Kanye West outburst mars MTV music video awards

Kanye West takes the microphone from best female video winner Taylor Swift as he praises the video entry from Beyonce at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards in New York, September 13, 2009.[Agencies]

NEW YORK- The MTV video music awards held on Sunday paid tribute to the late Michael Jackson, but was overshadowed by an outburst by rapper Kanye West, who interrupted an acceptance speech by U.S. singer Taylor Swift.

West, who is known for his outspoken ways, jumped up on stage while the 19-year-old Swift was making an acceptance speech for best female video for her hit song "You Belong With Me," beating out singers including Beyonce Knowles and Lady Gaga.

"I am really happy for you," West said. "But Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time."

MTV said West, who was spotted earlier on the red carpet drinking alcohol, was ejected from an awards show already known for its circus-like atmosphere. West received loud boos from the crowd when his name was mentioned later in the show.

West apologized on his website. "I'm sooooo sorry to Taylor Swift and her fans and her mom," he wrote. "... I'm in the wrong for going on stage and taking away from her moment!"

Beyonce took the show's top honor -- video of the year -- for her single "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" before recalling her first MTV award with her old band, Destiny's Child, and calling back Swift to the Radio City Music Hall stage to finish her acceptance speech.

"I would like Taylor to come out and have her moment," she said, before the country music star reappeared and thanked her fans.

MTV said Beyonce, Lada Gaga and Green Day won three awards apiece, the most of any artists on this year's awards show.

JACKSON TRIBUTE

The cable channel's awards show began with a tribute to Jackson less than three months after the man known as the King of Pop died from what authorities call a prescription drug overdose at age 50.

"Most of us had turned our backs on him," Madonna said in a speech at the beginning of the awards that recalled his lost childhood. "He was so unique, so original, so rare and there will never be anyone like him again. He was the king."

Performers dressed like Jackson filled the stage and danced to some of his hit songs including "Thriller," "Bad" and "Smooth Criminal."

Janet Jackson then appeared on stage. With the video for her brother's song "Scream" playing on a screen behind her, she mimicked his dance moves in unison with the video. She did not speak.

Michael Jackson promoted many of his ground-breaking videos on MTV in the 1980s.

The network also aired a trailer for "This Is It," a documentary about Jackson due out in October that features footage from Jackson rehearsing for his comeback concerts.

The show's other top awards went to U.S. dance music star Lady Gaga, who won best new artist for "Poker Face." Rapper T.I. featuring Rihanna won best male video for "Live Your Life," and Britney Spears cemented her successful comeback winning best pop video for "Womanizer."

Eminem won best hip-hop video for "We Made You," and Green Day took the best rock video award for "21 Guns."

The show's performances included Pink, who wowed the audience singing while twirling on a trapeze high above the crowd. Lady Gaga performed her song "Paparazzi" while smeared with fake blood.

Some of the biggest cheers came after Beyonce performed her award-winning single surrounded by dozens of female dancers.

The night ended with a final reference to Swift, with the show's host, British comedian Russell Brand, joking he would give her "a shoulder to cry on."

taken from : China Daily

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Kristen Stewart's vampire protection

Kristen Stewart is scared of vampires.

The 'Twilight' actress, who plays Bella in the vampire film franchise, is so terrified of the mythical blood-sucking creatures she festoons her home with cloves of garlic in an attempt to deter them.

A source told National Enquirer magazine: "People are always remarking how smelly it is, but Kristen doesn't care. She's been afraid of vampires for years, even before she signed up to do the movies, and read somewhere that garlic is supposed to repel them."

Kristen, 19, hangs pouches of the smelly foodstuff on her bedroom door, and even keeps an emergency stash in her car.

In the movies, Bella falls in love with Edward Cullen, played by Robert Pattinson, who is a vampire. She becomes so enamoured with him she tells him she wants to become one too, but Edward will not grant her wishes.

Kristen recently revealed she films the movies' fans frightening because they are so obsessive.

She said: "I'm scared. I feel like I could go out in disguise but they would recognise my feet or the shape of my leg."
taken from : China Daily

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Robert Pattinson tops fantasy teacher poll

Robert Pattinson has topped a new list of celebrities people would most like as their school teachers.

