Troubled movie star Brad Renfro has died, according to U.S. reports. The 25-year-old actor was found dead at his home in Los Angeles on Tuesday morning, according to Tmz.com. The cause of death has not been determined, however, Renfro has a history of drug abuse. The Client star had been working to stay clean and sober after a string of drug offenses, including attempted heroin possession. Renfro was accused of violating his probation after failing to enroll in a drug treatment program, following his conviction for attempted possession of heroin last summer. A Los Angeles Superior Court Judge and LA Deputy District Attorney warned the actor that if he failed to enroll in a 18-month to three-year outpatient program he would be jailed. This was the second time Renfro had violated his probation. Renfro pleaded guilty to the charge of attempted possession in February 2006 after he was caught in a police sting in December 2005. At one point, Renfro was considered among the hottest celebrities in Hollywood; he was named The Hollywood Reporter's Young Star and one of People magazine's Top 30 Under 30 in the mid 1990s. Ironically, he was inspired to become an actor after starring in a school production sponsored by drug organization DARE, aimed at teaching kids about the dangers of drugs, according to imdb.com. He first found himself in trouble with the law for his drug habit in 1998 after he was arrested in his native Tennessee, when police pulled him over and allegedly found cocaine and marijuana in his pants and socks. Despite his troubled personal life, Renfro starred in a number of cult films; as well as The Client, he also appeared in Ghost World, Apt Pupil and The Jacket. He was reportedly still filming an adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis' The Informers with Winona Ryder when he died.

Hairspray and High School Musical heartthrob Zac Efron has undergone emergency surgery after a bout of appendicitis. The 20-year-old actor was admitted to Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles on Tuesday where he was rushed into the operating room to have his appendix removed. Efron is now said to be out of surgery and recovering. His publicist tells Tmz.com, "He had his appendix removed and is recuperating." Appendicitis is caused by inflammation of the appendix and can be fatal if left untreated. Efron was recently officially signed to the sequel High School Musical 3, alongside his previous costars, due for a release on the big screen.

Gwyneth Paltrow has returned to her New York home after she was admitted to hospital on Monday afternoon. The Iron Man star stayed overnight at the city's Mount Sinai Hospital, where she underwent treatment for an unknown ailment. She was accompanied to the medical centre by her husband, Coldplay's Chris Martin. Exact details surrounding her visit have been shrouded in mystery, but Paltrow's publicist Stephen Huvane has now confirmed the actress' hospitalization - although he has refused to comment further on the incident. He tells E! News, "Everything is fine - she is back at home."

Pulp Fiction screenwriter Roger Avary has apologized after he was arrested in connection with a fatal car crash in Los Angeles. Avary, 42, was charged with vehicular manslaughter and driving under the influence after Andreas Zini, a passenger in his car, died on Sunday. At the time of the crash the 34-year-old was apparently visiting Avary and his wife, Gretchen, who was also was also seriously injured - but is expected to survive. Zini was cut from the vehicle by firefighters but died several hours later at Ventura County Medical Center. An autopsy report issued on Monday determined that he died of "blunt force chest and abdominal injuries." And now Avary has expressed his sympathy to Zini's relatives. A statement from the writer says, "Roger wishes to publicly convey his heartfelt condolences to the family of the deceased. Words cannot express how sorry he is, and this tragic accident will always haunt him." The writer, who has been freed on $50,000 bail, faces an arraignment hearing on Friday. Avary won an Oscar, along with Quentin Tarantino, for his work on 1994 cult movie Pulp Fiction. He was also a co-writer on last year's animated epic Beowulf.

Actress Vanessa Hudgens has settled a breach-of-contract lawsuit filed against her by her former lawyer. The High School Musical star, 18, was sued last month by ex-attorney Brian Schall, who claimed Hudgens owed him over $150,000 in back commissions after he helped her become a star and make over $5 million from her songwriting and recording career. But Hudgens countered that Schall's work was "below professional standard" and claimed that, as she only 16 at the time of signing the contract with him, she was too young for it to hold legal weight. She alleged the deal broke California's Family Code law because she was under 18 when she signed it - a claim Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Tricia Ann Bigelow threw out in early December. However, following a court hearing on Tuesday, the two parties have come to an agreement over the issue, although the details of which have yet to be disclosed, according to E! News.

