview with Cruise includes questions about Scientology, his verbal smackdown with Matt Lauer on the Today show and, yes, the infamous couch jumping incident.

Winfrey actually revealed these details herself during this weekend’s Las Vegas taping of her joint interview with Tina Turner and Cher.

And that isn’t all Winfrey shared.

The first of the two-part Cruise one-on-one has already taken place at his estate in Telluride, Colorado, Winfrey said. “Oprah said Tom gave her a ride on a snowmobile,” one Vegas audience member told me. “She also said that Katie and Suri were there for the interview, too.”

Before the Cher and Turner taping at Caesars Palace, a member of Winfrey’s entourage hit the stage to ask everyone not to repeat anything they were about to see or hear. “She had everyone repeat in unison, ‘What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas’ several times,” my source said.

Come on, O! Did you really think everyone in the audience of 4,000 or so was going to keep a lid on it?

The Telluride segment is set to air on Friday. Then on May 5, Cruise will return to Winfrey’s Chicago studio nearly three years after his couch jumping fiasco. So why so much Cruise? It’s the 25th anniversary of his breakout movie, Risky Business.

As for Turner and Cher, that segment airs May 8.

I’ve got even more scoop on Winfrey’s trip to Vegas. Make sure to check my video blog tomorrow to hear what happened when Turner announced she was going on tour. Drama!