In the recent poll conducted by Christmas savings firm Get Park, fans of the Twilight actor insisted that they would pay more attention in class if the 23-year-old was their English literature teacher, Contactmusic reports.

Pattinson beat Hollywood couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, who fans voted in as their perfect drama and chemistry teachers. Meanwhile, music mogul Simon Cowell was hailed as the ideal media studies professor in the survey.

James Bond star Daniel Craig also made the list - as the fantasy school's physical education coach.

taken from : China Daily
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Queen of Denmark makes film debut...as an extra

Queen Margrethe II of Denmark pose for a photo during the opening of the exhibition 'with Fortuna over the sea Saxony and Denmark- marriages and alliances in the mirror of art (1548-1709)' at the Royal Palace in Dresden August 23, 2009.[Agencies]

COPENHAGEN - Face smeared with soot and wearing rags, Denmark's Queen Margrethe debuts as an extra in a film based on a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale on Friday.

The 69-year-old queen, known for painting, designing ballet costumes, chain-smoking and speaking frankly, will appear in "The Wild Swans" as a poor spectator to the threatened burning at the stake of the film's heroine, Princess Elisa.

"The idea emerged spontaneously as we were all working together on the set," said producer Jacob Jorgensen.

The queen designed sets and costumes for the film, which premieres Friday, but her minor screen role was only recently revealed.

Andersen's 1838 fairy tale has earlier been adapted for ballet, television, an animated film -- and now a movie.

The story tells of a princess whose 11 brothers are turned into swans when their father, the king, remarries a wicked queen who casts a spell upon them.

Elisa is accused of witchcraft and sentenced to burn, but the brothers rescue her and regain human form with the help of magic shirts that their sister knitted for them from nettles.

"The queen has worked on this film just like the rest of the professional crew," Jorgensen said. "We have worked on the project together for five years."

In a book about her work on "The Wild Swans," Queen Margrethe said her favorite H.C. Andersen fairy tales were not those about princes and princesses.

"I liked 'The Swineherd'," the popular monarch said.

"As a child, one takes things at face value, and when we heard about princesses sitting on silk cushions and wearing silk dresses and crowns on their heads, we knew of course that was nonsense -- because we didn't," Margrethe said in the book.

taken from : China Daily

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Tom Ford fashions a poignant gay drama

Fashion designer and film director Tom Ford arrives at the 66th Venice Film Festival September 10, 2009. Ford is competing for the Golden Lion Award with his film "A single man".[Agencies]

VENICE - Designer Tom Ford makes a surprisingly successful leap from the fashion industry to the big screen with "A Single Man," a standout directing debut about a gay college professor who loses his longtime partner.

The theme of the search for meaning after a great loss is developed with great sensitivity, thanks to Colin Firth's moving performance in the main role, and should help the film go beyond gay audiences, who will be its strong supporters, to attract the more mainstream attention of "Brokeback Mountain" and "Far From Heaven."

Based on a novel by Christopher Isherwood, the screenplay by Ford and David Scearce is concise and to the point. It opens on a fatal car crash in 1962, in which Jim (Matthew Goode) is killed. George Falconer (Firth) learns about his lover's death the next day when a relative phones, but he is warned not to attend the funeral of the man he lived with for 16 years.

Broken-hearted and alone, he seeks comfort from his long-ago flame, now friend, Charley (Julianne Moore), who is obviously still in love with him. But George is too devastated to be interested in either sex, and even rebuffs the approach of a hot young hustler played by Jon Kortajarena, who is a true James Dean lookalike. He tries to avoid getting involved with his student Kenny (Nicholas Hoult of "About a Boy"), who is just discovering his sexual preferences and aggressively courts the older man. Instead, he makes plans for committing suicide.

Most of the action takes place over the course of a single day in Los Angeles in the early '60s, when being gay was socially disapproved of by many. The film brushes ever so lightly on the issue of discrimination, first implicitly, when George lectures his students on how society fears what it is not, and later in a beautifully calibrated tete-a-tete between George and Charley, when she insinuates George and Jim did not have a "real relationship."

Through snatches of their life together, it is apparent that George and Jim had a very real and loving relationship whatever 1960's America thought. Their love story is contrasted with the next-door neighbors, who are down-to-earth suburbanites busy raising families and building nuclear bomb shelters. When a colleague tells George there won't be time for sentiment when the bomb falls, George characteristically retorts that he's not interested in living in a world without feeling.

