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LATEST: SIR ELTON JOHN is keen to add Australian musical sensation PRISCILLA, QUEEN OF THE DESERT to his extensive list of show business titles. The music legend fell in love with the drag-queen spectacular during a recent visit to Sydney and is desperate to bring it to London’s West End.
Producer GARRY McQUINN tells Sydney’s Daily Telegraph, "Elton came and saw the show and he loved it, and since then we have certainly been in talks with his people. "He is one of the people who have expressed interest in being involved in a great capacity, but we are still at the critical stage of deciding on who our international partnership will be with." McQuinn is currently supervising previews of the show in the US as part of the G’DAY USA Australian programme, but insists the production is more likely to debut in the West End.
The ROCKET MAN star is hoping to have Priscilla opening to UK audiences by early 2008, a time frame McQuinn believes could be possible. He adds, "Obviously it would be fantastic and we are very keen, but nothing has been decided as yet."

Movie & Entertainment News provided by World Entertainment News Network (www.wenn.com)

KYRA SEDGWICK has become one of the highest-paid actresses on television after winning a Golden Globe Award on Monday night (15JAN07).
Sedgwick stars as hard-nosed Deputy Police Chief BRENDA JOHNSON on THE CLOSER and received a hefty raise after her win.
She has signed a new deal with US network TNT worth a reported $16 million (£8.2 million) and will also become a producer on the show.
The actress will receive between $250,000 to $300,000 (£128,000 to £154,000) per episode, including bonuses.
The show is heading into its third season this summer (07), and the new deal will keep Sedgwick under contract for a total of seven seasons.

Movie & Entertainment News provided by World Entertainment News Network (www.wenn.com)

An Australian man has been accused of filming up women’s skirts using a camera hidden in his shoe.
The man, in his early 20s, was found with a camera in his shoe, connected to a cord which ran up his trouser leg to a bumbag.
The bag contained a video camera which was used to film the faces of his female victims on Melbourne trams, which he would later match to the image taken by the camera in his shoe.
The man – who police believe may have been running his operation for four years – was caught after a woman travelling on a tram noticed the camera in his bumbag and complained to police she was being filmed.
Seniour Constable Sue Benskin said: "This elaborate set-up is something he’s thought of quite carefully."

© bangshowbiz.biz

A chimpanzee who escaped from a US zoo used her taste of freedom to raid the kitchen cupboards and clean the toilet.
Judy, from Arizona’s Little Rock Zoo, escaped from her sleeping quarters after the door was opened by a zookeeper who was unaware the chimp was still inside.
The 37-year-old primate rummaged through the fridge of chimp snacks, opened kitchen cupboards, pulled out juice and soft drinks and swigged from any bottles she managed to open. She then rang out a sponge and cleaned the front of the fridge.
Judy also went into the bathroom, picked up a loo brush and cleaned the toilet.
Keepers eventually managed to sedate the 120 pound chimp who passed out on top of the refrigerator with half a loaf of cinnamon-raisin bread she had found in the freezer.

© bangshowbiz.biz

A UK man who attempted to steal an expensive engagement ring by swallowing it was caught after police passed a metal detector over his stomach.
Simon Hooper, 28, from Dorset, wanted the £1,750 ring to propose to his girlfriend and so gulped it down last November while jeweller Fred Burgess was distracted.
Police X-rayed Hooper and discovered the ring.
When shown the incriminating X-ray, Hooper claimed he had swallowed some foil by accident.
The hopeless romantic was kept in the cells for three days until the platinum ring passed through his system.
Hooper was sentenced to 12 weeks for theft.
Jeweller Burgess said he was finding it hard to sell the ring because people knew "where it had been".

© bangshowbiz.biz

Staff at a US home for retired chimpanzees were amazed when one of their resident chimps fell pregnant – as all the males have had vasectomies.
Keepers at Chimp Haven in Los Angeles discovered the pregnancy when one of the female chimps, Teresa was reported missing during the morning check.
Teresa was found later that day nursing a newborn baby chimp.
There are seven male chimpanzees at Chimp Haven but they have all had surgery to prevent them reproducing.
Chimp Haven’s Linda Brent admitted: "Well, we were all just a little bit surprised when we heard the news.
‘’We’re going to be doing a paternity test, just like you would do on people."

© bangshowbiz.biz

A US burglar has been dubbed the ‘bare-bottom bandit’ after his trousers fell down, exposing his buttocks to CCTV cameras.
Christopher Willever drunkenly broke into an empty Tobacco Hut store in Nebraska after drinking a bottle of rum and deciding he was fed up of being poor.
But the 22-year-old was so drunk he didn’t realise as he crawled around the floor of the store that his trousers were around his knees, exposing his rear-end to the security cameras.
Judge Thomas Otepka – who sentenced Willever to five years in jail – said: "You were an ass in every true sense of the word in this crime." His defence attorney, Kelly Steenbock, attempted to plead for a lenient sentence, saying: "He was pretty humiliated and embarrassed. He showed his bottom to whoever turned on the TV."

