Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Janet Jackson has vowed to wear black for a year to mourn the death of her brother Michael

The singer shared a "special bond" with her older sibling - who died on June 25 of acute Propofol intoxication - and has decided to dress in dark clothes as a mark of respect.
A source explained to Britain's The Sun newspaper: "Janet, like the rest of the Jackson family, has been left bereft by Michael's passing.
"As a mark of respect she has decided to only wear black clothes to express her grief, and she has had to go on a number of shopping trips to find suitable items to wear.
"She has resolved to mourn Michael's death for 12 months, and in June next year - on the anniversary of Michael's passing - her time of reflection will come to an end."
Meanwhile, Jermaine Jackson has blasted claims he is trying to "cash in" on his brother's death by planning a series of tribute concerts.
Jermaine told ET Online: "That is absurd. That is the most ridiculous thing ever. It is not about cashing in on what has happened. It is responsibility on all of our parts as brothers and sisters to keep his legacy alive.
"I would love to see something done in my brother's honour every year, because he was that well respected around the globe. So for the media to say this is absurd. It is stupid. It is crazy.
"Because we want the world to know we have created this as the Jackson 5 - that was the foundation of Michael's success, of Janet's success, of everybody's. How are we cashing in on something that we created?"

Pamela Anderson is more than $1 mn in debt


Former Baywatch star Pamela Anderson is drowning in debt.The 42-year-old owes $1.1 million to various construction companies for remodelling work on her Malibu home as well as back state taxes, Los Angeles County records show.
According to the documents, five different construction companies have filed cases against her home, the largest being $674,043 for labour and materials to remodel the main house, and build a swimming pool and foundations for a guest house.

She also owes $252,360.39 in back state taxes and penalties for 2007, reports people.com.

Cheryl Cole obsessed with Lady GaGa

English singer Cheryl Cole admits Lady GaGa is her style icon and that she is "obsessed" with her."If I'm totally honest with you, I never had a style icon. But Lady GaGa is right now. I think people don't see her as conventionally beautiful but, as a style icon and an artist, I'm slightly obsessed with her. She's the real deal," contactmusic.com quoted Cole as saying.Although she is often praised for her own sense of style and slim figure, Cole loves indulging in fattening treats and blames her tiny frame on her busy work schedule."Unfortunately I don't have time to exercise, but I dance a lot. When I'm on tour I think, 'Oh god, I want a couple of weeks off', but then at least you exercise. I actually prefer exercise DVDs - I can't stand the gym."I don't eat as well as I'd like to, cakes and biscuits are my weakness. Sometimes it will get to 3 p.m. and I'll realise all I've had is a coffee. My mother has been giving me A-Z multivitamins. They're great," she said.

Beyonce throws Lindsay out of dressing room

Beyonce Knowles reportedly drew frowns with her diva tantrums at the F1 Rocks gig in Singapore, and was seen making Lindsay Lohan move out of her own dressing room.The singer is said to have ordered her team to grab her the largest dressing area backstage, which was already claimed by Lindsay as she arrived before.But the 'Mean Girls' actress was left facing disappointment after being told to vacate the room because Beyonce wanted it for herself, it was claimed."I've been a bit down. It was a strange night. Everyone was being aggressive and bothering me. I really didn't like it," Contactmusic quoted Lindsay as having told Britain's Daily Mirror newspaper.Beyonce also purportedly made her support acts face the heat, quite literally, after her entourage declined to use her air conditioning for them. British DJ Seb Fontaine, who suffered heatstroke, told Britain's Daily Star newspaper, "We were told, 'No they are Beyonce's fans.' I wasn't asking to play her drum kit on stage. I just wanted to keep cool."The 'Single Ladies' hitmaker further demanded six beauty chambers, fitness equipment, an authentic fruit platter and tea and honey in her 139-page rider.

Friday, September 25, 2009

I’m not sober !!

The ‘Charlie''s Angels’ star claimed to have found "balance" in her life, and thus she doesn''t have to cut out all the things she used to be addicted to.

"I''m not (sober) and I don''t claim to be - quite the opposite. I''ve tried to find the balance. I hope it''s balanced,” Contactmusic quoted her as saying in a new Parade magazine interview.

The actress has always been open about her addictive past—she had her first sip of alcohol when she was nine, began smoking marijuana at the age of 10, and first took cocaine at 12.

Her mother reportedly even staged an intervention when Barrymore was a teenager, and checked her into the ASAP Family Treatment Center rehab hospital.

The actress quit the facility after 12 days.

Surrogates (2009)

In this serviceable sci-fi thriller set in a near future where imperfect humans stay home and program prettier robots to represent them out in the world, the moral is this: Be yourself, even if, in the case of Bruce Willis, it means accepting your male-pattern baldness. Willis stars in Surrogates as an FBI agent investigating irregularities in the lucrative surrogacy biz. Rosamund Pike plays his wife, who prefers things plastic and pretty. There's fun robot stuff, some good philosophical ideas, and a brief, nutty Willis-Ving Rhames reunion 15 years after Pulp Fiction.

Fame (2009)

NYC high school students sing, dance, emote in acting classes, and otherwise insist that America's got talent, but this unnecessarily tepid, conservative remake of 1980's far more famous and affecting original Fame suggests otherwise. Why settle for this dull, safe production — at once airbrushed in plot and undisciplined in execution — when you can watch Glee? The teachers (including original cast member Debbie Allen as school principal) turn out to be the best part of the show. The kids try hard, but mostly look grim while pretending to smile

Capitalism: A Love Story (2009)

Michael Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story is a blistering, mad-as-hell indictment of everything in America that, according to Moore, has led to our current state of economic peril. The back-scratching greed and corruption, the cult of Wall Street as a casino for elites, the subprime mortgage vendors who operated like loan sharks: Moore pulls the big picture together, and much of the movie (about three-fifths of it) is urgent, unsettling, and mischievously funny. Yet I wish — oh, how I wish — that Moore had restrained himself from painting America's sins with too broad a brush. Pointing his finger at ''capitalism'' Moore sounds a little too much like Rush Limbaugh getting hot under the collar about ''socialism.'' In both cases, they’re not making an argument — they’re demonizing a word.

Early on, Moore, who narrates the movie in his trademark tone of bedtime-fairy-tale sarcasm, creates a memorable montage of the '50s and '60s, taking us back to a more secure and, in some ways, egalitarian America. For Moore, the transformative moment was the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980. Capitalism: A Love Story is most potent when it shows us what the financial desperation and ruthless corporate squeezing that descended from that era now look like. There's an astonishing section about companies that take out life-insurance policies on their employees, profiting from their deaths, and Moore squeezes a great deal of symbolic mileage out of the fact that airline pilots have been reduced to beleaguered wage slaves who routinely make less than $20,000 a year. Then there's the federal government's $700 billion bank bailout, which for Moore is a conspiracy, an officially sanctioned robbery.

