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'N Sync's Bass makes bid for space flight

MOSCOW -- Lance Bass of the boy band 'N Sync is negotiating with the Russian Space Agency at its cosmonaut training center as part of his bid to become the next space tourist.

Bass arrived at Russia's Star City, north of Moscow, last week to participate in some preliminary training, the space agency said Tuesday.

Russian space doctors have cleared the 23-year-old singer for a flight, but space officials said negotiations are still ongoing and a contract had not been signed.

Bass hopes to secure a place on the Soyuz rocket that is to be launched this October to the International Space Station.

The singer, a Mississippi native, has said it was his childhood dream to travel to space.

The world's second space tourist, South African Mark Shuttleworth, returned to Earth in May after a weeklong trip that cost him $20 million -- the same sum the world's first space tourist, Dennis Tito, paid last year.

Hanks turns 46 and has no trouble finding parts

CHICAGO -- Women may have trouble finding good film roles after they turn 40, but Tom Hanks figures he's OK for a good long while.

Hanks, who turned 46 Tuesday, said he's not found decent parts harder to come by as he ages. He received two Academy Awards back to back in his late 30s, for "Philadelphia" and "Forrest Gump," and had two more nominations in his 40s for "Saving Private Ryan" and "Cast Away."

With his latest, "Road to Perdition," Hanks could earn his sixth best-actor nomination. The film, in which Hanks stars as a vengeful hit man at odds with his paternal mob mentor (Paul Newman), opens Friday.

-- From wire reports