Gossip: Drew Barrymore plans wedding

Drew Barrymore and Justin Long still have another couple of months to go before they hit their milestone one-year anniversary, but a tabloid is already convinced they're ready to commit to an eternity together.

In Touch claims the perpetually puckered-up honeys engaged in a matrimonial-related discussion while lunching at a Los Angeles eatery on May 10.

"She said she wanted to find a wedding planner and he said they should look at engagement rings that day," a big-eared eyewitness relays to the mag. "But Drew said, 'You know what I like, surprise me.' They seemed very happy."

This is the second time in recent months that wedding whispers have hit Drew, 33, and Justin, 29, who kicked off their very public saliva exchange program last August.

While making an appearance on "Oprah" in March, the sunshiny and seemingly loud-talking actress, who already has two divorces under her belt, was reportedly overheard talking about the possibility of a destination wedding.

"She's beautiful and funny," the sometime Mac guy swooned to the Big O of his squeeze. "The most compassionate person I've ever met."

Barrymore, for her part, opened up about her romantic contentment in the March issue of Vogue, gushing, "My cheeks hurt, I'm so happy."

In more concrete nuptial news, Jessica Alba went the unconventional route when she selected the "something blue" for her frills- and guest-free courthouse wedding to Cash Warren Monday afternoon in Beverly Hills, Calif.

People magazine reports the about-to-pop bride sported a ponytail and a long blue dress for the fake flower-festooned civil ceremony, while her groom styled a white shirt and brown pants.

"Jessica and Cash's ceremony surprised even good friends," an insider tells the mag, pointing out that it was the actress who pulled the trigger on the shotgun hitching. "She [used to feel] it would be OK to wait until after the baby was born to get married. But her traditional side must have really kicked in."

Either way, adds the mole, "Cash is a wonderful guy. And she really does love him."

Alba's brother blabs to E! News that he, too, was in the dark about the "I dos," and says the newlyweds are planning a more elaborate celebration after the baby arrives (they are said to be expecting a girl).

Also out of the loop was Jessica's dad, who tells Latina.com that the knot-tying is "good news," opining, "I'm glad for her. She's a beautiful girl. I'm her dad and I'm happy for her no matter what happens." (OK, so maybe he's kvelling about his new son-in-law on the inside.)

The newlyweds were sans rings but sporting big smiles as they stepped out together Tuesday night for a charitable soiree in Beverly Hills, where Warren and NBA buddy Baron Davis picked up a humanitarian award for producing a documentary on gang violence in Los Angeles.

Meanwhile, Pete Wentz has learned that being married to Ashlee Simpson is all about sharing with her family, who are tighter than his suctioned-on skinny jeans.

The swoopy-banged, flat iron-dependent flames are featured on the current cover of People, which reportedly shelled out more than a million bucks for the exclusive on their "Alice in Wonderland"-inspired wedding, but they're not alone.

In addition to Pete's Victorian-collared English bulldog, who looks mortified to be part of the proceedings, Ashlee's big sister Jessica receives prominent placement on the cover courtesy of a candid shot showing her bumping and grinding with her capricious quarterback beau, Tony Romo.

And speaking of sharing, the happy couple apparently has a refreshingly realistic attitude when it comes to romance.

"We have signed a pre-nup," Pete revealed during a chat this week with Ryan Seacrest, adding that his supposedly stork-awaiting wife is now legally Mrs. Wentz. "[We don't] know what she'll do with her stage name, that's up to her. She hasn't decided on that."

A David wins big: 'Idol' vote is a landslide

LOS ANGELES - The grown-up rocker triumphed over the smooth-voiced kid as David Cook claimed the "American Idol" title Wednesday, and it wasn't as much of a surprise as it seemed.

While the judges all but crowned 17-year-old David Archuleta the night before, the voters decided otherwise — and in a huge and unexpected way. Host Ryan Seacrest said before the results that that the margin was 12 million votes, and it turns out they broke in the favor of the 25-year-old from Blue Springs, Mo.

Cook was overcome by emotion, bending toward the stage after his name was announced. When he stood up, his eyes were filled with tears, the second time in as many nights that the scruffy, grainy-voiced belter had broken down.

"This is amazing," he said. "This is all your fault," he added, addressing his brother. The story goes that Cook was only tagging along with his sibling to the "Idol" auditions to lend support, and wound up getting on the show.

Cook immediately took the microphone and began to sing "Time of my Life" by Nashville singer/songwriter Regie Hamm, winner of the annual "Idol" songwriting competition, to close out season seven.

Cook refused to bow to the conventional during his three-song set Tuesday, with Collective Soul's "The World I Know" as his pick for a closing performance. He also sang U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" and the power ballad "Dream Big," his choice from the songwriting competition's non-winning finalists.

"If I had to choose between playing a song that not a whole lot of people know that I could get behind, or the opposite, I'll choose the lesser-known every time," Cook told The Associated Press backstage Tuesday.

Judge Simon Cowell said at the time that the song choices sunk him, and told Archuleta that he'd scored a "knockout" in the boxing-themed performance finale.

