Megan Fox makes emergency dash to beauty counter

As one of Hollywood's hottest young actresses, Megan Fox is usually seen looking immaculate on the red carpet in a designer dress and perfect make-up. But after being spotted looking au naturel on Monday, the 23-year-old dashed into a cosmetics store for a make-up fix.

Fortunately for the Transformers beauty, she still looked just as attractive, albeit a bit tired and washed-out. Dressed down in black jeans, a grey T-shirt and Ugg boots, Fox didn't look ready to be photographed as she was caught shopping in the Los Angeles suburb of Studio City. After spending some time talking to an assistant in the Planet Beauty store, Fox then splashed out a few hundred dollars and left with a bag laden with dozens of items. The actress likes to spend a lot on her appearance and is said to pay $300 a time for a beautician to give her a facial at home every week. After a few months out of the limelight, Fox has a busy summer coming up promoting her new films Jonah Hex and Passion Play. Her Passion Play co-star Mickey Rourke has publicly praised the actress and insists critics will be surprised by her performance in the upcoming drama. Meanwhile, Fox recently teamed up with her long-time boyfriend Brian Austin Green to attack California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's funding cuts to the state schools. Appearing in a campaign video, Fox urges Californians to 'call, write and annoy the governor until he cries for his mommy'. In the three and a half minute video, she says more than $17billion has been cut from state educational programmes over the past two years. Fox has been a surrogate stepmother to Green's son Kassius, eight, since the pair started dating six years ago.

--Daily Mail

No plans to wed, says Cowell

Simon Cowell has denied making any plans for his wedding.

Cowell, 50, was said to be tying the knot with make-up artist Mezhgan Hussainy, 36, in four locations around the world after their whirlwind romance. But Tuesday he said: 'In spite of various people claiming to be making arrangements for our wedding, no such plans exist. When Mezhgan and myself decide the time is right, we will make our own plans.' Reports last week suggested that the music mogul was planning to tie the knot four times with Miss Hussainy in Los Angeles, Hollywood, on a yacht in Barbados and in his hometown of Brighton.

Cowell and Miss Hussainy, who met on the set of American Idol, made their romance public at the start of the year but are believed to have been dating for months before. They were engaged on Valentine's Day when he proposed with a £250,000 diamond ring.

--Daily Mail

Jude Law and Sienna Miller: 'on the hunt for a new London love nest'

Sienna Miller and Jude Law finally made it back to British soil after they were stuck in the US following the volcanic ash catastrophe earlier this month.

The reconciled couple were spotted together in London. According to rumours, they are not only on the hunt for a new house together but are said to have become engaged. One report claims they have been busy viewing houses in the pricey north London suburb of Highgate. Jude separated from Sienna for the first time in 2005 following allegations of an affair with nanny Daisy Wright. But they rekindled their romance last year and were seen on a Caribbean holiday together. They were rumoured to have become engaged again after Miss Miller was pictured wearing the vintage diamond ring Jude had given her during their first engagement - but on her right hand.

--Daily Mail

Mickey Rourke, Scarlett Johansson Reportedly In 'Iron Man 2'

Rourke will play a Russian villain while Johansson takes over for Emily Blunt as Black Widow, according to online reports. The long, strange career path of Mickey Rourke has seen him as a heartthrob, a boxer and a barfly. He's been Harley Davidson, Randy "The Ram" Robinson and — most shockingly — an Oscar nominee.

Now, the veteran actor could be a certified super-villain.

DeadlineHollywoodDaily.com is reporting that Rourke has signed on to play a Russian villain in the eagerly anticipated "Iron Man 2." Coming off his Oscar-nominated performance in director Darren Aronofsky's "The Wrestler," the red-hot Rourke was also reportedly being considered for "Spider-Man 4," but his participation in that film will likely stall now that he's been claimed by Tony Stark.

Scarlett Johansson was also reportedly added to the cast, replacing Emily Blunt as Black Widow, according to Deadline Hollywood. The site reports that Johansson screen-tested for the role previously and didn't get it. Blunt spoke about losing the role at a press event last month, saying, "It's a little disappointing is all I can say."

