CELEBRITY WATCH
Listen to "Celebrity Watch" from CNN Radio's Ken Pauli Windows Media: 28k Real Audio: 28k

From staff and wire reports

Screenwriter's smoking plea

NEW YORK (AP) -- "Basic Instinct" screenwriter Joe Eszterhas has throat cancer after a lifetime of smoking, and is urging Hollywood to stop glamorizing cigarette use the way he says he did.

RESOURCES EW.COM: All about Joe Eszterhas

Eszterhas writes in an op-ed piece in Friday's New York Times that he was diagnosed with the disease 18 months ago. Much of his larynx is gone, he says, and he has difficulty speaking and being understood.

"Smoking was an integral part of many of my screenplays because I was a militant smoker. It was part of a bad boy image I'd cultivated for a long time -- smoking, drinking, partying, rock 'n' roll," the 57-year-old writes. "Smoking, I once believed, was every person's right. ... I don't think smoking is every person's right anymore. I think smoking should be as illegal as heroin."

Eszterhas says he has trouble forgiving himself for the rampant cigarette use in his films. "I have been an accomplice to the murders of untold numbers of human beings. I am admitting this only because I have made a deal with God. Spare me, I said, and I will try to stop others from committing the same crimes I did."

The writer of other guilty-pleasure movies, including "Flashdance," "Sliver" and "Showgirls," says there are "1,000 better and more original ways to reveal a character's personality" than with cigarettes.

Eszterhas says he has stopped smoking and drinking since his cancer was diagnosed, and now walks five miles a day and attends church on Sunday. "My hands are bloody; so are Hollywood's. My cancer has caused me to attempt to cleanse mine," he writes. "I don't wish my fate upon anyone in Hollywood, but I beg that Hollywood stop imposing it upon millions of others."

Warrant out for Vince Neil

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Los Angeles prosecutors say an arrest warrant has been issued for Motley Crue singer Vince Neil.

The district attorney's office says Neil is wanted on a misdemeanor battery warrant for allegedly punching a record producer outside a West Hollywood nightclub last April.

RESOURCES EW.COM: All about Motley Crue

Michael Schuman says he was standing outside the Rainbow Room nightclub just after midnight on April 28th when Neil arrived in a red Rolls-Royce sedan, got out and punched him in the face.

Shuman's attorney says his client fell to the ground, fracturing an elbow, while Neil stood over him and taunted him.

Neil's manager calls the allegation ridiculous and predicts the 41-year-old singer will be "completely exonerated."

Neil could face up to six months in jail and a two-thousand dollar fine if convicted.

Serena Williams tries acting

MANHATTAN BEACH, California (AP) -- Serena Williams, the world's top-ranked woman's tennis player, has added struggling actress to her resume.

The 20-year-old says she's been taking classes and has a new acting coach.

RESOURCES PEOPLE PROFILE: All about Serena Williams

"I'm trying to get some parts. A lot of people want me, but my schedule right now is kind of conflicting with my acting," she said Thursday at a tennis tournament in Manhattan Beach.

Williams said she'd love to work with Sean Connery, Anthony Hopkins or Morgan Freeman.

And what kind of part would she want to play?

"With my time schedule, I'd have to have a small role," Williams said, "but I'd like the movie to be all about me, so maybe I can get hurt in the beginning of the movie and I can just stay in a coma until the end."

Known as a practical joker, Williams was asked if she was serious about a future in show business.

"I'm very serious as a heart attack," she said, giggling.

Absent Elvis concert

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) -- It was 25 years ago this month that the Cumberland County Civic Center was sold out for back-to-back performances by the king of rock 'n' roll.

MORE STORIES In-Depth: Elvis: 25 years later

But Elvis Presley died on August 16, 1977, and more than 17,000 heartbroken fans were left holding tickets to the August 17 and August 18 concerts.

In observance of the 25th anniversary of Presley's death, the Civic Center will present a two-hour musical tribute, "The Concert That Never Happened," on August 17, featuring Elvis impersonator Jack Smink.

"I couldn't be any happier," said Dot Gonyea, president and a founding member of the True Fans for Elvis Fan Club, who encouraged Smink to put on the show. The 59-year-old South Portland woman had waited in line for two days to get tickets for Presley's 1977 appearance and came away with front-row center seats.

She was at home, listening to a Presley album, when a neighbor told her that he had died. "I didn't believe it until I turned on the television," she recalled. "I was just lost in his music. And I still get lost in his music 25 years later."

The Associated Press & Reuters contributed to this report.