IT IS COMMON SENSE, isn’t it, to know that teen and TV horror movies, gory video games, angry and filthy rap music and sexy TV are making children more violent, cold-hearted and prone to behavioral problems? Where is “Lassie” when you need her?

THE VERDICT FROM HEALTH PROFESSIONALS is that children who watch entertainment violence and play violent video games have more aggressive behavior, attitudes and values than their peers who are not exposed to the scary, bloody programs and games.

VIOLENCE HAS BECOME INDISTINGUISHABLE from entertainment, and there is a pervasive violence even in advertising.

IN BOOKS AND MOVIES LIKE HARRY POTTER, it is very clear who is good and who is bad, but with so much else in pop culture that is not the case.

VIEWING SO MUCH BLOOD AND DEATH on TV can make impressionable children less sympathetic to human suffering. They lose empathy. It can be replaced by hostility and many children find violence exhilarating. That is the view of Joanne Cantor, a University of Wisconsin researcher and author of the book, Mommy, I’m Scared: How TV and Movies Frighten Children and What Can We Do to Protect Them.

SHOOT FIRST AND ASK QUESTIONS LATER is the norm for many video games that are teaching kids to be violent without thinking. Youngsters who are easily upset and depressed are more prone to harmful influence from the violent games.

MEANWHILE, THE PERCENTAGE OF CHILDREN WITH EMOTIONAL AND BEHAVIORAL PROBLEMS has nearly tripled in recent years. Poverty and single-parent households account for much of the increase, say researchers. It is unfortunate that troubled kids find blood, violence and more turmoil in their lives through “entertainment.”

WHO ARE THE YOUNG PROFESSIONALS FIGHTING over the ashes of their beloved dog? Friends have advised each taking one half of the ashes but they cannot bear the thought of “cutting Chloe in half.” She’s dead! Put half in each urn and stop battling.

WHO ARE THE WEALTHY TRUST FUND BABIES shopping for divorce lawyers and hoping to get the lion’s share of all that old family money?

CHER’S BEST FRIEND is jeweler Loree Rodkin, reports W magazine in a flattering article on the former Chicagoan. Loree, whose rings, necklaces and earrings adorn Michelle Obama, Elton John and Madonna, to drop a few A-list names, is riding high in L.A. In past years she managed the careers of boyfriend Alexander Godunov, Brad Pitt and Sarah Jessica Parker, and decorated the homes of Rod Stewart and Alice Cooper.

TAXES ARE $300,000 A YEAR for the $12.2 million beachfront mansion Tiger Woods’ ex, Elin Nordegren, purchased in North Palm Beach.

HIP HOTELIER IAN SCHRAGER wasn’t flattered when Crate & Barrel named a clubby and inviting $3,499 white leather sofa for him, calling it Urban Lounge. Ian is remodeling the Ambassador East Hotel and its once-hot Pump Room and vowing to produce a unique Chicago experience.

JULIA LOUIS-DREYFUS as U.S. Vice President? A new HBO pilot called “Veep” is in the works from N.Y. Times ex-columnist Frank Rich and Armando Iannucci.

CURVY “MAD MEN” STAR CHRISTINA HENDRICKS is credited in Britain for the increase in breast implants. 9,000 women got them in 2010, a 10 percent rise.

MY DARLING DOG GIGI’S DEATH brought calls, cards, flowers from many sympathetic friends. My sincere thanks for helping me cope with her loss.

WE ALL LOVED ELIZABETH TAYLOR and followed every glam twist of her fabulous, scandal-filled life. She was a beautiful teen but movie bosses had her nose reshaped so she had no bad camera angles. Nobody is perfect — not even Liz. She should be remembered more for her activism and charities than her sex appeal and acting. Years, ago Elizabeth and husband Mike Todd came to Chicago to introduce “Smellovision” movies that featured scents that enhanced scenes of the films. It bombed.

OUR CONDOLENCES TO BANKER PETER FASSEAS on the death of his beloved mother, Angelyn, 99.

THE RECESSION HAS CHANGED the size of families in the U.S. Having just one child is now the choice of many couples. They say they are concerned they will not have that extra hundred thousand dollars or more it takes to raise an additional child.

FAMOUS ARTIST LEROY NEIMAN, WHOSE BRILLIANTLY DEPICTED HORSE RACE PAINTINGS are awesome, executed a huge work on the Kentucky Derby in the ’60s. It covers an entire wall in the former Mercantile Bank in Hammond, Ind. He told Col. Paul Malarik III he would love to see his painting in the Chicago Art Institute instead of this now-unoccupied building. … THE LATE ARNIE MORTON, WHO FOUNDED MORTON’S STEAK HOUSES, and was the food consultant to Hugh Hefner’s Playboy Clubs, had a mammoth collection of Neiman’s art.

REMEMBER STEFANIE POWERS, THE ACTRESS so popular in the TV series Hart to Hart? Now 68, Powers has penned a memoir, “One From the Hart” about her long love affair with the alcoholic actor William Holden. She supervises the William Holden Wildlife Foundation in Africa which they both created. After treatment for lung cancer, Powers says she’s in remission. The Friends of Conservation, headed by Reute Butler, honored her for saving animals in Africa.

