Entertainment and Celebrity News

Famed adventurer Sir Ranulph Fiennes has escaped a driving ban after he admitted falling asleep at the wheel just before his car crash in March (10).

The explorer was left bloodied and confused after his Jaguar collided with another car in Stockport, England. The other motorist spent a month in intensive care with numerous injuries.

Fiennes, who represented himself in court on Wednesday (08Sep10), admitted he must have momentarily fallen asleep before the accident.

He told the judge, “I plead guilty. I hugely regret the incident… I travel 40,000 to 45,000 miles a year and it has not happened (before).

“There is no reason why I should have (fallen asleep) when this strange thing happened. I assumed that must have been the case.”

The 66 year old, cousin of actors Ralph and Joseph Fiennes, admitted careless driving and was fined $1,500 . He also received four penalty points on his license.

Cancer survivor Martina Navratilova, British actress Helen Mccrory and singer Macy Gray are among celebrities lending their support to a new breast cancer awareness campaign.

The stars are urging fans to wear a special Ralph Lauren t-shirt branded with the Pink Pony logo to promote the organisation’s 10th anniversary.

Navratilova, who won her battle against the disease earlier this year (10), is calling for women to have more check-ups so doctors can detect cancer early.

She tells Britain’s Marie Claire magazine, “The treatment was the hardest part. Now, I want to use my experience to raise awareness and emphasise the importance of having routine scans and regular check-ups.”

Harry Potter star McCrory is pictured wearing the t-shirt on the set of Martin Scorsese’s new film Hugo Cabret. She says, “We have to take the same advice we would give a friend. If something feels wrong get it checked out.”

The Queen screenwriter Peter Morgan has accused former British Prime Minister Tony Blair of copying one of his lines from the movie and using it in his autobiography.

In his book, A Journey, the former politician describes the British monarch’s response when he became the country’s leader in 1997, claiming she told him, “You are my 10th prime minister. The first was Winston. That was before you were born.”

Playing out the same scene in the 2006 movie, Dame Helen Mirren, who plays Queen Elizabeth II, tells Michael Sheen’s character Blair, “You are my 10th prime minister, Mr Blair. My first was Winston Churchill.”

But Morgan has been left confused by Blair’s memoirs, because he invented the conversation and believes Blair must have copied his take on it.

He tells Britain’s Daily Telegraph, “I wish I could pretend that I had inside knowledge, but I made up those lines. No minutes are taken of meetings between prime ministers and monarchs and the convention is that no one ever speaks about them, so I didn’t even attempt to find out what had really been said.

“There are three possibilities. The first is I guessed absolutely perfectly, which is highly unlikely; the second is Blair decided to endorse what I imagined as the official line; and the third is that he had one gin and tonic too many and confused the scene in the film with what had actually happened, and this I find amusing because he always insisted he had never even seen it.”

Kristen Stewart hates discussing herself during interviews – because she gets so nervous she starts to stink.

The Twilight beauty never prepares properly before she is questioned by a journalist, and she often ends up a trembling wreck as she tries to avoid looking “incapable”.

And the pressure is so great, she always breaks out in a sweat – and confesses she usually ends up smelling “bad” as a result.

Stewart tells Stylist magazine, “Practise helps a lot. You just get so nervous… I don’t know how to deal with it. I don’t prepare anything, I just do it so it’s gotten easier with experience.

“You realize that even if you totally botch it and (it) turns out horribly and everyone thinks you’re totally incapable, it’s like, ‘It doesn’t really directly affect me’. When I’m nervous, I’m so mindless. I twiddle my thumbs and my hands sweat and I smell bad.”

Dressing up for high-profile Hollywood events has become a huge pain for Susan Sarandon since undergoing foot surgery earlier this year (10) – because wearing high heels is so excruciating.

The Oscar winner injured her foot when she slipped in the rain during a charity trip to Haiti in January (10) and the accident finally forced her to go under the knife to fix an ongoing problem.

Doctors shaved down Sarandon’s bone and shortened her toe to alleviate the pain, and now wearing sexy stilettos to award shows and premieres has become a sore subject.

But the actress refuses to wear frumpy flats forever and may consider further surgery in the future.

She tells New York Magazine, “I had a problem in my back joint and I’ve been using orthotics. I didn’t fall. I stopped myself from falling.

“It kind of got better. I wore a boot and faked it. But the doctor said, ‘Why don’t you just get a new joint?…’ But right now I’m discouraged.”

Actress and comedienne Whoopi Goldberg is mourning the death of her mother, who tragically passed away last month (Aug10) after suffering a stroke.

Goldberg, who had been appearing in the London theater production of Sister Act, cut short her run on 27 August (10) to fly back to the U.S. after discovering her ailing mother Emma had suffered the health crisis.

The actress, who starred in the 1992 movie that inspired the West End musical, was due to headline the West End show until the end of August (10).

But the 54 year old’s summer (10) ended on a sad note – her mother passed shortly after Goldberg returned Stateside.

Revealing the news on the season premiere of her chat show The View on Tuesday (07Sep10), she told viewers, “My mom passed on the 29th of August (10).”

She went on to pay a touching tribute to her mom, a teacher, calling her “one of the best people I think I’ve had the privilege of knowing”, adding, “I don’t think she quite realized how many lives she touched. She was an extraordinary woman.”

But Goldberg assured fans close family ties are helping her to cope with the tragedy.

She continued, “My brother and I were very, very lucky to have her in our lives. And so, I’m not sad because she had a great time… I think I’m just sad sometimes because I think who will love me the way that she did? But I realized that my brother and I have each other so we’re OK.”