Barbara Bel Geddes, the actress of stage, screen and television known to most as the matriarch Miss Ellie on the TV series Dallas, died Monday of lung cancer; she was 82. The Emmy award-winning actress passed away at her home in Northeast Harbor, Maine, where she had spent the past years away from the limelight. No further information other than the date and cause of death was given out, per her family's request.

The daughter of theatrical and industrial designer Norman Bel Geddes, the actress was born and raised in New York, with theater in her blood. She made her stage debut at 18 and quickly established herself on Broadway, winning a New York Drama Critics Award at 23 for Deep Are the Roots. Just a year later, in 1946, she signed a Hollywood contract, a deal with RKO that was unusual in that it allowed her to make just one film a year. Though her debut movie, The Long Night opposite Henry Fonda, was less than well-received, she had a hit with her second, I Remember Mama, for which she received a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination. Her nascent Hollywood career was short lived, however, thanks in part to Howard Hughes buying RKO and not considering her "sexy enough," and she successfully returned to the stage in 1950. Five years later she originated the role of Maggie the Cat in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (grabbing a Tony nomination), and in 1958 returned to film in Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo, playing Midge, the lingerie-designing galpal of James Stewart. Though she appeared in a handful of films after Vertigo, Bel Geddes returned to the stage again, her most notable role in 1961's Mary, Mary, a comedy that ran for 1,500 performances and won her a second Tony nomination. The actress retired in the late 60s to care for her second husband, Windsor Lewis, after he was diagnosed with cancer, until his death in 1972.

In 1978, Bel Geddes was "flat broke" (her own term) when she took on the role of Miss Ellie in the CBS drama Dallas. The show became an instant success, and Bel Geddes won an Emmy in 1980, the only cast member to do so; a heart attack in 1984 forced the actress to leave the show for six months (she was replaced by Donna Reed), but she returned and stayed until the show's end in 1990. After the end of Dallas, however, Bel Geddes left acting entirely, and did not return for either the two Dallas reunion TV movies or last year's reunion special. --Prepared by IMDb staff

Dana Reeve was forced to reveal she is suffering lung cancer after an American tabloid published the news on the internet without her permission. The 43-year-old widow of Christopher Reeve - who never smoked - hurried out a statement just 24 hours after the revelation first appeared on the National Enquirer site. Her statement read: "Based on the imminent release of a tabloid article regarding my personal health, my family and I have decided to release our own statement." Reeve's news comes just ten months after her quadriplegic husband died and just six months after her mother Helen died from complications of ovarian cancer surgery aged 71. But Dana is determined to battle the disease. The statement adds: "I have an excellent team of physicians and we are optimistic about my prognosis. I hope before too long to be sharing news of my good health and recovery."

Scottish actor Ewan McGregor has defended his aggressive outburst against a cheeky journalist at Sunday's London premiere of his latest movie The Island - insisting the reporter ruined his night by criticizing his American accent in the film. The movie hunk was furious when a blonde journalist asked him about his critically-mauled performance as an American in the movie, and replied he had "no plans to abandon the accent". McGregor then shocked fans at the Leicester Square event, by storming back towards the journalist later on and shouting, "Thank you for bringing that up - you've ruined my evening" before storming off. The red-faced journalist was then ordered to leave the premiere and was banned from all future screenings, reports British newspaper the Daily Mirror. But McGregor's spokeswoman insists, "There had been an unfounded criticism made to Ewan by an agency reporter, to which Ewan politely replied that he was sorry she'd asked that question as it had taken the shine off his night. To our knowledge no one was asked to leave and it has been resolved amicably."

Movie hardman Bruce Willis recently shocked a German family by turning up on their doorstep with his father and younger brother and demanding to see inside - because he was born there 50 years ago. The Die Hard star appeared unannounced at the house in the south western town of Idar-Oberstein and introduced the shocked strangers to his brother and father, both called David. He then used his rusty German to ask if he could take some photographs of the basement bedroom, where he spent the first two years of his life. The property's owner Doris Busch says, "We were sitting in the garden and didn't even hear that someone was there. My mother still had her curlers in her hair." Willis was named "special ambassador" for his birthplace, Idar-Oberstein on his 50th birthday in March.

Twelve Monkeys director Terry Gilliam is furious with movie moguls Harvey Weinstein and Bob Weinstein for scrapping his ideas and undermining his authority during filming of his new Matt Damon movie The Brothers Grimm. The powerful pair first ditched Gilliam's plans to cast Samantha Morton in the lead role in favor of lesser known actress Lena Headey, and then further enraged the former Monty Python star by sacking his cinematographer Nicola Pecorini for working too slowly. Tensions escalated to the extent that Gilliam refused to shoot for two weeks as he was so staggered by what he viewed as the Weinsteins' constant interference. He fumes, "I'm used to riding roughshod over executives, but the Weinsteins rode roughshod over me." But Bob Weinstein insists, "Any film involves the making of 10,000 decisions. If you only concentrate on the few we had issues with, you ignore the 9,997 we left to totally to Terry."

