Former couple Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger's bitter custody battle is back in court as the stars fight over their 10-year-old daughter, Ireland. Basinger attended court in Los Angeles yesterday morning with a seven-strong entourage after Baldwin accused her of violating a court-imposed custody order this summer. The Aviator actor, who wasn't required to be in court, wasn't present. In court papers, Baldwin accuses Basinger, 51, of having "untreated emotional problems." His attorney told the court that the actor wants to see his daughter, but not until Basinger has "alienation therapy" - which is designed to help prevent one parent from alienating the child from the other parent. Baldwin, 47, also accuses his ex of ignoring court orders and "child snatching." Meanwhile, Basinger claims she fears for her daughter's safety when she's with Baldwin. She also states that Baldwin calls her home incessantly and is abusive to those in her household. Outside court, Basinger's lawyer Neil Hersch held a brief press conference to attack Baldwin, stating, "I found it very disturbing that Mr Baldwin, through his lawyers, attempted to cast terrible aspersions towards Kim." The former couple divorced in 2002. They are due back in court on December 13.

Australian heart-throb Heath Ledger and his fiancee Michelle Williams are first-time parents, after welcoming the arrival of their baby girl, Matilda, on Friday. Former Dawson's Creek beauty Williams, 25, gave birth in Brooklyn, New York, where the screen stars share a recently-purchased $2 million home. According to reports circulating Australia, the trio will travel to Sydney once promotional commitments for their movie, Brokeback Mountain, have wrapped The couple met on the Canadian set of the film last year, which is set to debut in the US on December 9.

Freaky Friday star Jamie Lee Curtis is the latest movie star considering retirement because she can't bear to give up her full-time role as a mother. The Golden Globe-winning actress insists her role as a mom is too important to consider a return to her life as a movie star. She says, "My life is so filled that for me to accept acting work now means that I have to basically let somebody else do the job that I want to do, which is raise my children. It's not that I'm retired it's just that I no longer accept acting work."

Talk show host Oprah Winfrey paid tribute to late civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks yesterday at a memorial service in Washington, DC. A large crowd of mourners made their way to the Metropolitan Ame Church to pay tribute to the African-American woman whose refusal to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Alabama, city bus helped spark the modern civil rights movement. And Winfrey, who met Parks on numerous occasions, told the mourners, "I'm here today to say a final thank you, Sister Rosa, for being a great woman, who used your life to serve us all. That day you refused to give up your seat on the bus, you changed the trajectory of my life, and the lives of so many other people in the world. I would not be standing here today, nor standing where I stand every day had she not chosen to sit down. I know that and I honor that... I marvel at your will, I celebrate you strength to this day and I am forever grateful... I owe you to succeed." Parks, who died of natural causes on October 24 at the age of 92, will be buried in Detroit, Michigan, tomorrow.

Actress Reese Witherspoon is adamant her work with the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) to investigate illegal and dangerous tactics used by the paparazzi is entirely necessary, because they are ruining her life and terrifying her children. The Sweet Home Alabama star claims she has been victimized by photographers, who have trapped her in public places and hurled abuse at her to get pictures. Last month she allegedly witnessed snapper Todd Wallace assault two Disneyland, California, employees as they attempted to shield the actress from his "aggressive and frightening" behavior. Witherspoon says, "They do things that are illegal. They've hit my car and tried to push me off the road. And they've blocked me in with their cars, which is false imprisonment. They shout terrible obscene things at you and your children to try and get a reaction on your face. I had one follow us to the pediatrician's office shouting the f-word at us. My daughter was only four - she was shaking and crying. It's hard to live with. And I don't understand why it's legal to print pictures of my children."

Latin actors Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna have teamed up to form their own production company in their native Mexico. The childhood pals and Y Tu Mama Tambien co-stars want to help Mexican film-makers produce movies without worrying about Hollywood's commercial constraints. The Crime of Father Amaro star Bernal enthuses, "What we want to do is give the opportunity for directors to put their own point of view. At the moment many films have to compromise their point of view to be funded."

Model-turned-actress Lauren Hutton has agreed to pose nude for the cover of US magazine Big, at the age of 61. Hutton, whose successful catwalk career heralded the birth of the 'supermodel' in the 1970s, appeared nude on the big screen in 1970 film Little Fauss And Big Halsy, and had to ask her goddaughters' advice before deciding to bare all again over 30 years later. She says, "They said 'You're kidding? Go, granny, go!' So I did." Big's 58th issue is due out in November and promises to contain every aspect of Hutton's life and career including: "Her homeland, her family album, her travel, her private life, her romance, her adventures, her favorite things, unseen Richard Avedon images, her movie, her shot now: beauty, fashion and nude."

Pop queen Madonna regrets signing over the rights to her 1991 documentary Truth or Dare to distributors Miramax, because she has since had to pay to use footage from the movie - and made little money from the project. The singer has learned her lesson and signed lucrative television deals for her new tour documentary I'm Going To Tell You A Secret, after failing to secure a cinema distribution deal at this year's Cannes Film Festival. She tells the New York Daily News, "Unless you're Steven Spielberg, distributors take all your DVD rights. When I sold Truth Or Dare to Miramax, I got very little out of it. Just to use a clip of it in my new movie, I had to pay them like $7,000. It was thinking outside the box to have it shown on TV."

Italian beauty Monica Bellucci has no intention of moving to Hollywood to further her acting career, because she hates the way women are treated by the American film industry. The Passion Of The Christ actress refuses to conform to the obsession with youth in Los Angeles, and echoes the complaints of many mature US actresses who feel they are shunned by producers once they pass the age of 40. The 41-year-old says, "I could never live there. They are obsessed with youth and beauty even more than us. There is this thing in America where actresses reach 40 and go mad. The film industry wants all these young people. They also like a different sort of woman (to me). I will never be skinny. I also had a child a year ago, and I have been lazy. I love to eat. Who cares? I am natural."

Jennifer Lopez's upcoming drama South Beach has been hounded with problems, thanks to this year's extremely active hurricane season. The Miami, Florida-based series, which stars Vanessa L. Williams, has shut down production three times since launching in August, because of threats posed by Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma. Lopez serves as executive producer on the upcoming project, which revolves around a group of young Florida professionals.