Michele's commute is just too long

Michele's commuteis just too long
NEW YORK -- Michael Michele is checking out of "ER" after three years.
The 35-year-old actress, who played Dr. Cleo Finch on the NBC hospital drama, said she's leaving because she's tired of making the cross-country commute.
"I am finished with 'ER,'" Michele said in a recent interview. "The traveling back and forth to New York just about killed me.
"I had convinced myself that 'Oh, I can do this.' I'm on a plane every week. I'm on a plane every nine days, I can do this. But it just about killed me. So I'm happy to be home and it was a good, productive three years, but now it's over."
Michele said her time on "ER" and on "Homicide: Life on the Streets" before that prepared her to return to feature films. She plays Muhammad Ali's wife, Veronica, opposite Will Smith in "Ali," opening Christmas Day.
"You have to do good television so that you can flex your muscles," she said, "so that when I come back to feature films, I have this huge tool box, and I can just pull out whichever tool I need to make the character work."
Blanchett welcomeslittle Dashiell John
LOS ANGELES -- It's a boy for actress Cate Blanchett.
The Oscar-nominated star of "Elizabeth" who will appear in the upcoming World War II drama "Charlotte Gray," gave birth this week to Dashiell John in London, publicist Lisa Kasteler said Thursday from Los Angeles.
The child is the first for the 32-year-old actress and her husband, screenwriter Andrew Upton. There were no details about the infant or place of birth. Kasteler said the baby and parents were doing fine.
Blanchett also stars in the upcoming Tom Tykwer film "Heaven," which opens at the Berlin Film Festival, and she appears as the Elf Queen Galadriel in "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring," in theaters Dec. 19.
Upton has been writing a screen adaptation of "Foucault's Pendulum" for Fineline Pictures, Kasteler said.
Petula Clark doesown thing in special
NEW YORK -- After spending more than two years touring with the musical "Sunset Boulevard," Petula Clark says it's nice to be able to sing her own songs again.
The British singer, best known for hits such as "Downtown," is featured this week in her own PBS special, "Petula Clark in Concert: A Sign of the Times." Clark finished up a U.S. tour of "Sunset Boulevard" last year.
"In the States over the last few years, I've been doing more sort of like theater than concerts," Clark told The Associated Press in a recent interview. "The idea of doing a concert, a live concert show in the States, seemed to be quite appealing."
Besides the concert, Clark has been working on a new album she hopes to release sometime next year, and plans to perform several shows with Carpenter.
More recently, Clark appeared at another concert: She was among the dozens of stars who were called on stage for the "We Are the World" finale at friend Michael Jackson's 30th anniversary bash at Madison Square Garden on Sept. 7.
Critics said the finale was disorganized, an assessment Clark laughingly agrees with.
"That was totally, totally unrehearsed; none of us had any idea of what we were doing on there," she said. "I asked Michael what we were supposed to do, and he said, 'Don't look at me, I don't know.'"
"Apart from that, it was a pretty amazing evening."
Today's Birthdays
Actor Kirk Douglas is 85. Actress Dina Merrill is 76. Actor Dick Van Patten is 73. Actor-writer Buck Henry is 71. Actress Dame Judi Dench is 67. Actor Beau Bridges is 60. Football Hall-of-Famer Dick Butkus is 59. Actor Michael Nouri is 56. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., is 54. Singer Joan Armatrading is 51. Actor Michael Dorn is 49. Actor John Malkovich is 48. Country singer Sylvia is 45. Singer Donny Osmond is 44. Rock musician Nick Seymour (Crowded House) is 43. Actor Joe Lando is 40. Actress Felicity Huffman is 39. Keyboardist Jerry Hughes (Yankee Grey) is 36. Rock singer-musician Thomas Flowers (Oleander) is 34. Rock musician Brian Bell (Weezer) is 33. Rock singer-musician Jakob Dylan (Wallflowers) is 32. Actress Allison Smith is 32. Country singer David Kersh is 31. Rock musician Tre Cool (Green Day) is 29. Rapper Canibus is 27. Rock musician Eric Zamora (Save Ferris) is 25.