Entertainment Today: Showbiz News

12 BAFTA NOMS FOR "GANGS," "CHICAGO"

The 19th-century epic "Gangs of New York" and the sizzling musical "Chicago" have each received 12 nominations for The Orange British Academy Film Awards.

The honors "Gangs" was mentioned for include Best Film, The David Lean Award for Achievement in Direction for Martin Scorsese, Actor in a Leading Role for Daniel Day-Lewis, Screenplay (Original) and The Anthony Asquith Award for Achievement in Film Music.

"Chicago" got nods for Best Film, The David Lean Award for Achievement in Direction for Rob Marshall, Actress in a Leading Role for Renée Zellweger, Actress In A Supporting Role for Catherine Zeta-Jones and Queen Latifah and Costume Design.

"The Hours" picked up 11 nominations, including Best Film, The Alexander Korda Award for the Outstanding British Film of the Year, The David Lean Award for Achievement in Direction for Stephen Daldry, Actor in a Supporting Role for Ed Harris, Actress in a Leading Role for Nicole Kidman and Meryl Streep and Actress in a Supporting Role for Julianne Moore. Meryl Streep also was nominated for her role in "Adaptation" in the category Actress in a Supporting Role.

"The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" received nine nominations, including Best Film, The David Lean Award for Achievement in Direction for Peter Jackson, who won the BAFTA last year in this category, Cinematography and Make Up & Hair.

"The Pianist" was nominated in seven categories, including Best Film, The David Lean Award for Achievement in Direction for Roman Polanski, Cinematography and Adrien Brody in the category Actor in a Leading Role.

Paul Newman ("Road To Perdition"), Christopher Walken ("Catch Me If You Can"), Alfred Molina ("Frida") and Chris Cooper ("Adaptation") were all nominated in the category Actor in a Supporting Role.

The nominations, announced Monday by Sir Ian McKellen at The British Academy's headquarters in London, included nominations for Michael Caine ("The Quiet American"), Jack Nicholson ("About Schmidt") and Nicolas Cage ("Adaptation") in the category Actor in a Leading Role, nominations for Halle Berry ("Monster's Ball") and Salma Hayek ("Frida") in the category Actress in a Leading Role, and a nomination for Toni Collette ("About A Boy") in the category Actress in a Supporting Role.

The short list for the Orange Film of the Year, for the 10 most popular films of 2002, is "Monsters Inc.," "Star Wars Episode II - Attack of the Clones," "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets," "Spiderman," "Ocean's 11," "Austin Powers in Goldmember," "Men in Black II," "Scooby Doo," "The Lord of the Rings - The Two Towers" and "Die Another Day."

The Academy will bestow further awards dedicated to excellence in film at the ceremony, including The Michael Balcon Award for Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema and the Academy Fellowship.

The Awards will be broadcast on BBC ONE, hosted for the third time by Stephen Fry ("Gosford Park," "Wilde") and will take place Feb. 23 at the Odeon, Leicester Square.

CULKIN ACCUSED OF 'CORRUPTING' MARILYN MANSON

Former child star Macaulay Culkin reportedly taught shock rocker Marilyn Manson how to smoke.

It was done for Manson's role as a gender-bending entertainer in "Party Monster," the film about a New York club kid-turned murderer.

"We were shooting in a nasty neighborhood in Brooklyn and Mac takes Marilyn to the local bodega to get a pack of Virginia Slims and shows him how to smoke a cigarette," co-director Fenton Bailey told the New York Post. "It was such an interesting role reversal -- the 'Home Alone' kid corrupting the Anti-Christ Superstar."

KASDAN CAN RELATE TO 'ADAPTATION' THEME

Acclaimed filmmaker Lawrence Kasdan says he can "absolutely" relate to the frustrated screenwriter at the center of Charlie Kaufman's comedy, "Adaptation."

"I liked that movie. I thought it was hilarious. It was the first movie ever made just for screenwriters," "The Big Chill" writer-director told United Press International.

"Adaptation" is the semi-true story of how Kaufman struggled to adapt to film "The Orchid Thief," Susan Orlean's superb non-fiction book about the history of and passion surrounding orchids. Faced with serious writer's block and a crushing deadline, Kaufman writes himself into the script as a character (played by Nicolas Cage.) The film garnered several Golden Globe nominations and two wins for supporting players Chris Cooper (as the title character) and Meryl Streep (as Orlean.)

"Who of us hasn't had a paper which is due in college that, in desperation, you write yourself into your paper and your paper becomes about your difficulties about writing the paper, just praying that the professor hasn't seen 10 others like it that semester," Kasdan noted. "And so 'Adaptation' taps into that desperation. ... Every writer I've ever talked to about it has (experienced Kaufman's) interior monologue, not just his massive neuroses, but (the excuses and promises like,) 'I really should get a muffin. It would help.' That's the conversation that we all have with ourselves."

Kasdan's latest project was adapting Stephen King's terrifying alien novel, "Dreamcatcher," for the big screen. He describes that adaptation experience as "wonderful," quite the opposite of Kaufman's recent endeavor. Kasdan says the horror king was very supportive during production on the Morgan Freeman flick and offered nothing but his "lovely opinion."

"The truth is he has a lot of rights. He retains a lot of rights ... but he doesn't exert anything that is any way odious," Kasdan said. "He's very happy with the movie and I'm really happy about that."