* Minnie Driver has denied calling her fellow Hollywood Brit Dame Judi Dench "small, round and middle-aged".
The Good Will Hunting star said Dame Judi was an "extraordinary actress" who should not be maligned because of her age or the way she looked.
Driver's comments followed newspaper reports that she claimed English actresses were some of the plainest in the world.
"I never called Dame Judi 'small, round and middle-aged'," she told Channel 5 News. " I was talking about the notion of the way in which one looks, especially in Hollywood. As actresses get older the parts dry up. "
Driver said many English actresses were "ridiculously beautiful. Their beauty is not what is thought of first in England. It was whether you were the best person for the job. Your talent was what came first."
* The irrepressible Indiana Jones is set to return for a fourth adventure. Quoting a spokesman for Steven Spielberg, entertainment site E-Online reported that Spielberg, George Lucas and Harrison Ford had finalised the storyline and title for Indy 4. Unconfirmed reports said that noted scribe and director M. Knight Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense) has been brought in to write the script.
Spielberg has dropped plans to direct Memoirs of a Geisha, so he could soon be free to direct the next instalment of the popular adventure franchise, which last appeared on screen in 1989.
* Up-and-coming Hollywood star Ryan Phillippe is building on his success in Robert Altman's Gosford Park. He will team with Liam Neeson and Billy Crawford in John Frankenheimer's untitled prequel to The Exorcist franchise.
Shooting begins in March in the United States, Britain and Africa. The movie tells the story of Father Merrin (Neeson) and his first encounter with the devil while doing missionary work in post-Second World War Africa.
Phillippe is in line to play Father William Francis, a young priest who does not understand how Merrin can lose faith in God but who later faces the devil, with devastating consequences.
* Warren Beatty and Daryl Hannah have signed on for supporting roles in Quentin Tarantino's new movie, Kill Bill.
The film stars Uma Thurman as a prostitute bent on revenge. It will be choreographed by Woo-ping Yuen, who directed the acclaimed fight scenes in The Matrix and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and the actors will have to undergo martial-arts training.
* Janet Jackson's present North American tour may be her last. According to celebrity news show Extra, the 35-year-old star said she may retire from the road because it is too exhausting.
<i>Showbiz:</i> What Minnie's driving at
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.