JP/14/PEOPLE

JP/14/PEOPLE

E. Timor invites U2, Brooks

DILI, East Timor: Tiny East Timor has invited U2 and Garth Brooks to perform at independence celebrations next year.

Its acting foreign minister Jose Ramos-Horta said Wednesday he hoped they would take up the offer to witness the creation of the world's newest nation on May 20, 2002.

East Timor's people voted to split from Indonesia in 1999 and are now being administered by the United Nations.

Under a Security Council mandate, the world body has restored civilian government and has begun to rebuild the Southeast Asian country, which was all but devastated by withdrawing Indonesian militias and troops.

Ramos-Horta, a Nobel peace laureate, said his homeland wanted to shed its image as a trouble spot.

"We want to use the 30 days to promote East Timor as an island of peace," Ramos-Horta told journalists in the capital, Dili.

U.N. staff in East Timor said there had been no confirmation so far about whether U2 or Brooks would come. -- AP

'Ocean's Eleven' stars to visit troops

MALIBU, California: Ocean's Eleven stars George Clooney, Matt Damon, Andy Garcia, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts and Don Cheadle will be going to Turkey to visit U.S. and coalition troops.

"We want to bring them a little bit of home for Christmas," movie producer Jerry Weintraub said Tuesday in a telephone interview from his Malibu estate. "We really wanted to do something for these kids. We can pat them on the back, sign autographs and tell them we care."

The remake of the casino heist caper Ocean's Eleven will be released in the United States on Dec. 7.

Hours after the film's Dec. 5 premiere in Los Angeles, Ocean's Eleven stars, Weintraub and director Steven Soderbergh will board a jet headed for a U.S. military base "somewhere in Turkey," Weintraub said.

The exact location won't be disclosed but Weintraub said American service personnel as well as British coalition troops would be on hand. Warner Bros. is paying for the trip.

"It won't cost taxpayers a thing," Weintraub said. -- AP

Talking to trees can land you in trouble: Charles

LONDON: Laughing off an injury that has left him wearing a white eye bandage, Prince Charles joked that it all happened because of his talking to trees.

He got sawdust in his eye while cutting a branch off a tree at his country home, and was treated Sunday at a hospital.

Opening an exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum, the prince explained it all to an audience of about 1,000 museum supporters.

"I must apologize for this evening looking like someone who has been discharged prematurely from hospital," he said Tuesday. "But during a long career of talking to trees you inevitably come across the odd argumentative Arbutus or a cantankerous Quercus" - otherwise known as a strawberry tree and an oak.

"In my present uniocular condition I regret to tell you that I only saw the Victoria half of the gallery. I will have to come back and see the Albert bit later."

The new display in the British Galleries contains thousands of items reflecting the cultural history of the country. It is the biggest new exhibition in half a century. -- AP

Kirkpatrick's life out of sync

NEW YORK: Sometimes, Chris Kirkpatrick of 'N Sync can't believe how his life has changed.

"It's absurd to have gone from totally poor to totally rich," the 30-year-old singer told Us Weekly for its Dec. 3 issue. "I wake up in my house in the middle of the night and go, 'Whose house is this?"'

Growing up in Clarion, Pennsylvania, Kirkpatrick and his four younger half-sisters moved frequently. After his father died, his mother worked as a maid and did odd jobs; his stepfather had trouble finding steady work.

At one point, they lived in a trailer that had no heat and a hole in the side. He used layers of dirty laundry as blankets to keep warm at night.

After he graduated from high school, Kirkpatrick moved to Orlando, Florida, to pursue his dream of pop music. That's where he met Justin Timberlake, and the two co-created the five-member boy band 'N Sync, which earned US$42 million last year.

But Kirkpatrick said he's still frugal. "I have a financial adviser who won't let me do anything," he joked. "He's so tight that if I go through the drive-through, he makes me call him if I wanna supersize." -- AP