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Today's Dish; 'Alfie' stars announce engagement


LONDON -- Jude Law has become engaged to his actress-girlfriend, Sienna Miller, proposing to her on Christmas Day.

Law, whose films include "The Talented Mr. Ripley" and "I (Heart) Huckabees," proposed to Miller on Christmas morning in England, presenting her with a gold ring featuring nine diamonds set in platinum, the couple's spokeswoman, Ciara Parkes, said Wednesday.

"Both their families and friends are thrilled and of course Jude's children are, too," Parkes said.

A date for the wedding has not been set.

Law, 32, divorced fashion designer-actress Sadie Frost in October 2003 after a six-year marriage and three children.

Miller, 23, was Law's co-star in the remake of "Alfie."

Law earned Oscar nominations for his roles in "The Talented Mr. Ripley" and "Cold Mountain." His screen credits also include "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow," "Closer" and "The Aviator," all released in 2004.

Singer answers plea from skateboarders

WHEELING, W.Va. -- Country music singer Brad Paisley has donated to an effort to build a skate park in his home state after receiving a letter from a 15-year-old boy who told him youths have nowhere to skate.

Paisley, who owns a skateboard, made the donation to the Wheeling Skate Park Committee in response to a letter from Nathan Mey, a committee member, the group said.

Paisley, a Glen Dale native, doesn't want the amount of his donation released, said committee member Kathi Fader.

The 20,000-square-foot facility, estimated to cost between $200,000 and $250,000, would be the first free concrete skate park in West Virginia, the committee said.

Bob Barker sticks with 'Price is Right'

NEW YORK -- Bob Barker has agreed to continue as host of "The Price Is Right" for a record 34th season, CBS announced.

"I was considering retiring this year and going into bodybuilding with the thought in mind of becoming governor of California," the 81-year-old Emmy-winning game-show host joked. "But I decided to instead stay with the body I have and the job I have."

Bacon had to talk wife into co-star role

BOSTON -- Kevin Bacon had intimate knowledge about his character's love interest while shooting his new movie, "The Woodsman." She was, after all, Kyra Sedgwick, his love interest in real life.

"Kyra and I have rarely worked together. ... We've been married 16 years, and this is one of the handful of times we've been on-screen together," Bacon said.

"She had a lot of hesitation about taking the part. She said, 'Look, if there were any other actor playing this part, I'd say yes in a second. But I'm afraid people will come out of the movie and step out and say, 'Oh, that's Kyra and Kevin.' "

Bacon managed to persuade his wife to take the part.

"I said to her, 'Look, we don't have a Hollywood tabloid kind of marriage. People are not really all that interested in our marriage because it's a good one and is therefore uninteresting. The other thing is, this is not a $50 million romantic comedy with the two of us on the poster. This is "The Woodsman," a dark, festival film.' I felt like we could pull it off."

Clark still in hospital following stroke

BURBANK, Calif. -- A month after his stroke, Dick Clark remains hospitalized in good spirits while working with rehabilitation specialists.

The "American Bandstand" icon watched Regis Philbin host "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve 2005" from his hospital bed and said "he enjoyed the show and thought Regis did a wonderfully professional job," Clark publicist Paul Shefrin said Wednesday.

Clark, 75, was hospitalized at an undisclosed Burbank hospital Dec. 6 after suffering a mild stroke. Shefrin wouldn't disclose specifics.

There was no word on when Clark would go home. It seems certain, however, that Clark won't be at the Jan. 16 Golden Globes Awards, which he produces.

"Nothing in life is certain, but it doesn't look like he will be at the show," Shefrin said. "He is doing some business from bed. His mind is 100 percent."

During the ABC-TV New Year's Eve show, fans held up "Get Well Dick" signs. Celebrities, including Madonna, John Travolta, Janet Jackson and others, were shown on videotape expressing best wishes.

"He was very touched by the outpouring of support, not only from the celebrity world but from the people on the streets of New York," Shefrin said.

Oxford adds a few new biographies

LONDON -- Beatles guitarist George Harrison, actor Nigel Hawthorne and Harry Secombe, one of the stars of "The Goon Show," have been added to the "Oxford Dictionary of National Biography," Britain's definitive record of the great and the good.

In total, 195 biographies were added to the dictionary in the update published Tuesday. The group included 44 women.

"The dictionary is a record of people who were once our contemporaries and who shaped the society in which we now live," said the dictionary's editor, Lawrence Goldman. The revised 60-volume dictionary was published in September.

Other new biographies include Douglas Adams, author of "The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy."

Music academy lists lifetime awards

SANTA MONICA, Calif. -- Rocker Jerry Lee Lewis, country star Eddy Arnold and jazz pioneer Jelly Roll Morton are among this year's recipients of the Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Recording Academy, which also presents the Grammy Awards.

Janis Joplin, blues pianist Pinetop Perkins, Led Zeppelin, the Staple Singers, jazz drummer Art Blakey, pianist, conductor and composer Morton Gould, and Alvin P. "A.P." Carter, Sara Carter and Maybelle Carter of the original Carter family also will be honored during a Feb. 12 ceremony, it was announced Tuesday.

The 47th annual Grammy Awards will be presented Feb. 13 in Los Angeles.


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