Showbiz: 'Chocolat' star is sweet on the stage

* Actress Juliette Binoche is playing down hopes of winning an Oscar for Chocolat and says she has her heart set on returning to the stage.

At a London premiere of the film last night she said: "I would love to come back to the theatre here - it is risky and dangerous and I love it."

Binoche is tipped for a best actress Oscar for her role as a free spirit who causes a stir in a conservative French village by opening an unusual chocolate shop.

Despite the success of the film in the United States, she said she was not expecting anything at the Academy Awards.

"I don't make assumptions. It's my way of staying healthy."

* Controversial white rapper Eminem may take the villain's part in an action film - but fans will have to give him a break and stop buying so many of his albums.

Outrageous as ever on his sell-out British tour, Eminem said he would never impregnate any of the Spice Girls because "they are all fat and ugly now."

And the rapper, who is under police investigation for allegedly inciting fans at his stage show to take drugs, advised teenagers: "Don't do drugs - save them for me."

With a family background as turbulent as his lyrics, Eminem admitted in a BBC radio interview that his life was "a non-stop Jerry Springer episode that will probably put Jerry out of business."

The singer, giving quickfire answers to a stack of questions from fans, revealed that celluloid could be his next step.

"If you people stop buying my records so that I get a break, then I will do a movie," he said.

"There is an offer that came across recently that does sound appealing to me. It is an action movie. I would be the villain. That is all I can say."

Asked where and when he would go back to in a time machine, Eminem, real name Marshall Mathers, said: "I'd probably go back to the day I was born and kill my mother as soon as she had me."

Critics accuse Eminem of peddling hate-filled lyrics that are both homophobic and misogynist.

Gay activists are outraged that Elton John has agreed to do a duet with him at the Grammys on February 21.

* Jennie Eisenhower, 22-year-old grand-daughter of Richard Nixon and great-grand-daughter of Dwight D. Eisenhower, is to make her debut on a New York stage. She is part of the ensemble cast in the musical comedy Sleuth.