It seems that the British singer has recently discovered just how exciting Los Angeles actually is. While stopping for coffee with her agent, Leona Lewis was apparently caught up in the middle of a police chase and arrest. This is what Leona Lewis related about the event: “It was really frightening. One minute we were stopping for drinks, the next there was police and guns everywhere. It came completely out of the blue and was absolutely terrifying. I really thought the guys might start shooting. I was shaking like a leaf afterwards.” Oh come on, surely she must’ve felt something more. After all of those years of living in good old Britain it was probably nice for her to finally see some excitement.
Former Liberian president Charles Taylor presented Naomi Campbell with a blood diamond at a dinner hosted by Nelson Mandela, his Hague war crimes tribunal heard.
Taylor, 61, has pleaded not guilty to 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity related to the 1991-2001 civil war in neighbouring Sierra Leone.
Prosecutor Brenda Hollis said Taylor obtained diamonds from Sierra Leone rebels and took to South Africa to sell or exchange them for weapons.
She said: “From among those diamonds that you took to South Africa, after this dinner that you attended you sent your men to Ms Campbell’s room to provide her with a large — diamond.”
But Taylor denied the allegation. “That is totally incorrect,” he said.
Hollis said: “That diamond that you sent to Naomi Campbell was one of the diamonds that you had been given by the junta in Sierra Leone.”
To which he replied:”Total nonsense.”
Hollis said the gift was made after a dinner hosted by Mandela in 1997, when he was president. The dinner was attended by celebs Quincy Jones and Mia Farrow, who was listed as a witness. Campbell allegedly told Farrow of the diamond gift the following day.
Up In The Air star Vera Farmiga is reportedly in talks to appear in new sci-fi movie Source Code.
Farmiga, 36, could be joining fellow stars Michelle Monaghan and Jake Gyllenhaal, 29, in the upcoming time-travel thriller directed by Duncan Jones.
The movie is about a soldier, played by Gyllenhaal, who is part of an experimental government programme responsible for investigating a terrorist incident.
He finds his mind transferred into the body of a commuter who must keep reliving a train bombing, until he can find out who is responsible.
It is thought Farmiga will take on the role of a control-room communications officer, who monitors Gyllenhaal as he travels through time.
Helen Mirren is the latest star to be made into a waxwork for Madame Tussauds.
The 64-year-old’s model will be unveiled in April and will take its place in the London tourist hot-spot.
Mirren, who has won an Oscar and four Golden Globes, reportedly had 300 measurements of her body taken while sitting for the waxwork. It will take 20 sculptors four months to finish and will cost £150,000 to make.
The waxwork will be wearing a black dress by designer Asprey, which Mirren donated after wearing it to the Crime Thriller Awards in 2008.
A waxwork of US First Lady Michelle Obama will also be created to mark one year since husband Barack’s inauguration.
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have spoken of their devastation at the earthquake in Haiti.
The Hollywood couple have previously visited the troubled country with Fugees star Wyclef Jean – and immediately reached out to him to offer their help in his aid efforts for his homeland.
“We are devastated by the news from Haiti,” Pitt and Jolie said in a joint statement. “We will work closely with our good friend Wyclef Jean to support the humanitarian efforts on the island and help those who have been injured and left without homes and shelter.”
Jean has long been an outspoken campaigner for help for Haiti and immediately rushed into action at news of the earthquake, which is feared to have killed thousands.
He begged for help, saying “idle hands will only make this tragedy worse”, adding: “The international community must also rise to the occasion.”
Actress Rachel Weisz has praised her Lovely Bones co-star Saoirse Ronan and said she’s a ‘raw talent’.
Weisz, 39, who in real life has a three-year-old son Henry, plays the mother of a murdered school girl, played by 15-year-old Ronan, in the new flick.
Talking about the Atonement actress, she said to the UK’s S magazine: “She’s a raw talent – the real deal, a real actress. She hasn’t been pushed into it by her parents, she’s genuinely yearning to act.
“I think she was still a child when we worked together but I saw her a couple of weeks ago and she’s just moved into being a young woman.”
The singer is none too happy with her father, Mitch Winehouse, for talking about her issues in public. This is what Amy Winehouse allegedly wrote on twitter regarding her father’s comments about her life: “Why don’t my dad write a song when something bothers him instead of going on national tv? And you thought your parents were embarrassing.” Well, Amy Winehouse’s father should apparently check his list of priorities. Rather than talking about his daughter on TV, Mitch Winehouse might want to see about teaching her proper grammar. After all, they are British and they do have values to uphold.
Sarah Jessica Parker has revealed the effortless banter with her co-stars in endless restaurant scenes in Sex and The City is far trickier than it looks.
Indeed, the actress said the little coffee shop scenes were harder to film than the series’s frequent sex romps. She said:”It’s those little scenes. Nothing is harder than a coffee shop scene in Sex and The City. That’s the truth. I don’t know why but they are the hardest.”
Parker has recently shot the sequel to the 2008 Sex and The City movie. But she said there was no sense of confidence to go with her accomplishments. Parker dislikes seeing herself on the big screen and worries that she is not a good enough actress.
“I worry constantly about work. I just want it to be good. I don’t want to be a person that doesn’t care,” she said.
Friends stars Courteney Cox and Lisa Kudrow have reunited for US comedy Cougar Town.
Kudrow makes a guest appearance in the show as a mean-spirited dermatologist who pokes fun at Cox’s character when she goes in for Botox – then starts dating her ex-husband.
It is the first time the actresses – who starred as Monica Geller and Phoebe Buffay for 10 seasons of Friends – have appeared on TV together since the series ended in 2004.
“It was great. I get to play a really mean person,” said Kudrow. “I like the show and it was really fun.”
She said that unfortunately she didn’t think the role had the potential to become a recurring one. “It’s just a one off.”
Nor was a reunion of the Friends cast likely. “I’ve run into almost everybody, or had lunch with or talked on the phone at some point but everyone’s busy.”
All About Steve star Sandra Bullock has revealed that she “never imagined” herself getting married before meeting husband Jesse James.
The 45-year-old actress married James in 2005, but she admitted that it was never in her life plan to walk down the aisle.
The Proposal star said: “When I was younger, my mother told me, ‘Don’t get married. Make your own life. You don’t need a man’. I had boyfriends, but never imagined a wedding.”
She added: “It [marriage] was like having a ball and chain around your neck. Then I got lucky and met someone incredible. We’re a team.”
