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Ang Lee to direct first romantic comedy

After he finishes his current project, Lust, Caution, Oscar-winning director Ang Lee is set to direct his first romantic comedy.

Cameron Diaz and Jim Carrey will star in A Little Game, a big-screen adaptation of the French play, A Little Game of Consequence. It tells the story of a couple who pretend to call off their marriage so they can discover what their friends really think of their relationship.

The film will play on Lee's strength, namely, his ability to explore the internal world of his characters.

Jessica Simpson: Notebook spurred divorce

Singer-actress Jessica Simpson traces her high-profile breakup with Nick Lachey back to watching the 2004 romance The Notebook on a plane ride home to Texas.

"I just figured out the statement," she says of the movie, starring Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams as star-crossed lovers. "It was about that moment of desperation. I needed to breathe."

Simpson, 26, and Lachey, 33, starred in the MTV reality show, Newlyweds: Nick & Jessica. She filed for divorce in December 2005, after three years of marriage.

Simpson also says she was stung when ex-husband Lachey jumped back into dating after their high-profile breakup.

"Oh, it hurt me," she says in an interview in the March issue of Elle magazine. "Two or three weeks later? Yeah, I'd say it kind of hurt me."

Holmes wants more kids with Tom Cruise

Katie Holmes "definitely" wants to have more children with Tom Cruise.

The former Dawson's Creek actress gave birth to baby Suri in April last year and has admitted that she felt "empowered" by the experience.

"I felt so proud to be having a baby and so excited. And I felt closer to other women to my sisters, to my mom," she said. "I felt empowered, like, 'I've given birth. I did it! There's nothing I can't handle'."

"I've really enjoyed this time that I have taken to be with Suri as well as the challenges of the first couple of months: Feeding and pumping, learning to decipher what each cry means is she hungry? Is she tired? Does she need a fresh diaper? and figuring out how to really help her."

Asked if she would do it again, she replied: "Definitely!"

Aaron Kwok to play Shanxi banker

Hong Kong star Aaron Kwok is not one to rest on his laurels, despite his two Golden Horses. He has taken on the role of merchant from North China's Shanxi Province more than 300 years ago.

In The Silver Valley, Kwok plays the son of Kang Wunan, boss of the Shanxi-based Tianchengyuan, a powerful bank in Chinain the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

Merchants from Shanxi established the earliest banks of China and are regarded as one the most successful groups of businessmen in ancient China.

The story will not only focus on the father-and-son relations, but also the Shanxi merchants' traditions and the local culture.

As the only Hong Kong actor in the crew, Kwok had to practice his Mandarin even during meals and showers. Although many expressed doubts over the casting of the Hong Kong-born star as a northern Chinese merchant, Kwok's devotion convinced director Yao Shuhua and supervisor Peggy Chiao that they had made the right choice.

The filming has been completed and production is due to be over in October.

Agencies-China Daily

(China Daily 02/08/2007 page18)