Here, as in the health-care doc Sicko (2007), Moore's real subject is the collapse of the social contract. That's a powerful theme, but why did he have to make the film's villain nothing less than…capitalism itself? Moore depicts the very concept of American free enterprise as inherently unjust. But even if you believe that deregulation in the '80s went too far, that unchecked capitalism is a voracious beast that can eat a culture alive, you may have a hard time swallowing the film's finale, in which Moore trashes our system as ''evil'' and pushes for a citizens' ''revolt.'' At its best, Capitalism: A Love Story is a searing outcry against the excesses of a cutthroat time. At its worst, it's dorm-room Marxism.

Jordan to tell all about rape ordeal

The celeb is also expected to reveal the good, bad and the ugly side of her life in the movie, along with the events leading to the recent split with Peter Andre. It is reported that leading film houses are willing to pay Jordan – who is about to unveil her fourth autobiography – up to 1 million pounds for the flick. The Daily Star quoted the 31-year-old Jordan as saying: “I mentioned it to my management.

I’ve got another autobiography out in October, so I suppose it will be after that.” Jordan has also named the actress, who she thinks can give her on-screen avatar the real touch. She said: “I’d probably say Julia Roberts.

Before my career my hair was really curly. “I saw Erin Brockovich, and thought she’d be good at playing me. And then Pretty Woman.”

Jennifer Aniston cries thinking about Brad Pitt

It seems Jennifer Aniston still has feelings for ex-hubby Brad Pitt as she burst into tears in her trailer while filming in New York, telling an assistant that a scene 'reminded her of him,' a source said.The former Friends star, who was shooting for The Bounty with Gerard Butler, was reportedly spotted in tears.According to a source, an assistant saw Aniston in tears inside the trailer when he went to call her, reports the New York Post.The source said Aniston told the assistant: "I need a moment. This scene reminds me of Brad and me".Aniston had gathered her calm when she came out from her trailer. "While she enjoyed flirting with Gerard on set and put a brave face on every day, privately she is still very fragile," added the source.However, Aniston's rep has rubbished the story and said it is 'ridiculous . . it never happened.' Pitt and Aniston had separated in January 2005.

Angelina Jolie vying for Pitt's attention

Angelina Jolie is shunning food in the hope that partner Brad Pitt will be turned on by her "ultra-slim" figure, it has emerged."Ange is shrinking before our eyes and looking skinnier than ever," a source told Britain’s Closer magazine. "Brad’s trying to get her to have proper meals but she won’t listen.“Brad and Ange’s relationship has been crumbling for months. She’s often in tears and is hoping her ultra-slim figure will get his attention. But the more she clings to him, the more frustrated Brad’s becoming,” the source added.Recently, sources revealed to the National Enquirer magazine that Jolie is "wasting away", reports The Daily Telegraph."Angelina is so skinny that you can see the bones. She needs to get help before she wastes away," the insider said. "Friends have noticed sadness in her recently as she struggles to keep her relationship with Brad together. She hardly eats anything. It seems as if they fight all the time."Brad has walked out a number of times, and they were even sleeping in separate beds for a while. "It’s like the more Brad pulls away from her, the more weight she loses,” the insider added.

Pandorum (2009)

In Pandorum, spaceship crewmen Ben Foster and Dennis Quaid awaken from hyper-sleep in some distant corner of the galaxy to discover they have no memory of what they're doing there. In addition, while they were slumbering in the Land of Hyper-Nod, their vessel has been overrun by homicidal albino ghouls.

Are the monsters real or are our heroes suffering from ''pandorum,'' a disease whose symptoms include shaking hands, bleeding noses, and going totally nuts? And, as a follow-up question, how brazenly can one film rip off Alien, I Am Legend, and, somewhat oddly, The Poseidon Adventure? As always, Foster sells the hell out of his role but non-sci-fi fans may well themselves be driven mad long before the end.

I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell (2009)

Imagine a booze-and-sex-and-snark bad-boy comedy, like The Hangover or Road Trip, in which male debauchery gets pushed so far that it's at once hilarious, shocking, and brazenly honest. That's this adaptation of Tucker Max's gonzo memoir, I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell. Matt Czuchry, in a star performance, plays Tucker like a Ferris Bueller who bloomed into a charming sociopath. Insults fly out of his mouth like shrapnel, but on a bachelor-party jaunt to a strip club, both his pals (Geoff Stults and Jesse Bradford) and the strippers give as good as they get. The film is consistently fun, and Tucker's comeuppance will leave you gasping (if not gagging) with laughter.

Rihanna's Pierced Nipple Show

We all feel sorry for what happened to Rihanna a few months back, during her final argument with Chris Brown.

And we all wish she didn't have to go thru that just to realize she was in the wrong kind of relationship. But at least one good thing came out of all that mess: Rihanna has opened up about her body and she's now more than willing to show her assets to the world.

Plus she got her nipples pierced. Plus she let her nude photos leak on the web. Plus... well, you get the idea.

Anyway, just this week the talented singer was caught walking about in Hollywood wearing short shorts and a see-thru shirt that let her nipples poke thru, giving us a tasty one-of-a-kind Rihanna Nipple Show.

In the meantime, Chris Brown is cleaning trash off the side of the road as part of the community service he was ordered to do...

Coco Before Chanel (2009)

''In order to be irreplaceable,'' said the legendary French couturier Gabrielle ''Coco'' Chanel, ''one must always be different.'' The very feminine, very inward-looking French biopic Coco Before Chanel examines the influences that made Chanel so different — and so irreplaceable — the way an observant fashion student might deconstruct an haute couture garment to understand how it's built. The woman who became Chanel grew up a poor, skinny orphan in a convent school, where she learned sewing as a trade. She idled in her early years as a cabaret singer, lived with one protective rich man while falling in love with another, and hewed to a life of unmarried 
 independence that hid a tough, sad heart.

Coco Before Chanel is dreamiest when director Anne Fontaine — working through muse Audrey Tautou — views the world through young Coco's eyes, literally. We see the girl look at nuns' habits and, later, admire her lovers' masculine wardrobe; the next thing you know, she's cutting up men's shirts and freeing generations of women from the tyranny of corsets and flounce. Tautou is a fascinating, unsmiling, petite presence with a severe brow and an androgynous appeal, so much so that I wish Alessandro Nivola (Junebug) were a more robust beau as Arthur ''Boy'' Capel, the love of Chanel's life. Still, Tautou looks great in the boy clothes — the foundation of Coco Chanel's womanly empire.

Another AnnaLynne McCord Nipple Slip


We all agree that AnnaLynne McCord is a good actress, but apparently her job at 90210 is more to promote the show than acting in it.

And if that is the case, AnnaLynne is taking her new job very seriously, doing whatever it takes to get all the public attention centered on her TV program. "Whatever it takes" means showing her nipples every month that ends in the letter R.

So far this year we have had three AnnaLynne McCord nipple slips, and this last one is even better than any of the previous ones. You gotta wonder what's next, an AnnaLynne McCord pussy slip?

