Last month, Star Magazine started the ball rolling by claiming that Courteney Cox was maybe, probably, kind-of, sort-of nailing her Cougar Town costar, Brian Van Holt. According to their sources, Brian and Courteney are super tight, and they often go out to dinner and drink lots of wine with each other. And then he walks her to her car, and brushes the hair out of her eyes, leaning in and whispers, “I don’t think you should drive.” And Courteney looks deep into his eyes and whispers, “Let’s get a room.” Seriously, I’m sure it played out like that.

Then, a few weeks ago, David Arquette took it upon himself to defend his marriage. It was strange, because unlike tabloid reports of infidelity for other celebrities, Courteney’s alleged affair didn’t really go mainstream. Just as well, because David’s defense of his marriage was kind of half-assed, and he made it sound like they have an open marriage, but only on Courteney’s side. Now the new issue of the Enquirer has an interesting piece about David’s somewhat bizarre, flirtatious, creepy, lonely dude antics at recent events:

In a truly bizarre career move, David Arquette has taken up deejaying on the Hollywood nightclub scene – and amazed pals say it’s part of a midlife crisis. David is also flirting like an out-of-control frat boy with women at the clubs, insiders reveal. Meanwhile, his wife Courteney is nowhere in sight.

Although David often plays the happy family man role to Courteney, he is starved for attention – and is making a spectacle of himself in public, say pals.

“David definitely seems like he’s going through a mid-life crisis and is on the prowl for attention from anyone who will give it to him,” said a friend. “He’s started deejaying at different Hollywood clubs such as Teddy’s and MyHouse as a second career, and he also plays trumpet alongside a professional record spinner. He calls his onstage performance ‘Good Times’ but he’s an absolutely terrible trumpet player, and it’s more annoying than anything else. To mix it up one night, he even brought some circus performers to a club, and that was a flop with the audience.”

“On top of the weird deejay antics, he acts like he’s 20 again – chatting up any girl who will give him the time of day.”

“David and Courtney have had a marriage full of bumps and obstacles – even seeking out marriage counseling from time to time. But David has never acted up this much.”

David has even been driving around LA during the day looking for women to talk to, says a female who recently encountered him. She said: “I was standing with some friends on a corner in West Hollywood and David pulled up about 20 feet before the stop sign and shouted, ‘Hey ladies’ like he was coming on to us. He may be happily married, but he comes across as this lonely, weird guy.”

David’s publicist denies he’s going through a midlife crisis.

[From The National Enquirer, print edition]

They stop short of accusing David of cheating on Courteney, but honestly, I’m not sure I would blame the guy – just because I’m thinking that Courtney is not only having an affair with Brian Van Holt, she’s probably also checked out of her marriage, emotionally and physically. Of course that’s just my theory. David has always seemed like “the sad clown” to me, much like Jim Carrey. And much like Carrey, I’ve always suspected that Arquette had something wrong with him chemically or psychologically. Jim always seems more tortured, while David comes across as rather immature and hyperactive, which he plays up out of insecurity or a need to be loved. Just the idea of David needing random women to just validate his existence with any kind of attention is rather heartbreaking, right?