TOXIC TOMATO AWARD OF THE WEEK goes to all foul-mouthed citizens. Etiquette queen Letitia Baldrige said it best: “Let’s clean up our language. I resolve to devise a new vocabulary of … swear words … and none will include references to God, body parts, or bodily functions.” You go, girl!

THERE IS NO TRUTH TO THE RUMOR that there is a Teflon facelift that gives perfect skin for life. You just shine it.

IT IS TRUE THAT ACTRESS DARYL HANNAH has turned 50. She’ll return as the cold-blooded killer in Kill Bill Vol. 3. We first met the tall, blond, shy Daryl at a fundraiser her mother and dad, Susan and the late Jerry Wexler, hosted for Sen. Ted Kennedy in their spacious duplex. (It now houses Christie Hefner, Hugh’s daughter, and husband ex-Sen. Bill Marovitz.) When Kennedy and I posed for a photo, we put our arms around each other and he was wearing bullet-proof vest … After losing two brothers to assassins, it made sense.

BACK TO DARYL HANNAH, we next saw her at the memorial service for her beloved stepdad Jerry, and John F. Kennedy Jr. was nuzzling her ear, kissing her neck and acting like a love-sick calf with his arms around her protectively. One reason he adored her was because she was a mirror image of him! Tall and lean with a strong nose and jaw, both loved sports and were very private people.

BUT IT IS SAID JACKIE never wanted an actress for her son. Another strike against Hannah becoming JFK Jr.’s bride was the rumor that once Jackie visited the apartment where Daryl and John were living together and it was a mess. Clothes on the floor, dishes in the sink. No brownie points for Daryl.

DARYL’S MOTHER SUSAN told me that one photo of her young carefree daughter was her favorite. It showed her running in a print dress with hair flying in the wind. Another was of Susan with her three daughters, Paige, Tanya and Daryl, all smiling and happy.

EVERYONE IS STILL TALKING ABOUT THE SEX SCENES in the movie Love and Other Drugs, revealing all the charms of actress Anne Hathaway. The film’s director is talented Ed Zwick, who also wrote the screenplay with Charles Randolph and Marshall Herskovitz from a nonfiction book by Jamie Reidy. But it is a tearjerker with a dying girl, and there are laughs along with those wild, erotic moments. No other flick of recent memory has come this far with nudity.

HANDGUN VIOLENCE and its toll in lives was the topic of the Abraham Lincoln Awards at the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence annual benefit. Honored were Toni Preckwinkle, Garrett Evans and Rep. Mike Quigley.

WATCH FOR DESIGNS from up and coming innovative young designer Elizabeth Siegan. Her pillows and bed linens are in demand.

A BIG NAME IN THE MAKEUP WORLD is Bobbi Brown, a realistic expert who has created new products for her fans of all ages. She has liberated women from chalky, unflattering products and has just published her second book for teens and early twenty-somethings called Beauty Rules. Bobbi, who has three sons, has added fitness and nutrition tips to her beauty bible. One of her claims to fame is an eyeliner that “never moves or runs.” It comes in a tiny jar with a brush and is a big seller.

CHESTER LIZAK has been recognized as one of the top 100 trial lawyers in Illinois by the American Trial Lawyers Association. He’s a partner at DiMonte & Lizak.

STANDOUTS ON THE SOCIAL SCENE ARE PHILANTHROPISTS Fran and Terry Johnson and author/photographer Steve Starr. Starr is an expert on art deco designs and the Latin movie queens of yesteryear. His latest book was titled Starrlight: Glamorous Latin Movie Stars of Early Hollywood. It told stories, and gossip, about Rita Hayworth, Carmen Miranda, Lupe Velez and Maria Montez.

RAPE KITS ARE NOW MORE SAVVY, and effective, thanks to their new testing materials. And actress Mariska Hargatay, who plays a detective on “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” narrates a video to help collect evidence of assault by men. The kits have swabs and envelopes to collect bodily fluids and other evidence that might contain an attacker’s DNA. There are also instructions for doctors and nurses to properly collect evidence and to help deal with male victims.

Years ago when we were a young reporter on the police beat, we encountered a young man who had been raped and the cops didn’t know how to handle him. The victim was walking home at night when a woman, with a gun, stepped out from behind a billboard and demanded that he get back there with her and have sex. He was shocked and furious, he told us, but he did as she said. They never found the “attractive, 50-ish gun-toting culprit.” Today, police worry about male attacking male, as well as female rape.

THE BEST WILL that Peter Rogers, a transplanted Brit, has found is one that declares the following: “If a reasonable amount of time passes and I have not asked for wine, chocolate, martinis, chocolate, cold beer, chocolate, chicken fried steak, chocolate, french fries, pizza, chocolate, ice cream, it should be presumed I will never recover. ... Let the fat lady sing, and pull the plug.”

A NEW DANISH STUDY finds that looking young may mean living longer. They found that people who looked younger than their years do live longer. Perhaps they take better care of themselves to appear as young as possible.

“WHEN I CAN NO LONGER BEAR to think of the victims of broken homes, I begin to think of the victims of intact ones.” — PETER DE VRIES

CONTACT: annbgerber@gmail.com or 847-677-2232