McCartney 'feeling pretty good'

Paul McCartney avoids reading media coverage of his difficult divorce because he does not want to see the details of his private life on front pages, he said in an interview published in London over the weekend. McCartney and his second wife, Heather Mills McCartney, are in the middle of divorce proceedings. The former Beatle told the Guardian's Weekend magazine that the situation has brought him closer to his grown children from his marriage to Linda McCartney. "I'm going through great struggles, but I'm feeling pretty good," McCartney was quoted as saying. It is estimated that the divorce will cost McCartney $200 million, reducing his fortune to $1.4 billion, according to The Sunday Times's annual Rich List. (AP)

The three Mexican directors who shook up Hollywood in February with 16 Academy Award nominations have formed a moviemaking partnership with Universal Pictures worth a reported $100 million. Guillermo del Toro, Alfonso Cuaró n, and Alejandro González Iñárritu will produce five movies, some of them in Spanish. "These filmmakers truly represent the importance of cultural diversity for the global audience," said David Linde, co-chairman of Universal Pictures. The trio, who directed "Pan's Labyrinth," "Babel," and "Children of Men," will call their production company Cha Cha Cha. Universal plans to distribute the trio's films abroad. A U S -Canadian distributor was not named. The total cost of the films could reach $100 million. (THE LOS ANGELES TIMES)

The big green ogre keeps getting bigger. "Shrek the Third" took in $122 million in its first weekend, breaking the franchise's own record for best debut ever for an animated film, according to studio estimates yesterday . The latest adventure of the ogre shot past 2004's "Shrek 2," the previous record-holder for animated openings with $108 million. "Shrek the Third" was the third-biggest debut ever, coming in behind the $151.1 million haul of this month's "Spider-Man 3" and the $135.6 million gross of last summer's "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest." Strong business from audiences across the board lifted "Shrek the Third" well above projections. "The opening was significantly beyond our expectations," said Anne Globe, head of marketing for DreamWorks Animation. "The movie played much more like an all-audience movie. It played broadly to general and family audiences." After ruling the box office for two weekends, Sony's "Spider-Man 3" slipped to second place with $28.5 million, raising its domestic total to $281.9 million. Worldwide, "Spider-Man 3" has taken in $747 million. "Shrek the Third" will have a short reign as the No. 1 movie. On Friday, Disney releases "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End," with Johnny Depp returning as woozy buccaneer Jack Sparrow in the franchise's third installment. (AP)

Farrah Fawcett, who was declared cancer-free in February, discovered this week the cancer has returned, according to People magazine. "She was completely devastated at first," says her close friend Craig Nevius, who produced the "Chasing Farrah" reality show. "And then, as is her way -- as was the case the last time -- she became much stronger and started dealing with it, and she's beginning to make a plan." Fawcett got the news after a routine three-month checkup in which doctors discovered a malignant polyp, smaller than a pea, says Nevius. Fawcett has been in good health and is "not feeling the effects" of the recurrence, Nevius says. She's not settled on a treatment option, he says, but is considering having a small metallic "seed" placed in the area that will emit radiation. Diagnosed with anal cancer in September 2006, the actress, who starred as Jill Munroe in the '70s hit "Charlie's Angels", had been declared cancer free by her doctors on Feb. 2, her 60th birthday, after having undergone chemotherapy and radiation. (PEOPLE)

Director Roman Polanski (above) walked out of a news conference at the Cannes Film Festival yesterday after berating journalists for asking "empty" questions. Polanski, whose film "The Pianist" won the top prize at Cannes in 2002, was onstage with nearly 30 major directors -- from Mexico's Alejandro González Iñárritu to Germany's Wim Wenders to China's Wong Kar-wai -- who were showing short films in homage to cinema. The shorts were packaged as a feature called "To Each His Own Cinema." Several questions at the news conference focused on the future of cinema in the digital age. Polanski's walkout did not seem to be a response to any single question. When the moderator announced that journalists had just two minutes left, Polanski, 73, took the microphone. "It's a shame to have such poor questions, such empty questions," Polanski said. "And I think that it's really the computer which has brought you down to this level. You're no longer interested in what's going on in the cinema. Frankly, let's all go and have lunch," he suggested, before walking out. None of the other directors followed. (AP)