Entertainment News Page 4540

Adding more big names to make a star-studded cast, "Battle in Seattle" has included Andre Benjamin, Martin Henderson, Woody Harrelson, and Ray Liotta into the list, Variety has reported.

Along with Oscar-winning actress Charlize Theron, the foursome will all come under the direction of first-time helmer Stuart Townsend who also is in charge to pen the script. Production is expected to begin by November this year with Vanessa Pereira executive producing.

Paris Hilton is facing wrath and fury from her 'friends' at her MySpace account. Several furious sources said that they have been fooled upon an email sent by the beauty which unexpectedly made their email accounts being submitted into a spam list instead.

The angry group claimed that they initially received emails supposedly from Hilton informing they had won an expense-paid trip to meet her, then getting forwarded to a series of pop-up messages and questionnaires asking them to buy products while requesting them to fill in personal information.

Setting out to defend her controversial adoption of David Banda, Madonna will tell all about the matter to Oprah Winfrey in her popular talk show "The Oprah Winfrey Show."

Scheduled to be interviewed by Winfrey this Wednesday, October 25, the pop star will answer the latest claim of the father of her adopted son, Yohane Banda, who was reported to actually have no intention to give up the child "for good." Furthermore, she also is going to talk about her decision to adopt David and whether or not she intends to keep him in touch with his African heritage.

The battle between Heather Mills and her estranged husband Paul McCartney gets uglier this time. It has just been reported that Mills' lawyers are taking an unusual step of asking the divorce process to be heard in open court. If the request is granted, explicit details of this bitter break-up will inevitably be described for the public to hear in turn.

"She wants to lay bare everything that happened in the marriage and make sure everyone hears her side of the story," a legal source has said.

Joining forces together, celebrity names like Halle Berry, Daryl Hannah, Cindy Crawford, Dick Van Dyke, Ted Danson, Jane Seymour, and Pierce Brosnan showed up at Malibu's Surfrider Beach on Sunday, October 22, 2006 to mingle with surfers protesting Australian mining giant BHP Billiton's plan to establish an offshore gas station terminal.

Inevitably drawing attention from fans, paparazzi and television networks, the stars, along with the surfers gathered, openly expressed their refusal toward a massive floating terminal proposed for about 14 miles off the coast by the company, which intends to use it to unload tankers carrying natural gas from Asia and Australia then pipes it ashore.

Seemingly ignorant on the lawsuit filed by her former boyfriend Larry Birkhead over the paternity matters of her baby girl, Anna Nicole Smith has preferred not to show up on Monday, October 23, 2006 for a meeting requested by Birkhead's attorney Debra Opri, who has landed in the Bahamas to take a deposition from her.

Following this, Opri has revealed her intention to use Smith's absence to argue for dismissal of the challenge coming from the actress' attorneys, who once argued that the court does not have appropriate jurisdiction to oblige her to do a paternity test as Birkhead demanded.

Further speculation on Kate Moss' plan to marry her beau Pete Doherty is coming to the surface. The supermodel has been photographed to wear a 50,000 pounds diamond cluster engagement ring on her finger when the couple wandered the streets of Florence, Italy on Thursday, October 19.

While official statement from the twosome is still awaited, sources close to Doherty remarked that a wedding between Moss and the Babyshambles frontman is expected to be held next year on Moss' 33rd birthday on January 16.

Missed a court date for her New York assault case on Monday, October 23, 2006, rapper Foxy Brown has been threatened by Criminal Court Judge Melissa Jackson to be thrown in jail if she fails to appear again today, October 24.

Brown, whose real name is Inga Marchand, previously sent a letter telling she was unable to attend the hearing due to the oral surgery she had to undergo yet Jackson apparently did not see that as a proper cause for her absence. "I don't take this kindly," said the judge. "I don't believe she is incapable of being here."

Stressing his readiness to go back into action in "Indiana Jones 4", Harrison Ford has clearly indicated that he is still fit enough to reprise his role as the titular character in the fourth installment of the hugely popular franchise despite his age.

"We need to move on for artistic reasons and obvious physical reasons, (but) I feel fit to continue and bring the same physical action," so stated the 64-years-old actor during a news conference at Rome Film Festival on Friday, October 20, 2006.

Syosset-born producer/writer Judd Apatow has got a seemingly promising project to develop. "The 40 Year-Old Virgin" script, through his Apatow Productions, has already obtained rights to Jonah Hill's comedy pitch of "The Middle Child" to set it up at Universal Pictures as a big screen feature.

Also attached to star, Hill based the film's idea on his own life experience of having a younger sister who was not born until he turned ten years old. The movie itself tells about a young guy who becomes an outcast in his own family after his younger brother, whom his parents gave up for adoption, returns home.

Apparently it does not take such a long time for George Clooney to find himself working together again with the famed Coen brothers, Joel Coen and Ethan Coen. The Oscar-winning actor has agreed to take starring part in "Burn After Reading" of which script is penned by the brothers, Production Weekly has learned.

Doing so, the project then marks the third time Clooney collaborates with the Coens after their previous works in "Intolerable Cruelty" and "O Brother, Where Art Thou?." What interesting here is that the Hollywood heartthrob has decided to take an antagonistic role as a hit man instead of a protagonist part as he did lately on his recent stints.

Seemingly going smooth in running his writing career, Vince Gilligan has signed on to rewrite the screenplay of "Fly on the Wall", a comedy project from Universal Pictures that Will Ferrell is attached to star in.

Originally scripted by Neil Tolkin, the movie deals with an anti-social man who slowly learns how to have a successful relationship while learning to truly believe in himself with the help of a talking fly.

Set to generate more laughs from the moviegoers, The Weinstein Company is about to come up with a comedy project titled "Muskrat Love" based on Martin Sweeney's spec script of which rights it has successfully optioned.

An irreverent comedic feature, the picture presents a story of a self-absorbed player who dumps the perfect woman only to find himself shockingly getting injected with a monogamy serum by the woman's vengeful best friend.

Moving to independent feature, Val Kilmer has given his agreement to take a starring role in "A West Texas Children's Story", a feature directorial debut of Brad Isaacs who is also on duty to pen the script.

Currently in production in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the picture follows two teenagers as they conduct a cross-country trip in search of adventure and a better life. Matthew Modine, Lara Flynn Boyle, AnnaSophia Robb, and Cayden Boyd are also starring with Polly Platt, Ryan Howe, and Thom Mount executive producing.

Remains strong in a relatively quiet session internationally, "The Devil Wears Prada" amazingly continues to seat atop the weekend box office overseas ended October 22, 2006, after its success to garner $18.6 million from 43 markets.

As the runner-up, here comes "Open Season" with $7.8 million it has collected from 25 territories, mostly thanks to a solid no. 1 opening in France followed by former foreign champ "World Trade Center" which this time scored $6.8 million from 38 market, lifting up its total foreign income to $69.9 million so far.