People talk 07/22/03

Crowe prepares for fatherhood

SYDNEY, Australia -- "Gladiator" star Russell Crowe has a new empire to conquer: fatherhood.

The actor announced Monday that his wife, Danielle Spencer, is pregnant with their first child, which is due in January.

"Danni is 14 weeks and three days. So it is a lot of fun and she is feeling all the effects of it," Crowe told Australia's Channel Nine television.

The 39-year-old actor married Spencer, 32, on April 7 at his sprawling rural property of Nana Glen near the east Australian beach resort town of Coffs Harbour. Rumors had circulated since June 11 that the couple was expecting a baby.

Crowe won a best-actor Oscar for 2000's "Gladiator," that year's best-picture winner. He also starred in the Academy Award winner for best picture the following year, "A Beautiful Mind."

Hudson looking forward to maternity clothes

NEW YORK -- Kate Hudson loves to shop, so naturally she's looking forward to buying maternity clothes now that she's pregnant.

"I've been waiting for this moment," the actress tells InStyle magazine for its August issue. "I can't wait until it's time to find fun and stylish maternity wear. I'm actually more excited about dressing as a pregnant woman. You get to present something so completely female."

Hudson, 24, and her husband, former Black Crowes lead singer Chris Robinson, announced in June that they're expecting their first child. The baby is due sometime early next year.

"I can't wait to bring a little human being onto this planet!" Hudson tells the magazine. "When it happens, it will be the most beautiful thing in the world."

But before it happens, Hudson will co-star with Naomi Watts in "Le Divorce," a Merchant Ivory film that opens Aug. 8 in New York and Los Angeles.

So far this year, she's also appeared in the romantic comedies "Alex & Emma" with Luke Wilson and "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days" with Matthew McConaughey.

Coldplay lead singer must appear in court

SYDNEY, Australia -- Coldplay lead singer Chris Martin, the boyfriend of actress Gwyneth Paltrow, allegedly clashed with a photographer on a popular tourist beach and will appear in an Australian court, newspapers reported Monday.

The popular British band played at a music festival in the northern New South Wales beach town of Byron Bay over the weekend.

The Daily Telegraph, a Sydney tabloid, reported that 47-year-old freelance photographer Jon Lister followed the singer to nearby Seven Mile beach Sunday where Martin went surfing. The 26-year-old allegedly emerged from the water furious, demanding Lister erase the photos from his digital camera, Lister told the paper.

The incident allegedly resulted in the windshield of Lister's car being broken and the air let out from his tires.

Police refused to confirm Martin's involvement. However, a police spokeswoman said a 26-year-old Englishman had been given a notice to appear in Byron Bay Local Court on Oct. 8 to answer an allegation of malicious damage.

Paltrow is in Australia with Martin, but is not believed to have been present at the time of the clash.

The band is due to leave for Japan this week.

Streisand prepares to welcome home 'Reagan'

LOS ANGELES -- Democratic Party stalwart Barbra Streisand will be welcoming a Republican president home.

Her husband, actor James Brolin, has been cast as Ronald Reagan in the four-hour CBS miniseries "The Reagans," set to air during the November sweeps period.

The network hasn't asked Streisand her opinion of the casting, "but we'll have to live with that," CBS chairman Leslie Moonves joked Sunday in remarks to the Television Critics Association.

Brolin, who starred in the TV series "Marcus Welby, M.D.," "Hotel" and "Pensacola: Wings of Gold," will play Reagan as he moves from his film career to California governor to president.

Australian actress Judy Davis will play Nancy Reagan.

Asked about Brolin's casting, Moonves said he's relying on the track record of veteran producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron ("Chicago," TV's "Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows.").

"It took us a minute to digest it," Moonves said, but "they were convinced that he was the right guy for it, and we back them."

Visitors pay respects to Lee 30 years after death

SEATTLE -- Dozens of people stopped by Bruce Lee's grave to pay their respects to the kung fu legend 30 years after his death.

Whether they were old friends or young martial arts enthusiasts, many who visited Lake View Cemetery Sunday said their admiration for Lee went far beyond his fame as a movie star.

"He never let anything stop him," said Michael Seeder, 29, of Portland, Ore. "He never put limitations on himself. If an obstacle got in his way, he found a way around it."

Born in San Francisco in 1940, Lee grew up in Hong Kong, then returned to the United States when he was 18. He lived in Seattle for 4 1/2 years in the early 1960s.

Lee opened his first kung fu studio while studying philosophy at the University of Washington. He fell in love with one of his students, Linda Emery, whom he married in 1964.

Lee first became known to U.S. audiences as Kato, a sidekick in the 1960s television series "The Green Hornet." He acted in a series of Hong Kong films in the early 1970s, which made him a star in Asia, then Europe and eventually the United States.

-- From wire reports