Hollywood Spreads

Next Thursday, Rihanna will give her first post Chris Brown interview with Good Morning America.

Swiss authorities rejected a new higher offer of bail from imprisoned director Roman Polanski, saying Friday they still think the risk is too high that he would flee the country.

Justice Ministry spokesman Folco Galli said the offer was not made in cash and failed to address concerns that the 76-year-old filmmaker would flee Switzerland as he awaits a decision on whether he will be extradited to the United States for having sex in 1977 with a 13-year-old girl.

“We still consider the flight risk as high,” Galli told The Associated Press.

Polanski has been in Swiss custody since his arrest Sept. 26 as he arrived in Zurich to receive a lifetime award from a film festival. He is fighting extradition to Los Angeles, where he is wanted for fleeing sentencing 31 years ago, but has suffered a string of legal setbacks in Switzerland so far.

Polanski filed his latest request on Monday, Galli said. The director now has 10 days to appeal the decision to the Swiss Criminal Court, which has already once ordered Polanski kept in jail despite an offer of his Gstaad apartment as collateral, and house arrest and electronic monitoring as conditions of his freedom.

A lawyer for Polanski said the filmmaker would take the new bail request to the courts. “This is absolutely what we want,” said Herve Temime.

Legal experts say Polanski has little chance of being released from prison regardless of the bail he posts because of his long history as a fugitive.

The director of such film classics as “Rosemary’s Baby” and “Chinatown” was accused of raping the 13-year-old girl after plying her with champagne and a Quaalude pill during a modeling shoot in 1977. He was initially indicted on six felony counts, including rape by use of drugs, child molesting and sodomy.

Polanski pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of unlawful sexual intercourse. In exchange, the judge agreed to drop the remaining charges and sentence him to prison for a 90-day psychiatric evaluation. Polanski was released after 42 days by an evaluator but the judge said he was going to send him back to serve out the 90 days. Polanski then fled the country on Feb. 1, 1978, the day he was to be sentenced.

Polanski claims the judge and prosecutors acted improperly, and his lawyers in California are urging a state court to quickly hear his appeal. In court filings this month, the lawyers there said key witnesses in the case are now elderly and have yet to testify under oath.

The United States formally asked Switzerland last week for Polanski to be handed over but Galli said the Swiss need “weeks” to make an extradition decision.

The process could stretch out for months if Polanski appeals extradition to the Swiss Criminal Court and, if needed, the Supreme Court.

Polanski’s imprisonment in Switzerland continues to divide the country, with authorities defending the action as legally necessary but some politicians and artists questioning the government’s motive.

In Lausanne, the Swiss national film archive said it was organizing a “Roman Polanski evening” next week that includes a free viewing of his 1961 short film “The Fat and the Lean,” alongside Charlie Chaplin’s “A King in New York.”

Lionel Baier, an organizer of the event, said the Nov. 4 screening was not an act of solidarity with Polanski or a plea for his case. The aim is to highlight Polanski’s importance as a filmmaker, he told The AP.

The Los Angeles Coroner has declared that no official photos of Michael Jackson’s autopsy have leaked, after claims that someone is trying to sell snaps of the singer’s body for $1 million.

According to rumours published onThe Daily Beast, it has been claimed that a Los Angeles restaurant owner is in possesion of a high resolution shot of the singer’s body and is trying to sell it to the highest bidder.

It is suggested that the image is stored on a BlackBerry and was obtained from a police source.

However, Los Angeles chief coronerEd Winter has since toldAccesshollywood.com that any such picture could not be an official autopsy photo.

He said the official photographs were under “lock and key” and they could not be “floating around”.

It is claimed that the photo in question shows Jackson’s head, featuring his shaved scalp minus make-up. A scar is supposedly visible plus his tattooed eyebrows.

Hollywood star Dennis Hopper has been diagnosed with prostate cancer and has cancelled travel plans to focus on treatment, his manager said.

The 73-year-old Easy Rider star is being treated in a “special programme” at the University of Southern California, his manager Sam Maydew told the Associated Press. “We’re hoping for the best,” Maydew said when asked about Hopper’s condition and prognosis.

