Crowe cashes in

Actor Russell Crowe is expected to see his fees double thanks to the success of the film Gladiator, according to the trade paper Variety.

Crowe is being offered major projects by Universal, Warner Bros and Paramount and his agents have raised his asking price to $15m (£9.4m), said the paper.

The 35-year-old New-Zealand born actor - nominated for an Oscar for his role in The Insider - received half that for his latest film Proof Of Life.

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Oh Nora - Ewan's back

Ewan McGregor's latest film, Nora, has premiered at a north London cinema.

The Scottish actor was joined at the event by actors Jude Law, Sadie Frost and Jonny Lee Miller and ex-world champion racing driver Damon Hill.

Nora is based on James Joyce's lifelong relationship with Nora Barnacle, who is played in the film by Susan Lynch.

McGregor said the film was "a great story" and had "one of the best scripts I have read in a long time".

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Monkey business for Hasselhoff

Former Baywatch star David Hasselhoff is to play himself in Mike Myers' next film, to be called Sprockets.

In the film, Myers plays a German who co-hosts his talk show with a monkey.

The script is being kept secret but is thought to centre around Hasselhoff's jealousy at the success of Myers' show.

The monkey is kidnapped, which leads Myers on a journey to America and the set of Baywatch in search of it.

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Westlife win fantasy share championship

Westlife have come top of the league in a new survey based on a Fantasy Football-style round up of the charts.

The group triumphed after being ranked according to their tally of number ones, singles sold and weeks in the top 75.

Experts from the Guinness British Hit Singles assigned cash values to the points scored to give Westlife a league-topping £14.3 million.

The boy band spent 34 weeks in the charts, had four number ones and sold 1.5m singles.

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Director Bartel dies

Maverick independent director Paul Bartel - best known for Eating Raoul and Death Race 2000 - has died aged 61.

The film-maker, writer and actor, who recently had surgery for liver cancer, died on Saturday from an apparent heart attack, says trade paper Variety.

He learned his trade in the Army and worked with B-movie king Roger Corman.

In the 1970s, he directed the low-budget sci-fi classic Death Race 2000 and car-race film Cannonball.

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Gay kiss for Dawson's Creek

An episode of US teenage drama Dawson's Creek will feature what its producers call the first romantic kiss between two characters in a gay relationship.

The kiss takes place between characters Jack and Ethan in True Love, the last episode of the current series.

Executive producer Greg Berlanti said one of the show's strong points was its way of dealing with "the 'firsts' that people have".

The episode will be screened by Channel 4 this summer.