The Montana man accused of plotting to abduct TV star David Letterman's son has had kidnapping charges against him dropped as part of a plea agreement that could land him with 15 years in jail. Kelly Frank pleaded guilty in the state's District Court yesterday to felony theft, misdemeanor obstruction and possessing illegally killed wildlife as part of the agreement. In exchange, Teton County authorities dropped a felony charge of solicitation, which accused Frank of plotting to kidnap Letterman's baby son from the chat show host's Montana ranch. Frank was arrested in March after a friend told police the handyman had hatched a plan to abduct Letterman's then 16-month-old son Harry. The plea agreement calls for Frank to be sentenced to a 10-year term in prison on the theft charge, and five years on the wildlife possession charge. Official sentencing will take place in September. Frank previously pleaded guilty to stalking and intimidating a woman who alleges he also kidnapped and raped her.

British funnyman Ricky Gervais has refused to write a second series of his forthcoming comedy show Extras unless the BBC changes which channel it is screened on. The corporation had wanted to air The Office star's new show in September on BBC1, as the highlight of its autumn broadcasting. But Gervais is insisting the show - which features cameo appearances from Hollywood stars Samuel L. Jackson, Ben Stiller and Kate Winslet - is aired on the lower-profile BBC2, to prevent it instantly becoming a mainstream hit. And the comedian has threatened to postpone a second series if he does not get his way. He says, "The mainstream really scares me. All my favourite things have started off as intimate. If something get big, fine. It is the things that are made to be populist that disappoint and disgust me. By showing on BBC2 we have halved our audience already. We want people to choose it, not just turn it on."

Acclaimed movie maker Quentin Tarantino is transferring his directing talents to TV after discovering the medium had "caught up with his aspirations". The Pulp Fiction director has acquired a taste TV after he recently wrote and directed the season finale of drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. Tarantino - who also has an episode of hospital drama ER on his TV resume - is keen to transform some of his longer film ideas into a television drama series. He says, "I'm interested in doing a show of my own. There are some ideas I've had for movies that are too long. Most people aren't down with four-hour movies. But TV has caught up with my aspirations. You could truly do these stories as a TV show."

Actress Scarlett Johansson is determined not to let London's bombings upset her summer plans in the British capital - in fact she can't wait to get back there. Currently promoting her new action movie The Island in her native America, the Lost In Translation star is set to return to London, where she is filming Woody Allen's new movie later this week and she has no qualms about her safety. Like so many London lovers, Johansson was devastated by last Thursday's terrorist attacks, but she was impressed with the way Londoners came together to help each other in a bid to get back to normal as quickly as possible. She says, "London is a lovely place to be; it's as safe as any place. The show must go on and everybody is trucking along. We're shooting in central London this week and will be for the rest of the film, and I'm staying there. I was here in New York when September 11th happened and it was amazing the unity that people had and how wonderful the police and fire departments were. It's the same in London; they were so fast-acting and that alone is enough to make you feel like everything will be OK. That threat is everywhere you go so it's important not to let it change your life."

Model-turned-movie star Djimon Hounsou has joined forces with rocker Bono to kick start a new campaign to prompt African scholars to give back to their home continent. The Gladiator star, who was born in Benin, Africa, is determined to end corruption back home and thinks today's top minds can help him achieve that. Hounsou, who had a part in this month's Live 8 organization, says, "So many countries in Africa have not really had great leaders because of corruption, so I'm working with Bono in trying to find ways to get African scholars and African artists together to find solutions to end corruption in some of the places. We do need to improve in trading with the West and we do need to improve on an education level. We do need to end corruption... We need help, but more than anything, Africa needs to be able to trade with the West. That's the only way we can be self-sufficient." And the African activist is also calling on those who have visited his homeland and been touched by it to give back: "The continent which stood for so much and was the cradle of life has become the cradle of death. Everybody has gone to Africa and everybody has drawn or gotten something from Africa. I think it's about time we gave something back to that continent."

