PHOENIX RISES: Joaquin Phoenix escpaing serious injury after flipping his car while driving in Los Angeles Thursday, Us Weekly reports. His publicist tells the magazine that the brakes went out and the Golden Globe-winning actor lost control of the car. He was not hospitalized.
BEVERLY HILLS COURT, 90210: A former nurse suing Aaron Spelling for sexually harassing her during her tenure working for the TV titan, according to TMZ.com. Spelling filed a preemptive lawsuit against the woman, Charlene Richards, last year, accusing of her of defamation.
PUDD'N HEADS: Halle Berry and Richard Gere tapped as this year's recipients of Harvard's annual Hasty Pudding awards for making "lasting and impressive contribution to the world of entertainment."
IN THE RED: Bono forming a partnership with American Express, the Gap, Converse and Giorgio Armani to launch Product Red, a new initiative to fight HIV and AIDS in Africa by donating portions of the proceeds from Red-branded products to anti-AIDS programs.
MOURNED: Fayard Nicholas, one-half of the famed Nicolas Brothers dancers, joining his brother Harold in death after suffering complications from a stroke. He was 91.
DOWN UNDER HONOR: Nicole Kidman named Companion in the General Division of the Order of Australia, her nation's highest honor, in recognition of her charity work as a goodwill ambassador of the United Nations Development Fund.
GOODWILL HUNTING: Kidman also named a goodwill ambassador to the United Nations Development Fund for Women on Thursday.
OUT OF THE CLUB: Oprah Winfrey revoking her support of embattled memoirist James Frey during a live broadcast of her show Thursday and asking him why he "felt the need to lie" in his book, A Million Little Pieces. Winfrey also apologized for calling into Larry King Live to back Frey up while he was a guest on the show.
THE ENVELOPE, PLEASE: Tom Hanks signing on as a presenter at the 78th Academy Awards on March 5.
MAKING WAVES: Kanye West posing as Jesus Christ for the cover of the latest issue of Rolling Stone and claiming in the accompanying article that his song, "Gold Digger," should have been nominated for the Best Rap Song Grammy. "That's a gimme Grammy," West said.
SMALL SCREEN SMITHS: Mr. and Mrs. Smith being adapted for television, Us Weekly reports, minus the participation of the film's high-wattage stars, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.
BUSTED: Former SNL star Tracy Morgan arrested for drunk driving Dec. 2 in Hollywood, TMZ.com reports.
STARRED: Mötley Crüe receiving the 2,301st star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame Wednesday, as 600 screaming fans looked on.
TAKING THE STAGE: Bruce Springsteen and Coldplay scheduled to perform at the 48th Annual Grammy Awards on Feb. 8.
MORE PERFORMERS: Maroon 5, John Legend and Joss Stone among the artists slated to perform a musical tribute to Sly and the Family Stone at the Grammys.
NOT LETTING IT BE: British officials ordering Paul McCartney to tear down a log cabin on his estate in southern England, claiming the structure "harms the intrinsic landscape quality and character" of the area.
REMEMBERED: Chris Penn, star of Reservoir Dogs and brother to Sean and Michael, found dead in his Santa Monica, California, home. He was 40. An autopsy suggests Penn died of natural or accidental causes, but an official cause of death won't be released until toxicology tests come back in about six weeks.
TRIBAL COUNCIL: After only a few hours of deliberating, jurors finding Survivor winner Richard Hatch guilty of failing to pay taxes on his $1 million prize from the reality show and other earnings. Hatch faces up to 13 years in federal prison and a $600,000 fine. He was acquitted of bank, mail and wire fraud charges.
STAMP OF APPROVAL: Hattie McDaniel, the first black actress to win an Academy Award, honored Wednesday with a U.S. Postal Service commemorative stamp.
ISLAND HEAT: Lost star Josh Holloway named "hottest hunk" on television by In Touch Weekly.
CHART ATTACK: Jamie Foxx's Unpredictable topping the charts for the week ended Sunday, switching places with Mary J. Blige's Breakthrough, which dropped to number two.
NOT AMUSED: The Reverend Al Sharpton demanding an apology from the Cartoon Network over an episode of The Boondocks that showed an animated Martin Luther King Jr. using the n-word.
OFF THE WALL: Michael Jackson spotted at a shopping mall in Bahrain dressed as a woman, with a veil over his face and a black robe and gloves, along with three children (presumably his) wrapped in scarves.