Feminist playwright Wendy Wasserstein, who wrote The Heidi Chronicles and The Sisters Rosensweig, has died of cancer. She was 55. Wasserstein had been battling the deadly disease for months and died of lymphoma early yesterday morning. The Heidi Chronicles won a Tony award for Best Play in 1989, as well as the Pulitzer Prize for drama in the same year. Andre Bishop, head of Lincoln Center Theater and a close friend of Wasserstein's says, "She was an extraordinary human being whose work and whose life were extremely intertwined. She was not unlike the heroines of most of her plays - a strong-minded, independent, seriously good person."

The Dukes Of Hazzard and Son Of The Mask are leading the nominations at this year's Razzies, which celebrates the worst films of 2005. The Golden Raspberry Award Foundation's 26th annual Razzie winners are traditionally announced the night before the Oscars, on March 3, at the Ivar Theatre in Hollywood, California. Funnyman Jamie Kennedy's turn in the sequel to the Jim Carrey 1994 hit movie has picked up eight nominations, including Worst Director for Lawrence Guterman, Worst Actor for Kennedy and Worst Picture. Following close behind is remake The Dukes Of Hazzard, with Jessica Simpson up for Worst Supporting Actress and Worst Screen Couple for her 'Daisy Dukes' hotpants. Other nominated films include Jenny McCarthy's Dirty Love with six nods; and Bewitched and Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo with five each. Paris Hilton's big screen debut in House Of Wax has also been nominated for Worst Supporting Actress. Meanwhile, last year's most high-profile couple, Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, are up for Worst Actor and Worst Supporting Actress respectively. Cruise has been nominated twice in a new category, entitled Most Tiresome Tabloid Targets, for his public displays of affection with Holmes and his war on psychiatry.

US presidential drama Commander In Chief has been temporarily pulled from the ABC TV schedule because network executives are unhappy with the show's low ratings. The drama has received critical acclaim and Academy Award-winning actress Geena Davis, who plays president Mackenzie Allen, won a Golden Globe for her performance earlier this month - but that isn't making the show a hit. Network executives say the series will return later this spring, insisting it's not unusual to take a show off the air and try another new show in its time slot.

British actress Rachel Weisz is repeatedly disappointed when awards bosses fail to nominate her The Constant Gardener co-star Ralph Fiennes, especially when now she has won so many honors. The pregnant beauty won a Golden Globe on January 16 and a Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Award Sunday night for her performance as Tessa Quayle in the gritty drama, but is baffled as to why Fiennes has been ignored. She says, "It's beyond my comprehension (why Fiennes has been overlooked). I feel that any award or any acclaim I get I share with him 50-50."

Oliver Stone has hit out at reports his new film will have a political agenda, insisting it will focus on two or three American civilians' fight for survival. Stone's film, which has been given the working title of World Trade Center, will feature Hollywood actor Nicolas Cage in the lead role. The movie-maker has courted controversy in the past with politically-charged Vietnam war films such as Platoon and Born On The Fourth Of July. He says, "This is not about the motives of the terrorists, or who the terrorists were, or the politics of 9/11 in any way. This film is the story of two guys trapped inside, and their families on the outside. It's a no-nonsense, austere, verite document of what they went through in those 24 hours, a procedural, and it should be shot like that."

A judge has issued an arrest warrant for American Pie star Natasha Lyonne after she failed to appear in court on Friday. The troubled 26-year-old actress is facing a number of charges, including criminal mischief, harassment and trespassing. Lyonne also allegedly threatened to sexually molest her former neighbor's dog during a 2004 altercation. Friday's hearing in Manhattan Criminal Court was rescheduled after the actress missed several court dates earlier in the week. Last week's absence marks the fourth time Lyonne has missed a court date and the third time a bench warrant has been issued for her arrest.

Hollywood actor Heath Ledger found filming Brokeback Mountain so emotionally draining, he agreed to star in comic period drama Casanova to aid his recovery. The A Knight's Tale heart-throb struggled to maintain the intensity his gay love scenes with co-star Jake Gyllenhaal demanded, because he felt lonely and isolated in the Canadian wilderness, where Ang Lee shot much of the Oscar-nominated movie. He tells Empire magazine, "Casanova was so enjoyable because we didn't have to take ourselves seriously. I'd just come off Brokeback Mountain and that was just torturous at times, a really tough, lonely shoot. So to go from Calgary to Venice to shoot this was like a paid holiday."

Harrison Ford proved experience wins over youth, when he humiliated young British star Paul Bettany in fight scenes for their new movie Firewall. Bettany, 34, spent three days attempting to 'beat up' the Indiana Jones actor in choreographed shots, but insists the 63-year-old actor is unbreakable in a fight. Bettany says, "I was just trying not to get bruised. I wouldn't want to tumble with Harrison Ford in real life. He's a tough son of a bitch. I threw that man through a window seven times and he landed on his head, got up, rebuilt the window with the crew and then got thrown through it again. I hit that man in the stomach and he said, 'Could you just land it a bit harder so I could feel it?' So I landed it a bit harder and he wanted a bit more so he could react to it. Finally, I just wound one up and let loose on him and he said, 'That's it!' It was the most humiliating day of my life."

Actress Angela Bassett and her husband Courtney B. Vance are celebrating after becoming first-time parents. The couple became parents of twins - a boy and a girl - who were born through a surrogate on Friday. Bassett celebrated her new role as a mother at Sunday's Screen Actors Guild Awards in Los Angeles, where she was among the presenters. Vance and Bassett, both 47, were married in 1997.