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week 29-01
ShowBiz Weekly: news from the UK & US...

Former James Bond villainess FAMKE JANSSEN has dropped out of the Men In Black sequel after only one day's filming and has been replaced by LARA FLYNN BOYLE. A Janssen representative said she had been forced to pull out because of an illness in her family. Boyle will play Serleena, the female lead opposite WILL SMITH and TOMMY LEE JONES, who are returning in their roles of Agent J and Agent K.

Two of the world's top martial arts stars, JACKIE CHAN and JET LI, will be teaming up for the first time in a Hollywood action picture for American Sweethearts director JOE ROTH'S Revolution Studios. The two men, who for a long time were the reigning Hong Kong action kings before making their marks in Hollywood, are already both involved in developing the as-yet-untitled film and will also be executive producers of the project. Li is currently on-screen in Kiss Of The Dragon and is soon to head an all-star cast of Asian actors in a Chinese-language period epic, Hero, while Chan's latest film, Rush Hour 2, is about to open in the US.

ROBIN WILLIAMS and former Monty Python star ERIC IDLE have been in France cheering on their friend, Tour de France cyclist LANCE ARMSTRONG. Williams, who has long hoped to make a film based on the gruelling race, has cycled with Armstrong in the past and found it a humbling experience. ``I was keeping up and I realised he wasn't even warmed up,'' Williams told reporters. He took off and it was bye-bye. All of sudden he was gone.'' Although not a cyclist, Idle says he enjoys the spectacle, particularly the items tossed into the crowds by the corporate sponsors. It's a strange feeding frenzy of French people drinking coffee and having free gifts thrown at them,'' he said. ``It's absolute madness.''

RACQUEL WELCH is returning to her roots to play a sexy Latin divorcee in the wry comedy Tortilla Soup. ``A lot of people don't realise that I really am Latin, Welch, whose father was a Bolivian engineer, she tells Movieline magazine. ``It's a nice thing at this point in my career to be able to do something that uses more of my Latin soul.'' Tortilla Soup also stars HECTOR ELIZONDO and ELIZABETH PENA and deals with the relationship of a Latin widower and his three grown, complex daughters. ``I felt such empathy with this project,'' says Welch, who was born Racquel Tejeda. ``I liked everyone on the set. Maybe it's just that a bunch of people with Latin heritage felt familiar to me.''

Titanic director JAMES CAMERON is turning his attention to the Old West and will be co-producer of a film called The Hanging Tale. The comedy-adventure centres on a man who, about to be hanged for petty crimes, tells the crowd a story of his journey in search of Spanish treasures.

Showbusiness couple MEG RYAN and DENNIS QUAID have reached an amicable settlement in their divorce. They have signed an agreement, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, stating that they will have join custody of their nine-year-old son Jack and neither will seek any money from the other. They will even share their 2000 Jeep Cherokee and Ryan will keep her jewellery and assorted ``objects of personal adornment''. Quaid, who is now dating former Miss USA Shanna Moakler, told W magazine recently: ``When you break up, your whole identity is shattered. I got through shock, depression, anger - all of that stuff.''

FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA says he wants RUSSELL CROWE, ROBERT DE NIRO, NICOLAS CAGE and PAUL NEWMAN ``as well as others I have worked with'' to star in his film Megalopolis. The film-maker tells Daily Variety his story of a New York mayor battling with an architect over the construction of a huge building is ``a Cecil B De Mille-size epic''. Original reports stated that Coppola wanted WARREN BEATTY to play the mayor, but he now says there is no role for the actor. He hopes to start filming in New York at the beginning of next year.

MICHAEL DOUGLAS turned down a visit to a mental hospital to help him understand the criminal pathology behind the plot of his latest film, Don't Say A Word, because he felt that his experience producing One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest would suffice. ``I used to be more of a method actor,'' he tells Premiere magazine. ``But it's too exhausting.'' In Don't Say A Word, Douglas plays a New York psychiatrist whose daughter is kidnapped by a crazed jewel thief, played by British actor Sean Bean. The kidnapper gives him eight hours to treat a seemingly catatonic psychiatric patient who has information about a stolen diamond.

JET LI has to fight several versions of himself in the science-fiction thriller The One, which co-stars British actor Jason Statham. ``Nobody has done this before,'' says Li, who turned down a reported 3 milliollars to appear in The Matrix sequels to make The One. ``We've seen a lot of actors playing two characters, but we've never seen anyone fight himself.'' The film-makers are using over-the-shoulder shooting combined with filming Li twice from both sides of the fight and a double wears a white mask on to which Li's face will be digitally grafted.

EDWARD NORTON did most of his own ice skating for his role in the comedy Death To Smoochy, in which he plays a children's television show host. While Canadian Olympian ELVIS STOJKO doubled on the ice for Norton's co-star Robin Williams, Norton glided effortlessly through some complex figure eights, according to insiders. But he is not likely to be joining the Ice Capades. ``He's already a multi-hyphenate: writer-producer-director,'' producer Andrew Lazar tells Entertainment Weekly. ``He has enough things on his plate.''

The British Working Title production team of ERIC FELLNER and TIM BEVAN have acquired the film rights to Booker Prize-winning novelist MARGARET ATWOOD'S Alias Grace, which had previously been bought by JODIE FOSTER. Foster, who won a bidding war against NICOLE KIDMAN'S production company, failed to get the film into production and the rights became available once more.

