With her red velvet hooded cape, Cybill Shepherd could have been Little Red Riding Hood, reports MSN.com.

During an interview on Britain’s GMTV Tuesday morning, the actress who once appeared on the cover of Vogue explained that she had worn the cape to hide her “jet-lag hair.”

“Sorry about the cape, but I didn’t have time to do my hair,” she explained to bemused host Fiona Phillips. “If you’d like a laugh I’ll take it off in a bit but it’s a little scary. I bought this cape last year and thought, “Some day I’m going to wear this every day of my life.’ So far, I’ve been in London for two days and I’ve worn it every day.”

When Phillips joked, “Well, we’re pleased you made an effort this morning,” Shepherd, 52, apologized and told her: “I don’t mean to be disrespectful. Would you like to see my jet-lag hair?”

The actress removed the cape to reveal her blond hair tied up in a top knot. Loosening her tresses, she laughed, “Would you like me to brush it now?”

To complete the bizarre ensemble, Shepherd wore a pink track-suit top, tinted glasses and barely a trace of makeup.

A GMTV insider said later: “Cybill’s outfit was very, very bizarre. When she walked into the studio with her hood up we couldn’t believe our eyes.”

Shepherd is in Britain to promote her one-woman cabaret show, “Cybill Disobedience,” which opens in London next week.

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BRITNEY: WE DIDN’T FAKE IT

The Drudge Report carried Wednesday a banner headline proclaiming: “Media Tricked Again: Brit Faked Wedding.” It cited “documents” uncovered by US Weekly that show Britney Spears’ nuptials to be a “faux wedding,” reports MSNBC.com.

But that’s not the case, according to Spears and Kevin Federline. The upcoming issue of People magazine – which hits newsstands Friday – does, indeed, carry exclusive photos and details about the wedding. And it also has a brief article that addresses this controversy: “Are they legally wed?”

It turns out that Spears and Federline are not legally married because even though they have a marriage license, they haven’t yet filed it. They say they plan to file the license next week. As Federline explains it, after the couple hammered out their prenuptial agreement, the lawyers advised them to wait a week before filing the marriage license.

“Basically, those reports that we didn’t legally wed are false,” Federline said. “But it doesn’t bother me.”

Spears added: “I know we’re not completely legal until we file the license, which we’ll do next week. But in a real sense, a spiritual sense, we’re married.”

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IN DA CLUB

Move over, Eminem: Rapper 50 Cent plans to make his film-acting debut in the semi-autobiographical movie “Locked and Loaded,” reports TV Guide Online.

He’ll play an ex-drug pusher who decides to pursue a music career.

Emmy-winning “Sopranos” scribe Terence Winter will pen the screenplay for “Loaded,” which is due in theaters sometime in 2005 or 2006.

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COSTNER SET TO WED

Kevin Costner will wed longtime girlfriend Christine Baumgartner Saturday, reports Hollywood Insider.

Tim Allen, Bruce Willis and Oliver Stone will be among the celebrity wedding guests at the big event, which will be held at the actor’s Aspen, Colo., ranch. More than 500 guests are expected.

Oscar-winner Costner (“Dances With Wolves”) is next set to be seen on the big screen in “The Upside of Anger” opposite Joan Allen, Alicia Witt, Keri Russell and Evan Rachel Wood.

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SHORTLIST REVEALED

The Shortlist is now short, reports The Associated Press.

After an initial 73 nominations for the 2004 Shortlist Music Prize, the 10 finalists were announced this week. Among them: Scottish rockers Franz Ferdinand, quirky chanteuse Nellie McKay and country veteran Loretta Lynn, whose album was produced by Jack White of the White Stripes.

The Shortlist Music Prize honors artists whose albums were critically acclaimed but fell short of mainstream commercial success. It is decided by an eclectic mix of musicians and journalists. This year’s committee includes Norah Jones, Jack Black, John Mayer and the Dixie Chicks.

The other seven finalists are the albums of Wilco, the Killers, TV on the Radio, Air, The Streets, Dizzee Rascal and Ghostface Killah.

Nominees were announced last month.

Previous winners are singer-songwriter Damien Rice, the dreamy Icelandic group Sigur Ros and N.E.R.D, the recording alter ego of producers The Neptunes.

The winner, to be announced Nov. 10 after a concert featuring nominees in Los Angeles, gets a $10,000 prize.

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BOSS SPEAKS OUT

Bruce Springsteen, who once bemoaned the television wasteland in his song 57 Channels, offered some fresh criticism of the small screen and its political coverage: Enough with partisan politics and Fear Factor – let’s focus on the facts.

“Things are distorted by ratings and by money to where you’re getting one hour of the political conventions,” Springsteen tells Rolling Stone. “No matter how staged they are, I think they’re a little more important than people eating bugs.”

The New Jersey rocker also offered harsh words for the Bush administration and its efforts to “sanitize” coverage of the war in Iraq.

“The fact that the administration refused to allow photographs of the flag-draped coffins of returning dead, that the president hasn’t shown up for a single military funeral for the young people who gave their lives for his policies, is disgraceful,” Springsteen says.

Springsteen, before launching his Vote for Change tour with the Dixie Chicks, R.E.M., Pearl Jam and other artists, said he had noticed a change in media coverage of the election – and he offered an explanation for the switch.

“I think Fox News and the Republican right have intimidated the press into an incredible self-consciousness about appearing objective, and backed them into a corner of sorts where they have ceded some of their responsibility and righteous power,” he said.

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THURSDAY’S BIRTHDAYS:

Actor Mickey Rooney is 84. Singer Julio Iglesias is 61. Rocker Bruce Springsteen is 55. Actor Jason Alexander is 45. Actor Chi McBride is 43. Singer Ani DiFranco is 34. Record exec Jermaine Dupri is 32.

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(Compiled by Michael Hamersly from staff and wire reports.)

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(c) 2004, The Miami Herald.

Visit The Miami Herald Web edition on the World Wide Web at http://www.herald.com/

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.

AP-NY-09-22-04 1829EDT