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EMINEM AND WIFE REUNITE Eminem's grandmother tells reporters the rapper has gone back to his ex-wife, Kim. Betty Kresin told the New York Post in a phone interview Kim has moved back into the singer's mansion in suburban Detroit. "They're back together," Kresin said, "and I think Marshall (Eminem's real name) is very happy about it. He loves Kim and Hailie (their daughter), and Kim is the mother of his child. Marshall is a terrific father and very family oriented. I'm not surprised he'd want that stability." Family-oriented, huh? The chart-topping rapper's relationship with his ex is the subject of several of his most popular and disturbing songs, including the ditty with the lyrics, "Dada made a nice bed for Mommy at the bottom of the lake." High-school sweethearts, Eminem and Kim were married in 1999 but divorced the following year after Kim reportedly tried to kill herself in their home. The two have been sparring publicly ever since -- he by penning hateful song lyrics about killing her and sporting a tattoo that says, "Kim: Rot in Pieces" and she by threatening to sue him. CAGE: DIRECTING FIRST FILM WAS DAUNTING Actor Nicolas Cage admits he was gripped with "terror" when he began directing his first film, "Sonny," due out later this month. "I had never done this before," recalls the nephew of famed filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola. "The ace in the hole was I think I can talk to actors. There was terror like, 'Oh my God. I'm actually doing this. The train has left the station and here we go!' I'm there at 5 a.m., feeling like a scared kid going to school for the first time. It was daunting." Although he greatly enjoyed directing the gritty drama, Cage told reporters in New York he quickly realized he had a lot more responsibilities as a director than he ever had as an actor. "As an actor, I'm only responsible for my own character's trajectory," he said. "As a director, I was responsible in some way for all these characters' trajectories. And so, I'd be awake at night trying to figure out what would be good for Jewel's character or what would be good for Henry's character..." He added: "And then the editing is a very long process where you have to watch the movie hundreds of times and invite people whose opinions you trust and get their views on it." "Sonny," Cage's exploration into the seedy side of New Orleans circa 1981, stars James Franco, Brenda Blethyn and Mena Suvari. It opens Dec. 27. RENEE CAN REALLY SING THE BLUES... Those who remember Renee Zellweger's horrid, hilarious karaoke performance in "Bridget Jones's Diary" will be pleasantly surprised to hear how beautifully she sings in the musical, "Chicago." Asked when she first started singing, the soft-spoken Texan told United Press International: "It happened a long, long time ago in the shower to Paul McCartney and Beatle records with my brother yelling, 'Shut up!' So, I always had it in my head that I couldn't sing." Humbly deflecting compliments on her performance, Zellweger remarked: "I think the powerful voice comes from my counterpart. My Welsh friend." Zellweger portrays entertainer-turned-murderess Roxie Hart in "Chicago," sharing a cell block with fellow celebrity criminal, Velma (Catherine Zeta-Jones,) under the watchful eye of prison matron Mama (Queen Latifah.) Before "Chicago," the "Nurse Betty" actress rarely sang on-screen. Early in her career, she appeared in "Empire Records" as a girl who couldn't carry a tune very well, but who hits "one good note." Several years later, she followed that vocal performance up with her "drunken moment" in "Bridget." "My brother was like, 'Yeah, that's the voice from the shower,'" Zellweger quipped. Wait 'until he sees "Chicago..." 'TWO WEEKS' NY'S FIRST POST-SEPT. 11 FEATURE Sandra Bullock's new romantic comedy, "Two Weeks Notice," also might be described as a valentine to New York City. The movie, which was the first major film made in the Big Apple since Sept. 11, 2001, features beautiful aerial shots of the city, offering bittersweet moments to the audience as it scans the famous skyline for the missing World Trade Center. Referring to one scene in the film where she and co-star Hugh Grant fly past the Chrysler Building, Bullock recalled, "We were scared because the helicopter shot came a few months after the incident, and to me, I just look at that and just want to cry." Bullock and company were already in pre-production on the film when terrorists attacked the World Trade Center last year. "I said: 'This is the perfect time for something like this. I don't want to be doing anything sad. I don't want to be doing anything that really brings your spirits down.' So, it's all timing," Bullock explained to reporters in New York. The actress/producer went on to say the folks at City Hall were incredibly warm and helpful during the film's production. "It was so amazing because we were allowed to get locations that normally you wouldn't be allowed to shoot in because New York just went, 'We want people to feel like it's OK to come back,' and what better than a movie which glamorizes everything?" she wondered. "It's more expensive (to film there) but it's where I got my start. This is where I got my career going. This is where I moved after school. This is where I got my first job. This is where I first got mugged, and I thought, 'It'll be a real guilty pleasure for me to go back and go, 'I'm shooting in the city where it all started.'" "Two Weeks Notice" opens Friday. LEO: CON MAN WAS GREAT ACTOR Leonardo DiCaprio says being a con man isn't all that different from being an actor. DiCaprio plays master scammer Frank Abagnale in the new Steven Spielberg adventure, "Catch Me if You Can." "I absolutely see a direct correlation (between being an actor and being a con artist) and I think the real Frank Abagnale is one of our great actors. His stage, though is the real world," DiCaprio told UPI. "He was able to embody these different personas effortlessly." Passing himself off as a pilot, a doctor, a lawyer and a sociology professor, Abagnale cashed more than $2.5 million in forged checks before he was 21. He now works as a security consultant to Fortune 500 companies and the U.S. government. Playing Abagnale with all his personalities and disguises was a great exercise for an actor, DiCaprio noted. "It was basically an actor playing another actor," said