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Monday, April 02, 2007

Entertainment News

The Fresh Prince is the undisputed King of Hollywood. According to Newsweek, Will Smith has morphed into the "most powerful actor on the planet," with worldwide box office receipts of four-point-four-billion dollars. One "industry insider" tells the newsweekly, "Will Smith is the only thing in this business -- the only thing -- that represents a guaranteed opening weekend." An unnamed studio head puts it this way -- "There's Will Smith, and then there are the mortals." The first two mortals trailing Smith, by the way, are Johnny Depp and Ben Stiller.

You would think third-place news anchor Katie Couric would be the one with anxiety, but Meredith Vieira, her replacement on the top-rated Today show, is suffering from panic attacks. The 53-year-old former View co-host tells Ladies' Home Journal, "I think you can develop depression. I think sometimes maybe the magnitude of life just sort of seeps into my brain." She says the anxiety attacks can lead to some odd behavior -- like a fear of driving over bridges. And if you want to write to cheer her up, don't -- the panic attacks keep her away from her fan mail. She says, "I could see 10 great letters and then the next one that comes up that says 'I can't stand you' is the only one I'll remember. It's horrible. I don't really have a thick skin. I think it's gotten thinner, actually."

After a couple of false starts, Star Trek's "Scotty" is finally going to be beamed up! The remains of actor James Doohan, who played the chief engineer on the starship Enterprise's, have been packed into a rocket in New Mexico -- a rocket that is scheduled to be launched on April 28th. Doohan isn't going into his final orbit alone -- among the 200 other people whose ashes are ready for countdown are those of real former astronaut Gordon Cooper. Doohan died in 2005 at the age of 85. Two previous efforts to beam him up were aborted.

Paul McCartney's estranged wife, Heather Mills, was on Jimmy Kimmel Live the other night, and confessed she's not had sex in 10 months -- despite the rumors that she was involved with her personal trainer. She also says she requested that her dance partner on Dancing with the Stars be gay so that there would be no further rumors. And as for her leg, she told Jimmy it's still hanging on, as is Heather who enters her third week on the A-B-C reality show tonight.