Nicole Kidman had a laugh. Robbie Williams was amazed and thrilled. The result - a duet on Frank and Nancy Sinatra's immortal classic Something Stupid.
The elegant redhead star of Moulin Rouge in a singalong with Britain's most laddish pop star might sound an unlikely pairing. But when Williams invited Kidman
to sing on his Swing When You're Winning tribute album to Sinatra, he got the shock of his life.
"I heard her sing in the movie Moulin Rouge and I asked if she would be interested and fully expected to be knocked back - she is a proper Hollywood star! But she said 'Yes'. I was amazed and thrilled," he said of their duet.
Kidman gave him full marks too: "It was fun. We did it very quickly one afternoon. But I have no desire to be a singer. I just did that for fun. I think he is very talented. I had a giggle.
"He is a total pleasure to work with. He put me at my ease and made me laugh. Now I am seriously thinking of getting a tattoo like his," she said, tongue firmly in cheek.
Williams has a Maori tattoo on his upper arm, begun in Britain and completed on a recent visit to New Zealand.
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It sounds positively Python-esque: British scientists have embarked on an unusual quest to find the nation's funniest joke.
A team headed by psychologist Richard Wiseman intends to spend months analysing thousands of jokes sent to a website, before testing the most humorous contribution on a human guinea pig wired to a brain scan.
The unusual project - reminiscent of the famous Monty Python sketch "The Funniest Joke in the World" - aims to explain why laughter is beneficial.
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Celebrity interviewer Barbara Walters' much-hyped chat with troubled singer Mariah Carey isn't happening - at least not yet.
Carey has delayed the interview, which had been scheduled to air in the US on September 12 on the 20/20 news magazine show.
"It's postponed at this time because she needs more time to rest," said Cindi Berger, spokeswoman for both Carey and Walters.
The delay in the interview, which was to be taped later today, is the latest twist in the 31-year-old singer's health saga.
On July 25, Carey had a physical and emotional breakdown and was rushed to a hospital after her mother called 911. She later spent 11 days at Silver Hill in Connecticut, a hospital that specialises in mental illness and addiction.
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Jack Nicholson and Julie Andrews, Luciano Pavarotti, Quincy Jones and Van Cliburn are the winners of this year's Kennedy Centre Honours.
The coveted honours roll rewards artists who have made a "unique and extremely valuable contribution" to America's cultural life, said Kennedy Centre chairman James Johnson.
Johnson said this year's list honoured a beloved actress in British-born Andrews and one of the "most brilliant and celebrated actors of our age" in Nicholson.
He described Jones as a musician who had a spectacular influence on all facets of American popular music for more than half a century. Cliburn's "stellar" career bore witness to the "life-affirming power of music," said Johnson.
The five will be saluted at a gala at the Kennedy Centre on December 2, to be attended by President Bush and first lady Laura Bush and a host of stars.
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Production workers at the Royal Shakespeare Company are to strike in a row over redundancies, threatening disruption to performances in Stratford-upon-Avon.
The Bectu union said talks over planned job cuts had broken down and gave the company notice of industrial action on September 15 by lighting staff, stage crews, wardrobe employees and technical workers.
- NZPA
Nicole Kidman had a laugh. Robbie Williams was amazed and thrilled. The result - a duet on Frank and Nancy Sinatra's immortal classic Something Stupid.
The elegant redhead star of Moulin Rouge in a singalong with Britain's most laddish pop star might sound an unlikely pairing. But when Williams invited Kidman
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