Dame Helen Mirren and Ben Affleck have taken the acting honors at this year's Venice Film Festival in Italy. Mirren was named Best Actress for her performance as British monarch Queen Elizabeth II in The Queen, while Affleck was a surprise win as Best Actor for his part as 1950s TV Superman actor George Reeves in Hollywoodland. On collecting her award, Mirren said, "It's an incredible honor to have a film take its first steps here in Venice. (Director) Stephen Frears is the mother of the film. I'm just a bit of the DNA of this film." Chinese movie Still Life (Sanxia Haoren) won the festival's top award, the Golden Lion, beating out competition from favorites The Queen, Bobby and Golden Door. Actress Catherine Deneuve, who headed the jury, praised Still Life as "a very special film. We were very touched and we were very moved." French filmmaker Alain Resnais, 84, won Best Director for Private Fears In Public Places, while Best Screenplay went to Peter Morgan for The Queen. Chad movie Daratt won the Special Jury Prize.

Crocodile Hunter star Steve Irwin's funeral has taken place in Queensland, Australia, according to local media reports. The low-key private ceremony attended by family and friends went ahead in Caloundra. Irwin will be buried at Australia Zoo, owned by his family. A source tells Australia's Sunday Mail newspaper, "The service was a service for family and good friends, people who were close to Steve in recent years. The council gave the family permission to bury Steve at the zoo and we think they're going to erect a monument there so visitors can continue to pay their respects." Internationally acclaimed conservationist Irwin died last Monday after being stung in the chest by a stingray while diving on the Great Barrier Reef. The news of his tragic death shocked the world and sparked a huge outpouring of grief, particularly in his homeland Australia. The country's Prime Minister John Howard had offered a state funeral for Irwin, but his father Bob Irwin insisted his son would have wanted a simple farewell.

Da Ali G Show star Sacha Baron Cohen was booed by audiences at the Toronto Film Festival on Thursday night after a film projector broke 30 minutes into his new film Borat: Cultural Learnings Of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation Of Kazakhstan. British funnyman Cohen attempted to calm the crowd by going onstage as his character Borat, saying, "If you don't give these people money back, I crush you!" But the audience were furious after the screening was cancelled following an hour of waiting for the projector to be fixed and continued to boo the star. One audience member said, "It was complete madness."

Hollywood star Arnold Schwarzenegger has apologized after calling a Latina lawmaker "very hot." The California Governor said of Republican Bonnie Garcia, "black blood" mixed with "Latino blood" equals "hot." Schwarzenegger has apologized, saying, "Anyone out there that feels offended by these comments, I just want to say I'm sorry. The fact is that if I would hear this kind of comments in my house, by my kids, I would be upset, and today, when I read it in the papers ... It made me cringe." Garcia, whose parents are from Puerto Rico, insists there was no need for Schwarzenegger to apologize, saying she referred to herself as a "hot-blooded Latina" all the time. But state Treasurer Phil Angelides said the governor "used language that is deeply offensive to all Californians." Democrat assemblyman Mervyn Dymally, who chairs the state Legislative Black Caucus, said the Governor's comments were "usual political banter. We do this all the time."

British actor Jude Law is still seething over his Oscar night embarrassment last year - when host Chris Rock made fun of the prolific star's relentless screen appearances. Law was initially unfazed by Rock's quips, but he became infuriated when Rock sniped, "Who is Jude Law? Why's he in every movie I have seen for the last four years? He's in everything. Even in the movies he's not in, if you look in the credits he made cupcakes or something." All the King's Men star Law says, "At first I laughed because I didn't think he knew who I was. Then I got angry as his remarks became personal. My friends were livid. It's unfortunate I had five or six films come out at the same time."

Nicole Kidman is furious with a film critic for writing a unauthorized biography on her after only having one brief phone chat with her. The Moulin Rouge star was shocked when she found out David Thomson was writing a book and was unaware her short interview would be exploited in the form of an explosive biography. Kidman claims she was deceived by the author, who told her he was writing a series of articles on several different films. According to Kidman's publicist, Wendy Day, "Nicole has never met David Thomson. She has only spoken to him briefly on the phone about her acting processes and various films. He's a well-respected film writer and she accepted the interview only because she was under the impression he was writing a series of film essays." The book, entitled Nicole Kidman, hit bookstores in the US this week and paints a picture of the actress as a power-hungry fame seeker who used her 10-year marriage to Tom Cruise to hit the big time in Hollywood. The biography also claims the star is too self-obsessed to give herself to a husband. Kidman married country star Keith Urban in June. Thomson even goes as far as to suggest Stanley Kubrick's 1999 thriller Eyes Wide Shut ended Cruise and Kidman's marriage because it mirrored their off-screen relationship too closely. Kidman has not yet announced legal action against Thomson, who in his previous book, The Whole Equation: A History Of Hollywood, confessed to having a huge crush on her.

Police have recovered Lindsay Lohan's stolen handbag in a car parking lot at London's Heathrow Airport, just feet from where it disappeared. The Mean Girls star lost her beloved Hermes Birkin bag inside the terminal on Thursday afternoon when it was stolen from her trolley. The actress/singer was traveling through the airport with boyfriend Harry Morton on her way back to America from the Venice Film Festival when she noticed the bag, containing $954,000 worth of jewelry and her asthma medication, was missing. It is believed the bag was found in a car park at Heathrow by a member of the public, who contacted police. A police spokeswoman says, "We have not yet established what, if anything, is missing."

Director Oliver Stone will release a third version of his Alexander epic in a bid to win over critics who originally mauled the movie. The Platoon filmmaker insists the cinematic version of Alexander was hampered by time constraints after being slashed to 168 minutes in length. Stone originally wanted to release the movie in its original three-hour form but concerned studio bosses forced him to axe scenes containing homosexual content. The new DVD-only release will be a staggering three hours and 40 minutes in length, and will feature footage edited out of the original cut. Stone says, "This thing has haunted me. By truncating it into three hours, we lost things that were important. This version allows you to immerse yourself in the classical world."

John Leguizamo played a cruel prank on Carlito's Way co-star Penelope Ann Miller after the pair fell out - by shrinking her costumes. The actor took an instant dislike to Miller during the shooting of the 1993 film. In his upcoming autobiography Pimps, Hos, Playa Hatas, And All The Rest Of My Hollywood Friends, Leguizamo writes, "You really have to know Penelope Ann Miller to dislike her. She's the kind of girl who would flirt with anyone in the world as long as people are watching." Leguizamo and the wardrobe department decided to get even with Miller - by taking in her clothes an inch at a time. He writes, "Every day her outfits are getting a little tighter, a little tighter. She goes on a starvation diet. Watch the movie, you'll see she gets thinner and thinner."

Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest has become only the third film to break through the $1 billion international box office barrier. The swashbuckling sequel - which stars Johnny Depp, Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom - now only trails Titanic and The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King in the history books. James Cameron's Titanic made $1.8 billion following its release in 1997, while the concluding part of Peter Jackson's trilogy earned $1.1 billion.