Two of a kind

New York – Director Ridley Scott knows a thing or two about working with actor Russell Crowe.

“I think we’re both pains in the neck. That’s probably why we get on,” Scott told Time magazine in an interview for editions on newsstands today.

“Really, what it is is Russell is very smart and therefore asks all sorts of intelligent questions, so if you’re not ready you’re going to get caught in the crossfire. So you’d better be ready,” Scott said. “I’m used to him now. He’s fundamentally a bit of a puppy dog.”

Scott and Crowe have worked together on “Gladiator,” are working on Scott’s new film “A Good Year,” and plan to work together on his next, “American Gangster.”

Madonna blames media for adoption uproar

New York – Madonna says the news media fanned the controversy about her attempts to adopt a 13-month-old boy from the southeast African country of Malawi, and that the average person doesn’t care about it.

“But when you throw in things like I’m a celebrity and I somehow got special treatment, or make the implication of kidnapping, it gets mixed into a stew, and it sells lots of papers,” the singer told Time magazine in an interview for editions on newsstands today.

“What they should care about is that there are over a million orphans in Malawi,” she said.

She said she has not worked harder for anything in her life than in trying to adopt the boy, David Banda. She and her husband, filmmaker Guy Ritchie, were granted an interim adoption order by Malawi’s High Court last month.

The boy has joined her two children – daughter Lourdes, 9, and son Rocco, 6 – in England.

Books get a boost

New York – Oprah Winfrey’s book club has been quiet for months, but her touch remains golden.

Just ask the publishers of diet doctors Michael F. Roizen and Mehmet C. Oz.

Since an appearance Thursday on Winfrey’s television talk show, books by Roizen and Oz have occupied the top three spots on the best-seller list of Amazon.com, with customers buying both the book alone and the book and DVD of their new work, “YOU: On a Diet,” and the hardcover edition of a previous text, “YOU: The Owner’s Manual,” a million seller in 2005 thanks in part to Winfrey.

Roizen and Oz specialize in easy-to-understand guides to healthy living, written with hip, simple language. The authors regard the human body as a house – the heart is the water main, the digestive system part of the plumbing and the bones the foundation.

Winfrey’s support for Roizen and Oz is separate from her book club picks, which virtually guarantees hundreds of thousands of sales. Her last official selection was 10 months ago, when she chose Elie Wiesel’s “Night,” her longest hiatus since she suspended the club for a year in 2002-2003.

Before “Night,” Winfrey chose James Frey’s “A Million Little Pieces,” which she eventually scorned after the author acknowledged that his memoir contained numerous fabrications.

A spokeswoman for Winfrey told The Associated Press in a recent interview that a new book club selection was planned, but declined to say when.