Dunst loves 'dorky' role

Dunst loves 'dorky' role
NEW YORK -- Kirsten Dunst says her role as Claire in Cameron Crowe's new film, "Elizabethtown," was one of the best female parts she'd read in ages. "She is honest and upfront to a fault," Dunst tells W magazine in its September issue. "She doesn't have a lot of fear. She's dorky and doesn't care, and in that way, she's cool." Dunst plays a flight attendant in the romantic comedy, co-starring Orlando Bloom. Bloom's brooding character meets Claire while on a flight home to Kentucky. "Kirsten is a really positive person," Bloom says. "In the film she brings my character back to life. She's perfectly cast because she is that light." The 23-year-old actress also plays the lead in Sofia Coppola's upcoming Marie-Antoinette biopic. She predicts the French press will be especially rough on the film, which co-stars Jason Schwartzman as Louis XVI. "And I'm not sure whether historians are going to love our movie," she says, "but we don't care." Dunst, who began acting and modeling when she was 3, has more than 30 films to her credit, including "Interview With the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles," Coppola's "The Virgin Suicides" and the "Spider-Man" movies. But Dunst says she's no workaholic. "If you don't live your life, then how can you act?" she says. "You have no experience except the last experience on a movie."
Judge OKs refund
HAGERSTOWN, Md. -- A judge has approved a deal enabling people to get refunds on the Evanescence album "Anywhere but Home" if they bought it at a Wal-Mart in Maryland. The agreement signed this week in Washington County Circuit Court partially settles a lawsuit filed by a local couple who claim the copy they bought at Wal-Mart contained explicit lyrics but didn't carry a parental advisory sticker. New York-based Sony BMG Music Entertainment and its Wind-Up Records subsidiary agreed to offer the refunds in exchange for dismissal of the claims filed against them last year by Trevin and Melanie Skeens of Brownsville. The record company didn't acknowledge any wrongdoing. The Skeens are still suing Wal-Mart Stores Inc., of Bentonville, Ark., claiming the retailer deceived consumers by selling the album without a warning label. The refund offer applies to albums purchased before Jan. 1 of this year. Those seeking a refund must provide proof that they bought the album at a Maryland Wal-Mart store.
Lawsuit heads for a trial
BALTIMORE -- A breach-of-contract lawsuit brought by Van Halen against the Baltimore Orioles seeking at least $2 million from a failed concert deal will go to trial, a lawyer for the rock band said. U.S. District Judge William Matthew Byrne Jr. denied the Orioles' motion for summary judgment last week, and a trial in District Court in Los Angeles is "imminent," according to Howard King, who represents Van Halen. A trial was to have begun this month, King said, but the judge became ill. A hearing on the Orioles' request for summary judgment was held in July, King said, and Judge Byrne handed down the denial Aug. 4. The band contends in the lawsuit filed in August 2004 that the baseball team sought to have it perform the first concert inside Camden Yards and then backed out of the deal.
Hooking up for halftime
NEW YORK -- "Monday Night Football" has a season-long partnership with Grammy-winning singer Tim McGraw for special musical halftime highlights throughout the 36th season of the ABC series. NFL highlights from the weekend's games will be set to McGraw's single "I Like it, I Love It." Each Monday, the lyrics will be rewritten to fit the halftime highlights. McGraw and his band are recording a new version of the song to be used for "Monday Night Football." "We are flattered that a star of Tim McGraw's magnitude wants to dedicate one of his songs to halftime 'Monday Night Football,"' producer Fred Gaudelli said in a statement. "We are thrilled to be working with him."
Today's birthdays
Television evangelist Rex Humbard is 86. Cuban President Fidel Castro is 79. Actor Pat Harrington is 76. Singer Don Ho is 75. Former U.S. Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders is 72. Actor Kevin Tighe is 61. Actress Gretchen Corbett is 58. Opera singer Kathleen Battle is 57. Singer Dan Fogelberg is 54. Actor Danny Bonaduce is 46. Actress Quinn Cummings is 38. Country singer Andy Griggs is 32. Country musician Mike Melancon (Emerson Drive) is 27.