Tabloid newspapers are speculating that Britain's Prince William, 23, is about to propose to his girlfriend Kate Middleton on holiday in the Caribbean.

The elder son of heir to the throne Britain's
Prince Charles and the late Princess Diana is flying to the island of Mustique on Friday to join the 24-year-old Middleton, the Evening Standard reported on Friday.

The London newspaper, which broke the news of Camilla Parker Bowles' engagement to Britain's Prince Charles, said William sought advice on the best place to hide away from prying paparazzi lenses.

Mustique was the favorite holiday destination of William's great aunt, Princess Margaret. Her son Viscount Linley sold her villa on Mustique to cover death duties.

Feverish speculation about a royal engagement began in The Mail on Sunday with the banner headline "Kate takes William on holiday -- but will he pop the question?"

William has in the past said he did not want to get married until he is at least 28 or 30 but the paper breathlessly reported they could be just "weeks away" from being engaged.

But Judy Wade, royal correspondent for the celebrity gossip magazine Hello, felt the rumor mill was over-reaching itself.

"I think this romance is serious but today young couples live together for a while. And William wants to be sure, and not have a disaster like his parents," she told Reuters.

"I don't think he will get married until next year at the earliest."

Asked to confirm the Evening Standard report of the romantic Caribbean tryst, a spokesman for William, second in line to the throne, said: "We never comment on private holidays."

The pair met while studying at the University of St Andrews in Scotland and shared a house together.

The royalty-obsessed press agreed to leave William alone at university but the uneasy truce was broken when paparazzi pursued the couple around the elegant Austrian resort of Klosters when they went skiiing together.

Middleton, dubbed "Her Royal Shyness" by one newspaper, is the daughter of two middle-class entrepreneurs who run a company which provides accessories for children's parties.

Jessica Hay, a friend who went to the same boarding school, told The Independent on Sunday: "Kate has class, stamina and the mental strength to survive the limelight."

The self-effacing brunette will need all that stamina to survive "trial by media" -- the remorseless spotlight faced by William's late mother Diana, who died in a Paris car crash in 1997 while being chased by paparazzi.

William and Kate have been apart for the last three months while he began army training at Sandhurst military academy.

His 21-year-old younger brother Harry, once dubbed the royal "wild child" for his underage drink antics, graduated from the academy earlier this month.

He has been romantically linked to Cape Town student Chelsy Davy, who in, contrast to Middleton, is regularly portrayed as an avid party-goer.

"I think that I'm different from other actresses on WB. Partly because of my Asian side -- my look -- I don't think I come across like Katie Holmes does on-screen... My dad’s Dutch and my mom’s Chinese, so she was responsible for being tough with me and with my sister. That’s the Asian part in my personality, being conservative. I couldn’t date until I was 16 and I wasn’t allowed to wear any make-up until that age and any grade at school under a B was a disaster. Everything is part of the education I got and the weight problems with girls I knew closely, because my little sister has a friend who was bulimic at age 12. It’s just terrible... I did karate when I was younger for like five years, and I couldn't stand it...but that's because I think it was regular karate... I think it was Shotokan karate so you like block block block, punch punch punch and so it wasn't very much fun. But I do wanna go back into it." -- Kristin Kreuk

The 23-year-old actress currently plays Lana Lang in WB's Smallville and her upcoming film Partition is scheduled for release later this year.

London, UK :: Actor Orlando Bloom, 29, went shopping yesterday for some trendy new furniture for his London pad and was accompanied by his interior designer, his mum, Sonia and sister, Samantha Bloom. Orlando dropped by two interior design shops in central London -- Skandia (?) and Forza Furniture located at Great Portland Street and later stopped by The Plaza hotel located at Knightsbridge Road. Orlando's next film Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest co-starring Johnny Depp and Keira Knightley opens in theaters nationwide this summer on July 7, 2006.

Katie Holmes has decided to drop the girlish name 'Katie' in favour of the more mature 'Kate'.

The star decided to change her name after talking to husband Tom Cruise extensively about it. The pair decided that Katie sounded too girlish for a 27-year-old and so concluded that Holmes would be known as Kate instead.

Cruise commented: "Katie is a young girl's name. Her name is Kate now she's a child-bearing woman."

Katie's name is not the only thing she has changed since meeting Tom Cruise. Brought up a strict Catholic, the star converted to the Scientology religion when she began her relationship with the Mission: Impossible heartthrob and intends to bring up her daughter, Suri, according to the controversial religion.

