Rapper Jay-Z thinks so. He says the artist formerly known as Marshall Mathers tailors his violent lyrics to suit the tastes of his producer Dr. Dre.

"I heard Eminem say he raps to get a reaction out of Dre," Jay-Z tells USA Weekend in an upcoming issue. "He was just writing the sickest shit just to hear him laugh."

That jibes squarely with what Eminem's mom, Debbie Mathers, recently told me.

"Marshall's not this tough guy, Amy, like he puts out there, like a gangster-type person at all," Mama Mathers insisted when we spoke over the phone a couple of months ago. "If people really knew him, deep down inside, he's a really -- I don't know how to explain it, because I don't need that in the media -- but it's a façade. It's all for show, this tough-guy image."

She, too, blames Dre. "I think once he got with Dr. Dre and them, he started to carry guns and talked a lot of violence and did a lot of drugs and drinking. They say when in Rome, do as the Romans do, and I think Marshall wanted to act like he had been there and done that and the whole thing."

But now, she says, she suspects that "the alcohol and drugs have altered his personality."

"I can tell," she says. "Especially when he would say, 'Well, Mom, I'm not doing as many drugs as I did.' It's like, 'But why are you doing 'em?' And he's like, 'Because I have to. I have to go out there and face all these people.'"

According to his mom, Marshall's always been just a little bit shy. "He don't like to be stared at," she says. "He never did."

I understand Attila the Hun didn't like being stared at either.

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Yank him, crank him

"This guy was my hero. I was thrilled to see him, and he basically destroyed my entire belief in rock and roll."

-- Ted Nugent fan Ron Bennett on the loss of faith he suffered when the Nuge stood him up for a dinner he won in an auction on eBay.

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Bjorn to be wild

And if Eminem is secretly nice, is Mel Gibson secretly evil?

Gibson himself wants to introduce the world to his "bestial side," Bjorn.

"He's got Viking horns and I imagine myself trying to bury him and he's, like, in the grave and I've packed dirt real tight on him and am shoveling it down, when suddenly this hand starts appearing," Gibson said in an interview with London's Radio Times magazine. "My insanity doesn't come out very often because to exist in society you have to work on that and keep it in check."

Of course, there are those who don’t think his Bjorn-smooshing efforts have been en entire success. Gibson is aware of this.

"Why is it that people define me as a right-wing misogynist?" he asks. "It's baffling. I'm not like that at all."

Then -- look out! -- here comes Bjorn. "I guess it's because I'm Catholic, have ideas on birth control and used to joke about keeping women barefoot, pregnant and in the kitchen, so it seems that I'm some sort of brute," he surmises. "But, hey, I haven't stayed married for 20 years by being a caveman."

No, but I'm sure it helped.

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That's Sir Puffy to you

"He was a gentleman. He didn't threaten my life or anything."

-- Matthew McConaughey, dispelling rumors that Puff Daddy got a little overprotective about Jennifer Lopez during her "Wedding Planner" love scenes with McConaughey.

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Juicy bits

Stunning news! David "Skippy" Malloy, the man accused of attacking David "Just Shoot Me" Spade with an electric stun gun in a botched robbery attempt last November, has pleaded innocent. Malloy, Spade's former personal assistant and buddy, faces six years if convicted of attempted burglary and assault. Zap!

'N Sync's 'n the movies? Boy band members Lance Bass and Joey Fatone have agreed to star in Miramax's romantic comedy "On the Line," according to FoxNews.com. Bass will play a guy who falls for a mysterious woman he spots riding the El train in Chicago. And you thought "Risky Business" was the ultimate in El train romance.

He may have a cameo role in it, but Sen. Orrin Hatch is no fan of the film "Traffic" -- and he wants us all to know it. "After seeing the movie, I was shocked and dismayed at the gratuitous amount of violence and profanity in 'Traffic,'" the Utah Republican says in a press release posted on his Web site. "It was more than was necessary to reveal the devastation caused by drugs. I do not condone it. It detracts from its anti-drug message." Everyone's a critic.

Deep breath, "Buffy" fans. Sarah Michelle Gellar says she'll leave the show if the producers try to move it from the WB to ABC or Fox. "I will stay on 'Buffy' if, and only if, 'Buffy' stays on the WB," Gellar tells E! Online. "The WB has been so supportive, such a great network over the past four years. It feels like home. I don't want the show to move, because I feel that we belong on the WB. It's where our fans are. If 'Buffy' leaves the WB, I'm out." Because on WB she's a star, and if she goes to Fox they'll make her catfight with Ally during sweeps.

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Miss something? Read yesterday's Nothing Personal.

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