Cook was unshaken, and now his choices are vindicated.

While "Idol" ratings were down all season, the final contest provoked a frenzy with a record 97.5 million audience votes cast by phone and text. Last year's total vote count was 74 million.

Early in the show, host Ryan Seacrest played it coy, announcing that the split between the two contestants was 56 percent for one David, 44 percent for the other. Of course he left in question who got the lion's share; that detail wouldn't come until the closing moments of season seven.

While Archuleta was showered with praise by the judges all season, online bookies and observers kept the faith with Cook. One Web site, which tracks busy signals on the separate phone lines dedicated to each contestant, projected him the winner correctly Wednesday morning.

By strict "Idol" standards, being rebellious turned out to be worth the gamble for Cook, whose hip and scruffy style and ability to work the camera with a soulful gaze also proved to have overwhelming appeal.

Cowell, who seemed to dismiss Cook and his chances of winning Tuesday, offered an apology in the moments before the winner was announced, saying he was too harsh and that it "wasn't quite so clear cut as we called it." Cowell even let on that, for the first time, he felt either finalist would have been a worthy winner.

Archuleta, of Murray, Utah, was the prodigy who consistently dazzled the show's judges and thrilled screaming young fans. He would have been the youngest-"Idol" ever if he'd won, beating last year's winner Jordin Sparks by mere days.

The teenager seemed to find the attention the show brought him overwhelming, often appearing to be speechless in the face of praise, but he was consistently professional onstage, with dulcet tones and poise that belied his shyness and tender age. He also became the focus of controversy when his father, Jeff, was reportedly getting too heavily involved in his son's rehearsals and asked by the show's producers to back off.

Archuleta made the most of his smooth voice Tuesday with Elton John's "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me," the inspirational ballad "In This Moment" and a reprise from earlier in the season of John Lennon's "Imagine."

Judge Randy Jackson exclaimed to Archuleta, "Dude, you are so good tonight. You are exactly what this show is about." And Cowell told the teenager: "You came out here tonight to win, and what we have witnessed is a knockout."

"I felt I had a disadvantage getting so much attention in the beginning. But winning isn't the big concern. It's always doing your best. ... That's what's important," he told The Associated Press backstage Tuesday.

During the show, viewers got songs from runners-up including Syesha Mercado, who dueted with Seal on his song "Waiting for You," and a solo on "Hallelujah" by dreadlocked Jason Castro.

Other "Idol" contestant and name-brand pairings: Cook with ZZ Top, Archuleta with OneRepublic, Bryan Adams with the top six male singers and Brooke White with Graham Nash.

"Brooke looks so much better than Crosby," Nash quipped backstage, referring to bandmate David Crosby.

The Jonas Brothers got the stage to themselves for a performance.

"American Idol" also celebrated the awfulness that is part of the show, usually confined to the early auditions, with a performance by failed contestant Reynaldo Lapuz that threw in University of Southern California cheerleaders and marching band members.

In Utah, Archuleta fans gathered to watch the finale took the loss like a collective kick. Mouths dropped, eyes widened and several teenage girls hugged and cried at a live viewing party at EnergySolutions arena in Salt Lake City.

"Did you feel that?" said Skippy Jessop, 30, his homemade sign now headed for the trash bin. "It felt like a punch in the gut. We all just stood there with our mouths hanging open."

But fans say this won't be the last note from Utah's newest favorite son.

"He's still a winner for sure," said Cecily Estrada, 19, who attended Murray High School with Archuleta. "He's gonna be big no matter what."

He's already scored one big endorsement: Toward the end of the live, two-hour broadcast, Archuleta was featured in a "Guitar Hero" commercial in which he reprised Tom Cruise's lip-sync routine from the movie "Risky Business." Instead of an air guitar, Archuleta played the small, plastic replica instrument from the popular video game.

But on Wednesday, it was the real guitarist who struck the biggest power chord.

Talks, Progress Raise Hopes for Deal

While negotiators edge toward agreement on the thorniest issues in the 3-month-old writers strike, many in Hollywood are nurturing new hope that an end is near for the walkout that has brought their industry to a standstill.

The Writers Guild of America and studio executives, beginning a second week of renewed talks, have made progress on the key issue of payment for Internet-distributed work, said a person familiar with the talks who was not authorized to publicly comment and requested anonymity. But hard work remains to be done, the person said.

The guild agreed last week to take proposals to unionize animation and reality TV writers demands that contributed to December's abrupt collapse off the table. That left new-media compensation as the major hurdle to overcome.

Even without official announcements coming from the closed-door talks, a strike-fatigued community showed it was ready to embrace optimism just not giddily.

"I'm like everyone else. I'm hopeful," writer Devon Shepherd, whose credits include "Weeds" and "Everybody Hates Chris," said Tuesday.

"We're all just hoping that with time passing, cooler heads will prevail and people are seeing the bigger picture. The longer we stay out, it's not only hurting us but hurting the industry," he said.

