Funny People (2009)

The inner demons of unhappiness, anger, competitiveness, sexual insecurity, and fear that eat the soul of an outwardly successful professional comedian are of keen interest to other comedians, their mothers, their shrinks, and maybe even their mothers' shrinks. It's the rest of us who are left out of Funny People, Judd Apatow's furiously anguished — and,at 145 unshaped minutes, quantifiably endless — tragi-comedy about a sad showbiz clown and his ilk.

Of course, characters and dramas built around the anger that fuels the funny constitute a venerable black-humor subgenre: W.C. Fields reveled in the muck, and the jolting movies The King of Comedy and The Entertainer made art out of the emotional contradictions of professional comics. But Funny People is a less successful stab at explaining jerks who make jokes. The movie, deeply personal to its maker, is too self-absorbed to convey effectively the emotional complexity that Apatow has in mind. The message that comes across is: We're all screwed, and then we die. Ba-DUM.

Adam Sandler plays George Simmons, a comedy superstar whose comfortable routines of swinging-bachelor affluence (interrupted only by high fives from adoring fans) are upended when he's diagnosed with a malignant blood disease. Not funny! There's nothing like a fatal illness to harsh a mellow, even in sunny California. And Sandler works the territory with the same fascinating intensity and daring disregard for likability he brought to his great work in the anti-funny Punch-Drunk Love. Lonely and vulnerable, George plucks Ira (Seth Rogen), a struggling up-and-coming comic, to be his assistant. His joke writer. His paid-companion-to-sit-with-him-while-he-falls-asleep. All of the above. The ailing star also asks Ira to invite Ira's roommates and fellow comedians (Jason Schwartzman and Jonah Hill) to write material for George, too. But Ira doesn't convey that part of the news: Maybe he's annoyed because, as played by the newly trim Rogen, the character is required to endure his pals' tedious jokes about his healthy physique, as if he broke the rules of the schlub club.

Funny People is like that: Men who are at ease with comedy and uneasy in life behave badly, selfishly, and inconsistently in sickness and in health. (Even when his prognosis brightens, George retains the symptoms of a schmuck.) But guys aren't the only losers in Apatow's cosmos. As Laura, the love of George's life who left him years ago to marry a better, nonshowbiz type (a funny, feisty, hotcha Eric Bana good for Laura!) and raise an adorable family, Leslie Mann dutifully represents all women who have ever loved a charming, unreliable guy and given up while waiting for him to ripen. Laura is a thankless role to play — she's her own kind of flighty cuckoo — but at least she's allowed to be a married adult. The only other female of any consequence is Daisy (newcomer Aubrey Plaza), a deadpan girl comic in the mordant Janeane Garofalo mode. In a twisted take on postfeminism, Daisy stands by her right to sleep with famous men simply because they're famous.

To promote Funny People, Universal is pushing the angle that Apatow, who wrote and directed The 40 Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up, is one of today's most pop-culturally attuned dramatists, specializing in the funny anxieties of talkative boy-men. (Said anxieties include sex, women, commitment, adulthood, regular working hours, and societally mandated norms of hygiene.) The come-on is that the movie assembles a great party of popular actors who have become famous by associating with Apatow — among them Rogen, Mann, and Hill — and then raises the stakes: Look, it's Sandler, grand master of a parallel school of boy-man comedy, in the lifelike leading role of a rich and famous star! For a kick, other famous comedians (e.g., Paul Reiser, Sarah Silverman, Ray Romano) and one famous rap musician from Detroit (Eminem) appear as themselves.

But the stars twinkle like distractions. And in his long, sobering story without a punchline, Judd Apatow confounds three crowds: traditional Sandler fans expecting goofy sweetness, Virgin/Knocked Up boosters hoping for raunchy fun, and connoisseurs of movies, however offbeat, that know (as professional funny people say) how to kill.

Adam (2009)

The title character of Max Mayer's Adam is a 29-year-old electronics engineer with Asperger's syndrome — and yes, he is one of those charming, saintly, afflicted movie misfit child-men. He's played by British heartthrob Hugh Dancy, who never got the credit he deserved for romancing Isla Fisher with debonair understatement in Confessions of a Shopaholic. The way Dancy portrays Adam (with great skill), he's a hermetically shy, overgrown whiz kid who's like Forrest Gump with a touch of Norman Bates and the look of an elegantly skinny framed Jake Gyllenhaal.
Out on his own for the first time (in the opening scene, he attends his dad's funeral), Adam has little company beyond a freezer full of macaroni-and-cheese dinners, and his conversation consists mostly of nattering, to whoever will listen, about his favorite topic: the origins of the universe. He's got a makeshift planetarium set up in his New York brownstone, and when he starts to go on about star systems and black holes, he can get a little possessed. The shrewdest thing about Dancy's performance is that even when he makes eye contact, he doesn't quite make eye contact. Adam soaks up information, but he can't hear irony, jokes, or subtext; he can't feel what other people are saying. He lives inside his head, and Dancy lets you see how Adam experiences his thoughts — which are mostly sensible, by the way — as if they were physical sensations knocking his body around. In reality, Asperger's syndrome includes a vast range of traits, but in Adam it's nothing more (or less) than a heightened form of solipsism.

