Romance talk links Aniston, Vaughn
HOLLYWOOD, June 23 (UPI) -- British reports speculated about romance between Hollywood stars Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn, who are in the midst of filming "The Break Up."
Pictures taken on the movie set show Aniston and Vaughn touching each other in a way that suggests more than friendship, World Entertainment News Network reported.
"They were laughing and smiling and were very tactile together," a movie insider told the London Daily Express, which carried pictures of the pair hugging. "There was definitely some chemistry between them."
Aniston has concentrated on her movie career since her marriage to actor Brad Pitt broke up. Pitt has been linked romantically with his "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" co-star Angelina Jolie.
Vaughn, who plays a Chicago tour guide in "The Break Up," made a cameo appearance with Pitt and Jolie in the box office hit "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" about married assassins.
Stewart looking for a few bad cooks
NEW YORK, June 23 (UPI) -- Martha Stewart is looking for the worst cooks in the United States to become students during her latest television venture.
A release from Stewart's publicists says the lifestyle diva will take bad cooks on her new show "Martha," and help "transform them from culinary catastrophes into marvelous meal makers."
"Martha" is to be a nationally syndicated daytime talk show.
The release said interested bad cooks -- or the people who have had to eat their meals -- should submit a creative videotape about the entrant and "failed attempts at cooking." The tapes should be no longer than three minutes.
The show's producers say the tapes should be sent to: Worst Cooks in America Contest; "Martha"; MSLO Productions Inc.; P.O. Box 1942; New York, N.Y., 10116.
Mattel to audition real live Barbie
EL SEGUNDO, Calif., June 23 (UPI) -- The toymakers at Mattel Inc. are planning an open casting call to find a human Barbie to perform in a live musical to tour North America next spring.
The company announced it has partnered with Clear Channel Entertainment in the production of "Barbie Live in Fairytopia!"
The musical is based on Mattel's successful "Fairytopia" direct-to-video feature starring an animated Barbie, which sold 1.3 million copies.
The musical is scheduled to run for 60 weeks beginning in 2006, the Los Angeles Daily News reported.
But finding someone with a Barbie doll's distinctive busty and long-legged proportions could be difficult, said Mercedes Penney, an independent casting director based in Burbank.
"Like Nicole Kidman with a little more warmth, or someone like Demi Moore when she was around 18, 19," Penney said.
AMC spends $15 mil on Duvall miniseries
HOLLYWOOD, June 23 (UPI) -- AMC spent a record $15 million on an Old West miniseries that stars veteran actor Robert Duvall, who executive produce the project, "Daughters of Joy."
Duvall plays a rancher who has pity on five Chinese women being sent to work as mining camp prostitutes. The rancher and his nephew take the women with them on a horse drive from Oregon to Wyoming.
Duvall said the four-hour miniseries completes a personal trilogy that started with "Lonesome Dove" and continued with "Open Range."
"This is something very near to my heart," Duvall told Daily Variety. "The story is actually partially based on something that happened to the father of a friend of mine."
The $15 million is the most AMC has ever spent on original programming.
Filming begins in August in Calgary, Canada, on "Daughters of Joy," which is to be released in summer 2006.
Bobby Brown takes his reality TV turn
NEW YORK, June 23 (UPI) -- Singer Bobby Brown jokes about his encounters with the law in "Being Bobby Brown," a Bravo reality TV program that Brown says shows he is more good than bad.
Brown, 35, said he was in jail two years ago when his children convinced him he should have his own reality show, which debuts next Thursday.
After his release, he met with two Atlanta producers who were intrigued by constant media attention Brown and famous wife Whitney Houston received.
Cameras followed him 24 hours a day for six months.
"I'm not ashamed of any of it," Brown told the New York Times. "I'm not going to run and I'm not going to hide. They're going to talk about me anyway - thank God. I just want to control it."
While the program has bizarre moments, the newspaper reported, it also shows Brown as a doting father and husband.
Brown said Houston's "eyes are shining again" since drug rehabilitation and he now takes medication for his bipolar disorder.
Miss World may sue surgeon to save face
LIMA, June 23 (UPI) -- The reigning Miss World is furious her plastic surgeon, a fellow Peruvian, is making claims of working on parts of her he never touched.
Julia Mantillaher, 20, lashed out at Dr. Cesar Morillas for claiming in local media he had worked on her ears, chin, eyebrows and lips in February, three months after she was crowned in China.
Mantillaher said in reality, Morillas only worked on her nose and breasts.
"He has said he molded my body, that he removed fat, and everything," she said. "In other words, I'm here thanks to everything he did."
Regardless, the beauty queen defended her decision to go under the cosmetic knife, Sky News reported.
"I don't believe surgery changed my essence," she said.
