Brad Pitt hospitalized

Los Angeles – Actor Brad Pitt has been hospitalized with a flu-like illness.

Pitt, 41, checked himself into an undisclosed Los Angeles area hospital Monday night complaining of flu-like symptoms, his publicist Cindy Guagenti said Tuesday. There were no other details and the name of the hospital wasn’t disclosed for security reasons.

Pitt was in Ethiopia last week with his “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” co-star Angelina Jolie to pick up the actress’s newly adopted baby girl, the second child she has adopted. Guagenti said it wasn’t known if the actor contracted the illness while in Africa.

Actor cruises into third ‘Mission: Impossible’

Rome – Tom Cruise started shooting scenes for “Mission: Impossible 3” in Rome on Tuesday by whizzing past the camera in a speedboat.

Fans looked on from a bridge over the river Tiber as the star sped under them to film the third installment in the action-adventure series. All traffic was barred from the historic waterway for the day.

Before stepping into the speedboat, Cruise kissed and embraced actress Katie Holmes on the riverside set. The two became engaged in June after Cruise proposed at the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

“Mission: Impossible 3” is directed by J.J. Abrams, one of the creators of ABC’s “Lost” and “Alias,” and is produced by Cruise and his partner, Paula Wagner.

Last month, Cruise and Paramount Pictures finalized their agreement after over a week of haggling over costs.

The movie will co-star Ving Rhames, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Michelle Monaghan and Philip Seymour Hoffman. It is set for release on May 5, 2006.

Cartoon shows draw inspiration from each other

New York – “The Simpsons” took a shot at fellow Fox cartoon “Family Guy.” So that series’ creator is taking a shot right back.

Seth MacFarlane said an episode of “The Simpsons” where a Homer Simpson clone was identified as “Family Guy” dad Peter Griffin was “definitely a slam.”

But since the “Family Guy” team dishes out plenty of its own insults, it should be able to take some, MacFarlane told Blender magazine.

“To me, Peter is much more similar to Ralph Kramden than he is to Homer, right down to his voice,” he said, referring to the character from “The Honeymooners.” “That’s what I see. But because ‘The Simpsons’ and ‘Family Guy’ are really the only two shows of their kind of television, there’ll be comparisons made.”

Singer-songwriter headed to principal’s office

New York – Alanis Morissette is being sent to the principal’s office.

The singer-songwriter will guest star as a Canadian principal in The N’s teen drama “Degrassi: The Next Generation” Aug. 26.

Morissette will join filmmaker Kevin Smith and actor Jason Mewes in the second part of the high school soap’s three-part season finale. In the story arc, Smith and Mewes are filming a sequel to their 2001 film “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.” The fictional film, titled “Jay and Silent Bob Go Canadian, Eh!” sees the bumbling duo crossing the border to earn a high school diploma because no U.S. high school will accept them.

“The plot of the movie within the show is so funny, it almost makes me want to shoot the flick for real,” Smith said in a statement Monday.

Morissette, who appeared as God in Smith’s 1999 film “Dogma” and became a U.S. citizen this year, will play the Canadian principal who accepts Jay and Silent Bob. This summer, Morissette has been touring in support of an acoustic version of her 1995 album, “Jagged Little Pill.”

INXS not looking to replace former lead singer

Los Angeles – Although INXS is looking for a new singer, guitarist Tim Farriss says the band isn’t “in any way, shape or form trying to replace Michael Hutchence.”

“What we really want is somebody who brings their own personality along and someone completely different,” Farriss told AP Radio in a recent interview. The band has used guest vocalists since Hutchence died in 1997.

A new reality show to find a lead singer, “Rock Star: INXS,” premiered Monday night on CBS, hosted by Dave Navarro, former guitarist for the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Jane’s Addiction, and TV personality Brooke Burke.

Fifteen performers are competing on the show. The last singer standing will make an album with INXS and go on tour with the band.

Harry Potter sold by accident

Coquitlam, British Columbia – A handful of people in Canada got a sneak peak of the latest Harry Potter book, but a British Columbia Supreme Court judge ordered them to keep it a secret.

The book was sold to 14 people who snagged a copy of J.K. Rowling’s much anticipated “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” when it landed on shelves last Thursday at a local grocery store.

“It was an inadvertent error on behalf of one of our staff,” said Geoff Wilson, a spokesman for the Real Canadian Superstore. He said the books were quickly removed.

Justice Kristi Gill last Saturday ordered customers not to talk about the book, copy it, sell it or even read it before it is officially released at 12:01 a.m. this Saturday.