Firth's measured performance, delivered in a clipped British accent, has just the right restraint, and the intelligent dialogue is a pleasure. Moore is glamorous and likeable as the alcoholic divorcee Charley, adrift without a husband. Goode and especially Hoult are just too perfect to be true, but they serve the purpose of offering George good reasons to stay alive. In contrast to Firth's underplaying, the directing has its overblown, operatic soul. Ford is unafraid of such cringe-worthy moments as playing an opera solo over a suicide attempt, or having a nattily dressed symbolic figure in Tom Ford Menswear give the kiss of death to the recently departed. In the same spirit, tech work is satisfyingly bold. Dan Bishop's stylish production design and Eduard Grau's cinematography set the film in a romantically idealized '60s world. The film score, written by Abel Korzeniowski and Shigeru Umebayashi, is variegated and full of lush orchestral themes that salute Hitchcock and Bernard Hermann, among others.

taken from : China Daily

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Lily Allen's lonely tears

Lily Allen cries if she is left alone.

The 24-year-old singer - who miscarried the baby she was expecting with her ex-partner Chemical Brother's Ed Simons last year - finds it hard to cope without her loved ones.

She revealed: "I don't like being on my own very much. Just after I had the miscarriage I went into this therapy centre. "The hardest exercise they gave me was to sit on my bed for an hour without a book or a TV or a magazine. I was in tears the whole time. I just couldn't handle it. It was awful. I hated it."

Although she found the experience hard, Lily admits it made her confront certain things about herself.

She said: "There was one exercise where they ask you to draw something. The art therapist said, 'Anything - a colour, a shape.' I burst into tears. I felt like I was being judged and I knew I couldn't manipulate the situation.

"I learnt from it. I know I have to stop doing things for other people and think of myself."

taken from : China Daily

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Janet Jackson misses brother

Janet Jackson forgets her brother Michael is dead.

The 43-year-old star - the younger sister of the late 'King of Pop', who died from an acute Propofol intoxication in June - has found it difficult coping with her brother's passing and often forgets he is no longer alive.

She said: "My brother is, I mean was... You have to forgive me, because it's really hard to believe he's passed."

The 'All For You' singer has thrown herself into her work to try and overcome her grief, but was surprised she managed to be strong like her mother Katherine when she learnt the tragic news.

Janet - who is due to pay tribute to Michael with a special performance on Sunday (13.09.09) at the MTV Video Music Awards - told Harper's Bazaar magazine: "I've been doing OK. Work helps focus all of that energy on something that is of value to you.

"I always wanted to have my mother's strength, but I didn't know if it was really there. Now at least I know that I can step up to the plate and not crumble when I'm needed. When it comes to something like this - that is so, so serious, so painful, so traumatic - I can handle it."

Janet also revealed Michael's three children - Prince Michael I, 12, 11-year-old Paris and seven-year-old Prince Michael II, who are being cared for by Katherine - are coping well thanks to the love and support of their family.

Referring to Michael's July memorial concert at which Paris gave a brief but emotional speech praising her daddy, Janet said: "I was really proud. People said to me that Michael's daughter speaking really gave them a sense of how he was as a father, in her words. Paris is incredibly smart, they are all so smart. She's a sweet girl. The kids are doing well. They're with all their cousins, that family love will keep them going."
taken from : China Daily

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Future, past useless at my age, says actor Sharif

Actor Omar Sharif poses for photographers during "Al Mosafer" (The Traveller) photocall during the 66th Venice Film Festival September 10, 2009. [Agencies]

VENICE- For Omar Sharif, the future and the past are useless. The only thing that counts for the Egyptian actor is the present.

"I think that thinking about the future is something for young people, and thinking about the past is useless when you are old," Sharif told reporters in Venice, where his latest movie "The Traveler" is in competition at the film festival. "In life I have already wiped out everything that has already gone," he said through an interpreter, switching languages with each question. The translator gave his age as 78, although online biographies and his Myspace page say he is 77.

"Every moment is like that for me now and that is how it should be. To live well at my age you always have to think about concentrating your attention on the moment that is now and the moment you are living because you don't know how much longer you may live."

