Controversial director Roman Polanski will make an appearance in court this month — not to continue his infamously interrupted 1977 statutory rape case, but to testify in Britain’s High Court in a new libel case against Vanity Fair publisher, Conde Nast. The Oscar-winner, who hasn’t stepped foot in America since fleeing prior to sentencing nearly two decades ago, is bringing suit against the magazine company for an article suggesting he propositioned a stranger on the way to a funeral for his murdered wife, Sharon Tate, in 1969. Since Polanski runs the risk of being arrested and extradited to the U.S. if he testifies in person, he has obtained hard-won permission to testify via video-link from Paris, where he now resides. Also testifying on Polanski’s behalf will be his close friend and "Rosemary’s Baby" star, Mia Farrow, who was present on the night in question when Vanity Fair described Polanski’s improper behavior.
Speaking out for the first time in an upcoming interview with Playboy, Scottish actor Ewan McGregor has admitted a private battle with alcoholism. McGregor, who most recently appeared onscreen in "Star Wars Episode III: The Revenge of the Sith" and stars in this month’s "The Island," says he drank while working on movie sets, and is surprised that no co-workers or directors ever mentioned his glaring substance abuse. The actor, who has been sober for 4 ½ years, even attributes unspecified sub-par performances to alcohol use — which might explain such pre-Star Wars duds as "A Life Less Ordinary," "Nightwatch," and "Eye of the Beholder."
And finally, bringing in some outside help in her ongoing public shouting match with Tom Cruise, Brooke Shields now has a political force on her side — New Jersey governor Richard J. Codey. The politician, whose wife Mary Jo Codey has acknowledged a long battle with post-partum depression, defended the decision of his wife and other women to use prescription drugs to battle the illness and urged Cruise to "stick to acting." Codey backs Shields in the pro-drug position less than a week after the actress, responding to Cruise’s comments denouncing psychiatry and her use of anti-depressants, released a scathing op-ed piece in the New York Times in answer to Cruise’s publicity-tour outburst.
