Although a Spider-Man 4 movie is not yet on Hollywood's drawing board, series star Kirsten Dunst says a sequel without her, co-star Tobey Maguire and director Sam Raimi would be a box-office flop. Entertainment Weekly magazine yesterday cited Raimi as confirming a long-held Hollywood rumour that he might take the directing reins on a movie version of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit if Peter Jackson is not eventually hired. Separately Dunst told the magazine that if that happens, a Spider-Man 4 without Raimi, her and Maguire would be "disrespectful to the whole team. . . . Audiences aren't stupid. It'd be a big flop without me, Tobey or Sam."

Barry Gibb, the former Bee Gee who bought the Nashville house that Johnny Cash and his wife, June Carter Cash, lived in for decades before their deaths in 2003, said yesterday he plans to build a new home near where the house stood before burning down last week. The lakeside home in Hendersonville was destroyed by fire last Tuesday.

Jennifer Lopez and her husband, Marc Anthony, are suing the National Enquirer in European courts over the tabloid's claims they were linked to a drug scandal, their Belfast lawyer said yesterday. Paul Tweed, who specializes in bringing U.S.-based celebrities' libel cases to British and Irish courts, said that actor-singer Lopez, 38, and singer Anthony, 37, were seeking "a six-figure settlement" from the Enquirer, based in Boca Raton, Fla., and its parent company, American Media Inc. Tweed said the lawsuit would be filed today in a Belfast court, and then in courts in Dublin, London and Paris. The lawsuit also seeks an apology and retraction for an article that appeared in U.S. and international editions.

Madonna, make way for Kylie Minogue. The Australian pop singer is the newest star to join with Swedish fashion retailer Hennes & Mauritz, inspiring a limited swimwear line to debut in mid-May, the company said.

Angry crowds in several Indian cities are burning effigies of Richard Gere. It's happening after Gere swept a popular Bollywood actor into his arms and kissed her several times during an AIDS-awareness event. Photographs of Gere embracing Shilpa Shetty and kissing her in New Delhi were splashed across front pages. India is a country where sex and public displays of affection are largely taboo. In Mumbai, members of a right-wing Hindu nationalist group burned effigies of Gere with sticks and set fire to photos of Shetty. Similar protests have broken out in other cities. At the AIDS event, in front of a cheering crowd, Gere kissed the giggling Shetty on the hand, then kissed her on both cheeks before bending her in a full embrace to kiss her cheek again. "This is a bit too much," Shetty said. Yesterday, she tried to stamp out the controversy. "I understand this is his culture, not ours. But this was not such a big thing or so obscene."

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