Shaun of the Dead's Simon Pegg is to play London hotshot hack Toby Young in the film adaptation of How To Lose Friends & Alienate People, Young's account of his time as contributing editor at Vanity Fair in New York. For all kinds of reasons that make lawyers rich, the magazine is to be renamed Sharps in the film version, and Vanity Fair's all-powerful editor Graydon Carter is remodelled as Clayton Harding, but the self-importance will be evident. The script is by Peter Straughan and calling the shots will be Robert Weide, who has worked on TV comedy hits such as Larry David's Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Clint Eastwood has been honoured by the Motion Picture & Television Fund for his contributions to the western genre in film and television. The organisation, founded in 1921, provides health care and other services for those in the Hollywood entertainment community. Eastwood, who starred in such iconic westerns as The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and For A Few Dollars More and won a best director Oscar for Unforgiven in 1992, was presented with the Founder's award at the weekend.

Celebrity splits ahoy: the acrimonious divorce of Charlie Sheen and Denise Richards appears to have been settled in court. During the bitter battle, Richards claimed that Sheen was unstable, violent, addicted to gambling and prostitutes, and a regular visitor of porn websites, and slapped a restraining order on the Hot Shots actor to keep him at least 300 yards away from her and their two daughters. Richards filed for divorce in March 2005 after less than three years of marriage. Also in Splitsville are actor Kate Hudson and Black Crowes singer Chris Robinson. They were married by a shaman on New Year's Eve, 2000, and have a two-year-old son.