Michael Douglas

On June 7, 2004, MICHAEL CLINTON DOUGLAS cherished son of Richard Clinton and Lois Patricia Douglas; beloved husband of Judith Ann (nee Sakraida) Douglas; loving father of Christopher Scott, Shawn Corey and Ryan David Douglas; dear brother of Jerry and Keith Douglas. A memorial mass will be celebrated on Thursday at 1 p.m. at the St. Paul's Roman Catholic Church, 3755 St. Paul Street, Ellicott City. Interment private. In lieu of flowers, please direct memorials to the American Heart Association, P.O. Box 5216, Glen Allen, VA 23058-5216.

On October 22, 2004, DINA TAYLOR (nee Heckner); mother of Jennifer, Jeffrey and Jessica Taylor; daughter of Mel and Carol Leishear; sister of Kim Littman, Mark, Matt, Steven and the late Michael and Douglas Leishear; mother of Jeff Taylor's Children. Also survived by many family members and friends. Relatives and friends may call at the family owned AMBROSE FUNERAL HOME OF LANSDOWNE, 2719 Hammonds Ferry Road, on Tuesday from 3 to 5 and 7 to 9 P.M., where funeral services will be held at 10 A.M. on Wednesday.

The Michael Douglas-Catherine Zeta-Jones nuptials are 11 days gone, but the money melody lingers on. Inside.com reports that People has coughed up $800,000 for wedding photos to run in the issue out Friday. A magazine spokesman says the photo rights were purchased from Britain's OK! mag, which reportedly paid $1.4 million to the newlyweds for exclusive photography rights. People senior editor Larry Hackett notes that coverage of the wedding would be "elaborate" and fill "a big chunk of the magazine" despite hitting stands almost two weeks after the deed.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- No one could say that the strict Calvinist folks of South Africa weren't warned about their latest American import, "Basic Instinct."Long before the film arrived, the newspapers said that it was sexually explicit, violent, probably sexist.But, then again, maybe that's why the thriller, starring Michael Douglas and Sharon Stone, already has cracked nearly every box-office record in South Africa."Basic Instinct" set a record for its opening weekend and its first week, in South Africa, collecting about $660,000 on 48 screens nationwide.

In an attempt to shed some of its $3.2 million in debt, the NAACP will hold a major Washington fund-raiser Tuesday to honor Hillary Rodham Clinton, former Washington Post Chairman Katharine Graham and the group's own chairman, Myrlie Evers-Williams.The event, "Sisters!," is billed as the first "Pathway to Excellence Award Gala." It will feature entertainment by pianist-composer Marvin Hamlisch, singer Mary Wells and others."We hope to raise at least $500,000," said Janice Washington, assistant director of branches and field services.

The following students were named to Bucknell University's dean's list for spring 2011 semester: Eve Carlson, of Towson, daughter of Peter and Robin Carlson, and a 2008 graduate of Towson High School. Hugh Shepard, of Towson, son of Michael and Jennifer Shepard, and a 2007 graduate of Loyola Blakefield High School. Michael Douglas Meyer Jr., a 2007 graduate of Calvert Hall, graduated magna cum laude with University Honors, Honors in biology, with a major in marine biology and minor in oceanography from the University of North Carolina Wilmington.

In the next week or two the book "Rainmaker: Saga of Jeff Beck, Wall Street's Mad Dog," by Business Week's Tony Bianco, will be arriving in bookstores. It will undoubtedly be accompanied by a good deal of press attention as well as whispers on Wall Street.In the 1980s, Beck, an investment banker, became synonymous with some of the biggest takeovers ever. Wall Street Journal readers might remember him as the subject of last year's front-page story detailing his years of lies and deception, including his harrowing tales as a war hero in Vietnam, where he had never been.

On the improv-comedy TV hit "Whose Line Is It Anyway?," two of the best recurring features are the "noir" game and the "movie styles" game. In the "noir" game, players take turns delivering overripe, hard-boiled narration. In the "movie styles" game, they switch in a second between wildly different movie moods and tones - going from, say, the fearfulness and wit of a Hitchcock thriller to the comic nausea and crassness of a Farrelly Brothers farce. "One Night at McCool's" stars Liv Tyler as a femme fatale who is all things to all men - as producer Michael Douglas has phrased it, she's the madonna and the whore.

There are five, maybe six, people in the world who look good with their hair parted in the middle, and Demi Moore is not one of them.Demi's unflattering 'do in "Disclosure" is the first sign that her character, Meredith, is nuts. Smart, beautiful and confident enough not to wear hosiery under her expensive suits, Meredith immediately unnerves employees at DigiCom Computers, where she is the new vice president. Especially computer designer Tom Snyder (Michael Douglas), who thought the V.P. job was his.Tom should be nervous, because Meredith is interested in more than his mainframe.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. And when it comes to the movies, it's pretty much inevitable. Nothing wrong with that; trying to duplicate a successful formula is not only human nature, it's good business sense. In the movie biz, that means that when one film is a runaway success, others like it will be sure to follow. But if you're going to follow a successful film's suit, can't you please follow it well? Can't you please put enough care and thought into it that the resulting film could, if necessary, stand on its own legs?