Depp dumps pinup image

LONDON (AP) – Johnny Depp reckons he’s no great movie pinup – he just has a “weird job.”

Arriving for the premiere of his latest movie, “Finding Neverland,” at London’s Leicester Square on Sunday, Depp played down his movie star image as fans lining the red carpet screamed his name.

“I wouldn’t say I’m a heartthrob,” he said, as his wife, French singer-actress Vanessa Paradis, looked on. “I just have a very weird job.”

Depp has been touted to win his first Oscar for his role as “Peter Pan” creator J.M. Barrie, but 41-year-old actor dismissed such talk.

“I can’t say that occupies my every thought or every moment,” he said. “That’s not my job to think about that, but if people want to say that, that is really sweet.”

Co-star Kate Winslet, who plays the mother of the four young brothers who inspired Barrie to write “Peter Pan,” also gave a knock to Depp’s reputation as a movie hunk.

“Everybody asks me this, whether I’m slightly annoyed that I didn’t get to kiss Johnny Depp,” she said, “We would have laughed.”

Winslet weary of weight

LONDON (AP) – She is famed for her pride in her curvy figure – and actress Kate Winslet says reports that she had slimmed down to a British size 8 – the equivalent of a U.S. size 4– are “insane.”

British newspapers carried prominent photographs Monday of the svelte-looking “Titanic” star in a floor-length Ben de Lisi gown at the premiere in London Sunday of her latest movie, “Finding Neverland.”

Most speculated that she had been dieting to regain her figure after the birth of her second child, Joe.

“It is so insane; I haven’t lost any weight,” Winslet said in an interview Monday morning with GMTV.

“Everybody likes to think it is a great story to talk about my fluctuating weight. The reality is I have had two children in four years and the only time my weight goes up and down is when I’m pregnant, which happens. I have stayed the same weight apart from those times,” she said.

Winslet is married to Sam Mendes, director of the Oscar-winning “American Beauty.”

‘Tainted’ singer injured

LONDON (AP) – Singer Marc Almond, whose 1980s band, Soft Cell, scored a huge hit with their version of “Tainted Love,” was hospitalized after suffering severe head injuries in a road crash, police said.

Almond, 47, was riding as a passenger on a motorcycle when it collided with a car in central London on Sunday afternoon, a spokesman for the City of London Police said.

He was thrown from the bike and suffered severe head injuries, the spokesman said, adding that his condition remained critical Monday morning. It was unclear if he had been wearing a helmet.

The singer was in stable condition at the Royal London Hospital in the east of the capital, the hospital’s governing body said in a statement Monday.

The motorcycle’s driver, who hasn’t been identified, was also seriously injured, police said.

Soft Cell earned a No. 1 hit in Britain and major U.S. airplay in 1981 with “Tainted Love,” their electronic synthesizer-laden cover of a classic Gloria Jones soul song.

Almond and fellow band member David Ball broke up in 1984, and Almond began a successful solo career. He scored another major hit with a cover of Gene Pitney’s “Something’s Gotten Hold of My Heart,” which he sang with Pitney.

Franz Ferdinad getting into ‘Potter’

Scottish rockers Franz Ferdinand are gearing up for cameo roles in the next Harry Potter film, Ananova.com reports.

The Mercury Music Prize winners are set to appear as a band of witches in “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.” The band was approached after a personal plea to movie bosses from Potter star Daniel Radcliffe, who is a huge fan.

Franz Ferdinand will not be the first rockers to appear in the series – ex-Stone Roses frontman Ian Brown had a cameo in “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.”

Nicky Hilton single again

Nicky Hilton has apparently decided the whole “until death do us part” scenario really is not for her, MSN.com reports.

The heiress is preparing to file for an annulment after two months of not-quite wedded bliss to money manager Todd Meister, 33. The duo, who met several years ago, were married on Aug. 15 in Las Vegas. The split is amicable. Word is that Nicky, at the tender age of 21, just is not in a very wife-y place.

Now that she is a single woman again, it is anyone’s guess whether Nicky will find herself in as many scandals as her wayward sister, Paris.

The older heiress has reportedly surfaced in a third, yes third, amateur porn video, reports E!Online.

The British tabloid News of the World claims to have footage showing Paris romping with “the daughter of a world famous pop star” and having sex with two men at the same time. Paris’ publicist scoffed at the report but withheld further comment.

Last month, the News of the World reported a second sex tape had surfaced that featured Paris separately with exes Jason Shaw and Nick Carter, as well as smoking a joint and using racial slurs.

Though Paris has denied using racial epithets, the New York Daily News reports oil heir Brandon Davis, who reportedly was standing next to Hilton when she uttered the slurs outside a club, says it is no isolated incident.

“She was forever using the N-word,” said Davis, the boyfriend of “The O.C.” star Mischa Barton. “I told her not to use it. It was offensive. But she just laughed. She is a racist plus an idiot.”

Paris name-drops for club

Paris Hilton knows something about nightclubs, so it makes sense the hotel heiress is the inspiration for a handful of clubs that will bear her name.

Club Paris, named after “The Simple Life” star, plans to open on New Year’s Eve in Orlando. Local businessman Fereidoun “Fred” Khalilian hopes to open other Club Paris nightclubs in Las Vegas, New York City, Miami Beach, London and Paris.

Hilton will earn a “seven-figure” signing bonus for lending her name to the club. In return, she is contractually obligated to appear at the club at least twice a month. Hilton also helped select the interior design and is scheduled to attend the opening.

“Anything she touches is big,” he said. “The marketing is unbelievable.”

“I think the notion of Orlando being a tourist destination makes it a good location,” said Peter Lopez, Hilton’s entertainment attorney. “Obviously, if there’s a club there with her name on it, she’s going to have an interest in seeing that it does well.”

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