The mild charm of Adam — and what makes it, at times, a piece of borderline kitsch — is that it's an affliction movie in which the hero's handicap is so much less severe than it is in, say, Rain Man or Charly that the film frequently seems a bit daffy for placing it so front and center. When Adam meets his new downstairs neighbor, a sweetheart of a grade-school teacher played by Rose Byrne (Damages), Adam begins to turn into one of those dramas in which a completely normal girl falls for a weirdly withdrawn guy because...there wouldn't be a movie otherwise. I know, I know: We're supposed to see all the love that Adam has bottled up inside. But it's hard to buy this relationship even for a moment. Adam is sweet, meticulous, and, at times, sort of clever, but it's also a not-quite-surprising-enough heartwarming trifle.

Thirst (2009)

Did you hear the one about the Korean priest who becomes a vampire? All he wants is to do good for humanity, so he volunteers for an experimental vaccine to treat a deadly 
blood disease. Next thing you know, he's one of the undead, revered by the populace for the 
apparent miracle of his healing — and wrestling with bloody appetites inflamed by proximity to a beautiful, unhappy young woman who's the wife of his childhood friend. This devout man's idea of a good drink is one of the transfusion bags hanging in the hospital where he prays for the souls of the wretched. Off duty, he drains their precious bodily fluids.

There's more, much more in Thirst, a gaudy, daring, operatic, and bloody funny provocation of a melodrama from Park Chan-wook. The stylistically elegant bad boy of Korean cinema (auteur of the revenge trio Oldboy, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, and Lady Vengeance) makes clever leaps between longings of the spirit and desires of the flesh, as well
 as between the traditions and strictures of old Korean culture and the lures and confusions of the new. As the thirsty priest, Song Kang-ho, a regular Park repertory player and Korea's leading movie star, looks great whether he's covered with pustules or naked and clear-skinned, lusting for flesh. And in the role of a miserable wife dominated by her bossy mother-in-law, former beauty-pageant winner Kim Ok-vin bursts into demented, aroused radiance once bitten by the thirsty priest. As ever, the filmmaking in Thirst is gorgeous, every shot a keeper, even as blood flows in rivers and hell beckons.

Sexy Gisele Bundchen loses the baby bump

Supermodel Gisele Bundchen is pregnant or is she? Well, technically she is but not according to her recent promotional shots for fashion company London Fog.

Despite acknowledging that her bump was sexy, Dari Marder a representative for the company has admitted to airbrushing out any signs of her impending motherhood.

He said: “Although Gisele was photographed while pregnant, most of the shots have been retouched to respect her privacy during this wonderful and personal time in her life.'

This is the first high profile campaign the Brazilian beauty has done since her pregnancy was revealed in June and comes hot on the heels of news that Bar Refaeli has replaced her as the face of Rampage, another fashion label.

Marder added “Nobody is sexier or more beautiful than Gisele Bundchen in nothing but a London Fog trench coat, even with her visible baby bump.”

Gisele proved his point as the shots show her wearing only that and looking stunning.

No going back for Jessica Simpson

Jessica Simpson is single for now after her less than amicable split from Dallas Cowboy Quarterback Tony Romo but it seems that everyone is just dying for Jessica to find love again even if that means rewinding.

Firstly, there were rumors about her getting back together with her ex Nick Lachey who has also recently split from Vanessa Minnillo but Nick nixed that idea.

"I certainly have heard about her breakup and I wish her the best, as I’ve always done. Aside from that, there really is nothing to say" said Nick

When asked if he had been in touch with Jessica, he replied "I haven't talked to her in probably two years. I wish her happiness. That’s where it pretty much ends."

So then where do idol matchmakers head next? Well to her other famous ex of course, rumors have been circling that John Mayer (yes, Jennifer Aniston’s ex) is hoping that Jessica will fall back into his arms.

However, this again is just wishful thinking as made clear by Mayer’s buddy Rob Drydek. Who said “absolutely not” when asked about the likelihood of a reunion.

