Charlie's Angel and Ally McBeal star Lucy Liu has admitted to an unlikely passion - for Manchester United. In keeping with most of the club's fans across the world, however, Lucy has yet to set foot in Manchester, let alone see her side play. On her first visit to the UK, she told reporters that she started supporting the Red Devils when she found out that she had relatives in northern England. Her all-time favourite player is David Beckham. "I think he's lovely. "He's definitely the best player." Posh had better watch out.
• Mike Myers and X-Men director Bryan Singer are negotiating to star in and direct, respectively, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind. The $35m (£25m) project, which is scheduled to start shooting next February or March, has been written by Being John Malkovich scribe Charlie Kaufman. The film will tell the bizarre story of Chuck Barris, the host of the 1970s TV hit The Gong Show who also led a secret life as a CIA hitman.
• Following the acclaimed big screen version of her 1999 best-selling novel Chocolat, which will be released in the UK on February 16 2001, Joanne Harris is adapting her next work for the big screen, three years prior to its publication. Production company Contagious has bought the film rights to the book, entitled Coastliners, at the first draft manuscript stage, ahead of its planned publication in 2003.
