Computer magnate pledges aid to tsunami victims

Austin, Texas — The Michael and Susan Dell Foundation pledged $3 million to relief efforts for victims of the earthquake and tsunami in southern Asia.

The couple said the amount is an initial pledge meant to encourage others to give generously to the more than 5 million people the World Health Organization estimates do not have access to water, shelter, food or health care.

“We encourage people in our country and everywhere to find it in their hearts to give generously to these people and the relief efforts,” Michael Dell said in a statement Friday.

He is the chairman of Dell Inc., based in Round Rock, Texas, the world’s largest personal computer maker.

Pacino only funny when he feels like it

New York — Al Pacino as a stand-up comic? That’s how he started his career, the Oscar-winning actor says.

“There’s a facility I have to fall down. I had a certain physical comedy I did with a partner. And I thought I was going to do that,” he recently told reporters, according to AP Radio. “But I didn’t want to be funny all the time, only when I felt like it. And that’s not a good idea.”

Pacino, 64, won the best-actor Oscar in 1993 for “Scent of a Woman.” His screen credits also include “Dog Day Afternoon,” “The Godfather” movies and “Serpico.”

He plays Shylock in his latest film, “The Merchant of Venice.”

Travolta not afraid of not looking good

Los Angeles — John Travolta is almost unrecognizable when he’s first on the screen in the drama “A Love Song for Bobby Long.”

His hair is white, and his face is drawn and beaten.

Travolta said he worried that if he didn’t look that way, he wouldn’t be believable, “and that’s more frightening to an actor than looking good. And that’s the truth.”

In “A Love Song for Bobby Long,” Travolta plays a former literature professor whose life has taken an alcohol-fueled nose dive. He sits on the front porch of a dilapidated house outside New Orleans, drunk all day on cheap vodka. Scarlett Johansson also stars in the film.

Depp, Lohan top STARmeter

Los Angeles — Johnny Depp topped IMDB.com’s 2004 STARmeter while Lindsay Lohan placed a strong second in the rankings, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The movie resource and database Web site, www.imdb.com, also had Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley and Angelina Jolie rounding out the Top 5 as it unveiled its top 25 movie stars.

The rankings are determined by the site’s STARmeter, available since 2001 through its subscription service, which ranks celebrities’ popularity among IMDB.com’s more than 22 million monthly visitors.

The listings are an aggregate of search and page-view patterns of the Web site, reflected in weekly rankings. According to IMDB managing editor Keith Simanton, Depp and Lohan were in a heat for the top spot, with Depp popular in the first half of the year while Lohan was tops in the second half.