LONDON -- Oscar-winning actress Judi Dench, who has been busy for months with a string of film projects, said she plans to take a short break to confront her husband's death last year from lung cancer.

She told the British Broadcasting Corp. in an interview released Friday that she hadn't meant to throw herself into work after her husband, the noted Shakespearean actor Michael Williams, died in January 2001.

Dench said she had immersed herself in several projects because an actors' strike appeared likely last year and she hoped to finish them before it happened. She's nominated for an Oscar for her role in "Iris," appears in the recently released "The Shipping News," and has also been at work on the next James Bond movie.

"My agent asked was I sure about it, with only one or two days between each thing, and crossing the Atlantic? And I said, 'Yes, absolutely,'" Dench said. "But now I'm going to have a bit of a rest and come face to face with it all."

Hip-hop history shows at Georgia Music Hall

MACON, Ga. -- Hip-hop and R&B producer Jermaine Dupri has his own exhibit at the Georgia Music Hall of Fame.

Dupri and a small group of friends and family cut a ceremonial ribbon Thursday for the opening of the exhibit, "Welcome to Atlanta: A 10th Anniversary Celebration of So So Def Recordings and So So Def Productions." The exhibit will run through May 21.

Dupri, 29, founded the company and has generated dozens of chart-topping songs through his work with artists such as Mariah Carey, Usher and TLC.

The exhibit is the museum's first dedicated to hip-hop and contemporary R&B musicians from Georgia. It features rare photographs, performance clothing, gold and platinum records, and other memorabilia.

Comedian aims to change post-Sept. 11 timidity

NEW YORK -- Comedy has been a little timid since the terrorist attacks, and Colin Quinn is aiming to change that.

The former "Saturday Night Live" comedian plans jokes on the war, on Islam and on racial profiling in his new comic variety show. It debuts Monday on NBC.

"I don't think people should exploit or disrespect the dead, but I think there has been too much timidity," Quinn told The Associated Press.

His show debuts on the six-month anniversary of Sept. 11. But Quinn said he senses a yearning to laugh again, and he's serving up what he describes as a modern update of "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In" with topical humor.

NBC is giving him three shows to prove himself. The premiere of "The Colin Quinn" show is sandwiched between a celebrity "Fear Factor" and a salute to the late John Belushi.

"It's fun," he said. "I have no complaints yet. Notice I say 'yet.' Get back to me in a few weeks."

-- From wire reports