ACTOR and director Mel Gibson, a favourite to win the Best Director Oscar for Braveheart, has had his appendix removed in emergency surgery. Gibson had an attack of appendicitis on board a flight to New York from Los Angeles, and underwent a laparoscopic appendectomy in New York.
The Austrian Chancellor, Franz Vranitzky, is taking legal action against a current affairs magazine, Profil, or a photo montage cover showing his head attached to a naked male body.
Pulp singer Jarvis Cocker will not be prosecuted for his outburst during Michael Jackson's performance at the Brit Awards, the Metropolitan Police have confirmed.
Cocker (32) learned the news at Kensington police station in west London, and was greeted by a torrent of abuse from about 30 young Jackson fans.
Hillary Rod ham Clinton has become an "eager student" of Islam, a religion which she says is often misconstrued by the West.
"We have allowed a tiny minority to define an ugly stereotype," she said in videotaped remarks presented to a cultural festival in Saudi Arabia.
Producer Ross Hunter (74), whose films of the 1950s and 1960s evoked the glamour of the 1930s, has died in Los Angeles. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Film in 1970 for his action drama, Airpog, which featured cameo parts by some of Hollywood's biggest names.