A galaxy of stars, including Sir Anthony Hopkins and Ralph Fiennes, have paid emotional tributes to veteran movie producer Ismail Merchant, who died from a stomach-related illness Wednesday at the age of 68. Merchant garnered critical acclaim for Oscar-winning period films like Howards End and The Remains Of The Day, which he made with long-term Merchant Ivory partner James Ivory. Hopkins and Fiennes are devastated by the film entrepreneur's death, and credit him with inspiring them to approach movies in a more inventive and passionate way. Hopkins, who starred in Howards End and Remains of the Day, says, "I'm deeply saddened to hear about the passing of Ismail Merchant. He was the one and truly great maverick producer, a law to himself. He could charm the birds out of the trees, which had its very positive side and sometimes he could get you to work for nothing." Fiennes says of his time shooting Merchant's latest movie The White Countess, "Having just finished working with Ismail and James Ivory in Shanghai, I was full of admiration for their passion and commitment to the film we were making. There was no one like him."

Tom Cruise has declared a public war on psychiatrists because he fears the "pseudo-science" has led to a drug-fuelled crisis for today's children. The movie hunk was diagnosed as dyslexic when he was just seven, and doctors suggested he should take drugs to control his learning problems. Memories of that part of his childhood fuelled Cruise to seek alternative ways of overcoming his dyslexia - a problem that led him to the Church of Scientology's educational programs. Becoming a scientologist in 1984 made the actor look closely at the controversial religion's anti-psychiatry stance, and he has since become a firm believer that the science and the medicating of children is wrong. Speaking exclusively to US news show Access Hollywood as part of a week-long special about his scientology beliefs, the movie hunk declares, "I'm going right after psychiatry and these false labels and this pseudo-science. I was diagnosed as dyslexic; I had a lot of energy as a child. They wanted to put me on drugs... Never did; my mother said no, absolutely not, no way and I'm thankful. Had I been put on those drugs, I never would be here today... I never would have had the career that I'm having. Am I making people aware of it by discussing it openly and saying what a fraud psychiatry is? You bet I am. I feel a responsibility because I care..." The actor also maintains that poor results in education in America can be blamed on mind-altering drugs that are given to children. He adds, "SAT (exam) scores have gone right down the toilet. The parents are blaming the teachers, the teachers are blaming the parents and the psychs are putting everyone on drugs."

The prosecution in Michael Jackson's child molestation case are celebrating after winning a major decision a day after the defense rested its case. Judge Rodney Melville has allowed the prosecutors' request to show a 2003 video of police investigators interviewing Jackson's accuser. The prosecution team insists the footage will show jurors that the boy's story has been consistent from day one, and will bolster their case to convict the pop star. Outraged defense lawyers, who opposed the request, now insist they'll recall the teenage accuser and his mother back to the stand, along with psychologists and attorneys as part of a planned rebuttal to the video, which was expected to be shown in the Santa Maria, California courthouse Thursday afternoon. In agreeing to the request, Melville insisted the lengthy video interview be edited to just 30 minutes of vital viewing. Another prosecution request - to show a photo and drawing of a birthmark near Jackson's genitals, identified by his 1993 accuser - was denied.

Actress Ashley Judd narrowly avoided death after her luxury bus was destroyed by a fire, while she was shooting a movie scene on Monday. The Hollywood beauty spent hours in the vehicle resting, eating and rehearsing lines for independent movie Come Early Morning. But fortunately, she had left the bus to film a scene when it burst into flames, after a crew member left an unattended candle in the vehicle. Nobody was hurt, but damage to the bus - which was parked outside Los Angeles' Hollywood Country Club - came to a staggering $500,000.

Country music star Garth Brooks has proposed to singer Trisha Yearwood on stage in front of 7,000 fans. The reclusive singer, 43, popped the question to his girlfriend after a statue of him was unveiled at the Legends In Bronze event in California on Wednesday - and Yearwood readily accepted. Yearwood struck up a relationship with chart-topping Brooks after working as his backing vocalist 15 years ago. Yearwood will be Brooks's second wife, and fans hope the forthcoming marriage will be third time lucky for Yearwood, 40, who has been married twice before. Other country celebrities honored with statues at the ceremony included Willie Nelson, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley.

Carrie Underwood was crowned the fourth American Idol winner in Hollywood Wednesday night. The pretty Oklahoma blonde picked up a $1 million record contract after beating rocker Bo Bice at the Kodak Theater - and then was given an extra treat - keys to her very own MarquisJet private jet. The speechless country singer was part of Idol history - the fourth season of the talent show brought in 500 million votes. Underwood ended the show by performing Inside Your Heaven, which will be her first single release on June 14, but she was overcome she screamed, "Thank you... thank you America" as she attempted to calm her nerves and complete the song. The singer joins Ruben Studdard, Kelly Clarkson and Fantasia as American Idol winners. Idol judge Simon Cowell was criticized for helping to swing the vote away from favorite Bice on Tuesday night's live final sing-off, when he told Underwood, "I think you've done enough to win this competition."

British actor Clive Owen insists his acting was not to blame for King Arthur's flop at the box office last year. The Closer star played the eponymous lead in the epic, directed by Training Day filmmaker Antoine Fuqua, and felt he did the best job he could to make the movie a success. He says, "I'm not going to slag off a film I've done, there are too many people involved. I'd admired Antoine Fuqua's previous work, and he's got together some serious people. As an actor you can't be responsible for everything, you do your job as best you can and that's it."

Former Friends star David Schwimmer threatened to storm off stage on the opening night of his London play Some Girl(s) - because he spotted a paparazzo photographing him during a semi-naked scene. Schwimmer complains the snapper ruined his West End debut in Neil LaBute's play, by taking non-stop pictures from in the stalls of the Gielgud Theatre in a sequence which involved the 38-year-old stripping down to his underwear. He says, "I was the only person who saw him and because I am on stage all the time I couldn't tell anyone, but I was willing to walk off." When asked if he thought the photographer had purposely come to catch him in his boxer shorts, he replied, "I don't know, but if he did, he needed a giant lens."

Mariah Carey is now officially the most popular female artist in the history of the American charts after scoring her 16th number one. The singer's new tune "We Belong Together" has spent eight weeks crawling up the Billboard Hot 100 and now has toppled Gwen Stefani's "Holla Back Girl" as the fourth chart-topper of 2005. "We Belong Together" is also Carey's biggest hit ever, and the most successful single for her new record company Def Jam. Only the Beatles (with 20 number ones) and Elvis Presley (with 18) can boast more Billboard chart-toppers than Carey. Elsewhere in the Billboard singles charts, it's a great week for original American Idol winner Kelly Clarkson - she has two hits in the top 10 ("Behind Hazel Eyes" and "Since U Been Gone") and the title track from her Breakaway album has notched up 13 weeks at number one on the Billboard Adult Contemporary Airplay Chart.

Actress Shannen Doherty's plans to return to TV in the upcoming sitcom Love, Inc have been dashed, after bosses dropped her as the star. The former Charmed star had signed up to play a dating consultant who was unlucky in love in the show, which is set to debut on TV network Upn in the autumn. Upn spokesman Paul Hewitt says, "Shannen is a terrific actress, but we're going in a different creative direction with the show."