The tone also was cautiously upbeat at Sunday's Screen Actors Guild Awards, where stars gathered after the writers guild said it would not picket.

"Every single day, everybody is making a projection," said "Big Love" star Jeanne Tripplehorn. "I think we're all more hopeful than in the past."

Jenna Fischer, star of the "The Office," echoed that perspective on the red carpet.

"It feels hopeful for the first time," Fischer said.

Away from the spotlight, however, uncertainty remained over what the guild and studio heads might achieve in the talks that began after a six-week negotiations impasse. The talks are the subject of a media blackout.

The guild's board of directors gathered Tuesday to discuss the status of the talks before meeting again with studio executives.

The primary corporate representatives have been Peter Chernin, chief operating officer of News Corp., and Robert Iger, chief executive of The Walt Disney Co.

The informal talks began after the Directors Guild of America reached its own deal with studios this month, and studio moguls urged the writers to join the informal sessions.

Compensation for work offered on the Internet also was a key issue during the directors talks, and is expected to be critical when the Screen Actors Guild begins negotiations. Its contract with studios expires in June.

The upbeat thinking about possible progress in the writers talks is being driven by more than the desire to get thousands of people back to work in New York and Los Angeles and stem losses estimated at $1 billion or more.

The film industry has a fervent desire to see the Feb. 24 Academy Awards, its biggest promotional showcase, staged in full-blown glory, without the threat of pickets. The guild has thus far refused to grant a waiver that would take the Oscars off the list of struck shows and allow writers to participate.

Waivers have been granted to the upcoming Grammys and NAACP Image Awards.

The guild's refusal to make a deal with the Golden Globes, and a decision by stars to honor the strike and boycott the awards, reduced that ceremony to a news conference.

"There's no day, other than the Super Bowl, that's bigger for American advertisers and therefore for American networks than the Oscars," said Jonathan Handel, an entertainment industry attorney and former associate counsel for the writers guild. "Both the studios and networks have an enormous amount riding on a successful Oscarcast," he said.

In another development, CBS News staffers who are members of the writers guild have overwhelmingly ratified a new contract with the network. The contract covers 500 employees who work in New York, Los Angeles, Washington and Chicago, in both TV and radio.

The deal provides raises of 3.5 percent annually plus a $3,700 contract bonus. The contract, effective immediately, runs through April 1, 2010. Staffers had been working under an expired contract for nearly three years.

Also Tuesday, CBS said it was joining with Canada's CTV on a police drama to be produced in Toronto and to air in both countries. CBS already had been scouting for foreign series but the strike provided the impetus for the deal on "Flashpoint," set to begin production in April. An air date was not announced.

No Immediate Results in Brando Autopsy

An autopsy on the body of Christian Brando did not immediately determine what killed the son of the late actor Marlon Brando, authorities said Tuesday.

Christian Brando died Saturday at a Los Angeles hospital. The cause of death was listed as deferred, pending results of toxicology tests that may determine whether Brando had prescription or other drugs in his system and whether a medical condition was involved, Los Angeles County coroner's official Ed Winter said.

Results should be available in six to eight weeks.

The autopsy was requested "based on his past drug history," Los Angeles County coroner's Lt. Fred Corral said Monday.

An attorney for Marlon Brando's estate said the 49-year-old died of pneumonia.

Lawyer David J. Seeley said that Christian Brando's mother, Anna Kashfi, requested the autopsy and that neither the estate nor its beneficiaries were involved in the decision.

"At this point, we have no reason to question the hospital's actions and the cause of death," Seeley said.

Christian Brando was one of nine children named as beneficiaries of Marlon Brando's trust. The Oscar winner noted in his will, released after his death in 2004, that he had 11 children, including daughter Cheyenne, who committed suicide in 1995, and an adopted daughter who was not a beneficiary.

Kashfi and Marlon Brando divorced after a year of marriage.

Christian Brando's former attorney, Benjamin Brin, said Tuesday that Brando's longtime girlfriend, Donna Goans, had been making funeral arrangements when the mother demanded the autopsy.

Mother and son were estranged for 20 years, Brin said. He called the situation "very sad" and dismissed the value of an autopsy.

"We all know 49-year-old people aren't supposed to die," Brin said. "We're going to find out what was different about him. There'll be some explanation. It may be his, you know, partying ways in the past. It may be even something more recent that some people will find pruriently interesting. It won't bring him back."

Christian Brando's ex-wife Deborah sued the executors of Marlon Brando's estate Monday, claiming she is a victim of professional negligence, fraud and deceit.

She claims that as part of a February 2007 settlement with Christian Brando in a domestic violence case, she would become assignee of her ex-husband's rights and claims in the estate.

Deborah Brando accused producer Mike Medavoy and fellow executors Larry J. Dressler and Avra Douglas of executing a forged codicil to Brando's will days before the actor's death on July 1, 2004.

"The will was forged ... designed to separate and alienate (Deborah Brando) from others in Marlon Brando's close and extended family, friends, and business acquaintances, and to keep them from challenging the will or trust," the lawsuit said.

