Joel Coen and Ethan Coen added another potential award to their growing pile as the two siblings received a Directors Guild of America nomination for their gritty thriller No Country for Old Men; it marks the first time ever a sibling team has been nominated for the DGA Award. While Joel Coen received a previous DGA nod for Fargo in 1997, the other directors up for the award were all first-time nominees: Paul Thomas Anderson for There Will Be Blood, Tony Gilroy for Michael Clayton, Sean Penn for Into the Wild, and Julian Schnabel for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. Nominees for the DGA's television awards are expected to be announced on Thursday, and the awards will be given out on Saturday, January 26th.

Hollywood superstar Nicole Kidman and her husband Keith Urban are expecting their first child together. The Oscar-winning actress, who has two adopted children, Isabella, 15, and Connor, 12, with her ex-husband Tom Cruise, has been rumored to be expecting for weeks. Kidman's spokesperson Catherine Olim says, "Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban confirmed today that they are expecting a baby. The couple are thrilled." Speculation about Kidman's pregnancy intensified recently when the 40-year-old pulled out of director Stephen Daldry's post-World War II drama The Reader, which had been scheduled to start shooting later this month. Daldry also directed Kidman in her Oscar-winning performance in The Hours.

The televised Golden Globe Awards ceremony will be replaced by a press conference this Sunday as a result of the ongoing writers' strike. Organizers announced their decision on Monday to avoid a celebrity-less event after the Screen Actors Guild pledged its members would not cross the Writers Guild Of America's picket line. The 65th Annual Golden Globe Awards had been due to take place at the Beverly Hilton hotel in California. Instead, a news conference will take place to announce the winners of each category. Spokesman Jorge Camara says, "We are all very disappointed that our traditional awards ceremony will not take place this year and that millions of viewers worldwide will be deprived of seeing many of their favorite stars celebrating 2007's outstanding achievements in motion pictures and television. We take some comfort, however, in knowing that this year's Golden Globe Award recipients will be announced on the date originally scheduled."

A TV special of Dr. Phil McGraw's show focusing on Britney Spears' latest troubles has been cancelled, after the pop star's parents pulled out of the program. The therapist had visited Spears at Los Angeles' Cedars-Sinai Medical Center last week, where she was being held following a stand-off with police at her Beverly Hills mansion when she refused to hand over her boys to ex-husband Kevin Federline after a scheduled visit. And McGraw planned to discuss the singer's ongoing personal problems on Tuesday's edition of the show - with her parents Lynne and Jamie as special guests. But Spears' mum and dad cancelled on Sunday - when the taping was due to take place - and McGraw has now decided to shelve the idea altogether because of the "intensity" of the situation. In a statement issued to Entertainment Tonight, he says, "As was widely reported this weekend, at the request of concerned family members, I visited Britney Spears in the hospital. The details of that visit will, of course, remain private. We had planned to tape a 'Dr. Phil Now' show tomorrow, focusing not on the tabloid side of Britney's latest problems, but instead on the very serious issues surrounding this case. Clearly, it is not just Britney's family struggling to find a way to protect adult children who cannot be ordered or compelled to seek help. Because the Spears situation is too intense at this time, and out of consideration to the family, I have made the decision not to move forward with the taping at this particular time. Britney and her family are in our prayers and we ask that they be in yours."

Action man Steven Seagal and his former business partner Julius R. Nasso have ended their bitter six-year legal battle, which at one point saw allegations of Mob extortion surface. Nasso filed a $60 million lawsuit against Seagal in 2002, accusing the actor of reneging on a deal to develop and produce four movie projects with him. Seagal maintained no such agreement was ever made. Now, in an out-of-court settlement to end the dispute, Seagal is expected to pay his former best friend Nasso $500,000, while the producer will drop his lawsuit. Nasso says, "I'm glad it's behind us. I wish him the best." In 2002, FBI agents arrested Nasso on suspicion of conspiring to extort Seagal. The producer was charged alongside 16 people with alleged ties to the Gambino crime family. In 2003, Nasso pleaded guilty to conspiring to extort Seagal and ended up serving one year in prison. He now hopes to secure a presidential pardon removing the offence from his record. As part of the pair's settlement, Seagal has agreed to write a letter supporting Nasso's application for a pardon.

