Engaged
Four Weddings and a Funeral star Andie MacDowell accepted an engagement ring from her college sweetheart, Rhett Hartzog, 43, last week, The Associated Press reports. “I am very happy for her,” said MacDowell‘s father, Marion McBride. The couple plans to marry in November in Asheville, N.C, where MacDowell lives, McBride said. This will be her second marriage. MacDowell is currently promoting her new HBO movie Dinner With Friends, starring Dennis Quaid and Greg Kinnear. The movie will begin airing Aug. 11.
In Court
Madonna settled a $5 million breach-of-oral contract last week involving a film that she had allegedly agreed to appear in but later backed out of making. According to court papers, the case dates back to 1998 when Madonna made an agreement with independent filmmaker Millennium Films to make a cameo appearance in the movie Going Down, Launch.com reported. In exchange, the singer and Madguy Entertainment, the production company that she oversees with Maverick Records partner Guy Oseary would receive a co-producer credit in the film. The settlement was reached after Madonna and her lawyers were sanctioned by the court for walking out on a court-ordered deposition. The lawsuit was dismissed once the settlement was reached.
Honored
Actors Burt Reynolds and Julianne Moore will receive tributes at the 27th annual Deauville Festival Cinema, joining previously announced honoree producer Joel Silver. Among the movies in the competition are Bart Freundlich’s World Traveler, starring Billy Crudup and Moore, as well as Reynolds‘ Tempted, directed by Bill Bennett and costarring Saffron Burrows. In addition to a Stanley Kubrick retrospective, and a sidebar programmed by Oliver Stone, the festival will honor James Dean‘s memory with screenings of the three features in his short filmography, capped by Mark Rydell’s new biopic, James Dean, starring James Franco, Reuters reports. Among the artists confirmed to appear at the Aug. 31- Sept. 9 event include Steven Spielberg, Shannon Elizabeth, Johnny Deep, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Halle Berry, Hugh Jackman, Helen Hunt, Charlize Theron, Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman.
In General
French Canadian diva Celine Dion and husband Rene Angelil, baptized their six-month-old son Rene-Charles on Wednesday at Notre-Dame Basilica in Montreal, Quebec, Reuters reports. Among 250 friends and members of the family attended the event while more than 1,500 onlookers and photographers cheered the singer outside of the church. The child, born Jan.25, was conceived through in vitro fertilization in New York. Dion, 33, is on a three-year sabbatical from show business to take care of her son. She will make a comeback in a musical in Las Vegas in 2003.
Russell Simmons, founder of the Def Jam record label, crashed a Senate hearing Wednesday on the entertainment industry and told Congress not to censor music or blame society’s ills on violent and sexually explicit lyrics. Congress and entertainment figures have clashed over whether and how the industry targets explicit content to young people, Reuters reported. “Some of the songs you may find offensive, protest songs and other songs, are actually a reflection of the reality that needs to be expressed. The real issue is how do we address these issues,” Simmons told members of the Congress. The Senate Governmental Affairs Committee chairman, Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.), had rejected a request from Simmons earlier this week to speak to the committee, saying the witness list was full. The hip-hop recording mogul spoke his mind after having sat through actor William Baldwin‘s testimony, in which the actor said the media did not cause violent behavior.
The Recording Industry Association of America is launching a new campaign to attract attention to the Parental Advisory stickers placed on albums containing explicit sexual or violent content, Rolling Stone reports. The RIIA will produce public service announcements for TV and radio featuring legendary record producer Quincy Jones and print out a new Parental Advisory brochure to PTA groups, school principals, as well as local and federal officials involved with children’s issues.
A trip to see Planet of the Apes this weekend could cost you as much as $10 a ticket if you live in Boston. Loews Cineplex recently opened its Boston Commons 19 megaplex movie theatre, with tickets costing $10 on weekends and $9.50 weekdays. According to Reuters, for a $15 ticket price, patrons can get reserved theater seating and the availability of valet parking, with $2 of the extra ticket charge refundable if moviegoers patronize the theater’s bar.
Nicole Kidman will star in Danish director’s Lars von Trier‘s new project Dogville, costarring Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgaard. The plot of the movie will be set in a small American mountain village in the 1930s and filmed in Sweden next year, has not been revealed, The Associated Press reported. Last year, von Trier won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival for