Brief Interviews With Hideous Men (2009)

David Foster Wallace's 1999 short-story collection Brief Interviews With Hideous Men has been turned — by writer-director John Krasinski (The Office) — into a blunt, scrappy, intermittently perceptive drama. It's a series of toxic-pill relationship vignettes broken up by interviews with the male characters, most of whom prove, beneath their ''enlightened'' liberal-humanist facades, to be lying, lecherous, brutally self-justifying...men. 
 At times, the movie could have been called Me and You and 
 Every One of the Bastards We Know, but Krasinski preserves Wallace's whooshing roller coasters of words, powered by the fuel of confession

The Boys Are Back (2009)

In the low-impact widowed-daddy drama The Boys Are Back, Clive Owen plays Joe, a British sportswriter based in Australia whose chosen style of child rearing, following the death of his wife from cancer, is distracted permissiveness. Bedtimes are indistinguishable from playtimes, meals are indistinguishable from delivery pizza, and if his younger son (Nicholas McAnulty) wants a joyride on the hood of a car, Dad is happy to get behind the wheel. (George MacKay plays Joe's more conventionally raised son from his first marriage, visiting from England.)

If Joe's free-range approach to parenting is controversial — he takes pride in ruffling the nerves of nearby mothers with his WTF attitude — it's also faithful to the examples supplied by real-life widowed British journalist Simon Carr, on whose well-received 2001 memoir The Boys Are Back in Town this sweetened adaptation is based. But where Carr writes with a straightforward energy, director Scott Hicks (Shine, No Reservations) shellacs the proceedings with a gloss of sunshiny affirmation, a Hicks specialty/weakness that dulls whatever edge the story has in conveying the bewilderment of an overwhelmed single father. With those piercing eyes, Owen makes a lovely, soulful Joe, of course. But it's not the nice papa we want to understand here, it's the unapologetically naughty one.

Adrianne Curry's New Boobs

Even though top models usually have very small boobs, Adrianne Curry, a former winner of "America's Next Top Model", is now pretty abundant in the chest area.

And to prove it, she just posted some photos of herself laying down at the beach where her boobs take up pretty much three quarters of the screen.

Comparing these generous tits to what she exhibited when she posed for Playboy a couple years ago leads to the obvious conclusion that Adrianne Curry just got her boobs augmented (nothing wrong with that!)

The photos, which Adrianne herself added to her Twitter stream are supposed to be the first in a series of shots she'll be regaling us with. Let's stay tuned, we may catch some nudies thrown in there for good measure.

Katy Perry's Dangerous Boobs

Katy Perry's massive boobs have been called a lot of things: hot, big, huge, beautiful... but dangerous? Not so far.

Until yesterday, when the dark haired singer showed up at the MTV Video Music Awards ceremony dressed in a spiky outfit that forced all bystanders to keep their hands to themselves and say hello to her from at least one foot away.Thanks to her short and very cleavag-y dress, Katy Perry's boobs were well guarded, with three-inch plastic spikes protecting those natural assets, capturing all the looks and keeping celebrity bloggers in an uproar.Unfortunately, and despite the precarious position of her dress, no nipple slips took place, although in this photo you can see the outline of Katy Perry's areola.

The Burning Plain (2009)

Kim Basinger plays a sad married mom in New Mexico who screws around — until her dreams go up in smoke. Charlize Theron plays a sad single woman in Oregon who smokes and screws around. The two ladies are linked, but to find out how, you must wade through The Burning Plain's intentionally disorienting narrative shuffles — the signature storytelling tic of Mexican screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga (21 Grams, Babel), here making his unsteady directorial debut.

The scenery (prettily captured by There Will Be Blood cinematographer Robert Elswit) is littered with heavy symbolism (fire! rain! dead birds!); the performances are merely heavy. (Also available on cable via on demand)

Disgrace (2009)

Nobel laureate J.M. Coetzee's great, brutal, prizewinning 1999 novel about the nature of men (in contrast with dogs) in post-apartheid South Africa gets a faithful, if wearying, adaptation, slow and spare.

In Disgrace, John Malkovich brings his unique, compelling coldness to the weight-bearing role of a middle-aged university professor whose sexual and racial arrogance (including an affair with a black student) leads to a personal disgrace and humbling that mirrors that of his fellow oblivious white countrymen in the new order.

Newcomer Jessica Haines is transparent and heartbreaking as the prof's unorthodox daughter, a victim of violence as the old ways crumble.

No Megan Fox Sex Tape

Hoping to watch a Megan Fox sex tape anytime soon? Sorry to say but it's not likely it will happen.

When asked about being filmed while having sex, the Transformers and Jennifer's Body star said during an interview this week: "That's the last thing I want to see - what I look like having sex. It would take one shot of me not looking good and I would not be able to have sex ever again, because I would always just see myself looking like a hippo having sex."

It's very doubtful that Megan Fox having sex would remind anyone of a hippo, but she did have a point when she added: "Literally all I have left are my private parts and I don't want to also share them with the world. I'd like to keep them private. That's why they're called that!"

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Christina Aguilera Was Abused by Her Father

Singer Christina Aguilera has revealed that her abusive father made life hell for her, her mother and sister Rachel.In a new TV documentary, the Beautiful hitmaker has revealed that she overcame the childhood pain suffered at the hands of his army sergeant father through music."I witnessed a lot of unpleasant things - a lot of pushing and shoving and fighting and quarrelling. Growing up I did not feel safe, E! Online quoted Aguilera as saying.Feeling powerless is the worst feeling in the world. I turned to singing as an outlet. The pain at home is where my love for music came from," she added.Aguilera's mother Shelly describes the extent of the abuse in the documentary, recalling one horrific incident when she found a four-year-old Aguilera with blood dripping from her chin. The singer's mother says: "I scooped her up and said, 'Oh my God. What's wrong'' She told me, 'Daddy wanted to take a nap and I made too much noise.'"Aguilera's mother eventually fled from her violent husband, taking her daughters to live with their grandmother.

Tyra Banks loves to get naked

Tyra Banks has said that she loves to get naked, but in the privacy of her own home.

Banks, who bid adieu to modelling in 2005, has insisted that she would never shed her clothes for cameras. But she has claimed that she loves seeing herself naked at home.

"I always feel great when I don't have clothes on... I always feel good that way," Contactmusic quoted her as saying.

In fact, sometimes she would prefer to be naked than clothed, she said.

"Sometimes certain clothes, when I put them on and they don't fit the way that I would like them to, that's when I tend to get self-conscious," she added.

Strictly star Kristina Rihanoff: Me and Joe Calzaghe? We’re strictly business. Honest!

Glamorous dance siren Kristina Rihanoff is already the talk of this year’s Strictly, with unstoppable rumours about her relationship with her dance partner Joe Calzaghe.
But Kristina has insisted their relationship is Strictly business – for now.

