International Show, Film & Celebrities News
Former CHARLIE’S ANGELS star CHERYL LADD is urging middle-aged women to seek menopause help as the spokeswoman for website knowmenopause.com.
The actress, 55, will appear in US TV ads throughout September (06), America’s Menopause Awareness Month.
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The stars of DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES have formed a girl power group after reading LOUANN BRIZENDINE’s self-help book THE FEMALE BRAIN.
Actress EVA LONGORIA admits a copy of the book, which attempts to explain what’s going on inside a woman’s head, has been passed around the set.
She says, "The book rules… We’re smarter than men."
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EMILIO ESTEVEZ’s fiancee has discovered that planning a life with the BREAKFAST CLUB star has added benefits - she gets to act in all-star movies.
Estevez asked his bride-to-be, journalist SONJA MAGDEVSKI, to take part in his upcoming ROBERT F KENNEDY biopic BOBBY when his sister pulled out of the project.
And Magdevski, who became engaged to Estevez at Christmas (05), found herself cast alongside her fiance, his ex-fiancee DEMI MOORE, SIR ANTHONY HOPKINS and HELEN HUNT in her first acting role.
Estevez even gave his future wife a line in the film. He explains, "My sister was supposed to do the part, but she had a conflict with wardrobe, so I said to Sonja, ‘Get in wardrobe. Get in make-up!’"
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ALAN ALDA was stunned when he won his sixth Emmy last month (AUG06), because he was so sure he wouldn’t that he went on a family holiday to Europe and skipped the ceremony.
The actor decided to go ahead with plans for a family vacation, even after learning the ceremony had been moved to August from its traditional slot in September.
He talked about his win today (07SEPT06) on US talk show LIVE WITH REGIS AND KELLY saying, "I’m so thrilled by this. I’m so happy.
"I swear to God, if I were TOM CRUISE and you were a couch, I would jump up and down on you! It made me so happy and I couldn’t be there.
"My daughter planned a trip to Europe months and months ago and it was her children’s first time seeing Europe. I didn’t want to miss that.
"I knew that in August they didn’t have the Emmys, so we’d be safe. Then they faked me out, they put it in August and I had to make this terrible choice between the lives of these dear little grandchildren and going to the ceremony.
"We’re in France and it’s the middle of the night when they give out the award, so I’m like "I’ll find out in the morning’…
"So I had to get up in the middle of the night, so I’m coming back and I see on the computer all these emails coming in and I think, ‘Wait a minute, I don’t think they’re all saying tough luck…’ "I found out at 3:30 in the morning that I had won! We have a granddaughter whose name is EMMY and we had been playing card games all day long that day.
"So I wake up my wife in the middle of the night and I say, ‘I won the Emmy!’ She’s still half asleep and she says, ‘You beat Emmy at cards?’"
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Los Angeles native RACHEL BILSON was thrilled when she found out her high school mate KATHERINE McPHEE was selected for US reality competition AMERICAN IDOL and even voted 100 times to make sure she reached the finals.
THE OC star got in touch with McPhee during the competition earlier this year (06) and even attended one of the shows to cheer her friend on.
She explains, "We did a musical together (in school). She was a freshman (year 9) I think when I was a senior (year 12), so she’s a few years younger, but we were friendly.
"I went to support her and watched a taping of the show. I voted 100 times." Although the actress performed in musicals in her younger days, she insists she’s not going to be recording an album anytime soon adding, "I get embarrassed. I like to sing - alone."
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The son of tragic former DIFF’RENT STROKES star DANA PLATO is suing the man his mother was with when she died from a drug overdose in 1999.
TYLER LAMBERT, 22, has filed a wrongful death suit against ROBERT MENCHACA, claiming he’s responsible for the actress’ death - because he failed to act quickly enough to save her.
Lambert says, "I don’t believe she killed herself." Plato’s angry son is urging police to re-open the case into his mother’s death, believing there was a cover up in Oklahoma, where she died, according to US tabloid National Enquirer.
Lambert has asked for a change of venue to Clark County, Nevada because he believes he’ll get a fairer trial there.
In his suit, Lambert is seeking general and punitive damages, claiming he has been deprived of "companionship, affection, love and aid in maintaining a normal life." Plato played rich girl KIMBERLY DRUMMOND in the hit 1980s sitcom.
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The author who famously duped America into believing his fictional work A MILLION LITTLE PIECES was a memoir has settled a series of lawsuits filed by angry readers.
JAMES FREY’s book became a best seller after OPRAH WINFREY hailed it on her daily talk show, but the writer’s memoirs were scrutinised by website thesmokinggun.com and the author was quickly shamed into admitting the book was littered with fiction.
Frey and his publishers at Random House and have agreed in principle to settle lawsuits filed by readers who said they were upset by fabrications in A Million Little Pieces, according to published reports.
