The battle between Hollywood heavyweight Robert De Niro and his estranged wife Grace Hightower is heating up - with Hightower claiming the star's drug use makes him unfit to be a dad. De Niro is trying to gain unchaperoned access to his three-year- old son Elliot, but the drug revelations could harm his case with a New York judge, who has already ordered him to seek psychiatric help. De Niro's spokesman Stan Rosenfeld says, "Mr. De Niro does not have a substance or drinking problem. Nor does he have a problem with an over-zealous imagination."

Overreaction or a shrewd negotiating tactic? Earlier this week producers claimed Kidman had been dropped from Lars von Trier's next film, Dogville, after a long delay in signing her contract. Her reps immediately denied that she was out of the $9 million film and the next day it was reported that she'd signed the contract. "I must admit that I once again overreacted and I beg Nicole Kidman's pardon," said Zentropa manager Peter Aalbaeck Jensen following the signing of the contract.

Mark Wahlberg is considering following Johnny Depp's lead and setting up home in Paris, France. The movie star has just finished filming The Truth About Charlie, a remake of 1963's Charade, in the French capital and admits he has become enchanted by Paris. He says, "I would really consider moving there, but I would get fat and drink too much wine."

Her glamorous photoshoots are admired by the world, but there's one set of photos Claudia Schiffer doesn't want anyone to see - her and boyfriend Matthew Vaughn naked, having 'al fresco' sex. The stunning German-born model was terrified when she learned a group of French paparazzi sneaked photos of her and British producer Vaughn in a series of compromising positions, as they lounged by the swimming pool of her Majorcan villa. The couple soon learned the photographers were touting the saucy pictures, and Vaughn reportedly even offered by buy them himself to spare his girlfriend's blushes. But when Hola!, the Spanish version of Hello! magazine, learned of Schiffer's dilemma, sympathetic editor Eduardo Sanchez Juncio took one look at them and promptly handed over $130,000 - before phoning Schiffer to promise her they'd never be published.

Hunky actor Mark Wahlberg is very happy with his model love Rhea Durham - though one of his ex-girlfriends is less than pleased with him. The ravishing Revlon model accompanied Mark to hip New York club Suite 16, when a woman tried to approach. After being stopped by Wahlberg's bodyguard, she screamed, "How dare you! I slept with you and now you won't talk to me? Who do you think you are? You weren't any good anyway!" Then the woman threw a drink at the heart-throb - right before she was thrown out.

Former Beverly Hills 90210 star Jason Priestley has completed the alcohol counselling program he was ordered to attend last year after pleading no contest to a drunk driving charge. Preistley's lawyer, Peter L. Knecht, provided proof in Los Angeles Superior Court yesterday that the actor has completed the three-month program. Preistley, 31, pleaded no contest in March to a misdemeanor driving under the influence charge, stemming from a December 1999 car crash in the Hollywood Hills. The smash wrote off Priestley's Porsche and broke one of his best friend's arms. Knecht said at the time that Preistley crashed because he swerved to avoid a deer.

Oscar-winning director Francis Ford Coppola is desperate to make another blockbuster movie - because he needs the cash. The Godfather maker admits he is worried about losing money if his next film is a flop - but he insists he'll carry on making movies anyway. He says, "I'm looking for that next, great, wild movie. I'm ready, and I want to do it again. "But it's harder to do that today because of middle management in the Hollywood system. They make so much money. A studio head gets $30 million at the end of the year. That kind of money makes them afraid to take chances, because they are driven by corporate bosses who want only to get the stock prices up, and keep them up. It's more difficult to take chances today, but I'm sure ready to do it."

Samuel L. Jackson's fears about donning a kilt in his new film were allayed by seeing Ewan McGregor sporting one at a premiere. Jackson had never had to "cross-dress" in a movie before signing up for British movie The 51st State - and initially wasn't too happy about embarking on the new experience. But he changed his mind after seeing how good native Scots men Sean Connery and Ewan McGregor looked in the skirt garment. Jackson's co-star in the new flick, Robert Carlyle, also helped reassure the nervous star that he looked cool togged up as his character, kilt-wearing, golf-obsessed chemist Elmo McElroy. Jackson says, "I have never had to cross-dress in any way so it was a whole new phenomena for me. To tell the truth, I wasn't at all happy about the idea until I saw Ewan McGregor in one at the Star Wars premiere. Then I saw Sean Connery looking proud in his. I thought 'If this man can look good in a skirt, then anyone can!'. Robert Carlyle, who's also a real Scot, told me I looked 'cool'." The action comedy, which follows the fortunes of McElroy as he sells the rights to the ultimate party drug, POS-51, is due to be released later this year.

Halle Berry insists she wasn't paid extra to appear topless in Swordfish. The actress stars alongside John Travolta and Hugh Jackman in the blockbuster, and was reportedly paid an extra $500,000 to bare her breasts. But Halle says she received no extra money for the saucy scene. She says, "It was the most embarrassing moment of my life. I'd never done nudity in my whole career. I wasn't paid an extra $500,000 to do it. That's totally not true. It's made for great publicity for the movie, so I laugh about it."

Movie star Tara Reid will face questioning from New York police authorities when she returns from her European holiday after being linked to a shock hit-and-run incident. Publicist Lizzie Grubman backed her car into a crowd of partygoers outside a Long Island, New York, nightclub on 7 July, injuring 16 people, and then fled the scene. And Reid, who recently split from fiance Carson Daly, has been linked to the publicist - because they were partying together just two hours before the incident. A spokesman for Reid says, "Tara will co-operate fully on her return."