The Scoop on Stompanato

The rumors are true: Catherine Zeta-Jones has officially confirmed that she will be playing Lana Turner in Adrian Lyne's Stompanato. Despite the fact that Sharon Stone reportedly was desperate for the role (Zeta-Jones: "Guess what? I really really wanted to do Basic Instinct 2!" Zing!), producers have gone with someone whose hair they are going to have to dye. Mrs. Douglas has also confirmed that Keanu Reeves is going to play the title role.

Just to review, Stompanato will tell the real-life story of Turner's affair with mobster Johnny Stompanato (you may remember him as the guy sitting with the girl "cut to look like Lana Turner" in L.A. Confidential). Their already tempestuous relationship got significantly more so when the abusive Stompanato turned up stabbed to death. Though the official story was that he was killed by Turner's daughter, rumors that Turner herself did the stabbing have always been around. There's no word yet on how Lyne's film will approach the death, but one thing we can count on is that it'll be fantastically overwrought and chaotic (both good things, by the way).