Showbiz: Kidman in 'Dogville'

Nicole Kidman has signed to star in Lars von Trier's feature Dogville.

Reports early this week said the Danish director's production company, Zentropa, had dumped the Moulin Rouge star from the movie after repeated delays in signing a contract.

But Zentropa producer Vibeke Vindelov confirmed that the Australian actress would play a leading role in the drama, set in an American mountain village but due to be shot in Sweden from January on a budget of $22 million.

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'N Sync heart-throb Justin Timberlake wants to help his girlfriend, Britney Spears, to move beyond her bubble-gum sound in favour of something "edgier."

He wants to collaborate with her on a CD which he says would be "huge."

Timberlake, who has known Spears since their days performing together on The Mickey Mouse Club, said: "I want it to be something new that they haven't heard us do, that they didn't think we could do.

"I feel like we still have some artistic growth to show."

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Jason Priestley has completed a court-ordered alcohol counselling programme after pleading no contest to a drink-driving charge.

"That should take care of this matter," Judge Marlene Kristovich said in Los Angeles County Superior Court.

The former star of Beverly Hills 90210 crashed his Porsche in the Hollywood Hills in December 1999, injuring a friend. His lawyer said Priestley swerved to avoid a deer.

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Oscar-winners Tom Hanks and LA Confidential director Curtis Hanson have been elected to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences board of governors, the body that organises the annual Oscars ceremony.

Hanks, who won a best-actor Oscar in 1993 for Philadelphia and another in 1994 for Forrest Gump, fills the vacancy left after the resignation of Gregory Peck.

Incumbent Kathy Bates, a best-actress Oscar winner for 1990's Misery, won a second term.

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Quote: "Watching the Aussies is like a porn movie: you always know what is going to happen in the end" - Diehard England cricket fan Mick Jagger on the Ashes series.