So for now, Jessica Simpson is footloose and fancy free, spending time with her family and girlfriends and working out like a demon with her old trainer Harley Pasternak who also trains other celebs such as Halle Berry and Eva Mendes.

Jessica has reportedly shed 10 pounds in 10 days since she got serious about her diet and exercise and we can’t wait to see the results and the NEW guy.

Megan Fox wants to date you

The stunning Transformers actress says her experiences as a fan and a star at San Diego Comic-Con have made her realize just what a lovely lot comic book fans are.

“I have been a few times and even though there are a lot of guys here, they are always very polite and very kind,” explains Megan. “Maybe it’s because I’m a geek too but the guys you meet here are very nice and very appreciative of what you do.”

Megan Fox, 23, recently described herself as a tomboy, who gets on much better with guys than girls.

“I actually only had one female friend growing up,” she said. “Most of my friends were boys. I was such a tomboy. I always enjoyed doing guy things.

One guy that Megan definitely doesn’t want to befriend is the ‘gentleman’ who asked her to star in his sex tape.

Fox was at Comic-con promoting her upcoming film supernatural western Jonah Hex, when a fan stepped up to ask a surprising question.

"I have a Sony HVR. It's not a true HD, but it gives a pretty good image," said the man conspicuously. "Anyway, my question is: I just graduated film school and I'm trying to help my career. I was wondering if you'd be interested in some kind of, like, celebrity sex tape?"

His answer was in the form of security promptly escorting him off the premises.

The Cove (2009)

Most documentaries strive for drama, and a few, like Man on Wire, achieve suspense. But The Cove is the rare documentary specifically designed as a thriller. It follows Richard O'Barry, a renegade knight of the marine world, as he attempts to get near a heavily guarded cove in Taiji, Japan, where the secret killing of dolphins for food and profit has been going on for years. O'Barry intends to record this atrocity for the world to see, and so he and his team sneak in at night to plant cameras, hiding them inside of fake rocks. O'Barry has the fevered look of Richard Widmark, and the cove-infiltration scenes give you that full-on, night-vision-goggles, look, we've been spotted! thriller treatment. They're exciting to watch, though you can feel how hard the movie 
is working to turn a vital ecological subject into crowd-pleasing entertainment.

Nearly 50 years ago, O'Barry trained the dolphins on Flipper, and he came to deplore their capture (one of the show's dolphins died in his arms — from depression, he says). His crusade to rescue them comes off as both righteous and quixotic. The Cove doesn't always give you the facts you want (how harmful is the Taiji slaughter to the world dolphin population?). Yet its images of blood in the water are worth a thousand preachy words. The movie forces you to ask: Are some creatures really too sensitive and beautiful to kill?

Flame & Citron (2009)

You can feel the shadow of Steven Spielberg's Munich hovering over Flame & Citron, a Danish drama of resistance fighters in Copenhagen during WWII. Flame (Thure Lindhardt), a boyish redhead, and his short-fused right-hand man, Citron (the terrific scowler Mads Mikkelsen, from Casino Royale), are underground assassins who walk a tightrope between justice and vengeance.

They have signed on to kill Danish collaborators, but they're ensnared by the murky loyalties of the resistance itself.



Director Ole Christian Madsen combines sharp scenes of moral inquiry with a few too many functional, oldfangled espionage twists.

Lorna's Silence

From the outstanding Belgian filmmakers Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne (Rosetta), here's another closely observed, sociologically astute, and amazingly naturalistic drama about moral compromise as a by-product of economic need. Lorna, an Albanian woman living in Belgium (played by the captivating Arta Dobroshi), sets out to achieve her capitalist dream of opening a snack bar with her Albanian boyfriend by letting a mobster broker a sham marriage to a local junkie (Jérémie Renier) for Belgian citizenship.

As she ditches him to wed a Russian thug willing to pay big for his own legal entrée, Lorna's Silence becomes a stunning study of one desperate woman's conscience.

Life Partner

Companionship, togetherness, love… marriage; the phrase ‘Life Partner’ has different connotations for different people. There is someone made for everyone, including Karan, Bhavesh and Jeet.
Karan (Fardeen Khan) and Sanjana (Genelia D’Souza) are madly in love with each other. Marriage is the next step to cement their relationship. But is ‘love marriage’ the right way to be? For Bhavesh (Tusshar Kapoor), his life partner, Prachi (Prachi Desai) comes with the approval of his family. But is ‘arranged marriage’ the way forward?

Is it right to prioritize family over marriage? Does Prachi have to prove herself as a worthy daughter-in-law to qualify as an ideal wife?

