British pop star Robbie Williams has entered a rehabilitation centre to be treated for a dependency on prescription drugs - on his 33rd birthday. The singer has been admitted to a rehab clinic in the US, according to his spokeswoman Bryony Watts. In September, an exhausted and stressed Williams cancelled the Asian leg of his world tour. Williams has previously been in rehab in the mid-1990s after he left boy band Take That, when he was treated for addictions to cocaine, ecstasy and alcohol. He has also been treated for depression in the past.

Actor Omar Sharif pleaded no contest to misdemeanor battery charges in Beverly Hills, California yesterday, and was ordered to take an anger management class. The Doctor Zhivago star was accused of punching a parking valet who refused to accept his European currency as payment. The Egyptian-born star was not required to be in court and the plea was entered on his behalf by attorney Harlan Braun. Superior Court Judge Richard Stone placed Sharif on two years' probation and demanded he attend a 15-hour anger management program, which he can attend in his native Egypt. The 74-year-old was also ordered to stay 100 yards away from the victim, witnesses and the restaurant where the incident occurred. The judge set a hearing for April 18 to determine how much compensation Sharif will have to pay the victim. According to Braun, the victim is asking for $17,000 due to a broken nose.

Sharon Stone stunned audience members at a charity auction in Berlin, Germany on Monday night by enticing participants to bid by calling them "nasty little Germans." The 48-year-old was acting as an auctioneer at the Cinema for Peace gala and was attempting to guide the bidding process onstage. First, the bossy actress silenced high-profile guests with an extended "shhhh" and then made little hand gestures saying, "You talk, you bid; you move, you bid; you look at me wrong, you bid. You got it? You naughty little Germans. Naughty, nasty little Germans." The Basic Instinct star continued on her bizarre rant and pretended to kick something adding, "That's why I keep coming back. 'Cause you're naughty. Nasty. I like it!"

The US military has criticized the producers of TV hit 24 for featuring too many scenes of Kiefer Sutherland's character Jack Bauer torturing suspects for information. Brigadier General Patrick Finnegan recently visited the set of the hit show in California to speak to the show's makers. Finnegan is concerned about the effect the torture scenes are having on US troops abroad as 24 is popular among members of the American armed forces. According to the New Yorker, Finnegan told the producers, "I'd like them to stop. They should do a show where torture backfires. The kids see it and say, 'If torture is wrong, what about 24?' The disturbing thing is that although torture may cause Jack Bauer some angst, it is always the patriotic thing to do." Human Rights First spokesman David Danzig says, "I think there is no question (that torture scenes are having an effect). We have spoken to soldiers with experience in Iraq who say, for young soldiers, there is a direct relationship between what they are doing in their jobs and what they see on TV. The image of the US and its military is being affirmed."

Oscar-winner Reese Witherspoon has fired her Hollywood agents at Endeavor and moved over to Creative Artists Agency (CAA). The move is the second agency switch for the actress since the retirement of longtime agent Steve Dontanville, who discovered and signed Witherspoon when she was 13. While at Endeavor, she made the upcoming thriller Rendition, starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Meryl Streep and signed on for the remake of Bunny Lake Is Missing. A source tells veteran Hollywood columnist Nikki Finke Witherspoon's recent split from husband Ryan Phillippe could have played a part in her decision saying, "Going through a divorce causes people to do a re-examination." The Walk The Line star is considered to be one of the most sought-after actresses in Hollywood where she commands an average of $15 million per picture.

Dame Judi Dench is so convinced she won't win this year's Best Actress Academy Award she has advised gambling film fans to bet on another candidate. Dench, who has confirmed she will miss the Oscar ceremony later this month because she will be in hospital undergoing a knee operation, believes her performance in Notes On A Scandal will struggle to compete with fellow nominees Kate Winslet, Penelope Cruz, Dame Helen Mirren and Meryl Streep. Speaking at the Berlin Film Festival, Dench said, "Don't put any money on me because you'll lose. The thing about the Oscars, it's strange because in the theatre you would say, 'Break a leg.' I can't because I'm to have a knee operation. I can't go to the awards. I'm going to have my leg broken and put back together. I will watch and cheer from my bed."

Tragic model/actress Anna Nicole Smith left everything to her dead son Daniel and didn't change her will after his death in September. Smith's longtime attorney and husband-to-be Howard K. Stern has revealed all about his late girlfriend's last will and testament in a tearful interview with TV show Entertainment Tonight. Stern told reporter Mark Steines that Anna Nicole's will was drawn up in 2001, and never changed. In the interview, which aired on TV Monday night, Stern said, "Everything went to her son Daniel. Now, because Daniel's gone and (baby) Dannielynn is an only child, everything goes to Dannielynn. Everything. I am named as the executor in that will, and I was also appointed or named as Daniel's guardian in that will. And again, that was way back in 2001."

Singer and actress Marianne Faithfull is stunning movie fans at the Berlin Film Festival in Germany with her portrayal of a grandmother who becomes a London sex worker. Faithfull's starring role in Irina Palm has become the hit of the festival so far. In the movie, the 1960s icon plays a grandma so desperate to raise funds for her sick grandson's medical treatment she signs up to pleasure men through a hole in a wall. Faithfull received a standing ovation at a press screening of the film yesterday. Earlier, at a press conference, she dedicated her performance to friends in the sex industry. She said, "I've had friends who have worked in the sex trade, really good friends, and they're now dead. Our film doesn't glamorize it. We try to make it as real as it possibly could be. It's the sex trade. It's not fun for women."

Whitney Houston has slammed reports she is getting back together with estranged husband Bobby Brown after the couple were spotted dining together on Sunday. The star was in town to perform at music mogul Clive Davis' pre-Grammy Awards party on Saturday, but skipped the actual ceremony to enjoy a quiet dinner with Brown. Houston's representative, Nancy Seltzer, hits back at the reports telling American publication People, "It was a one-night dinner between divorcing parents for the sake of their daughter. They are not reuniting." The couple's 13-year-old daughter, Bobbi Kristina, her friend and the friend's mother, were all present at the dinner at Dan Tana's restaurant in West Hollywood, California. Last week, Houston, who initially filed for divorce in October, asked authorities to fast-track the proceedings.

British actors Dougray Scott and Claire Forlani are engaged and planning a wedding for later this year. Desperate Housewives star Scott, 41, and Meet Joe Black beauty Forlani, 34, will marry at an as-yet-decided location in the UK. The pair met after being introduced by mutual friends. Scott says, "For a while I wasn't sure if I wanted to get married again, but then I met the perfect woman. We're going to get married in the UK this year. We don't know where yet, but I'm sure it'll be somewhere special." Scott's first marriage to casting director Sarah Trevis, with whom he has two children, ended in 2005, after five years together.