Julia’s War

Los Angeles, Jan. 16 (AP): In what would be her first on-screen role since 2004’s Ocean’s Twelve, Julia Roberts is in early talks to co-star with Tom Hanks and team with director Mike Nichols in Universal’s Charlie Wilson’s War, Variety reports.

Roberts, who took time off after giving birth to twins, is in discussions to play Joanne Herring, a Texas socialite.

Hanks, who is producing the film, said last year that he planned to play Charlie Wilson, the rogue Texas Congressman who oversaw the covert funding of Afghan rebels in their battle against the Soviet Union. Herring influenced Wilson to support the rebels’ cause.

Big Oscars

New York (AP): Emma Thompson’s husband restored a barn in Scotland that included a place for her to write, but the actress and screenwriter prefers the bathroom. She also keeps her Oscars there. “They look far too outre anywhere else,” Thompson, 46, told Time magazine. “They’re great big, gold, shiny things. They’re up there tarnishing quietly along with everything else I own, including my body.” Thompson stars in and wrote the script for the upcoming film Nanny McPhee, the story of an ugly but magical child minder.

Body parts

Seoul (Reuters): South Korean doctors mistakenly removed part of the stomach of a patient due to have thyroid surgery, while removing the thyroid gland of another scheduled for stomach surgery, a hospital official said on Monday. The surgical mix-up took place at Konyang University Hospital in the city of Taejon, about 150 km south of Seoul and involved two women in their sixties who were both in for surgery the same day. Medical staff found out about the mix-up, which took place on December 29, only after they were filing paperwork on the two women. Doctors later performed the correct surgical procedures on both women and re-attached the part of the stomach they had removed from the patient with the thyroid problem.

Glory saga

Los Angeles (Reuters): The college basketball saga Glory Road triumphed at the weekend box office in North America, narrowly beating fellow newcomers Last Holiday and Hoodwinked, according to studio estimates issued on Sunday. Glory Road sold about $13.5 million worth of tickets in the Friday-to-Sunday period, followed by the Queen Latifah comedy remake Last Holiday with $13.0 million and the animated tale Hoodwinked with $12.2 million.