“Joe is a very good-looking guy and we’re close friends,” she says, “but for the moment he’s my partner on the show and we have a business relationship.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen between us when it ends, but I hope our friendship will last a long time.”
Kristina and former world-champion boxer, Joe, have been snapped looking every inch the smitten couple – holding hands, gazing into each other’s eyes and cuddled up together.

“People will write and think whatever they like,” says Kristina. “But right now we’re concentrating on work.

“We are very close and have developed a great relationship in a short amount of time.
“Of course we don’t know what’s going to happen between us next – there are so many things going on with the show and work we don’t have time to figure it out.”

The Russian bombshell, 32, admits she loves spending time with Joe but knows he will have to step up his game if he wants to stay in the competition for much longer.

“We didn’t do great in the first week,” admits Kristina. “It’s nothing to do with a lack of chemistry between us – that’s not the problem. Joe just needs to get some more confidence performing.
“It’s easier for the other celebrities, they’re pretty much all actors or presenters and know how to play up to an audience.

“They can put on an act and pretend to be something they’re not. It’s harder for Joe to do that because he’s not a professional performer, he’s a boxer.”
Kristina says Welshman Joe, 37, was hurt by the judges’ harsh comments about his wooden performance on the opening weekend.

“He felt really disappointed with what the judges said,” explains Kristina. “They were really rude to him. Joe is used to being the best at what he does, he’s a world-champion boxer.
“So it was very hard to hear he was the worst dancer on the floor that night. But he’s not a quitter and it’s my job to pick up his confidence because I know he can do better, he dances so much better in rehearsals.”

Kristina, who worked on the US version of the show Dancing With The Stars before joining Strictly last year, won hearts in her first series by competing with veteran journalist – and hopeless dancer – John Sergeant.

“John was great. But he wasn’t the best dancer,” admits Kristina. “We worked around it though and had a fantastic time.”

The unlikely pair ended up being extremely popular with the public, despite cutting jibes from John’s arch critic Arlene Phillips, who was axed before this year’s series.

But Kristina says she’ll miss Arlene.
“When I heard about Arlene leaving the show, part of me was quite sad,” she says. “I don’t know why they decided to get rid of her.

“We don’t know whether it’s ageism or another reason. It wasn’t because she was really harsh with John – that’s her job. She has to say if people are bad or the show would be boring.”

And Kristina, who has been on the wrong side of the judges’ tongues already this series, is determined to prove them wrong again with Joe.

“John could do it because he had 50 years experience on TV,” says Kristina, “so he knew exactly how to charm the audience, make people laugh and get people on side.

“Joe is a completely different guy and we’ll have to deal with it differently. But I have total faith in him and I am determined to stay in the competition for a lot longer. We’ll just have to keep on working hard.”
Competitive Kristina is hell bent on staying in the show as long as she can – but for reasons not many people know.
The stunning blonde depends on the money she makes as a professional dancer to support desperate members of her family back home in Russia.

“You have to put your family first and I am just so pleased I’m in a position to help them,” explains Kristina.
“For me it’s a lot of responsibility but I’m fortunate enough to have a job that gives me enough money to support them. I know how important it is to have somebody you can rely on.”

Kristina sends thousands of pounds home to her aunt in Vladivostock, Russia, to help give her young cousins a good start in life. Their father died of lung cancer a few years ago.

“My aunt Valeria is a qualified doctor, an amazing paediatrician, but can only get work as a nurse,” says Kristina. “She has two children to support as well as my grandfather Boris who also lives with them.
“The money I send pays the rent and for the children’s education and extra classes in dance and theatre. I don’t want them to be on the streets, smoking or getting into drugs.

Growing up in Russia was tough for Kristina and she was also touched by tragedy when her grandmother, Valentina, who helped bring her up, died of breast cancer at just 57. As a result she is supporting Breast Cancer Month in October by agreeing to be the face of Damart’s pink vest.
“We had little information about breast cancer so she was diagnosed at a very late stage.
“I knew she was sick and in hospital – I just didn’t know why. Then one day I went home and my mother wasn’t there. I called her at work and a lady answered and said, ‘She had to go home because her mother died’.

“I didn’t want to believe it. I couldn’t take it in and it didn’t seem real until after the funeral.”
Her grandmother remains an inspiration for Kristina.

“My grandmother was the kindest woman in the world,” recalls Kristina. “She was the one who encouraged my dancing when I was little.”

Now, one of ballroom’s elite, Kristina’s main home is in LA, where she has lived and worked for the past few years. Her mum moved over to live with her last year, then Kristina was offered her Strictly job in London.

“I didn’t know I’d be coming to England, and the terms of my mum’s visa meant she wasn’t allowed to leave the US for a year. I worry about her being there without me. “We’ve just applied for a British visitor’s visa so I’m hoping she’ll be able to join me in London.”

For now, Kristina is determined to enjoy her time on Strictly – and with Joe – while she can.
“He’s a lovely guy,” she says. “Everybody involved with Strictly loves him because he’s a very cool person to be around.

“He has an amazing sense of humour and when he feels comfortable and relaxed around you he’s so funny.
“He’s teaching some of the male professional dancers to box, which they are so excited about. And the best thing about him is he’s such a humble guy.

“He signs autographs and is always really friendly to people. You don’t see him acting full of himself. And that’s the most attractive thing about him.

“My job at the minute is to help Joe learn to dance, and feel confident in what he’s doing.
“I’ve met his family and they’re great, they’ve come to some rehearsals and the show at the weekend. His father is a really interesting man, he trained him in boxing for all those years. They’re very supportive people.

“When it’s all over I hope our relationship will continue. We’ll stay friends for a long time I think. Who can say what the future holds for us?”

Sarah Michelle Gellar and Freddie Prinze Jr. have baby girl

Sarah Michelle Gellar and Freddie Prinze Jr. are the proud parents of a baby girl.

The Buffy The Vampire Slayer star gave birth to Charlotte Grace Prinze on Saturday.

It is the first child for the acting duo, who are said to be “over the moon.”

Sarah and actor Freddie tied the knot in 2002, after meeting on the set of I Know What You Did Last Summer in 1997.

Jade Ewen: 10 things you need to know about the new Sugababes star

As Jade Ewen perfects her saucy dance moves in preparation for life as a Sugababe, we take a close look through the 21-year-old’s past to reveal 10 facts you (probably) didn’t know...

1. Jade was born on January 24, 1988.

2. She grew up in Plaistow, east London, with her parents and two younger siblings.

3. Jade was the main carer in her family, because her father Trevor is blind and partially deaf and her mother Carol is partially blind…

4. …but she still managed to have dancing lessons from the age of three, eventually landing a scholarship to the prestigious Sylvia Young 5. Theatre School.

5. Jade started her music career at the age of 12, playing Nala in the West End production of The Lion King.

6. As an aspiring actress, Jade played a leading role in the Australian TV series Out There and had parts in The Bill and Casualty.

7. In 2005, Jade became a member of girl band Trinity Stone, experiencing success in Russia and working with Ne-Yo before getting dropped by Sony BMG two years later.