The estate will "vigorously defend" against the lawsuit, Seeley said.

Tom Cruise Getting Ducati Superbike

Tom Cruise is the first on the list to get Ducati's newest motorcycle a $72,500 superbike bristling with titanium, magnesium and carbon fiber technology that can scoot up to 200 mph.

Cruise is scheduled to take delivery of the Desmosedici RR at Beverly Hills Ducati this week. Only 1,500 of the red-and-white Moto GP racing replica motorcycles will be made and Cruise gets the first.

Michael Lock, chief of Cupertino-based Ducati North America, said the Desmosedici RR "is the impossible dream made possible."

"We are delighted to be able to deliver the world's first production unit here in the USA to Tom Cruise, who is a well-known Ducati enthusiast," Lock said in a statement.

Q&A With 'Hannah Montana's' Miley Cyrus

Hannah Montana mania has already conquered TV, the music industry and the touring world. Now it's set to take over the film industry for one week.

On Friday, theaters nationwide will show "Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert," a 3-D film version of the sellout tour and already, tickets for the film are in short supply. Clearly the "Hannah Montana" brand which started as a Disney TV series but has branched out into multiplatinum albums and stage shows hasn't reached saturation point.

Which is all good for the 15-year-old star behind the phenomenon, Miley Cyrus. In the past year, she's become a sensation that sells tabloids besides albums and tickets. Her fame would be hard for most adults to handle, but in a recent interview with The Associated Press, Miley seemed to have a good grasp on how to handle the spotlight.

AP: Why do a film version of the tour in 3-D?

Miley: It was mostly because of the tickets and there were so many people that didn't get to come to the show. This is like better than front row. You could reach out and feel like you can touch my hand you could see me right then. Right there, right in front of you, which is so fun. Also just to be able to see behind the scenes which I think is the most clever part of anything. Just getting to see what all goes into this. They can walk around knowing what real hard work it is. I mean I think I have the easiest job.

AP: The movie also features your tour partners, the Jonas Brothers What was it like to perform with them?

Miley: With the Jonases our music is similar but it's definitely not exact. There is a different vibe with the Hannah vibe and the Miley vibe. It's just so many different tastes of music that to have it all in one show it's just cool to introduce the kids to.

AP: Why do you think the Hannah Montana craze exploded last year?

Miley: The kids can relate like once again with the 3-D movie, it will be even better. They don't even know what they have coming when they get to see it. Just that Hannah Montana and the show are so relatable that not only the celebrity part of it but just getting to see the normal girl underneath it all is really incredible.

AP: Do you think you've been able to create your own identity outside of your famous character?

Miley: This tour was a really good way of doing that. Just kind of breaking out and having my music and get to have not only doing press stuff all the time and being like, 'Miley Miley Miley.' You get to go out in front of 20,000 people every night and show who you really are. I think that's one of the best parts.

AP: Your tour was one of the highest-grossing tours, right up there with the Police and Justin Timberlake. What do you think about that?

Miley: Sometimes, 'It's like wow, I really have to be good. Especially when you hear what people are doing for tickets. It's like this is their one chance to see the show and it's the one night I'm going to be here so it has to be perfect.'

AP: One little girl's mother even had her write a false story claiming her dad was killed in the Iraq war to win tickets to the concert. What was your reaction to that?

Miley: There is so much that has been going on just with everyone. There has been some really bad things happen, there's been some really amazing things happen. Like I remember I was watching CNN today and there was this little girl that couldn't afford to have her surgery. She took her tickets and put a bid for them and now can have her surgery. There has been amazing stories that have been going on with everyone so it's really incredible.

AP: There was a recent controversy involving the brief use of a body double for you onstage. Can you explain why one was used at all?

Miley: It wasn't because I didn't want to sing or because I didn't want to dance ... it was because of time. I usually have an hour and a half to go from Hannah to Miley and I was doing this in one minute 50 seconds. So I needed at least three minutes to go and at least get a little drink of water and like chill for a second. So when I leave the stage the vocals are done. Like I'm done singing. So it wasn't like my vocals were still playing, it was the Jonases who were still singing. So it was really no need for me to be on the stage anyways.

AP: Do the problems of other young stars, like Jamie Lynn Spears' pregnancy, put more pressure on you to set a better example for kids?

Miley: It does but I mean those persons don't have anything to do with me either. So it's like you just have your own heart and you have your own soul to kind of help you through life.

AP: Do you ever wish that you could just be a regular 15-year-old instead of a teen phenom?

Miley: I do sometimes but then again it definitely is fun and it's been really nice because having my uncle as like my bodyguard and my mom with me and my dad, working with him. My family wants the best for me so they try to find a way so that I can still go out and hang with my friends and also have a normal life of my own.

Q&A With Miley Cyrus of 'Hannah Montana'

Hannah Montana mania has already conquered TV, the music industry and the touring world. Now it's set to take over the film industry for one week.

