Nelson Mandela's autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, is to be brought to the screen by Indian director Shekhar Kapur and produced by Anant Singh, who announced a budget of between $40 and $50 million. Kapur, director of Bandit Queen, hopes to begin shooting in August for release in 1999. The film makers are refusing to rule out a big name US star, despite a promise to Mandela they would cast local actors. Mandela granted the film rights to Singh while in captivity under the apartheid regime.
Neil Morrissey (35), who stars in Men Behaving Badly has spoken for the first time about his new love, Rachel Weisz. Morrissey split with Liz Carling, his partner of seven years, earlier this year and within weeks it emerged he was seeing his co-star from the comedy My Summer With Des.
President Laurent Kabila of the Democratic Republic of the Congo yesterday invited Michael Jackson to help him celebrate his year in power with a concert in Kinshasa. Kabila's anniversary celebrations flopped on Sunday when most African heads of state boycotted his parade, apparently in protest against his human rights record and authoritarian style of government.
Gerard Depardieu (49) was in a Paris hospital yesterday after a fall from a motorbike.
He had been on his way to the filming of Asterix, a movie about the cartoon-strip hero who defied the Romans in ancient Gaul. Depardieu was treated briefly in the suburbs for leg and chest injuries before being transferred to Paris.
US actor Daniel Baldwin (37) has appeared in court in Manhattan on cocaine charges. He did not enter a plea in the case and is free on $1,000 bail. The actor was arrested last February after wrecking a room at New York's Plaza Hotel, police said.