MADONNA is due in Buenos Aires on Saturday for the filming of Alan Parker's production of the musical Evita but Argentines who revere the memory of Eva Peron are already protesting against the casting of the pop star.
Her co star, Hollywood's latest Latin heart throb, Antonio Banderas, is expected early next month, while Parker, director of box office hits such as The Commitments, Midnight Express, and Fame is due any day now.
Graffiti have sprung up on walls in the poor Buenos Aires riverfront district of Boca, a location for scenes of the early life of Evita, and in the outlying working class suburb of Ciudad Evita, saying: "Long Live Evita! Out With Madonna."
President Carlos Menem, who still evokes Evita at rallies, is backing a home grown film version starring Argentine soap opera star, Andrea del Boca.
Superman actor Christopher Reeve (42), paralysed since a riding accident last May, is back in a New York hospital for routine tests. The actor is at Northern Westchester Medical Centre in Mount Kisco, New York, where he is in a stable condition.
Comedian George Burns has decided he is not well enough to attend an elegant Beverly Hills party being thrown in honour of his 100th birthday, a spokeswoman for the event said.
Burns, who turns 100 next Saturday, was not seriously ill and the dinner party at the Four Seasons Hotel will go on without its famous guest.
After living six years under an Islamic death sentence, novelist Salman Rushdie has decided to put in more public appearances, albeit always in the company of his bodyguards.
"A reason for doing this, for dropping around, is really to say I'm back," Rushdie told a US TV show where he promoted his latest book The Moor's Last Sigh.
British millionaire Richard Branson (45) has arrived in Morocco to attempt the first flight round the globe in a balloon and beat Dutch rival Henk Brink in setting an aviation record.
An Oslo court has sent four men to prison for stealing Edvard Munch's The Scream, Norway's most famous painting, in 1994.
The masterpiece, depicting an embryonic figure widemouthed in terror beneath a blood red sky, was recovered virtually undamaged after three months.