George Clooney has been forced to cancel a string of press appearances to promote the Ocean's Eleven sequel Ocean's Twelve after aggravating a ruptured disc in his back. The movie star has scrapped appearances on The Late Show with David Letterman and Oprah Winfrey's daytime show while he recovers. Insiders claim he's in too much pain to travel. The new sequel, opening next week in the US, is directed by original Ocean's Eleven helmer Steven Soderbergh and also stars Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Julia Roberts.

Drew Barrymore's actor father John Drew Barrymore has died at the age of 72. No information was released about the cause of death or where in Los Angeles he died. But in a statement issued by her publicist yesterday, Drew said, "He was a cool cat. Please smile when you think of him." John D. Barrymore was part of an acting dynasty that included his father, John Barrymore, and his father's siblings, Lionel Barrymore and Ethel Barrymore. He had a sporadic film career that began with Hollywood films in the 1950s including The Big Night and While The City Sleeps. Yet he also possessed a rebellious streak that led to numerous scrapes with the law, friends and family, including a long estrangement from Drew and her brother John. At various times he was reported to be living like a hermit or a beggar, and Drew once said in an interview that there were times when she did not know where her father was.

Irish lothario Colin Farrell reportedly enjoyed a romantic liaison with American socialite Paris Hilton last week. The Phone Booth hunk was promoting his new film Alexander when he bumped into the blonde heiress, who was being filmed for Barbara Walters' TV show The Ten Most Fascinating People Of 2004. A source tell Scotland's Daily Record newspaper, "Colin is a lot hotter in person and Paris was unbelievably sweet. But it was not clear, though, whether the couple had previously arranged a meeting or it was just coincidence. Still, what happens when the two most oversexed people on the planet get together - they continued the party, alone, after the cameras shut off." Hilton has been romantically linked to a host of famous men, including Backstreet Boy Nick Carter, former porn star Simon Rex, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jamie Kennedy, Sum 41 singer Deryck Whibley and Australian Idol contestant Rob Mills. Meanwhile, Farrell has a baby son James with ex-love Kim Bordenave.

A judge has refused to order the teenager who accuses Michael Jackson's of molesting him to be examined by a psychiatrist. Santa Barbara Superior Court Judge Rodney Melville flatly denied the request by Jackson's lawyers and said during a pre-trial hearing that nothing would persuade him to change his mind. Jackson did not attend the hearing. The Thriller star is accused of molesting a boy under the age of 14 and plying him with alcohol to seduce him. Prosecutors also allege he engaged in a cover-up with members of his staff to keep the boy and his family from reporting the abuse. Jackson says he is innocent and the victim of a vendetta. The case continues.

Top Hollywood couple Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey spent the Thanksgiving weekend reassuring concerned family members that they weren't on the verge of splitting up. The stars of MTV reality show Newlyweds have been apart working on separate projects for the past month, while gossips speculate about the state of their two-year-old marriage. So they took time out over Thanksgiving to clear up the rumors with a family get together in Waco, Texas. Simpson says, "It makes me angry that my whole family has to read it and question Nick and I. We were at home for Thanksgiving and we got to clear everything up. It's just weird, it's so fabricated, it's coming from nowhere. They have to answer to everybody, to the public all the time... I guess it happens to everybody. But Nick and I are definitely in love."

Teen queen Lindsay Lohan gushed about her love for Wilmer Valderrama and her plans to become a young mother in a magazine interview, only days before the couple split. The Freaky Friday actress, 18, told American publication Jane, how crazy she was about the That '70s Show actor in an interview earlier this month, only days before People magazine revealed the pair had cal led time on their six month romance. In the interview Lohan enthuses, "I never thought I'd wake up in the morning at 18 with someone that I like and didn't care what I looked like and I don't care if my breath smells. I want to get married young. I want to be a young mom."

Teen singer and actress Hilary Duff has rubbished reports she's hit out at Lindsay Lohan in a song on her latest album. It was widely reported that the Lizzie McGuire blonde, 17, had been enemies with the 18-year-old Mean Girls star since they discovered they were dating pop heart-throb Aaron Carter at the same time last year. But she insists she's indifferent towards Lohan because they don't know each other, and she's adamant her song, "Haters," from her eponymous second album, is not an act of revenge towards the Mean Girls actress, despite verses like, "You say your boyfriend's sweet and kind/ But you've still got your eyes on mine." She explains, "They're just rumors. I would never write a song about her. I don't know her. This whole thing is like so blown out of proportion. I honestly don't know her. Of course I've met her before, but I don't know her and I'm kind of done with it."

Actress Natalie Portman is comfortable with the inevitable prospect of seeing her naked body splashed across the internet, after her new movie Closer hits cinemas. The sexy screen star plays a stripper in the raunchy film - in which she appears alongside Julia Roberts - and she's prepared for the fact stills grabbed from her nude scenes will soon dominate celebrity websites. She says, "Yeah, it'll be nude celebrities dotcom. But that's fine. I'm not scared. I'm brave. I feel like I've got to a point in my life where everything I do is active rather than reactive." However, Portman laughs off theories she agreed to the steamy role in an intentional effort to abolish her former child star reputation. She adds, "I'm not doing things to prove anything. That makes me comfortable with whatever people walk away with. I can still carry on my own life without being hurt."

American beauty Scarlett Johansson was disappointed by British males' feeble attempts to romance her, claiming the men are too shy to make a move on her. The Lost In Translation star, 20, spent the summer in London filming her role in Woody Allen's untitled British comedy, and was shocked by her quiet dating life. Johansson laments, "The British are charming, so funny and so polite. But it's more look but don't touch. You sense it would take a guy forever to make up his mind about what to say. By the time they get there, you're gone. In New York, you get these brash guys who'll come up to you and say, 'nice tits', and you just tell them where to go." Since leaving Britain, Johansson has fallen for Jared Leto - ex-love of Cameron Diaz.

Al Green has filed a cease-and-desist order against his former producer David Gest - because Gest used his name to promote a Memphis, Tennessee, concert the soul legend never agreed to attend. The singer complains he first heard about December's charity gig, "David Gest's All-Star Holiday Extravaganza" last month and was furious to discover his name was already on the poster promoting the event, reports website Pagesix.Com. JR Rich, head of publicity at Green's label, Blue Note Records, says, "Al never agreed to do this. The point is that Al lives in Memphis. He doesn't want people to think he agreed to do this and then just didn't turn up. William Morris (Green's booking agent) has sent a cease-and-desist order to Gest." Despite legal warnings from Green, adverts for Gest's gig still promise: "Famed producer returns to work after a year and a half with concert featuring Al Green, The Doobie Brothers, Lou Rawls, Dionne Warwick, Mya, Crystal Gayle, Gloria Gaynor, Deborah Cox, and Topol Recreating Fiddler On The Roof."