Bauer Griffin

A woman accused of stalking actor John Cusack will get her day in court - but she won’t be able to represent herself.

Diane Leatherman was arrested outside the High Fidelity star’s California home in March and charged with one felony count of stalking.

And, on Wednesday, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge ruled she is competent to stand trial, based partly on a court-appointed psychiatrist’s report.

The trial will begin on September 9th. She faces three years in prison if convicted.

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WENN

John Cusack is suing a movie production company over claims he was not paid for his role in unfinished movie Stopping Power.

The High Fidelity star filed a lawsuit at Los Angeles Superior Court on Wednesday against Intermedia Film Equities USA.

He claims the production company convinced him to star in the movie and would pay him $4.5 million even if it was axed.

Cusack further claims he was promised all his expenses would be paid, including $50,000 to cover the costs of his staff on location in Germany.

But Cusack insists he was never paid, and is seeking $5.6 million in compensation, according to TMZ.com.

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WENN

A judge ruled on Monday that the 33-year-old woman caught stalking John Cusack will stand trial.

Emily Diane Leatherman was arrested in March oustide the actor’s home in Malibu. In a complaint against her it alleges the woman began stalking the actor back in February. A temporary restraining order has been filed to keep Emily away from John.

John accuses the woman of throwing a bag of of love letters, rocks and screwdrivers over his home’s fence. She faces several charges including one count of felony stalking, one misdemeanor charge of failing to obey a restraining order and one count of petty theft. She could spend up to four years in jail if found guilty.

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WENN

I’ve always been obsessed with John Cusack, and when my sister sent me this article, I had to laugh.

A woman who was ordered to stay away from John Cusack has been arrested on suspicion of stalking the actor and violating a restraining order.

Emily Leatherman was taken into custody Sunday after Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies were called to Cusack’s neighborhood, where a cab driver reported that a passenger didn’t have enough money to pay for the ride to get there, sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore said Monday.

As the deputies were responding to the situation, they were flagged down by Cusack.

“He told them he recognized the woman in the cab and that she had been stalking him,” Whitmore said.

He said deputies found evidence at the scene that led to the arrest, but he declined to elaborate, citing the investigation.

Leatherman was arrested for investigation of stalking, violating a restraining order and petty theft. She was being held on $150,000 bail.

Whitmore said the 33-year-old woman is “considered a transient in the Santa Monica area.”

A call to Cusack’s publicist wasn’t immediately returned.

In July 2006, Cusack was granted a temporary restraining order stipulating that Leatherman stay at least 500 feet away from him, his home, his work, his car and offices or companies in which he does business.

In court papers, Cusack said Leatherman “is showing unusual interest by stalking, throwing long letters of interest over my fence in bags with rocks and screwdrivers inside, making unannounced visits to offices of people I work with in an attempt to meet with me and listing my address as her own during a recent arrest.”

Leatherman has claimed she only sent Cusack two letters.

KATU

The Weinstein Co. has locked in Gong Li and is negotiating with John Cusack to star in “Shanghai,” a period drama the studio hopes to make in China early next year.

Cusack is in talks to play an American who returns to a corrupt, Japanese-occupied Shanghai four months before Pearl Harbor and discovers his friend has been killed. While he unravels the mysteries of the death, he falls in love and discovers a much larger secret that his own government is hiding.

Project, which will shoot in Shanghai, is a longtime passion for Medavoy, and for Harvey Weinstein, who almost pulled the picture together in 2001 as director John Madden’s follow-up to “Shakespeare in Love.”Li last starred in “Hannibal Rising” and the Zhang Yimou-directed “Curse of the Golden Flower.”

Medavoy, who also has an early 2008 start date for his Paramount project “Shutter Island,” which Martin Scorsese will direct and Leonardo DiCaprio will topline, was born in Shanghai and spent his childhood there until his parents fled to Chile before the Japanese invaded.

Variety

John Cusack is speaking out about longtime pal Jeremy Piven, who hints in a new magazine article that his recent success on HBO’s Entourage ruined their friendship.

Asked how Cusack handled his success, Piven tells the February issue of Best Life magazine, “No comment. I mean, you could fill in the blank, I bet.”

However, Cusack says in a statement to PEOPLE: “It’s quite the contrary. I am very happy for Jeremy. I wish him the best and I always have.”

Cusack studied acting at Chicago’s Piven Theatre Workshop, which was run by Piven’s parents, according to the magazine. And Piven, 41, played wingman to Cusack, 40, in films including Say Anything, Gross Pointe Blank and Runaway Jury – until he landed the part of Ari Gold on HBO’s Entourage, for which he won an Emmy last year.

Elsewhere in the article (on newsstands Friday), Piven says, “It just says so much about a person if he has space for other people’s success. I have always been so proud of my friends’ success. … You start getting into trouble in life when you start comparing and contrasting your life to anyone else’s. You don’t win when you do that.”

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I knew my Johnny couldn’t be that heartless…