Trying to land Hanks for 'The Da Vinci Code'

Trying to land Hanksfor 'The Da Vinci Code'
LOS ANGELES -- Will Tom Hanks crack "The Da Vinci Code"?
Director Ron Howard and producer Brian Grazer, the team behind "A Beautiful Mind" and "Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas," said in Newsweek that they wanted the "Saving Private Ryan" star because of the cerebral nature of Dan Brown's best-selling novel.
"Tom is an exciting actor to watch thinking," Howard told the magazine. "We probably don't need his status from a box-office standpoint, but he gives Langdon instant legitimacy."
Hanks would play Robert Langdon, a Harvard symbologist who is in a life-or-death race with a secret society to uncover the secrets of the Holy Grail hidden in the works of Leonardo Da Vinci.
The actor's representatives said he is in negotiations to play the part.
Hanks previously worked with Howard and Grazer on the movies "Splash" (1984) and "Apollo 13" (1995).
Jaws are still droppingover Anna Nicole at AMA
LOS ANGELES -- People are still talking about Anna Nicole Smith's jaw-dropping (or should that be slack-jawed?) performance at Sunday's American Music Awards in Los Angeles, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
Poured into a black-and-red gown, the lass whose name is oft-linked with the phrase "bizarro behavior" appeared to have ingested something a tad stronger than TrimSpa, the weight-loss product she shills, before taking the stage to introduce hip-hop star Kanye West.
Manic and incoherent, she became the night's running gag. Emcee Jimmy Kimmel said, "I told her to stay away from Snoop Dogg's brownies" and signed off with the wish, "May she rest in peace."
Meanwhile, West, who went home trophy-less despite three nominations, pouted backstage, "I feel I was definitely robbed. ... I was the best new artist this year."
West went on to threaten, "I don't know if I'll be back at this award show next year."
The award he coveted went to country singer Gretchen Wilson, of Redneck Woman fame.
But back to Anna: The former Playboy bunny recently posed for PETA dressed like Marilyn Monroe, and is "obsessed" with the late screen goddess.
"She says she talks to Marilyn's spirit," said a source close to the animal rights group. "She feels she has a psychic connection to her. She was talking like her and everything, and, to be honest, she did a pretty darn good Marilyn."
CBS fires producer overspecial report on Arafat
NEW YORK -- CBS News has fired the producer responsible for breaking into "CSI: NY" last week for a special report on Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's death, The Associated Press reported.
The news report came during the last five minutes of the forensics mystery Wednesday, prompting viewer complaints and leading CBS to repeat the show Friday.
The producer responsible ignored network policy to contact a senior executive before interrupting a regularly scheduled program for a news report, a CBS executive said Monday, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Also, with Arafat reportedly near death for several days, CBS News had left explicit instructions for how to deal with that event: Run a news crawl at the bottom of the screen and direct viewers to the next newscast for more information.
That's how CBS' competitors at ABC and NBC handled the news.
The interruption came five minutes before local newscasts in Eastern and Central time zones.
CBS issued an apology to viewers the next day, blaming the "overly aggressive" producer for the interruption.
A tall order for Cruise
LOS ANGELES -- Tom Cruise will attempt to climb 29,000 feet to the top of Mount Everest once shooting wraps on "Mission: Impossible III," the Web site IMDB.com reported.
The daredevil actor, 42, wants to fulfill a childhood dream by hiking up the Himalayan mountain after filming is completed on the action sequel.
"I really enjoy climbing -- and Everest is the ultimate challenge," he said. "Life's an adventure. And the adventure is what you make it. It's every little boy's dream to climb Everest. I believe I can make that dream become a reality."
Today's birthdays
Today's Birthdays: Actor Clu Gulager is 76. Blues musician Hubert Sumlin is 73. Journalist Elizabeth Drew is 69. Blues musician W.C. Clark is 65. Actor Steve Railsback is 59. Actor David Leisure is 54. Actress Marg Helgenberger is 46. Rock musician Mani is 42. Tennis player Zina Garrison is 41. Baseball player Dwight Gooden is 40. Jazz singer Diana Krall is 40. Actress Lisa Bonet is 37. Actress Tammy Lauren is 36. R & amp;B singer Bryan Abrams ("Color Me Badd") is 35. Actress Martha Plimpton is 34. Olympic gold medal figure skater Oksana Baiul is 27. Actress Maggie Gyllenhaal is 27. Pop singer Trevor Penick is 25. Actress Kimberly J. Brown is 20.