Actress Shar Jackson has accused a cosmetic surgeon of attempting to sell photos of her and ex-partner Kevin Federline's young children to two US tabloids. Former Moesha star Jackson invited Federline and his superstar wife Britney Spears to a joint birthday party for their children Kaleb, one, and Kori, three, in Malibu, California, last month. Jackson hosted the cowboys-and-Indians themed party at Beverly Hills surgeon Doctor Frank Ryan's 'Bony Pony Ranch' in the hills of Malibu, but alleges the doctor took photos at the event with the plan to sell them to Us Weekly and the National Enquirer. Jackson's spokeswoman Juliette Harris tells gossip site PageSix.com, "Shar thought it was really slimy. They have a hard enough time as it is without someone selling their family photographs. I was contacted by two magazines - Us and the National Enquirer - who told me that he was trying to sell the pictures. I called Dr. Ryan and he told me that yes, he was selling the pictures. He said, 'Do you know who you're talking to? I'm not some yahoo. I give this to charity.' And then he hung up on me." However, Dr. Ryan's assistant Amanda, insists he would never sell the images without Jackson's permission. Amanda says, "Shar said she didn't want her children involved, so, of course, we didn't sell any pictures. There were other family members taking pictures there. We sold no pictures because Shar asked us not to."

British actor Ian McKellen has slammed the leaders of the Catholic Church for urging people not to read Dan Brown's controversial novel The Da Vinci Code. While the book has proved hugely popular internationally, the Vatican's reaction to the way its religion is depicted by Brown has been far from positive. But McKellen, who recently finished filming a movie version of the book with Tom Hanks, brands the church's stance against the novel "pathetic". He says, "People are always interested in mystery, but when it's a mystery that suggests that a major influence on all our lives - the Catholic Church - has perhaps been misleading us all this time, then it becomes spectacularly sensational. The idea that it shouldn't be read, which I think is the official Vatican line, is pretty pathetic."

Teen star Lindsay Lohan has vowed to stay away from drugs, after smoking marijuana once and hating it. The Mean Girls star, 19, indulged in the herbal cigarette and disliked the side effects. She says, "I'm not going to deny the fact that I've tried pot. I hated it. But never cocaine. I've seen my father (Michael Lohan). I've seen how it messes families up. If I hadn't had experienced that, I may have gone down a different route. But I've literally seen how it tore my parents apart." Lindsay's parents Michael and Dina Lohan are currently in the midst of a high-profile divorce battle in Nassau County, New York.

Leonardo DiCaprio got an unexpected greeting while shooting his upcoming movie The Departed recently, when an excited group of strippers hunted him down. The Titanic star, currently dating Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bundchen, is in Boston, Massachusetts, working on the movie alongside Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg and Matt Damon, and was stunned when a group of scantily-clad strippers came looking for him. Damon says, "We had one night where we were shooting all night next to a strip club. And there's just this point where we're driving to the set and like 20 girls in G-strings with dollar bills coming out were like, 'Where's Leonardo?' I'm like, 'Yes, my friend, this is my home. Welcome."

Nora Ephron's fears her childhood would have scarred her had she been born any later - because her parents were worsening alcoholics her whole life. The When Harry Met Sally writer was born to feted scriptwriters Henry Ephron and Pheobe Ephron, but suffered at the hands of their dual addiction. Nora holds a deep love for her parents and respects their legendary body of work, which includes the scripts for musicals Carousel and There's No Business Like Show Business, but she refuse to forgive them for the torture their alcoholism inflicted on her younger siblings. She explains, "(They were alcoholics) in a bad way. Not in a charming way. But I had most of their good years - I was really lucky. I had them at their most charming fun and generous and at their least crazy. I thought I grew up in as sitcom; my youngest sister thinks she grew up in a loony bin."

A man suspected of shooting singer-songwriter Marc Cohn during an attempted carjacking has been arrested after a stand-off with police. The Grammy-winning "Walking In Memphis" singer was allegedly shot in the temple late on Sunday by Joseph William Yacteen, who is believed to have fired into the star's band's van in a Denver, Colorado, parking garage. Cohn, who is married to US newswoman Elizabeth Vargas, was treated at a hospital and released the following day. He cancelled the remaining five stops of his tour with Suzanne Vega. The bullet grazed Cohn's driver and tour manager Thomas Dube, who also was treated and released. Police spokesman Sonny Jackson says the bullet appeared to have been slowed by the van's windshield and by Dube before hitting Cohn. Jackson admits, "Frankly, I can't tell you how he survived." Police arrested Yacteen late on Monday outside a vacant house where he had holed up for hours, negotiating with police. The stand-off ended when he was forced out by tear gas, pointed a gun at officers and was shot with a non-lethal rubber ball. Yacteen, 26, was being held on suspicion of attempted murder, robbery and other charges. In addition, an arrest warrant had been issued after he missed a court hearing on July 15 in a drug and weapons charge.