Eva Longoria
Eva Longoria snagged the No. 1 spot on Maxim's seventh annual "Hot 100" list of the most successful women in film, TV, music, sports and fashion — for the second year in a row. The Desperate Housewives actress told The Associated Press of her shock. "I was actually really shocked last year when I made the list," said the 31-year-old Longoria, who ranked No. 91 on the 2004 roster. "So 91 to No. 1 was a big jump, and then to get it a second time in a row — I just couldn't believe it. I was like, 'Surely there are more beautiful women in the world.' I can name 10." Jessica Alba, Lindsay Lohan, Angelina Jolie, Stacy Keibler Scarlett Johansson, and Cameron Diaz also made the list.
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Bad News For Heather and Denise!
Heather Locklear
Not only have Heather Locklear and Denise Richards been at odds over Denise's new romance with Heather's estranged busband Richie Sambora, but the ex-best-buddies had been battling for a spot on ABC's new fall TV schedule.
The good news: They had both filmed pilots for prospective series — Richards in the ensemble drama Secrets of a Small Town, Locklear in the sitcom Women of a Certain Age. But now the bad news: ABC has decided not to turn either pilot into a new series this fall. Sorry ladies!
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Simon Cowell Picks Taylor Hicks to Win American Idol
Taylor Hicks
Simon Cowell has named his pick to win American Idol: Taylor Hicks. On Monday's night's Tonight Show, Cowell told Jay Leno, "I would say (his chances are) pretty good, pretty good. I'm going to say he's the favorite – but what do I know?"
For the final two, Cowell sees the graying 29-year-old from Birmingham, Ala., going up against Katharine McPhee."Based on last week, absolutely she should have gone," he said. "But you know, she's got a fighting chance.
I think she'll make the final – and I'll tell you why, because I'm choosing one of her songs this week." That would mean Paula Abdul's favorite, Elliot Yamin, is the next to go. Last week, Abdul told Teen People, "I am going to be honest with you – I want Elliott to win."
Still, Abdul praised the other contenders. "I'm really grateful that Taylor is still here, because I love him so much, and he really deserves to be up there," she said.
"And Katharine is so primed to be the next Kelly Clarkson." The winner will be named May 24.
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Thieves Steal Hilton's Mother's Day Gifts
Actress Paris Hilton smiles to a fan shouting her name, Thursday, May 11, 2006, at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in the Los Angeles Convention Center.
Paris Hilton's mother can only imagine what her celebrity daughter got her for Mother's Day. That's because thieves stole the gifts before Kathy Hilton received them.
A gift bag containing nearly $10,000 worth of Christian Dior shoes, sunglasses, handbags and perfume was taken from outside the Hilton home, spokesman Elliot Mintz said Monday.
The younger Hilton "spent three or four hours shopping to put together this wonderful collection of things for her mom," Mintz said.
A delivery person set the package down outside the home's gate to ring the intercom when a passenger in a passing car snatched the gifts.
"A fellow just whizzed by and grabbed the package," Mintz said.
The Hilton family celebrated Mother's Day by going out to dinner, he said.
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'60 Minutes' Producer George Crile Dies
George Crile III is shown in this 1984 photo released by CBS News. Crile, who worked for CBS News for 25 years as well as being a best selling author, died Monday, May 15, 2006 of pancreatic cancer. He was 61.
George Crile III, the CBS producer who wrote the best-selling book "Charlie Wilson's War" and produced a contested documentary that said Gen. William Westmoreland deliberately under-reported enemy troop strength in Vietnam, has died. He was 61.
Crile, who fought a $120 million libel suit over the 1982 CBS documentary, died Monday of pancreatic cancer at his Manhattan home, CBS News spokesman Kevin Tedesco said.
Crile adamantly defended "The Uncounted Enemy: A Vietnam Deception" against Westmoreland's charges that the broadcast was an unfair and malicious assault on his reputation. The dispute was settled shortly before it was to go to the jury in 1985.
He worked for CBS News for more than 25 years. Among the stories he produced for "60 Minutes" and "60 Minutes II" were interviews with the wife of deposed Haitian dictator Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier and reports on Three Mile Island, the Gulf War and the KGB, the former Russian secret police and intelligence agency.
But he is perhaps best remembered for the Vietnam documentary, which implied Westmoreland had deceived President Lyndon Johnson and the public in 1967.
Though CBS stopped short of claiming victory after the case was settled, it said in a statement at the time that testimony during the 18-week trial had vindicated the documentary.
Westmoreland, who died last year, said he was vindicated by the network statement, which called him a patriot.
Crile's book "Charlie Wilson's War" chronicled the CIA's support for Islamic mujahedeen fighting Soviet forces in Afghanistan. It was based on a 1988 profile he produced of Wilson, a former U.S. House member from Texas who used his position on the Appropriations Committee in the 1980s to prod Congress to buy arms for the mujahedeen.
After the Sept. 11 attacks, the research and reporting Crile did for his book and on Islamic militancy including an interview with a member of Osama bin Laden's inner circle gained new interest.
Tom Hanks bought the film rights to the book, and a movie version featuring Hanks as Wilson is in preproduction for Universal Studios Inc., according to a statement from CBS News.
