BEST FRIENDS: NBC's resurgent Friends also nabbing 11 nominations Thursday, including Outstanding Comedy Series and lead acting nods for Jennifer Aniston, Matt LeBlanc and Matthew Perry. The 54th annual ceremony will air on NBC September 22.
IT'S OFFICIAL! Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences executive director Bruce David confirming Wednesday that the 2004 and 2005 Oscars will shift to February. The board had voted to change dates "as a two-year experiment," Davis tells Daily Variety, adding that "this is an experiment worth trying."
ON THE ROCKS: Angelina Jolie filing for divorce from Billy Bob Thornton. The news comes as Us Weekly magazine publishes an interview in which the actress says she and her husband have been living apart for four months. "I'm angry. I'm sad. It's a very difficult and sad time," she says.
REALITY BITES: Ozzy Osbourne's son, Jack, reportedly taken to a Los Angeles-area hospital after falling while climbing on a building at the Malibu Pier. A lifeguard tells Los Angeles' City News Service that the injuries appeared to be minor, but Osbourne complained of severe pain and was taken to the hospital by his film crew.
BAD RAP: Rapper Mystikal has been jailed in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on rape and extortion charges. He's accused of raping a 40-year-old acquaintance then threatening her if she went to the police.
FASTER THAN THE HOGWARTS' EXPRESS: Scottish authorities deporting an American woman who had been accused of harassing Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling. The woman had allegedly written dozens of letters to the author and repeatedly showed up uninvited at Rowling's home.
BUY THE WAY: The Red Hot Chili Peppers selling 282,000 copies of their latest disc, By the Way, to debut at number two on the album charts, behind Nelly's Nellyville (340,000 sold). The Counting Crows also fared well, debuting at number five with Hard Candy.
SECOND CHANCE: The Bachelor runner-up Trista Rehn selected to star in ABC's The Bachelorette where she will find true love from among 25 men. The six-episode series is slated to air in January 2003 while another edition of The Bachelor is also being planned for next season as well.
GOOD WORKS: Spanish thespian Penélope Cruz announcing plans on Wednesday to head a U.S. branch of the Sabera Foundation, her favorite charity which supplies food, shelter and education to impoverished Indian women and children.
MARKED FOR CASH: Federal prosecutors filing court papers in New York this week alleging attempts by Gambino crime family associates to extort hundreds of thousands of dollars from action star Steven Seagal. Wiretapped conversations purportedly included the actor's longtime producer demanding Seagal pay $150,000 to the Mob for each movie he made.
HASTA LA VISTA: Arnold Schwarzenegger leaving the William Morris Agency and taking meetings around Hollywood following a string of bombs since signing with the company as a client in 1997.
MAKING THE GRADE: The National Hispanic Media Coalition's third annual diversity "report card" criticizing the major television networks for a lack of diversity by excluding Hispanics, Asian Pacific Americans and American Indians. ABC and Fox made the most marked improvement overall, while CBS and NBC took a step backward.
AILING: Widespread Panic guitarist and singer Michael "Mikey" Houser, 40, announcing on the band's Website that he has terminal cancer. Houser has missed much of the group's summer tour, which began June 21 in Tennessee.
TAX MAN COMETH: Producer Teddy Riley filing for bankruptcy in a Virginia Beach, Virginia court on Tuesday, unable to pay his creditors or the Internal Revenue Service for back taxes totaling $1.45 million.