CATE BLANCHETT, soon to be seen in Charlotte Gray, is expected to star in the fictionalised account of 16-year-old Grace Marks's trial for murder of her employer and his mistress in Canada in 1843. The trial made headlines around the world when, despite severe doubts over whether Marks committed the killings, she was sentenced to life imprisonment and spent the next 30 years in jails and asylums.

FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA unveiled his long-awaited script Megalopolis for a first reading by WARREN BEATTY, KEVIN SPACEY, PARKER POSEY and others in New York, according to Daily Variety. Coppola's script, described as reminiscent of AYN RAND'S The Fountainhead, is about a popular New York mayor at odds with a property tycoon who plans to use a low-cost plastic compound to build the Megalopolis structure. Coppola reportedly wrote the role of the mayor for Beatty.

VIN DIESEL, who stars in the surprise summer hit Fast And The Furious, may be pricing himself too highly, according to reports. The actor, who appeared in Saving Private Ryan and Boiler Room, is asking for 10 million dollars to star in the action film Triple X, say Hollywood sources. Apparently the producers are now looking instead to Ewan McGregor to take the role.

REM singer MICHAEL STIPE, who previously co-produced the hit Being John Malkovich, is now concentrating on film and television production and has several projects in development. With his partner, Sandy Stern, Stipe has bought film rights to science-fictio n writer DOUGLAS COUPLAND'S upcoming novel All Families Are Psychotic. The story, by the author of Generation X, is about a family get-together the weekend before the first female astronaut is launched into space. ``She might be the most grounded family member, despite being about to fly off into space,'' says Stripe. ``This is a very real story that turns into a fairy tale.'' Stipe is also planning a situation-comedy series for MTV about the world of a Stipe-like rock star and a television film, Tribute To A Dead Rock Star.

Bridget Jones's Diary star RENEE ZELLWEGER is the leading candidate tipped to star as a little girl who grows up quickly in the comedy 13 Going On 30. Described as a female version of Big, it has been written by the team who wrote the hit What Women Want.

BRAD PITT will not have many lines to learn for his next film, To The White Sea, because it is largely dialogue-free. Based on the 1993 James Dickey novel and written by JOEL and ETHAN COEN, the film follows a B-29 gunner shot down during a World War 11 bombing mission over Tokyo. He must then walk across Japan to escape. The film's silence stems from the fact it is largely set in the wilderness and Pitt's character, who does not speak Japanese, views those he meets during his journey as enemies who must be killed. Production is due to begin in January.

JENNIFER LOPEZ and CAMERON DIAZ are the likely candidates to take the roles originally played by DORIS DAY in remakes being planned of two of Day's musicals. Lopez is being mentioned for Love Me Or Leave Me, playing a singer whose every move is monitored by her gangster lover, a role originally played by JAMES CAGNEY but now set to be offered to ROBERT DE NIRO. For the remake of the lighter Day hit Send Me No Flowers, Diaz is expected to take the role of a wife whose husband, convinced he is going to die, tries to find her a new mate.

Both HUGH JACKMAN and GEORGE CLOONEY have been mentioned for the role of the husband, originally played by ROCK HUDSON. As soon as BROOKE SHIELDS finishes her Broadway stint as Sally Bowles in the long-running Cabaret revival she plans to get to work on her next project - having a baby. ``I want to do it as soon as I possibly can,'' she told USA Today. ``It's honestly the main focus after this show.'' Shields, 36, who was previously married to Andre Agassi, married Spin City writer Chris Henchy on May 26. Her role in Cabaret is her first Broadway appearance since Grease in 1994.

Anyone buying actor CHARLIE SHEEN'S Malibu house will find some unusual extras. The four bedroom compound, which Sheen has put up for sale for 3 million, features a master bedroom with a fireman's pole that descends to the front entrance for a quick escape in case of fire, said estate agent Adrian Grant. Described as ``the ultimate bachelor pad,'' the house also has a poker room, cigar room, media room with four televisions, billiards room and a baseball batting cage. ``His biggest love is baseball and he has temperature-controlled cases for his collections of baseball memorabilia,'' said Grant. Sheen, who stars in the television series Spin City, turned his guest house into what he calls the aqua room, simulating an underwater experience. It has a miniature replica of a 17th century galleon and walls of salt-water aquariums. Sheen, who has been working on the house since it was built 10 years ago, owns three other properties in the Los Angeles area as well as one in New York, where he films Spin City.

Producers of a planned feature film about Charles Manson are unsure whether or not to include any of notorious mass murderer's songs on the soundtrack. Manson's songs have achieved underground cult status through numerous boot-leg releases over the years and received mainstream attention when Guns N Roses recorded his Look At Your Game, Girl. ``Manson obviously recorded a lot of songs,'' says Kurt Fethke, who is producing Helter Skelter, based on the book by Manson prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi. ``I just don't want to head down the path of doing Manson songs and glamorising him. I don't want this to lead to a bunch of kids running around with Free Charles Manson T-shirts.'' He intends to use the Internet to solicit public input about that and other music elements for the film, which is currently in pre-production.

ROBERT CARLYLE is heading for Australia to star in Black And White, a fact-based story about a man framed by police. The Full Monty star will play a lawyer in the low-budget drama which will begin filming in South Australia in November.