Jeet (Govinda) is an accomplished divorce lawyer who does not believe in the institution of marriage. He can’t be monogamous and is often responsible for his getting his clients divorced. But is ‘no marriage’ the right policy? Will Jeet ever find a partner and accept matrimony?

‘Life Partner’ is about three protagonists struggling on the marital marathon but on different tracks - three good friends with three different approaches to life.

Produced by noted director duo Abbas-Mustan, shot in plush South Africa, and directed by comedy king, Rumi Jafri, ‘Life Partner’ is a non-stop laugh riot with its heart in its place.

Kim Kardashian rubbishes infertility reports

Kim Kardashian has taken to her blog for rubbishing claims that she can’t have children.

Kardashian's fertility has been at the centre of speculation after she gave an interview to People.com, admitting she would love to adopt.

The 28-year-old socialite slammed online gossips for "twisting" her words and insisted that the reports are “totally false”.

"It's been reported online that I can’t have children of my own and that’s totally false. I said I would love to have my own children. If I weren’t able to then adopting might be an option,” Contactmusic quoted her as writing on her official website.

“How does that translate into I cannot have kids!? If you read anything online saying I can''t have children, those are totally false stories.

“Some media outlets are just taking what I said to People.com and twisting it!" she added.

Jordan wants to have baby with her gay pal

Katie Price a.k.a Jordan says that she would consider having a baby with one of her homosexual friends if she can't find a new man.

The glamour model - who raises three children with estranged husband Peter Andre - is keen to add to her brood and will consider one of her gay pals if she can't find a suitable man.

"I've got two gay friends so if I really want a baby I''ll have one with one of them! They're good-looking guys and I know they would have a baby with me," the Daily Star quoted her as telling Britain's OK! Magazine.

And although she insists she's over her estranged husband Peter Andre, Katie says she wouldn’t mind having another baby with him - because he produces ‘beautiful’ children.

Talking about Andre, the biological father of four-year-old Junior, and two-year-old Princess Tiaamii, and stepfather to seven-year-old Harvey, Katie said, "He’s produced beautiful children. I already have children with him and they're beautiful."

Elisabetta Canalis

Elisabetta Canalis is an Italian model and actress. A popular personality on Italian television, Canalis had very minor roles in the films Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo and Virgin Territory.She was also a "velina" in one of Italy's most popular television shows, Striscia la notizia. In 2007, she hosted the annual music festival, Festivalbar.From May 16, 2009, she is the new co-host of the italian version of Total Request Live.

Vanessa Hudges does not want to be dirty

Vanessa Hudgens might be one of Hollywood’s hottest brightest youngest things and other half to the delectable Zac Efron, but the petite starlet still has to do the cleaning!

The High School Musical actress recently moved into her $2.75 million Tuscan-style California mansion.

But Hudgens admits that it’s tough to keep her new pad neat and clean.

“There is a struggle to keep the place clean,” she sighed. “I’m always in my kitchen scrubbing down the counters and doing the dishes. I understand how my mom feels now.

“I feel completely safe in my house but all my friends are scared for me. And of course I can tell my parents panic a little.”

“The best thing about living alone is being able to have my friends come over whenever.”

She’s sexy

Megan Fox is hot in new horror flick Jennifer's Body. According to her that is.

"I think I'm pretty sexy in it," the starlet said at the Comic-Con press conference for the movie. "The movie is so sexy! You better put on your sexy shoes for this movie!"

In the film, Megan’s character eats people, "there's sort of a hint of, a little bit of a lesbian relationship that happens. There's a girl-on-girl kiss.

"And beyond that, before every kill there is a seduction that occurs," Fox continues. "The boys have to be seduced to get in close enough to the dead girl in order for her to devour them."

Megan found this tougher to film than her current hit Transformers, "there are no robots to distract you from whatever performance I do give. So if it's terrible, you're going to know that it’s terrible!" Fox says. "That of course is intimidating, but I think the character was so much fun for me. And I wasn't really sure what I was doing. I was just trying to have fun with it.

"I sort of felt like I was being able to make fun of my own image, sort of, as to how some people might perceive Megan Fox to be," she continues. "I was just sort of flying freely and I hope some of it worked."

Fox says she loved starring in the flick because "it's so unapologetic and completely inappropriate at all times."

Fox went on to reveal that she doesn’t usually like scary films.

"I actually have a very intense fear of the dark," she admits. "The last horror movie I saw - I think it was called The Tooth Fairy -- was in 2005, and I was 15 years old. After I saw it, I slept with my mother for two weeks afterwards!"

So what made her decide to make a horror film then?

