Cuba Gooding Jr. understands co-star's anxiety over kissing scene.\nNEW YORK -- Cuba Gooding Jr. understands why his "The Fighting Temptations" co-star Beyonce Knowles was uneasy about their kissing scenes in the comedy.\n"She was probably a little nervous, because for her, it was more about, 'Oh, no, I'm performing for the peanut gallery,'" Gooding tells People magazine in its Sept. 15 issue.\nIn the film, Gooding plays an ad executive who learns he must create a successful gospel choir to collect his inheritance. The movie is set for release on Sept. 19.\nGooding, who won a best-supporting actor Oscar in 1997 for "Jerry Maguire," previously went to great lengths to loosen up before shooting intimate scenes.\nSays the 35-year-old actor: "'Butt Naked' was my nickname for a long time on movie sets because when I had a love scene, I'd run butt naked through the set just to show them, 'Who cares?'"
Rolling Stones to lead Hong Kong music event\nVENICE, Italy -- George Clooney said "I do" sort of when a journalist asked him to marry her during a press conference at the Venice Film Festival.\nClooney was answering questions Wednesday about his new film, "Intolerable Cruelty," when an Italian TV journalist wearing a white veil proposed marriage.\n"All right, come here," Clooney replied.\nThe woman approached the dais, bringing along a cameraman doubling as a priest, who produced two rings.\n"Finally, finally married!" Clooney said, although he added: "My fear is that he really is a priest."\nClooney kissed the journalist, laughed and had a sip of celebratory wine before moving on: "Next question?"\n"Intolerable Cruelty," the Coen brothers' latest film, stars Clooney as a divorce lawyer and Catherine Zeta-Jones as a "serial divorcee." It is not in competition at the festival.\nIn an interview in the October issue of Vanity Fair magazine, the 42-year-old Clooney said he is single and still keeps hope alive about dating.\n"You get to start over and go, 'I'm a really nice guy.' And by virtue of saying it, you can be it. You can actually decide, OK, now I'm a really nice guy."
Stylist of stars convicted of pawning jewelry\nNEW YORK -- A stylist whose clients included Sean "P. Diddy" Combs, Tyra Banks and Queen Latifah, was sentenced Wednesday to three years in prison for pawning more than $1 million in jewelry he borrowed from Harry Winston, Piaget and other stores.\nDerek Khan, 45, was sentenced by Manhattan State Supreme Court Justice Micki Scherer on his guilty plea to scheme to defraud. When arrested on March 5, Khan was charged with first-degree grand larceny and faced up to 25 years in prison.\nKhan was arrested after he failed to return jewelry worth "in excess of $1 million" that he had borrowed from last November through February "for exhibition, advertisement and marketing purposes," a felony complaint said.\nKhan's lawyer, Martin Schmukler, said the borrowed pieces included watches, rings, pendants and necklaces. Schmukler said Khan was paid "in the low six figures" when he hocked the jewelry.\nHONG KONG --The Rolling Stones and tenor Jose Carreras will headline a four-week government-sponsored music festival designed to attract tourists to SARS-battered Hong Kong.\nThe Hong Kong Harbour Fest will take place at the outdoor Tamar site along Hong Kong's waterfront Oct. 15- Nov. 9, organizers said Wednesday. More than 200,000 tickets for 18 shows will be available. Ticket sales begin Sept. 12.\nCarreras will perform Oct. 20. The Rolling Stones will play Nov. 7 and 9, with top tickets priced at $256.\n"We thought we could all help Hong Kong recover by bringing some exciting, world-class entertainment here," said James Thompson, chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce, which is organizing the event with the government.\nCarlos Santana, British R&B singer Craig David, Irish boy band Westlife, Taiwan pop sensation Jay Chou and boy band F4 also will participate.\nThompson said he hoped the festival would attract tourists from North America, Europe and Japan and, in turn, create jobs. Hong Kong's unemployment is at a record 8.7 percent.\nAn outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome between March and May dealt a heavy blow to the already struggling economy. The disease, which killed 299 people in the territory and sickened 1,755, prompted travel warnings and devastated tourism, hotel and other businesses.\n"We are trying to put Hong Kong back on the map. That's the entire thrust of the relaunch effort because Hong Kong really did fall down badly with SARS," Thompson said.\nThe festival is estimated to cost $16.7 million. The government has agreed to contribute $10.3 million if half the tickets are sold, said Mike Rowse, director-general of Invest Hong Kong, a government body aimed at attracting overseas business.\nhttp://www.hkharbourfest.com
sh: B.B. King gives partial refund for cancelled concert\nCHARLESTON, W.Va. -- B.B. King fans who couldn't attend his Feb. 16 concert in Charleston because of a snowstorm will get a refund under a settlement between the promoter and the state.\nCrossRhodes Entertainment of Big Flats, N.Y., has agreed to refund 75 percent of the ticket price, Attorney General Darrell V. McGraw Jr. said Tuesday.\nThe President's Day storm, which hit 24 counties, spawned record snow, flooding and ice, and turned parts of West Virginia into federal disaster areas.\nTicket-holders can either receive a refund or obtain vouchers to see any show promoted by CrossRhodes anywhere in the nation. Claim forms can be obtained from CrossRhodes. Forms must be returned to the promoter, along with the original ticket, within 30 days of receipt.\nConcertgoers who didn't pick up advance tickets don't have to submit tickets.\nMcGraw said anyone who filed a complaint with his office will be sent a claim form.\nhttp://www.state.wv.us/wvag\nhttp://www.tagstickets.com/CRE.asp
sh: Britney Spears reflects on kiss with Madonna
WASHINGTON -- Britney Spears can get a lot of mileage from a kiss.\nThe 21-year-old pop star was asked about her MTV Video Music Awards smooch with Madonna during a news conference promoting Thursday night's NFL kickoff celebration. Spears was slated as the headliner of the event.\nSpears said she left for England immediately after the Aug. 28 awards show in New York City and was unaware of the media attention the kiss had received. She said it was unrehearsed and that it was the first time she had kissed a woman.\nWould she do it again?\n"I hadn't kissed anyone in a long time," she responded, "so that should last me for a while."