In the terms of the new deal, all readers who bought the book in good faith on or before 26 January (06), when Frey and Random House bosses confessed that parts of the book were made up, will be eligible for a full refund.
Neither Frey nor the publisher have admitted any wrongdoing, according to the New York Times.
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HARRISON FORD and STAR WARS creator GEORGE LUCAS are to be honoured for their movie adventures at the 2006 Jules Verne Adventure Film Festival.
Lucas will be given the Imagination Achievement Award while Ford, the carpenter he turned into a star, will take home the Spirit of Nature Award.
Anthropologist DAME JANE GOODALL will be presented with the festival’s top prize, a Lifetime Achievement honour, at the two week event in Los Angeles next month (OCT06).
MALCOLM McDOWELL will host the event, which will mark its debut in America after 15 years in Paris, France.
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KENNETH BRANAGH will direct the remake of SLEUTH featuring fellow British stars JUDE LAW and MICHAEL CAINE.
This is the second time ANTHONY SHAFFER’s play is getting made into a movie and the second time Caine is playing a major role in the drama that revolves around two men vying for the same woman.
This time around, Caine will play a brilliant writer and social fixture who’s so upset at losing his wife to a young hairdresser (Law) that he hatches a complex revenge plan.
Caine played the hairdresser in the original and SIR LAURENCE OLIVIER played the writer.
Both actors received Oscar nominations for the 1972 film, along with director JOSEPH MANKIEWICZ.
Law is stepping into a screen role originally played by Caine for the second time, after also starring in the remake of ALFIE.
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Beloved US actor PETER BOYLE is fighting reports he’s close to death after being diagnosed with a heart disease.
The 70-year-old YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN star, who became a TV favourite in EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND, has reportedly been denied a new heart because of his age and friends fear for his life.
But the actor is refuting the claims, made in tabloid the National Enquirer, and his publicist MEGHAN PROPHET insists he pulled out of a charity benefit in July (06) because he was battling the flu and reports have made too much of his health.
Boyle has suffered a stroke and a mild heart attack in the past, and friends tell the Enquirer they don’t believe the actor is fully fit.
A source tells the tabloid, "The general consensus is that he’s too old and in too poor of health to qualify for a donor heart and even if they found a heart for him, they are afraid he is too weak to undergo major open heart surgery."
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LATEST: A larger-than-life statue of SYLVESTER STALLONE as movie boxer ROCKY BALBOA is to stand proudly near the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art in Pennsylvania.
The site featured in the first ROCKY film and has become a tourist attraction ever since as film fans clamber up the steps with the Rocky theme ringing in their ears and salute the heavens at the top of the flight.
Despite objections from snooty museum bosses, who insisted the statue wasn’t artistic enough to stand before the building, the city’s Art Commission approved a plan yesterday (06SEP06) to place the bronzed Rocky there.
The statue, donated to the city by Stallone in 1982, has been stored in a warehouse for years after it was removed from the museum steps - it’s first home.
For a time it stood proudly in front of the Spectrum Sports Arena in South Philadelphia.
And city officials aren’t wasting time in returning the statue to its first home - a dedication ceremony is planned for tomorrow (08SEP06).
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LATEST: PARIS HILTON was on her way to get a burger at US fast food chain IN-N-OUT when she was pulled over by police for suspected drink driving.
The STARS ARE BLIND singer called in to RYAN SEACREST’s Los Angeles radio show to explain the incident this morning (07SEPT06).
She said of her arrest, "You know what, it was nothing. I’d been shooting my music video for my new song NOTHING IN THIS WORLD.
"I got off last night at about 10 pm then I went and had dinner with my sister and all my girlfriends and then we went to this charity event DAVE NAVARRO threw for brain tumours.
"I had one margarita, and I was starving ’cause I had not ate all day. I was on my way to In-N-Out, which is probably three blocks away, and I’m in my (Mercedes) SLR, which is a little fast, so maybe I was speeding a little bit and I got pulled over." When Seacrest asked if she was driving erratically, as was reported in the police filing, she replied, "No, I was just really hungry and I wanted to have an In-N-Out burger!" Hilton claims she was only taken to the police station because authorities wanted to make it seem like she was not getting preferential treatment because she’s a celebrity.
She said, "There was a lot paparazzi around, so I think they wanted me to make a statement. They even said, ‘There’s people watching, we don’t want them to think we’re giving you special treatment.’ "I totally understood. I was in there (the police station) 15 minutes and out." Hilton said the police "were so nice" and said she was shocked by the press coverage surrounding her arrest.
She adds, "Everything I do is blown out of proportion. It really hurts my feelings."
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High-ranking officials in former US President BILL CLINTON’s administration are attempting to pull the plug on a new 9/11 TV miniseries over alleged inaccuracies.
Former Secretary of State MADELEINE ALBRIGHT and Clinton advisor DOUGLAS BAND are among the group of politicians who have written to Walt Disney boss ROBERT IGER, urging him to fix damning items in THE PATH TO 9/11 or scrap the project completely.
