• Anne Heche (pictured) is considering suing the US tabloid The National Enquirer after it alleged that she directly caused Robert Downey Jr's recent relapse, as reported in an earlier story, by supplying him with cocaine. The two actors had been working together on the TV series Ally McBeal, and the paper quoted an "insider" as saying that, "Robert blamed Anne for his downfall". Heche's agent, Steve Dontanville, was in combative mood yesterday, telling the New York Daily News that, "The accusations in this hideous story are completely malicious and false. There's a likely chance that Anne will file a lawsuit against the National Enquirer. She is really upset. This is going to get ugly." But National Enquirer editor Steve Coz insisted that the story was "rock solid". Coz also referred obliquely to an incident last August in which Heche was discovered wandering dazed and confused around rural California. "Let's face it," he said, "Anne Heche is no stranger to a drug scandal story."
• Mel Gibson faces criticism from Vietnam veterans concerned about the tone of his new film, Lost Patrol, a $112m (£76.8m) adaptation of a marine's memoir that focuses on the first clash between the American and the Vietcong. "Certain subjects are better left alone," said a spokesman for the Veterans Association who went on to pay tribute to Vietnam movies like Platoon and Born on the Fourth of July. He added that, "Many more were just travesties. Having looked at Mr Gibson's track record it's safe to assume he enjoys playing heroes and the good guys always win. Only in this situation, it's difficult to tell who the heroes or good guys were."
• Perhaps Guy Ritchie had better stick to shooting movies. A keen huntsman, the Snatch director had planned to celebrate his upcoming marriage to Madonna with a grouse shoot at Skibo Castle in Scotland on the morning of the ceremony. But his plans have been scuppered by the Metropolitan Police who revoked Ritchie's shotgun license after burglars made off with his gun during a break-in at Madonna's Notting Hill home earlier this month. Laws stipulate that all firearms must be kept under lock and key in a gun cupboard. Ritchie, said a spokesperson for Kensington and Chelsea police, had been remiss in leaving his gun lying around the house. The mockney film-maker learned the joys of hunting and fishing during a moneyed upbringing on his stepfather's palatial country estate.
• Veteran French film-maker Claude Chabrol won the prestigious Prix Louis-Delluc award on Wednesday night for his tart thriller, Merci Pour le Chocolat (which will be released in the UK under the more terse title, Nightcap). It is the 52nd film from the French auteur, but the first time he has been honoured with the Prix Louis-Delluc. Merci Pour le Chocolat stars regular Chabrol collaborator Isabelle Huppert as a scheming Swiss confectionary heiress.
