HOLLYWOOD - Top Story: Kidman Wins an Apology
British newspaper the Daily Mail paid substantial damages as well as issued a public apology Thursday to actress Nicole Kidman for suggesting she had an adulterous affair with her Cold Mountain co-star Jude Law, Reuters reports. Kidman filed the lawsuit after the paper published the article in March, while she and Law, who is married to British actress Sadie Frost, both strongly denied the report. Daily Mail later conceded it was untrue, but the actress's defense lawyers said her reputation has suffered as a result. "The publication of this article has caused grave damage to the claimant's personal and professional reputation and she has suffered considerable embarrassment and distress," Reuters reports Kidman's defense lawyer told the High Court in London. The judge ruled in her favor and ordered the Daily Mail to pay damages and legal costs. The size of the payout was not disclosed.
Baryshnikov Joins Sex Cast
Dance legend Mikhail Baryshnikov has signed to play Sarah Jessica Parker's love interest in the last eight episodes of HBO's Sex and the City, according to The Associated Press. Baryshnikov will play the popular international artist Alexander Petrovsky, who meets Parker's alter ego Carrie Bradshaw at an art gallery and eventually falls in love with her. The final eight episodes of the series will air beginning in January.
Bob Hope Buried in Quiet Ceremony
Bob Hope, who died Sunday at the age of 100, was buried Wednesday in a temporary grave while his close friends and family paid tribute. Hope's longtime spokesman Ward Grant told Reuters the entertainer was buried at the San Fernando Mission cemetery in suburban Los Angeles after a Mass in the chapel of St. Charles Borromeo Church and explained that a grotto would be built next to the cemetery to serve as Hope's final resting place.
Brady to Write Memoir
Improv pro and Emmy-winning talk show host Wayne Brady is writing his memoirs entitled Making It Up As I Go Along, which deals with the comedian's experiences with family, career, death, personal struggles and celebrity, AP reports. The book is due out in May 2004.
Stones Headlined "SARSstock"
Rolling Stones, AC/DC and a dozen other acts performed a concert in Toronto Wednesday to help the city regain some of the tourism lost when the SARS virus (severe acute respiratory syndrome) racked the city several months ago. "I don't think people realize, certainly internationally ... what the health care workers in this city have been through. It's just an incredible sacrifice," Geddy Lee, frontman of Canadian band Rush, told Reuters. A chunk of the proceeds from ticket and merchandise sales will go to relief funds for hospitality and health workers.
Recording Industry Legend Sam Phillips Dies
Rock 'n' roll pioneer Sam Phillips, best known for founding Sun Records, the company that discovered Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and B.B. King, died on Wednesday in Memphis, Tenn., at age 80. Reuters reports Phillips died at St. Francis Hospital in Memphis, the Mississippi Delta town where his influential studio still stands as a tourist attraction, according to Rachel Zurka, a spokeswoman for the Memorial Park Funeral Home. No further details on cause of death were immediately available.
Role Call: Macy Talks on Cellular, Sarandon, Tomei Eyes Alfie Remake
William H. Macy is in talks to next star opposite Kim Basinger in the upcoming New Line Cinema thriller Cellular. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Macy would play a cop in the film, which revolves around a kidnapped woman who places a random phone call and reaches a young man she must persuade to help her…Susan Sarandon and Marisa Tomei are in negotiations to star opposite with Jude Law in a remake of the 1966 classic Alfie. The original starred Michael Caine as a womanizing Brit who begins to question the emptiness of his life and the consequences of his actions amid the sexual revolution of the 1960s.