NEWLN: Compiled by VALERIE KUKLENSKI UPI Entertainment Editor
LET'S CALL THE WHOLE THING OFF: Actor Tom Cruise reportedly has dropped his $60 million lawsuit against the German magazine Bunte now that the magazine has declared a story about him untrue. Bunte plans to print a retraction of the story it ran that said Cruise, who has two adopted children with his actress-wife Nicole Kidman, has a sperm count of zero. Cruise's lawsuit claimed the story could harm his leading man career. Bunte initially stood by the story, but columnist Liz Smith reported Tuesday that some heads have rolled at the magazine over the story.
THE SHAPE OF THINGS: Actress-turned-fitness guru Jane Fonda, who got the whole world crunching, grunting and feeling the burn in the early 1980s with the first of her popular workout videos, will receive Shape magazine's first-ever lifetime achievement award in fitness on Wednesday at the House of Blues in Los Angeles. The other guests at the gala celebrating the 15th anniversary of the fitness magazine will include models Gabrielle Reece, Kathy Ireland, Tyra Banks and Garcelle Beauvais, actresses Josie Bissette and Gena Lee Nolan, and fitness pros such as Kathy Smith, Donna Richardson and Richard Simmons. Details about the event's menu were not immediately available, but one spokeswoman said the spread would be 'plentiful.' Plenty of tofu, plenty of wheat germ, plenty of protein drinks....
HOMAGE TO JEWS: The publishing firm of Harry N. Abrams is coming out this fall with a book titled 'Jews/America: A Representation,' illustrated with photographic portraits by Frederic Brenner. The photos also will be published in the September issue of Life magazine. Abrams reports that only five people turned down the invitation to be photographed by Brenner. They were Woody Allen, Bob Dylan, Sandy Koufax, Paul Simon and Barbara Walters. As for Walters, informed sources told Abrams that although Walters is a practicing Jew, she prefers to define herself by her profession rather than her religion. Among those who agreed to pose were Norman Mailer, Barbra Streisand, Walter Annenberg, Michael Milken, Michael Ovitz, Dustin Hoffman, Steven Spielberg, Arthur Miller, Kirk Douglas, Neil Simon and Billy Wilder. Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner posed, but not in time for Life magazine's deadline, and Elizabeth Taylor and Beverly Sills were willing but also missed the deadline.
ALL DRESSED UP: Hollywood power couple Demi Moore and Bruce Willis have been posing in an airfield hangar for photographer Peter Lindbergh for fashion designer Donna Karan's elaborate fall 1996 campaign advertising her latest array of wearables. The ads will appear in fashion magazines in the United States and abroad beginning in October. According to Karan, Moore and Willis worked closely with her in selecting the clothes in which they were photographed, and Moore brought along her own hairstylist, Enzo Angileri, along with makeup artist Joanne Gair, who painted her body for that 1992 Vanity Fair 'nude' cover. Moore is no stranger to nudity, having appeared topless on the screen six times, the latest occasion being 'Striptease.' Her first Vanity Fair cover in 1991 depicted her nude and very pregnant. 'I wanted people who were modern and expressive,' said Karan, in explaining her selection of Moore and Willis. 'People with spirit and energy. It doesn't get more modern that Demi Moore and Bruce Willis.'
HOMESICK: Sean Connery, who used to be a milkman in Edinburgh, Scotland, told a news conference in the Scottish capital where is his hosting the annual Edinburgh International Film Festival that he may end his tax exile in Spain and move back home. 'The situation in Britain is now better for foreigners,' said the 65-year-old actor who protected his earnings from all those James bond movies by taking up residence in Spain more than 20 years go. 'Now that I can come back to Britain, the place I would like to live would be in Scotland, but I haven't found it yet.' Connery is launching his latest film, 'Dragonheart,' at the festival.
FOOTNOTES: 'Batman and Robin' director Joel Schumacher, who already has lined up George Clooney as Batman, Chris O'Donnell as Robin, Alicia Silverstone as Batgirl and Uma Thurman as Poison Ivy, has now signed Vendela, Viveca Fox and Elle Macpherson to the cast of the Warner Bros. film. Vendela will play Arnold Schwarzenegger's wife and Fox will play his 'moll.' Macpherson will be Clooney's fiancee....Ed Klein, the former New York Times Magazine editor whose book, 'All Too Human: The Love Story of Jack and Jackie,' is just out, said at a weekend publication party given him by fashion designer Calvin Klein that he considers it 'kind of funny' that Hillary Rodham Clinton has been criticized for being too strong a first lady. 'Jackie Kennedy was one of the strongest in history, and nobody pilloried her,' he said....Neil Simon says he and Paramount Pictures are near agreement on a remake his 1970 film, 'The Out-of-Towners,' which starred Jack Lemmon and Sandy Dennis as trouble-beset tourists in New York. Simon said he would like to see Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn take the lead roles.