the "Titanic" star. ELIE WIESEL UPSET OVER HITLER MINI-SERIES Holocaust survivor and best-selling author Elie Wiesel has written to CBS, voicing his outrage over a new miniseries that purportedly humanizes Adolf Hitler. TV Guide reports the Nobel Prize laureate is the latest Jewish leader to protest the upcoming airing of "Hitler: The Rise of Evil." "For the first time in my life, I wrote a letter and I didn't get an answer," Wiesel told the magazine. Wiesel wrote to CBS President Les Moonves about the two-part Hitler film that chronicles the dictator's teenage years and his rise to power in the early 1930s. Jewish leaders fear the series will try to humanize Hitler and explain the Holocaust. Wiesel said he found the network's failure to answer his letter "significant and, of course, offensive." Moonves told TV Guide at the time he received Wiesel's note he "didn't have anything to say to him," but now that the series is set to air in May he will talk to him. RUSSELL CROWE WEDS DANIELLE SPENCER Hell-raising actor Russell Crowe has finally settled down, marrying girlfriend Danielle Spencer on his Australian ranch Monday. The wedding party, including Crowe and Spencer, dressed in Armani. In an attempt to avoid a feeding frenzy among waiting paparazzi, Crowe's publicist promised the lensmen free photographs of the event afterwards, but that didn't stop news crews and photographers from trying to sneak a peak at the lavish affair, which included about 80 close friends and family members. The traditional wedding ceremony capped a weekend of fun events, including musical performances and a cricket match between the two sides of the family. SMITH CLEARS UP RE-SHOOT RUMORS Filmmaker Kevin Smith is not happy people are confusing the troubled Ben Affleck-Jennifer Lopez film, "Gigli," with his own Ben-Jen flick, "Jersey Girl." Smith, on his Web-site, denies reports he has spent a fortune to re-shoot scenes in his film because Affleck and Lopez, who are engaged in real life, generate no heat on screen. He writes: "I thought I'd state for the record, that we have not re-shot, nor do we have plans to re-shoot, scenes for 'Jersey Girl.' Ben and Jen's chemistry in the flick is the exact opposite of zero. Both test audiences seemed to get why the two characters were together quite well. And there's no $3 million being spent. There -- you now have it from a credible source." The filmmaker also says "in her (or his) haste to attack and damn Ben and Jen's relationship in any way possible," MSN's BeatBox Betty has "dragged our flick into a spot of mud, alleging problems where there are none." "I know she (or he) is only a gossip hound, but I'd ask that, in the future, she (or he) at least try to contact someone involved with a production she (or he) plans to besmirch, rather than lazily take her cues from the likes of a tabloid," Smith railed. "While I'm at it, though, I'd also like to point out that all this 'Gigli' stuff is crap too. I've seen the flick with a test screening audience, and I haven't heard laughter like that in a movie theater since 'American Pie' (or 'Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back'). And, mind you, the laughter was with, not at, the movie." MEWES' DRUG LIFE SUBJECT OF HBO DOC Kevin Smith is concerned about his frequent co-star and longtime friend Jason Mewes' being the focus of a new HBO documentary about heroin addiction. Best-known for playing a foul-mouthed, pot-smoking slacker in Smith's films "Chasing Amy," "Dogma," and "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back," Mewes turned himself in and pleaded guilty last week to six counts of violating his probation for a 1999 heroin conviction. His personal manager, Craig Veytia, who also is producing the HBO show called "Rock Bottom," told the Asbury Park Press he convinced Mewes to do the program so people could better understand his life and drug addiction. "I'm all for Jay trying to put his life together," Smith told the New York Post. "I've been taking a tough-love approach with Jay, telling him I wouldn't hang out with him or work with him until he cleaned up... If the idea of a camera following him around impedes his drug use, that's great. But at the same time it does seem kind of exploitative." Smith also told The Post he hasn't spoken to Mewes in months and now has his lawyer trying to contact Veytia to find out more about the project. "Rock Bottom" reportedly is slated to air on HBO this summer. HBO officials declined to comment. PRESTON RECALLS CHILDHOOD IN IRAQ Actress Kelly Preston describes watching the war in Iraq as "very difficult," revealing she spent some time there as a child. "It's just very difficult," John Travolta's wife told the New York Daily News at the premiere of her new movie, "What a Girl Wants." "At the time, I was 5 and I lived in Amara, which is between Basra and Baghdad, in an American compound," she recalled. "(There was) unrest, because it was right after the Six-Day War (in 1967), and there were no diplomatic relations at that time. My father worked for an agricultural firm and he went there to teach them to be self-sufficient and grow sugar cane. I have memories of children there who were my friends. Right now, I just pray for (the troops) to come home safely, and I pray for peace. I'm heartbroken for the families and for the people there." Preston also traveled around the Mideast with her parents, according to The News. "I was actually lost in Beirut. My parents were shopping, and you know how a child will spin around a pole on the street. I was standing with them spinning and spinning and they walked into the store thinking I was with them. And that extra spin, I looked around and they weren't there. Thank goodness, they had the wherewithal to teach me in each different place what my name was, where we were staying, and we would drill that. I ran straight into a woman from the American Embassy. Here I was, with blond curly hair and blue eyes -- not good to be lost in Beirut. She took me back to my hotel." PATRICK SWAYZE COMEDY COMES TO DVD "Waking Up in Reno," a new road comedy starring Patrick Swayze, Billy Bob Thornton, Charlize Theron and Natasha Richardson, hits video stores Tuesday. Directed by Jordan Brady and written by Brent Briscoe and Mark Fauser, "Waking Up in Reno" is the story of two blue-collar couples embarking on their dream vacation -- a road trip to Reno, Nevada, for a monster truck show. |