Former Dallas star Barbara Bel Geddes has died of lung cancer. She was 82. The veteran actress, who played matriarch Miss Ellie Ewing on the classic soap, passed away at her home in Northeast Harbor, Maine, on Monday. Larry Hagman, who played her son JR Ewing on Dallas, says, "She was the rock of Dallas. She was just a really nice woman and a wonderful actress. She was kind of the glue that held the whole thing together." Though best remembered for her TV work, she was also Oscar nominated for her role as the narrator-daughter in 1948's I Remember Mama and was Tennessee Williams' original sizzler, Maggie The Cat, in Broadway's Cat On A Hot Tin Roof. Geddes, who also starred in Alfred Hitchcock's classic Vertigo, retired from acting to take care of her husband, Windsor Lewis, after he fell ill with cancer in 1966. After he died in 1972, cash-strapped Bel Geddes accepted a role from Dallas producers - even though she considered TV a step down from Oscar and Tony-caliber roles. She won an Emmy for her role in 1980 - and she remains the only night-time soap winner to be honored in an acting category. Bel Geddes was a heavy smoker, according to reports. Hagman says he had encouraged Bel Geddes to give up the smoking habit, but it was doctors who got her to quit after her heart attack. She is survived by a daughter, Betsy.

A People magazine reporter has been arrested for trespassing on Brad Pitt's Santa Barbara, California home, as he attempt to gatecrash the birthday party of Angelina Jolie's son Maddox. Jeffrey Neal Weiss, 23, was taken in custody by the Troy actor's security manager Richard Malchar - who made a citizen's arrest - and will return to court next month to see if Pitt will file or dismiss charges against him. American website PageSix.com reports police found a printed email - containing directions to Pitt's house - addressed from People magazine's LA bureau chief Julie Jordan, in Weiss' car. A People editor insists Weiss "inadvertently trespassed on the beach. He regrets it". Pitt's publicist Cindy Guagenti says, "It's too bad that the media can't respect people's privacy. If the media continue to trespass on private property, they will be arrested. This is getting out of control."

Hollywood actress Reese Witherspoon is disappointed because a group of paparazzi who "besieged" her in April, will not face criminal charges of false imprisonment. The Legally Blonde beauty, 29, told Los Angeles police photographers swarmed around her car as she left the gym and attempted to force her off the road. She also alleged the snappers surrounded her as she attempted to enter the West Los Angeles gated community where she lives with husband Ryan Phillippe and their two children Ava and Deacon. In their defense, the photographers claimed they approached the actress outside the Brentwood gym, simply to inform her her vehicle had suffered minor damage from one of their colleagues. Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) Detective Jeff Dunn says, "I have no doubt Ms. Witherspoon was besieged by the paparazzi that day. But through witnesses and videotapes, we weren't able to corroborate the incident Ms. Witherspoon described." In June, fellow Hollywood star Lindsay Lohan was left with minor injuries after photographer Galo Ramirez allegedly drove into her car on purpose. Ramirez was subsequently arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon. The case in pending.

Movie giants DreamWorks and Warner Bros are being sued by the producers of a 1979 film, who claim the Ewan McGregor movie The Island is based on. A lawsuit was filed on Monday, alleging a number of similarities between The Island and Parts: The Clonus Horror - and a number of prominent movie reviewers agree. Both films are about a secret colony of clones bred to provide spare parts for humans. The suit also alleges the producers of Parts: The Clonus Horror showed the film to DreamWorks co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg - who was then at Paramount - in a bid to secure a distribution deal. The producers, Myrl A. Schreibman and Robert S. Fiveson, are seeking damages and part of the proceeds from Warner Bros and DreamWorks and have also asked the court to order the studio to withdraw the film and block further release. Fiveson, who first saw a trailer for The Island on the internet, says, "I though, 'That looks like a trailer to my movie,' right down to where key moments and shots were the same." A statement from DreamWorks insists, "The Island was independently created and does not infringe anyone's copyright."

