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ShowBiz Weekly: news from the UK & US...

The long drawn-out search for an actor to play the part of Spiderman's enemy the Green Goblin in the film based on the comic book hero has finally ended. WILLEM DAFOE has committed to co-star as the insane Goblin in the big-budget adventure which will feature TOBEY MAGUIRE as Superman and will be directed by SAM RAIMI. JAMES FRANCO will play the Goblin's son, Harry. The Green Goblin is the next-door neighbour to Peter Parker, the teenager who acquired superhuman strength and agility after being bitten by a radioactive spider. NICOLAS CAGE originally wanted to play the Green Goblin but had to back out because he could not fit it into his schedule. Negotiations with JOHN MALKOVICH, who was also interested, fell through. Dafoe's most recent role was starring with Malkovich in Shadow of the Vampire, the film based on the making of FW MURNAU's classic horror film Nosferatu.

The British rocker ERIC BURDON is one of the stars of Snow on New Year's Eve, a German language film which is in contention to win Best Foreign Film Oscar at the Academy Awards. Burdon, who last acted in the 1991 film The Doors, portrays an eccentric Irishman who makes his own hot air balloon to seek out his wife who has left him for a younger man. Burdon, who had hits in the 60s and 70s with the groups The Animals and War, ``fits in perfectly with the philosophy of the film'', says director THORSTON SCHMIDT.

The Oscar-winning director SAM MENDES, whose recent girlfriends have included the American actresses CALISTA FLOCKHART and CAMERON DIAZ, is now back with his former sweetheart, British actress RACHEL WEISZ, the star of The Mummy. ``We used to go out five years ago,'' Weisz tells the December issue of Details magazine. ``We were just friends for a while. A few months ago we started dating again.'' But she adds: ``We're very low-key.''

ALEX KINGSTON's pregnancy is causing a headache for producers of the hit television series ER, who are mulling over how to work it into the storyline. ``When you first find out, you're happy and excited, then the reality sets in a and you think, `Oh, boy, how are we going to make this work?''' says ER supervising producer SCOTT GEMMILL. The 37-year-old British actress, who plays Dr Elizabeth Corday on the series, married German journalist Florien Haertel 18 months ago. Her baby is due in the spring. She was formerly married to RALPH FIENNES.

ROWAN ATKINSON and JOHN CLEESE are among those giving Oscar winner CUBA GOODING JR a tough time on the set of the comedy film Rat Race. ``We're really beating up on Cuba,'' says producer JERRY ZUCKER. According to him the Oscar-winning actor, among other things, is roughed up by a wrestler, harassed by a bus load of women and thrown by an obstinate horse. Zucker, who also produced the Airplane! comedies, said the film, based on 1963's It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, is ``a most unusual experience... all the actors are really nice and they're happy doing this material.'' Along with Gooding, Cleese and Atkinson, Rat Race also stars WHOOPI GOLDBERG, DEAN CAIN, KATHY BATES and SETH GREEN.

ANJELICA HUSTON is to direct JULIA ROBERTS in the Second World War-era story A Time to be Born. It is the third film Roberts will make before June next year. The actress, soon to be seen with BRAD PITT in The Mexican, is to start work later this month on the Rat Pack remake Ocean's Eleven. In January she will film America's Sweetheart with CATHERINE ZETA-JONES. In A Time to Be Born, which is due to begin filming in April, she will play a small-town woman who marries into wealthy New York society and uses a friend from her past to cover for an affair she is having with an old boyfriend. Huston pitched the story to Roberts who agreed to help develop it as well as star in it.

MICK JAGGER returns to the acting side of the cameras in The Man From Elysian Fields in Los Angeles after his producing duties on the Second World War thriller Enigma. The Rolling Stone leader plays the proprietor of a male escort service in the film, which also stars ANDY GARCIA, JULIANNA MARGULIES, JULIA ORMOND and rock singer MICHAEL DES BARRES.

KYLIE MINOGUE is selling a home she bought earlier this year in West Hollywood because she has not had time to enjoy it. The former teen idol's agent says she is asking £850,000 for the four-bedroom home which has a media room, pool and spa.

JANE LEEVES, the British actress who co-stars as Daphne Moon in the long-running comedy TV series Frasier, has formed a production company at Paramount studios with fellow cast member PERI GILPIN. ``Paramount said, `We'd love it if you had a name that signified that it's two women', so we called it Bristol Cities, which is Cockney rhyming slang, Leeves tells Us Weekly magazine. ``They don't know what it means in America. They think it's some very independent film company.'' Actors and crew members have been barred from bringing food to the set, chewing gum or wearing deodorant during scenes for Dr Doolittle 2 which feature Tank, a 63-stone grizzly bear. Animal trainers have warned that they cannot predict how Tank might react. Tank shares the screen with EDDIE MURPHY, who is returning in his role as a veterinarian who can talk to animals.

JUDE LAW is talking with director SAM MENDES about joining the cast of The Road to Perdition, which stars TOM HANKS. The British actor, who finished work last week on STEVEN SPIELBERG's AI, would play someone trying to stop a hitman on a revenge mission after his wife and son are murdered. Mendes is reportedly trying to tempt PAUL NEWMAN into a role in the film, which is set in the Depression-era. TOM SIZEMORE will have a cameo part as Al Capone.

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