If the tabloids are to be believed, Paul McCartney is giving his wooing skills a workout in the wake of his epically acrimonious divorce from Heather Mills.

Britain's News of the World claims the beloved former Beatle, 65, not only has his eye on moneybags New York socialite Nancy Shevell, with whom he recently enjoyed a cozy Caribbean vacation, but is also still interested in Rosanna Arquette.

"He doesn't want to rush into another heavy relationship. He just wants to go out, have fun and live life," a "close friend" tells the tab. "He really likes Nancy but he is not taking things too seriously. He doesn't even acknowledge they are in a relationship at this stage."

What's more, adds the snitch, "He speaks regularly to Rosanna and they plan to meet up very soon."

But another "close friend" thinks he's a one-woman kind of guy, insisting to the London Daily Mail, "He is really happy and determined to enjoy life again. And he believes Nancy is the key."

Another source believes Arquette is out of the picture because she couldn't handle the spotlight that comes with dating the music icon: "They were being followed by the paparazzi and Rosanna couldn't stand it -- she regards her privacy a sacrosanct."

Still, no matter who McCartney spends time with, his heart belongs to his late wife, Linda, whom he pays loving tribute to in a piece for Britain's Sunday Times magazine.

"She was always very beautiful ... She was a very natural girl, naturally blond," he writes of his spouse of 30 years, who succumbed to breast cancer 10 years ago this month at the age of 56. "She was just a great person to hang out with: very funny, very smart and very talented. She could just as easily talk to a local postman as a New York art dealer."

Then, in what seems to be a dig at Mills, who has a habit of ranting to the media about how she's been mistreated by the media, Paul writes of the woman he called a "diamond" at her memorial service, "She had a very easy manner. In the 1960s and '70s the press over here didn't get it -- simply because she'd become my girlfriend and then my wife."

But, he points out, "She didn't go on TV and say, 'This is who I am -- hello,' and try to ingratiate herself. We didn't need to do that -- it was our life, not theirs. We were too busy living it."

Linda's priorities, McCartney says, "were private rather than public ..."

It's the little details Sir Paul remembers that are the most moving, including Linda's habit of wearing mismatched argyle socks "that everyone used to make fun of" and the song that was playing on the night they met in 1967, when he says they felt "an immediate attraction."

"... I remember I heard Procol Harum's 'A Whiter Shade of Pale' for the first time," he recalls. "It became our song."

And despite the fact that he was followed everywhere by hordes of screaming fans, he approached Linda by saying, "My name's Paul. What's yours?"

According to McCartney, "I think she probably recognized me. It was so corny, but I told the kids later that, had it not been for that moment, none of them would be here."

The affecting piece is keyed to an exhibition of Linda's photographs opening in London later this month, one of which is a self-portrait taken shortly before she died.

"At the time, she knew she was ill, but she'd had chemo and her hair was growing back. I thought at the time it was a very chic look," says McCartney of the image he calls the "saddest and most haunting." "She didn't know she was dying. I'm not actually sure she ever knew she was dying ... I talked it over with the doctor and he said, 'I don't think she would want to know. She is such a strong, forward-thinking lady and such a positive girl that I don't think it would do any good.' She was fighting right up to the end."

Linda & Paul McCartney

On the day before she passed away, he shares, she "was out on horseback. She loved riding so much. Sometimes she'd get up on her horse and I'd say, 'You don't want to get down, do you?' She preferred it up there than on the ground."

As for Mills, she's been keeping busy post-divorce by dying her blond hair red (too bad she can't transform her personality so easily) and checking out Manhattan real estate.

But her rep insists to the New York Daily News that she's not planning to plunk down any of the not exactly hard-earned $50 million settlement she received from McCartney.

"She may be meeting with people, but she isn't purchasing. She doesn't have that much money," her flack actually has the nerve to say explains of her seemingly inadequate fortune. "It's a lot of money to a regular individual, but once you want to start supporting causes, that money goes really quick. It is not a lot of money in the long run."

By the by, court documents in the divorce settlement revealed that Mills asked for $1.25 million annually from McCartney for charitable donations, only to concede later that $985,000 of that would be spent transporting her benevolent self to appearances in helicopters, private planes and in first class.

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