CELEBRITY UPDATE
Don't send Madonna any wedding gifts just yet. Though it was earlier confirmed that the pop singer and British director Guy Ritchie were planning a 2001 wedding, now comes the news that the Material Girl and her beau are not engaged -- at least for now. "There are no wedding plans," Madonna's rep, Liz Rosenberg, told www.mrshowbiz.com. "Madonna is not engaged." This invalidates earlier confirmation from Rosenberg, who decided to retract her comments on Madonna's betrothal after speaking with the pop star.
CASTING ABOUT
Penelope Cruz may already have found the man for her -- possibly a long time ago. "What's important is just finding that connection with someone -- I don't know, maybe from before," the 26-year-old Spanish actress tells Harper's Bazaar in its December issue. Reincarnation? "I know it must sound like I'm crazy, but I completely believe in it." Cruz will next star in Billy Bob Thornton's All the Pretty Horses.
Don't ask members of punk-rock group Blink-182 to sit in traffic or travel by airplane -- both are pet peeves. "Misery is flying an airplane. I hate flying more than anything in this whole world. I'd rather be shot in the head than die on an airplane," says drummer Travis Barker. For singer Mark Hoppus, getting stuck on the road is worse. "My idea of total misery is sitting in traffic," he tells Teen magazine in its December edition. "I just get on the phone or put on music. What else can you do?"
Britain's Princess Anne visited leprosy patients in the hills of Nepal, where lepers are considered untouchable in the Hindu caste system. Princess Anne clasped her two hands together in a traditional greeting, smiled and said, "Namaste," which translates roughly as "How are you?" Contrary to popular belief, leprosy, a skin affliction caused by a bacteria, is among the least communicable of all bacterial diseases.