Jude Law will be welcoming the arrival of a little Law, his fourth, in around two months time, and it took all of a day for the media to track his expectant baby mama down.

Despite rumours that Rachel McAdams' younger sister Kayleen was expecting Jude's child, the real mama to be was revealed on TMZ this morning to be actress/model (aren't they always?) Samantha Burke.

(As an aside, TMZ's riding a huge surge of respectability since being the first media outlet to break the news of Michael Jackson's death in June.)

See a picture of Samantha Burke here. Do you know what I mean if I say she looks like a girl George Clooney would date?

According to her registry at a US baby store the brunette is due with a baby girl, to be called Sophia, on October 6 - coincidentally the same day Jude's production of Hamlet opens to the public for a three-month long run in New York City.

Burke, a 24-yearold from Florida, had her solicitor issue this statement to the press.

"Ms. Burke can confirm that she did in fact have a relationship with Mr. Law and that she has informed Mr. Law that she is expecting his child later this fall. Since informing Mr. Law of the pregnancy, he has been nothing but responsive and supportive of Ms. Burke and the pregnancy."

Word is that Law only found out about the baby on board not that long ago after a festive season fling with Burke while he was filming his new movie Sherlock Holmes in NYC. He shared the news with ex-wife Sadie Frost and kids Rafferty (12), Iris (8) and Rudy (6) earlier this week.

When the news broke Jude's people announced that although he was not in a relationship with Burke that he would be part of the baby's life - which is more than every Hollywood father can lay claim to (take a bow, Eddie Murphy).The baby news comes at a time when Law's career is on something of an upswing. As well as Sherlock Holmes, due out at the end of the year, he's received warm critical acclaim for his role as Hamlet in London (for which he'd only be making scale actor's wages). Said production of Hamlet is moving to Denmark for a week in August before heading to New York City in September for an official opening at the beginning of October.

"His relationship with the girl was a passing fling, nothing serious. It was supposed to be a bit of fun for the both of them," a source told Britain's Daily Mirror yesterday. "He had no idea she was pregnant until she called and told him."

"Jude is a family man and he would not choose for a child to be born under these circumstances. But he wants to behave honourably."

Jude has publicly complained in the past that the financial side of his 2003 divorce from Frost left him skint. The 36-year-old had to rent a London home after giving his ex their north London pad in the divorce settlement, and spoke of having to take roles purely for the cash.

Law's still paying maintenance for his three kids to Sadie - and now there's another one on the way. Should be peanuts for a movie star, you'd imagine, but this wannabe actress looks like she might be rather expensive to maintain.

I'm assuming money was the primary reason Burke announced her pregnancy to Law when she was seven months gone, as she's well entitled to. Else why didn't she tell him months ago, or not at all?

"Jude Law can confirm that, following a relationship last year, he has been advised that he is to be the father of a child due in the fall of this year," read the statement released by Jude's people yesterday. "Mr. Law is no longer in a relationship with the individual concerned but he intends to be a fully supportive part of the child's life. This is an entirely private matter and no other statements will be made."

Are you a Jude law fan? I used to be. I thought he was divine looking in his younger days, although recently I am not alone in thinking he has lost the hot - and his hairline. I remember being in Primrose Hill when I was living in London a few years ago and a cousin of mine told me she and her husband had stood in the line behind him at the dairy. For the record, he bought ice creams. I was soooo jealous. That was when he was super hot, around the time of The Talented Mr Ripley. Now, lukewarm at best.

Baby rumours for Berry

Of course, keeping an eye on celebrity baby bumps is rather a dicey business. They're all thin as whippets to begin with, so what can seem to the untrained eye to be the origins of a pregnancy bulge often ends up being nothing more than a large meal.

But the blogs have been all aflutter with talk of the loose, flowing outfits that Halle Berry has been employing to cover up her fine frame over the last few weeks.

If you've seen pictures of the actress' absolutely adorable 16-month-old daughter, Nahla, you can see why there'd be excitement if Halle announced another pregnancy. That child is probably the most beautiful celebrity offspring in Tinseltown.

