Actress Minnie Driver gets record contract

Actress Minnie Drivergets record contract
NEW YORK -- Rounder Records has signed Oscar-nominated actress Minnie Driver to her first U.S. recording contract.
"Everything I've Got in My Pocket" will be released on the label's rock/pop imprint, Zoe Records, in September, the Cambridge, Mass.-based company said Monday.
She will be backed by a group that includes members of the Wallflowers and Pete Yorn's band. The album is described as "sparse, atmospheric pop and a hint of contemporary folk."
Driver had been signed to Island Records in London when she was offered her breakthrough role in the 1995 film "Circle of Friends."
She was nominated for a best-supporting actress Oscar for 1997's "Good Will Hunting." Her new movie, "The Phantom of the Opera," is scheduled for release in December.
Michael Moore kept quietabout prisoner abuse
SAN FRANCISCO -- Michael Moore says he had footage of prisoner abuse in Iraq but decided to stay quiet until his new movie came out.
"I had it months before the story broke on '60 Minutes [II],' and I really struggled with what to do with it," Moore told the San Francisco Chronicle in Sunday's editions.
"I wanted to come out with it sooner, but I thought I'd be accused of just putting this out for publicity for my movie. That prevented me from making maybe the right decision," the filmmaker said.
Moore's documentary, "Fahrenheit 9/11," won the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival in May. The film, scheduled to open in theaters nationwide June 25, is critical of President Bush's response to the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
"The stuff with the detainees in my movie is even more shocking than what we saw in that [Abu Ghraib] prison because it happens outdoors and is more commonplace," said Moore.
Stoned with a Stoneand saving a souvenir
LONDON -- Retro-rocker Lenny Kravitz says he kept a marijuana joint that he had shared with Mick Jagger as a souvenir for a year, reports Ananova.com.
The "Let Love Rule" singer said he kept the joint because he was such a fan of the ageless Rolling Stones frontman. However, the remainder went up in smoke a year later after he ran out of dope.
"We were performing on the same stage once, and he invited me to go to his place afterwards," Kravitz told the Croatian magazine Gloria. "We talked the entire night, and smoked marijuana. We shared a joint, and I kept the rest of it for almost a year. It was a sign of respect."
But Kravitz's respect was apparently outweighed by a pressing need one night.
"At one point I had no grass at home, so I smoked the rest of the joint I shared with Jagger," he said.
Kravitz is scheduled to perform in Velika Gorica, Croatia, on June 23, to promote his new album, "Baptism."
Kidman's controversy
LOS ANGELES -- Nicole Kidman is making them laugh now in "The Stepford Wives," but some New Line Cinema executives are not amused by a scene in "Birth," the thriller she just wrapped.
In the flick, Kidman bathes in the buff with a 10-year-old boy she believes is the reincarnation of her dead husband, reports the New York Daily News.
The film, directed by Jonathan ("Sexy Beast") Glazer and co-written by Milo ("Monster's Ball") Addica, has a scene in which Kidman and the boy kiss passionately.
"It's entirely possible there's a bathing scene in the film, but I don't think there's any passionate kissing. That doesn't happen," said New Line spokeswoman Marion Koltai. "You can find any movie with something that seems inappropriate. It's a dream sequence, like in 'Rosemary's Baby.'"
Today's birthdays
Author Erich Segal is 67. Author Joyce Carol Oates is 66. Country singer Billy "Crash" Craddock is 65. Songwriter Lamont Dozier is 63. Rhythm and blues singer Eddie Levert is 62. Actress Joan Van Ark is 61. Rhythm and blues singer James Smith (The Stylistics) is 54. Boxer Roberto Duran is 53. Pop singer Gino Vannelli is 52. Actress Laurie Metcalf is 49. Model-actress Jenny Shimizu is 37. Actor Eddie Cibrian is 31. Actress China Shavers is 27. Actress Olivia Hack is 21.