Halle Berry hopes for another child

Chicago – Halle Berry says she and her boyfriend, Gabriel Aubry, tried and tried and tried to get pregnant.

“So there was a lot of staying home and doing what you do. Like, all the time, around the clock,” the 41-year-old Oscar-winning actress said Tuesday on “The Oprah Winfrey Show.”

One negative pregnancy test followed another, “and finally, after about 35 tests, we finally got a positive test,” Berry told Winfrey in one of her first interviews since announcing last month that she was expecting her first child with Aubry, her boyfriend of two years.

Berry said she and Aubry don’t plan to marry, but feel fully committed to each other.

“I feel more married, in a way, than I ever have in two marriages before,” she said. “He really understands the spiritual connection is so much more important than the paper and the pomp and circumstance and the ceremony.”

But Berry said there is something she and Aubry are sure to do: try to have another child.

“There’s just one right now,” she said. “But we’re hoping, right after this one, to do it again.”

Paul Schrader to receive achievement award

Stockholm, Sweden – Paul Schrader, who gained his breakthrough with the script for “Taxi Driver,” will receive a lifetime achievement award at this year’s Stockholm International Film Festival.

The 61-year-old writer-director is being recognized for his “unique voice, which gives life to sharp, relentless characters in a modern city,” festival organizers said Tuesday.

“With the linguistic brilliance of a screenwriter and a director’s eye for visuals, Paul Schrader has helped advance the cinematic medium for over three decades,” organizers said.

Schrader will receive the Bronze Horse award Nov. 18. His films as a director include “American Gigolo,” “Cat People” and “Mishima – A Life in Four Chapters.”

Connecticut declares ‘Bruce Springsteen Day’

Hartford, Conn. – It wasn’t just any Tuesday in Connecticut. It was officially “Bruce Springsteen Day.”

Springsteen and his E Street Band were to open their first tour since 2002 at the Hartford Civic Center on Tuesday night. They’re promoting their new album, “Magic.”

Gov. Jodi Rell issued a proclamation honoring the multiple Grammy winner for his contributions to American music and declared Oct. 2 as “Bruce Springsteen Day in Connecticut.”

‘Bachelor’ Firestone plans spring wedding

Santa Barbara, Calif. – Andrew Firestone’s proposal to Jen Schefft on ABC’s dating show “The Bachelor” in 2003 was watched by millions and led to months of tabloid chatter afterward – until the couple broke up later that year.

Now Firestone is engaged again, his father and Santa Barbara County Supervisor Brooks Firestone, said Monday.

His son is engaged to model-actress Ivana Bozilovic, and they plan to marry in the spring, Firestone said.

“We love her,” he said. “She makes Andrew behave.”

Bozilovic, 30, has appeared in films including “Wedding Crashers” and “National Lampoon’s Van Wilder.”

Andrew Firestone, 32, manages the family’s Paso Robles winery.

Radiohead’s digital album won’t have set price

Using its position as one of the biggest rock bands in the world, Radiohead is attempting a game-changing move on the music industry. Music blogs were aflutter Monday at the news that the group is releasing its latest newest album itself via its Web site, radiohead.com, on Oct. 10.

Titled “In Rainbows,” the two-CD set is being released digitally without record label support and being marketed by word of mouth, not a Herculean task given that Radiohead has one of the most rabid fan bases in music.

In an innovative move sure to rankle the suits of music industry behemoths, both on the label and digital music store side, Radiohead is allowing fans to pay whatever they wish for the privilege of downloading the tracks on the 10th. The price? “It’s up to you.” That’s an intriguing experiment that may well test what music lovers think is fair market value for MP3 audio tracks.

For those who still enjoy album art and artistic packaging, a deluxe two-CD, two-LP set will be available starting in December. That set will also include a collection of the band’s art and a bevy of photographs. Pre-orders for both started Sunday.

Author sued for $60M for Anna Nicole Smith book

Atlanta – Anna Nicole Smith’s attorney and companion, Howard K. Stern, filed a $60 million libel lawsuit Tuesday against Rita Cosby and her publisher over a book she wrote that claims Stern and Smith’s ex-boyfriend, Larry Birkhead, had a sexual encounter.

The suit, filed in federal court in New York, seeks $10 million in compensatory damages and $50 million in punitive damages from Cosby, the former MSNBC host who wrote “Blonde Ambition: The Untold Story Behind Anna Nicole Smith’s Death” – and Hachette Book Group USA Inc.

The book, which hit stores in September, claims that besides the alleged sexual encounter, Birkhead and Stern worked together after Smith’s death to manipulate the media and maximize profits.

Smith died of an accidental drug overdose in Florida in February at age 39. Stern initially claimed to have fathered Smith’s young daughter, Dannielynn, but Birkhead eventually showed he was the father. The baby could inherit millions from the estate of Smith’s late husband, Texas oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II.

Stern’s lawsuit says that the book falsely accuses Stern of, among other things, criminal lewd acts, homosexual acts, illegal possession and use of cocaine, conspiring to commit murder and kidnapping for ransom.