A new biography of Tom Cruise claims he was encouraged to end his marriage to Nicole Kidman by Scientology bosses. Andrew Morton's controversial new book alleges the church soured towards Kidman after she gave an interview in 1998 describing herself as "a catholic girl," and steered Cruise into ending their union. Morton alleges that in 1999 Cruise took a course that would identify "those in his life who create problems and difficulties." Kidman was identified as such. The author writes, "Shortly after Kidman's Newsweek interview, senior Scientology leaders discussed their strategy to keep Tom in the fold. The fear was that a lukewarm Nicole could fatally compromise Tom's commitment to his faith." Morton also claims when the marriage ended in January 2001, Kidman was informed through a lawyer's letter. Morton writes, "She was told she would never make another movie." He claims Kidman discovered she was pregnant shortly after the split. When she suffered a miscarriage, Cruise sent flowers but never visited, the book alleges. The actor's lawyer Bert Fields has dismissed the biography as "a bunch of lies."

Into The Wild emerged the big winner at the Palm Springs International Film Festival on Saturday, netting two awards including Director Of The Year for Sean Penn. The movie's star Emile Hirsch was also honored at the California event - with the Rising Star/Actor prize for his role as tragic real-life adventurer Chris McCandless. Elsewhere, Daniel Day-Lewis collected Actor Of The Year for his performance in Oscar favorite There Will Be Blood, while Actress Of The Year went to Halle Berry for her role in Things We Lost In The Fire. French star Marion Cotillard won the Breakthrough Award for her turn in La Vie En Rose, and Hairspray's Nikki Blonsky collected the Rising Star/Actress honor. The Ensemble Performance Award went to the Hairspray cast, while the Juno cast picked up the Vanguard Award.

Comedian Chris Rock decided to embark on a world tour after an impromptu set in a tiny London club assured him his brand of humor would translate to foreign audiences. The funnyman was apprehensive about taking his stand-up show overseas - until a visit to the U.K. last year convinced him his material was popular enough with fans outside his native U.S. The 42-year-old says, "I was hanging out (in the U.K.) during Live Earth and I went to the Comedy Store, that small club, and got on stage and it was so good. People were going crazy and the jokes were working so I thought, 'Okay, let me come back.'" The comic will kick off the British leg of his No Apologies world tour in Manchester, England on Monday and is also slated to make stops in Australia and South Africa.

Nicollette Sheridan and fiance Michael Bolton have angered staff at a Caribbean resort by using their celebrity status to get cheap deals. The couple indulged in a romantic get away at the Hotel Taiwana, a luxury complex in St. Barts, but their freeloading antics are said to have sparked outrage amongst resort workers. A source tells the New York Post gossip column PageSix, "He (a hotel staff member) said they were a bloody nightmare. They kept trying to get deals on the room and boat rentals. They wanted a bigger boat. And he (Bolton)'s a vegetarian - they looked all over the island for food to accommodate him."

British actress Samantha Morton has given birth to a baby girl. The Golden Globe-nominated star and her fiance Harry Holm welcomed the newborn at a London hospital in the early hours of Friday. Karon Maskill, Morton's publicist, tells People.com, "It is fantastic news and both mom and baby are doing brilliantly." The unnamed tot is Morton's second child - she has another daughter, named Esme, from her previous relationship with fellow British actor Charlie Creed-Miles.

Music star Norah Jones has split from her long-term boyfriend. The singer, 28, had been dating her band's bassist Lee Alexander for several years, but the couple parted ways just before the festive holidays when he moved out of their U.S. home. But the break-up is said to have been amicable, with the couple still remaining "friends," according to the New York Post's gossip column PageSix. Jones is set to make her acting onscreen in My Blueberry Nights.