Richard Pryor, one of the most groundbreaking comedians of the late 20th century, died Saturday morning of a heart attack at his home in the San Fernando Valley; he was 65. Pryor had been suffering from multiple sclerosis for years, and according to his wife Jennifer Pryor, passed away very quickly with little suffering. Born in Peoria, Illinios, Pryor reportedly grew up in a brothel run by his grandmother, and was performing at as young an age as 7, when he played drums for a nightclub. After graduating high school and serving two years in the army, Pryor began his comedy career in the 60s, working in nightclubs and earning a reputation for himself. Soon talk show and variety show appearances led to small parts in movies throughout the late 60s and early 70s, with a noteworthy supporting role opposite Diana Ross in Lady Sings the Blues (1972). He also wrote for a number of television shows, including Sanford and Son, and worked on the script for Mel Brooks' Blazing Saddles. Pryor skyrocketed to fame, however, on the strength, appeal, and hilarity of his stand-up performances, which challenged the establishment at a time when censorship laws still held sway, and his explicit, profane routines, centering on racial and sexual topics and everything in between, won him both controversy and fame. He also became a highly popular (and highly paid) actor in the 70s, with hit films such as Silver Streak to his credit and a controversial TV show on NBC. His biggest film success, though, was with a concert film of his stand-up routines, and Richard Pryor: Live in Concert (1979) remains one of his best and one of the most influential comedy films of all time.

Just as his fame reached its zenith in 1980 (the year the hit film Stir Crazy was released), Pryor almost lost his life in a notorious drug-related accident, as he suffered burns on over 50% of his body while freebasing cocaine at home. The incident began Pryor's long road to recovery, and he talked and joked freely about it in his next concert film, Richard Pryor: Live on the Sunset Strip. Free to make whatever films he liked, Pryor signed a $40 million, five-year contract with Columbia Pictures in 1983, which took him from cult hero to mainstream star, though the movies, including Superman III, The Toy and Brewster's Millions, diluted his considerable talent. He had more critical, if not commercial, success with two autobiographical-influenced films, Some Kind of Hero and Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling, a thinly fictionalized biopic. By the late 80s, though, Pryor's films were becoming bigger and bigger failures, and he all but retired from performing in the 90s, after he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis; in 1990 he suffered a massive heart attack and underwent triple bypass surgery. He made a brief appearance in the film Lost Highway, and did a guest stint on Chicago Hope, which earned him an Emmy nomination, but rarely worked; in 1998, he received the first Mark Twain Prize for humor from the JFK Center for the Performing Arts. He married six times, and had two sons and three daughters, including actress Rain Pryor. Pryor is survived by his wife Jennifer, who was his fourth wife and whom he remarried in 2001. --Prepared by IMDb staff

Hollywood actor Matt Damon and his fiancee Luciana Barroso are expecting their first child together. Barroso, who Damon proposed to shortly before America's Labor Day holiday, is three months pregnant, according to US TV show Access Hollywood. The child will be Damon's first - Barroso has a six-year-old daughter, Alexa, from a previous relationship. The news comes just one week after Damon talked about his desire to be a strong father figure. He said, "I have longed for (kids) in real life, anyway. I just have to learn how to be a disciplinarian. Now I'm good at winding kids up, but I'm not so good at chilling them out."

BREAKING NEWS: Damon's publicist has confirmed that the actor and Barroso were married Friday morning in New York City. The two exchanged vows at a small, undisclosed location in a private ceremony, though Us Weekly reported on its website that the wedding took place at New York City Hall. Barroso's 7 year-old daughter Alexa, from a previous relationship, was reported to have witnessed the ceremony.

Jennifer Aniston has been attacked by the photographer who took snapshots of her sunbathing - for being barely dressed on her own property. Aniston, 36, slapped photographer Peter Brandt with a lawsuit, after learning he'd taken pictures of her while she soaked up the sun in her garden, but now the snapper is hitting back. He tells ABC News, "She's the one who went out there topless. I didn't go looking for it." Brandt says he was only looking to take photos of Aniston and her new beau Vince Vaughn, and he denies that he was trespassing on her property, as the star's lawsuit asserts. He continues, "She has no fences around her backyard. I did not trespass. When I saw her come out topless, I go, 'Oh, God, this is not what I want, this is not what people want to buy anyway.' I haven't sold those pictures anywhere. You know, they're suing me and all the publications who are publishing them, and I haven't sold them anywhere. Sending the topless pictures along with (the other photos) was maybe my mistake. But I wasn't intending to sell those." According to papers recently filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, Aniston is seeking monetary damages and a cease-and-desist order against Brandt, whom she claims observed her "from a great distance through invasive, intrusive and unlawful measures."

Controversial film director Mel Gibson has been attacked by a leading Holocaust expert after announcing plans to produce a film about the terrible genocide. The Lethal Weapon star, who caused outrage from critics who claimed his movie The Passion Of The Christ contained elements of anti-Semitism, will centre the story on Dutch Jew Flory Van Beek, whose non-Jewish boyfriend hid her from the Nazis. Gibson's father Hutton Gibson has openly stated he doesn't believe the Holocaust ever took place. Rafael Medoff, director of the David Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, says, "For (Gibson) to be associated with this movie is cause for concern. He needs to come clean that he repudiates Holocaust denial, and that he understands the Holocaust was not just another atrocity that occurred in the Second World War along with other atrocities."