Dennis Quaid and his wife Kimberly have launched a stinging attack on a Los Angeles hospital for misleading them about their newborn twins, who nearly died from a shocking drugs overdose. Quaid's twins Thomas Boone and Zoe Grace were left fighting for their lives when they were mistakenly given 1,000 times the normal 10-unit dose of blood-thinning drug Heparin by staff at L.A.'s Cedar's Sinai Medical Center shortly after they were born to a surrogate mother in November. The twins have since been discharged after doctors gave them the all-clear, and they are back home with their parents. But speaking about it for the first time, the actor reveals he and his wife didn't know until the next morning that their children had been treated for a drugs overdose. He says, "Our kids could have been dying and we wouldn't have been able to come down to the hospital to say goodbye. When you go into a hospital, you become like a child, like an infant in a way. The names of the drugs, we can't even pronounce... We put complete trust, and we are so vulnerable like a child, innocent and vulnerable in a hospital situation." His wife Kimberly described the moment the couple first saw the twins. She says, "They were in incubators with cords attached to them and monitors, and you could barely hold them. Every time you'd move them, the alarms would sound... The stress was overwhelming."

Katie Holmes came close to quitting the New York Marathon last year when she spotted husband Tom Cruise and daughter Suri in the crowd after 18 miles. The actress spent last autumn training for the 26-mile run which she was determined to complete after seeing her father and brother complete the Boston Marathon when she was a teenager. But she had no idea how tough the latter stages of the Big Apple course would be. She says, "Tom and Suri met me at mile 18 and I really wanted to get in the car at that moment... and luckily they pushed me through. Then, at mile 20..., I hear this guy talk to his friend ahead of him, saying, 'It's only six more miles, don't worry, ' and I'm thinking, 'Six more miles? Are you kidding?'" But Holmes is thrilled she finished the marathon and urges others to tackle New York's streets on foot: "It was hard, but I loved seeing New York that way."

Scientology leaders have prepared a seven-page statement damning biographer Andrew Morton's new expose on church celebrity Tom Cruise. The Brit's new tome, Tom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography, hits bookstores across America on Tuesday and features wild claims about the movie star's personal life, his marriages to Nicole Kidman and Katie Holmes and his Scientology beliefs. Church leaders are determined to dismiss the book, by revealing Morton didn't interview anyone close to Cruise or even any of the directors the actor has worked with while researching what they call a "bigoted, defamatory assault replete with lies." Morton accepts he didn't interview the major people in Cruise's life, but insists he did try. The author, who stunned the world with a Princess Diana expose a decade ago, says, "Most people in Hollywood are scared of talking publicly and candidly about Tom Cruise." Morton also defends himself against the Scientology leaders' new accusations that his Cruise biography won't be released in the writer's native Britain because publishers there rejected the project. Morton insists the book will not hit shelves there because libel laws in the U.K. favor plaintiffs far more than they do in America and other parts of the world.

Ben Affleck's actor brother Casey Affleck and his wife Summer Phoenix are celebrating after becoming parents for a second time. The Gone Baby Gone star, 32, announced the happy news on his website with a brief post on Saturday, although full details of the tot's arrival have yet to be disclosed. The message reads: "Casey and Summer Phoenix celebrate the birth of their second child." The couple wed in June 2006. They already have a three-year-old son, called Indiana August. Summer Phoenix is actor Joaquin Phoenix's sister.

Oprah Winfrey has landed her own TV network. The talk show queen, publisher, humanitarian and multi-media titan has teamed up with Discovery Communications to launch the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN). The new network will replace the Discovery Health Network in 2009. Oprah will be named chairman of the new network at the end of 2008.