Rod Stewart has been ordered pay a Las Vegas casino $2 million plus interest, following a court battle over a cancelled show in December 2000. Yesterday, a seven-member jury found that the rocker should not have retained an advance he was paid by the Rio Hotel for the New Year's weekend show, which he maintains he was unable to perform at because of throat surgery several months earlier. One of his lawyers, Kerry Garvis Wright, says the 60-year-old singer will appeal the decision. Jury foreman Stevan Jorgensen says, "We felt it was only fair that if Mr. Stewart didn't perform the concert that he should give the money back." Stewart was paid $2 million in advance in January 2000 for the December 2000 show. He and his doctors testified he was later diagnosed with thyroid cancer and had two tumors surgically removed in May 2000. One was cancerous, one was benign. Stewart, who was not in the courtroom yesterday, said that he didn't fully recover his voice in time for the show. While Stewart said Harrah's would not let him reschedule the December 2000 show, the casino's chief executive Gary Loveman testified that a show on any other date could not provide the same revenue as a show on New Year's weekend.

Sheryl Crow, the Dixie Chicks, Paul Simon and Rod Stewart are adding their voices to a multi-TV network Hurricane Katrina benefit concert to air on Friday night. Regular programming on America's leading TV networks will be axed to make way for the special, Shelter From The Storm: A Concert For The Gulf Coast. Randy Newman's performance is expected to be one of the show's highlights - his 1974 tune "Louisiana 1927" has been adopted as the unofficial theme for the relief efforts. As well as the musical performances, Jennifer Aniston, Cameron Diaz and Jack Nicholson are among the actors who have agreed to appear during the telethon. Almost 100 countries around the world will air the telethon. A separate show, React Now: Music & Relief will be shown on Saturday on MTV's cable channels and feature Green Day, The Rolling Stones and Paul McCartney among others. Meanwhile, America's gospel stars are planning to stage televised concerts at hurricane victims' shelters, as part of an upcoming telethon, Gospel Angels, on September 22.

Batman Begins actress Katie Holmes is planning to do what neither of Tom Cruise's past two wives did when she weds the movie star - take his name. The tradition-loving actress plans to deviate from Nicole Kidman and Mimi Rogers' example and go by the name of Kate Cruise, both personally and professionally, when she exchanges vows with her fiance, according to American magazine In Touch. A source tells the publication, "Tom calls her Kate, so he suggested she start going by that professionally." The surname change is something old-fashioned Holmes has always been keen on.

Former golden couple Sienna Miller and Jude Law were left red-faced Yesterday when they both booked a table at the same restaurant. Miller was dining with British designer Christopher Bailey, while Law enjoyed a meal with long-term pal producer Damon Bryant at The Wolseley in London. The Layer Cake beauty even approached her estranged fiance in a bid to prove to onlookers the troubled twosome are on speaking terms, but the pair hotly deny the chance meeting was anything other than a bizarre coincidence. Spokesperson Ciara Parkes insists, "It was completely unplanned that they would be there at the same time."

Pulp Fiction star Samuel L. Jackson was forced to relive his first ever TV commercial on Tuesday night, after comedian Jay Leno paid "thousands" of dollars to track it down. Jackson appeared on Leno's chat show to promote his new movie The Man, when the funnyman - notorious for digging up stars' old works - proudly unveiled the actor's ad for Krystal Hamburgers. Leno told Jackson, "I found something that I've been looking for easily (for) 10 years, really hard the last six years... The quality of this is so poor but it cost me thousands. I said to the guy, 'I don't care how much it costs, just send it to me.'" After watching the black-and-white commercial twice, Jackson admitted, "That commercial validated my being an actor to my mom and all her friends, 'cause all those years I was gone, I was doing theatre, they'd go, 'You say you're an actor, well why don't you go apply for one of those jobs on a soap opera?' Like you could just go and make an application or something! And then when this came on, my mom's phone blew up."

Courtney Love's 13-year-old daughter Frances Bean is deeply embarrassed by her mother's rock 'n' roll dress sense, and she wishes the troubled singer would favor a more feminine look. The restrained teenager, whose father was the equally scruffy late Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, is exasperated with Love's refusal to tidy up her blonde locks and be more lady-like. She complains to Teen Vogue, "I prefer it when she's a classy starlet. I don't really like her hard-metal stuff, or when she doesn't brush her hair. I'm a different person. She tells me to live free and be free, but listen to other people's advice, but I don't always follow it."

Supermodel Naomi Campbell is donating her entire earnings from upcoming New York Fashion Week to aid the victims of Hurricane Katrina. The compassionate Brit is heartbroken by the scenes of devastation in the US and has decided to donate all her catwalk fees to the American Red Cross. Campbell is offering her services to any designer who agrees to donate her salary to the relief effort in Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi. She has passionate links to New Orleans, Louisiana, which was caught in the eye of the storm - her first fashion shoot took place there.

British actress Kate Winslet got judges steamed up at this year's Venice Film Festival with dirty talk in her new film Romance And Cigarettes. The film's director John Turturro admitted this week that Titanic star Winslet is very talented at using sexy words. Tarturro says, "There's dirty language of a certain kind and there's a real art to that." Despite her more respectable roles in Finding Neverland and Sense And Sensibility, her character in Romance And Cigarettes is full of raunchy moments. Tarturro reveals, "There were things that had to be cut out that Kate said, that were just too dirty for the film."

Hollywood actor Robert Redford and veteran singers Tina Turner and Tony Bennett are among those who will be honored for their contribution to American culture in December. The annual Kennedy Center honors will also be given to actress Julie Harris and ballerina Suzanne Farrell at the ceremony, to be attended by President George W. Bush. The Kennedy Center's Stephen A Schwarzman says, "(Their) contributions to our culture have transformed out lives." In 2004, legendary actor Warren Beatty and rocker Sir Elton John were both recipients of the award.

American Pie actress Tara Reid is heartbroken after her designer handbag containing $180,000 worth of jewelry was snatched at the Spanish isle of Ibiza's airport on Sunday. Reid, who is in Europe shooting her reality TV show Wild On Tara, reportedly became "hysterical" over the loss, as the glittering collection held great sentimental value to her. A source explains, "Before she had even managed to collect her luggage from the carousel an opportunist swiped her black Balenciaga handbag from the trolley. In the bag Tara had her Rolex watch, which was of huge sentimental value to her, plus her personal jewelry collection. The police said the likelihood of catching the thief was slim."