Zeta-Jones heading to "Chicago"?

Catherine Zeta-Jones is in talks to star in a movie adaptation of the Bob Fosse musical "Chicago," Variety reports.

The actress, who will be seen onscreen July 20 in "America's Sweethearts," began her career in musical theatre, and is negotiating to play the lethal Velma, a role first played on stage by Chita Rivera in 1977 and by Bebe Neuwirth for the recent Tony-winning revival of the show.

Director Rob Marshall (a choreographer by profession), is currently in New York casting the film, which is due to begin production in early 2002, Variety said. The screenplay was written by Bill Condon, who won an Oscar for his script for "Gods And Monsters."

No actress has yet been mentioned for the other lead Roxie, but Hugh Jackman ("X-Men") is being considered for the role of lawyer Billy Flynn. Kathy Bates ("Primary Colors") is up for the part of Mama Morton, the report said.

Variety said "Chicago" is being produced by Miramax, which is also putting together a screen version of the musical "Rent." Although no director has officially signed on for that project, the report said Spike Lee is already testing the vocal abilities of potential cast members.

McTiernan bails on Douglas/Zeta-Jones film

"Die Hard" director John McTiernan has dropped out of the Catherine Zeta-Jones/Michael Doulgas project "Smoke And Mirrors," Variety reports.

The period piece, about a magician and his assistant's adventures exposing a fraud shaman whose "magical" deeds foment anti-colonial rebellion, was to be directed by McTiernan, who was previously said to be close to signing on a deal.

But Variety said McTiernan, who is currently in post-production on his remake of Norman Jewison's "Rollerball," dropped out of the project over "insurmountable business differences."

Douglas and Zeta-Jones' first pairing since their marriage, "Traffic," has just been released on DVD. McTiernan's "Rollerball" opens on Aug. 17.

"Die Hard" director John McTiernan has passed on the troubled "Basic Instinct" sequel and will instead direct Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones in the magic-themed drama "Smoke And Mirrors."

Variety says McTiernan has been interested in the project for some months but had been embroiled in protracted plans to get the Sharon Stone-starring "Basic Instinct" sequel back on the rails.

McTiernan had proposed Benjamin Bratt as Stone's co-star. Reports had suggested Stone rejected the plan at the 11th hour, and McTiernan exited the project.

"Smoke And Mirrors" is based on the true 19th century story of magician Jean Robert Houdin, who was sent by the French authorities, with his young female assistant, to Algeria to expose a shaman whose alleged powers were being used to stir up anti-colonial sentiment, the report said.

The film has been on the boards since 1993. Both Mel Gibson and Sean Connery have been interested at various times.

Variety said Paul Verhoeven, who directed the original "Basic Instinct," is now being courted to helm the sequel, although he reportedly rejected the first offer.

Zeta-Jones was always a babe

Catherine Zeta-Jones proudly acknowledges she is the odd woman out.

"I never thought for one moment I was the ugly duckling. I never felt I was too fat. I was never a tomboy and I never had trouble getting dates," says Zeta-Jones. "I find it amusing that so many actresses and models lay claim to one or more of these attributes."

She's also amused at how the press tried to interpret her marriage to Michael Douglas.

"They tried to paint me as the poor, humble girl marrying into a Hollywood dynasty. Michael's dad Kirk Douglas

was a ragman's son. You don't get much poorer than that.

"My family isn't filthy rich, but we never wanted for much or lacked the necessities of life. I think it annoys the international press that I don't fit into some kind of predetermined mould."

Zeta-Jones, who is currently starring in Steven Soderbergh's drama Traffic, begins shooting the comedy America's Sweethearts later this month.

"John Cusack and I play the world's most-beloved acting couple. Julia Roberts is my sister.

"I had a small role in John's High Fidelity, so I'm eager to reteam with him, and everyone says Julia is a riot to work with."

Robert Downey Jr. was scheduled to play Zeta-Jones' secret lover, but he has had to withdraw because of his pending court case. Hank Azaria is in talks to replace Downey.

Catherine Zeta-Jones' upcoming film "Traffic" is based on a British TV series, and now comes word that her next project will draw from the same source.