© bangshowbiz.biz

A married couple from New Zealand played 18 holes of crazy golf to decide who would give up their surname.
Greg Marshall and Adrienne Foley agreed on the contest when the bride-to-be complained: "Why do women always take the guy’s name?" The couple, who married in Levin, wore their wedding outfits for the round of golf.
Adrienne said: "Greg’s a keen golfer. He’s been playing since pretty much forever. "For about five months, I’d been going round the house saying, `Gregory James Foley, that sounds good.’" But despite getting a hole-in-one on the ninth hole, Adrienne lost out to Greg after he gained a three-shot lead on the 17th hole and scored his own hole-in-one on the 18th.
Mrs Marshall said: "He won, so I have to take his name.
"Next time it’s pool - or something more even."

© bangshowbiz.biz

A UK school has entered the record books for making the world’s largest bowl of porridge.
The pupils of Crackleigh Junior School in Kenilworth, Warwickshire, were helped by members of the army to cook the giant bowl of hot breakfast.
20kg of oats and 50 litres of milk were used to make the record breaking bowl-full.
When finished the world’s biggest bowl of porridge weighed around 66kg and produced enough porridge to feed about 300 people.

© bangshowbiz.biz

A Russian chemistry student caused a terrorist alert after blowing up part of his dormitory whilst trying to do his homework.
Sergei Makarenko, 20, was mixing chemicals at the Moscow State University dormitory as part of an assignment when the explosion took place.
Police rushed to the scene believing a terrorist attack had been carried out on the university by an extremist group.
A police spokesman for said: "It was as if someone had let a bomb off." Fellow student Andrey Kruschev said: "We all thought it was a terrorist attack at the time. I guess sometimes even homework can be dangerous."

© bangshowbiz.biz

A Chinese newspaper vendor has employed the services of an assistant duck.
The bird stands on a chair in the kiosk and collects money its beak, as well as passing magazines and newspapers to the customers.
If kiosk owner, Wang, falls asleep his duck quacks to wake him up.
Wang, who sells papers in the city of Guangzhou, says he brought up the duck and trained it himself.
He told China’s Southern Metropolis News newspaper: "I will never kill or sell him."

© bangshowbiz.biz

A Vietnamese pig farmer has discovered playing classical music encourages his hogs to eat more.
Nguyen Chi Cong, 44, began playing Beethoven, Mozart and Schubert on his farm for the benefit of his workers, but noticed that it increased the troughing habits of his 3,000 pigs.
Cong said: "I saw that my pigs started eating more and that they were gaining weight faster than usual.
"I think I am the first farmer in Vietnam to apply this technique.
"Local farmers come here to learn from my experience. I think that music is good not just for pigs but also for other domestic animals." The hogs now get a daily serenading of classical symphonies and sonatas from 7am until 11am and 2pm until 4pm.

© bangshowbiz.biz

French actress JULIETTE BINOCHE and British director ANTHONY MINGHELLA hope their movie BREAKING & ENTERING helps Brits come to terms with Eastern European immigrants, because it portrays them as struggling survivors.
CHOCOLAT star Binoche, whose grandmother was a Polish immigrant in Paris, France, studied Bosnians living in the UK as research for her role as an immigrant, and admits the experience left her scarred.
She explains, "Most of the mothers that I met in London have been immigrants for 10 years and they’re still struggling. There was one Bosnian woman I spent a lot of time with and we talked about the pain of being an immigrant.
"These people don’t want to go back to where they’ve come from, but it’s hard for them to find a job… Their children are their hopes because they sacrificed for them. It’s great but it’s sad.
"I can relate, as a human being, leaving everything behind you and trying to rebuild yourself somewhere else. It’s a journey. You have to have faith and strength." Director Minghella admits he was compelled to make a movie about immigrants in Britain after learning his friend’s cleaner was a well-qualified Argentinean psychiatrist in exile.
He adds, "I suddenly felt so humiliated that I always thought of her as just a cleaner. Suddenly I realised I knew nothing about anybody and everybody arrives with a story. I have a great empathy for migrants.
"Part of what I wanted to say in the movie is, before you make a judgment about anybody, find out what their story is."

