Los Angeles - Steven Spielberg is set to direct a movie about slain President Abraham Lincoln and his role in the US Civil War, Variety reported Monday. The filmmaker will re-team with Liam Neeson, who starred in the Oscar-winning Schindler's List. The Lincoln epic could stand a chance of repeating that success.
The story is to be based on the acclaimed biography of Lincoln by historian Doris Kearns Goodwin and will have an adapted screenplay by prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner.
Filming will have to wait until early next year, as Spielberg finishes his current project - a live-action, big-screen version of the Belgian cartoon hero Tintin.
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Jackson hangs onto Neverland
Los Angeles - Michael Jackson has managed to evade foreclosure on his Neverland Ranch, after an investment company bought the loan to the California fantasy property, the Los Angeles Times reported Monday.
Colony Capital, a large real-estate investment firm, said it would negotiate payment terms with Jackson, who left the ranch after he was acquitted in 2005 of child molestation that allegedly took place on the estate. It was the latest deal to keep the 100-hectare property from from the hands of creditors.
Jackson, 49, said in a press release that he was "in discussions" over the ranch with Colony and was "pleased with recent developments."
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TV actor Farina apologizes for airport gun incident
Los Angeles - Law & Order cast member Dennis Farina apologized Monday for his weekend arrest, which occurred after security found a loaded handgun in his carry-on luggage at Los Angeles International Airport.
"I apologize to anyone and everyone that I have caused any embarrassment or inconvenience to," Farina said in a statement. "It is my own stupidity to find myself in this embarrassing situation."
Farina, 64, was found not to have registered the weapon and was charged with carrying a concealed weapon. Farina claimed he had not known that the weapon was in his bag.
Farina, who was a Chicago police officer for 20 years before becoming a full-time actor, co-stars with Ashton Kutcher and Cameron Diaz in the film What Happens in Vegas, which opened over the weekend.
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Thurman in new legal battle with Lancome
New York - Days after her testimony helped send a stalker to jail for a year, Uma Thurman is embroiled in another legal battle: this time with the cosmetics giant Lancome.
The Kill Bill actress is claiming 15 million dollars from the company which she claims knowingly used her image to sell their products after her contract expired. The 38-year-old beauty signed on as a spokeswoman for Lancome in 2000 but says her name and image continued to pop up on the company's websites and billboards in Canada and Asia after her contract ended in 2005.
Lancome maintains that use of her image was completely unintentional and all advertisements were pulled as soon as the company became aware of them.
