Dennis Hopper has been diagnosed with prostate cancer and is canceling all travel plans to focus on treatment, his manager says.

The 73-year-old actor and artist is being treated through a "special program" at the University of Southern California, Sam Maydew said Thursday.

Asked about Hopper's prognosis, Maydew said, "We're hoping for the best." He would not elaborate on the actor's condition.

Hopper was forced to cancel his appearance at an exhibition of his artwork and photography at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image in Melbourne. Called "Dennis Hopper and the New Hollywood," the show celebrates "the work and life of an extraordinary filmmaker, artist and key figure in the evolution of America's cultural scene from the 1950s to today."

Video directed by Ledger released

An Australian rapper who was a boyhood friend of Heath Ledger has released a music video the star directed shortly before his death.

N'fa Forster-Jones posted the 3 minute, 31 second-clip for his song "Cause An Effect" on his YouTube and MySpace pages on Thursday, along with a video in which he explains how the project came about.

Ledger, the celebrity-shy star of Batman blockbuster, "The Dark Night," and the posthumously released "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus," shot a handful of videos for low-profile artists he liked. Ledger died aged 28 in New York from an accidental drug overdose in January 2008.

Forster-Jones, who had been friends with Ledger since they were toddlers in the Australian city of Perth, said the video was shot in one day in the garage of Ledger's beachside apartment.

"He gave me a call one morning, as he often did at crazy hours, and he's like, 'N'fa, I've got this idea for a video,'" the rapper says in the online posting.

"Every day I count my blessings that I got to have him direct this piece of art," he said.

'Big Brother' star goes to court

The winner of the reality TV show "Big Brother 9" is headed to federal court for a detention hearing on a drug charge.

Adam Jasinski

of Delray Beach, Fla., is charged with attempting to sell 2,000 oxycodone pills.

Jasinski was arrested in North Reading on Oct. 17 after he allegedly showed a government witness two plastic bags filled with oxycodone, a prescription painkiller that can cause dependance.

Jasinski won $500,000 on "Big Brother 9" in April 2008. In an affidavit, a federal drug agent said the 31-year-old Jasinski told him he had been using his winnings on the CBS reality show to buy thousands of oxycodone pills and resell them along the East Coast.

-- From Our Press Services

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Today's Birthdays

Anchorman Dan Rather, 78; actor David Ogden Stiers ("M.A.S.H."), 67; actress Deidre Hall ("Days of Our Lives"), 61; director Peter Jackson, 48; drummer Larry Mullen of U2, 48; actor Dermot Mulroney, 46; drummer Mikkey Dee of Motorhead, 46; actor Rob Schneider, 45; musician Rob Van Winkle (Vanilla Ice), 41.

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