Variety reports that Zeta-Jones will star in an adaptation of the British mini-series "Trust," which is described as being similar to "Fatal Attraction," which featured her husband, Michael Douglas.

"It's a hugely commercial premise, with a great role for Catherine, as well as a terrific role for the husband and his best friend,'' Lyndon Jones, Zeta-Jones' brother and the project's producer, told Variety.

In "Traffic," which opens in theatres this month, Zeta-Jones plays the pregnant wife of a jailed drug trafficker. She was actually six months pregnant with Douglas's child when director Steven Soderbergh shot the film.

It will be a busy winter and spring for the new mother. Variety said that when she finishes shooting "Don't Say A Word" for director Gary Fleder, in January, she is to begin shooting the comedy "America's Sweethearts" with Julia Roberts, John Cusack and Billy Crystal.

She is also in talks to re-team with Crystal in "'Til Death Do Us Part," a remake of the 1979 comedy "The In-Laws," Variety said.

Despite fond memories that still choke them up, the million-dollar, star-studded, fairy-tale wedding is over for Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones. So is their brief honeymoon. Now they're back to work.

"It's been a lovely year," Douglas deadpanned yesterday. He and his new bride were facing media hordes for the first time since their gala wedding two weeks ago in front of 115 family members and 100 celebrity guests, from Jack Nicholson to Catherine Zeta Jones, at New York's Plaza Hotel.

The newlyweds are key players in the extraordinary ensemble cast of Traffic, Steven Soderbergh's epic film about the drug traffic between Mexico and the U.S. It opens in Toronto Dec. 27 and wider across Canada early in January.

"Let's say we didn't plan on a press junket two weeks after we got married," Douglas groused good-naturedly about the timing of the Traffic interviews. He's not really complaining.

"We've been on a honeymoon for a year and a half," he said of his time with Zeta-Jones since they met at the Deauville Film Festival in France in June 1999. Since then, the only work they've done was the five weeks each spent shooting their separate sequences on Traffic. Their private lives have been busier. Their son Dylan was born three months ago. Zeta-Jones shot Traffic while six months pregnant.

"We are kind of doing it backwards," Douglas said, laughing. "The honeymoon first and then the baby and then we got married and now we're going back to work."

Memories of the wedding made each of them emotional yesterday. Douglas, 56, recalled walking down the aisle with his 21-year-old son Cameron and seeing "how proud he was for Dad." Then he caught his bride-to-be's eye for the first time. "I just felt such a rush through my whole body."

Zeta-Jones, 31, said her highlight was first seeing Douglas during the ceremony. "I didn't know whether to burst out laughing or burst out crying, and then I saw other people's faces and they were smiling -- so I burst out laughing!"

The Nov. 18 wedding lasted all night, starting at 7:30 p.m. with a 25-minute, non-denominational ceremony, with traditional vows, and ending with a sing-along around the piano bar at 5 a.m. the next morning.

In between, guests were treated to a feast, a Welsh choir and other music by Gladys Knight, Jimmy Buffet, Art Garfunkel, Mick Jones and even Zeta-Jones' ex-beau, Simply Red's lead singer Mick Hucknall.

One of the lowlights of the wedding has been the fuss about photos. Douglas said they decided to sell official wedding photo access to Britain's OK! magazine as a defensive tactic, not to raise money. "It was a way to control all the media. So we were generally very happy with it."

But OK!'s rival, Hello magazine, paid people to infiltrate the wedding and take clandestine videos that were turned into stills.

"I thought it was kind of mean-spirited and poor-loser-like for Hello," Douglas said, calling their photos "ugly" and "nasty" and the OK! photos "nice."

As for marrying a woman 25 years his junior -- a subject that's made him the target for talk show host Jay Leno's potshots -- Douglas dismissed criticism as jealousy.

"It's not quite as unusual and quite as freaky as they make it out to be. I like to think that I'm a pretty well held together 56 years old and she's a pretty mature 31 years old."

Don't expect to see them in any scenes together in Traffic -- their story lines are unconnected. Which delights Zeta-Jones. She is also convinced their fans won't care, thanks to the overexposure the two have generated in the media.

