Posted Dec. 18, 2008

Will Smith is hedging his bets, spiritually speaking. FOXNews.com reports that the A-lister's charitable foundation spread the financial love around last year to a smorgasbord of religious organizations, including pal Tom Cruise's church of choice. Two Christian charities received $250,000 and $200,000, respectively, and sizable donations were made to a Los Angeles mosque and the Yitzhak Rabin Memorial Center in Israel, but Smith also dug through his couch cushions and handed over $122,500 to the Church of Scientology. The money was apparently divvied up among several L. Ron Hubbard-centric groups, including $50,000 to the Los Angeles-based Celebrity Centre and $67,500 to the niacin-pushing New York Rescue Workers Detoxification Project. The disclosure will likely prompt the star, who will soon hit screens in "Seven Pounds" (by the by, Cruise's son Connor co-stars in the drama), to issue another denial over speculation that he's devoted to Scientology, whose teaching techniques are among those used at the Los Angeles-area private school that he and wife Jada recently opened. "I'm at home and not fearful when I sit in a mosque or a synagogue or a Buddhist temple, the same way that I'm home in the Church of Scientology," Will told Newsweek earlier this month as he once again insisted he's not a card-carrying member of the thetan-banishing brigade. "I like anywhere people are searching for the truth, and I respect their path and I'm intrigued by their path."

Jeremy Piven hits the Tribeca Film Fest on Dec. 8. (©WireImage.com)

Forget exhaustion or dehydration. The hottest celebrity illness right now is too much mercury in the system. That's the reason being cited by Jeremy Piven for bailing out of the hit Broadway production of David Mamet's "Speed-the-Plow" two months before his contract is up, reports Variety. The Emmy-winning "Entourage" star, who has received a critical tongue bath for his work in the play, missed Tuesday night's show and Wednesday's matinee, prompting several hundred ticket-holders to request refunds, according to the New York Post. He reportedly flew home to Los Angeles on Wednesday evening amid speculation that the play's investors may ask for a "second opinion" about what ails him. According to Piven's rep, he wanted to continue on, but his doctors advised him to quit immediately because of his health issues. One physician treating him tells "Entertainment Tonight" he's suffering from "extreme mercury toxicity," which can result in "extreme fatigue." The doc adds that the actor, "an avid sushi eater," is "disappointed" that "Plow" production staffers and others in the entertainment community "have not rallied behind him during this health crisis." While we wish Piven a speedy recovery, his woes have resulted in a classic zinger from a seemingly skeptical Mamet, who told Daily Variety, "I talked to Jeremy on the phone, and he told me that he discovered that he had a very high level of mercury. So my understanding is that he is leaving show business to pursue a career as a thermometer." Piven will be replaced by Tony winner Norbert Leo Butz and William H. Macy.

Eminem says he's grown as a person during his time out of the spotlight. "Within the last year, I started learning how to not be so angry about things, learning how to count my [bleeping] blessings instead," the onetime chart-topper reveals to Esquire. "By doing that, I've become a happier person, instead of all this self-loathing I was doing for a while." Still, Em isn't a big believer in emotional makeovers. "People can try to reinvent themselves. I don't think you can really change who you are, though, because who you are is pretty much where you came from and what you've done up to now," he explains. "You can change your image and all that -- you can change your [bleeping] clothes, your underwear, your hair color, all that [bleep] -- but it's not going to mean you're a brand-new person." Eminem then proves his point by saying of his current sartorial preference, "I'm a T-shirt guy now. But wifebeaters won't go out of style, not as long as [rhymes with "twitches"] keep mouthing off."

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