WEEK IN REVIEW: Stars Help in Disaster Aid

By Stephen M. Silverman

Originally posted Friday January 07, 2005 03:00 PM EST

Leonardo DiCaprio Photo by: Dave Allocca / startraksphoto

DISASTER RELIEF: Leonardo DiCaprio made a "sizable donation," Steven Spielberg gave $1.5 million and Sandra Bullock offered $1 million as several celebrities stepped in to help charities aiding the victims of the Dec. 26 tsunami disaster in Asia. The gestures from the entertainment industry came as President Bush announced a massive private fund-raising drive to be headed by his two immediate predecessors, former Presidents Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush. "I ask every American to contribute as they are able to do so," the president said Monday.

TYING THE KNOT: Celebrities are becoming engaged en masse, it seems. PEOPLE's Sexiest Man Alive, Jude Law, proposed to girlfriend Sienna Miller on Christmas Day. British singer Seal popped the question to German supermodel Heidi Klum atop "a secluded natural glacier" on "uncharted terrain" at a ski resort town in British Columbia. And Desperate Housewives costar Nicollette Sheridan and Swedish-born actor Niklas Soderblom became engaged over the holidays. No wedding dates have been announced.

MARTHA?S MID-POINT: Martha Stewart had a relatively quiet New Year's Eve celebration at Alderson Federal Prison Camp in West Virginia – but it also marked the halfway point in her sentence. Meanwhile, Stewart, who's due to be freed in early March, has focused on remaking herself and making the most of her situation, friends say. "This has been a time for reflection and for gathering strength," says businessman Charles Simonyi. Says another pal: "She looks better than ever," thanks to daily power walks and yoga.

SMITH FIGHTS: Anna Nicole Smith's lawyer, Howard Stern, says a decision by a U.S. federal appeals court to strip the former Playboy pinup of $88.5 million originally awarded her from the estate of her late husband, billionaire J. Howard Marshall, is an "injustice" and has vowed to take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. In 2002, after a bitter fight between Smith and Marshall's surviving son, E. Pierce Marshall, a federal judge in California ruled that the dying 90-year-old patriarch truly loved his then 26-year-old wife when he left her the huge chunk of change after his death in 1995. The recent judgement reverses that ruling.

GARNER RECHARGES: The viral infection that reputedly took Jennifer Garner off the promotion trail for her new movie Elektra turned out not to be that at all, but nerve damage to her back after having performed her own stunt work, according to a UCLA Medical Center diagnosis, her publicist said. Access Hollywood reported that the Alias star, 32, would not be available for this week's Elektra press junket – but would attend its premiere at The Palms Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas as well as the Golden Globes on Jan. 16.