Who's in

Robin Williams divorces

After nearly 19 years of marriage, Robin Williams and his wife are getting divorced.

Marsha Garces Williams filed a petition for dissolution of marriage on March 21 in San Francisco Superior Court, citing irreconcilable differences.

The two met when Garces Williams worked as a nanny for Williams' son Zachary, whom he had with his previous wife, Valerie Valardi.

Robin and Garces Williams also have two children together, Zelda and Cody.

Williams, 56, won an Academy Award for his role in the film Good Will Hunting. He also starred in the 1980s sitcom Mork and Mindy, and has acted in a number of movies including Dead Poets Society and Patch Adams.

Williams' agent Mara Buxbaum confirmed the couple is splitting, but had no further comment. An attorney for his estranged wife would not comment on the case.

Hugh Jackman to pen Nowhere Man comic

Hugh Jackman, who plays the mutant Wolverine in the X-Men action movies, is pairing with Virgin Comics to create a comic book series called Nowhere Man, Virgin said on Tuesday.

The series, a futuristic science-fiction odyssey set in an era when men have traded their privacy for safety and security, will be written by Jackman and Marc Guggenheim, who wrote Marvel comics' Wolverine series and Amazing Spider-Man.

Australian actor Jackman said in a statement that the hope is Nowhere Man will be popular enough that it might later become a movie.

X-Men and other film series based on comic book characters such as Spider-Man and Batman have been among Hollywood's biggest hits for more than a decade.

Three films starting with X-Men in 2000 and including X2: X-Men United and X-Men: The Last Stand have sold more than $1.1 billion worth of tickets at worldwide box offices.

A fourth film, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, also featuring Jackman, is set to open in theaters next year.

Ellen more popular than Oprah?

Ellen DeGeneres has topped rival Oprah Winfrey in a popularity poll of television hosts - while veteran Larry King was labeled the least sexy.

The poll by Web site AOL Television asked readers which daytime TV host made their day and DeGeneres, who opens The Ellen DeGeneres Show by dancing with her audience, trounced Oprah with 46 percent of the vote, while Winfrey only won 19 percent.

When asked which daytime host made the ideal dinner guest, again it was DeGeneres, with 47 percent of respondents saying they would rather dine with her, compared to 14 percent for Winfrey, long considered the queen of daytime TV with The Oprah Winfrey Show.

The poll, whose results were released on Wednesday, received more than 1.35 million votes, and AOL Television editor in chief Scott Robson said the poll was unique for the broad cross-section of respondents who frequent AOL.

"(Our audience) is not just soccer moms. We really do combine everyone from hipsters to people who couldn't care less about what happens on either coast," Robson said.

Among other findings, fans of morning talk shows favored ABC's Diane Sawyer on Good Morning America over her main rivals, Matt Lauer and Meredith Vieira, on NBC's Today.

Among some of the other findings, Kelly Ripa of Live with Regis and Kelly was named the sexiest talk show host and the one with the best hair, while Larry King of Larry King Live, who has been married seven times, was named least sexy.

Agencies

(China Daily 03/28/2008 page18)