Kirstie Alley, Kelly Preston and John Travolta have joined Tom Cruise's controversial battle against anti-depressants - by launching a public drive to restrict the use of medicines they believe cause suicide and violence among users. Alley, Cruise, Preston and her husband Travolta are long-term followers of L. Ron Hubbard's Church Of Scientology, which has been labeled a "cult" by some critics. And Cruise recently angered the American Psychiatric Association (APA) by attacking the use of anti-depressants, because the controversial faith teaches that drugs and psychiatry are destructive and dangerous. But Alley, Preston and Travolta have leapt to the War Of The Worlds hunk's defense, by joining a group of doctors who are pushing for American authorities to put tougher warnings on prescription medication about their possible side-effects. Alley and Preston wrote an open letter to the Food and Drug Administration, which reads, "We can no longer sit back and let the clock tick, waiting for more deaths, suicides or people driven to violent acts by psychotropic drugs." Alley explains, "Parents in particular have been misled about the effects of these drugs. They are highly addictive; kids are using them more than street drugs to get high." Preston adds, "Parents don't know that these drugs are turning kids into walking time bombs. Eight out of the last 13 school shooters were taking prescribed psychiatric drugs, and only now is the FDA investigating the fact these drugs can cause violence."

British rocker Marianne Faithfull is devastated doctors ordered her to pull out of new movie The Picture Of Dorian Gray - after she suffered a recent heart attack. The 58-year-old singer was thrilled she'd won the lead role as countess in the movie adaptation of Oscar Wilde's celebrated morality tale. But she had to quit the film just before filming was due to start, after she was rushed to hospital with severe chest pains. Faithfull's manager and boyfriend Francois Ravard tells gossip website PageSix.Com, "Marianne really wanted to do it but had to pull out at the last moment. She had a slight heart attack, but she's fine now." The health scare has finally prompted Faithfull to stop smoking her trademark cigarettes.

Paramount studios have been slammed for announcing Nicolas Cage will star in Hollywood's first movie dramatization of the September 11 terrorist attacks - within 24 hours of the London bombings on Thursday. News of the movie, to be directed by Oliver Stone, broke in the Friday edition of showbiz newspaper Variety, the day after the tragedy in the English capital, and a studio insider admits the timing is not "ideal". The movie giants have shocked the public with their inadvertent display of double standards - studios and broadcasters avoided any theme reminiscent of the devastating attacks on New York's World Trade Center, even erasing images of the towers from film stock where possible. The movie, which will feature Cage as real-life policeman Sergeant John McLoughlin, is based on an original screenplay by Andrea Berloff about McLoughlin and his colleague William Jimeno, who were saved from the wreckage of the Twin Towers.

Hollywood star Tom Cruise is raising his two children with Nicole Kidman as Scientologists. The couple's adopted kids, 12-year-old Isabella and 10-year-old Connor, live for half the year with the War Of The Worlds actor in Beverly Hills, California, where they are allegedly home-schooled by Cruise's Scientologist sisters Cass and Marian. According to the May issue of Source, a magazine endorsed by the Church of Scientology, Isabella has already completed the Basic Study Manual - an introductory course in the religion. When the Hollywood couple split in 2001, many friends blamed their religious differences, and consequently the issue of whose faith their children would adopt was cited as a major factor in the break-up.

Pop queen Madonna's Kabbalah-focused children's books were ghostwritten by somebody else, according to reports. A writer working for the Kabbalah Center wrote Mr Peabody's Apples, Yakov And The Seven Thieves and most recently Lotsa De Casha, allowing Madonna to take all the praise - claims PageSix.com. A source tells the New York-based site, "All of Madonna's books are written by the Kabbalah Center's official ghostwriter, Eitan Yardeni. Eitan also writes all of Yehuda and Phillip Berg's books and the Kabbalah Books for the Center. Last summer, he flew to London to help Madonna write the last book, but she didn't really do anything."