On Friday, theaters nationwide will show "Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert," a 3-D film version of the sellout tour and already, tickets for the film are in short supply. Clearly the "Hannah Montana" brand which started as a Disney TV series but has branched out into multiplatinum albums and stage shows hasn't reached saturation point.

Which is all good for the 15-year-old star behind the phenomenon, Miley Cyrus. In the past year, she's become a sensation that sells tabloids besides albums and tickets. Her fame would be hard for most adults to handle, but in a recent interview with The Associated Press, Miley seemed to have a good grasp on how to handle the spotlight.

AP: Why do a film version of the tour in 3-D?

Miley: It was mostly because of the tickets and there were so many people that didn't get to come to the show. This is like better than front row. You could reach out and feel like you can touch my hand you could see me right then. Right there, right in front of you, which is so fun. Also just to be able to see behind the scenes which I think is the most clever part of anything. Just getting to see what all goes into this. They can walk around knowing what real hard work it is. I mean I think I have the easiest job.

AP: The movie also features your tour partners, the Jonas Brothers What was it like to perform with them?

Miley: With the Jonases our music is similar but it's definitely not exact. There is a different vibe with the Hannah vibe and the Miley vibe. It's just so many different tastes of music that to have it all in one show it's just cool to introduce the kids to.

AP: Why do you think the Hannah Montana craze exploded last year?

Miley: The kids can relate like once again with the 3-D movie, it will be even better. They don't even know what they have coming when they get to see it. Just that Hannah Montana and the show are so relatable that not only the celebrity part of it but just getting to see the normal girl underneath it all is really incredible.

AP: Do you think you've been able to create your own identity outside of your famous character?

Miley: This tour was a really good way of doing that. Just kind of breaking out and having my music and get to have not only doing press stuff all the time and being like, 'Miley Miley Miley.' You get to go out in front of 20,000 people every night and show who you really are. I think that's one of the best parts.

AP: Your tour was one of the highest-grossing tours, right up there with the Police and Justin Timberlake. What do you think about that?

Miley: Sometimes, 'It's like wow, I really have to be good. Especially when you hear what people are doing for tickets. It's like this is their one chance to see the show and it's the one night I'm going to be here so it has to be perfect.'

AP: One little girl's mother even had her write a false story claiming her dad was killed in the Iraq war to win tickets to the concert. What was your reaction to that?

Miley: There is so much that has been going on just with everyone. There has been some really bad things happen, there's been some really amazing things happen. Like I remember I was watching CNN today and there was this little girl that couldn't afford to have her surgery. She took her tickets and put a bid for them and now can have her surgery. There has been amazing stories that have been going on with everyone so it's really incredible.

AP: There was a recent controversy involving the brief use of a body double for you onstage. Can you explain why one was used at all?

Miley: It wasn't because I didn't want to sing or because I didn't want to dance ... it was because of time. I usually have an hour and a half to go from Hannah to Miley and I was doing this in one minute 50 seconds. So I needed at least three minutes to go and at least get a little drink of water and like chill for a second. So when I leave the stage the vocals are done. Like I'm done singing. So it wasn't like my vocals were still playing, it was the Jonases who were still singing. So it was really no need for me to be on the stage anyways.

AP: Do the problems of other young stars, like Jamie Lynn Spears' pregnancy, put more pressure on you to set a better example for kids?

Miley: It does but I mean those persons don't have anything to do with me either. So it's like you just have your own heart and you have your own soul to kind of help you through life.

AP: Do you ever wish that you could just be a regular 15-year-old instead of a teen phenom?

Miley: I do sometimes but then again it definitely is fun and it's been really nice because having my uncle as like my bodyguard and my mom with me and my dad, working with him. My family wants the best for me so they try to find a way so that I can still go out and hang with my friends and also have a normal life of my own.

Sean Young to Rehab After DGA Outburst

Sean Young has entered rehabilitation for alcohol abuse following a weekend outburst in which she was heckling from the audience at the Directors Guild of America awards.

The 48-year-old actress was escorted from the ballroom at the Hyatt Regency in Century City Saturday night after sparring with Julian Schnabel, who was nominated for "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly."

"Actress Sean Young voluntarily admitted herself yesterday to a rehabilitation center for treatment related to alcoholism," a statement from Insignia PR said Tuesday. "It is understood that Young has struggled against the disease for many years."

At the DGAs, all of the film nominees get a chance to say a few words before the top prize is announced. Schnabel, in his trademark yellow-tinted glasses, seemed moved by the occasion and was a bit slow to start, looking down at the podium and running his hands through his wild, curly hair.

That's when Young could be heard throughout the room urging him to get on with it. Apparently rattled, Schnabel scanned the room and asked who said that, then spotted Young and suggested that she "have another cocktail."

Then he suggested that she should finish his speech for him and started walking off the stage. Music began playing for his exit, but the audience urged him to stay and keep speaking, and he did. Young, meanwhile, was removed from the ballroom.

The guild said in a statement Tuesday: "The DGA wishes to respect Ms. Young's privacy at this difficult time and declines further comment."

Joel and Ethan Coen were the winners for "No Country for Old Men."

