Soul’s Code

Celebrities are seekers, too. So who has more soul: Paris Hilton, Madonna, or Kathy Griffin?

While wealthy stars may have allegedly inherited the earth, they are often as spiritually-impoverished as any of us.

Driven by their demons and DUI’s, public break-ups and private meltdowns, the rich and famous seek instant-karma in everything from crystal energy healing and kabbalah to talk therapy and tantric sex.

Or in Paris Hilton’s case, they parachute a Hollywood holy man into their entourage (Maxie Santillan).

We invite you to test your knowledge of celebs who may, or may not, have soul in a material world.

Brittany Murphy?! Yes, sweet and innocent and apparently-addicted Brittany Murphy

2009 just had its 2008 moment, in the sense of the loss of an ingenue who actually had talent, not just an external skin that God had smiled upon. Last year, it was Heath Ledger. In the days before the last Christmas of this decade: Brittany Murphy.

She played the straight girl to Alicia Sliverstone in the timeless hit, Clueless, an upscale L.A. re-telling of the Jane Austen novel, Emma.  Brittany Murphy also earned a following in a movie called Sin City, and co-starred alongside Winona Ryder and Angelina Jolie in Girl, Interrupted, and with that weird guy in 8 Mile.

The Beatles vs. Jesus; Madonna at the MTV Awards; Obama talks healthcare; and the demise of Sunday’s “Guiding  Light”

Rock Band; Beatlemania returns but are they still more popular than Jesus?

“I  never had a Mother, he never had a childhood” Madonna pays tearful farewell to MJ

“Guiding Light,” debuted on the radio on Jan. 25, 1937 ; Time magazine had just described television as “science which shows no serious signs yet of becoming an industry

“Health Care I own it” Preaching to the unconverted, Obama Tells 60 Minutes in White House Interview he will be ultimately responsible for legislation

Controversial and visionary British bishop, Jonathan Blake (head of the Open Episcopal Church) has denounced the head of the Roman Catholic church in England and Wales for portraying Facebook as a suicide risk.

The object of his dissent: Catholic Archbishop Vincent Nichols believes that social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook increase the risk of teen suicide and un-fulfilling transient relationships.

News that Madonna retained Paul McCartney’s divorce attorney has now stoked revelations that her marriage to film director Guy Ritchie (left) is on the rocks because they’ve parted paths in their spiritual practice.

Forgive us for thinking that a spiritual path was all about bringing people closer together — like, getting them out of their heads and into their hearts

The story is that Madonna has delved deeper into Kabbalah; Ritchie was also into the Judaic mystical tradition to the point of even helping to school their kids in it, but has now called it quits.

The irony is that critics say that the fiercely-secular Madonna practices a kind of Kabbalah Lite, a watered down version suitable for stars.

The New York Times Magazine threw 5,000 words at the subject of the kabbalah, which its freelancer labels “an esoteric occult offshoot of Judaism dating at least to the 13th century.”

It’s actually a hit-piece on The Kabbalah Centre: The World’s Leader in Kabbalah Education, which has more than two dozen locations on four continents and its flagship in Beverly Hills, CA . . .