Pop beauty Kylie Minogue has apologized to fans for postponing the Australian leg of her Showgirl Tour - after being diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer. The singer discovered she had the disease earlier this week during a visit to her family in her home town of Melbourne. Minogue is devastated about letting down fans by cancelling the dates in her native Australia - due to open on Thursday - but insists there is no alternative because she requires immediate treatment. The 36-year-old's publicist explains in a statement, "Whilst at home in Melbourne with her family this week, prior to her Australian Showgirl Tour, Kylie was diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer. She will undergo immediate treatment and consequently her Australian tour will not be able to proceed as planned." Minogue adds, "I was so looking forward to bringing the Showgirl tour to Australian audiences. Nevertheless hopefully all will work out fine and I'll be back with you all again soon." The diminutive star has been an avid supporter of breast cancer charities for many years, and recently raised a staggering $4,560 by auctioning her signed bra for Breast Cancer Care as part of Breast Cancer Awareness month. Minogue is the latest in a long list of celebrities who have battled the disease, including Olivia Newton-John, Dusty Springfield, and more recently Aimee Osbourne and Melissa Etheridge.

Star Wars mastermind George Lucas cleverly made sure Hayden Christensen's Darth Vader costume was restrictive in Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge Of The Sith, because he wanted the character to seem awkward. The filmmaker made the famous black outfit and mask extra heavy, so that Christensen would have difficulty walking in it. The Canadian actor says, "There is almost an awkwardness to his (Vader's) movements. He's not very well oriented in the costume yet or the mechanical suit, so it's not like when he's striving in Episodes IV, V and VI. I thought that was kind of neat. I told George that the costume didn't move quite right and it's a little rigid and it was difficult to walk because I had big lifts in the heels that compensates for the height difference. I was concerned how that was going to look and he said, 'It'll look like you've never done it before - and that's what I want.'"

Revenge of the Sith star Natalie Portman accepts the bizarre responses her radical new haircut has provoked - but insists she prefers being bald. Fans were shocked when Closer Oscar nominee Portman shaved her head for her role in new movie V For Vendetta. She says, "Some people will think I'm a neo-Nazi or that I have cancer or I'm a lesbian. After all the crazy hairstyles I had to endure for the films, it's quite liberating to have no hair - especially in this heat."

Bill Murray has announced plans to ditch his tiring movie career - in favor of mowing lawns and reading books. The Lost In Translation star, 54, admits that since filming his new Jim Jarmusch-directed movie Broken Flowers recently, he's begun appreciating just how much he needs a break. He says, "Doing all those movies in a row, I didn't have anything left. At the end of Jim's movie I was empty, dry as a bone." Murray goes on to describe his experience shooting The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou as "a penitentiary sentence" because he was separated from his family for so long. He adds, "I'm really looking to cut lawns for the summer. I don't really want to work at all." Murray also intends to sit back, read books and play the guitar and piano.

Two witnesses have told Michael Jackson's child molestation trial that the mother of his teenage accuser made no attempt to ask for help during a trip outside the singer's ranch when her family were allegedly being held prisoner by him. The Santa Maria, California, court yesterday heard from orthodontist Jean Lorraine Seamount and bodywaxer Carole McCoy that the boy's mother didn't request assistance while visiting them. Following the TV broadcast of Martin Bashir's controversial documentary Living With Michael Jackson - which showed Jackson's accuser cuddling up to the star - in early 2003, prosecutors claim Jackson and five employees held the boy's family captive for three weeks. However, Jackson's housekeeper of 10 years, Maria Gomez, testified the boy's mother had asked her for help in escaping the singer's Neverland Ranch at that time. Gomez said, "On that occasion, she said three persons were holding her there." Jackson has pleaded not guilty to 10 felony charges of child molestation, administering an intoxicating agent and conspiracy involving allegations of child abduction, false imprisonment and extortion. The trial continues.

A man suspected of stalking President George W Bush's niece Lauren Bush was arrested by secret service agents on the campus of Princeton University on Friday. Lucas M. Schloming, a resident of Boston, Massachusetts, allegedly sent Lauren threatening emails before traveling to the exclusive New Jersey educational establishment where he tried to meet her. The authorities were alerted by concerned students who had been approached by Schloming, who asked where he could find Lauren. A friend of the Bush family tells website Pagesix.Com, "Someone was smart enough to wonder what he was up to and alerted Princeton security, who called the police. He was obsessed. He said he loved her and wanted to be with her. But the emails were getting more and more strange, and one was threatening." Lauren, who is the daughter of President Bush's youngest brother Neil, passed on all the emails she received to the American secret service who then began their hunt for Schloming at his parents house in Boston.

Actor Warren Beatty is suing a US newspaper publisher for $30 million in damages, claiming he still has the film rights to Dick Tracy and plans to shoot a sequel. Beatty, who starred in and directed the 1990 movie, based on the classic comic strip, is seeking the cash payment from Tribune Co. and an official ruling that he still owns film and other rights. According to the complaint, which was filed on Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court, Beatty obtained film, television and other rights in Dick Tracy from Tribune in a 1985 agreement. In the suit, Beatty claims that Tribune then moved to reclaim the rights in 2002, in violation of various notification procedures. The first Dick Tracy film was the ninth highest grossing for 1990, raking in $100 million that year.

Fallen movie star Tatum O'Neal is being sued by a Massachusetts insurance company after allegedly sparking a fire that caused more than $75,000 in damage. Officials at Merrimack Mutual Fire Insurance claim the Paper Moon Oscar winner was responsible for the blaze that wrecked her New York apartment in April 2004. In legal papers obtained by US news show Celebrity Justice, the insurance company attorneys claim the fire was the result of the actress' "carelessness, recklessness and negligence".

Actor Taye Diggs and his wife, Tony award winner Idina Menzel, have been given the all clear by police investigating their racist hate-mail claims. The Brown Sugar star contacted the authorities when he started receiving nasty letters from those who disapproved of his mixed race marriage. A relieved Diggs says, "I guess the police have located this guy and they said he's never caused physical harm to anybody, he just writes crazy letters." Both Diggs and Menzel are set to reprise their roles in the film adaptation of Broadway hit Rent.

Veteran British actor Christopher Lee is still haunted by his numerous screen appearances as Count Dracula. The 82-year-old last appeared as the mythical vampire in 1974's Count Dracula And His Vampire Bride, but Star Wars creator George Lucas was unable to resist making fun of Lee's past on the set of Episode III - Revenge Of The Sith. Lee's character Count Dooku famously fought with Yoda in Episode II - Attack of the Clones, and he was amused to find a vampire incarnation of the diminutive Jedi Master on the set of the final installment. He tells Empire magazine, "They put a puppet of Yoda on the set with a pair of fangs. People thought it was very funny. Didn't bother me - I haven't played the part for a long time!"

Movie great Tony Curtis is celebrating his upcoming 80th birthday by baring all in the pages of the new Vanity Fair magazine. The Some Like It Hot star went nude, holding his pet Yorkshire terriers Daphne and Josephine to cover his genitals, at his Henderson, Nevada, home for the candid shot. The movie star will also feature in the season finale of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, which has been directed by Quentin Tarantino.