Morning Briefing:
SAG good to "Brokeback" and Felicity: Awards season is starting to heat up, and the nominee announcements are rolling in. "Brokeback Mountain" leads the field with four nominations for Screen Actors Guild awards, including best actor for Heath Ledger and best ensemble performance. Felicity Huffman earned three nominations, more than any other actor, for her work on "Desperate Housewives" and as a man-turning-woman in "Transamerica." The Directors Guild of America, meanwhile, announced the five nominees for its annual award, usually a good predictor of Oscar success. This year's nominees are George Clooney, "Good Night, and Good Luck"; Paul Haggis, "Crash"; Ang Lee, "Brokeback Mountain"; Bennett Miller, "Capote"; and Steven Spielberg, "Munich." (SAG, DGA)
Scotland Yard calling Kate Moss: British police issued a statement yesterday urging Kate Moss to return to the U.K. for questioning over her cocaine-snorting episode, allegedly caught on tape three months ago by an undercover Daily Mirror reporter in a West London recording studio where her then boyfriend, Pete Doherty, was at work. "We would like to appeal for her to return, see us and tell us her side of the story," said Tarique Ghaffur of Scotland Yard. "For everybody's sake, and for her to move on, the sooner she speaks to us the better," he added. Ghaffur says the police have a "full digital recording of the incident" and are closing in on two suspects, both friends of Doherty's, who are believed to have set up the 31-year-old supermodel in exchange for a payout from the Daily Mirror. Moss left for the U.S. shortly after the story broke. Scotland Yard says it does not plan to push for a formal extradition. (E! Online)
Good Chinooks make bad neighbors: Dick Cheney's neighbors in the Chesapeake Bay town of St. Michaels on Maryland's Eastern Shore are reportedly complaining about the V.P.'s traffic-stopping motorcades and early-morning helicopter flybys. "I hear that Mrs. Cheney is delightful. But I've had great big helicopters fly over my house at 3 o'clock in the morning and at 1 in the morning," a disgruntled neighbor tells the New York Daily News. "I can tell you I'm not happy. They're very noisy. The dogs start barking, and we can't get back to sleep." The neighbor also claims that residents are told to stay inside their houses when the Cheneys' motorcade goes by, but local police say the second family is no more of an inconvenience than any "normal group of very influential people." (N.Y. Daily News)
Star sex: Dismissing those persistent rumors that her husband, Al Reynolds, is gay, Star Jones insists in her new book, "Shine," that she and Reynolds have a hot and heavy sex life: "The first time he held me in his arms sexually, it was almost frightening because we knew our erotic interest in each other could take over every other thing," writes Jones. "We had an intoxicatingly sexual connection the first two months of our relationship." (N.Y. Daily News)
Also:
Lizzie Grubman was back in court yesterday answering questions about just what happened when she backed her SUV into a crowd of people outside an inn in the Hamptons in 2001. (Page Six) ... In response to a hint printed yesterday on Page Six, Lindsay Lohan's rep says the teen star is "100% not pregnant." (Perez Hitlon) ... The state of New Jersey is reportedly looking for the rights to use Bon Jovi's latest hit, "Who Says You Can't Go Home," to help lure visitors. (N.Y. Daily News) ... A federal judge has dropped Michael Jackson's $10 million lawsuit against a New Jersey businessman who has been selling M.J. memorabilia. (E! Online)
Money Quote:
Kate Beckinsale on wearing head-to-toe latex on the set of "Underworld: Evolution": "You actually forget you are wearing it after a while but other people sure don't. I'd bend over to tie my shoes and four grips behind me would be making groaning noises and suddenly I'd be quite aware again." (Page Six)
Turn On:
On Friday night, you can check out the series premiere of "The Book of Daniel" (NBC, 9 p.m. EST) -- unless you live in Little Rock, Ark., or Terre Haute, Ind., where NBC affiliates are declining to air the family drama featuring an Episcopalian minister named Daniel who converses with Jesus. And for more far-out fun, check out Part 1 of a two-part "Battlestar Gallactica" special. (Sci Fi, 10 p.m. EST)
-- Ira Boudway
Get more of The Fix here.
To send a hot tip to The Fix, click here.
Shares