Ian Markham-Smith's blog

Legendary screen sex siren Lauren Bacall is to receive an honorary Oscar.
The 84-year-old actress, who made her screen debut opposite Humphrey Bogart in the 1944 thriller To Have and Have Not, went on to marry her leading man and star with him in the classic hits The Big Sleep, The Dark Passage and Key Largo.
In all, she starred in more than 30 movies including North West Frontier with Kenneth More in 1959, the star-studded big screen adaptation of Agatha Christie' mystery Murder On The Orient Express in 1974 and The Shootist opposite John Wayne in 1976.

Screen sex siren Rose McGowan has suffered a serious elbow injury which will delay filming of her next movie by up to six months.
The 36-year-old beauty has been preparing to star in a remake of the action-packed movie adaptation of the adventures of comic book heroine Red Sonja when the painful accident occurred.
McGowan, who does many of her own stunts, is on the mend after having to undergo major surgery on her arm – which led to part of her elbow being removed - after being injured on the film set.
She revealed: "I had wrist and elbow surgery and they took part of my elbow out. I had really bad nerve damage from doing stunts — I do a lot of my own stunts.

Monsignor Myles J. McGowan, who is believed to be the oldest Irish-born priest in the United States, has died at the age of 96.
The son of farmers, Mgr. McGowan, who was born and raised in Mohill, Co. Leitrim, was also the oldest priest in the Archdiocese of Baltimore.
He had been pastor of St. Ursula's Roman Catholic Church in Parkville, Maryland, for more than two decades.
Mgr. McGowan died on August 29 of a stroke at Stella Maris Hospice in Timonium, it has been announced.
"He was thoroughly a priest and was the patriarch of the archdiocese. He was well-regarded and loved by priests both young and old," said Bishop William C. Newman, a friend of Mgr. McGowan for 55 years.

A Hollywood private detective has spoken out to claim that she fears the wife of movie star Randy Quaid may be plotting to kill the actor.
Private eye Becky Altringer says she got more than she bargained for when she accepted an assignment from Quaid's wife Evi to investigate murder threats against them.
The situation got so out of hand that Altringer filed a restraining order against Evi citing drug abuse and mental instability.
Altringer has now spoken for the first time about the ordeal the experienced while living with the celebrity couple and to tell why she thinks the actor's life is in danger.
"I am very much afraid for Randy. I believe Evi is going to kill Randy and herself," she said.

Hollywood director and movie star Mel Gibson's girlfriend has something to sing about.
Singer and pianist Oksana Grigorieva has settled a lawsuit against a man she claimed infringed on the copyright of four of her songs.
Russian-born Oksana has been locked in an ongoing battle with Samuel Oriti.
The 38-year-old beauty first filed a 10-count lawsuit against him centred around her music and later sued him for allegedly distributing photographs of her only wearing sexy lingerie.
But since becoming romantically involved with Braveheart Oscar-winner Gibson she has been able to step up her legal battle by hiring one of Los Angeles' top law firms, Lavely & Singer, to go on the attack for her.

Hollywood beauty Lindsay Lohan's outspoken dad is out of trouble for a change – at least for now.
Born-again Christian Michael Lohan, who has served prison time for drink-driving and assault offences, finally had something to smile about after getting off the hook over a former lover's demand for him to pay support for an alleged love child.
A Suffolk County Family Court judge on Long Island has dismissed a request that the embattled 49-year-old pay support to his alleged love child with ex-girlfriend Kristi Kaufman.
"The petition was withdrawn and all further issues will be dealt with in Montana," said Lohan's lawyer Stephanie Ovadia.