"With all the stuff that's gone on, I think they will be really happy to see him on one end of the screen and me on the other. I mean, if they have any sense at all and are true fans, then enough already."

Eventually, they would like to do a movie together -- and appear in the same scenes. Meanwhile, they are signed for different projects in different cities.

In January, Zeta-Jones starts shooting America's Sweetheart with Julia Roberts, John Cusack and Billy Crystal in L.A. Douglas is heading to Toronto to shoot Don't Say A Word, a dark thriller.

"Our philosophy with an infant is (that) we'd rather both be working at the same time and then be free at the same time," Douglas said.

One other co-production is waiting for the future. Zeta-Jones says she would like another child with Douglas. "But I don't think Michael is willing to go through this right away. Maybe we'll wait until he (son Dylan) goes to school."

Newlyweds Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones received an unexpected wedding present -- the unauthorized videotape secretly recorded at their wedding.

The New York Daily News says despite reportedly receiving six-figure offers for a tape recorded secretly by a sound engineer working at the weekend wedding at a Manhattan hotel, the mystery man opted to surrender the video to the couple, for free.

The tape reportedly showed the bride and groom seated together at a piano, singing together, Gladys Knight performing "The Best Thing That Ever Happened To Me," the first dance and speeches from Kirk's son, Cameron, and father, screen legend Kirk Douglas, The Daily News said.

The National Enquierer, "Extra" and "Entertainment Tonight" were all said to be interested in the video and were prepared to offer big bucks.

"He decided to turn over the tape," Zeta-Jones' spokesperson, C.C. York, told The Daily News.

"He was gracious about the whole thing. No money was exchanged. Nobody has seen the tape yet, but everybody is really very happy."

The Daily News said the secret taper's wife refused to comment when asked if they surrendered the tape over fears of a legal backlash from the couple.

Despite ultra-heavy security, the weekend wedding of Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones was caught on candid camera.

The New York Daily News says Big Apple celeb media outlets have been contacted by a woman identifying herself as Yazmine Melendez, who claims she has a two-hour tape of the mega-buck, star-filled ceremony, secretly recorded by someone who works at the hotel.

The Daily News said "Entertainment Tonight," "Extra" and the National Enquierer have all expressed interest in the tape.

The man who made the tape, who identified himself to the Daily News as "David," said he has been offered a six figure sum for the video. Sources told the Daily News that the man was working at the wedding as a sound engineer and had brought in the video camera initially to record a performance by Gladys Knight, but David denied that suggestion, the paper reported.

A spokesperson for Zeta-Jones acknowledged they had heard of the tape, but said nobody they had spoken to had actually viewed the results.

All the celebrity wedding-watchers can relax, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas have finally set a wedding date.

Douglas and Zeta-Jones, who had their son Dylan on August 8, have decided to get married on November 18 at New York City's Plaza Hotel, Mr. Showbiz reports.

Gossipers had the couple tying the knot everywhere from Wales to Santa Barbara, Calif.

Pictures from the much-anticipated wedding of the 55-year-old established film star to the 30-year-old actress are expected to be sold for $1 million to $2 million to a magazine.

Photos of the couple's new-born son were sold for $1 million in the U.K.

Next up for the couple are roles in Steven Soderbergh's "Traffic".

Then, the two will move on to separate projects. Douglas is set to star in a new thriller called "Don't Say a Word," in which he'll play a psychiatrist whose daughter is kidnapped.

Meanwhile, Zeta-Jones, best known for her roles in "Entrapment" and "The Mask of Zorro" is considering a role in "America's Sweethearts".

Catherine Zeta-Jones is being sued for negligent driving.

The "Entrapment" star, and fiancee to Michael Douglas, is being sued by movie producer Petra Van Oelffen for more than a million dollars, U.K. movie site Popcorn reports.

Van Oelffen claims that Zeta-Jones was negligent when the two were driving back to the actress' home and Zeta-Jones crashed into a tree while trying to avoid hitting an animal.

Van Oelffen broke her ankle and says she incurred expensive medical bills.