Adaptation, Spike Jonze's follow up to the acclaimed Being John Malkovich, virtually swept the board at the Toronto film critics' association awards last night. Jonze won best director, while Nicolas Cage was voted best actor for an eccentric dual role. Charlie Kaufman and his brother Donald shared the award for best screenplay, while Chris Cooper was voted best supporting actor. In the best actress category, Julianne Moore received the award for her role as an American housewife falling in love with her black gardener in Far From Heaven, Todd Haynes's reimagined take on the Douglas Sirk classic, All That Heaven Allows.

Russell Crowe may rise from the dead in the Gladiator sequel to reprise his Oscar-winning role as the Roman general turned entertaining fighting machine Maximus. Executive producer Walter F Parkes told Skymovies.com: "Maximus did die in the first Gladiator, but the Romans had a great belief in the afterlife. Russell is exploring some ideas on how to come back." The sequel's plot will centre on the grown up nephew of the evil emperor Commodus and his search for his real father. Who on earth could it be?

Paul Reubens, best known as the gurning Pee-wee Herman, yesterday pleaded innocent to two charges of possession of child pornography. Mr Reubens's career crashed to the ground in the late 1980s after being convicted of lewd conduct in an adult cinema in Los Angeles. The latest charges stem from a police search of Mr Reubens's home last November that yielded material that the authorities claim depicts "minors engaged in sexual activity". But Mr Reubens's publicist claims the police have simply misunderstood the actor's "extensive collection of vintage physical art photography".