Young made her name in the 1980s with films like "Stripes," "Blade Runner" and "No Way Out." But she's become more famous for some of her more bizarre behavior, including dressing up in a homemade cat suit in her quest to secure the role of Catwoman in the 1992 sequel "Batman Returns," which went to Michelle Pfeiffer.

She also tried to crash the Vanity Fair Oscar party in 2006.

"It was degrading," she said in an Entertainment Weekly article last year. "But when you have nothing to lose, it's really not that big of a deal."

Q&A: Double Oscar Nominee Deakins

Veteran cinematographer Roger Deakins is competing against himself at the Academy Awards this year, with nominations for "No Country for Old Men" and "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford."

These are his sixth and seventh Oscar nominations he's never won. And in his typically self-effacing, dry British manner, he says he truly doesn't believe he's going to win this year, either.

Deakins, 58, is probably best known as the longtime director of photography for the Coen brothers. He's shot all nine of their movies since 1991's "Barton Fink," creating the signature imagery for films including "Fargo," "The Big Lebowski" "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" and their latest, "No Country."

He grew up in Devon, England, and began as a still photographer before going to film school and making documentaries. Besides his work with the Coens, he's shot "A Beautiful Mind" "House of Sand and Fog" and "Jarhead," to name a few, and received Oscar nominations for "The Shawshank Redemption" and "Kundun."

(Multiple nominations for one person in the same Oscar category are not unheard of: Steven Soderbergh, for example, got best-director nods for 2000's "Traffic" and "Erin Brockovich." This is the first time a cinematographer has been up against himself since Robert Surtees, with the 1971 films "The Last Picture Show" and "Summer of '42.")

Later this year, Deakins has Sam Mendes' "Revolutionary Road," starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, and he's currently shooting "Doubt" with Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Adams.

AP: What was your reaction to the two nominations?

Deakins: It was a real surprise. I thought "No Country" had a chance but, you know, "Jesse James" didn't really get much of a release. When the nominations came out, the most pleased I was, was for Casey (Affleck, for supporting actor in "Jesse James") and ... Tommy Lee Jones (for best actor in "In the Valley of Elah," which Deakins also shot). And I thought he'd been so overlooked.

AP: With the writers strike going on, what's it like for you to think there may not be any Oscars?

Deakins: It's a hard one 'cause, I mean, they've got a point. It just seems absurd to me that we can't all come together and talk about it like adults. But on the other hand, most of it is a business, isn't it? And people have to work out their contracts. So it's quite understandable, what's going on. It's just a pity.

AP: How did you hook up with Joel and Ethan Coen?

Deakins: I'd done a few pictures by then. I think they'd seen, like, "Sid and Nancy" on the one hand and seen "1984" on the other. It was just, I kind of guess, the range of what I do I suppose that attracted them. I was a bit nervous when I met them 'cause I thought, well, two of them, how do they work together? But we hit it off. We met in London, actually, in Notting Hill. And they're well, you know what they're like they're really sort of low-key and matter-of-fact and totally unpretentious and we hit it off straight away, really.

AP: What is it about your working relationship that's been a good fit?

Deakins: Maybe it's that we've got a similar sense of humor or something. They've got this very sort of dry, laconic, almost English sense of humor. We see the world quite similarly, I suppose.

AP: Can you pick a favorite movie you've done with them?

Deakins: I like them for different reasons because most of them are very, very different. I would probably have to say "The Man Who Wasn't There." I love that movie there's something about it that is, I think, it kind of works as a piece more than any of the other films we've done.

AP: That's one of my favorites of theirs and I think it's underappreciated. But again, that's a tough sell because it's in black and white.

Deakins: Yeah, tough sell, absolutely. But that's the thing with them I've had such opportunities to work on films like that with different kind of looks, different kind of feels.

AP: You've been a still photographer for a long time, but how challenging was it to shoot a whole film in black and white?

Deakins: Technically, there were a few challenges just to get the sort of purity of the black and white, but in terms of lighting and feel, I think I kind of light in black and white anyway, really I light for light and shade, I don't light for color so much. I find a lot of the time that color is sort of a distraction and it's easy on the eye. It's easy to make something attractive by putting in pretty colors but it's not necessarily right for the content of the piece.

AP: Do you still shoot photographs?

Deakins: When I get some time off. I love it it's my favorite thing to do. That and fishing.

AP: Do you ever do both at the same time?

Deakins: Well, I take my camera out. I've got a little boat in south Devon. I go out fishing and I take the camera with me sometimes. ... I'm trying to do a series about the English seaside in the southwest and I spend most of my time wandering around with my camera in the odd seaside resort, trying to find photographs. I like observing people, I suppose.

AP: Would you want to direct a feature of your own someday?

Deakins: I kind of looked into it a few years ago and it's like, everybody in Hollywood has got a script. I've got a script. It's set in Africa in World War I that's not going to go down very well, is it? It's a comedy, but it's also about colonialism. I enjoyed writing it it was a few years ago, now, and I sort of took it 'round to a few people. But I love what I do so why would I change that? I love being on the set, I love the contact.

