by Kat Giantis
MSN Entertainment
June 1, 2004
 
Is there anything more demanding than being rich and famous? Not according to Paris Hilton, who complains to Entertainment Tonight (via the New York Post) that she's, like, suffered for her art. "We're in the middle of nowhere, like 45 minutes away from, like, civilization and it's, like, all real," the eloquent heiress says of filming "House of Wax" in Australia.

"It's, like, really cold and last night we were shooting at this sugar mill and it really smelled bad. And I didn't wear shoes, like, I don't know."

Continues the beleaguered Paris, "We're in the middle of nowhere and there's bugs everywhere. Everything's real. I'm actually running through a forest with bare feet -- it hurts. I've done my own stunts, like falling. I hurt my knee -- it was bleeding. But it looks good, so it's worth it."

Hilton, who returns to the small screen on June 16 for the second season of "The Simple Life," co-stars in the horror flick with hotter-than-hot up-and-comers Elisha Cuthbert ("24") and Chad Michael Murray  ("One Tree Hill"), but she knows all eyes will be on her.

"I definitely think people are going to be, like, looking at me more than they would if I wasn't, like, so . . . ," she tells the Sydney Morning Herald before losing her train of thought. "I can't explain it. But I do a good job and I'm really looking forward to people seeing I'm good. It's not fair but life's not fair, so . . ." So ... what?

Julia's Great Expectations
Leave it to the most powerful actress in Hollywood to take the recent celebrity baby boom and up the ante: julia Roberts, 36, and her cameraman hubby Danny Moder are expecting twins, reports People. The Oscar winner's spokeswoman has confirmed the pregnancy and says twins run in Julia's family, though the Star claims she underwent an ,000 in-vitro fertilization treatment.

Rumors about Roberts' impending stork visit hit a fever pitch when she was recently snapped walking hand-in-hand with Moder on a beach in Italy sporting what looked like a swelling belly. The A-lister, who the Star says is carrying a boy and a girl, is supposedly due early next year, giving the couple plenty of time to come up with both fruit- and non-fruit-related names.

The actress, who has maintained a fairly low profile since getting hitched in the summer of 2002, is in Italy to shoot "Ocean's 12" with George Clooney, Matt Damond and Brad Pitt. Coincidentally, her character in the flick is three months pregnant.

Last December, she gushed to Oprah that hearing the pitter-patter of little feet was a priority. "Danny and I will definitely have a family. I can't wait to have kids, Oprah," Julia told the mogul. "I just can't wait to hold a baby in my arms." Asked whether she'd like a lot of little rug rats, she said, "We'd like enough for a team." 

Natural Women
As Albert Camus once said, "Beauty is unbearable, drives us to despair, offering us for a minute the glimpse of an eternity that we should like to stretch out over the whole of time." In other words, "Hot chicks totally rule." With that in mind, the good folks at Evian have taken time from their busy water-distribution duties to ask a panel of beauty "experts" to name the Top 10 most naturally beautiful woman ever, reports the BBC. The fairest of them all?

Audrey Hepburn, by a landslide.

The selections, made by beauty and fashion editors, makeup artists, photographers, and modeling execs and whittled down from a not-quite-comprehensive list of 100 names, were based on such scientific calculations as the "embodiment of natural beauty, healthy living ... beautiful on the inside and out, with great skin and a natural glow to their personality, as well as their complexion." Translation: The choices were completely arbitrary.

"Audrey Hepburn is the personification of natural beauty," says Elle beauty director Rosie Green. "She has a rare charm and inner beauty that radiates when she smiles." (If you ask us, the ladylike screen legend's unwavering support of charitable children's causes enhanced her already considerable genetic gifts.)

"Look, whenever I hear or read I'm beautiful, I simply don't understand it," Hepburn once said. "I'm certainly not beautiful in any conventional way. I didn't make my career on beauty."

