Singer Beyonce Knowles, actress Scarlett Johansson and footballer David Beckham are among the stars appearing in a new Disney advertising campaign.

Renowned photographer Annie Leibovitz shot the celebrities in various fairytale guises in a promotion for Walt Disney’s theme parks.

Recruited by Disney to promote Disneyland and Walt Disney World’s Year of a Million Dreams campaign, Leibovitz persuaded her famous friends to dress up as classic Disney characters. The first images in this ongoing series will appear in the March issues of Vogue, Vanity Fair, W, GQ, Conde Nast Traveller, Cookie and The New Yorker reports USA TODAY.

“We started by looking at the classic stories – Snow White, Cinderella, The Little Mermaid, Peter Pan,” Leibovitz says in an e-mail interview. “We put 10 or 12 of the obvious ones into development. The people we got to play the central roles in the first series of photographs felt the way I did about Disney. They all grew up with Disney characters.”

Knowles plays Alice from Alice in Wonderland, Johansson is Cinderella and Beckham is Sleeping Beauty’s prince.

Knowles, 25, is seen sitting in a whirling teacup accompanied by singer Lyle Lovett as the March Hare and actor Oliver Platt as the Mad Hatter.

“It was Annie’s idea for me to play Alice,” Knowles says. “If she wanted me to do it, I was up for it, because she’s such a genius.”

The 25-year-old star was so overwhelmed when she saw Diana Ross – who Beyoncé’s Dreamgirls character is loosely based on – that she was too nervous to speak to her.

Beyoncé told Britain’s Daily Telegraph newspaper: “I was so nervous, it was like she wasn’t real.

“She is such a legend, and I had been studying her for so long, and suddenly she was right next to me.

“I was too nervous to say anything because I didn’t know how she felt about the movie, but she told me she was a big fan and wishes me luck. I felt I could breathe again.”

Dreamgirls, which was inspired by the true story of 60s singing sensations Diana Ross and The Supremes, is Beyoncé’s biggest movie role to date.

The multi-talented star shot to fame with girl group Destiny’s Child before having huge success as a solo artist.

Beyoncé, who is rumoured to be engaged to US rapper Jay-Z, is hoping Dreamgirls will be a real boost for her movie career.

She also revealed she may focus on acting rather than singing in the future.

Beyoncé said: “After this movie, I feel that I’m an actor.
“If there’s another movie like this that I’m able to be a part of, then I would be willing to put music to the side.”

Beyonce’s “Irreplaceable” led the Billboard Hot 100 singles charts for a seventh consecutive week Thursday, while Akon’s “I Wanna Love You” and Fergie’s “Fergalicious” remained at No. 2 and No. 3, respectively.

“Irreplaceable” ties Justin Timberlake’s “SexyBack” as the longest running No. 1 among the songs that moved into first place in 2006.

It also means that the first new No 1 of 2007 won’t arrive until at least February. That’s late, going by the last two years. The first new No 1 of 2006 was D4L’s “Laffy Taffy,” which hit the apex the week of January 14. The year 2005 began with the earliest possible arrival of a new chart-topper: Mario’s “Let Me Love You” hit the highest mark on January 1.

Pop stars Shakira and Beyonce Knowles are teaming up. Beyonce is re-releasing her latest album B’Day after a Spanish remake of one of her songs became a surprise hit.
For one of the new tunes to be remade, Beautiful Liar, the former Destiny’s Child star will team up with Colombian pop sensation Shakira.

With out a doubt, it should make for one hot video.

A Spanish version of the song Irreplaceable recently took the Billboard Hot Latin Songs chart by storm, making the already huge English single a cross-over success.

Beyonce told Univision.com that she will re-release the album with four new tracks in Spanish.

It’s official: Beyoncé, Gnarls Barkley, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers will perform at the 49th Annual GRAMMY Awards on February 11.

Rihanna, Pink, Terrence Howard and Samuel L. Jackson are among presenters.

You can bet Beyoncé is hoping for “Déjà Vu”; the last time she performed live at the GRAMMYS (a duet with Prince (see bio) in 2004), she took home five awards.

This time around, the nine-time GRAMMY Award winner has four nods: Best Female R&B Vocal Performance (“Ring the Alarm”), Best Contemporary R&B Album (B’Day), Best R&B Song (“Déjà Vu”) and Best Rap/Sung Collaboration (“Déjà Vu”) with Jay-Z (see bio).

Pop star Beyonce Knowles and boyfriend Shawn ‘JAY-Z’ Certer have denied reports they are walking down the aisle anytime soon, but the couple did shop for a home together during a recent holiday. The celebrity pair did some browsing for real estate in the Dominican Republic while they were vacationing over the holidays. According to E! Online, they were particularly fond of one home they had visited for lunch and asked about buying it, but were told it wasn’t for sale. However, the owners of the home suggested the couple check out designer OSCAR DE LA RENTA’s Casa de Campo development because the luxury resort featured similar villas for sale. According to Casa de Campo sales agent Christopher Encia, the posh private community features its own doctors, police and fire departments, four golf courses, 20 swimming pools, 19 tennis courts, two private beaches and three polo fields. If the pair do decide to buy, price tags for the villas range from $3 million-$6 million (GBP1.5 million-GBP3 million).

Beyonce and rapper NAS have kicked off 2007 in style by claiming the top spots on the first US singles and album charts of the New Year. Beyonce’s IRREPLACEABLE is proving to be just that by securing a fourth week at the top of the Billboard Hot 100, while Nas scores his third number one on The Billboard 200 this week with his eighth album, HIP HOP IS DEAD. The rap star’s new release moved 355,000 copies in the last week of 2006 to claim the New Year number one.