In Brief: John Cleese to divorce third wife

Actor and comedian John Cleese is separating from his third wife, American-born psychologist Alyce Faye Eichelberger Cleese, after a 15-year marriage. Cleese's first wife was actress Connie Booth, with whom he wrote the TV sitcom Fawlty Towers, in 1968. They divorced 10 years later and Cleese married Barbara Trentham in 1981 and divorced in 1990... Actors Reese Witherspoon and Joaquin Phoenix lent their support to a pre-recorded TV version of the People's Choice Awards after the ceremony was canceled due to the Hollywood writers' strike. Phoenix's acceptance of the award for Favorite Leading Man was not without protest however. The star wrote his acceptance speech on cue cards, deliberately misspelling his name wrong: "Hi. I'm Joaqin. I'm speechless. Without the writers. Seriously."... French President Nicolas Sarkozy's former wife Cecilia Ciganer-Albeniz has told friends that she does not think his new girlfriend Carla Bruni will be the one "who will make him forget her in a hurry", the latest book on the former first couple, Rupture, has revealed... Back to Black singer Amy Winehouse has ditched her trademark brunette beehive for a new blonde crop... An angry audience of 1,000 actors and directors, including Kevin Spacey, Sir Ian McKellan, Joanna Lumley, Richard Briers and Caroline Quentin, booed and shouted at Arts Council England's outgoing chief executive Peter Hewitt during a meeting at the Young Vic Theatre in London yesterday. The Arts Council is cutting money to nearly 200 groups in the biggest shake-up of arts funding in living memory... Police in Brazil have recovered Pablo Picasso's Portrait of Suzanne Bloch, estimated to be worth £25m and the last important work of his 'Blue Period', after it went missing three weeks ago from the Museum of Art in Sao Paulo... Filmmakers Woody Allen, David Cronenberg and William Friedkin are each directing a production for the Los Angeles Opera's upcoming season. Allen, making his operatic debut, is scheduled to direct Gianni Schicchi, part of Puccini's Il Trittico...