Actor studies gorillas for role as King Kong

Actor studies gorillasfor role as King Kong
WELLINGTON, New Zealand -- The actor behind the Gollum character in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy isn't monkeying around as he prepares for his next role as King Kong in a remake of the classic gorilla thriller.
Andy Serkis, who was the human model for the creepy computer animated "Gollum" in the films by New Zealand director Peter Jackson, has been hanging out with gorillas in Rwanda to prepare for the role, a co-star in the upcoming film said.
"He's extraordinary, the amount of research he's done," Australian actress Naomi Watts, who will play the heroine in the new movie, was quoted by the Dominion Post newspaper in Monday's edition. "He brought back incredible tapes of all that [gorilla] behavior that we need to get very familiar with."
Serkis provided the voice for Gollum, and Jackson used his movements to create the computer-generated character.
Watts, Serkis, offbeat comedy actor Jack Black and Oscar winner Adrien Brody have begun rehearsals in the New Zealand capital Wellington and will begin shooting within days in preparation for a release in late 2005.
Set in 1930's New York, the movie will be filmed almost entirely on a back lot in Wellington.
Not even his bodyguardis safe from Crowe's fists
MELBOURNE, Australia -- "Gladiator" star Russell Crowe took the blame for his latest battle -- a fight with his own bodyguard -- saying it was sparked by a misunderstanding at a drinks party for the cast and crew of a movie he was shooting.
The Oscar-winning actor made headlines in Australia recently by scuffling with Mark "Spud" Carroll, a former rugby league star who now is his bodyguard, in Toronto where Crowe is shooting his latest movie, "The Cinderella Man."
Reports said New Zealand-born Crowe, who engaged in highly publicized brawls before he got married last year, even chomped on Carroll's ear during the fight.
But in a letter to the Sunday Herald Sun tabloid, Crowe said the punch-up was sparked by a misunderstanding and said the pair made up the next day.
Crowe said he had been talking to a young woman, who was an extra on the film and a friend of both men, as the cast and crew gathered for post-shoot drinks.
Carroll approached Crowe and told him what he thought people might be imagining the pair's conversation was about.
"I thought he was accusing me specifically of something and I took offense to it," Crowe said in the letter.
Schwimmer to direct film
LOS ANGELES -- Actor David Schwimmer says the script to the indie feature "Run, Fat Boy, Run" was too good to resist.
The former star of "Friends" will direct the movie about a charming but oblivious overweight man who tries to win back his former girlfriend by running the New York marathon.
"I've been waiting for the right feature comedy to direct and am so happy to have found 'Run, Fat Boy, Run,'" Schwimmer told The Hollywood Reporter. Michael Ian Black's script "was simply too funny and smart to put down."
Schwimmer will direct the movie for Gold Circle Films.
It won't be his first time in the director's chair. He helmed 10 episodes of "Friends," and is in line to direct several episodes of its spinoff, "Joey," starring Matt LeBlanc.
Notable death
Laura Branigan, a Grammy-nominated pop singer best known for her 1982 platinum hit "Gloria," has died. She was 47. Branigan died of a brain aneurysm Thursday in her sleep at her home in East Quogue, N.Y., said her brother Mark Branigan.
Today's birthdays
Country singer Kitty Wells is 85. Opera singer Regina Resnik is 82. Actor Bill Daily is 76. Actress Elizabeth Ashley is 65. Actor Ben Jones is 63. Cartoonist R. Crumb is 61. Skier Jean-Claude Killy is 61. Actress Peggy Lipton is 57. Comedian Lewis Black is 56. Actor Timothy Bottoms is 53. Actor David Paymer is 50. Actor Michael Chiklis is 41. Music producer Robert Clivilles is 40. Actress Michael Michele is 38. Country musician Geoff Firebaugh (BR549) is 36. Country singer Sherrie Austin is 33. Actress Cameron Diaz is 32. Rock musician Leon Caffrey (Space) is 31. TV personality Lisa Ling is 31. Singer Rich Cronin (LFO) is 29. Rock musician Matt Taul (Tantric) is 26. Rock singer-musician Aaron Barrett (Reel Big Fish) is 24. Actor Cameron Finley is 17.