Sharif plays the old Hassan in Ahmed Maher's debut feature film The Traveler (El Mosafer), which follows Hassan on three pivotal days in his life -- the first in 1948, the second in 1973 and the third in 2001.

The story explores time and the past, as an elderly Hassan seeks to reconnect with his own personal history through the young Ali who he is convinced is his grandson.

THE ONLY ARAB

Despite becoming a major Hollywood star, appearing in classics like "Lawrence of Arabia" in 1962 and "Doctor Zhivago" three years later, Sharif recalled how his early days in the U.S. movie business were not easy.

Being the "only Arab" working in Hollywood, "I had to be very careful what I did.

"For example, Columbia Pictures signed a five-year contract with me when I had made Lawrence of Arabia but they didn't pay me anything," he said.

"When I made Doctor Zhivago they sold me to MGM for $15,000. I made the film for $15,000. My American lawyer said 'I can sue them', and I said no, leave it, I don't want them to think of me as someone who only wants money.

"I lived very humbly, in fear, I accepted the films they wanted me to do and even films I didn't want to do and I didn't like because I was afraid of saying no."

Sharif also explained how his marriage, to Egyptian actress Faten Hamama, did not survive because of the constant traveling involved in his job.

"Since 1966 I have never lived with a woman, I have only lived in hotels and eaten in restaurants. Mine was a very happy life, I am not complaining.

"I had a couple of adventures with women, but not the great love. I had a great love once with my wife, that has to be said."

Also premiering in Venice on Thursday was German director Fatih Akin's comedy "Soul Kitchen," about a young restaurant owner in Hamburg who struggles to balance his job with a long-distance relationship and a brother who is in prison.

A painful back complicates his efforts to salvage his love life and keep ruthless business rivals at bay, until he undergoes a painful cure with Kemal, the Bone Crusher.

taken from : China Daily

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Paris Hilton's wisdom immortalized in book of quotations

Paris Hilton and Doug Reinhardt arrive on the red carpet as they attend the 'Bad Lieutenant: Port Of Call New Orleans' premiere during the 66th Venice Film Festival September 4, 2009.[Agencies]

SYDNEY - Words of wisdom from Paris Hilton are to be immortalized alongside remarks by some of the greatest thinkers of all time in the latest edition of the Oxford Book of Quotations -- and she reckons it's "so cool."

Hilton, the socialite turned reality TV star and retailing phenomenon, is listed in the latest version of the 65-year-old dictionary, released this week, alongside the likes of Confucius, Oscar Wilde and Stephen Hawking.

Her contribution? "Dress cute wherever you go, life is too short to blend in."

Hilton, 28, was delighted to be featured in the book which is a renowned list of memorable sayings.

"So cool that I have a quote in the dictionary," she wrote on her Twitter page.

Another new entry in the seventh edition of the Oxford University Press publication is Sarah Palin.

The former vice-presidential candidate makes the cut for her most famous quip: "What's the difference between a hockey mom and a pitbull? Lipstick."

More than 20,000 new quotations have been added to the dictionary including President Barack Obama for saying: "The arc of history is long but it bends toward justice."

Others came from the likes of British author Terry Pratchett -- using an "embuggerance" to describe his Alzheimer's -- and from author Fay Weldon: "Guilt is to motherhood as grapes are to wine."

taken from : China Daily

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Web dates for Leona Lewis

Leona Lewis keeps her long-distance relationship alive with web cameras.

The British songstress - who is living in Los Angeles while she works on new material - admits it is difficult to be apart from her boyfriend Lou Al-Chamaa, who works in London, but keeps in touch online.


She explained to Britain's Cosmopolitan magazine: "Obviously a long-distance relationship is hard. But, like anything worth having, you make it work. You just have to keep the communication open - we Skype, we chat, we email. And he comes out when he can. I don't hate Los Angeles. There's a very beautiful side to it - it's scenic and I can go horse riding.

"When I first came out here I wasn't sure if I like it. It's taken a while because I love being at home with my family and I miss them when they're not here."

Despite gaining global stardom with her debut single 'A Moment Like This', Leona is still uncomfortable with being in the limelight.