Although the confirmation of Rourke's involvement is thrilling, the story isn't exactly unexpected. We first got wind of the resurrected character actor joining the superhero franchise back in January, then heard from Robert Downey Jr. that Rourke's character was not the oft-suspected Crimson Dynamo. When asked if Rourke were going to be playing high-tech villain Whiplash, however, Downey cryptically added: "I can neither confirm nor deny that."

Asked for clarification on Wednesday (March 11), a Paramount rep said the studio had "no comment" on Rourke's role or the Deadline Hollywood report that he had been cast.

The 56-year-old Rourke would fit in well on the "Iron Man" sequel set, joining the newly resurrected Downey. When Rourke first hit Hollywood in the early '80s, his good looks and cool persona got him cast in such classics as "Diner," "Rumble Fish" and "Nine 1/2 Weeks." Much like Downey, his career hit a rough patch in the following decade — but he publicly put his troubled past behind him a few years ago and is only now beginning to fulfill the promise he once harnessed so effortlessly.

Based on the classic Marvel Comics character, "Iron Man" became one of the biggest hits of 2008, taking in more than $300 million domestically. The sequel has a targeted release date of May 7, 2010, and recently signed Samuel L. Jackson to return as sneering S.H.I.E.L.D. leader Nick Fury.

Size of Spill in Gulf of Mexico Is Larger Than Thought

(NYTimes) In a hastily called news conference, Rear Adm. Mary E. Landry of the Coast Guard said a scientist from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration had concluded that oil is leaking at the rate of 5,000 barrels a day, not 1,000 as had been estimated. While emphasizing that the estimates are rough given that the leak is at 5,000 feet below the surface, Admiral Landry said the new estimate came from observations made in flights over the slick, studying the trajectory of the spill and other variables.

An explosion and fire on a drilling rig on April 20 left 11 workers missing and presumed dead. The rig sank two days later about 50 miles off the Louisiana coast.

Doug Suttles, chief operating officer for exploration and production for BP, said a new leak had been discovered as well. Officials had previously found two leaks in the riser, the 5,000-foot-long pipe that connected the rig to the wellhead and is now detached and snaking along the sea floor. One leak was at the end of the riser and the other at a kink closer to its source, the wellhead.

But Mr. Suttles said a third leak had been discovered Wednesday afternoon even closer to the source. “I’m very, very confident this leak is new,” he said. He also said the discovery of the new leak had not led them to believe that the total flow from the well was different than it was before the leak was found.

The new, far larger estimate of the leakage rate, he said, was within a range of estimates given the inexact science of determining the rate of a leak so far below the ocean’s surface.

“The leaks on the sea floor are being visually gauged from the video feed” from the remote vehicles that have been surveying the riser, said Doug Helton, a fisheries biologist who coordinates oil spill responses for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, in an e-mail message Wednesday night. “That takes a practiced eye. Like being able to look at a garden hose and judge how many gallons a minute are being discharged. The surface approach is to measure the area of the slick, the percent cover, and then estimate the thickness based on some rough color codes.”

Admiral Landry said President Obama had been notified. She also opened up the possibility that if the government determines that BP, which is responsible for the cleanup, cannot handle the spill with the resources available in the private sector, that Defense Department could become involved to contribute technology.

Wind patterns may push the spill into the coast of Louisiana as soon as Friday night, officials said, prompting consideration of more urgent measures to protect coastal wildlife. Among them were using cannons to scare off birds and employing local shrimpers’ boats as makeshift oil skimmers in the shallows.

Part of the oil slick was only 16 miles offshore and closing in on the Mississippi River Delta, the marshlands at the southeastern tip of Louisiana where the river empties into the ocean. Already 100,000 feet of protective booms have been laid down to protect the shoreline, with 500,000 feet more standing by, said Charlie Henry, an oil spill expert for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, at an earlier news conference on Wednesday.

On Wednesday evening, cleanup crews began conducting what is called an in-situ burn, a process that consists of corralling concentrated parts of the spill in a 500-foot-long fireproof boom, moving it to another location and burning it. It has been tested effectively on other spills, but weather and ecological concerns can complicate the procedure.

Such burning also works only when oil is corralled to a certain thickness. Burns may not be effective for most of this spill, of which 97 percent is estimated to be an oil-water mixture.

A burn scheduled for 11 a.m. Wednesday was delayed. At 4:45 p.m., the first small portion of the spill was ignited. Officials determined it to be successful.