8. The public voted for Jade to sing It’s My Time at the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow. She came fifth – the UK’s highest position since 2002.

9. Jade is nominated for the Best British Newcomer award at this year’s MOBOs, to be held on September 30.

10. Jade Ewen’s second single, My Man, was released just this week

‘The Sugababes have ended’ says original member Mutya Buena

Original Sugababe Mutya Buena said the band has “ended” now that Keisha Buchanan has been booted out.

With Jade Ewen replacing the last founding member of the group, Mutya doesn’t think the Sugababes should continue.

The 24-year-old told BBC6music: “It kind of doesn't make sense that there is Sugababes any more. I don't know if it's just me, but Keisha being the original that was left out of the band, her leaving doesn't make it Sugababes really."

“I don't know how they replace her or carry on without her. I just think it's really sad.

“To me it just means the Sugababes have ended really, not in a bad way, but because there are no original people remaining.”

Mutya also claimed that she had been up for a reunion before Keisha was axed, but now she’s not interested.

She said: “If Keisha was still in the Sugababes, I would have blatantly gone in there and done a few shows with them just because it's been a few years."

“But I just don't feel interested any more. It's kind of taken the excitement away that one day we'd be able to go on stage and sing again together."

Mutya has also been hinting about an original Sugababes reunion – find out more here

Dita Von Teese shows off her sexy underwear – pics

Pin-up Dita Von Teese showed off her sexy underwear today - but kept herself under wraps in a low-cut black frock.

Flanked by half-naked models, the burlesque beauty posed for pictures at the launch of her new Wonderbra line.

The saucy dancer draped herself across a chaise longue at London’s Dorchester Hotel to promote the "party edition" collection.
It’s the 36-year-old’s second range of lacies, with her first set of Wonderbra lingerie proving very popular last year.

The Saturdays have a huge crush on Peter Andre

Peter Andre has earned a few not-so-secret admirers in the form of The Saturdays.

Following a chance meeting in Manchester today, the band gushed that Pete is a “real gentleman” and made them “go weak at the knees”.

The Aussie singer and The Saturdays bumped into each other during their promotional tours, and it sounds like the 36-year-old must have done something pretty impressive.

Minutes after talking to Pete, the pop group flocked to Twitter to exclaim how very nice he is…

Frankie: “Just met Peter Andre and he made every member of The Saturdays go weak at the knees!”
Rochelle: “Peter Andre is the nicest guy ever.”

Una: “Just for the record, Peter Andre is a real gentleman! And he smells lovely!”

Mollie: “Just spoke to Peter Andre ahhhh! Love him.”

Vanessa: “Peter Andre is a very nice guy”.

It’s a shame all the members have boyfriends, although that didn’t stop Mollie from adding: “Peter come see us again soon!!!!!

Marriage still not in the cards for Charlize Theron and Stuart Townsend

Oscar winner Charlize Theron has been doing the rounds promoting her latest flick, "The Burning Plain", and once again she’s reiterated her firm stance against marriage because gay couples can’t, for the most part, legally wed.
Charlize has been dating Irish actor/writer/director Stuart Townsend for nearly nine years, and though she affirms that their relationship is set for life ("By now we've kind of realized that we're going to take this journey together,” she told the September issue of Vogue), folks shouldn’t expect a fancy wedding to celebrate that fact.
“I think if we ever have children, I would want my children to look at (her stance) as an example of choice and how important that is to live your life and not just talk, because talk is cheap,” the South African stunner told the Moviefone website last week.
“I've already once lived in a country where certain people got certain things and certain people didn't, and I refuse to live in another country that does that. I will not take part in a ceremony that right now is not available to everybody,” she added.
Theron is full of hope, though, that the issue of gay marriage is headed in a direction that will lead to equality for all couples, gay or straight.
“It's going to be a relentless movement, and I hope it's a relentless movement, because I think that's the only way it's going to happen. Being relentless is a sense of showing the rest of the world a new face of family, what family is,” she feels.
“If Christians were being attacked the same way, or heterosexual couples were being attacked the same way, I would be fighting for them. I worry when we start to take away the quality of certain people's lives based on religion and based on very personal beliefs.
“These are not universal beliefs, and when human life suffers from that, that worries me. Because that can very easily get flipped on any of us.”
While traditional marriage isn’t on the cards, children certainly are in the couple’s future. "I just know I'm going to have five boys," Charlize also told Vogue.
The September cover girl for the magazine certainly looked stunning in her photo spread, and she must have struck up a friendship with editor Anna Wintour as well. Charlize and Stu were pictured with the famously frosty Anna at the U.S. Open tennis championships earlier this month.
Speaking of children, Dubliner Stuart, 36, will likely be well equipped to deal with the pitter-patter when they eventually arrive. While reading his profile on Imdb.com, we were surprised to see that he has two younger half-siblings, a brother Hugo born in 2000, and a sister Ella, who arrived in 2005.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

9 (2009)

The end of human civilization is not healthy for children and other living things. But movies as varied as WALL·E, Children of Men, and The Road Warrior are proof that apocalyptic catastrophe is great for moviemakers, inspiring wonderfully original visions of ruin and expanding the artistic possibilities of cinematic technology.

The latest achievement in art direction with an end-of-humanity theme belongs to the CG-animated fantasy-adventure 9, a tale of trust, bravery, and cooperation among a scrap-heap tribe of survivors, set in a desolate near-future where an overarching artificial intelligence known as the Great Machine has turned human-built contraptions into oppressors.

With no small debt to the nameless residents of the Village in the great 1960s TV series The Prisoner, the hero of 9 — named for the number on his back — is himself a nameless individual. And like the others in his tattered crew, he’s a mutant: Some time before mean machines ran amok and all but obliterated humanity, the flesh-and-blood tinkerer who invented 9 and his cohorts out of junk, household hodgepodge, and burlap (lots of burlap) managed to sneak a little bit of old-fashioned, carbon-based soul into each. Our protagonist, for instance, displays qualities of compassion and leadership, and is voiced by Elijah Wood to prove it. The crusty naysayer known as 1 (Christopher Plummer) is a proud old war veteran who’s also prone to cowardly pessimism when push comes to machine-driven shove. The dude called 5 (John C. Reilly) is as loyal a sidekick as you’d expect in a Reilly-voiced one-eyed doll made of buttons and cloth. Wearing terrific bird-beaked headgear and modeling her moves on Angelina Jolie kicking butt in Wanted, 7 (Jennifer Connelly) is a fearless, feminist dream of a wonder woman. The mystically inclined artist numbered 6 (Crispin Glover), meanwhile, wields pen-nib fingers with a skill he might have learned from Edward Scissorhands.

Those homages to Wanted and Scissorhands are no accident, by the way. First-time feature director Shane Acker developed 9 (not to be confused with District 9, Nine, or Cloud 9, a recent indie about old German people having sex) from his stunning, much bleaker, wordless, 11-minute film of the same name. Acker’s short — which served as his 2004 UCLA student thesis and starred only 9, 5, and a relentless machine — floated around the film-festival circuit in 2005, rightfully scooping up an Oscar nomination. It also acquired influential support from heavyweights like Tim Burton and Wanted’s Timur Bekmambetov, who served as godfatherly producers the way Peter Jackson backed District 9 director Neill Blomkamp.

