International Show, Film & Celebrities News
"My mom called me and asked if I had plastic surgery. That was funny. I didn’t.
I don’t want anybody cutting me up… I quit drinking and I’m really into herbs and vitamins." BILLY BOB THORNTON on reports he’s had cosmetic help to stay looking young.
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LATEST: A publicist for DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES star EVA LONGORIA has confirmed the actress and her French boyfriend TONY PARKER are experiencing "troubles".
LIZ ANDERSON refused to confirm or deny rumours the couple have ended their 18 month romance, but she admits her client and the San Antonio Spurs basketball star are experiencing "a difficult time".
She says, "Eva and Tony are going through a very difficult time right now, just like any other couple with extremely demanding careers."
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ASHTON KUTCHER and his wife DEMI MOORE have made a vow to stay together - after treating each other to guns.
The actor reveals he and Moore purchased shooters just after they got married a year ago (05) and now he’s convinced neither one of them with stray.
He says, "We got guns and that helps… She was working on a movie in Louisiana and so we went out and both got (guns). She got a Glock and I got a Springfield." Kutcher has found another use for his gun: "It’s also good for when the girls (Moore’s three daughters) bring boys back to the house; I take them out and show them how to shoot.
"I actually took this boy that SCOUT was dating out at our place in Idaho and I would, like, carry the gun around in my side at all times just so he knew…
Subtle hints."
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Reformed wildman ROBERT DOWNEY JR was amazed when he first met cult rocker DITO MONTIEL - because he was screaming into a microphone, wearing nothing but a pair of combat boots.
Downey Jr, who plays Montiel in the singer’s new semi-autobiographical movie A GUIDE TO RECOGNIZING YOUR SAINTS, was with composer JONATHAN ELIAS when he encountered Montiel a few years ago.
He says, "Dito was still in (the band) GUTTERBOY, and I’d go down to the studio and you’d walk by the recording booth and there’d be this buff guy wearing nothing but combat boots, screaming.
"And Jonathan would say, ‘Oh yeah, that’s Dito, he’s doing vocals and he can’t seem to keep his clothes on when he does vocals,’ and I’m like, ‘Whoa, I thought I was crazy.’" Ellis has since composed the score for A Guide To Recognizing Your Saints.
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MICHAEL CLARKE DUNCAN never signs up for a movie role unless his mother gives him her blessing, after her upset her by donning "leopard skin drawers" in ARMAGEDDON.
The bodyguard-turned-actor was so distraught when he realised he’d upset his mother in the action film he decided to work through every script with her before agreeing to take on parts.
He says, "My mother saw me stand up on that table with those on pulling them down in Armageddon and called me at five in the morning asking me what was wrong with me.
"My mother doesn’t understand that it’s me but I’m portraying a guy. She thinks I’m on drugs and she asks me, ‘Are you on drugs!’ ‘No mama, I’m not on drugs.’ "Ever since then I’d ask my mother about the role I got coming up. She’ll give me her advice and I usually take it because she’s been right all this time."
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EMMA THOMPSON grew so tired of hitting the streets of Chicago, Illinois, with her STRANGER THAN FICTION co-star DUSTIN HOFFMAN, she insisted he wear a disguise.
The RAIN MAN star refused to don a hat, scarf or glasses when he and the British actress went out for daily script-learning walks, and would be recognised at every turn.
Thompson says, "There was no attempt to disguise the fact that he was Dustin Hoffman, which meant that you could get about two feet before somebody, over enthusiastic, would stop us, him rather, and go on and on and on and finish by inviting us for dinner.
"It was quite irritating after a while, actually. And, so, I said, ‘Why don’t you wear a hat (as a disguise), I’ll get you a hat.’ "He said, ‘No, no, then you’d just see my nose, I’d rather be recognised than look like an ageing Jew.’"
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SCARLETT JOHANSSEN has been handed another major honour after being named Esquire magazine’s Sexiest Woman Alive.
And the 21-year-old actress shows off what made editors give her the 2006 title on the cover and inside the November issue of the men’s style publication.
The LOST IN TRANSLATION star wears a bra and a white Calvin Klein mini-dress on the cover, and then sends temperatures soaring inside with a series of scantily-clad poses as an "enigmatic trailer-park temptress".