Among the appearances cancelled was a trip to the Australian Centre for the Moving Image in Melbourne, which is set to open an exhibition of his photography next month. Hopper was scheduled to hold a master class on “the artistic process” there.

“Obviously his health is the number one priority and we wish him a very speedy recovery,” centre director Tony Sweeney said. “We are saddened that Dennis won’t be with us to share in the moment and we look forward with even greater determination to delivering an exciting and successful exhibition”.

Hopper was briefly hospitalised for dehydration late last month in New York after suffering flu-like symptoms and stomach pains.

Famous for his starring role in the 1969 hippy road film Easy Rider, which he helped write, Hopper appeared in numerous westerns and nearly 200 other films and television shows stretching back to 1955. He was nominated for Academy Awards for the Easy Rider screen play and for his supporting role in the 1986 basketball movie Hoosiers. He recently finished shooting the second season of the television show Crash, based on the 2004 movie.

A PHOTOGRAPH of Michael Jackson’s body taken during his autopsy has reportedly been offered to TV executives.

The high-resolution picture is said to show the late singer’s head, with his eyes wide open, on a metal autopsy table.

According to news and opinion website The Daily Beast, the picture is currently in the hands of a Los Angeles restaurant owner, who has shown it to local TV executives.

He reportedly told one executive that the photograph had been given to him by “high-ranking police friend”.

The site said in the photograph, Jackson’s “face is stripped of any makeup” and his “tattooed eyebrows are the only other visible mark”.

LA Coroner’s Office chief Ed Winter told the Daily Beast that he had heard rumours about a leak of Jackson’s autopsy photographs, and although he had yet been unable to track one down, if he saw a copy he would be able to tell if it was authentic.

He added that if the photo was real, it would likely prompt an “internal investigation here” and a possible police enquiry.

Details about the post-mortem on Jackson’s body, which was carried out on June 26, the day after his sudden death at the age of 50, have yet to be officially revealed, but his death was ruled as homicide.

A 53-year-old man pleaded guilty Friday to resisting police outside the set of a Miley Cyrus movie on the Georgia coast after prosecutors agreed to drop charges that he tried to stalk the teen pop star.

Mark McLeod, who told police he was engaged to marry the 16-year-old “Hannah Montana” star, was sentenced by a State Court judge to two years probation and was ordered to undergo a mental health evaluation. He was also ordered to stay away from Cyrus and her family.

The Appling, Ga., man had been jailed since Aug. 4. Police said he twice came to Tybee Island, 12 miles east of Savannah, looking for Cyrus over the summer as the she filmed the Walt Disney Pictures movie “The Last Song.”

Prosecutors moved quickly to resolve the case after a grand jurydeclined to indict McLeod on felony charges Wednesday. He pleaded guilty to misdemeanors of obstruction of a police officer and disorderly conduct. A third charge of attempted stalking, also a misdemeanor, was dropped.

McLeod’s attorney, James Byrne, said he was pleased the unemployed assistant plumber would finally get help for any mental problems.

“I guess he’s just like an avid fan and obviously there’s some delusion going on, but that’s not against the law,” Byrne said. “The evidence didn’t show that he ever had any intention of harming (Cyrus) or her family.”

Wearing shackles and an inmate jumpsuit, McLeod wasn’t asked about Cyrus in court Friday. He appeared confused at times, particularly when the judge told him he couldn’t use a computer during his probation.

“They could take the hard drive out,” said McLeod, whose computer was seized from his home by sheriff’s deputies in August. “I do use that.”

A spokeswoman for District Attorney Larry Chisolm said she could not immediately comment on the decision to drop the attempted stalking charge.

McLeod was first arrested in June after police said he made inappropriate comments to young girls gathered in hopes of glimpsing Cyrus during filming. A police report said McLeod told officers he was there “to be with Miley” and tried to head butt one of them as they tried to remove him in handcuffs from the beach.

Officer Warren Millikan wrote in his report that McLeod claimed he’d sent Cyrus diamond rings and other gifts and that she had accepted his marriage proposal. He said she sent him “secret messages” through her TV show.

McLeod was initially released from jail but was arrested a second time after returning to Tybee Island in August. Police said security officers for Walt Disney Pictures spotted him knocking on doors of homes near the movie set and asking residents if they knew where he could find Cyrus.