Magnum P. I. actor Tom Selleck has won a court battle after the super sleuth TV star claimed he failed to detect he was buying a dodgy horse.
Selleck, who has also starred in a string of Wild West cowboy movies, has been awarded more than US$187,000 in compensation after a California jury found he was duped into buying the lame mount.
The 64-year-old actor accused Del Mar equestrian Dolores Cuenca of trying to pass off a show horse with a medical condition as fit to ride in competitions.
The defence had argued that experienced rider Selleck did not check the veterinarian records of the 10-year-old horse named Zorro.
The bulk of the San Diego County jury's award is for the price of the horse. The rest is to cover boarding costs.

Country music star LeAnn Rimes has finally confirmed that she is getting divorced.
The 26-year-old singer has made the announcement on her Web site.
In a message to her fans, Rimes wrote: "After much thoughtful mutual consideration, Deane and I have agreed to move forward with dissolving our marriage."
Rimes and back-up dancer Deane Sheremet were married in February 2002.
But recently Rimes has been romantically linked with actor Eddie Cibrian, her co-star in the TV movie Northern Lights.
Cibrian, 36, filed for divorce from his wife of eight years, Brandi, last week.
His wife said at the time of the break-up that Rimes was welcome to him.

Hollywood beauty Lindsay Lohan is moving house - after skipping out on her lease allegedly owing her landlord around US$50,000 in potential unpaid rent.
The often unpredictable 23-year-old actress has also been accused of wrecking the property during the seven months she has lived there.
"Lindsay has five months left on her lease," said one neighbour, who had talked to her landlord. "She's breaking her lease by moving on at this time.”
The neighbours said they had spoken to the owner of the residence who told them she had walked out on her year-long lease breaking the terms of their agreement.

Screen sex siren Megan Fox has kissed a girl - and she liked it.
The brunette bombshell, named the sexiest woman in the world last year, has revealed in a new interview that she feels most "comfortable" snogging with the fairer sex.
Megan especially likes kissing actress Amanda Seyfried, with whom she shares an on-screen smooch in the upcoming horror flick Jennifer's Body.
"I feel much safer with girls, so I felt more comfortable kissing her in the movie than kissing any of the other people that I had to kiss," Megan told MTV News.
In Jennifer's Body, Fox plays a man-eating killer possessed by the devil.
Recently, she told fans to expect a particularly sexy performance from the film.

Top Hollywood director Roland Joffe, who was nominated for an Oscar for his Jesuit priests drama The Mission, has turned his attention to the Roman Catholic Church's most controversial members.
The British-born film maker, who was also nominated for a best director Oscar for his intense movie The Killing Fields in 1985, is in Argentina making a biographical picture about the founder of Catholic cult Opus Dei.
Josemaria Escriva sided with Spanish dictator Francisco Franco during the country's civil war.
He was also accused by former Opus Dei member Father Vladimir Feltzman of speaking positively of German World War II leader Adolf Hitler even though Escriva repeatedly condemned Nazi ideology.

X-Men beauty Halle Berry is expecting her second child at the age of 43.
The former Bond babe, who co-starred with Pierce Brosnan in 2002's 007 action flick Die Another Day, used artificial insemination to conceive, according to reports in the United States.
The father is her long-time boyfriend, French Canadian male model Gabriel Aubry, with whom she already has a child, American magazine Life & Style says.
The couple's daughter, Nahla, who was born in 2007, was conceived through in vitro fertilisation after the actress – once named the Sexiest Woman Alive - took more than 30 negative pregnancy tests trying to have her first baby.
Berry is thrilled to become a mother again, a source tells the magazine.

The Irish priest at Senator Edward Kennedy’s bedside as he died has revealed that the veteran politician was welcoming death.
“Teddy wanted to go, he went in peace and it was beautiful,” disclosed Cork-born Monsignor Patrick Tarrant.
Mgr Tarrant has spoken out to reveal the true depth of the prominent Irish American Catholic's faith in his religion.
It was such a deep faith in God that it allowed the legendary politician to slip away happy and peacefully.
The priest was called to Kennedy's home on Tuesday evening from the nearby Our Lady of Victory Parish in Hyannisport when the 77-year-old senator took a turn for the worse.