Pillow-lipped Liv Tyler placed second in the poll, with flawless lovelies Cate Blanchett, Angelina Jolie and Grace Kelly rounding out the top 5. Completing the random list: Aussie chanteuse Natalie Imbruglia, Oscar winners Juliette Binoche and Halle Berry, and supermodels Helena Christensen and Elle MacPherson. Just missing the cut was Cameron Diaz, who, oddly enough, is a frequent victim of unflattering tabloid pics touting "Stars Without Their Makeup."

Casting Call: Marc, Charlize and Reese
"Selena" made Jennifer Lopez a household name, and now her undeclared sweetie Marc Anthony is hoping for a big-screen career boost with a similarly themed project. Variety reports the Latin crooner, who is thisclose to becoming single after filing last week for a quickie Dominican Republic divorce from Dayanara Torres, is set to star in Leon Ichaso's ("Pinero") million indie flick "El Cantante," which will chronicle the tragic life of best-selling '70s salsa singer Hector Lavoe. Lopez, who has reportedly been developing the film with Anthony for a couple years, will co-produce through her Nuyorican Productions but won't star. The trade says financing was raised through "private sources," which makes us wonder if Jen has finally found a good use for her .5 million pink diamond engagement ring from Ben Affleck.

In other casting news,  Charlize Theron seems determined to work with every major female director in Hollywood (and kudos to her for that). The luscious actress, who earned an Oscar for the Patty Jenkins-helmed "Monster," has just inked a deal to team with "Boy's don't cry" director Kimberly Peirce on an adaptation of Mark Richard's short-story collection "The Ice at the Bottom of the World," report the trades. Filming will begin next year. Theron is also set to star as an assassin with a killer bod in "Aeon Flux" for "Girlfight" director Karyn Kusama and will topline the sexual harassment drama "Class Action" for "Whale Rider"'s Niki Caro.

Comedic cutie Reese Witherspoon is getting spooky. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the actress is in talks to star in and produce the supernatural thriller "The Reckoning," which will be adapted by Oscar-winning "Silence of the Lambs" scribe Ted Tally from the upcoming book by Jeff Long. Reese will play a New York Times photographer who treks to Cambodia with a group hoping to recover the remains of lost soldiers.

Matthew's Pen Pal
If we were getting up close and personal with Matthew McConaughey's swoon-inducing six-pack abs or running our fingers through his surprisingly robust hairline, we'd send out a press release and maybe put up a tasteful billboard announcing our couple-y status. Not so for Penelope Cruz, who continues to deny she's involved with her "Sahara" co-star, despite a report in the London Sun that claims the pretty pair was recently caught canoodling at a Gomez show in London. So are they really are making beautiful music together? Only time -- and paparazzi pics -- will tell. 

Quickies
  Jerry Seinfeld has almost finished renovating the East Hampton fixer he bought from Billy Joel for the bargain basement price of million four years ago, and he's made some unusual home improvements, says the New York Post, which reports the comedian has built his very own baseball field.

Good news and bad news for Britney Spears. The pop tartlet has been given the green light to perform for the first time in China, but skin-shy officials want final approval of her on-stage ensembles, reports the Chinese News Service. "Every aspect of her tour will have to undergo examination and approval," say the powers-that-be. "That especially goes for the clothes she'll be wearing. The requirement is that they don't show too much." Spears will reportedly take her "In the Zone" tour to Shanghai and Beijing for five dates next year.

In the biggest C-list ceremony since Mario Lopez tied the knot, albeit briefly, with Ali Landry, former "Party of Five" pin-up Scott Wolf wed onetime "Real World: New Orleans" cast-member Kelley Limp in her hometown of Fayetteville, Arkansas, on Saturday, reports the Associated Press.

Congratulations go out to Chris Rocks and his wife Malaak, who welcomed their second child on May 22. Daughter Zahra Savannah weighed in at 6 pounds, 7 ounces, joining 22-month-old Lola, reports Entertainment Tonight. In his latest stand-up special, "Never Sacred," Rock explained that his main goal as a parent is to ensure his little girl doesn't have daddy issues, because if she grows up and becomes a stripper, he'll know he screwed up: "You got to keep her off the pole!"