Josh Lucas
He made Reese Witherspoon swoon in Sweet Home Alabama. Now Josh Lucas has found an even bigger costar – the 150-ft. wave that upends a cruise ship in the disaster pic Poseidon, which crashes into theaters May 12. The Little Rock native chatted with PEOPLE about life, love and booking passage on one seriously soggy blockbuster.
DON’T DRINK THE WATER
Despite training in breath control to play the leader of a ragtag group trying to escape the capsized ship, Lucas, 34, wasn't prepared for the rigors of five months of filming in a 22- ft.-deep pool. "I started to hate that tank so badly," he says. "There's one chunk in the movie where I’m underwater for a long time and I got as close as I could get without running out of air. It was a very scary moment." But his biggest complaint? "The amount of people peeing in that tank! It was such an issue. Someone asked me why I didn't just mutiny."
TAKING HIS LUMPS
On Poseidon, Lucas did most of his stunts – with mixed results. "A muscle (in my thumb) literally snapped," the actor says of one of his on-set injuries, two of which sent him to the hospital. "There was nothing connecting my thumb except skin. (Doctors) had to cut it open and rebuild it." And during an underwater scene, he was accidentally whacked in the face with a metal flashlight by costar Kurt Russell. Lucas says the resulting gash "wasn't a big deal," but Russell's longtime love Goldie Hawn thought otherwise. "Kurt came over to me and said, ‘Goldie wanted to know if I had apologized to you.' It was one of those total guy moments. He never once actually said, 'I'm sorry.'"
KEEPING IT REAL
Though he says he's "womanized out," the New York City-based actor says he is happily and "completely single." Still Lucas does want to settle down soon. "I'm about to turn 35 and I want a family. I can feel it in me. Otherwise the rewards of bouncing around become limited, for sure." (He dated Salma Hayek for a year.) The son of two political activists who moved 30 times by the time Lucas was 13, the actor now counts on his siblings to keep him in his place. "My brother Devin has this thing he calls KJR," he says. "It means 'Keep Josh Real!' It's a whole philosophy of him beating my ass all the time. (My family) will not take anything from me"
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Naomi Watts to Help U.N. Fight AIDS
Naomi Watts
Like Angelina Jolie, Naomi Watts will be working with the United Nations to combat a global problem: AIDS.
On Monday the U.N. announced that the actress will serve as a new special envoy on HIV/AIDS.
"I only hope that, as a UNAIDS Special Representative, I can do my small part to raise AIDS awareness and to encourage greater international support for the vital work being done on the ground," she said in a statement.
The devastation of AIDS was made clear to Watts, 37, when she went on a recent UNAIDS mission to Zambia. In the African country, she visited clinics, hospitals, shelters and schools. S
he said she was "humbled and inspired" by the people she met, Reuters reports. In her new role, UNAIDS said, Watts will "use her talent and profile to raise AIDS awareness and give greater voice to the needs of people living with HIV worldwide."
About 40 million people are infected with HIV; in Africa, AIDS is the leading cause of death.
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Charlie Sheen & Denise Richards Make Peace
Denise Richards and Charlie Sheen
In a sign that Denise Richards and Charlie Sheen are trying to settle their divorce amicably, the estranged couple agreed to a temporary child custody settlement on Friday.
“Denise and Charlie are working with the Courts to privately resolve their differences regarding their children," the pair said in a joint statement.
"They hope to resolve this matter outside of the public forum and will both continue to make every effort in this regard."
Sheen will be allowed supervised visitations one day per week with the couple's two daughters, Lola, 10 months, and Sam, 2. Sheen and Richards also agreed to hire a psychologist to evaluate the custody situation.
This gesture of civility is a change from last month when Richards filed papers in Los Angeles Superior Court claiming that Sheen had threatened to kill her and had visited pornography Web sites featuring "very young" girls. Sheen, 40, denied the claims.
A judge, however, ordered him to stay 300 feet away from Richards, except during his visitation hours. The restraining order has been extended through June 7.
Richards, 34, originally filed for divorce in March of last year, when she was six months pregnant with Lola. The pair appeared to briefly reconcile after Lola's birth in June, but on Jan. 4, they requested that their divorce proceed with a private arbitrator.
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