Brad Pitt

WASHINGTON - Gay marriage advocates fighting tightly contested ballot initiatives in four states are getting a lift from actor Brad Pitt, who is donating $100,000 to the Human Rights Campaign's National Marriage Fund and calling on others to match his efforts. "It's unbelievable to me that people's lives and relationships are literally being voted on in a matter of days," Pitt wrote in an email going out Wednesday to supporters of the gay rights group. "In Maine, Maryland, Minnesota and Washington, voters will go to the polls to decide if gay and lesbian couples - our friends and neighbors - are worthy of the same protections as everyone else.

Brad Pitt's ad for Chanel No. 5 debuted Monday. He's the first male spokes-celebrity for the famed women's fragrance, and he does a smoldering good job of making you want to run for the perfume bottle. [People] Katy Perry, Chelsea Handler and Sarah Jessica Parker headlined at the amFar Inspiration Gala in Los Angeles, honoring CAA managing partner Kevin Huvane. A raft of stars turned out, including Kate Hudson, Mark Salling, Lance Bass and Octavia Spencer. The event reportedly raised $1.3 million to fund AIDS research.

Life has been extended for the star-studded reading of the play "8. " Dustin Lance Black's  dramatization of the legal fight against California's Proposition 8 will air on at 8 p.m. June 10 on 90.7 FM KPFK. The reading - which featured Kevin Bacon, George Clooney, Jamie Lee Curtis, Christine Lahti, Jane Lynch, Brad Pitt, Martin Sheen and John C. Reilly, among others - also will be available June 1 on CD and for digital download via iTunes and Amazon and on demand at www.latw.org as of June 9, L.A. Theatre Works announced Thursday.

LAS VEGAS -- Movie theater owners aren't known for being the most raucous crowd. But plop Brad Pitt in front of them and anything can happen. "I love you!" one woman shrieked from a balcony in the cavernous 4,100-seat Caesars Palace Colosseum, where hundreds of exhibitors from around the world had gathered Monday night for CinemaCon. At the annual convention, studios show off footage from their most hotly anticipated releases and fly in movie stars to help promote their films to those who book them in cinemas.

A roundup of entertainment headlines for Friday: Brad Pitt says his comments about his marriage to Jennifer Aniston were misinterpreted: He was the dull one, not her. ( Reuters ) The 3-D version of "The Lion King" is expected to rule the box office this weekend. ( Los Angeles Times ) Taylor Lautner talks steamy kisses with Lily Collins in "Abduction. " ( MTV ) Is Diablo Cody the inspiration for Olivia Wilde's stripper role in Toronto film fest hit "Butter"?

Brad Pitt has brought his new movie "Killing Them Softly" to the Cannes Film Festival, and as The Times reported Tuesday morning, he and the film's director had an anti-capitalist message (or, at least, a message aimed against capitalism as recently practiced in the U.S.) to go along with it.  And that message is coming from the mouth of the man who is the new face of Chanel No. 5 -- a job for which Pitt reportedly will receive seven figures.  The new movie's "touchstone piece of dialogue," as The Times put it, is " America isn't a country -- it's a business.

News reports of economic woes and misbegotten corporate schemes play like a soundtrack in "Killing Them Softly," a moody crime noir starring Brad Pitt as a New Orleans hit man dealing with a down market, bad bets and loose change. Though the notion of crime as a business is nothing new, the film uses the machinations and motivations of the Big Easy's underworld to mirror contemporary corporate America's decline down to the difficult bosses. Yes, the "layoffs" tend to be more lethal, but the severance packages often call for delicate negotiations that sound all too familiar.

Actor Brad Pitt, as expected, moved his Plan B production company from Warner Bros. to Paramount Pictures, now headed by his former producing partner and manager Brad Grey. Grey and Pitt founded Plan B along with actress Jennifer Aniston, who has filed for divorce from Pitt. Although the company is now solely owned by Pitt, Aniston will continue to be involved in a number of Plan B projects remaining at Warner.

A 19-year-old woman was arrested Thursday morning in a bedroom of actor Brad Pitt's Hollywood Hills home, dressed in the actor's clothing, police said. Pitt was not home at the time. His caretaker discovered the woman and called police. Athena Marie Rolando of Hollywood was taken into custody by Los Angeles police officers. She was booked on suspicion of trespassing and was being held on $500 bail. Rolando entered Pitt's home shortly after midnight Wednesday through an open window, police said.

A Beverly Hills man working for People magazine has been arrested on suspicion of trespassing on property reportedly owned by actor Brad Pitt near El Capitan State Park, according to the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department. Jeffrey Weiss, 23, was detained by a security guard at 11:30 a.m. Saturday, after he was spotted standing on a bluff overlooking the property, said Sgt. Erik Raney. The property, which includes the bluff, was not fenced off but had a "no trespassing" sign, Raney said.