LONDON (AP) – Kate Hudson has accepted libel damages from a supermarket tabloid that claimed she was dangerously thin.

The British edition of the National Enquirer has agreed to pay undisclosed damages and print an apology for an October 2005 article that reported Hudson was “way too thin” and looked “like skin and bones,” Simon Smith, a lawyer for the 27-year-old actress, said Thursday.

American Media Inc., the magazine’s U.S.-based publisher, apologized for “the deep distress and acute embarrassment” caused by the allegations, which it acknowledged were false.

The article – accompanied by a photo of a gaunt-looking Hudson – claimed her mother, Goldie Hawn, planned to confront her about her weight. Both Hudson and Hawn denied the claim.

Smith said Hudson lost weight to get in shape for a film after giving birth to her son, Ryder, in January 2004. He said she took legal action over the magazine’s suggestion she had “recklessly and foolishly endangered her health” by failing to eat.

“The allegations that I sued over were blatantly false, and I felt I had no choice but to set the record straight by challenging them in court,” Hudson said in a statement.

Hudson, who received an Oscar nomination for her role in “Almost Famous,” is married to Chris Robinson of the Black Crowes.

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LA CANADA FLINTRIDGE, Calif. (AP) – Haley Joel Osment was hospitalized after he apparently lost control of his car while heading to his Los Angeles area home, authorities said.

Osment, who was nominated for an Academy Award for his role as a boy who could see dead people in “The Sixth Sense,” was driving a 1995 Saturn about 1 a.m. Thursday when the car collided with a brick pillar and flipped, said Los Angeles County sheriff’s Lt. Greg Sisneros.

The 18-year-old actor was awake and talking following the crash, Sisneros said. He had been alone in the car and was taken to Huntington Hospital in nearby Pasadena.

Sisneros had no information on his condition, and an emergency-room receptionist said no one under that name was at the hospital.

Osment is set to appear in the upcoming “Home of the Giants.” In the film, he plays a high school journalist covering a basketball team as it heads toward the state championship.

La Canada Flintridge, a suburb of Los Angeles, is about 14 miles northeast of downtown.

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DALLAS (AP) – Matthew McConaughey is selling a sports car on eBay to raise money for hurricane relief.

The 36-year-old actor is donating all proceeds from the sale of his 1971 Corvette Stingray convertible to Oprah’s Angel Network for Katrina and Rita recovery efforts, according to details on the Web site www.oprah.com

Katrina hit the Gulf Coast on Aug. 29, forcing several hundred thousand Louisiana evacuees to flee to Texas. Rita slammed southeast Texas on Sept. 24.

McConaughey, who was born in Uvalde and grew up in Longview, says he bought the Mediterranean blue sports car in the late 1990s at a California car show.

He dubbed it Mako, like the shark, according to his statement on the Web site, and has driven to Mexico and back in the vehicle and many times across Texas, with the top down.

McConaughey’s film credits include roles in “Failure to Launch,” “U-571” and “Sahara.”

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CINCINNATI (AP) – Tom Hanks, Ron Howard and Dennis Miller turned a two-hour rain delay during a Reds-New York Mets game into a media event.

The actor, director and comedian sat at a table in an interview room behind the press box Wednesday, cracking jokes and recounting their boyhood baseball memories.

Cincinnati was the third stop on their hush-hush ballparks tour. Hanks, who turned 50 on July 9, decided to visit seven ballparks as a birthday present to himself.

“This is the dream you have all the way back,” said Hanks, star of “The Da Vinci Code,” directed by Howard.

The trio had been to Baltimore – Hanks led the crowd in spelling O-R-I-O-L-E-S during the seventh-inning stretch – and to Pittsburgh before arriving in Cincinnati.

They arrived without fanfare, and wouldn’t say where they were going next. Hanks said they had shortened the trip to fewer than seven ballparks, but didn’t provide more information.

“Tom is so influential that he’s arranged a St. Louis Browns game,” Miller joked, referring to the defunct team.

