The AP is reporting that Buddy Ebsen, the lanky hoofer who gained his greatest fame on television in The Beverly Hillbillies and Barnaby Jones, has passed away from undisclosed illnesses at Torrance Memorial Medical Center in California. Ebsen was 95. Ebsen started his career in entertainment as a dancer with his sister, Vilma Ebsen, in movies, but he is remembered for the rural characters he played on TV. Ebsen was also originally cast as The Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz but the aluminum powder applied to his skin was toxic and made him ill; he was replaced by Jack Haley. Ebsen would have to wait for fame another fourteen years, when he became known to children and their parents as George Russell, the amiable, common-sense pal of Fess Parker's Davy Crockett. Crockett, which was shown on Walt Disney's "Disneyland" series, was a cultural phenomenon in the '50s, causing a coonskin cap fashion craze. Ebsen's most popular series, however, was The Beverly Hillbillies, playing Jed Clampett, the not-so-dumb patriarch of a clan of Ozark bumpkins whose nouveau riche status lands them squarely in the middle of a posh Californian mansion. The show survived for nine years with several episodes enjoying record viewership (the episode where Granny fought a kangaroo she believed was a giant jack-rabbit remains one of the most viewed half-hour programs of all time). Ebsen then went on to play the slow-but-sure private investigator Barnaby Jones in the show of the same name. Jones was a surprise hit and was on the air for seven years. Ebsen also brought a sad compassion to his role of Doc, Holly Golightly's skeleton-in-the-closet husband in Breakfast at Tiffany's (it was this sympathetic role that reportedly landed him the lead as Jed Clampett). Ebsen was married twice and had seven children; six daughters and one son. --Prepared by IMDb staff

Moulin Rouge star John Leguizamo has wed his longtime girlfriend. The comedian-actor, 42, and his 35-year-old belle Justine Maurer exchanged nuptials on Saturday in New York. The couple's three-year-old daughter Allegra was the flower girl, while their son Ryder, two, was the ring bearer. Emmy Award winner Leguizamo will next be seen in the HBO film Undefeated, which he also wrote and directed.

Politically-inclined action hero Arnold Schwarzenegger personally beefed up Independence Day celebrations for American soldiers in Iraq on the Fourth of July. Inside fallen dictator Saddam Hussein's former summer vacation palace, the actor mixed self-deprecating jokes with praise for hundreds of soldiers who stood on marble floors and cheered from balconies draped with the American flag. He thanked soldiers for making the American way of life possible - and continued with talk likely to fuel speculation he will run for California governor. He said, "First of all congratulations for saying `hasta la vista baby' to Saddam Hussein. I came here from the United States because I wanted to pump you all up. This is really wild driving around here. I mean the poverty. And you see there is no money. Disastrous financially. Then there is a leadership vacuum. Pretty much like in California right now." Some soldiers were impressed with the muscleman's appearance - Captain Jeanette Husman, from Wisconsin, says, "It's pretty bad when you have to get deployed in Iraq to see him." But Staff Sergeant Dominique Rollins was a little disappointed - he says, "Actually he is a lot smaller than I thought he was going to be. I was picturing Conan. I saw Kindergarten Cop." And still others had better ideas about which celebrities would really make their day. Specialist Julio Lopez says, "They need to bring J.Lo out here. Oh yeah, I am a big fan of hers."

Legendary soul sensation Barry White has died of kidney failure at the age of 58, after becoming a father just four weeks ago. The much-loved "You're the First, the Last, My Everything" crooner - who was famed for his deep and sexy voice - had been in a Los Angeles hospital since September having dialysis treatment following years of high blood pressure, and passed away on Friday night. Barry was hoping to have a kidney transplant operation - but a stroke in May, which paralyzed one side of his face, delayed the crucial procedure. However, despite a series of health problems, larger-than-life Barry was delighted when partner Katherine Denton gave birth to his eighth child, a daughter, last month. Soul singer Isaac Hayes says, "I'm incredibly upset and it marks the passing of not only a friend but a great talent." Barry - who won two Grammy awards, despite being unable to read or write music - was born in Galveston, Texas, in 1944 and grew up in Los Angeles. He said Elvis Presley's "It's Now or Never" inspired him to pursue a career as a singer. Barry symbolized seductive Seventies disco music and his fame lasted for 30 years. His last album, Unlimited Love, was released last year.

Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde director Charles Herman- Wurmfeld believes his new comedy is "politically subversive" - despite its harmless appearance. The new comedy sees Reese Witherspoon's hapless Elle Woods character move into politics - and Herman-Wurmfeld is urging audiences to look out for the political subtext of the movie, which he hopes hasn't been masked by the way the film has been marketed. He says, "I think this movie is deceptive, it's subversive. Though sometimes I feel like we've been so watered down that no one's going to notice. I saw in this new movie this greater political consciousness thing going on. When I read it, I thought this is like a manual for grass-roots activism. It's literally a like 'how to' of becoming political. My concern is that it's perceived and marketed as a kind of flag-waving, patriotic, fourth of July celebration, and I think it will be sold to Americans that way to a certain extent. But I think they're going to get a lot of medicine with their spoonful of sugar."