Lionsgate has picked up worldwide distribution rights to Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged from Howard and Karen Baldwin (Ray), who will produce with John Aglialoro, reports Variety.

Angelina Jolie, a longtime devotee of Rand's, and Brad Pitt, also a fan, are rumored to be circling the leading roles of Dagny Taggart and John Galt.

Atlas Shrugged, which runs more than 1,100 pages, has faced a lengthy and circuitous journey to a film adaptation.

The Russian-born author's seminal novel, published in 1957, revolves around the economic collapse of the U.S. sometime in the future and espouses her individualistic philosophy of objectivism. The violent, apocalyptic ending has always posed a challenge but could prove especially so in the post-9/11 climate.

Viggo Mortensen ("The Lord of the Rings") is reteaming with director David Cronenberg for Eastern Promises at Focus Features and BBC Films, reports Variety.

The project, written by Steve Knight (Dirty Pretty Things), is a London thriller that centers on a nurse investigating the identity of a Russian girl who dies in childbirth. The nurse stumbles into danger when she learns the woman was a prostitute involved in sex trafficking.

Mortensen plays a man caught up in the Russian mob.

RONAN KEATING could be called to give evidence against SNOOP DOGG after he witnessed the rapper's alleged brawl with police and staff at London's Heathrow airport.

According to eyewitnesses, the LIFE IS A ROLLERCOASTER crooner was present throughout the incident which is thought to have occurred after some members of the DROP IT LIKE IT'S HOT hitmaker's entourage were refused entry to the first class lounge.

The hip-hop star and five members of his entourage have been charged with violent disorder and affray following the alleged incident.

Oscar-winner JAMIE FOXX has tipped his MIAMI VICE co-star COLIN FARRELL for big things, after being bowled over by his acting brilliance.

The RAY star initially feared the Irish heart-throb's reported arrogance would spoil any chance of a friendship, but he was thrilled to find Farrell's confidence is not misplaced.

And Foxx was even more delighted to discover Farrell's intensity on camera is mirrored in his social life, insisting the ALEXANDER star is the life and soul of any party.

He says, "He's a superstar in waiting. He is as great as he thinks he is. We've had some pretty wild nights out while filming Miami Vice."

Enchanted is a Disney film currently in production. It uses both traditional 2D animation and live-action - the animation depicts the fantasy/fairy tale world, and the live-action depicts New York. Giselle (Amy Adams), a girl from an animated world is thrown out by the evil Queen Narissa (Susan Sarandon) into live-action New York, where the girl falls for a man living in the city. The film will be the first live-action/animation film by Disney since 1988 film Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Legendary Disney music composer Alan Menken will be providing the film's original score.

Confirmed cast -- Amy Adams as Giselle, Susan Sarandon as Queen Narissa and James Marsden as Prince Edward. In negotiations -- Patrick Dempsey as Robert and Idina Menzel as Nancy. Tentative release date is November 2, 2007.

Chanel has selected Pride & Prejudice star Keira Knightley as the new face of its Coco Mademoiselle fragrance. The 21-year-old actress will appear in Chanel ads beginning in 2007, the company announced Wednesday. Knightley succeeds Kate Moss, whose contract expired last October. The 32-year-old British supermodel had starred in the Coco Mademoiselle ads since 2002. Moss lost several high-profile modeling contracts last year after a tabloid published pictures of her allegedly using cocaine in a west London music studio.

Ann Curry :: In what seems to be the middle of no where, on the edge of Namibia in Southern Africa. A very pregnant Angelina Jolie emerged from her private family vacation to speak on behalf of children in poor countries who don't get to go to school. What is the worst, in your mind, of that?
Angelina Jolie :: God, there are just so many things. It's really that thought of the potential of a human being. The lack of education causes death. More children die under the age of 5 when the parents aren't educated. More people get AIDS when they haven't had an education. Statistics prove that if every child was in school, every year, 700,000 less people would get AIDS.

AC :: It seems also, for you, kind of a personal thing. You have two children you've adopted. Both of you whom might have been in this same circumstance of not being able to get educated. And when you look at them and realize that...
AJ :: I look at them and just think, especially my daughter and how many millions of kids are out of school in her country. Especially girls. And I know how families with AIDS when parents die of AIDS, there's no possible way that children can make a school fee. There's no possible way she would have gone to school. And she is so smart and so strong. Her potential as a women one day is great. You multiply her by thousands and that is the thing that I can so clearly see when I look at her. Maddox -- the amount of street children in his country... in all probability Maddox would have probably been one of the kids going the garbage picking in the streets. He would have been on his own.