The expanded cast of creatures looks great, dressed and animated in the homespun style Acker calls ''stitchpunk.'' (Fans of Acker’s original film devised the term ''steampunk'' tp describe the machine-y nuts-and-bolts-and-scrap-metal aesthetic that defines the movie’s look and the characters' environment.) 9 and his gang negotiate their dust-colored, junkstrewn, wrecked world with unceasing ingenuity, repeatedly extricating themselves from dangers involving stomping, clanging, weapon-hurling contraptions. The violence, while not bloody, is diabolically inventive, and may burst the zippers of littler kids in the audience; one of the creepiest technobeasts is a doll-headed ''seamstress'' that mechanically sews a victim up within itself.

In fact, the numbered creatures and their dead-eyed pursuers are so engaging, and Acker’s visual style so delightfully, obsessively devoted both to close detail and broad scope, that the movie rattles on for quite a while before the more sci-fi-minded viewer realizes that the story is ultimately ethereally thin, and conventionally upbeat. Storyboarded with precision, and enhanced with a resonant score by Deborah Lurie, Acker’s handsome, feature-length 9 is, for all its visual flights of fancy, grounded in an apocalypse-proof message graspable by any schoolchild: When machines (or other bullies) rise up, a vulnerable population can find strength in cooperation. We should all share our resources to fight back against oppressors, trust girls to have really good ideas, and repurpose household items whenever possible.

Amanda Seyfried said it was "uncomfortable" kissing Megan Fox

The 23-year-old actress locks lips with the Hollywood beauty for their new horror film 'Jennifer's Body', but insists it was an awkward scene to film because she knows it will "turn on" the audience.
She said: "I was uncomfortable, because I normally kiss men. Even in front of people, to kiss someone for the first time, female or male, is still awkward.
"It's also awkward when you're being filmed doing it. And then, of course, there's still the producers that get to watch that scene every day, and you're like - it's inevitable, men are going to get turned on. You know people are going to get turned on when they see this, because it's, you know, taboo."
Although Amanda felt awkward smooching Megan, she is not normally fearful of locking lips in front of the camera.
The screen beauty - who is dating her 'Mamma Mia!' co-star Dominic Cooper - added: "Sometimes I have a good time making out with my co-stars, male co-stars, because it's easy and totally, completely not real. I'm more comfortable with it, because I've kissed boys before in my life. So it's just more comfortable. I think why I felt so intimidated by Megan. Also, with a female, I was worried that she would judge me. It was also awkward because we're kind of pals."
Megan, 23, recently admitted she had no problem getting intimate with Amanda in the film because she feels "more comfortable" kissing women.
The 'Transformers' star - who has revealed she is bisexual - said: "I feel much safer with girls, so I felt more comfortable kissing her in the movie than kissing any of the other people that I had to kiss. I think she was extremely uncomfortable."

Mel B nearly had to go without underwear when she arrived back in the UK.

The star was left without any luggage after she flew from her Los Angeles home to meet with her former Spice Girls bandmates and family last week in her home country.
Luckily, 34-year-old Mel is an underwear model for lingerie company Ultimo, who were able to help her out of her predicament.
She explained: "Things didn't get off to a very good start, as I arrived with no luggage and, as a result, no underwear. Luckily, being the face and body of Ultimo I was able to phone them up and get them to send over another set of the new collection to my hotel, which was a lifesaver."
Mel flew back to the US over the weekend and has since starred in a raunchy photo shoot for Ultimo in Las Vegas - which after two years will be her last for the company.
Ultimo boss Michelle Mone is now searching for another celebrity to become the next face and body of the lingerie brand.
She said: "We'll really miss Mel, she's been amazing, but this is the last campaign she'll be appearing in.
"Mel is a bold, sexy icon of female empowerment and has been an incredible asset to Ultimo."
Previous star models include Girls Aloud star Sarah Harding and Kimberly Stewart.

Alexandra Burke has become "friends" with Beyonce Knowles

The 'Single Ladies' singer has become heavily involved with Alexandra after performing a duet with her on the final of British reality TV show 'The X Factor' - which she subsequently won.
The 'Bad Boys' singer has revealed Beyonce has been supporting her throughout the recording of her debut album 'Overcome' in the US.
Alexandra, 21, said: "She's such a lovely woman and now I'm working with all her people.

"In the studio in New York I was singing and I opened my eyes and my girl Beyonce was standing there. I went to cuddle her and cried. She said, 'You can't cry, we're friends now.' And I cried some more.
"I was like, 'You can't tell me things like that. You're Beyonce.' "
Alexandra is remaining tight-lipped on whether 28-year-old Beyonce will appear on her album, but she hopes to perform with former Destiny's Child star soon.
She added to Britain's Daily Star newspaper: "I can't confirm anything yet, but I'm hoping to be on the European leg of Beyonce's tour."
Alexandra will perform her first single 'Bad Boys' on 'The X Factor' on October 11.

Chace Crawford is good-looking because he has been "blessed" with good genes

Chace Crawford is good-looking because he has been "blessed" with good genes.

The 'Gossip Girl' heartthrob doesn't have to work hard at being attractive because both his parents, dermatologist dad Chris and teacher mother Dana, are gorgeous.

He said: "I'm blessed. I have a beautiful mother and beautiful father so I guess you could say I'm blessed with good genes. It's important to have a certain look in the industry but I honestly tend to wake up and comb my hair with my hands. I think I have three pairs of the same jeans, so when I find something I like, I tend to stick with it."

Although he is naturally handsome, Chace admits he works out regularly in the gym to maintain his toned physique.

He added: "I'm a big gym frequenter. I guess I got it from playing sports in Texas. I played football from fifth grade onwards so working out was part of my lifestyle. My sister is a personal trainer and my dad and mom go to the gym so it's kind of a family thing. It's a way of life, a lifestyle."

Megan Fox is scared of her "supernatural" sexual power

The 'Jennifer's Body' actress - who is widely regarded as the world's most beautiful woman - was overwhelmed by how influential her looks and body could be and was unsure how to use her attractive assets to her advantage.

She told People magazine: "I think initially it's sort of overwhelming because little girls are very much exposed to sexuality through the media and the entertainment industry and advertisements. So when you realise that you have the same power that you've watched women who've come before you have, it is frightening and you don't know what to do with it.

"I don't think you ever get comfortable with it. It's a strange, an almost supernatural thing."

However, the 23-year-old beauty - who has an on/off romance with actor Brian Austin Green - has not always been popular with men.

She explained: "I was not 'the sh*t' in high school. I was not an outcast but I didn't have a ton of friends. I got picked on, and I ate lunch in the bathroom because I was afraid of being picked on in the cafeteria. I was a loner, and I think that's OK.

