Showbiz: Guitarist in dire straits

Former Dire Straits frontman Mark Knopfler was rushed to hospital after a motorbike accident.

The 53-year-old singer and guitarist was taken by ambulance to St Thomas' Hospital, central London, where he was treated for a broken collar bone and six broken ribs, then discharged.

Knopfler was riding a Honda motorcycle when he was involved in a collision with a Fiat Punto car in London's smart Belgravia district in mid-morning traffic.

The car's female driver was unhurt, police said.

Sopranos team more harmonious

Actor James Gandolfini and HBO have cooled their rhetoric over Gandolfini's salary demands for a reported US$16 million ($29 million) for a fifth season as America's favourite mob boss.

The parties are close to an offer The Sopranos star can't refuse, industry sources said today.

"The only thing I can say ... is that temperatures are taken down and there is an optimism in the air," Gandolfini's spokesman Dan Klores said.

Gandolfini and the cable network have apparently stepped back from pursuing the mutual lawsuits they filed against each other earlier this month in Los Angeles Superior Court, the sources said.

Last week, HBO called off filming, set to begin next Monday for cable TV's most popular drama.

Too much in your face

Martin Scorsese, who received a best-director Oscar nomination this year for Gangs of New York, says Hollywood has grown increasingly aggressive in campaigning for Academy Awards.

"If one of the actors from your film is not talking on that screen in the middle of the night, there will be five other actors from five different films talking," Scorsese told Time magazine.

Gangs of New York, starring best-actor nominee Daniel Day-Lewis and Leonardo DiCaprio, was nominated for 10 awards, including best picture.

Scorsese, who has never won an Academy Award for best director despite being nominated three times before, says he feels obligated to be interviewed about the film.

"The reality is, if I don't do PR, I'm hurting the picture," Scorsese said. "And as many things as I did, that's as many things as I turned down."