Sly signs up for sixth ‘Rocky’

Los Angeles – Yo Adrian! Rocky is planning another comeback.

Fifteen years after starring in “Rocky V,” Sylvester Stallone is reprising his role as the boxing champ in the sixth “Rocky” movie, publicist Michelle Bega said Monday.

The 59-year-old actor will write and direct “Rocky Balboa,” which will begin shooting in Philadelphia and Las Vegas next year.

Stallone told the Daily Variety trade magazine the movie will focus on an aging, widowed Rocky who is reluctant to get back in the ring but ends up doing it “just to compete, not to win.”

“I am drawing on a lot of my feelings that are in sync with many people’s feelings about facing the last chapter of their lives and how they want it to be written,” Stallone said.

Dan Taylor, president of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which is co-producing the film, said the movie focuses less on boxing and more on character.

“It’s about self-examination, an opportunity to see what kind of person he is and act on it,” Taylor said.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether Talia Shire, who appeared in five previous “Rocky” films as the boxer’s love interest, Adrian, will return in the sixth installment, said Stuart Herriot, a spokesman with Revolution Studios, which is co-producing the film.

“In the script, she did pass away, but it’s unsure whether she might appear in a flashback or in older footage,” Herriot said.

But, Herriot said, Burt Young is expected to return as Adrian’s brother, Paulie.

Stallone wrote all the “Rocky” films and directed the second, third and fourth entries.

The first movie, released in 1976, won three Oscars, including best picture and best director for John G. Avildsen.

Don’t bend the truth about the Beckhams

London – David Beckham and his wife, former Spice Girl Victoria, are taking legal action against a British tabloid that claimed their “happy marriage” is a sham.

Beckham, the world’s most recognized soccer player, and his wife, the former Posh Spice, are seeking libel damages against the News of the World newspaper over an article that carried the headline: “Posh and Becks on the Rocks.” The case will be heard before a judge and jury in December.

During a pretrial hearing Monday, the couple’s lawyer, Hugh Tomlinson, said the Beckhams would argue they had been defamed by the newspaper and that there was no truth in the story alleging the pair were maintaining a false image of a happy marriage to protect their financial interests.

Richard Spearman, a lawyer for the newspaper’s publishers, said the article suggested that because the Beckhams’ “substantial fortunes depend upon their public perception, the claimants have been cynically and hypocritically trying, for financial reasons, to convince the public that they continue to enjoy a happy marriage.”

Spearman said the defense would argue that suggestion was true and would question the state of the celebrity marriage.

Judge says photographer doesn’t have to give DNA

Sydney, Australia – A photographer suspected of planting a listening device outside Nicole Kidman’s home will not have to give a DNA sample to police, an appeals court ruled Tuesday.

One of Kidman’s security guards spotted the device near a sidewalk outside the Oscar-winning actress’ harbor-front mansion in January.

Police later alleged that celebrity photographer Jamie Fawcett, 43, had been captured on security camera footage near the house around the time the bug was planted.

The Waverley Local Court in April ordered Fawcett to supply police with a DNA sample to be compared with samples allegedly found on the device.

But Fawcett appealed the ruling to the New South Wales state Supreme Court, which held Tuesday that he could not be forced to provide police with a DNA sample since there was no evidence he had violated any law.

Tom Sizemore placed back on probation

Los Angeles – A judge has reinstated Tom Sizemore’s probation, praising him for making “remarkable” progress in his battle with drugs, but warning that if he slips again, he could face 16 months in prison.

“I have seen remarkable improvement. … I believe that you know what you need to do to stay out of prison,” Superior Court Judge Paula Adele Mabrey told Sizemore on Monday.

The 43-year-old actor’s probation, stemming from a conviction last October for methamphetamine possession, was revoked in July.

He admitted to violations that included the use of a prosthetic device to fake a drug test in May and his repeated violation of the judge’s order to be drug-tested every three days.

Sizemore has been living at a Pasadena drug treatment facility since early July. He’ll continue outpatient treatment there three days a week, said Michael Rovell, one of his lawyers.

Sizemore was convicted in 2003 of domestic violence involving his ex-girlfriend, former Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss. He was sentenced in March to 17 months in jail and more than four months in drug treatment for repeatedly failing drug tests while on probation. The actor remains free on bail pending his appeal in that case.