"I think it's perfectly acceptable not to run with cliques."

Megan recently admitted she finds it "awful" how women fight for male attention.

She said: "Girls are awful. But I think girls are awful because of the way society is set up and that we're forced to constantly be in competition for male attention. I think we're raised the wrong way with the wrong standards and our fathers raise us wrong. And so we search the rest of our lives for boys to pay attention to validate us."

Witness Testifies About Travolta's Desperation

The first witness has taken the stand in the John Travolta extortion case and testified John initially wanted to take his son Jett to an airport instead of a local hospital.

Police inspector Andrew Wells testified paramedic/defendant Tarino Lightbourne told him John signed a form releasing medical professionals from liability in order to take the dying 16-year-old boy to the airport.

As we previously reported, John thought it would take just as long to put Jett on a plane to Florida -- where he could get better care than at a Bahamian hospital. John had a change of heart en route and Jett went to the hospital, where he later died.

Prosecutors claim Lightbourne and former state senator Pleasant Bridgewater tried extorting Travolta, demanding $25 million in return for not making the release form public.

John is in the Bahamas and could testify later today or tomorrow.

Monday, September 21, 2009

Dil Bole Hadippa

Somewhere down the line in this mish-mash of Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, Chak De and what-have-‘youth’ Shahid Kapoor, looking as intense as a man who has just discovered he has acute molar ache scowls at Rani and says, “You should be an actress in films.”Actress she is. And a highly competent one. Rani has worked really hard on getting the Sardarji’s act together. At times she’s quite funny and poignant. But her attempts go to waste in a film that seems to move in a rudderless stupor.Rani Mukherjee is sorely let down in her made-to-order vehicle by a script that’s as phony and pasted-on as the moustache she pastes on to infiltrate the all-boy’s cricket team helmed by a Britain-returned dude from a broken family.

Shahid’s Dad Anupam Kher lives in Amritsar, his mom Poonam Dhillon lives in London, and Shahid lives somewhere where Shah Rukh Khan lived in Chak De. Passports are not required. Backgrounds are not very high in the list of this messy and annoying mishmash about crossdressing and the sporting spirit. While Shahid’s character we know is from a broken home, only God and the scripwriter know where Rani’s Veera/Veer comes from. Is she the illegitimate child of a cricketer who passed through Amritsar? Is she the distant desperate cousin of Hillary Swank in Boys Don’t Cry?While Hillary as a girl dressed as a guy got the Oscar Rani misses her award-winning turn by a wide margin, thanks to a script that meanders like a bumbling bumblebee which doesn’t know whom to sting. The story of the spirited girl’s sprint into a men’s game and into the coach’s heart lacks bite and humour. The dialogues are ultra-pedestrian, some of the exchanges between the rustic Rani and the posh Shahid shamelessly cadged from Jab We Met. What were the makers of this film thinking ? Not much, we can easily see in the slithering progression of the material a dismaying lack of direction and motivation.After interval the wobbly narration just collapses in a tired heap, with scenes in a nautanki featuring Rakhi Sawant (utterly wa (i)sted) plunging to the bottom-most rung of mediocrity.The climactic cricket match between India and Pakistan (Veer-Zara strikes again) is as exciting as watching Kaminey with the soundtrack turned off. In Dil Bole Hadippa the soundtrack is so loud it drowns any finer point that the narration may possess.Don’t waste your time looking for silver linings in this dreadful cricket film. Somone one said cricket is a game played by 12 fools and watched by 12, 000 fools.No we know what he meant.

Wanted

Though National award-winner Prakash Raj’s flamboyant villainy and Ayesha Takia’s endearing cuteness do miraculously find a place in the plot, this is the hero’s vehicle like very few masala-maar-ke products in recent times. Welcome to the world of the won-man-army. Salman Khan adapts his goon’s name Radhe from Tere Naam where he mixed violence with vulnerability in a heady brew. The mix in Wanted is far more brackish and tangy. Wanted is an oldfashioned bone-cruncher with guns and goons creating a kind of orchestrated anarchy that was done with far more élan in Ghajini.

In Wanted the violence is far cruder and guttural. The hero is on a sort of society-cleansing spree where the mode of conduct adopted by the villains and heroes become the same. Director Prabhu Deva retains the crude edges from the original Telugu material Pokhiri. The villains are vicious and foul -mouthed. They are quite often seen in Khaki and very often represent the kind of unfettered anti-socialism that can only be contained by a law-sanctioned vigilanteism that Salman practices in the last-quarter of this blood-thirsty tale. By the time he goes shirt-less the script has whipped itself into a sweaty stupor.The plot is essentially a one-liner. One-man army takes on a city filled with scums. The villains are everywhere in Mumbai. It was Hyderabad in the Telugu original. But what difference does it make? Cities change, morality doesn’ t.The two-legged predators are everywhere. In boats and tarins. In pubs and warehouses. One khaki-clad spitting and foul-mouthed villain (played with despicable authenticity by Mahesh Manjrekar) even infiltrates a decent woman’s house and threatens to sleep with both mother and daughter. Ouch. Mercifully the daughter Ayesha Takia has Salman for a boyfriend. But the poor police commissioner (Govind Namdeo, in a positive role for a change) is unlucky with his daughter. She gets kidnapped, raped and MMS-ed by the arch-villain. It’s a mean world out there. Thank God for the screen hero.While Vinod Khanna is wasted and Manoj Pawa’s role as the overgrown boy-in-a-bubble nextdoor doesn’t quite fit into the scheme of things, Prakash Raj as the villain gives celluloid diabolism an interesting new twist. He looks zonked, menacing and ironical. His confrontation with the police commissioner is written with that polished panache that brings a twist to pulp frictions.But make no mistake. This is a made-to-order film for Salman Khan. As a one-man army Salman springs into every frame with that trademark mix of a bored swagger and agile comicality.His romantic moments with Ayesha have a lived- in credibility except when the songs take over.That’s the cue to run for cover.Strictly for fans of action flicks, and Salman in that order.

Lily Allen craves for male attention

Lily Allen craves for male attention from guys on her tour entourage and successfully gets it, for she is the only woman her unit cares about.The 24-year-old pop star, who has recently completed a series of shows, says she is delighted to be the only girl in the group who is given attention. The singer believes she is the starlet of the group.Contactmusic quoted her as telling Britain's GQ magazine, "I like the attention (from men). It probably sounds really bitchy, but I like being on tour because I know all my boys , my band, first and foremost their priority is looking out for me, and I like that."I like being in a room and four f**king bimbos coming in and they're all drooling after them but knowing that really the one they care about is me. That makes me feel comforted. And maybe that's sick."

Katie Price reveals explicit details of her rape

Katie Price has disclosed explicit details of her alleged rape by a mystery celebrity, it has emerged. The hottie claims that the incident took place during a drunken party in London.

The News of the World reports she told a friend, "I said no - but he wouldn't take no for an answer. "He said ''How about a b***j**''. I was horrified and burst into tears."

