CELEBRITY WATCH
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June 29, 2000
Web posted at: 1:23 p.m. EDT (1723 GMT)

From staff and wire reports

Today's buzz stories:

• Meg Ryan, Dennis Quaid split
• Wahlberg lands on another 'Planet'
• 'Millionaire' bride unveils it all for Playboy

Actor Dennis Quaid and wife, Meg Ryan, arrive to attend the Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills, California, in this January 1994 photo   LOS ANGELES -- Actors Meg Ryan and Dennis Quaid have decided to separate after a nearly 10-year marriage. "The couple hope that the press will respect their privacy during this difficult time," publicist Lisa Kasteler said Wednesday. She did not say whether they planned to divorce. The pair, who have an 8-year-old son, met while filming "Innerspace" in 1987 and appeared together again in "Flesh and Bone" in 1993. Ryan is best known for her roles in the romantic comedies "When Harry Met Sally" and "Sleepless in Seattle." Quaid has appeared in "The Big Easy" and "Wyatt Earp."

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LOS ANGELES -- Fresh from battling the elements in "The Perfect Storm," Mark Wahlberg is set to appear in a remake of "Planet of the Apes."

Wahlberg signed on for a two-picture deal that also includes a sequel to the new "Planet," which Tim Burton will direct, Variety reports.

The plot of the new film is being kept under wraps, but it's being sold as a "reimagining" of the original five "Apes" films from the 1960s and 1970s. Fiming is scheduled to start in the fall, and the release date is set for next summer.

NEW YORK -- She posed in the buff because she needed the bucks.

That's game-show bride Darva Conger's take on her nude spread in the new issue of Playboy, which she said she agreed to only after failing to get another nursing job.

"This offer from Playboy was on the table. And I spent a good time really, really thinking about it, and I chose to do it, and I have no qualms about that," she said Wednesday on CNN's "Larry King Live."

Conger, who was briefly married to Rick Rockwell after their infamous union on "Who Wants to Marry a Multimillionaire?", holds a bouquet and wears a veil on the cover of the latest "Playboy" issue. It includes photos of her lying nude on a beach.

"Yes, there is full nudity, but I believe it's very much a tasteful, tame pictorial," said Conger, who declined to reveal how much she was paid. "I don't think there is anything salacious."

When told that Rockwell said he might look at the issue but wouldn't buy, she said: "Well, you know, he is notoriously frugal. I'm not surprised he wouldn't buy it. And quite honestly, it wasn't geared for him anyway, so I don't honestly care. "