The ashes of Monty Python star Graham Chapman were blasted into the skies in a rocket on New Year's Eve.

The comedian's flying ashes feat was dreamt up by his partner, David Sherlock, and took place at midnight on top of a Welsh mountain.

Chapman died of cancer aged 48 in October 1989 but Sherlock said: "I simply hadn't got round to it before."

Members of the Dangerous Sports Club carried out the suitably outrageous deed - one of Chapman's last wishes.

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All Saint star splits from actor Jonny

Pop star Natalie Appleton has split with her actor boyfriend Jonny Lee Miller, according to The Sun.

The celebrity couple decided to end their romance after a heated talk about their relationship on New Year's Eve.

"I feel I just need to get my head together and do my own thing," the All Saints singer told the tabloid.

"It was all happening too quickly... we both need our own space," she added.

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Noel 'in training' for new arrival

Oasis star Noel Gallagher is preparing for the pitter patter of tiny feet by shopping for trendy footwear.

"One thing is for sure, whatever sex this baby is, it will wear trainers," Meg Mathews told Having A Baby magazine, where she is guest editor.

"Everytime Nike or Adidas come out with a new style, he snaps up the smallest size. He reckons by the time the baby wears them they'll be fashionably 'old school'," explained Meg.

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Reeves takes pay cut to play bad guy

Hollywood star Keanu Reeves is taking a pay cut to play a vicious, wife-beating murder suspect in The Gift, according to US trade paper Daily Variety.

Reeves, 35, "jumped" at the chance to work with film director Sam Raimi and play against type without the burden of carrying the film, the paper says.

Reeves, who averages $15m (£9.3m) a movie, will work for scale in the film about a clairvoyant woman from a small town who becomes involved in a murder inquiry.

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Brit in the frame for Skywalker role

British actor Jonathan Brandis is reportedly in the running for the role of Anakin Skywalker in the second Star Wars prequel to be shot this year.

Brandis, who featured on TV in Seaquest DSV and has a small role in the film Ride With The Devil, told an internet movie site that he has already auditioned for the part.

Speculation on who will land the part is rife. Both Leonardo DiCaprio and Neighbours actor Jesse Spencer have been suggested as possible contenders.

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Pulp Fiction Jackson named top worker

Samuel L Jackson has been named the hardest working actor of the decade, in a survey published by USA Today.

Jackson appeared in 36 films, including Star Wars: Episode One, Jurassic Park and Pulp Fiction, which grossed $1.7bn (£1bn).



Harvey Keitel, whose 30 films made $709m (£443m), came second, whilst Whoopi Goldberg, followed in third.

The only Briton to make the Top 20 was 14th-placed Anthony Hopkins, whose 23 films brought in $654m (£408m).

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Changing Rooms star 'has worst home'

The BBC's flamboyant Changing Rooms star Lawrence Llewelyn-Bowen has the least stylish of celeb homes, readers of Living Etc magazine have voted.

They panned his stencilling and jigsawed MDF and the garden featuring a wendy house and miniature bridge.

David Beckham and Posh Spice's mock Georgian home, was voted second worst.

While comedian Alexei Sayle's warehouse conversion and Naked Chef Jamie Oliver's rented flat were voted some of the most stylish abodes.

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Legenday jazzman Adderley dies

Jazz great Nat Adderley has died at his home in Lakeland, US, of complications from diabetes. He was aged 68.

The Florida-born cornetist first came to prominence with his older brother, saxophonist Julian "Cannonball" Adderley, in the 1950s.

The composer of such jazz standards as Work Song and Jive Samba, Nat Adderley recorded with his own group and with the Cannonball Adderley Quintet.

He was inducted into the Jazz Hall of Fame in Kansas City in 1997.