Actors Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Natalie Portman and Ewan McGregor have teamed up with other stars of all six Star Wars movies for a new Vanity Fair photo spread. The American magazine grouped together 22 major performers in the legendary franchise, inviting cast members from the original 1977 film Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope to this year's final installment Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge Of The Sith. Mastermind George Lucas, who directed four of the intergalactic movies, joined Ford, Fisher, Portman and McGregor as well as original Luke Skywalker star Mark Hamill, Samuel L. Jackson, Liam Neeson and Hayden Christensen. Robots R2-D2 and C3PO also joined their human co-stars for the reunion shoot. Lucas admits the final part of the opening trilogy marks the end of an era in his career - and he now plans to stop making successful films. He says, "I'm going to make movies nobody wants to see. I've earned the right to fail."

Hollywood director Steven Spielberg is donating $1.5 million to the post-tsunami relief effort, and hopes his actions will encourage other wealthy celebrities to do the same. The Raiders Of The Lost Ark filmmaker's cash pledge will be split between charities Care, Save The Children and Oxfam. Generous Spielberg usually keeps his charity donations a secret, but wanted this contribution to be announced in a bid to persuade others to donate, his publicist says. The news comes two days after Speed actress Sandra Bullock revealed she's giving $1 million to help the humanitarian crisis in south-east Asia.

Ashlee Simpson was at the center of another live show controversy on Tuesday night when her half-time performance at the college football Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida, was booed. The sister of pop star Jessica Simpson was outed as a lipsyncher during an embarrassing performance on Saturday Night Live back in October, and she was left red-faced again during an awful live show Tuesday night. Amid technical problems that saw fellow half-time show performers Kelly Clarkson and Trace Adkins struggle to hear themselves, Ashlee howled her way through hit single "La La," hitting bad note after bad note. And fans of Orange Bowl finalists University Of Southern California and Oklahoma weren't shy about voicing their disapproval - and booed her loudly. The censors also clamped down on the singer, insisting she remove a sexually-charged "French maid" line in the song and replace it with "lemonade".

Christina Aguilera, Sheryl Crow and country star Tim McGraw have signed up to perform on an upcoming US TV telethon which aims to raise funds for the victims of the December 26 tsunami. The hour-long show, which will also feature George Clooney, Courteney Cox and Danny Glover, will air live on January 15 across all of network NBC's broadcast and cable channels. Meanwhile, NBC-owned WNBC New York teamed up with children's charity UNICEF to stage an hour-long commercial-free tsunami benefit show last night, featuring appearances by new UNICEF ambassador Clay Aiken and actresses Sarah Jessica Parker, Debra Messing and Tea Leoni.

Anna Nicole Smith's lawyer has vowed to continue fighting for rights to money left in the will of her late husband J. Howard Marshall. Last week the US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit overturned a decision by a lower California federal court awarding the former stripper more than $88 million from Marshall's businessman son E. Pierce Marshall. But Smith's lawyer Howard K. Stern has pledged to make a request for the full appeals court to rehear the case and will appeal to the US Supreme Court if necessary. Stern says the court "on a legal technicality, reversed the judgments of two federal courts that found massive fraud and other wrongdoing by E. Pierce Marshall by which he deprived (Smith) of the property that her husband intended her to have." The model-turned-reality-star was 26 when she married the 89-year-old Marshall in 1994. He died less than a year later.

Actor Chris Cooper was in mourning yesterday following the death of his 17-year-old son Jesse from causes relating to cerebral palsy. Cooper and his offspring's actress mother Marianne Leone have been tireless advocates for special needs kids in the Boston area of Massachusetts since moving there in 1994, believing the state had more progressive educational opportunities for children with cerebral palsy. Jesse's condition was so severe, his parents had to prepare him special meals, employ tutors and therapists, and attend to him several times during the course of a night. In response to the tragic news, family spokeswoman Cara Tripicchio says, "They are fantastic people and our hearts go out to them. It's very, very unfortunate." At the time of Jesse's death, the couple were in pre-production on Conquistadora, a film written by Leone about the brain disorder.

Britney Spears has reportedly found a new manager - a former employee of the manager she sacked just three months ago. According to American newspaper the New York Daily News, the pop princess has taken on 29-year-old Dan Dymtrow, a former apprentice at Britney's former manager Larry Rudolph's ReignDeer Entertainment. The pair both left ReignDeer last October. A source tells the Daily News' Lowdown column, "Dan was the one who helped Larry with the day-to-day stuff, and he just left him behind his back, moved out to LA, and is now Brit's manager. Obviously, there was no loyalty. Dan started with Larry as an intern. Larry groomed him, and Dan ruined him."

The judge presiding over Michael Jackson's child abuse case has censored a number of court papers, prompting criticism from legal experts. Judge Rodney Melville, who will preside over the singer's trial when it begins later this month, has blacked out pages of documents - including a prosecution report of a search of the superstar's Neverland ranch in California. But the move has left many legal academics stunned. Law professor Laurie Levenson, from Illinois' Loyola University, says, "I've never seen a case with this level of secrecy - you'd thing we were dealing with the Pentagon papers. Everyone is filing papers in code and we're on the eve of the trial. It may be prosecutors are bending over backwards to protect the rights of Michael Jackson. But it's impossible to tell." Jackson, 46, will stand trial charged with molesting a 12-year-old cancer sufferer.

Pop star Seal and supermodel Heidi Klum have a special reason to celebrate the new year after reportedly getting engaged during a romantic break. The British singer proposed to the German catwalk beauty during their holiday in Mexico, and Klum has since been spotted sporting a glittering ring on her wedding finger. One observer tells British newspaper The Sun, "It's a serious rock." The couple reportedly revealed the happy news during a glitzy party hosted by Alix Goldsmith Marcaccini, the daughter of the late financier Sir James Goldsmith. Klum has already been married once before to hairstylist Ric Pipino, whom she divorced in 2002 after five years. Last year she gave birth to a baby girl, Leni, with ex-boyfriend Flavio Briatore. Klum has made no secret of her strong feelings toward Seal, telling a US TV show recently, "I have the best partner on the planet."

Actor Robert Blake's reaction to finding his wife shot dead in his car was so over-the-top, bystanders rushed to avoid him, according to witnesses at the murder trial. Witness Marybeth Rennie maintained she and her boyfriend did nothing to assist Blake because he was wailing on the sidewalk and vomiting. Rennie told a courthouse in Los Angeles on Tuesday that she felt the troubled actor's anguish was far from genuine. She told jurors, "It seemed forced." Blake stands accused of killing his wife Bonny Lee Bakley outside Vitello's restaurant in Studio City, Los Angeles, in 2001. He maintains his innocence, claiming he went back to the restaurant to retrieve a gun he'd left behind and returned to the car to find his wife shot.