"I think for me, to be able to play something that I would normally be frightened by is really intriguing and interesting," she says.

Watching a scream scene in the movie still horrified her.

"It frightened me, and it shook me up for like five minutes," she admitted when discussing a scream scene in the film, yet she loves frightening us.

"It's cool to see myself being able to scare people, because I'm just a little girl," she says. "Look at me: I'm so sweet!"

A Candie’s girl

When you look at Britney Spears now it’s hard to believe that she was in meltdown just two years ago; from a shambolic performance at the 2007 MTV Music Awards to unforgettable images of a bloated Britney shaving her hair off.
It had all gone so wrong.

Fast forward those 2 years and Britney is back! The svelte, sexy, Southern belle is strutting her stuff on her Circus world tour and sizzling US television screens with her new ad spot for Candie’s shoes.

The soundtrack to the spot is Radar, a song which was on her Blackout album but was never released. Britney was at the Bacara Resort & Spa just north of Santa Barbara shooting the video for Radar earlier this summer.

Actress Leela Naidu is dead

Known as much for her roles in classics like "Anuradha" and "The Householder" as for her ageless elegance, Leela Naidu died here Tuesday after a prolonged illness. She was 69.

Born to an Irish mother and an Indian father, Leela Naidu was crowned Miss India in 1954. Vogue had also named her as one of the 10 most beautiful women in the world along with Maharani Gayatri Devi.

She forayed into films with Hrishikesh Mukherjee's 1960 "Anuradha" as the bored housewife married to an idealistic doctor played by Balraj Sahni. The film didn't do well at the box office, but got the National Award for best film.

In 1962, Leela Naidu was seen in "Ummeed". But it was her role in "Yeh Raaste Hain Pyar Ke" (1963) that got her fame and popularity. Directed by R.K. Nayyar, the movie was based on the K.M. Nanavati vs State of Maharashtra court case. She teamed up with Sunil Dutt in the movie.

In the same year, she was offered a role in the first Merchant Ivory Production "The Householder", which was directed by James Ivory.

After a guest appearance in "The Guru" in 1969, she bid adieu to films to marry, and later divorce, businessman Tikki Oberoi. She later tied the knot with poet Dom Moraes, her childhood sweetheart.

In 1985, she made a comeback on silver screen as a Goan matriarch in Shyam Benegal's "Trikaal" and later featured in director Pradip Krishen's 1992

'Grey's Anatomy' exclusive: The George story you'll never see

It's now common knowledge that T.R. Knight declined Grey's Anatomy boss Shonda Rhimes' request to briefly return in season 6 to give his terminal George some closure. “I kind of get it,” the series’ creator says in this week's Entertainment Weekly cover story. “[He’d] emotionally walked away." Fans, however, may not be quite as chill when they hear the killer story she had planned for him. Exclusive details about George O'Malley's lost Grey's Anatomy episode can be found after the jump…

In this fall's season premiere, George will succumb to the injuries he sustained after getting mowed down by that bus in last May's finale. But that wasn't supposed to be the last we saw of him. Says Rhimes, the episode was then going to flash back to the hours during which George was missing, from when he left the hospital to when he returned later on as a disfigured John Doe.

"I wanted to see his last day [alive] really badly," she says. "What I thought was interesting was the idea of, we now know it's the last day of someone's life, [so we’re] looking at it differently than [we] would any other time."

Viewers would have also seen firsthand how George's split-second decision to save that girl's life cost him his own. "I wanted to see the moment he leapt in front of the bus," Rhimes confirms. "I wanted to bookend the episode [so that] the first time you see him leap in front of the bus, it's really scary. But the second time you see it, he's a hero.

"I thought it would have been a beautiful episode," she continues, adding that, had we seen those missing hours, "We might have learned something new about George."

Although disappointed she wasn't able to tell that story, Rhimes insists she's content with how George's five-year arc concluded. "We really got to see him grow up," she says. "It really does feel like we watched a full evolution of a character, and we feel good about that."

Sex tape scenes in Hilton's biography shock her mom

Paris Hilton's mother was shocked when she watched her daughter's documentary because the makers included scenes from the socialite's infamous sex tape.

Kathy said it was "hard" for them to see it.The hotel heiress is the focus of "Paris, Not France", a behind-the-scenes movie about the star's life that was made three years ago.The picture premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in France earlier this year and will make its TV debut in America Tuesday.Hilton's mother Kathy watched the documentary at a preview screening, but she wasn't prepared to see footage of her eldest daughter engaging in sex acts with ex-lover Rick Salomon in the notorious 2003 video "One Night In Paris"."I didn't know (the sex tape) was going to be in it. It's very tough. I can't believe they kept that part in there.


