In the wake of Heath Ledger’s passing last January, his ex-wife Michelle Williams and their daughter Matilda faced an onslaught of media attention and paparazzi. As a result, the pair moved away from their Brooklyn home and found relative anonymity in a farmhouse in the upstate NY countryside. Newsweek recently caught up with Williams just in time for the release of her new film Wendy and Lucy. The found that it was easier for her to talk about her education in composting than anything else. We just hope that she finds the privacy she’s looking for. [Read more...]

As expected, PETA has responded to Liz Hurley’s decision to promote fur in a new ad campaign for Blackglama. “It’s shocking that she’s taking money to wear baby minks, who are skinned at six months old for Liz’s luxuries. Her wardrobe is as dead as her film career,” said Robbie LeBlanc, Director of PETA Europe. “Millions of animals are electrocuted and skinned alive, suffering terribly for the production of fur. With so many fantastic faux furs available, there is no excuse for the wearing of real fur,” said LeBlanc.

You know those vegetarian vampires from Twilight? They scared up more than $70 million at the box office this weekend according to early estimates. Let’s hope other vamps out there consider the human-free lifestyle…[Read more...]

Photo: Michelle Williams in a scene from the new film Wendy and Lucy.

Don’t you just love hemp? For, um, clothes and stuff, I mean. Reese Witherspoon does. She, along with Michelle Williams and Alanis Morissette, is a fan of Heather Heron’s line of organic European hemp bags.

Colts quarterback Peyton Manning raised over $380,000 for at his annual PeyBack Bowl on Monday, with proceeds going to disadvantaged kids through his PeyBack Foundation (nice little word play there). Other celebs who got in on the knocking-of-the-pins included Colts player Reggie Wayne with the highest score, race drivers Scott Dixon and Sam Hornish Jr., and NFL Hall of Famer Gale Sayers.

Is Nelson Mandela more inspiring than Angelina Jolie? Members of Christian Aid think so. When surveyed recently, they found people like Mandela and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to be more inspiring when it comes to changing the world than celebrities like Jolie and Bono. What do you think?

Polish weightlifter Symon Kolecki has shaved his head in solidarity with Tibetan monks. The athlete had his scalp shaved just before he received the Silver Medal in weightlifting.  “This haircut is from this morning. I can’t directly say why I did it. It’s connected with certain things that the Olympic Charter forbids. But I will say that it’s symbolic,” Kolecki said.

Many of you may know that Heath Ledger’s will had not been updated since the birth of Matilda, his beloved daughter with actress Michelle Williams. Upon hearing this news, fellow actors Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell, who all played Ledger’s character in The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, the film he’d been working on before his death, decided to donate their fees to the two-and-a-half-year-old.

“They didn’t take the money–it goes to Heath’s daughter. That’s extraordinary! And wonderful…and when you’re part of that, you think, ‘Ah, this is maybe why I went into the movies in the beginning. I thought it would be full of wonderful people.’ And we’ve got a movie full of wonderful people who did extraordinary things to help,” says director Terry Gilliam.

Terry, though I’d say your comments contain a small yet obvious plug for your film… you’re absolutely right.