California Rumor

The Italians, and a veteran movie director, will honour Quentin Tarantino in Los Angeles this weekend.

Tarantino, the 46-year-old director of Inglourious Basterds (2009) - which has received an astonishing eight Oscar nominations - will be presented with an award by the director of the original Inglorious Bastards (1978), Enzo G. Castellari.

The presentation will take place in the heart of Hollywood at the opening of the 5th Annual Los Angeles-Italia Film, Fashion and Art Fest on February 28. The presentation will be made between showings of Castellari's original and Tarantino's later movie.

Local dignitaries from the Italian Institute of Culture will be in attendance for what is an overall feting of the once rogue director of Pulp Fiction as an "ambassador to world cinema".

The son of Hollywood actor Michael Douglas has been denied bail.

Cameron Douglas is currently sitting in a jail, waiting to be sentenced on drug charges.

A judge has now refused his request to be released from behind bars so he could be transferred to a rehab centre.

Cameron has been locked up since last year, when his girlfriend Kelly Scott allegedly smuggled him heroin while he was under house arrest awaiting trial.

He has since pleaded guilty to one count of possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance and one count of possession of heroin.

Now in a Federal Court in Manhattan, Cameron asked the judge to let him bail out so he could get treatment for his addictions.

But the judge ruled that Cameron was more likely to relapse if he was let out, and denied his bail, so he will now have to stay in prison until his next court date on April 14.

Here is Alice in Wonderland director Tim Burton as an awkward-looking teenager in swimming trunks dwarfed by his pals in his high school water polo team.

The quirky filmmaker is so much smaller than his strapping team-mates he could almost be mistaken for their mascot in the 1974 yearbook photograph.

But the 16-year-old Burton, who would go on to make waves at the box office, was actually a member of a league championship-winning team in his sophomore year at Burbank High School in LA.

The team won the Sophomore Water Polo Foothill League Championship, according to the school yearbook.

Burton appears to have been a talented swimmer very much at home in the pool.

He posed in his trunks again as part of the school's sophomore swim team in 1974 and the 1975 swim team as a junior, when he looked to have had a growth spurt to have caught up with a few of his team-mates.

A serious-looking Burton did not smile for the camera in his sophomore and junior portraits.

And he was just as stern-faced as he was pictured with the water polo team in 1975.

Burton, now 51, was born and raised in Burbank, a suburb of LA. After finishing high school he attended the California Institute of the Arts on his way to becoming an award-winning director of blockbusters including Batman and Planet of the Apes.

Nicolas Cage, 46, will get into caveman mode for a 3-D computer-generated amination flick.

Cage and Ryan Reynolds have signed on for The Croods, which is detailed on imdb as a prehistoric tale about a "Leader of the Hunt" who is threatened by the arrival of a nomad genius who comes up with revolutionary new inventions.

Cage is to play the leader, a protector of his family, and Reynolds will portray the outsider whose new ideas challenge the patriarch's authority, UPI reports.

Bill Damaschke, co-president of production for DreamWorks Animation, said: "We are thrilled that Nicolas Cage and Ryan Reynolds are lending their considerable talents to The Croods and know that they will both bring a perfect blend of humour, enthusiasm and emotion to their lead roles. Our film-makers are creating an amazing world that is full of fascinating characters, creatures and stunning environments that is truly unlike anything we've done before at DreamWorks Animation."

The Croods is set for release on March 30, 2012

Oscar nominee Woody Harrelson says he has zero chance of winning an Academy Award - but he doesn't care because his mum's happy.

The 48-year-old actor, who is nominated for his role in The Messenger, claims to be bottom of the pile in the Best Supporting Actor category.

“Being nominated is a win. I have to think that way. I think my chances of winning are probably about less than one per cent,” he told US chat show host Ellen DeGeneres.

“They're all better than me and I admit it. I got a note from my Mom which said ‘You've finally arrived. You've been nominated in the same category as Christopher Plummer'. So I got my Mom's approval, which is enough.”

Harrelson, who is married with three daughters, also described how he shies away from the stereotypical Hollywood lifestyle, instead choosing to live in a self-sufficient community on the Hawaiian island of Maui.