sh: Raquel Welch recuperating from surery after car accident\nLOS ANGELES -- Raquel Welch broke her left arm in a car accident and is recuperating from surgery, her publicist said.\n"She's OK, she fractured her arm in several places and is in pain," publicist Jill Bushinsky said Wednesday.\nThe actress was driving alone Saturday when she was involved in a two-car accident, Bushinsky said. She said no one else was injured.\nWelch was taken to Century City Hospital, where she underwent surgery, Bushinsky said.\nThe accident happened in the Bel Air Estates area when Welch's vehicle rear-ended a BMW that was waiting to make a left turn at an intersection, said police spokeswoman Renee Montoya.\nWelch, who will be 63 on Friday, won a Golden Globe for her work in "The Three Musketeers." She also appeared in the films "Fantastic Voyage," "Tortilla Soup," "Bedazzled" and 1966's "One Million Years B.C.," which featured a poster of her in a revealing animal-skin outfit that became a pinup favorite.\nLast month, Welch and Richard Palmer, announced their separation. The actress married Palmer, her fourth husband, in 1999 at her Beverly Hills home.
sh: Bodyguard of pop star shots himself in leg\nMARIETTA, Ga. -- A bodyguard for R&B singer R. Kelly accidentally shot himself in the leg at a Marietta nightclub after being asked to remove the gun before entering the club.\nMaceo Price, 32, of Covington, La., was escorting Kelly and Ronald "Slim" Williams, co-founder of Cash Money Records, into Vegas Nights on Saturday night, according to Marietta police.\nPrice was asked to remove the gun before entering the nightclub and it went off as he was taking it out of the holster, said police Officer Brian Marshall.\nHe was taken to WellStar Kennestone Hospital, where he was treated and released. Police don't expect to file charges, Marshall said.
sh: French rock star arrested for beating girlfriend into a coma\nVILNIUS, Lithuania -- A French rock star held in Lithuania on suspicion of manslaughter in the beating death of his actress girlfriend will stay in prison through Oct. 14, a Lithuanian judge ruled Thursday.\nBertrand Cantat, the lead singer of the popular rock band Noir Desir, has been held in Lithuania since late July after his girlfriend, actress Marie Trintignant, was found beaten into a coma. She later died.\nHis lawyer, Virginijus Leonas Papirtis, had sought Cantat's release, noting the singer's poor health and saying he wasn't a flight risk.\n"The fact that Cantat is not a citizen of Lithuania and has no place to live is not a reason to keep him in prison", Papirtis said.\nCantat, who was not in court, is reportedly in a depressed state about the death of Trintignant and has lost 22 pounds, Papirtis said.\nTrintignant, 41, died Aug. 1 in a Paris hospital after she was beaten into a coma while in Lithuania where she was starring in a film. An autopsy found she died from multiple blows to her face and head.
sh: Burglar breaks into Jeanne Moreau's appartment\nPARIS -- A bandana-wearing burglar broke into the Paris apartment of Jeanne Moreau as she slept and stole more than $432,000 worth of jewelry and cash, police said Wednesday.\nMoreau, the raspy-voiced star of films such as "Jules and Jim," "The Yellow Rolls-Royce" and "Viva Maria!" wasn't injured in the daybreak burglary last Friday, police said.\nA report in Le Parisien daily quoted police as saying the burglar, who was in his 30s, ordered the 75-year-old actress to lead him to her valuables and then stole jewelry, $2,160 in cash and a cordless telephone before fleeing.\nThe burglar appeared to be unarmed, police said.\nIn 2001, Moreau became the first woman inducted into the more than two-centuries-old Academie des Beaux-Arts. Members of the prestigious institution are known as "immortals."
sh: Celebrity coobook author marries big name art collector\nLONDON -- Celebrity chef and cookbook author Nigella Lawson has married art collector Charles Saatchi in a small private wedding, a spokesman for the bride said Thursday.\nLawson, 43, and Saatchi, 60, were married at their home in London on Wednesday morning, with only their children from previous marriages in attendance.\nLawson has two children, Cosima and Bruno, from her marriage to John Diamond, who died of cancer 2 1/2 years ago. Saatchi has a daughter, Phoebe, from his second marriage.