AP: Do you ever get so drawn into what's happening that you forget ...

Deakins: To turn on the camera?

AP: No, just get lost in what you're doing and forget that you're at work.

Deakins: Well you do. You get totally drawn into the characters and the piece and that's what's amazing. That's why I love it. ... There are scenes in "No Country" when we were shooting them like in Ellis' cabin in the end just watching that through the lens, you get a tingle up the spine.

Oscars Contingency Plan

An Oscars contingency plan that would include history, film clips and out-of-the-ordinary concepts for the awards show is in the works, academy president Sid Ganis told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

With the writers strike dragging dangerously close to the Feb. 24 telecast, the film academy is planning two Oscar shows: "The show we would love to do and ... a show that we would prefer not to do," Ganis said.

The traditional, star-studded glamour-fest is in the works in case an agreement is reached. If not, organizers are working on a second show that will include "history and packages of film and concepts that are not normally ones that we would have for the show if we were moving straight ahead."

The show will go on regardless of talks status, he said.

"We have an obligation to the art form to present the Oscars, so we have to deal with the possibility of not being able to do the show because of pickets or agreements not being concluded," Ganis said.

Meanwhile, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is talking with striking writers, said spokeswoman Leslie Unger. She declined to provide details.

"We have made contact with the guild," Unger said. "We want to be able to do the kind of Oscar show that we always do, and we want to create the circumstances that will allow us to do that."

Nominations for the 80th Academy Awards were announced last week. In past years, presenters were announced one-by-one before or shortly after the nominations, but none have been named so far this year.

Final ballots were mailed Wednesday to the 5,829 voting members of the academy. They are due back Feb. 19.

Ethan Hawke, Girlfriend Expecting a Baby

Ethan Hawke and his girlfriend, Ryan Shawhughes, are expecting a baby.

"I can confirm and they are thrilled," Hawke's publicist, Mara Buxbaum, told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

"No further details will be made available," Buxbaum said in an e-mail

Hawke, 37, has two children from his marriage to Uma Thurman.

His screen credits include "Training Day," "Dead Poets Society," "Great Expectations" and "Before Sunset."

No Verdict Yet in Snipes Case

The jury in actor Wesley Snipes' tax case passed its first full day of deliberation Wednesday without a verdict.

Snipes and two co-defendants are accused of fraud and conspiracy in an eight-count indictment from 2006. The action star faces six additional charges for failing to file tax returns from 1999-2004.

The IRS alleges Snipes, Eddie Ray Kahn and Douglas P. Rosile engaged them in a long fight insisting the actor didn't owe any taxes. The government must prove not only that Snipes and company broke the law, but that they meant to.

Snipes' lawyers say he was a victim of bad financial advice, and sincerely believed he didn't have to pay the government anything.

Kahn is the alleged ringleader of a central Florida tax protest group called American Rights Litigators, then Guiding Light of God Ministries. Kahn, a former CPA who lost licenses to practice in Florida and Ohio, allegedly drew up Snipes' fraudulent refund claims.

Prosecutors say the actor was looking for a way to avoid increasing tax bills caused by his burgeoning movie success.

"Game Plan" stomps competition on DVD charts

"The Game Plan," a football family comedy strategically released on DVD at the peak of football season by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment, easily captured the top spot on the national DVD sales and rental charts for the week ending January 27.

The film, which earned $89.7 million in theaters, sold 67 percent more units in its first week than its nearest competitor, fellow newcomer "Saw IV," from Lionsgate, which debuted at No. 2 on the Nielsen VideoScan First Alert sales chart.

The previous week's top seller, Fox's "Family Guy Presents Blue Harvest," slipped to No. 3 in its second week, while Lionsgate's "Good Luck Chuck" fell two spots to No. 4.

On Home Media Magazine's rental chart, "Game Plan" came out ahead with estimated rental revenue of $10.2 million, bumping "Chuck," the previous week's top renter, to No. 2 with a $9.2 million take. "Saw IV" debuted at No. 3 with $8.2 million, or 13 percent of its $63.1 million theatrical gross.

Another Lionsgate release, the Western remake "3:10 to Yuma," is showing remarkably long legs. In its third week, the film remains in the top five, holding at No. 4 this week and earning an additional $7.3 million in rental revenue to bring its total to $26.9 million, or 50 percent of its theatrical gross.

"Saw IV" was the week's top Blu-ray Disc seller, beating "Game Plan" among the early-adopter crowd. "The Bourne Ultimatum" was the top HD DVD seller for the week.

Weinsteins make a date with Woody's "Cristina"

The Weinstein Co. has picked up North American distribution rights to Woody Allen's romantic comedy/drama "Vicky Cristina Barcelona," starring Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz and Scarlett Johansson.

Patricia Clarkson, Kevin Dunn, Rebecca Hall and Chris Messina also star in the tale of Vicky and Christina (Hall and Johansson), two Americans vacationing in the title's Spanish city, who become part of a chain of romances involving an artist (Bardem) and his nutty ex-wife (Cruz).

