A US court has granted Colin Farrell a restraining order against a former lover allegedly trying to sell a video of them having sex. Farrell claims the video was made two and a half years ago in private and that he and model Nicole Narain had an agreement not to share its contents. The 29-year-old is suing Narain, 31, alleging she approached the media and offered them the 15-minute tape - and he argues the release of the tape would greatly harm his reputation and career. The Alexander hunk convinced a Los Angeles Superior Court judge on Tuesday to ban Narain from selling, showing or distributing it. The next court hearing is due to take place in Los Angeles on 10 August - where Farrell will seek an injunction forbidding the sale and distribution of the tape.

Roman Polanski created an atmosphere of "shock and awe" in the restaurant where he allegedly propositioned a woman before his murdered wife Sharon Tate's funeral, the London court in the director's libel trial heard yesterday. The Rosemary's Baby maverick is suing publisher Conde Nast over a Vanity Fair article in which he's accused of seducing a woman on the way to the burial of Tate, who was murdered by followers of Charles Manson in 1969. But the writer of the controversial feature, Lewis Lapham, claims he was at New York restaurant Elaine's, where the alleged incident took place, and was shocked when he overheard the 71-year-old chatting-up a "Swedish beauty" so soon after Tate's death. And Lapham claims a "hushed silence" fell upon the eaterie because of the "notoriety and horrible circumstances of his wife's murder and general sympathy for a man having suffered that sorrow". He told jurors Polanski had pulled up a chair between him and his friend Edward Perlberg's girlfriend Beate Telle and then began to talk to her in a forward way, praising her beauty. Lapham said, "He began to romance her and at one point had his hand on her leg and said, 'I could put you in the movies. I could make you the next Sharon Tate' He was attempting to impress her and express admiration for her looks. I was impressed by the remark not only because it was tasteless and vulgar and because it was a cliché." The 71-year-old gave evidence from France via video link to avoid extradition to America, where he's wanted for questioning on child sex charges dating back to 1977.

Brad Pitt is back at work just a week after he was diagnosed with viral meningitis. The Troy star checked himself in to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles last week and he's already back in the public eye, attending yesterday's Hollywood Foreign Press Association's star-studded Annual Installation Luncheon. A healthy-looking Pitt honored his commitment to present donations to Hollywood non-profit organizations and film schools. His publicist insists the Mr. and Mrs. Smith star is doing well.

A pediatrics expert has hailed Angelina Jolie for saving her adopted daughter Zahara Marley from almost certain death in an Ethiopian orphanage. On her arrival in the US earlier this month, the six-month-old baby was diagnosed with a salmonella intestinal infection as well as dehydration and malnutrition - conditions which would have led to her death in her African homeland. Zahara made a full recovery following treatment at New York's Presbyterian Hospital - and Dr. Jane Aronson, who specializes in healthcare for infants adopted overseas, is convinced Jolie saved her daughter's life from the evidence she saw. She says, "Children with those conditions living in orphanages in developing nations can die quickly without the proper medical interventions. That would have been Zahara's fate had she not been adopted by Angelina and brought to the US for medical care. In spite of her illness, she was very sweet, engaging and responsive. When she regained her strength she began to smile and coo. She was very connected to her mother during her hospitalization. It was clear that the love and devotion of her mother along with the antibiotics, intravenous fluids, and formula helped her to recover."

Courteney Cox proved her true mettle while working on forthcoming thriller November, because director Gregory Harrison had no budget to lavish her with the usual movie star perks. The film had a paltry $150,000 allowance and just 15 days to shoot but Cox, who earned $1 million per episode in hit series Friends, embraced the experience which she hopes will help audiences appreciate her acting skills outside the sitcom. The star had no qualms about shooting dangerous scenes without a stunt double or taking her breaks with the crew even though she usually relaxes in a swanky trailer. She tells the New York Daily News, "I enjoy perks at home, so I don't Mind falling over or getting dirty at work. I wanted to make November because it's fascinating, confusing, ambiguous, eerie and makes you think." Harrison adds, "Courteney had to eat with the crew, lie on dirty floors and shoot four emotionally traumatic scenes in 12 hours. But she was so ready to be involved."

Pop superstar Madonna has rejected American life completely - insisting England is now her home. The formerly pleasure-seeking pop queen, 46, adores her simple life with director husband Guy Ritchie and children Lourdes, eight, and Rocco, four, at Ashcombe - a swanky 1000-acre estate in idyllic Wiltshire, once owned by photography legend Cecil Beaton And she admits she never imagined her life would turn out this way when she was a feisty young star in the 1980s. She says, "The last thing I thought I would do is marry some laddish, shooting, pub-going nature lover. And the last thing he thought he was going to do was marry some cheeky girl from the Midwest who doesn't take no for an answer. But now I love England and want to be here and not in America. I see England as my home."

Twice-married Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee still fail to agree on marriage - just a day after Lee confirmed reports of a third wedding, Anderson has blasted them. After the couple were spotted holidaying in Hawaii recently, gossips speculated the pair are getting back together. And on Tuesday, Lee confirmed the reports, saying there would be wedding bells "soon". But yesterday, Anderson dashed the rumors and her ex-husband's 'news' by stating: "There is absolutely no truth to the recent tabloid reports Tommy Lee and I are engaged and getting married. I have two beautiful children with Tommy and I will continue to be close friends and supportive of him."

Hong Kong actress Maggie Cheung is glad Hollywood discovered her 21 years into her movie career - because she would never have approached American studio bosses herself. The Hero star, 40, prefers being approached by US film moguls than traveling to America and begging them for work - so was thrilled when she was asked to make her US debut in 1999 movie Augustin, King Of Kung-Fu. She says, "It doesn't bother me. I'm glad I waited for them to know who I am, rather than me coming to them. Ten years ago, if I'd really, really tried here, and come and met everybody and been really aggressive and not shy, I think I could have landed one or two American films. But now people are knocking on my door. I prefer it that way."

Director David Lynch is launching the David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace today which will fund transcendental meditation classes and research into the effects of yoga on body and mind. The Blue Velvet filmmaker is convinced he can alleviate the world's suffering by teaching society about the 47-year-old Hindu chanting technique and its founder Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The 59-year-old hopes to raise $7 billion within a year, which will go towards forming "peace-creating super groups of 8,000 meditators" around the globe, to make people calmer, less anxious and more intelligent. He tells website PageSix.com, "This is not a pretend thing. Our government spends seven times that on killing, calling it defending, and making machinery and technology to kill human beings in the name of peace. But today's students are even more stressed out. Their schools are hellholes. They're getting pathetic educations. They're not going forward with full decks of cards. But when they meditate, they will start shining like a bright, shiny penny, and their anxieties will go away. By diving within, they will attain a field of pure consciousness, pure bliss, creativity, intelligence, dynamic peace. You enliven the field, and every day it gets better. Negativity recedes."

Movie star Josh Lucas suffered for his art while filming new fighter pilot action movie Stealth - he was concussed three times in the same week. The Sweet Home Alabama star found filming extremely tough on the set in Sydney, Australia because most of the scenes were shot inside a fake cockpit that would toss him around as he acted to a green screen. He says, "It would basically throw you around for eight hours at a time while you were doing dialogue to nobody. I'd get smashed up pretty badly."