“We grow probably 90 per cent of what we eat and we run our cars on biodiesel,” he said.

“Where we live, the community, there's only solar. There's no electricity lines coming out there so it's kind of off the grid.”

He added: “I try to prise myself out of bed by, you know, noon. I have a little fruit for breakfast and hang out with the kids when they get home from school. I like kite surfing and hanging out with my friends. It's pretty unstructured.”

Actress Angelina Jolie is too 'glamorous' for her role as Kay Scarpetta in new movie The Tourist, according to fans.

The 34-year-old is taking on the role of the heroine in a film based on Patricia Cornwell's character from her 17 novels.

However, Jolie has been accused of being too 'glamorous' and 'exotic looking' to play Scarpetta, who in the books is a petite, middle-aged woman with blonde hair.

Jolie, who stars opposite Johnny Depp in the movie, has been spotted shooting scenes for the film in Paris and will soon continue filming in Venice.

One fan said: "I have read all of Cornwell's books - some several times. Angie is all wrong to play Kay. Kay is a 'striking' woman. She has class. Angie's exotic looks would take away from the actual character.

"The person to play Scarpetta should be between 40-45. She would have short brown hair. She is a very healthy woman, so the actress should be 'built'."

Actress Angelina Jolie is too 'glamorous' for her role as Kay Scarpetta in new movie The Tourist, according to fans.

The 34-year-old is taking on the role of the heroine in a film based on Patricia Cornwell's character from her 17 novels.

However, Jolie has been accused of being too 'glamorous' and 'exotic looking' to play Scarpetta, who in the books is a petite, middle-aged woman with blonde hair.

Jolie, who stars opposite Johnny Depp in the movie, has been spotted shooting scenes for the film in Paris and will soon continue filming in Venice.

One fan said: "I have read all of Cornwell's books - some several times. Angie is all wrong to play Kay. Kay is a 'striking' woman. She has class. Angie's exotic looks would take away from the actual character.

"The person to play Scarpetta should be between 40-45. She would have short brown hair. She is a very healthy woman, so the actress should be 'built'."

Several reliable sources say that Paul McCartney will be performing two shows at the end of March at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. The former Beatles singer hasn’t performed there since he was still in the band. It’s definitely a momentous event and rumor has it that tickets are already going for upwards of $1000 or more. Keep your eyes and ears open if you want to go because those tickets are bound to sell out very fast. If only money grew on trees, I’d be lining up for the show now just to make sure I get a ticket. Does anyone need a date?

Brooke Mueller has left rehab and moved in with a friend in California, according to a US report.

The wife of Charlie Sheen is struggling to put her life back together after explosive allegations of domestic violence at the hands of her actor husband surfaced last Christmas. Mueller became ill shortly afterward and was admitted to an intensive care unit with pneumonia.

Mueller's stepfather Jon Fiore, in a RadarOnline exclusive, said Mueller was forced to leave rehab at The Canyon in Malibu when her privacy was breached by leaks to media outlets.

He said: "We, her parents, are very upset that a private facility would go so far as to break their security like this ... for what? That is totally ridiculous."

But Fiore indicated Mueller, who is the mother of twin boys now staying with their father, was on the road to recovery. He said: "She is doing well and she's staying with a friend out in California and she is getting herself together."

The wife of Tom Hanks, Rita Wilson, was joined by her actor husband and their friend Steven Spielberg for a tribute to her father, Allan Wilson, who died recently.

Hanks spoke at the service this month for Wilson's father, a Bulgarian who immigrated to the US and changed the family name from Ibrahimoff, reports RadarOnline in an exclusive.

Allan provided the inspiration for Hanks's role in the Spielberg flick The Terminal. The character of Viktor Navorksi is an Eastern European traveller who gets stuck in an airport for months after a military coup.

A source told the website that the service was held last Wednesday at St Sophia Cathedral, a Greek Orthodox church built in 1952, in Los Angeles. "Tom spoke at the service. The family seemed like wonderful people," the source said.

Wilson's father was interred at Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills in the Lincoln Terrace Section of the cemetery. Her aunt was also laid to rest at Forest Lawn.