Hollywood legend Martin Sheen was asked not to attend a party at the White House where his The West Wing co-stars were invited to meet their real-life counterparts. The 66-year-old actor, who played President Josiah Bartlet on the US political drama until it ended in May 2006, got on well with Bush's predecessor Bill Clinton, but relations between the TV President and the US government soured when President George W. Bush came to power. He reveals, "I adored Mr. Clinton. And he was a fan of The West Wing. For a while we were given carte blanche at the White House, which ended when Bush got in - ended for me anyway. When the new administration got into power, all my West Wing colleagues were invited there to meet their counterparts. All except me. I was very relieved about that."

Director Michael Mann has entered the race against Johnny Depp to make a film about Alexander Litvinenko, the ex-KGB agent who was fatally poisoned in London last year. Mann's film is based on the unpublished book Death Of A Dissident, which is being written by Litvinenko's widow Marina and Alex Goldfarb, who reportedly had close ties with the spy. The movie will focus on the Russian power structure enforced by the KGB and its successor the FRS and the "Wild West capitalism" that followed glasnost, with Litvinenko caught in the middle. Meanwhile, Depp's production company and Warner Bros have just announced plans to make a film based on the book Sasha's Story: The Life And Death Of A Russian Spy, which is currently being written by New York Times London Bureau Chief Alan Cowell. British police are still investigating Litvinenko's death, after traces of lethal radiation were found in his body when he was admitted to hospital three weeks before he died.

Sting is considering reuniting with his former bandmates from The Police to mark the 30th anniversary of the group's formation. The band's ex-frontman wants to commemorate the occasion properly and play gigs again with drummer Stewart Copeland and guitarist Andy Summers. He explains, "We started 30 years ago, so it would be nice to do something to celebrate. We don't quite know what, but we're talking about it. I'm very proud of the band we were in. I left the band because I felt I wanted to grow as a musician, to mature as a musician and to try more things than a band is able to do. A band is very constricted. I spent the last 25 years exploring that freedom and having a great time." Sting's reunion thoughts come just two weeks after news circulated the trio was planning a comeback in 2007.

Whitney Houston has fueled rumors she is dating R&B singer Ray J after the two were spotted sharing a dinner in Beverly Hills on Sunday night. The star announced she was filing for divorce from husband Bobby Brown in September after 14 years of marriage and is currently working on a comeback album. Ray J, whose real name is William Ray Norwood Jr, is the brother of R&B star Brandy and is 18 years younger than Houston. The two were seen leaving Maestro's Steakhouse together and eyewitnesses reportedly saw the two getting cozy while enjoying drinks after dinner.

Jennifer Aniston may be set to dig the Dirt with best pal Courteney Cox after agreeing to play a bitchy magazine boss in an upcoming episode of the hit new US drama. Aniston will play Tina Harrod, a rival of her former Friends cast mate's character, Lucy Spiller, on the season finale of the show in March. The episode will mark the first time the actresses have acted together on since the end of Friends. Cox, who is also a producer of the gritty new show, revealed she was searching for a part for Aniston in a recent interview. She said, "We talk about it all the time - what kind of character she should play? Should she play herself or should we write some great thing for her?"

Steve Krantz, who produced the X-rated animated movie Fritz The Cat and created successful TV mini-series out of wife Judith Krantz's romance novels, has died. He was 83. Krantz died of complications from pneumonia on January 4 in Los Angeles. During his TV career, he wrote for Milton Berle and Arthur Godfrey and helped create several comedies, including Dennis The Menace and Bewitched as head of creative development at Columbia Pictures Television. He was also executive producer for Steve Allen's The Tonight Show. Krantz later turned to feature films such as Fritz the Cat, based on the Robert Crumb underground comic and Cooley High, about black high school students in the 1960s. In the 1980s and 1990s, he produced mini-series based on his wife's steamy novels, including Scruples, Mistral's Daughter and Dazzle. After his retirement, Krantz was involved with mental-heath counseling and former California Governor Pete Wilson appointed him to the board of the California Mental Health Council.

Pop star Britney Spears and her new boyfriend Isaac Cohen spent the weekend in Las Vegas holed up in the Fantasy Tower suite at The Palms hotel. The couple stayed in the tower's $40,000 per night, two-story Hugh Hefner Sky Villa on Saturday, with a Jacuzzi pool, glass elevator, rotating bed and full bar. A source who spotted the new couple tells America publication People, "They seem very happy together." The trip was Spears' first appearance in Las Vegas since she made headlines on New Year's Eve by falling asleep at a party she was hosting at Pure nightclub. Spears was wide awake this time around, and was spotted dancing and smoking cigarettes with Cohen at a gay nightclub just off the Las Vegas strip. This is the second weekend in a row that the couple have been seen together. On January 6, they hung out on a powerboat off the coast of Marina Del Rey, California and met up the next night at the W Hotel's Whiskey Blue bar in Westwood.

Singer/songwriter Norah Jones was so terrified at the prospect of working alongside actor Jude Law in her movie debut My Blueberry Nights she lost control of her voice. The Come Away With Me star admits she was also extremely nervous about sharing screen time with Hollywood stars Natalie Portman, Rachel Weisz and David Strathairn in the new film. She says, "Hearing that list of names for the first time I was more terrified than ever, like, 'What on earth have I got myself into?' My first scene was with Jude and listening to the playback my voice was like helium and you could all but hear my knees knock. I had to slap myself hard around the face, metaphorically, and say, 'Norah, be fearless, or forget it, OK?'"

Movie veteran Mickey Rooney gave Marilyn Monroe her famous moniker after telling her Norma Rae wasn't Hollywood enough. The Night At The Museum star met the wannabe actress at a party and was captivated by her look, but not her name. Rooney recalls taking the starlet home that night and helping her define her famous name and image. He tells Premiere magazine, "I said, 'Something tells me you have a wonderful chance - but you gotta change your name: There was a wonderful star named Marilyn Miller, and nobody's used it (name). You should be Marilyn.' Then the phone rang and it was a guy I used to write scripts with whose name was Tom Monroe... She said, 'Who were you talking to?' 'I was talking to your last name... You're Marilyn Monroe.'"

Hollywood couple Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard put their relationship to the test to shoot new movie High Falls - because they had to be horrible to one another. The engaged couple, who recently celebrated the birth of baby daughter Ramona, really disliked each other's character on the set of the Sundance Film Festival-bound short film, in which they play a husband and wife. Gyllenhaal explains, "It was actually pretty horrible, to be honest. He was playing a big jerk and it was hard for me to be around him when all day long. We were in a terrible relationship in the movie, and it was really sad to have to pretend to be in that relationship for four days. I love his acting and I would love to make many movies with him but I want to make sure that the making of the movie will be good for us, because I'm not sure that the making of High Falls was good for us."