But Johanssen isn’t totally impressed by her new title, explaining, "What about my brain? What about my heart? What about my kidneys and my gallbladder?"
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Movie-maker RIDLEY SCOTT is planning another BLACK HAWK DOWN-style war film and he’s heading to the war-torn Middle East to research it.
The British director received great acclaim for his 2001 movie, set in Somalia, and is plotting a follow-up set in Iraq.
He says, "I think the 22 hours (of Black Hawk Down) is a marvellous, distilled, relevant way of describing war. The fact it actually happened gives it even more credence.
"I’m going to enter the Middle East shortly to actually get into the whole process of what’s going on right now, because it’s so chaotic, and because it is so fascinating that we don’t learn by history at all.
"We’ve, in fact, become even more ignorant by history. We never look backwards and say, ‘Can we learn from then and apply to what we can today?’ "I think what I learned from Black Hawk Down, is that movies are so powerful, movies can really change things and it becomes an educational process. I think that’s the healthiest way of attacking anything now. That’s what I’m looking for."
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ANNA NICOLE SMITH attempted to contact her estranged mother in the hours after her son DANIEL’s tragic death earlier this month (10SEP06), but was incoherent and muddled.
VIRGIE ARTHUR was surprised to receive a call from her daughter and is urging the busty blonde to get back in touch because she couldn’t make sense of what she was saying on the phone.
She says, "She was so drugged up, I imagine… She was so medicated, I think, I could not understand a word, other than, ‘Danny’s dead.’ "She was crying, and trying to talk and mumbling - you couldn’t understand hardly anything she said. And as soon as she said that, the phone went click, so I don’t know if she hung it up, or if somebody else hung it up for her." Arthur has been devastated by the tragedy because she claims she raised Daniel until he was six, while Anna Nicole searched for work. She’s still puzzled as to why she was cut out of her daughter and grandson’s life, but she has her thoughts about what has soured the relationship.
She adds, "She is the one making the money, and the people surrounding her are gaining from it, so they don’t want any of the family around.
"I don’t know why they don’t want the family around. We have never asked for anything. She has never given us anything."
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Bluegrass stars THE GRASCALS claimed the night’s big award at the 17th Annual International Bluegrass Music Awards on Thursday (28SEP06), when they picked up the Entertainer Of The Year prize.
The group was also one of the acts contributing to the night’s Album Of The Year, CELEBRATION OF LIFE: MUSICIANS AGAINST CHILDHOOD CANCER.
Other big winners at the Grand Ole Opry House celebration in Nashville, Tennessee, included THE LEWIS FAMILY and SYD NATHAN, who were inducted to the Bluegrass Hall Of Honour and RHONDA VINCENT and TIM O’BRIEN, who claimed the night’s Female and Male Vocalist Of The Year honours.
RICKY SKAGGS and KENTUCKY THUNDER won Instrumental Group Of The Year.
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Veteran blues guitarist HENRY ‘MULE’ TOWNSEND has died of pulmonary edema. He was 96.
Townsend, whose career spanned eight decades, passed away in Grafton, Wisconsin, on Sunday (24SEP06).
He was born in Shelby, Mississippi, grew up in Cairo, Illinois, before moving to St Louis, Missouri, at the age of nine, where he remained for much of his career.
In 1985, Townsend was honoured with a National Heritage Award for his contribution to art.
He is survived by four children and seven grandchildren.
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Rockers GREAT WHITE have reunited after taking a year off to consider their future following the fall-out from a 2003 fire at a show in Rhode Island, which left 100 people dead.
An ill-advised pyrotechnics show was to blame for the blaze, which claimed the life of guitarist TY LONGLEY.
The group struggled on after the tragedy but initially split a year ago (05) amid legal problems and a backlash from the families of those killed in the nightclub fire.
And some of the group members are talking about the fire for the first time.
Guitarist MARK KENDALL says, "It was just a nightmare." The Great White bandmates are now planning to record an album and go back on tour.
Members of the victims’ families and those left injured by the blaze named Kendall and singer JACK RUSSELL in a federal lawsuit seeking compensation for their losses.
The group’s ex-tour manager DAN BIECHELE was sentenced to serve a four year prison sentence for his part in the tragedy.
