Entertainment Today: Showbiz news

PAM ANDERSON

Pamela Anderson says she has been diagnosed with hepatitis C, and blames the infection on sharing a tattoo needle with her former husband, musician Tommy Lee.

In a statement released by her publicist, the star of the syndicated action-drama "VIP" said she has undergone outpatient treatment at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles.

Anderson -- who is battling Lee in court for custody of their two children -- said she did not know that Lee was infected. "He never disclosed it to me during our marriage," she said.

Lee challenged Anderson's allegation in a statement issued by his representatives. "Her actions today are a clear attack on Tommy," said the statement, "and hopefully she will realize that she is only doing more harm to her children and herself by trying to use the media as a tool to hurt Tommy and their two boys."

(Thanks to UPI Hollywood Reporter Pat Nason)

STEVEN SEAGAL

Court officials confirm that actor Steven Seagal has been hit with a $60 million lawsuit in a case in which his business partner of 15 years claims that Seagal reneged on as many as four movie deals. One was for a proposed film about the life of Ghengis Kahn.

Julius R. Nasso claims that he is asking the damages from Seagal, who says he left the movie business after being told he would "be reincarnated as a 'lesser being'" if he continued in Tinseltown.

The breach-of-contract suit was filed on Tuesday, according to the New York Post, in a Staten Island court. The suit claims that Seagal took the action based on the advise of a Buddhist guru known as Mukara, who claimed that moviemaking produced "bad Karma."

(Thanks to UPI's Dennis Daily)

BAZ LUHRMANN

Baz Luhrmann thinks the runaway success of his Academy Award-nominated film "Moulin Rouge!" may have paved the way for a revival of the big-screen musical.

"As we speak, people are trying to rush musicals into production. I know of three already," Luhrmann told UPI, pointing out that productions of "Jesus Christ Superstar," "Rent" and "Chicago" are currently in the works. "These huge corporations all have music companies and film companies. Could be good, you know? The music and the film all in one little package. It's just about money," noted the writer/director of the critical and commercial hits "William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet" and "Strictly Ballroom."

Luhrmann added texture to his 1899 "comic-tragic, Bollywood-like musical opera" by using anachronistic pop music by the likes of Dolly Parton, Elton John, David Bowie, Madonna, Nirvana, U2 and even musical theatre kings Rodgers and Hammerstein.

But he notes that using music written later than the story is set was actually a common practice employed by writers and directors of musicals in the 1940s and 1950s. "(Using contemporary music) is quite an old idea," Luhrmann said. "When Judy Garland sings: 'Clang, Clang, Clang, goes the trolley,' in "Meet Me in St. Louis," that film is set in 1900, but she is singing 1940s big-band music. She is singing radio music ... and the device is to get inside character and story to understand it through your own music ... It's a basic rule of musicals that the audience have a relationship with the music pre-existing."

"Moulin Rouge," garnered eight Oscar nominations -- including nods for best picture and for best actress for Nicole Kidman.

(Thanks to UPI's Karen Butler in Los Angeles)

JOHN LEGUIZAMO

John Leguizamo does the voice of Sid the terminally lazy sloth in the new animated movie "Ice Age." He said when he was first approached about doing the film, his reaction was that "somebody's taking drugs." However, he said after he read the part he "really liked the character, all the jokes and everything."

To come up with Sid's voice, Leguizamo said he watched the Discovery Channel and learned that sloths stored food in their cheeks. "And I was like, 'Stored food in their cheeks, store food in their cheeks, cheeks!' And I called the director up, and I was like, look, you're talking to Sid, this is Sid the Sloth."

'ABOUT A BOY'

Tribeca Film Festival co-founders Jane Rosenthal and Robert De Niro say the film "About a Boy," starring Hugh Grant and Toni Collette, will premiere at the first annual Tribeca Film Festival on May 11.

Based on Nick Hornby's popular novel, "About A Boy" is a comedy-drama which stars Grant as Will, a rich, child-free and irresponsible Londoner in his thirties who, in search of available women, invents an imaginary son and starts attending single parent meetings. As a result of one of his liaisons, he meets Marcus, an odd 12-year-old boy with problems at school. Gradually, Will and Marcus become friends, and as Will teaches Marcus how to be a cool kid, Marcus helps Will to finally grow up.

The film is scheduled for wide release on May 17.

The Tribeca Film Festival will run May 8-12 in lower Manhattan. It'll showcase premiere and independent films including categories for feature-length films, documentaries, shorts and directorial-debut feature-length films as well as educational workshops and a special family-friendly children's film program.

(Web site: tribecafilmfestival.org)

DREW CAREY'S MOM DIES

Private services were held Monday for the mother of comedian Drew Carey, who died last Friday at a Cleveland hospice. Beulah Collingwood was 79.

Collingwood -- a church deacon and member of the choir -- was born in Akron, Ohio, and grew up in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, and Indianapolis. She attended Shortridge High School in Indianapolis where Kurt Vonnegut was among her classmates.

Collingwood went to live with an aunt in Lakewood, Ohio, following high school graduation and raised her sons, Drew, Neal and Roger, alone after her husband, Lewis Carey, died in 1966. They had been married 22 years. She married George Collingwood in 1984. He died in 1995.