She said: "It's not that I don't like the celebrity lifestyle. It's just that it's a bit unreal. Some people embrace being papped. I'd rather do normal things.

"I'm quite quiet and it takes me a while to come out of myself and be comfortable. But just because I'm polite and nice doesn't mean I can be pushed over. I know my own mind and I know what I will and won't do. I just go about it in a different way. I'm not confrontational, but I will speak my mind."

taken from : China Daily

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Hugh Hefner files for divorce from wife

Hugh Hefner, one of the stars of the comedy film "The House Bunny", poses at the film's premiere in Los Angeles August 20, 2008.[Agencies]

LOS ANGELES- Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner, host to an ever-changing coterie of scantily-clad young women at the Playboy Mansion, has filed for divorce from the estranged wife who many people forgot he had ever married.

Hefner, 83, filed court documents last week seeking to end his marriage to former Playmate Kimberley Conrad, 47, citing irreconcilable differences.

The documents, obtained by celebrity website TMZ.com on Wednesday, said the pair were married in July 1989 and have been separated since January 1998.

Conrad and Hefner have two sons. Since their separation, Conrad and the boys have lived in the house next to the famed Los Angeles Playboy Mansion where Hefner resided with several girlfriends and stars in the TV reality show "The Girls Next Door."

"I am happy to be out of the marriage. I only remained married (to Conrad) for the sake of the children, at her request. I am happy to have this behind me," Hefner told TMZ in a telephone interview on Wednesday.

Hefner's decision to seek a divorce follows court action in August by Conrad, who filed a $5 million lawsuit against the Playboy founder relating to the sale of a house they owned together. Hefner told TMZ.com he owed nothing to Conrad, saying he had been "generous to a fault."

The documents obtained by TMZ.com gave a glimpse into the lifestyle of Hefner, who earlier this year installed 19-year-old twins into the mansion as his girlfriends at the end of the fifth season of "The Girls Next Door."

According to the documents, Hefner has assets of more than $43 million, excluding Playboy stock and property, and spends about $43,000 a month on food and entertainment.

Hefner has asked for spousal support for Conrad to be set at $20,000 a month, saying he has already given his estranged wife close to $12 million since their separation 11 years ago.

Hefner began publishing Playboy magazine in 1953. Profits from the adult entertainment business Playboy Enterprises Inc, which includes TV networks and licensing deals for pink bunny ears, have declined in recent years due to competition from free adult material on the Internet and a drop in advertising revenue.

Playboy Enterprises appointed a new chief executive in June to replace Hefner's daughter Christie, who left after two decades. Hugh Hefner remains editor-in-chief of Playboy magazine and retains overall control of the company.

taken from : China Daily

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Katherine Heigl and husband adopting a baby

FILE - In this Aug. 4, 2009 file photo, actress Katherine Heigl arrives for the European premiere of Ugly Truth in London. [Agencies]

LOS ANGELES – Katherine Heigl (HY'-guhl) and her husband Josh Kelley are adopting a baby.

Melissa Kates, Heigl's spokeswoman, confirmed the news but wouldn't provide details.

RadarOnline.com reports that the couple's adoption process has been in the works for at least six months and that the 10-month-old girl is from Korea. The report also says the baby's name is Nayleigh, and her nickname will be Leigh.

Heigl plays Dr. Izzie Stevens on ABC's "Grey's Anatomy." Kelley is a singer-songwriter.

The couple have been married since 2007.

taken from : China Daily

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Jennifer Aniston talks design aspirations & men’s underwear

LOS ANGELES, Calif. -- Jennifer Aniston is a box office superstar, but she told Access Hollywood she is interested in venturing into the world of design.

“What would you like to have as a line?” Access’ own Billy Bush asked her during the junket for her new movie with Aaron Eckhart, “Love Happens,” which opens on September 18.

“I’d love to do a bathing suit line,” Jennifer revealed.

Jennifer explained that one reason behind her desire to design comes from her own swimsuit experiences.

“I always have a hard time finding a good bathing suit and so I usually end up tailoring bathing suits,” she said.

The actress said she would like to see more variety in the swimsuit world.

“Why?” Billy asked. “Is it because the top usually differs from the bottom?”

“It’s like… You should be able to mix and match your bottoms,” Jennifer said.