Club owner MICHAEL DERDERIAN and his brother JEFFREY received a four-year prison sentence and a 10-year suspended sentence respectively.
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Country legend HANK WILLIAMS’ family has won control of the singer/songwriter’s fabled radio shows.
Williams’ two children will now control the catalogue of recordings of his performances on the Mother’s Best Radio Show from the early 1950s thanks to a ruling by the Tennessee Supreme Court.
Executives at Polygram Records and Legacy Entertainment Group, the company’s under which Williams recorded, were keen to release the music themselves but the new ruling indicates the label does not have rights to music recorded on the radio show.
The ruling ends a case which has been in litigation for eight years.
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Pop punk group GOOD CHARLOTTE’s former drummer has broken his silence a year after quitting the band, insisting he’s owed cash.
CHRIS WILSON stunned fans when he walked away from the LIFESTYLES OF THE RICH & THE FAMOUS hitmakers, citing "personal health problems" and now says it wasn’t quite as amicable as his bandmates made it seem in a statement.
They wrote, "We love him and wish him well" on their website, but Wilson was unhappy with his departure - and he’s still bitter.
In a posting on his MySpace web page directed at his ex-bandmates, the drummer writes, "I’ve kept my mouth shut for long enough. It has been roughly a year and a half since my departure from GC (sic), and all I can say is, ‘What the f**k?’ How many times can I possibly get stabbed in the back? "I know I f**ked up, and I’m sincerely sorry for what I put you through. But why are you guys acting as if everything is OK? Why don’t you start telling the kids about how I never made one cent off of any merch (merchandise), CDs, DVDs, royalties (of songs I played on), publishing (songs I played on) or TV performances (in which I signed contracts stating exactly how much I was supposed to receive). Where did it go? "Why do you still blow me off and never return phone calls? Why have I been trying for a year to get my gear back… with no assistance from you at all." And Wilson blames Good Charlotte’s siblings BENJI and JOEL MADDEN for aiding the illness that cost him his place in the group.
He explains, "The reason why I lost my mind was because I joined a band with two of the most egotistical, self-centred, back-stabbing, corrupted individuals who are filled with broken promises.
"You guys were my best friends and yet I wasn’t good enough. What is going on? Come back to reality! You are complete contradictions to everything you would try to make fun of." A statement from Good Charlotte reads, "All of this really saddens us as we did our best to help him and to protect his reputation and privacy."
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"There have been so many rumours about CLAY (AIKEN) in certain tawdry papers he has to expect that if he’s being interviewed… that questions gonna come up." SIR ELTON JOHN warns AMERICAN IDOL star Clay Aiken he’ll always face questions about his homosexuality.
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KILL BILL star VIVICA A FOX turned into a Las Vegas showgirl for the night on Thursday (28SEP06) when she donned a shimmering outfit styled by legendary costumier BOB MACKIE as the guest of honour at the 25th anniversary of Bally’s casino show JUBILEE. (KL/WNVET/SC) (c) 2006 WORLD ENTERTAINMENT NEWS NETWORK LTD. All global rights reserved. No unauthorised copying or re-distributing permitted
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Actress EVA LONGORIA and her sports star boyfriend TONY PARKER have ended their 18-month romance, according to US reports.
The couple’s split comes at an awkward time - they’ve just bought a house together in Los Angeles and they’ve spent much of 2006 renovating a dream home in Texas.
A friend close to the couple tells American publication Life & Style Weekly, "Eva decided in the end that Tony was not the right one for her." The insider tells the publication that one reason Eva, 31, decided to call off the relationship was their seven-year age difference: "She just decided he’s too young." French star Parker, 24, plays for US basketball team the San Antonio Spurs.
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ROBERT DOWNEY JR is set to astound fans with his new movie - the reformed hellraiser has signed up to play superhero IRON MAN.
The comic book adaptation marks the Oscar nominated actor’s first lead role in a big-budget Hollywood action movie. He is best known for appearing in gritty movies including CHAPLIN, WONDER BOYS and NATURAL BORN KILLERS.
Shooting on Iron Man, which is being directed by actor/director JON FAVREAU and is the first self-financed movie by Marvel Studios, is scheduled to begin in February 2007.
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