The TV special, which is scheduled to air on Sunday (10SEP06) and Monday (11SEP06), features HARVEY KEITEL as FBI agent JOHN O’NEILL.
Disney executives, who are airing the show on sister network ABC, are keen to point out the two-parter is a dramatisation inspired by official interviews, investigations and documents, but Clinton’s aides insist the miniseries contains factual and damaging errors.
Band wrote, "It is unconscionable to mislead the American public about one of the most horrendous tragedies our country has ever known." While Albright has objected to a scene which alleges she insisted on warning Pakistan officials about a planned airstrike on Afghanistan - something she claims never happened.
She fumes, "The scene as explained to me is false and defamatory." The politicians have yet to see the miniseries as Disney bosses have blocked their requests for a screening.
Band has also objected to TV ads for the miniseries, which he says suggests Clinton wasn’t paying enough attention to the threat of terrorism.
He concludes, "It is a fictitious rewriting of history that will be misinterpreted by millions of Americans."
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JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE has claimed a second week at the top of the US singles chart.
FERGIE’s LONDON BRIDGE stands firm at number two and GNARLS BARKLEY’s CRAZY is on the rise again at three.
British rockers SNOW PATROL score their biggest hit in America with CHASING CARS, which is the new chart’s greatest sales gainer at seven.
THE PACK’s VANS earns the week’s top debut at number 58.
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SIR ELTON JOHN has auctioned off thousands of his outlandish stage costumes and designer clothes to aid his Elton John Aids Foundation - but there’s a few items he’ll never part with.
Though he insists he’ll never wear his Empire State Building outfit or the DONALD DUCK costume he once wore for a Central Park concert in New York again, they’ll always be hanging in his closet.
He says, "I’m very fond of the Donald Duck one because it just made me laugh.
"I didn’t have a rehearsal in how to get into it, so I was backstage at Central Park trying to get into it and I would have my arm through the leg hole and my leg through the armhole. I couldn’t get into it for laughing." But Elton insists his days of dressing outrageously onstage are behind him.
He adds, "I cannot go onstage without dressing up. It’s a British thing, I think, because we grew up with pantomime and we grew up with a theatrical way.
"But some of the things I wore were horrendous… I took it way too far for too long."
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Crooner PAUL ANKA is angry he has been caught up in his lover’s messy divorce battle because her ex is trying to label him a homewrecker.
LOUIS YEAGER has dragged Anka into his legal battle with Swedish-born ANDREA YEAGER, but the singer insists he had no part in the split.
Anka is adamant that his former personal trainer’s marriage was doomed when he first fell in love with her. Yeager has since given birth to Anka’s baby son ETHAN.
The singer tells America’s National Enquirer, "Anna was in a bad marriage to begin with… I don’t move in and ruin marriages, it’s not my style… I have nothing to do with this divorce." The Yeagers are currently battling for custody of a child they had during their marriage.
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The artist formerly known as CAT STEVENS is timing his longawaited musical comeback to tie in with the 40th anniversary of his first release.
The Muslim convert, now known as YUSUF ISLAM, has signed a new deal with Atlantic Records and will release his first pop music album in 28 years in November (06).
The WILD WORLD hitmaker turned his back on music and became a devout Muslim scholar in 1978 after almost drowning off the California coast.
He has since become one of the world’s leading humanitarians, but his charity work with Islamic groups landed him in trouble in 2004 when he was prevented from entering America for a business meeting after his name showed up on a list of potential security threats.
The humiliated star returned to Britain and blasted US officials over the incident. He is hoping he’ll have an easier time travelling to America when he joins the DALAI LAMA and a dozen Nobel peace laureates at the upcoming PeaceJam 10th Anniversary Youth Conference in Colorado later this month (SEP06).
Of his return to pop music, the 2004 Nobel Man for Peace says, "I feel right about making music and singing about life in this fragile world again. It is important for me to be able to help bridge the cultural gaps others are sometimes frightened to cross."
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AMERICAN IDOL star CLAY AIKEN is set to be appointed to US President GEORGE W BUSH’s White House disability committee.
The INVISIBLE singer, who finished a runner-up to RUBEN STUDDARD on the second season of the hit TV talent contest, is a winner in Bush’s eyes after years of working with handicapped and disadvantaged kids in his native North Carolina.
Aiken will be named to the President’s Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities in the coming days, when the President will make the appointment official.
The organisation is a committee set up to advise US politicians on issues concerning citizens with intellectual disabilities.
Aiken once worked as a counsellor at YMCA camps for kids with special needs.
He also studied special education in college and co-founded a charity for disabled children.
The appointment to Bush’ committee could not have come at a better time for Aiken - his new covers album, A THOUSAND DIFFERENT WAYS, is released on 19 September (06).
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