Buzz Briefs: Winona Ryder, Elton John

Winona Ryder Hospitalized In U.K.

Actress Winona Ryder was briefly hospitalized after falling ill on a flight to London's Heathrow Airport Wednesday, her publicist said.

Mara Buxbaum said the 37-year-old was taken to a west London hospital "as a precaution" and had been released.

"She's fine now," Buxbaum said. She declined to go into details of Ryder's illness.

British Airways said a flight from Los Angeles to Heathrow requested priority landing after a female passenger "required medical attention" and was taken to a local hospital for treatment.

"Our cabin crew looked after the female passenger as much as they could onboard and our passenger services staff also accompanied her to the local hospital," the statement said. "We wish her well."

Ryder, who began her film career as a teenager in 1986, earned back-to-back Oscar nominations in the 1990s for "Little Women" and the "The Age of Innocence." She's also known for youthful roles in films including "Heathers," "Edward Scissorhands" and "Girl, Interrupted." She has mostly stayed out of the headlines after her 2002 conviction for stealing several thousand dollars worth of merchandise from a Saks Fifth Avenue store in Beverly Hills.

Ryder had prescription drugs in her possession when she was arrested - but a drug charge was dropped after a doctor said he had prescribed the medication. A probation report stemming from the shoplifting incident showed that Ryder had dozens of prescriptions filled by 20 doctors over three years.

Elton John Fans Can Take Off To "Rocket Man"

A New York City piano showroom is inviting pianists to take off with their own renditions of Elton John's "Rocket Man" and other hits on a red piano inspired by the pop balladeer's recent Las Vegas show.

Frank & Camille's Fine Pianos is even offering gift certificates to anyone who sits down at the Elton John Signature Series Red Piano and plays one of John's songs in its entirety.

But just in case you can't hold a tune for that long, don't worry: Press a button, and the piano recreates hits like "Tiny Dancer" and "Candle in the Wind."

The Yamaha piano is on a national tour. Only a small number of the instruments are being manufactured.

Its design was inspired by the Las Vegas show "Elton John and the Red Piano."

Marissa Jaret Winokur Set To Return To "Hairspray"

First Harvey Fierstein. Now Marissa Jaret Winokur.

Winokur will return to "Hairspray" Dec. 9-Jan. 4 for the final four weeks of its Broadway run at the Neil Simon Theatre. She will join Fierstein, her original co-star, in the long-running musical that opened in August 2002. He came back to the show earlier this month.

Winokur won a Tony Award for her performance as Tracy Turnblad, the full-figure teen who yearns to dance on a TV show in 1960s Baltimore. She also recently appeared on the top-rated television reality series "Dancing with the Stars."

"Hairspray" is based on the cult movie by John Waters.

Hollywood Ponders Global Warming

Hollywood insiders and climate change experts agree that they can't shove messages about global warming down audiences' throats.

They met at the Skirball Cultural Center on Tuesday to discuss how storytelling in film and TV can translate broad issues about climate change to everyday audiences.

"The storytelling has to trump everything," said "West Wing" actor Bradley Whitford.

During the Population Media Center's Climate Change Summit, Whitford, Bruce Davison and Scott Wolf performed "Shuddering to Think," a one-act play by Jon Robin Baitz about a playwright bemoaning an Earth Day play. Baitz and Lawrence Weschler, director of the New York Institute for the Humanities at New York University, joined the actors by webcam.

Disney Sees The Big Picture Imax-Style

The Walt Disney Co. has agreed to deliver five movies via IMAX theaters. The first will be the 3-D movie "A Christmas Carol," starring Jim Carrey, in November 2009.

Imax Corp. is in the midst of rolling out digital projection technology at its large-screen theaters and the Disney slate takes advantage of that.

As of September, Imax had 320 theaters worldwide and aims to have up to 50 converted to digital technology by the end of the year.

Imax says its screens averaged $27,000 in revenue over the opening weekend of DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc.'s "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa," which opened Nov. 7.

That was much higher than the $15,559 average per theater the film did overall that weekend, according to tracking firm Media By Numbers LLC.

Billionaire's Remains Stolen In Austria

An Austrian news agency is reporting that the coffin containing the remains of a billionaire and industrialist has been stolen from a cemetery.

The Austria Press Agency has quoted police as saying Friedrich Karl Flick's remains have gone missing from a cemetery in Velden, a town in the southern province of Carinthia.

Flick, who owned Austria's largest private forest holding and had served at the helm of a German industrial empire, died in October 2006 at the age of 79. Earlier that year, Forbes magazine put him among the 100 richest people in the world.

Police deferred to the public prosecutor's office when asked about the report. A prosecution spokeswoman said Wednesday she could not confirm details.