Aiming At Celeb Shooters, Actor Takes His Own Shots

Following the death of Princess Diana, George Clooney continues his personal quest to nullify the power wielded by the tabloid press.

The “E.R.” star singled out Steve Coz, editor of the National Enquirer at a news conference on Tuesday. “I wonder how you sleep at night,” Clooney said. “You should be ashamed.”

Clooney wants to make it easier for celebrities to sue for libel and is galled by the “malicious intent” requirement. “They are the two words that every ethical journalist says is the loophole tabloids hide behind,” Clooney said. “They are two words in the law that I will spend every free moment trying to change.”

Coz, meanwhile, declined to argue. “Let’s allow the facts of this tragedy to speak for themselves rather than have celebrities twist it to fit their own publicity agenda.”

Loose talk

Sylvester Stallone blasting the paparazzi (in the Hollywood Reporter): “I’ll stand here, I’ll give you this picture. Now can I live my life? Can I take my child to school? Can I take my wife to dinner? No, you can’t. You can’t have those things. You can’t go on a vacation. You cannot live a life because you are going to be hunted.”

In Hollywood terms, he really got the shaft

Richard Roundtree turns 55 today.

That sure gives us something to talk about

Scheduled to undergo an angioplasty Monday, CNN talk-show host Larry King married wife No. 7 on Friday. King, 63, married Shawn Southwick, 37, a singer who has been married twice before. King underwent a coronary bypass in 1987.

Somebody get Kitty Kelley on the phone

Cathy Lee Crosby knew the late Dodi Fayed. Rather intimately, as she explained Thursday on “Entertainment Tonight.” Her explanation as to the mutual attraction he seemed to share with Princess Diana proved as much. “He afforded (Diana) a certain protection in a sense, sort of like Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis with Aristotle,” Crosby said. “I think there’s a shyness about both of them, and a longing about both of them that would appeal to each other. Besides, he loved the blondes.”

Note to HarperCollins: The ‘Thrill!’ is gone

This from the book wars: After unceremoniously dumping a number of its secondary authors, HarperCollins is watching as its name writers leave, too. Barbara Taylor Bradford recently left for Doubleday, and now Jackie Collins has taken her novel “Thrill!” to Simon & Schuster.

Also starring Goose Gossage as the Disco Duck

If you can recall the glory days of the 1970s, you might remember Studio 54. Now Miramax Pictures is announcing its intent to make a film about the place, called “Studio 54,” starring Mike Meyers, Neve Campbell, Sela Ward and Salma Hayek.

Truth often IS stranger than fiction

And finally, this from the Associated Press: “HILO, Hawaii - Police have recovered more than 1,900 tickets sold for a phony Spice Girls concert, a scam police say the promoter concocted to pay for a sex-change operation.”

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The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Compiled by staff writer Dan Webster