Crile occasionally appeared on camera, most recently on "60 Minutes II" in September 2002 in a piece he produced for Dan Rather, who remembered him fondly.
"George Crile was a masterful journalist: He could and did report, write and broadcast at a consistently high level," Rather said in a statement. "Besides that, he was a kind and gentle man who loved mentoring younger journalists."
Crile, who grew up in Cleveland, was the grandson of Dr. George Crile, founder of the Cleveland Clinic.
Survivors include his wife, Susan Lyne, president of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc., four daughters and two sisters.
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Controversy Abounds at Cannes Filmfest
US actor Tom Hanks, right, stands with French actress Audrey Tautou and US Director Ron Howard with Eurostar Chariman Guillaume Pepy, left following the naming of a Eurostar train 'The Da Vinci Code' at Waterloo Station in London, Tuesday May 16, 2006. The Train is named after the book by author Dan Brown, unseen, which has been made into a film staring Hanks and Tautou playing the leading roles, which has its World Premier in Cannes on May 17. The train which left with the cast and director of the film was attempting a world record for the longest international non-stop train journey from London to Cannes.
Weighty issues and ideas will mix with glitz as the film world's grandest red carpet becomes crowded with celebrities for the Cannes Film Festival.
With Tom Hanks comes religious debate as "The Da Vinci Code" opens Cannes on Wednesday. With Oliver Stone comes a glimpse of his upcoming Sept. 11 drama "World Trade Center." With Sarah Michelle Gellar and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson comes a look at Los Angeles of the near future on the cusp of social and environmental chaos in "Southland Tales," an offbeat combination of musical comedy and sci-fi thriller.
With former U.S. Vice President Al Gore comes the documentary "An Inconvenient Truth," a dire warning that the dangers of global warming are real, imminent and potentially catastrophic.
Even the comic-book world's favorite mutants are turning somber with a dark, apocalyptic battle in "X-Men: The Last Stand."
Thank goodness talking animals will be on hand to lighten things up, with Bruce Willis as mouthpiece for a rascally raccoon and Garry Shandling providing the voice of a cautious turtle in the animated comedy "Over the Hedge."
One and all will be marching the red carpet that swoops up an imposing staircase to the festival's main theater, running a gantlet of tuxedo-clad photographers who try to out-shout one another to catch the stars' attention.
"It is the red carpet of all red carpets," said Willis, previously at Cannes with "Pulp Fiction."
"That was just completely overwhelming," Natalie Portman said of her first experience on the Cannes red carpet at last year's festival for "Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith."
"I've never seen so many photographers and fans. I've never seen anything like that before," said Portman, who co-stars in this year's Cannes entry "Paris, I Love You," a collection of 20 short films set in the French capital from such directors as Gus Van Sant, Alexander Payne, Alfonso Cuaron, Wes Craven and Joel and Ethan Coen.
"Da Vinci Code" director Ron Howard is an old hand at Cannes with such films as "Willow" and "Far and Away." Playing opening night at the 59th Cannes festival caps a huge marketing blitz for the adaptation of Dan Brown's best seller, which debuts in theaters worldwide this week.
"It's going to be kind of nice to go and get it out of the way," Howard said. "It's an honor to be selected. This is a huge international film festival, and this is a very international kind of movie."
Always representative of world cinema, the Cannes lineup includes Pedro Almodovar's fanciful "Volver," reuniting him with Penelope Cruz; Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's drama "Babel," with Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett and Gael Garcia Bernal; Ken Loach's "The Wind that Shakes the Barley," an Irish historical saga featuring Cillian Murphy; and "The Caiman," a satiric assault on Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, directed by Nanni Moretti, whose film "The Son's Room" won the top prize at Cannes in 2001.
Other U.S. filmmakers at Cannes include Sofia Coppola with "Marie Antoinette," starring Kirsten Dunst as the 18th century noblewoman; Kevin Smith with "Clerks II," the follow-up to his independent hit; and Richard Linklater with two films, the burger bash "Fast Food Nation" and the Philip K. Dick sci-fi adaptation "A Scanner Darkly," featuring Keanu Reeves, Winona Ryder and Robert Downey Jr.
Director Stone comes to Cannes for a 20th anniversary presentation of his Vietnam masterpiece "Platoon," which will be preceded by preview footage from "World Trade Center," with Nicolas Cage in the story of two policemen trapped in the rubble of the twin towers.
Cannes also will feature "United 93," Paul Greengrass' docudrama about passengers who fought back against their hijackers on Sept. 11.
Gore has become a reluctant movie star since the Sundance Film Festival premiere of "An Inconvenient Truth," chronicling his elaborate slide shows to educate people about global warming.
Joking that he "probably will not be seen in a bathing suit on the beach" at Cannes, Gore said he will take the festival hoopla in stride, recalling a New Yorker cartoon he once had hanging in his U.S. Senate office.
The cartoon showed a dog "with a funny little party hat on, riding a tricycle on the stage of a grand opera house, all three tiers filled with the bedecked and bejeweled, and the caption is, 'I don't know why they like this, but I'm going to keep on pedaling,'" Gore said. "That's pretty much me on the red carpet at Cannes."
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