Movie & Entertainment News provided by World Entertainment News Network (www.wenn.com)

Supermodel GISELE BUNDCHEN has slammed reports the fashion industry is to blame for promoting thin models and insists weak families are the real cause behind anorexia.
LEONARDO DiCAPRIO’s former girlfriend was visiting her native Brazil this week for Fashion Rio, which has banned models who are under the age of 16 and has required proof of their good health after the death of a Brazilian model from complications due to starvation last year (06).
She tells newspaper O Globo, "I never suffered from this problem (anorexia) because I had a very strong family base. Parents are responsible, not the fashion industry." In September (06), Spain barred models below a certain weight from Madrid fashion shows, while the Italian government and its fashion designers signed a pact to keep sickly thin girls off the catwalk. Bundchen, who was ranked 16th on Forbes list of the 20 richest women in entertainment this week, said being a model is based on genetics.
She explains, "Everybody knows that the norm in fashion is thin. But excuse me, there are people born with the right genes for this profession." The VICTORIA’S SECRET model says she was teased as a child because she was so skinny, adding, "In fashion I felt accepted. I never felt lonely because I always relied on my family."

Movie & Entertainment News provided by World Entertainment News Network (www.wenn.com)

American actor RON CAREY died on Tuesday (16JAN07) of complications from a stroke at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. He was 71.
Carey is best known for his roles on the sitcom BARNEY MILLER and in MEL BROOKS films.
Carey began his career as a stand-up comic on talk shows, including those hosted by MERV GRIFFIN, MIKE DOUGLAS, ED SULLIVAN and JOHNNY CARSON. His most famous role was as detective-wannabe Officer CARL LEVITT on Barney Miller, which ran from 1975 to 1982 on US network ABC.
Carey’s feature credits include Brooks’ HISTORY OF THE WORLD, PART I, HIGH ANXIETY and SILENT MOVIE. He also appeared in JOHNNY DANGEROUSLY, FATSO, and the 1970 comedy THE OUT OF TOWNERS.

Movie & Entertainment News provided by World Entertainment News Network (www.wenn.com)

LATEST: HILARY SWANK’s estranged husband CHAD LOWE has confirmed he has found love again with producer KIM PAINTER.
Lowe, 39, and Painter, 33, were first spotted together at the 15 November (07) Los Angeles premiere of CARRIE FISHER’s one-woman show, WISHFUL DRINKING, which Painter co-produced.
Since then, they’ve been seen around Los Angeles, including a recent dinner at Mr Chow’s with his family.
Lowe’s publicist, CINDY GUAGENTI, confirms the relationship to American publication People, saying, "They are dating." The pair also went public with their relationship after the Golden Globe Awards on Monday (15JAN07) and attended the InStyle/Warner Bros party where Lowe introduced his new love to friends including EMILIO ESTEVEZ, SEAL and HEIDI KLUM. Swank and Lowe announced they were splitting last year (06) and the MILLION DOLLAR BABY star has also moved on and is dating her agent, JOHN CAMPISI.

Movie & Entertainment News provided by World Entertainment News Network (www.wenn.com)

A Bahamas law firm is suing former Playboy Playmate ANNA NICOLE SMITH for unpaid legal fees totaling $113,000 (£58,000).
Callenders, which is based in Nassau, has secured an injunction from the Bahamas Supreme Court forbidding Smith from reducing the balance in her local bank accounts below $125,000 (£64,000).
Attorney TRACY FERGUSON contends Smith has repeatedly failed to pay fees due to her company.
She explains, "We are determined to pursue this. We will be paid. Ms Smith now needs to respond to this and stop being evasive." The former reality TV star hired Callenders in September (06) to handle affairs surrounding her son DANIEL’s death.
Daniel died at his mother’s hospital bedside aged 20 - three days after she gave birth to a daughter.
The firm later withdrew its services, but only after several weeks of work. In an affidavit, Ferguson said she believed Smith had the funds to pay "but that she has a total aversion to paying her bills and that she will seek to avoid paying the fees by any means that occur to her, including by sending her money within this jurisdiction abroad."

Movie & Entertainment News provided by World Entertainment News Network (www.wenn.com)

Singer JOHN MAYER has come up with a way to end the controversy surrounding GREY’S ANATOMY star ISAIAH WASHINGTON’s use of a gay slur against a co-star make his character gay.
Washington stunned cast mates in the Golden Globes press room on Monday (15JAN07) when he denied calling co-star TR KNIGHT a "faggot".
Mayer writes on his blog, "What better way for an actor to get to the roots of his discrimination than by portraying the very subject of his own ire for the remainder of his contract?" The DAUGHTERS singer even went as far as outlining two scenes; one paints Washington’s character as the webmaster of the fan site for the glam rock band SCISSOR SISTERS who also bakes tea cookies. The other suggests that a caged tiger be on set at all times to keep Washington in line.
Washington issued a statement yesterday (18JAN07), apologising for his behaviour and admitting that he needed professional help to deal with the issue. (SS/WNWC/SC) WENN - SIXTH - HOLLYWOOD, SHOWBIZ & PEOPLE NEWS - 19 JANUARY 2007

Movie & Entertainment News provided by World Entertainment News Network (www.wenn.com)