Hollywood superstar Ewan McGregor has announced plans to travel around the world with his actor pal Charley Boorman on a motorbike. The Big Fish actor plans to cross harsh environments - including Siberia, Kazakhstan and Alaska - on their off-road bikes during the pair's three-month challenge. McGregor says, "The idea came a couple a years ago when we were planning a much shorter route down to Europe somewhere. It just grew and grew and grew. We thought maybe we would go to China and then it grew into this round-the- world trip." But, 33-year-old McGregor denies the testing journey is a premature mid-life crisis. He says, "I don't know that it's an easy thing to explain. If you ask anyone that goes on adventures it's very difficult for them to explain why. Maybe the better question is, 'Why not?'" Boorman, son of Point Blank director John Boorman, adds, "It's certainly not a mid-life crisis, we just love motorbikes and we love riding them so any excuse to get on a bike and do something like this seemed very much appropriate." The epic journey begins in London later this week and will be filmed for a documentary.

The model alleging to have conducted an affair with soccer ace David Beckham says she spent two years waiting for him to leave wife Victoria Beckham for her. According to stunning Sarah Marbeck, the Real Madrid hunk told her they could be a proper couple after confessing he had fallen in love with her. And Marbeck - who insists her account of their steamy relationship is true - says she decided to go public with her story after wasting years waiting for Beckham to keep his promise. Sarah says, "The reason I decided to go public with details of my relationship with David Beckham is because for two years my life was on hold waiting for him. He said he loved me and I slept with the phone by my bed, waiting for it to ring. Finally I accepted that my relationship with Beckham was over and I decided to move forward with my life. But in that time my life changed forever, and there is no way back for me." Marbeck's mother Maria is backing up her daughter's account of the affair saying: "I was aware of Sarah's relationship with David Beckham and supported her decision to tell the public about it." David and his former Spice Girl wife are seeking legal advice over Marbeck's story - insisting her claims are "unsubstantiated".

Veteran model-turned-actress Lauren Hutton was airlifted to hospital with chest pains yesterday, before doctors diagnosed her with a case of chronic indigestion. The American Gigolo star was cleared after tests at the Heart Hospital in New Mexico revealed her heart is strong, but has decided to speak out about her experience to highlight the real risks of heart disease in women. A statement says, "Knowing that one in two women die from heart disease, it is important to understand the risk factors for women and seek treatment immediately." Hutton spent two and a half weeks in hospital in 2000, following a motorbike crash which left her with head injuries and a broken wrist.

Hollywood hunk George Clooney is urging voters to judge his father Nick Clooney on his own political merits - not because he's the father of a movie star. In a piece which recently appeared in Ohio's Cincinnati Enquirer, the Ocean's Eleven star asks the voting public to judge his Kentucky Democratic congressional candidate dad fairly. He says, "(Opponents have said) that because of me, my father and I will 'go down with my ship' - a reference to a film I made called The Perfect Storm." Clooney then suggests other ways to incorporate his movie and TV titles into smear-campaign tactics. He adds, "Batman and his father are gonna be taught The Facts Of Life about Kentucky politics. The Peacemaker and his old man have been campaigning From Dusk Till Dawn to prove that a deficit that's Out Of Sight can hurt your paycheck. Nick Clooney is a grown man and he can take his own hits... but it'll be One Fine Day before he should take mine too."

Actress Jennifer Garner cites her heavy workload for breaking up her marriage to Scott Foley. The Alias actress - whose fame rose dramatically after the release of blockbusters Pearl Harbor and Daredevil - regrets her acting ambitions and her commitment to the hit TV series wrecked her union with Foley. Garner explains, "Every break-up is inexplicable, nothing but heartache. The first couple of years on the show required so much attention, so much focus. I worked every day. It's almost impossible to balance things in your life when you're starting a new series."

Music funnyman Weird Al Yankovic has pledged to continue touring after the tragic death of his parents, because he's hoping his wacky tunes will help him recover from the double loss. Nick Yankovic and Mary Yankovic, who were both in their 80s, were discovered dead of carbon monoxide poisoning in their San Diego, California, home on Friday. Paramedics found a wood fire had been burning in the fireplace, the house was full of smoke and the flue was closed. But devastated Yankovic is eager to resume his Poodle Hat tour, because he deems it the perfect way to overcome the tragedy. He says, "I briefly considered canceling some shows, but I ultimately decided that it would be better for me personally to continue working. Plus, I've heard from so many people over the years that my music has cheered them up in times of tragedy... well, I thought maybe my music would help me too. So far, it has."

Actor-turned-politician Arnold Schwarzenegger has spoken of his heroic efforts in saving a swimmer from drowning while on vacation in Hawaii last week. The California Governor was holidaying with his family in Maui when he helped a struggling swimmer by diving into the sea and bringing him back to the beach. The Terminator star, who is currently rallying up support for his workers' compensation initiative in California, says of the experience, "I realized he was having trouble and I asked him if he was in trouble and he said he had cramps all over his body - that he can't swim. I set him down on a beach and told him to relax a little bit because he was a little out of shape. He told me that for two years he hadn't done any exercise. If I do not rescue workers' comp here, I rescue people in Hawaii. It's one of the other!"

Hollywood superstar Val Kilmer has slammed long established reports he is impossible to work with. The actor has hit out at claims he is a troublemaker on movie sets, insisting journalists have simply created the derogatory tag for him because they "can't figure me out". He says, "Some extremely negative things have been said about me, but I don't think the people who like my films have been affected by that negativity. If I keep standing up and saying that I'm not the most hated man in Hollywood or whatever, then it sounds like I have something to hide, but I've got nothing to hide. A friend of mine observed recently that I was the only actor he could think of that Hollywood hadn't figured out yet. Maybe that's the only way they can figure me out, by portraying me as a bad guy, the troublemaker."

Hollywood superstar Tom Cruise has refused to cooperate with a diet plan designed to get him into top shape for Mission: Impossible 3 - because he prefers doing it his own way. Anxious studio bosses handed the 41-year-old the dietary schedule in preparation for his role as Ethan Hunt in the sequel, but Cruise is not interested in losing weight. A source explains, "The studio were concerned about him looking right so they had a diet drawn up for him. But Tom told them he does his own preparation. He's not chubby - training for The Last Samurai gave him muscle on muscle."

Legendary actor Jack Nicholson is investigating the possibility of buying a second castle - this time in Iceland. The Oscar-winner recently pumped an Icelandic journalist for details on the island, including how cold it is and if there were any castles for sale. Nicholson has a strange new mission to buy castles all over the world, and recently purchased one in Britain. But the 66-year-old was disappointed to learn, "The Vikings didn't build any castles."