Former wild child Kelly Osbourne was so zonked out by drugs that her teenage friends nicknamed her “Noddy.”
The now 24-year-old has admitted that her drug addiction often caused her to be only half conscious.
Kelly confesses that she was a pill-popping teen drug addict who downed so many pain-killers she is surprised she did not overdose in her new book.
The daughter of rock icon Ozzy Osbourne and his TV talent show judge wife Sharon says she was prescribed Vicodin as a youngster.
Kelly soon began taking up to 50 a day to help her cope with her sky-rocketing stardom during the taping of the MTV reality series The Osbournes, according to her new book Fierce.

American singer Patrick Stump, a member of the Fall Out Boys who are scheduled to appear at the Reading Festival in England later on Friday, has been arrested for driving without a valid licence.
The 25-year-old star was arrested around by police on a two-year-old warrant just before midnight on Tuesday in Hollywood.
Sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore says Stump was taken into custody during a traffic stop by Los Angeles police.
He was booked on an outstanding warrant for driving without a licence and released early Wednesday around 4.30 am after posting US$15,000 bail.

The Jackson family decision to switch the funeral date for the Thriller singer will cost them dearly.
Michael Jackson's family, who have agreed to pay the security costs, decided to move the date of the burial from Saturday, which would have been his 51st birthday, to Thursday.
But the switch from a weekend to a weekday has shot up the security costs.
It has upped the security costs of the funeral to take place in the Glendale suburb of Los Angeles by at least three times the original price, it has emerged.
The cost to provide police and other city services for the weekend private memorial at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale would have topped US$50,000, according to Glendale police.

A young woman who plays Snow White at the world famous Disneyland is enjoying a real-life fairy tale after her visits to the wishing well paid off.
Actress Natalie Marston has swapped her seven dwarfs for seven much bigger figures are winning more than (US$5.2 million on the Californian lottery.
"I know I played Snow White but I feel more like Cinderella," said the 22-year-old happy beauty, who no longer has any reason to feel grumpy. "In a million years, I would not have thought something like this could happen to me."
Natalie hit the jackpot when on a whim she bought a winning scratch off ticket that that earned her US$2,000 but also qualified her to appear on the California Lottery TV game show Make Me a Millionaire.

American Pie actor Jason Biggs went ape when he was viciously attacked by a monkey while on a visit to Gibraltar.
The 31-year-old actor was so upset that his dream holiday to the Mediterranean rock had turned into a nightmare that he fled home.
Biggs was enjoying a hike in the wilderness on the British territory, with his American Pie co-star Eddie Kaye Thomas, when the wild monkey went for him.
"Jason and Eddie decided to go on the trip to celebrate the 10 year anniversary of Pie," a friend of the actor said. "They were hiking in The woods when this monkey suddenly leapt on Jason from a tree and tried to bite his face off.

The investigation into Michael Jackson's death is taking so long because only three detectives have been assigned to the case, it has been claimed.
Los Angeles police have yet to interview the late King of Pop's security guard and chief of staff because there are not enough officers working on the investigation, according to reports in the United States.
"There are only three detectives from LAPD's Robbery Homicide Division assigned to the case," an insider said. "This is one of the reasons the investigation is still ongoing at this point."
Alberto Alvarez, who made the 911 emergency call the day the Thriller singer died, has not been interviewed by police.

Temperamental actress Lindsay Lohan turned into a really mean girl when a worker in a delicatessen refused to give back her “lost” mobile telephone.
The absent-minded star went ballistic when the man refused to automatically hand over the precious Blackberry that she had accidentally left behind because she could not verify it was hers.
The row with Mohammed Hashan at Mott Corner Deli in Manhattan's Little Italy got so heated that 23-year-old Lohan demanded a friend call the police.
The bizarre bust-up began when the Mean Girls star popped into the shop for a cup of ice, left without the Blackberry and leaped into a passing taxi.