Billy asked what kind of swimwear Jennifer liked on men and she revealed her preference is for a classic California look.

“I like a surf short,” she said. “I think that’s beautiful.”

And while she likes the board shorts, when asked by Billy what kind of underwear she likes on a man, Jennifer said she prefers a more snug fit.

“Um, I like uh, I like tighty-whities on a man,” she said.

“The brief?” Billy asked.

“Not boxers. I don’t like boxers,” she said. “Boxer briefs.”

While Jennifer is opinionated about her choices in men’s underwear, she also has a strong opinion about her “Love Happens” co-star, Aaron Eckhart, and in particular, about his performance in their movie.

“I haven’t been able to even say this yet to you. You are so unbelievable in this movie,” Jennifer told Aaron during the interview. “I was, I was so blown away. I saw it a couple months ago in New York.”

Jennifer said Aaron’s performance moved her to tears when catching a screening.

“I just… couldn’t stop,” she said. “We had no tissues.”
taken from : China Daily

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Megan Fox frigid over sex tape

Megan Fox has vowed never to make a sex tape.

The 'Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen' actress is convinced if she saw herself having sex and "looking like a hippo" it'd put her off making love for the rest of her life.

She said: "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."

For much the same reason, Megan, 23, has also vowed never to appear naked on screen in any of her films, and is still mortified by photos of her in a flesh-coloured suit on the set of forthcoming cheerleader-turned-killer film 'Jennifer's Body'.

She added to MTV: "I can't ever imagine myself doing nudity in a film. It lives forever, especially now, within the internet. I just can't.

"Everything you say gets judged, everything you do gets judged. Literally all I have left are my private parts and I don't want to share them with the world. I'd like to keep them private. That's why they're called that!"

However, Megan isn't too prudish to indulge in a steamy lesbian kiss with her 'Jennifer's Body' co-star Amanda Seyfried, and the film's writer Diablo Cody is dismayed the smooch will ultimately be labelled "gratuitous".

She said: "All right, if the two protagonists of the film were a guy and a girl and in a particularly tense moment, they shared a kiss, no one would say it was gratuitous.

"But the fact that they're women means it's some kind of stunt. But it was intended to be something profound and meaningful to me and to Karyn Kusama, the director.

"Obviously we knew people were going to totally sensationalise it."
taken from : China Daily

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Robbie Williams haunted by royalty

Robbie Williams is being haunted by the ghost of King Henry VIII's last wife.

The 'Bodies' singer is convinced the £7 million mansion he shares with his girlfriend Ayda Field is inhabited by the spirit of Catherine Parr, the infamous British monarch's sixth and final spouse.

But while he often "feels the presence" of Catherine - who once lived on the estate in Wiltshire, South West England - the 35-year-old singer is never frightened.

He explained: "I think there are ghosts. I haven't seen or heard anything. I've definitely felt something but it's not scary. I'm very, very pleased to say.

"It's Catherine's Parr's old house. In fact, we're actually not in the old house, we're in her barn."

Robbie and Ayda moved from Los Angeles to Britain earlier this year to prepare for his musical comeback.

The former Take That star is enjoying his new lifestyle, but admits he wouldn't have ever imagined himself living in the countryside a few years ago.

Robbie said: "I can't even believe that a 35-year old me has bought a 500-year-old place. Because at 26 or 27 there's no way that I would have chosen to be there or go anywhere near it.

"But it's lovely and the people have been great with us."

It's not the first time Robbie's house has been linked to paranormal activity.

The star reportedly purchased the property because it is crossed with 'ley lines' - invisible energy routes believed to attract aliens.

Robbie is "obsessed" with extra-terrestrials, and claims to have seen three UFOs during his lifetime.

taken from : China Daily

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Protective mother Ashlee Simpson

Ashlee Simpson-Wentz is worried about her 10-month-old son dating.

The singer-and-actress - who has Bronx Mowgli with her Fall Out Boy rocker husband Pete Wentz - is already concerned about what type of women the toddler may bring home.

She explained to US TV series 'The Rachael Ray Show': "Pete is definitely overprotective, I know that. And I'm definitely going to be laying the boundaries down.