I thought they kept that part out. It's very hard for us to watch," Kathy told E! Online.

Sandra wants boob job to look like bimbo

Actress Sandra Bullock wants to get a cosmetic surgery done to enhance her twin assets in order to look like a bimbo."I need surgery. I'm getting some boobs. I think that's my problem. All my brains are in my butt, they're not in my chest,” she said jokingly.She said: "I want to be the bimbo, I want to be looked at as the bimbo, purely as a sexual object. I've been working for that for a very long time."The beauty also revealed that she needs to exercise regularly to remain in shape, but that does not stop her from eating fatty foods, she generally craves for, reports an entertainment news agency.She added: "I don't believe in denying myself anything. If I can be good during the week, then at the weekend I can eat whatever I want.""I love good food. I love pastas and cheeses and a nice glass of wine. I love good clean, hearty food. But a steak, and a great glass of wine, there's nothing better than that - some homemade French Fries and a big bowl of ice-cream."

Ali Larter

Bipasha’s Hollywood film plans to fizzle out?

Just few days back there were tabloid reports about Bipasha Basu’s first Hollywood project starring Titanic villain Billy Zane, going on floors. But now news has trickled in that the project is being scrapped. It was to begin shooting tomorrow on Saturday July 25th. It is learnt that Smita Thackeray who was to produce this film has now backed out with reasons being cited as personal and professional.

This yet untitled film was to be directed by David Silverman and was to feature Bipasha in Angelina Jolie’s Lara Croft avatar. This romantic thriller was going to be shot in Kodaikanal and had actor Rajvirr of Kaise Kahen (2007) fame playing Bipasha’s second love interest. The film was to have Bipasha doing some intense love making scenes with both Billy and Rajvirr. Rumor mills suggest- the Rajvirr’s choice as the male lead wasn’t being appreciated and Smita Thackeray was adamant about him playing the role.

However now that Smita has backed out from the film, it only means that for now Bipasha’s dream of going international has come to a standstill, at least for now. Though for a long time now both Bipasha and her boyfriend John Abraham have been trying to go international but the plans are simply not working out.

Julia Roberts scrubs temple floors

Oscar winner Julia Roberts of the Pretty Woman fame is gearing up for her next role as a country hopping hippie in search of ‘everything’ for her upcoming “Eat, Pray, Love” movie. “Eat, Pray, Love”, a book by Pushcart Prize winner Elizabeth Gilbert with the tagline, “One woman’s search for everything across Italy, India, and Indonesia,” is being made into a feature film. In the book, a spirituality memoir, she (played by Julia Roberts in the movie) scrubs the temple floors as part of her devotional duty; and it talks about her struggles with a 182-verse Sanskrit chant, her attempt to meditate while being feasted on by mosquitoes, etc. A critic has defined it as “the worst in Western fetish of Eastern thought and culture”. Production Company of Oscar nominated Brad Pitt (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) will produce the film, which will be directed by Emmy nominated Ryan Murphy (Nip-Tuck). Other stars include Oscar winner Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men), Oscar nominated Richard Jenkins (The Visitor), etc

Saif-Deepika kisses escape Censor scissors

Saif Ali Khan’s home production Love Aaj Kal has cleared the Censor hurdle with just one cut even though the film has, believe it or not, five kisses between Saif and Deepika Padukone.

However, since the kisses were shot aesthetically, the board did not find them vulgar or offensive. Rather, the Regional Officer of the Censor Board describes the kisses as “cute”.

“There are about five kisses in the film but they are not heavy-duty kissing scenes as such,” the Regional Officer is quoted as saying.

Incidentally, none of the kisses between Saif and Deepika in the film extend more than a few seconds. The Board official calls them mere “cute pecks on the lips”.

Even Imtiaz Ali, the film’s director has insisted that there’s nothing in ‘Love Aaj Kal’ that the family crowd would find offensive or repulsive.

Only one dialogue in the entire film was asked to be deleted by the Censor Board.

The film, set for release on July 31, has been cleared with a U/A certificate.

Katrina Kaif says no to 'Life Partner'

Katrina Kaif is not interested in Life Partner, the movie, that is. The film, starring Fardeen Khan, Genelia D'Souza, Tusshar Kapoor and Prachi Desai is a story of modern-day couples. Katrina was sought for a cameo appearance opposite Govinda, the only male actor without a heroine in the film.

Director Rumi Jaffrey expected that Katrina, who’d played a full-fledged romantic role opposite Govinda in David Dhawan’s Partner, would be excited about the cameo with Chi Chi. But the actress didn’t have any time to spare for the cameo.