In fact 42-year-old Halle and her Canadian model beau Gabriel Aubry, 33, are both so gorgeous themselves that it would be a crime to humankind if they didn't have another child. As an avid follower of celebritydom, I demand more Berry-Aubry babies!

Halle and Gabriel have been an item since 2005 when they met on the set of a Versace photo shoot. Donatella Versace later claimed credit for getting the pair together. Just call her the Orange Cupid.

The trio has had a busy couple of weeks. Halle and Gabriel were spotted in the crowd at a Grace Jones concert in Los Angeles, the week after Halle appeared at an intimate listening party for Whitney Houston's new record in New York. At the beginning of the month the family were snapped frolicking on the sand during a holiday in Miami Beach.

The actress admitted almost a year ago that the couple was trying for baby number two, so fingers crossed she may have got her wish.

Heigl failing to win friends, influence people

It's not only women finding it had to warm to Katherine Heigl. I blogged earlier in the week about how the tide of popularity was turning on actress Katherine Heigl, read about it here.

Just a day later her Knocked Up co-star Seth Rogen and director Judd Apatow have gone to town on the actress' remarks that the movie was ‘sexist' on Howard Stern's satellite radio show.

Despite turning her into a bankable movie star, Heigl told Vanity Fairmagazine that it was ‘hard for me to love the movie' as it painted the female characters as ‘shrews.'
Heigl's new movie The Ugly Truth hits New Zealand cinemas in August - in which she plays an uptight TV producer who gradually falls under the charms of a rough and ready chauvinistic co-worker, played by Gerard Butler.

Ring any bells? Seth Rogen thinks so.

"That [movie] looks like it really puts women on a pedestal in a beautiful way," quipped Rogen. Added Apatow, "I hear there's a scene where she's wearing ... underwear ...
with a vibrator in it, so I'd have to see if that was uplifting for women."

Apatow suggested maybe Heigl's remarks were due to ‘a slip' after a strenuous day of press for the film, to which Rogen replied, ""I didn't slip and I was doing f****** interviews all day too ... I didn't say s***!"

Good lad! I like Seth Rogen. I think he's adorable.

Neither guy has spoken to Heigl since the incident, but Seth takes some comfort in the knowledge that he and Apatow aren't the only two who have been the focus of Heigl's acid tongue.

"I gotta say it's not like we're the only people she said some bat **** crazy things about," he said. "That's kind of her bag now."

O Charlize, Where Are Thou?

A little snippet for annefwent@xtra.co.nz, who yesterday enquired as to the goings-on of Charlize Theron after her 2004 Oscar win for her role as serial killer Aileen Wuornos in Monster.

Since then the 33-year-old actress has been keeping busy. She made sexual harassment drama North Country with Kiwi director Niki Caro, appeared as Britt Ekland in HBO movie The Life and Death Of Peter Sellers, and opposite Will Smith in last year's Hancock.

Coming up she's been confirmed for a role in the adaptation of Ayn Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged; The Brazilian Job, a sequel to The Italian Job; and is rumoured for parts in The Ice At The Bottom Of The World and The Danish Girl.

Theron (she prefers it pronounced ‘Thrown') received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2005, was named Esquire magazine's ‘Sexiest Woman Alive' in 2007, and got made a UN Messenger of Peace by Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon in 2008. Her work has a special focus on ending violence against women.

Theron lives in Los Angeles with her boyfriend of eight years, Irish actor Stuart Townsend.

Spotted

Richard Gere learning to surf in the Hamptons...Stephanie Pratt and sister-in-law Heidi Montag from The Hills grabbing a frozen yoghurt in Beverly Hills...Tyra Banks hamming it up on a photo shoot with a male model in NYC...Marcia Cross on the beach in Santa Monica with twin daughters Eden and Savannah...Lindsay Lohan emerging from the Byron and Tracey salon in Beverly Hills after spending 10 hours getting her hair bleached blonde...Courteney Cox Arquette filming new TV show Cougar Town on location in Los Angeles...Pals and Lord of the Rings co-stars Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd leaving a yoga and spinning class together in Venice Beach, CA...Jennifer Lopez, Marc Anthony and twins Emme and Max touching down on a private plane for a holiday in Rome...Jack Nicholson at a restaurant in the south of France with teenage daughter Lorraine...

 

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