A steamy menage a trois sequence between Bardem, Cruz and Johansson was the talk of the American Film Market when it previewed in Santa Monica in November.

Another selling point might be the offscreen romance between Bardem and Cruz. The pair also are working together for the Weinstein Co.'s adaptation of the Broadway musical "Nine" for director Rob Marshall.

The film marks Allen's sixth partnership with Bob and Harvey Weinstein, one that began in their Miramax days with his 1994 comedy "Bullets Over Broadway" and continues this month with "Cassandra's Dream." A 2008 release of "Barcelona" is planned.

Haggis takes Hwy61 to United Artists

Filmmaker Paul Haggis has inked an overall deal with United Artists that will have the Oscar winner writing, producing and possibly directing projects with the studio through his newly created Hwy61 production shingle.

Under the terms of the pact, which is nonexclusive and leaves Haggis free to collaborate elsewhere, the "Crash" director is expected to produce two films a year with his producing partner Michael Nozik.

First up for Hwy61 -- the name is taken from the Bob Dylan song "Highway 61 Revisited" -- will be an adaptation of the children's literature series "Ranger's Apprentice," with Haggis writing the screenplay with his daughter Alissa and possibly directing. UA optioned the rights to the fantasy series by Australian author John Flanagan this month.

Also under the newly struck partnership, the Santa Monica-based Hwy61 and the Paula Wagner/Tom Cruise-helmed studio have optioned the rights to the Joseph Weisberg novel "An Ordinary Spy."

Haggis, who co-wrote and directed the Oscar-winning "Crash" and the recent Iraq War drama "In the Valley of Elah" and wrote the screenplay for the Oscar-winning "Million Dollar Baby," said he hopes to create a home for writers and directors.

This latest venture marks more movement for the independently run UA, which this month picked up the remake rights to the Spanish film "Los Cronocrimenes," to be produced by Steve Zaillian. That deal marked the first the studio has made since signing an interim agreement with the striking Writers Guild of America.

Criterion and Bertolucci have last word on "Emperor"

Director's cuts of films, which generally are made available as premium DVDs, typically are presented as the last word in a film's life cycle. They're the archival editions, the longer, beefier cuts that present the director's true artistic vision rather than the shorter theatrical cuts.

Not so with "The Last Emperor," Bernardo Bertolucci's 1987 epic about China's final emperor, which swept the Oscars the next year, picking up nine awards, including best picture and director.

As part of their original deal, the filmmakers were required to deliver a four-hour TV version, which turned out to be four episodes with a total running time of 218 minutes. Only after this version was in the can did Bertolucci and editor Gabriella Cristiani go back and shave nearly an hour of footage to come up with the 165-minute theatrical cut, which is the one that got Bertolucci's blessing.

The prestigious Criterion Collection on February 26 will release "The Last Emperor" as a special four-disc "director approved" edition.

The release will include both versions of the landmark film, with the longer initial cut billed as the "television version," in contrast with previous home video releases, in which the TV version was improperly presented as the director's cut.

MYSTERY SOLVED

"The fact that the film that has been seen all along is what Bertolucci considers his director's cut proves that now and then it is possible for everything to fall in line and for a film to make it to the screen as perfect as could be hoped for," Criterion president Peter Becker said. "The longer television version included in the set -- which has over the years mistakenly been marketed as the 'director's cut' -- is fascinating in its own right, but we are pleased that any mystery surrounding the film and the 'director's cut' has been solved with this release."

The four-disc Criterion release includes all-new, restored, high-definition transfers of both versions of the film, in addition to the wealth of bonus materials for which Criterion releases are known.

Among the extras are audio commentary by Bertolucci, producer Jeremy Thomas, composer Ryuichi Sakamoto and screenwriter Mark Peploe; new video interviews with composers Sakamoto and David Byrne; and the featurette "Postcards From China," consisting of video images taken by Bertolucci during preproduction.

The release also includes a new "making of" documentary; "The Late Show: Face to Face," a 30-minute BBC interview with Bertolucci from 1989; and "The Italian Traveler," a documentary from Fernand Mozskowicz that explores Bertolucci's journey from Parma to China.

Also included is a booklet featuring essays by film critic David Thomson and excerpts from script supervisor Fabien Gerard's production journals.

In a posting on a Criterion blog, the set's producer, Kim Hendrickson, recounts his surprise at learning from cinematographer Vittorio Storaro that Bertolucci's final cut wasn't the longer version of the film but rather "the one we all knew from seeing it screened in theaters in 1987 -- the 165-minute version."

To make doubly sure, Hendrickson wrote, he contacted Bertolucci himself, "and he confirmed the above with the following response, which I cherish: 'I would be very pleased to present the theatrical version for "The Last Emperor," but I'm perplexed on presenting the (so-called) director's cut because I wouldn't know what else to say about a version that in my opinion is not much different from the other one, just a little bit more boring, as very often the director's cut can be. That's my sincere feeling."'