Stars vie for reality TV shows

New York In case delving into the private lives of Ozzy Osbourne and Anna Nicole Smith isn’t enough, now a reality show about Liza Minnelli is in the works.

VH1 confirmed Monday that the cable music channel is in talks to develop a weekly series that would follow Minnelli and her new husband, producer David Gest.

The 56-year-old married Gest in a lavish, star-studded ceremony in March.

Time magazine first reported plans for Minnelli’s show in an article this week about Smith’s E! reality series, “The Anna Nicole Show,” which premieres Aug. 4. In the same story, the magazine said rap mogul Sean “P. Diddy” Combs will have his own MTV reality show.

Di’s brother feels shunned

London The brother of the late Princess Diana says he believes her sons, Princes William and Harry, aren’t being encouraged to have contact with their mother’s family.

“What I can say is that they may not be encouraged to stay in touch with their mother’s side of the family,” Earl Spencer was quoted as saying Monday by The Guardian newspaper.

Spencer also said Diana’s former husband, Prince Charles, had never visited her grave at the family’s ancestral home of Althorp in central England.

The 38-year-old said he’d only seen Charles once since Diana’s funeral.

Benicio takes on Bogey

“Traffic” Oscar winner Benicio Del Toro, 35, will produce and star in an updated movie remake of Ernest Hemingway’s thriller “To Have and Have Not,” People magazine reports.

The original 1945 Warner Bros. version starred Humphrey Bogart aboard a charter boat that is overtaken by smugglers.

The Bogey version, directed by Howard Hawks and not particularly faithful to the Hemingway book, is famous for being the first pairing of the Casablanca screen icon and a then-neophyte actress named Lauren Bacall. The two later married.

There is no word yet on who his leading lady will be.

Springsteen album has 9-11 theme

New York The events of Sept. 11 have found their way into Bruce Springsteen’s latest album.

“The Rising” features 15 songs influenced by the terror attacks, offering stories from all sides. It’s Springsteen’s first studio recording with the E Street Band in 15 years.

The singer-songwriter who has championed the daily lives of blue-collar workers naturally gravitated toward the heroes that emerged among officers and firefighters.

“I felt that I saw nobility in people,” he told The New York Times on Sunday. “Not the kind you read in the story books, but the kind where people go in to work every day … These are the people that I want to write about.”