No, she wasn’t busy working on some other film. Rather, she’s in London for her birthday and family reunion.

The director says waiting for Katrina would have meant delaying the wrap-up shoot of the movie since most of the shooting has already been done. And since producers Abbas-Mastan wanted to release the film mid-August and not postpone it, the idea to rope in Katrina for the cameo was dropped.

In her place Amrita Rao was roped in. A few days back, Amrita shot a few scenes and a song with Govinda for the film.

Amrita is already catching a lot of attention for her sexy makeover in Short Kut - The Con Is On.

Babe versus Baba - Celina Takes On Yoga Guru

Celina Jaitley is breathing fire nowadays. The reason? She has come under attack for her unflinching support to gay rights from none other than the Yoga guru Baba Ramdev who has petitioned against de-criminalising homosexuality.

In a recent newspaper interview, Baba Ramdev said about Celina: “These actresses know nothing about Bhartiya sanskriti. They stay away from their parents and have no morals. Woh toh har mahine partners badalti hai, ussey bharatiya sanskriti ke baarey mein kya maaloom? (She changes partners every month, what does she know about Indian culture?)”

This remark labeling Celina as promiscuous has angered the actress who’s taken up cudgels against the Baba in the media.

Firstly, Celina claims that the Baba who claims to know more about her sex life than she does could not be a true Brahamachari (celibate). Secondly, she claims that by outraging her modesty, the Baba has shown he has no respect for women.

“For a brahamachari, every woman is 'Maa' and nowhere in 'bharatiya sanskriti' is it written or practiced that you can make sexually motivated comments on any girl,” Celina is quoted as saying in a media report.

Though Celina does credit Baba for revival of yoga in the present day and age, she adds that doing so doesn’t make him “Samaaj Ka Thhekedaar”.

Celina also doesn’t agree with Baba Ramdev’s assertion that homosexuality is a disease and he can cure it.

Negar Khan enters the jungle

Nigar Khan, the hot babe known for her tops slipping down on the ramps and swimming topless with handsome hunks, is springing back into action. No, she’s not signed a big banner Bollywood movie, but has been roped in for the new television show ‘Iss Jungle Se Mujhe Bachao’.

The move has apparently been made to boost the show’s TRPs which have been below expectations. On top of it, several participants have been complaining about the conditions in which they are made to live in the jungle.

Now, Nigar is set to join the group at the Taman Negara rainforests where the show is being shot.

Nigar will be seen on the show from Monday onwards.

The busty babe has worked in a couple of music videos and acted in B-grade films like jaanleva, Double Cross: Ek Dhoka, ‘The Bachelor’ and Hello? Kaun Hai!. She was married to small-time actor Sahil Khan for some time.

Body double bares butt for Mallika

Mallika Sherawat is bold but not enough to bare her butt to camera. So when it came to shooting a scene for her movie Hissss in which her character of a Naagin who transforms into a woman needed to be shown with nude derriere, a body double was called in.

According to Mallika’s brother, who is also the co-producer of the film, the decision to use the duplicate was taken by director Jennifer Lynch.

Since the actress’s character is shown baring her butt a couple of times in the film, the director apparently thought it better to rope in a body double rather than the actress dropping her clothes.
Now, it remains to be seen whether these nude scenes will clear the Censor hurdle.
Irrfan Khan, who is Mallika’s co-actor in the film, has said in a media report that the Censor Board should rate ‘Hisss’ from a different standard. Not just Mallika, even he has a lovemaking scene with Divya Dutta in the movie. However, there’s no nudity in that scene.

Perfect Mismatch (2009)

Powered by: Chakpak.com	Perfect Mismatch

Meet the Fockers. Oops... Meet Mr. Patel and Mr. Bhalla. They have a problem with each other. One is a Gujarati, the other is a Punjabi.

Agreed, there are people who don't believe in marrying outside their community, but stories like these are passé. They no longer make for interesting experiences on celluloid.

PERFECT MISMATCH, honestly, is a complete mismatch. The story is just not convincing and what makes matters worse is the fact that the lovers don't do a thing to bring the two warring papas together. Frankly, this one's an amateurish attempt.

Final word? Imperfect!

Aman [Anubhav Anand], an architect, bumps into Neha [Nandana Sen]. Love blossoms. But sparks fly when their families meet. The differences between hyper-vibrant Mr. Bhalla [Anupam Kher] and the rigidly-conventional Mr. Patel [Boman Irani] are apparent in their very first meeting.

Disapproval inevitably comes when the two fathers lock horns, but the lovebirds, true to their feelings, must find a way to bring their families together...