Troubled rocker Courtney Love's life has hit more turbulence, with Los Angeles authorities declaring she has failed a drug test and violated her probation. Los Angeles Superior Court judge Rand Rubin issued a bench warrant for the former Hole frontwoman yesterday, ordering her to return to court on August 19 for a review of her rehab reports. The judge then told her attorney, "(Do) something to solve Love's problem, or we're going to give her a year (in prison)." Love - who recently announced that she's "clean and sober" - could also potentially lose custody of Frances Bean Cobain, her 12-year-old daughter with late husband Kurt Cobain. Deputy district attorney Gina Satriano says 41-year-old Love failed a drug test when she was hospitalized in July after fainting during a party at Hollywood's Roosevelt Hotel. At the time, Love's attorney, Michael Rosenstein, announced that Love was "living a drug-free life". In February, Love was sentenced to three years' probation and anger management counseling after pleading no contest to misdemeanor assault on a woman at the home of her former boyfriend.

Former Friends star Matt LeBlanc has apologized to his wife and baby daughter for drunkenly groping a stripper during a wild night out. The actor, who now stars in Friends spin-off show Joey, admits he got "carried away" in a recent visit to a strip club during a 10 day motorbike trip in Canada. LeBlanc was with 10 friends who were all eyeing a succession of naked lovelies when one girl approached the celebrity and suggested they drink some shots together. The stripper, who charges $54 for a private dance, then "lured" LeBlanc into an adjoining room where she removed her black spandex clothing and sat on his lap. LeBlanc, who has an 18-month-old girl, Marina, with his wife Melissa, tells British newspaper The Sun, "She was all over me. I was drinking and she was crossing the line strippers shouldn't normally cross. She was in my face, pushing her breasts into me, grabbing my hands to go all over her body. If I had been sober perhaps I'd have acted quicker. I realized I was being careless and had to get the hell out of there. I acted like a fool in allowing myself to be led astray and placed in such a horrible situation. I feel ashamed."

Mickey Rourke was confronted outside a London nightclub by a jilted student in the early hours of yesterday morning, after the man's model girlfriend ditched him mid-date for the veteran actor. The Sin City star, 48, left the Boujis club in the British capital's Kensington district with young beauty Anya Iniskia. Iniskia had been on a date with her boyfriend Andreas Franzi, 22, who angrily followed the pair outside where he challenged Rourke to hand Iniskia back. While being held back by the nightclub's doormen, Franzi shouted at the actor, "Hey, I want to talk to you. That's my girl you've got there. Who do you think you are, some big movie star? I could buy you ten times over." Former boxer Rourke, throwing shadow punches, responded, "Come over here, tough guy. I'll show you who I am." Rourke and Iniskia then got into a taxi and headed to the luxury Dorchester hotel, where they reportedly stayed until 1pm yesterday afternoon. Franzi, who has been living with Iniskia for five months, says, "I thought we'd be together always."

Actor Matthew Fox has laughed off doubts TV desert island drama Lost has a limited future due to the nature of its plot, insisting it could go on for years. The screen hunk is convinced the series has years of success ahead of it, because despite the fact it is set on an isolated island, it has so many characters to explore. He says, "When we'd just done the pilot, everybody was asking, 'How do you make a series out of this?' All I kept thinking about was that I did 144 hours of a show (Party Of Five) about five people in a house in San Francisco, and you're going to tell me you have issues about making a long-term show out of 14 main characters, 46 survivors on an island, with this huge, epic story to be told? This show could easily do an eight-year run."

Nineteen female musicians who played on the Mona Lisa Smile movie score have won $3,500 each in a legal settlement, after proving they were paid less than their male counterparts. The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced on Tuesday that producers of the Julia Roberts-starring movie - Revolution Studios and Smile Productions LLC - settled the lawsuit but failed to admit they had unfairly paid their male musicians more than women for the same work. EEOC trial lawyer Stella Yamada says, "Musicians have a hard time knowing where to go. We're happy for the females who came forward."

Actor Matthew McGrory died at home in Los Angeles on Tuesday. He was 32. Police say the huge star, who was over seven foot tall, passed away from natural causes. McGrory became an actor after appearing on New York DJ Howard Stern's radio show in the 1990s. He starred in films including Big Fish, Men In Black II, House Of 1000 Corpses and its recent sequel, The Devil's Rejects.