"But it's different for a girl than with a guy, so I think we'll have to grow together and be able to lay the boundaries. But with Bronx, there will be a curfew and all that. I don't want him to grow up in the middle of Hollywood."

Meanwhile, the 24-year-old beauty - who started her showbiz career as her sister Jessica Simpson's backing dancer - said she worked hard to stay in shape and keep her limbs supple during her pregnancy.

She explained: "I could do the splits when I was nine months pregnant. I could put my leg over my head still. I used to be a ballerina."

Ashlee has recently returned to work following Bronx's birth, and is starring in the new series of the US TV show 'Melrose Place'.

But the starlet, who plays saucy Violet Foster in the programme, insists 30-year-old Pete is unaffected by her racy storylines.

She explained: "He's not a jealous person, and it's work. It is what it is. And believe me, there's some jaw droppers for Violet! But I'd rather be kissing my husband."
taken from : China Daily

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Lady Gaga reveals drug addiction

Lady Gaga says her father saved her from drug addiction.

The 'Poker Face' singer used to spend hours taking cocaine alone in her New York apartment, until her dad Joseph Germanotta ordered her to get clean.

The pop star - real name Stefani Germanotta - told US website ShockHound: "My father is a really powerful man, a telecom guy. So he looked at me one day and said, 'You're f***ing up, kid.' And I looked at him and thought, 'How does he know that I'm high right now?'

"And he never said a word about the drugs, not one word. But he said, 'I just wanna tell you that anyone you meet while you're like this, and any friend that you make in the future while you are with this thing, you will lose.' And we never talked about it again."

Gaga began regularly using the illegal substance after she dropped out of a music course at New York University in 2005.

The singer's friends also became worried about her erratic behaviour and begged her to leave her apartment and spend time with them.

She added: "My cocaine soundtrack was The Cure. I loved all their music, but I listened to this one song on repeat while I did bags and bags of cocaine.

"I didn't think there was anything wrong with me until my friends came over and said, 'Are you doing this alone?' 'Um, yes. Me and my mirror.'

"But I was able to stop, because I was panicking more on the drugs than I was sober. So I'm fine now."

The blonde singer still likes to party and confessed her record label often beg her to tone down her outrageous behaviour.

She explained: "I can drink, and I'm not going to say that I don't party. But it's not everyday, and it's no longer a tool for my creativity.

"The label gets mad at me for talking about it - they say, 'We don't want people to think that you're not a pop star.' But I am a pop star. I'm a pop star with a story!"
taken from : China Daily

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Sci-Fi Plot Revealed for Stallone's Rambo V: The Savage Hunt

September 5, 2009
Source: Ain't It Cool News
by Brandon Lee Tenney

Just a few days ago news broke confirming that the fifth installment of Sylvester Stallone's Rambo series had been greenlit by Nu Image / Millennium Films and was already in the works (and even hard a storyline about human trafficking across the Mexico border). Well, hold on to your bandanas, because AICN's Harry Knowles just had a conversation with Mr. Stallone himself in which he reveals the shadows of what will become Rambo 5. First, we have an official title - Rambo V: The Savage Hunt - and a poster (a glimpse of it seen above). Second, well, this Rambo may prove to be a bit different than those four previous movies.

John Rambo will be returning to the Pacific Northwest, back to his roots, if you will. There we'll be seeing Rambo on the hunt, the one doing the chasing rather than the one being chased. The film will center around a US Military installation that's experimenting on its soldiers, attempting to "tap into [the] savagery that we have deeply embedded [inside] us." Basically, these elite soldiers are to become purely instinctual killing machines without a shred of regret, with nary a single qualm about taking a human life. Who would guess that this experimental program turns out to work exceptionally well? And then backfires terribly. That's when Rambo, as part of a Black Ops squad, is brought in to hunt down this unfeeling, moral-less killer.

Well I'm sold. I don't know about you, but having written and read all that back, I'm sold. I trust Stallone after witnessing what he was capable of bringing to his exceptionally affecting 2006 film Rocky Balboa and 2008's Rambo-can-still-kick-ass fourth installment of the Rambo franchise. The guy knows his characters. And more so, he's confident in his characters. Mix that with some classic government conspiracy, a dash of some sci-fi super soldier, and John Rambo doing what he does best in the forests of the good ol' U. S. of A. — well, let's just say I've pitched my tent outside the movie theater already. Are you ready to join me in line?

