Barbara Streisand has confirmed that she will play famed burlesque artiste Gypsy Rose Lee in a bio-pic.

The Oscar winning actress-singer singer said that she will join the cast of the project, but is still not sure about directing it, reported a website.

“I am not sure about directing it. It may just be too much. I know I will be playing the part,” said the 68-year-old actress.

Arthur Laurents, who wrote ‘The Way We Were’ for Streisand, let slip about the new movie project, telling the New York Post that she was in “deep in negotiations to direct, produce and star in a movie version of Gypsy.”

He insisted the diva was perfect for the role, stating, “She had a mother who she always thought was Mama Rose. I don’t want to get into the details, but the point is she knows. She’s got it in her. She’s going to be much more than people expect.”

Rosalind Russell and Bette Midler have starred in previous film versions of ‘Gypsy’.

Actor Ben Affleck says that despite his global fame he only has a few friends and one of them is fellow Hollywood heartthrob Matt Damon.

The 38-year-old actor said that over the years he has learnt who his true friends are and is glad that he has known Damon, 40, for the past 30 years, reported Daily Mail online.

“If I was ever in trouble the one call I’d make would be to Matt Damon. We’ve been friends for 30 years. I can’t believe I’m old enough to say I’ve had a friend for 30 years. But he is a friend, and a partner in a company we have together,” said the ‘Pearl
Harbour’ star.

And Damon was the person whom he turned to advice while directing his Oscar nominated Boston drama ‘The Town’.

“He saw ‘The Town’ in five different versions and each time he saw it he presented me with pages and pages of very smart notes. I’ve got to a stage in life where I have learnt who my real friends are. You don’t need many, you just need good, solid friends,” said Affleck .

The two friends had begun their rise to fame with ‘Good Will Hunting’, which was written by and starred the duo and went on to win an Oscar.

Prosecutors said on Tuesday they plan to charge Lindsay Lohan with felony grand theft of a $2,500 necklace reported stolen from a jewellery store last month — the most serious count the actress has faced in more than three years of trouble with the law.

District Attorney’s spokeswoman Jane Robison said the charge will be filed Wednesday. Lohan, 24, is due in court for an arraignment on Wednesday afternoon.

Los Angeles police said Feb. 2 that Lohan was under investigation for taking a necklace from a Venice store later identified as Kamofie and Co. Detectives obtained a search warrant to try to retrieve the item from Lohan’s home, but it was turned in to a police station before any search was made.

Police said they had no update on the case Tuesday and did not say whether the actress had made arrangements to turn herself in at court or at a police station.

Robison said bail would be decided by a judge.

A phone message to Lohan’s attorney, Shawn Chapman Holley, was not immediately returned. Holley has previously denied any wrongdoing by Lohan.

“We vehemently deny these allegations and, if charges are filed, we will fight them in court, not in the press,” Holley said in a statement released Saturday.

Arrested twice in 2007, Lohan was charged with drunken driving and drug possession, but both were misdemeanors.

The “Mean Girls” star has been jailed three times in that case, but has been granted a quick release due to jail overcrowding and a requirement that bail be set on misdemeanor cases.
Lohan remains on probation for drunken driving, and a judge has threatened to throw her in jail if she runs into trouble again.

Prosecutors in Riverside County have been considering whether to press charges against Lohan for a December altercation with a worker from the Betty Ford Center, where she was being treated.

The treatment, her fifth rehab session, came after she admitted failing a drug test shortly after being granted early release from another treatment program.

Lohan’s court struggles and treatment have taken a serious toll on the former Disney star’s career. Her role as porn star Linda Lovelace in a biopic was recast last year while Lohan was at Betty Ford and no replacement projects have been announced.

She had been due in court on Feb. 25 for a probation status hearing and a judge had said he would be willing to loosen the terms of her probation if she remained out of trouble.

Christian Bale does not take well to criticism. The latest victim of the actor’s expletive laden rants is a critic who called his weight loss for The Fighter a gimmick.

Bale, who famously had a meltdown during the filming of Terminator: Salvation and has fallen out with his mother and sister, lashed out at the critic, saying it was patronising to be labelled for his weight loss.

The British actor has earned an Oscar nomination for his role of a drug-addicted welterweight figher Dicky Eklund in the movie, which saw him becoming dangerously thin.

The star has previously lost weight for roles in the movies The Machinist and Rescue Dawn, the Daily Mail reported.

“To be honest, I find it laughable that it’s considered to be some gimmick – it’s so patronising. For God’s sake, do people not understand what a pain it is to do? It’s as though it’s some comment about, ‘Oh it’s easy for him, because he’s done it a bunch of times’,” Bale said using expletives.

“It’s not easy, it’s not fun – it’s horrible. I would never pick to do that, but it’s a part that I like and he’s a welterweight and he’s a crack head. I don’t know about you, but I’ve never seen a welterweight with any fat on him – or a crack head. So it’s just what you end up having to do,” Bale added while reserving some expletives for the critic.

‘Desperate Housewives’ star Eva Longoria has moved on from her divorce and is now reportedly dating good friend, actress Penelope Cruz’s younger brother Eduardo Cruz.

Just over a week after her divorce from basketball star Tony Parker was finalised, the actress enjoyed a romantic weekend with the 25-year-old Spanish crooner.

The pair were spotted aboard a luxury cruiser in Miami over the weekend, where a Super Bowl viewing party was hosted by her friend, cosmetics mogul Loren Ridinger, reported a magazine.

The 35-year-actress first sparked rumours of a new young lover when she was spotted with Eduardo at her Los Angeles restaurant Beso in October.

