The “Girlfriend” singer – who announced she was separating from the Sum 41 rocker last week – spent a month partying on oil heir Brandon Davis’ yacht in St. Tropez, South of France, and sources say the pair have grown very close.

One is quoted by gossip blogger Perez Hilton as saying: “She was downing shots, drinking booze from the bottle and play-fighting men on the beach. She wasn’t acting like a married woman at all.”

However, sources close to Avril insist she and Brandon are “not involved romantically” and are “just friends.”

Last December, Deryck warned Brandon – who has also dated Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton – away from his wife after he discovered the pair had been for dinner together.

He texted Brandon, saying: “Stay away from my wife.”

Even though their three-year marriage is over, Avril has vowed to stay friends with her estranged husband. In a statement on her website, she said: “Deryck and I have been together for six-and-a-half years. We have been friends since I was 17, started dating when I was 19, and married when I was 21.”

“I am grateful for our time together, and I am grateful and blessed for our remaining friendship. I admire Deryck and have a great amount of respect for him. He is the most amazing person I know, and I love him with all my heart. Deryck and I are separating and moving forward on a positive note.”

Other than conflicting reports of pregnancy and hard partying, Avril Lavigne has kept a pretty low profile of late. That’s all about to change.

The “Complicated” singer has just joined the fast-lengthening roster of stars filling Paula Abdul’s vacant chair on American Idol.

She’ll be sitting alongside Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson and Kara DioGuardi, telling prospective Idols she doesn’t like their boyfriends singing during one of the final two days of auditions in Los Angeles.

Previously announced seat-filler Katy Perry will be hanging with the A.I. trio on the other day.

This won’t be the last you’ll hear from Avril this month—she’s expected to unveil her latest clothing collection for Abbey Dawn during New York Fashion Week.

Avril Lavigne has fired her manager and management company.The “Girlfriend” singer is said to be distraught that her latest album and tour proved less popular than her previous efforts, and blames Nettwerk mogul Terry McBride for her lack of success.

A source told gossip blogger Perez Hilton: “Avril is hoping that new management can help her new album be more successful than the last.”

The 24-year-old – who is desperate to resurrect her career – has reportedly now signed a new deal with Irving Azoff and his management company, who look after Christina Aguilera and Guns N’ Roses.

Meanwhile, Avril has prompted rumors she is expecting her first child with musician husband Deryck Whibley after she was seen refusing alcohol during a recent night out.

Avril – who recently sparked reports she could be pregnant after she was photographed with what appeared to be a baby bump – was spotted drinking only soft drinks at exclusive Hollywood night spot Coco De Ville.

Avril, wearing a loose jersey shirt, stuck close to Deryck throughout the evening, with the pair making a hasty exit when other party goers recognized her.

Avril and Britney’s partying comes just months after the former criticized Spears for being too weedy to handle the demands of stardom.

“What’s happened to Britney is all down to who she is as a person.

If you want a piece of this business you have to be able to deal with it. You can’t complain about the pressures, the paparazzi, the madness, because that’s your job,” she said at the time. Lavigne had also previously slammed the 25-year-old mother-of-two

Singer Avril Lavigne was sure that her new song ‘When You’re Gone’ would be a hit when she first played it to her friends and they turned emotional.

The Canadian pop star asserted that the touching song is very personal to her and she was amazed to see people reacting emotionally to it.

“It’s about the person you miss and all the little things you miss about them, Contactmusic quoted Lavigne, as saying.
“So many people can relate to it in different ways, whether it’s someone going off to war… or losing someone or even just breaking up with someone, or simply just missing someone because you’re going away.

“This song was very unique for me (because) it’s the first song ever where when I played it for the first time to all my friends… every single one of them cried. It was the weirdest thing.

Lavigne realised why her friends cried when she herself watched the song for the first time.

“I was, like, crying when I was watching, like, the old man in the video.

Her ballad even turned the audience emotional when she performed it live.”I did a concert in Paris for MTV and there was, like, kids in the audience crying. I was, like, choked up onstage,” she said.

Canadian rock singer Avril Lavigne is desperate to try her luck in films just like her rivals Britney Spears and Jessica Simpson, if reports are to be believed.

Sources have revealed that the singer, who has already shot a scene in the Harrison Ford starrer ‘The Flock’, wants to earn recognition “outside of music” also.

They even say that Lavigne is in talks to play the lead in a thriller, which is being produced by Sony BMG.

“(She will be) playing kind of a white-trash girl,” the New York Post quoted a source as saying.

Representatives for Lavigne were unavailable for comment.

Lavigne, who has sold over twenty-six million albums worldwide, ranked seventh on Canadian Business Magazine’s list of most powerful Canadians in Hollywood.