Cruise helps rural school

Actor Tom Cruise has helped raise almost $8,000 (£5,000) to build an outside shelter for a rural New Zealand school.

Cruise called radio station Edge in New Plymouth, New Zealand, after it offered to pay $2,745 (£1,700) to anyone who persuaded the star to phone in live on air.

The actor, who is in the country filming The Last Samurai, persuaded the radio station to donate almost $4,000 (£2,500) to the Urenui junior school which he then matched.

He said he had heard about the school's fund-raising attempt by keeping his "ear to the ground" in the area where he has been filming on location for four months.

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Baby for Beautiful Mind stars

Jennifer Connelly and Beautiful Mind co-star Paul Bettany are expecting their first baby.

The two stars, who married only two months ago, had earlier denied they were expecting.

The couple started their relationship after meeting on the set of A Beautiful Mind, for which Connelly won a best actress Oscar last year.

Connelly, 32, already has a five-year-old son, Kai, from an earlier relationship with photographer Dave Dugan.

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Carthy sweeps folk awards

Folk singer Eliza Carthy won three awards at the BBC 2 Folk Awards on Monday.

McCarthy, the daughter of folk veterans Martin Carthy and Norma Waterson, folk singer of the year, best album for Anglicana and best traditional track for Worcester City.

Folk singer Linda Thompson won best original song for her track No Telling.

Other winners included former Labour MP Tony Benn, who won best live act with Roy Bailey for their duo The Writing On The Wall.

Winfrey award for charity work

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US talk show host Oprah Winfrey has been awarded Philadelphia's Marian Anderson Award for her charitable work.

The award, announced on Monday by Philadelphia mayor Mayor John F. Street, was given to the TV star because she was a "national mentor".

The award has been given out since 1998 to people who champion social issues

"Oprah Winfrey has probably been more influential in opening the minds and hearts of her audiences than any other public figure of the past 50 years," Mr Street said.

Previous winners of the award include Harry Belafonte, Gregory Peck and Elizabeth Taylor.

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Madonna's 'anti-war film'

Madonna is to release a video attacking the proposed US plans to go to war with Iraq, according to reports.

The video, which will be featured on her forthcoming CD American Life, will have Madonna dressed in military fatigues and throwing grenades to a dance beat.

It will be cut with shots of fashion shows and war victims, including babies.

"It expresses a panoramic view of our culture and the looming war through the view of a female superhero, portrayed by Madonna," the New York Post quoted a spokeswoman as saying.

But the film was not, the spokeswoman said, an attack on US president George W Bush.