Hilton’s numbers on Internet

NEW YORK (AP) – Paris Hilton is finding more than her body exposed on the Internet after computer hackers published the contents of her cell phone, including phone numbers of her friends.

The New York Daily News reported Monday that the woman whose sex tape with an ex-boyfriend became a cyberspace novelty appears to have left those she knows scrambling to undo the damage of an indecent amount of World Wide Web exposure.

“I got 100 calls in two hours,” Victoria Gotti told the newspaper. “I didn’t want to take the phones off the hook because my oldest son was out on a date.”

The writer, who appears in her own reality television show, says she disconnected the phone for a few hours – only to find it ringing nonstop when she reconnected it.

“It’s driving me insane,” Gotti said.

The newspaper said it was unclear how the telephone numbers got posted on the Internet but it happened just days after a 22-year-old man pleaded guilty to breaking into a cell phone company’s protected computer and gaining access to records for millions of customers, including Hilton.

A telephone message left by The Associated Press with Hilton’s publicist on Monday was not immediately returned.

Hilton, a hotel chain heiress, stars on the Fox TV reality show “The Simple Life” with Nicole Richie, daughter of R&B singer Lionel Richie.

Liz Hurley at Hogwarts?

Elizabeth Hurley could soon be getting in on J.K. Rowling’s magic act.

The 39-year-old actress is being touted as a potential candidate for a part in the next “Harry Potter” film, reports Ananova.com. Producers want the “Austin Powers” star to take on the role of evil Bellatrix Lestrange.

“They have always wanted someone beautiful and mystical to play Bellatrix,” said a source, “and they reckon Liz can pull it off.”

Bellatrix is Sirius Black’s cousin and a Death Eater, loyal to the evil Lord Voldemort, in the fifth Potter book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

– Knight Ridder Newspapers

Madonna signs on for Candy role

In other casting news, Madonna is planning to play a transvestite in an as-yet-unnamed feature film and is so excited to take on the part that she’s agreed to do it for free.

The anti-Material Girl has signed up to play Candy Darling, who starred in a series of Andy Warhol’s experimental films in the 1960s and was the inspiration behind the Velvet Underground classic “Candy Says” and Lou Reed’s solo hit “Walk on the Wild Side.”

Madonna is “still trying to shake off the bad publicity from the movie “Swept Away,”‘ said a source. “She sees this as her big chance.”

– Knight Ridder Newspapers

‘Housewive’ Strong is dead and loving it

RADNOR, Pa. (AP) – Brenda Strong, who plays the deceased Mary Alice Young on ABC’s “Desperate Housewives,” has a long history of playing dead.

“I must have Haley Joel Osment as my agent, because he only sees dead parts,” joked Strong, referring to the actor whose character in “The Sixth Sense” is able to see the dead.

In “Desperate Housewives,” Strong’s character has shot herself to death but she still watches over the women of the upscale suburb and narrates their activities.

According to TV Guide’s Feb. 20 issue, Strong was in several movies and nearly 100 TV appearances before “Desperate Housewives.” Her previous roles included roles playing a dominatrix killed by a machine gun and a character cut in half by the door of a spaceship.

In the show “Everwood,” her character’s death prompted her grieving family to move to rural Colorado to rebuild their lives.

But she isn’t complaining about her dead-but-not-gone “Desperate Housewives” character.

“In a weird way, I have the most job security of anyone on the show,” she says. “They can’t kill me, my husband can’t divorce me, and they definitely can’t move me out of the neighborhood, so I’m here for good!”