AC :: It must mean much to you, as a human being, to be able to give them an opportunity they never would have gotten.
AJ :: I'm happy for them that they're gonna have all this education and I hope, with it, they do some good things. That they're good people. [giggles]

Joined by senators from the left and right, Oscar-winning actor George Clooney used his star power on Thursday to focus attention on Sudan's Darfur region, where he said the first genocide of this century was taking place.

Clooney told heart-breaking stories of visiting the border area between Chad and Sudan's Darfur region last week, where he watched refugees spilling into sordid camps and women foraging for food who faced the threat of rape or death.

Clooney urged the public to attend rallies across the United States this Sunday to pressure Khartoum to stop what Washington says amounts to genocide in Darfur.

Hollywood actors, political, religious leaders and sporting personalities will be among those at the rallies, which are expected to draw hundreds of thousands of people.

"What we cannot do is turn our heads and look away and hope that this will somehow disappear," Clooney said to an unusually packed news conference at the National Press Club. "It's the first genocide of the 21st century."

Clooney showed a short video from his visit with his father to Sudan and neighboring Chad, a collection of interviews and disturbing pictures of emaciated children in dusty camps.

The actor, flanked by conservative Sen. Sam Brownback, a Kansas Republican, and liberal Sen. Barack Obama, a Democrat from Illinois, said a young girl asked him during his trip when he would return and "stop this."

Clooney is usually seen more frequently among Democratic politicians and has often criticized the Bush administration for its policies, but on Thursday he said issues such as Darfur could not be partisan.

Two rebel groups from Darfur, which is about the size of Texas, took up arms in early 2003 over what they saw as neglect by Sudan's Arab-dominated central government.

Khartoum is accused of arming militias drawn mainly from Arab tribes to crush the rebellion. A campaign of murder, rape, looting and arson ensued that has killed tens of thousands of people and drove more than 2 million into camps in Darfur and Chad.

Quentin Tarantino will direct a forthcoming biopic about Jimi Hendrix, according to reports.

The infamous filmmaker is said to have agreed to shoot the film, which is thought to have been in production for some months.

Tarantino will collaborate with Leon Hendrix, Jimi's brother, on the movie, and will be given full access to his name, likeness, and archive interview footage for the project.

Shooting is expected to begin later this year, with the movie scheduled to take in numerous cities that played host to the life of Hendrix, including Seattle, New York, Toronto, and London.

Jessica and Ashlee Simpson stayed at the
Hilton hotel in Sydney on their recent MTV-funded
trip. The hotel has one of the city's best
restaurants, the Glass Brasserie, run by one
of Australia's top chefs, Luke Mangan.
The sisters went for dinner there one night,
but wouldn't eat anything on the delicious menu
(steaks, oysters, baby barramundi, chocolate
tart etc). So what are two spoiled, hungry
sisters to do? Well, you sit in the
restaurant in silence, surrounded by four
enormous bodyguards, and order in from Pizza
Hut - a large pepperoni and double cheese.

BRITISH junkie rock star Pete Doherty was caught on camera allegedly injecting a drug into a girl fan's arm, it has emerged today.

The shocking image shows the singer holding the syringe as the girl lies apparently unconscious on a kitchen floor.

British newspaper said the picture was taken at Doherty's home in Hackney, east London, within the past five weeks.

They also published a picture of supermodel Kate Moss, 32, who they said has been secretly seeing Doherty, 27, despite their apparent public split.

A second picture of Doherty shows the singer jabbing a needle into his tattooed forearm.

Tony Linkin, of Coalition public relations, who has spoken on behalf of Doherty, said he was not aware of the pictures and could not comment.

He said Doherty was currently not represented by a manager.

Doherty was in London last night after his band Babyshambles performed at Plymouth Pavilions on Wednesday, he added.

The pictures are the latest episode in Doherty's battle with heroin and numerous encounters with the law.

Last Friday, he was bailed after being arrested on suspicion of fresh drug offences in East London.

The arrest came just three hours after he was spared jail by magistrates for possessing controlled drugs.