The Gods Must Be Crazy star N!Xau has died of natural causes while collecting wood in the Namibian countryside. N!xau, 59, gained international acclaim for his performance in the 1980 film and the 1989 sequel - but decided to return to life as an African herdsman. Mireschen Troskie-marx of Mimosa Films says, "Apparently he went out to find wood on Tuesday and never returned. His family went out looking for him and he was found dead in a field. We believe it was of natural causes. He went to America, to Paris, to Japan. He was a world star, but he came back and he want back to his old roots." The Gods Must Be Crazy was a comedy hit worldwide and made an unlikely star of N!xau, who appeared in a number of kung-fu flicks in Hong Kong.

Hollywood hero Quentin Tarantino is back - and he's as bloody as ever. The True Romance scribe has finally completed his long-awaited fourth feature film as a director, Kill Bill, which stars Uma Thurman and Lucy Liu, and in the tradition of Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown, it will be a bloody affair - except this time Quentin's demanding extra-special fluids. He says, "I'm really particular about the blood, so we're using a mixture depending on the scenes. I say, 'I don't want horror movie blood, alright? I want Samurai blood.' You can't pour this raspberry pancake syrup on a sword and have it look good. You have to have this special kind of blood that you only see in samurai movies."

Will & Grace star Shelley Morrison insists she blacked out in a department store and can't remember stealing "tacky jewelry". The actress was arrested earlier this year and charged with shoplifting after a trip to buy a new pair of shoes in a Beverly Hills Robinsons May store turned into an embarrassing incident. Morrison, who plays maid Rosario in the hit sitcom, says, "I don't know why I did it. I remember buying the shoes and I remember walking outside and having three security people starting to yell at me to take off my jacket. They were taking these tacky things out of my jacket. It was stuff I wouldn't have bought and it was on sale and when they tallied it up it came to $98, but for some reason the store's policy was they were going to charge me full price." Morrison, who pleaded no contest to the charges and was fined $300 and given a year's probation, is convinced the shoplifting incident was an unconscious cry for help. She adds, "I've since seen therapists and they explained to me that I left no room for myself and sometimes the mind has a mini earthquake. I did a dumb thing that was so out of character. If they give me too much change, I give it back to them."

Legendary ABBA songwriter Bjorn Ulvaeus is delighted his musical Mamma Mia! is making him more money than when he was in the '70s chart-toppers. The "Waterloo" star wrote the music and lyrics for the stage show, which this week was watched by its 10 millionth audience member, with former ABBA colleague Benny Andersson - and he's seen the proceeds stack up. Bjorn, 57, says, "It's going to make me richer than ABBA ever did. In the '70s, groups didn't make the incredible deals that they did in the '80s and '90s. They never became as rich. It's never bothered me. We were only ever in it for the love of music. Having too much too soon can be very dangerous anyway." And despite his love for writing ABBA's songs, Bjorn doesn't yearn for the good old days. He says, "I'm not nostalgic for those days. I wouldn't like to have it back. Creating was what I really enjoyed. In this business, it all begins and ends with a song. Without that, no one is anything."

Legally Blonde actress Jennifer Coolidge had an unusual method of enforcing the law before hitting fame - she posed as a pregnant woman to nab maternity store thieves. The screen star had a long list of bizarre jobs which she got fired from before she found success in the movies, which included hunting down light-fingered shoppers. She says, "To catch shoplifters I posed as a pregnant woman in a maternity store. I actually caught a woman working in the store - the cashier." But Coolidge soon lost her job - something which the Massachusetts native was quite used to. She says, "I was asked to speak at a high school graduation for my hometown, and I just strung together all my getting fired stories."

Madonna, Sean 'P Diddy' Combs, Britney Spears and Nelly were among the celebrities who teamed up for a project of a different kind - picking on MTV VJ Carson Daly. Submitting jokes about his childhood, career and tabloid-covered love life, 30- year-old Daly was roasted on Saturday, June 28, by some of the very subjects he interviews, at MTV's inaugural Bash. Carson's ex-girlfriend Jennifer Love Hewitt caused quite a stir when she read a supposed love letter he wrote her. And he was left red-faced after a visit from an "inebriated" woman in a wedding dress impersonating his former fiancee Tara Reid. Bash will hit American TV screens this month.

Ethan Hawke is offering fans the chance to produce his new movie Billy Dead. The enterprising hunk is struggling to finance the project, about a troubled working-class Michigan family, and so he has turned to filmgoers for help. Movie fans are being offered the chance to buy up 900,000 shares of stock for just $8.75 each, so Hawke can raise the $8 million he needs to make the project. If the idea is a success, it will be the first time a film has been financed in such a fashion.