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Emma Watson enters U.S. university

Watson appeared relaxed and happy as she began university life

If only Harry would let her borrow the invisibility cloak.

Emma Watson was mobbed by adoring fans as she began university in the U.S. - despite pleading to be treated just like any other student.

The 19-year-old actress, who plays Hermione in the Harry Potter films, barely had a moment to herself as she got to know fellow freshmen at the prestigious Brown University in Rhode Island.

Miss Watson, who looked anything but the global movie star in simple denim shorts and a white T-shirt, is likely to have to get used to having her own fan club on campus.

Watson mingles with students on campus

She said recently: 'But I do hope that it will be only a short time before I am known as "Emma Watson, the student from the UK" rather than "Emma Watson who starred in those Harry Potter films".'

Miss Watson achieved straight As in her A-levels. She will have to return to the studio during her holidays to film the last two installments in the Harry Potter series.

Watson gets to know her fellow freshman at the Rhode Island campus

taken from : China Daily

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Pixar wins lifetime award at Venice Film Festival

Film director George Lucas flanked by characters from animated movie upon arrival for the presentation of the Golden Lion for life-time achievements at the 66th edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, Sunday, Sept. 6, 2009. [Agencies]

VENICE, Italy – The Venice Film Festival's red carpet was festooned with balloons on Sunday to mark the lifetime achievement award for director and producer John Lasseter and his crew of Pixar directors.

They were rewarded for their work creating a new generation of childhood memories populated with Nemo, Woody and Sulley. It is the first time in festival history that the award honors not just one filmmaker but an entire studio.

Pixar, founded in 1986 and based in northern California, pioneered digital computer animation and has made 10 feature films to date, four of which have won Oscars since the animation category was introduced in 2001.

"We really set out to deeply entertain an audience, not just children but adults as well," Lasseter told reporters Sunday.

Lasseter said he was "tremendously honored" that the festival chose to give the award to the team of five Pixar directors, including Brad Bird ("Ratatouille" and "The Incredibles"), Pete Docter ("Up" and "Monsters Inc."), Andrew Stanton ("Finding Nemo" and "Wall-E"), and Lee Unkrich ("Toy Story 3"). Lasseter directed the first two "Toy Story" movies and "Cars."

"Filmmaking and animation is one of the most collaborative art forms there is in the world, and it is never more collaborative than it is at Pixar," Lasseter said.

Lasseter posed with life-size Carl and Russell, the stars of Pixar's latest runaway hit "Up" on a red carpet imprinted with the Italian logos for Pixar's hits, "The Incredibles," "Up," "Finding Nemo" and the upcoming "Toy Story 3," before receiving the Golden Lion from George Lucas, who helped launch Pixar.

"I think anybody else when they sell a company and the company goes on to be very successful, they would feel like they missed out," Lasseter said. "George Lucas is so proud of us and we are so thankful to him. He is a true visionary."

To mark the occasion, the festival premiered 3D versions of "Toy Story" and "Toy Story 2," which are set for theatrical release in the U.S. later in the fall. Children given a rare invite to the festival usually reserved for adults grabbed up free kites and posed next to a life-size model of Woody made out of Legos. Some came dressed as scouts, in homage to Russell.

Pixar merged with Disney three years ago, making Lasseter chief creative for both Pixar and Disney animation, where he is reintroducing hand-drawn animation.

"I felt like if there is a studio in the world who should be doing the highest quality hand-drawn animation, it is the studio that started it all, Disney," Lasseter said.

A few minutes of the first project, "The Princess and the Frog," was screening Sunday evening at Venice, marking the first time it will be seen outside of Pixar, Lasseter said.

An upcoming Pixar film breaks the studio mold of male characters as the central protagonist after its successful string of beloved male figures, from Nemo to Woody to Lightning McQueen. Lasseter said "The Bear and the Bow" is Pixar's first fairy tale, a mother-daughter story set in Scotland and directed by filmmaker Brenda Chapman.

"We believe very strongly in having really strong female characters," Lasseter said, then explaining why it hasn't happened yet: "I mean you are looking at a bunch of guys up here."

taken from : China Daily

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