Eduardo was seen leaving Longoria’s home on Christmas Eve, and then they were seen enjoying a flamenco dance troupe in January.

Her publicist played down rumours of a romance at the time, saying that they are “just friends” and that “Eva does not have a boyfriend”.

Longoria split from Parker in November amid allegations that the ‘San Antonio Spurs’ basketballer had cheated on her with his team mate’s wife.

Madonna’s adopted Malawian daughter’s family is threatening to sue the ‘Queen of Pop’, claiming that she did not keep her promise to let them see the 5-year-old.

The family has claimed that they were guaranteed regular contact with Mercy James, when the 52-year-old adopted her from an orphanage in June 2009, reported a website.

But they have not seen her since, despite Madonna having made two return visits to Malawi with Mercy and the family have now enlisted the help of Malawi’s leading civil rights group CILIC to prepare a legal case.

“I believe they have a case in law because there appears to have been a verbal contract between them and Madonna’s representatives. I am preparing a letter which will appeal to Madonnas lawyer Alan Chinula to intervene on the family’s behalf and ask Madonna to kindly let Mercy meet her family,” said Emmie Chanika, director of CILIC.

The child, whose 16-year-old mother died five days after giving birth, was raised by her grandmother and uncles, but placed in the care of the Kondanani Children;s Village when they could no longer look after her.

Mercy’s grandmother Lucy Chekechiwa, said the family always intended to bring Mercy back to live with them once she was six, when they believed her immune system would be strong enough to tackle the country’s endemic diseases.

“The baby needed feeding and the orphanage offered me a wet-nurse to take care of that. We know Madonna gave a lot of money to the orphanage, and the people there persuaded us to let her have our child,” said the 72-year-old.

Mercy was the second Malawian child adopted by Madonna, who has two older children from two previous relationships, 14-year-old Lourdes and Rocco, ten.

In 2008 she adopted one-year-old David Banda from an orphanage in the capital city Lilongwe. He was taken back to meet his father Yohane Banda for the first time in three years in March 2009.

Shia LaBeouf was reportedly handcuffed by police after he got involved in a brawl with another patron at a Los Angeles bar.

The scene erupted at the sports bar Mad Bulls Tavern, in Sherman Oaks, where the 24-year-old actor is a regular, a website reported.
According to the website, the ‘Transformers’ star was punched in the face during the scuffle and was detained for 20 minutes with no arrests being made.

It is not known what sparked the fight, but an onlooker said that LaBeouf wasn’t the instigator, but was reportedly attacked by an unknown man on leaving the bar. However, it’s not the first bar brawl for LaBeouf, who has a history of run-ins with the law.

The actor was earlier arrested on suspicion of drunk driving in 2008 and for alleged criminal trespassing in 2007, though the charges were eventually dropped

Zac Efron seems to have moved on from longtime girlfriend Vanessa Hudgens very fast. He was spotted on a night-out with actress Teresa Palmer.

The ‘High School Musical’ star recently accompanied the Australian actress to a screening of her upcoming movie ‘Take Me Home Tonight’ in Los Angeles, a website reported.

The couple were spotted holding hands and getting cosy with each other at an afterparty in the Pink Taco restaurant.

“There was definitely some hand-holding. The two ate together and seemed really engaged in conversation. They seemed really into each other. They weren’t trying to hide their affection at all, even though they knew people were watching them,” a source said.

The 23-year-old actor later took the blonde beauty to West Hollywood’s Voyeur nightclub, where they spent rest of the night chatting and flirting.

Efron parted ways with Hudgens last year, but later appeared to have rekindled their romance after kissing at a nightclub last month.

Actor Ralph Fiennes is in talks to play an important role in the forthcoming 23rd James Bond movie where Daniel Craig plays the famous spy.

Famous for his villainous turn as ‘Voldemort’ in the Harry Potter franchise, Fiennes was approached by film producers and director Sam Mendes to take on what is being described as a “darkly complex role” in the movie, whose working title is ‘Bond 23′, the Daily Mail reported.

“It’s the first of a new generation of Bond films and the ideas Mendes has push the film into darker territory where the characters are modern, mature and challenging. The part is one of extreme complexity and only an actor of great ability and dexterity can take it on – and Ralph’s name is top of our list,” a film executive said.

Craig is reprising his role as 007 while Dame Judi Dench will return as his stern boss M. Spanish actor Javier Bardem is also circling the negative role in the movie but Fiennes is being considered for a different role.

The project had earlier hoped to follow up the last film ‘Quantum of Solace’ which was released in 2008, but was put on hold because of financing problems with studio MGM. The new Bond movie is now scheduled for a November 2012 release.

Oscar-winning star Penelope Cruz has said she sometimes takes the scissors to trim her own tresses and feels she could have opened her own salon if she had failed as an actress.

The Volver star, who celebrated the birth of her first son with husband Javier Bardem last month, was trained by her hairdresser mother when she was young, reported InStyle magazine.

“My mother is a hairdresser and owned a salon. It was so much fun. I learnt how to cut, colour and do blow-dries. If it hadn’t gone well as an actress, I could have opened my own! Sometimes even now, I still take the scissors and cut my own or other victims’ hair!” said Cruz.

The 36-year-old Spanish beauty hates staring in the mirror for long while having her hair and make-up done and instead prefers reading her scripts.

“I only use full make-up when I’m making a movie or for a night out. Usually I have an hour-and-a-half to get ready for a red-carpet event. I always set up my BlackBerry and use the time in hair and make-up to study my script, otherwise you spend too long staring at yourself in the mirror,” she added.