Seemingly, the reality star still hasn’t been able to overcome the trauma.

She reportedly told the pal, "Now every time I see his face on TV I shudder. It brings back such horrible memories."

Price insists that she isn’t trying to gain public sympathy following a bitter media battle with ex-husband /singer Peter Andre.

She said, "Public sympathy is not something I look to gain from stories like these."

Friday, September 18, 2009

Whiteout (2009)

How cold is it in Antarctica? Cold enough for hands to freeze — but lips to remain kissing soft. Or at least that's the bad news/good news for Kate Beckinsale as a comely U.S. marshal at an ice-encrusted American research station, investigating a homicide when not battling flashbacks of Something Bad that once happened to her in Miami. Whiteout is a conventionally jam-packed, dutifully ludicrous action thriller, based on a graphic novel, which features the lithe marshal in a steamy shower and a chase scene in zero-degree visibility (the bad guy wields a scary pickax). As a bonus, a team of screenwriters devised a prologue involving those sturdiest of menaces — 1950s-style Russians swigging vodka. Ah, but are they merely red herrings?

Drunken Jordan begged Andre to take her back

Jordan reportedly begged former husband Peter Andre to get back together in drunken texts, just days before their divorce.

The former model, a.k.a Katie Price, is said to have sent the messages reading “I love you”, “I want you back”, and "Why won't you talk to me? We can still make things work", four days before the High Court granted them divorce.

"They''ve left me a bit speechless. I've received more than one in the last few weeks," the Sun quoted Peter as having told New! Magazine.

"For so long, I never said the word ''never" - but I'm saying it now. I will never, ever get back together with her," he added.

A pal also said, "Pete had to stop himself replying. He wanted to tell her she should have realised all of that when they were still a family. She is just beginning to understand everything that she threw away."

Megan Fox tired of fame, sexiness

It seems that Hollywood actress Megan Fox is tired of her fame and sexiness, for she doesn’t want to let people know more about herself.

The 23-year-old actress is currently promoting new film ‘Jennifer’s Body’ at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Although the ‘Transformers’ star never complains about being the hottest female star in Hollywood, she does seem a little tired of all the attention she is getting.

Asked whether playing a high-schooler made her nostalgic for her own high school days, Fox dodged the question saying that she'd instead like to “go back to a time where I didn’t have any responsibility.”

In fact, she seemed wary of the exposure she has had recently. "I feel like I cling to my privacy and I don’t need to expose myself further to people," Fox News quoted her as saying.

Freida Pinto In People`s Top 10 Best Dressed List

British actress Kate Winslet led the pack of People magazine's 10 best-dressed women of 2009, with US first lady Michelle Obama chosen for 'best accessible glamour.'

Although the list does not have numerical ranking, Winslet, 33, who won an Oscar in February for playing a dour Nazi in The Reader, was deemed to be the best-dressed woman on the red carpet on 2009 with her unique brand of sexy sophistication, modern Hollywood glamour and those enviable curves.

People named Reese Witherspoon as having the 'best short dresses,' High School Musical actress Vanessa Hudgens as best hippie chic and Freida Pinto, the Indian star of Oscar-winning movie Slumdog Millionaire, for having the best use of colour.

Brad Pitt, Twilight actor Robert Pattinson, and Bradley Cooper of The Hangover and Nip/Tuck fame were among the best-dressed men of the year. People said their attention to details like a scarf, pin or skinny tie took their looks beyond basic. Teen country singer Taylor Swift was dubbed 'best sparkle.'

The annual best and worst-dressed double issue also acknowledged the impact on fashion of the Emmy-award winning TV series Mad Men, set in the 1960s, whose cigarette pants and sheath dresses have inspired new designs by Michael Kors and Tory Burch.

The People magazine special issue also looked at some of the fashion flops of 2009. Former American Idol judge Paula Abdul and actress Renee Zellweger were cited as having the worst red carpet dresses.

Singer Jessica Simpson's January appearance in unflattering high-waisted 'mom jeans,' which triggering a heated debate about weight issues in Hollywood, was among the "most memorable moments of the year," People said.

People's choice of the Top 10 Best-Dressed Women of 2009 are:
Kate Winslet - Best Red Carpet
Vanessa Hudgens - Best Hippie Chic
Reese Witherspoon - Best Short Dresses
Cameron Diaz - Best Jeans
Michelle Obama - Best Accessible Glamour
Freida Pinto - Best Use of Color
Taylor Swift - Best Sparkle
Nicole Richie - Best Maternity
Beyonce - Best Street Chic
Kim Kardashian - Best Bikinis.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

The Other Man (2009)

The Other Man is self-conscious, overproduced, overacted Euro-marital hoo-ha in which a husband (Liam Neeson) uncovers the existence of another man (Antonio Banderas) in the life of his wife (Laura Linney), who disappears one day. So naturally, the cool, tweedy husband snoops around by establishing a friendship with the hot, brilliantined, unsuspecting lover. Chess is played. Flashbacks are flashed. Red high-heeled footwear is involved, as is travel to Lake Como — lucky actors! For a much better use of Neeson and Linney as Mr. and Mrs., check out Kinsey.

Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (2009)

The great film-noir actors, like Robert Mitchum and Sterling Hayden, wore a scowl of hunger that gave them a low-down, predatory glamour. They were men, not boys. But Jesse Metcalfe, who stars in Beyond a Reasonable Doubt, a remake of the 1956 noir classic, has about as much inner darkness as a puppy. Metcalfe, formerly of Desperate Housewives, is swarthy and handsome in a cloying, baby-gigolo way; the only emotion he radiates is eagerness to be liked. He’s certainly plausible as a local TV news reporter looking for a big break. But then he goes after a corrupt district attorney (Michael Douglas) who’s been piling up convictions by planting DNA evidence.

How will Metcalfe expose this scoundrel? By incriminating himself in a homicide, a feat that he accomplishes by collecting fake evidence — a jackknife, athletic shoes matching the imprint left at the scene of the crime — with the eager-beaverness of a kid on a scavenger hunt. Beyond a Reasonable Doubt was written and directed by Peter Hyams (Outland), who brings a touch of neo-'80s, Gee, let's throw in a car chase! hackery to this pile of contrivances. He squeezes a bit of suspenseful juice out of the old plot, and Douglas makes smarm a chewy pleasure, but this is a noir in search of a hero we can root for because we actually buy what he’s doing.

Still Walking (2009)

A very quiet drama of family turmoil directed by Hirokazu Koreeda (After Life). In Still Walking, Ryoto (Hiroshi Abe), an out-of-work art restorer who thinks of himself as a failure, pays a visit to his disapproving father and even more henpeckish mother on the 15th anniversary of their eldest son's death. Koreeda is working in the quotidian, enormous-changes-at-the-last-minute spirit of Tokyo Story and Junebug, and though he has made a film of droll and dry observational precision, its emotional minimalism is almost fetishistic — and, by the end, a tad frustrating.