Hanks sold peanuts and soft drinks at Oakland’s ballpark as a youth, and the Athletics remain his favorite team. Howard is a Los Angeles Dodgers fan, while Miller prefers the Pirates.

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LOS ANGELES (AP) – A woman ordered to stay away from John Cusack has denied that she was stalking him.

The 40-year-old actor won a temporary restraining order Tuesday against Emily Leatherman, claiming that she has been stalking him for more than 18 months.

In court papers, he said she has thrown “long letters of interest over my fence in bags with rocks and screwdrivers inside,” made unannounced visits to offices of people he works with, and listed his address as her own during a recent arrest. She “threatens to commit acts of violence against herself if I do not help her,” the papers stated.

On Wednesday, the 31-year-old told The Associated Press by phone: “I’ve never written any of that.”

Leatherman, who has been staying with friends in Los Angeles, said she sent Cusack two letters. She said they were to request that he use his celebrity status to urge police to investigate her belief that she was drugged and raped by several men in 2001. She said police have refused to take a report.

“I feel I’ve been set up to look like a stalker,” said Leatherman, who must stay at least 500 feet from Cusack, his home, workplace, car and any company or office where he does business.

Cusack’s publicist wouldn’t comment further.

The actor’s film credits include roles in “High Fidelity” and “Being John Malkovich.”

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DENVER (AP) – A date with Jessica Biel has raised $30,000 to help a teenager who lost her leg in a prom-night limousine accident.

Jeanne Lee, an organizer of the event dubbed “Mollypalooza,” told The Associated Press the winning bid came from a man who requested anonymity. The event Tuesday raised at least $44,000 to help Molly Bloom’s family with medical expenses, Lee said.

Biel, a former “7th Heaven” star, “has this opportunity to create a buzz that would provide some support and she’s more than happy to do that,” her father, Jonathan Biel, told KMGH-TV. He said it was his daughter’s idea to hold the auction for a lunch date.

Biel, a Boulder native, was not at the fundraiser. In an audio message, the 24-year-old actress said, “I promise, I’m a cheap date.”

Lee said the winner wrote a check but it had not been cashed as of Wednesday. The lunch date is set for Aug. 18 when Biel is in town to receive a humanitarian award, she said.

Bloom was run over and dragged about 38 feet by a Hummer stretch limousine on May 13, police said.

She is undergoing rehabilitation at a Denver hospital.

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On the Net:

Biel’s audio message: http://www.dosomethingthatmatters.com

Mollypalooza: http://www.mollypalooza.net/

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PARIS (AP) – Brigitte Bardot, angered over what she called France’s insensitivity to the plight of minks, says she feels much closer to Sweden’s point of view – and may move there.

“To the contrary of (Greta) Garbo, who left Sweden to finish her days in the United States, perhaps I will leave France to finish my days in Sweden, since today, I feel much closer to Swedish sensitivity than to the French insensitivity,” said the 71-year-old former film star, who runs a foundation for animal rights.

Bardot wrote a letter Wednesday to Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson calling his nation one of only a few countries “that takes into consideration animal well-being.”

She also contacted the French Finance Ministry to criticize France for attacking Sweden’s proposal for new European Commission rules on conditions for raising minks in Sweden.

“The intervention of my government makes me ashamed, ashamed to be French,” she wrote.

Bardot encouraged Sweden to push ahead with its proposal to improve conditions for the “millions of unfortunate minks raised for their fur.”

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ASTORIA, Ore. (AP) – Astoria was buzzing as Sean Penn, Vince Vaughn and the crew of the upcoming movie “Into the Wild” shot scenes along the Oregon Coast.

Penn is directing the movie, based on Jon Krakauer’s book about a young man who abandons his lifestyle to live in the wilderness of Alaska, where he dies.

The film, expected to be released next year, also stars Catherine Keener, Marcia Gay Harden and William Hurt.

Nearly 100 residents turned out at a casting call about a week ago. On Monday, the old-fashioned Olney General Store was renamed the Orick General Store.

Helena Jordan, 23, a store employee, watched filming along with other residents.

“The really neat part is they’re using our store owner in it,” said Jordan, who described Penn as “a very nice man.”