R&B star Mariah Carey, rapper Kanye West and soul singer John Legend lead the nominations for next year's Grammy Awards, picking up eight nods each. The Honey singer, 35, is up for Album Of The Year for her best-selling disc The Emancipation Of Mimi, while her ballad "We Belong Together" is up for Song Of The Year and Record Of The Year. West is nominated for Album Of The Year for Late Registration, Best Rap Solo Performance for "Gold Digger" and Best Rap Song for "Diamonds From Sierra Leone." Meanwhile, Legend has been nominated for Song Of The Year for "Ordinary People" and Best New Artist. Following close behind the urban stars are 50 Cent, Beyonce Knowles, Stevie Wonder and Black Eyed Peas rapper Will.I.AM with six nods apiece, while Missy Elliott, Alicia Keys, Bruce Springsteen, U2 and Gwen Stefani are named in five categories each. Carey gushes, "This year has been such a blessing. This is prayers answered. I'm grateful for the nominations and I'm really grateful for the fact that people are responding to the music I've made." Legend says, "I feel incredible. You put a lot of expectations into what you want the record to be." The winners in the Grammys' 108 categories will be announced at a star-studded ceremony at Los Angeles' Staples Center on February 8.

Jessica Simpson has reportedly hired a high-powered divorce attorney to handle her split with husband Nick Lachey - just three weeks after they announced their separation. According to Us Weekly, the Newlyweds star has recruited Robert Kaufman, who represented Jennifer Aniston in her divorce from Brad Pitt earlier this year. A representative for Simpson has refused to comment on the report, but a pal of the blonde beauty says, "Jennifer handled her divorce with Brad like a lady, in a non-sleazy way, and Jessica wants to do the same." On November 23, Simpson, 25, and Lachey, 32, announced their separation after three years of marriage.

British actress Kate Beckinsale, Mark Wahlberg and funnyman Steve Carell have signed up to host the 2006 Golden Globe Awards Nominations announcement. The trio will wake up early to read out the Hollywood Foreign Press Association's picks for US film and TV honors next week. The 63rd annual Golden Globe Awards will take place at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on January 16. As previously announced, Sir Anthony Hopkins will be honored with the Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement. Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson's teenage daughter, Dakota, will serve as the event's Miss Golden Globe. She is the first daughter of a former Miss Golden Globe to ever be selected.

British playwright Harold Pinter has called for George W. Bush and Tony Blair to be arraigned before the International Criminal Court of Justice for their "vast tapestry of lies" about the war in Iraq. The rant appears in Pinter's pre-recorded lecture as winner of the 2005 Nobel Prize for Literature. The 75-year-old was unable to attend in person after being admitted to hospital in Britain suffering an undisclosed illness. The lecture, screened on Wednesday, was entitled Art, Truth and Politics. Pinter discussed the importance of truth in art and attacked its absence in politics. His said, "(Most politicians) are interested not in truth but in power and the maintenance of that power. (Politicians feel it is) essential that people remain in ignorance, that they live in ignorance of the truth, even the truth of their own lives." He added that justification for invading Iraq, based on the presence of weapons of mass destruction, "Was not true." Pinter continued, "The truth is something entirely different. The truth is to do with how the United States understands its role in the world and how it chooses to embody it." He then turned his attentions to Blair and the British Government, accusing them of being a "bleating little lamb tagging behind (the US) on a lead. (Bush and Blair should be) arraigned before the International Criminal Court of Justice. But Bush has been clever. He has not ratified the International Criminal Court of Justice." Publisher Stephen Page will accept the prize on behalf of ill Pinter at a ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden on Saturday.

Director Peter Jackson has lost a staggering 70 pounds in weight in just 10 months. The Lord Of The Rings director stunned journalists at promotional interviews for his new movie King Kong with a svelte new look, a million miles from the overweight film-maker made famous by the fantasy trilogy. Jackson claims the grueling editing process on King Kong, which saw him working 21-hour days, helped him slim. He says, "I just got tired of being overweight and unfit so I changed my diet from hamburgers to yogurt and muesli and it seemed to work. It was just cutting out junk food."

Actor Wilmer Valderrama has signed up to star in a remake of the classic TV show CHiPS. Valderrama, ex-boyfriend of Lindsay Lohan and Mandy Moore, will play the role of Francis Llewellyn Poncherello, originally portrayed by Erik Estrada on the show, which followed the pursuits of California Highway Patrol officers and ran from 1977 to 1983. The role of Poncherello's patrol partner Jon Baker, originally played by Larry Wilcox, has yet to be cast. Valderrama's resemblance to Estrada has often been noted, with TLC star Rozonda 'Chilli' Thomas recently describing him as "the little guy who looks like the dude from CHiPS."

Memoirs Of A Geisha director Rob Marshall has defended his decision to cast Chinese actors in place of Japanese ones - insisting they were employed for their talent, not where they come from. The American film-maker spoke out after being chastised by Chinese critics for appointing Chinese actresses Ziyi Zhang and Gong Li to play major roles in the adaptation of Arthur Golden's popular novel. The critics insist Marshall's choice is insensitive because of the atrocities committed by the Japanese during their 1930s Chinese occupation. Marshall says, "When you saw Zorba The Greek, and you saw Anthony Quinn play Zorba, was that odd to you because he was Irish and Mexican?" Gong Li, who plays top geisha Hatsumo in the film, defended her position, insisting her decision to star in the film was based purely on character, not race. She says, "As actors, we seek roles that challenge and inspire us."