Baring a few individualistic sequences, nothing works in PERFECT MISMATCH. The differences between the two fathers are too trivial and flimsy. The lovers realise that their respective fathers don't see eye to eye, but they don't do a thing to iron out their differences.

Most importantly, most lovers of today wouldn't sob, sulk and go into a shell if their parents were against their match. They would defy all odds to get together, right? In this case, they reconcile to their fate and remain passive spectators all through.

Ajmal Zaheer Ahmad's direction is bad and so is the writing. The cinematography is just about okay.

Anupam Kher is the sole actor who has a well-defined role. Boman Irani gets limited scope. Also, his change of heart could've been more convincing. Anubhav Anand sparkles in a scene or two, while Nandana Sen is passable.

On the whole, PERFECT MISMATCH has no scope.

Paris Hilton inspired Michael Jackson

While attending the premiere of her MTV documentary Paris, Not France, Paris Hilton revealed to Extra that Michael Jackson's daughter was named after her:

"My mom and Michael went to high school together and they were best friends since they were 13," Paris explains. "So I grew up knowing Michael very well and when he had his daughter, he always loved the name Paris and grew up being an uncle to me. So he asked my mom if it was okay and of course she said yes and I think she's such a beautiful little girl and I'm proud we have the same name."

Kathy Hilton is the same age as Michael Jackson(50) and was one of the close family and friends who were invited to the singer’s public memorial in Los Angeles earlier this month.

So could this be true, was Paris Jackson really named after Paris Hilton? If so, that’s one mystery surrounding Michael Jackson solved, only a million more to go.

Kareena Kapoor - the fashionable diva!

Kareena Kapoor, the style icon of Bollywood, has a list of places to visit in search of good fashion. “I have to...I’ve no choice. I’m looked at as a fashion statement,” says Bebo.
Right now, Kareena has plans to visit fashion destinations like Milan, Paris, London and New York in search of world-class fashion to stock up her wardrobe. “It becomes tiring for everything I wear to be in the media glare. I constantly need to be well-dressed,” says the actress.

Her recent release Kambakkht Ishq saw her flaunting costumes and accessories from ace designers, right from Prada to Cavalli. Kareena entirely gives the credit to designer Aki Narula for her chic, uptown, very stylish look in KI. “He went shopping for my clothes and accessories. This may be a film, but I’ve never worked harder in terms of styling…”

She is again working with Aki in Qurbaan and is full of admiration for the designer who has given her a different, special look in the movie. If it’s Aki in ‘Qurbaan’, she is bonding again with friend-cum-designer, Manish Malhotra for 3 Idiots and the ‘Stepmom’ remake. In fact, for the Indian version of ‘Stepmom’, she plans to cut her hair and to get a new make over.

In ‘Kambakkht Ishq’ she wanted to look larger than life but is equally at ease playing the girl next door like in Jab We Met or Omkara.

And she feels proud to be called “stylish”.
That’s Bebo, right!

Megan Fox is just one of the guys

Megan Fox, the stunning actress, says she is almost always friends with guys rather than girls.

“I actually only had one female friend growing up,” Fox said. “Most of my friends were boys. I was such a tomboy. I always enjoyed doing guy things.

“So I really didn’t get along with the girls in that aspect. My one girlfriend lives in Florida and she works in a mall. She’s the furthest thing from an actress.”

Fox has admitted in the past that she was not in good terms with Lindsay Lohan during the shoot of Disney hit Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen in which the both starred.

The Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen star recently denied claims she turned down a role in the next James Bond film.

“The report about Megan Fox turning down a Bond movie is completely not true,” her rep said. “There have been no discussions nor any offers. Megan is a fan of the Bond movies.”

Fox is attending Comic-Con in San Diego this week, to do publicity for her upcoming films Jonah Hex and Jennifer's Body.

(Photo Credit: Megan Fox in Paramount Pictures' Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen)

Shakira wants to shake her hips with Robert Pattinson

Shakira, said that she is a "big fan" of Twlight and she is 'very intrigued' by Robert Pattinson.

Shakira was being interviewed by MTV and admitted to a little crush on the Robert Pattinson.

Asked if the reason she liked Twilight had to do with 23-year-old actor, she responded, “No, no, no, I’m too old. I can’t say those things.I mean, how old is he - 23? 24? … You are getting me in trouble!”

Asked about a potential collaboration between the two, Shakira said, “I’ve heard he’s a great singer and a great musician. If those rumors are true - yeah, of course, why not?”

Ali Landry Bikini Pictures

Although Ali Landry was partially retired for a while after giving birth about two years ago, she came back to the spotlight looking even better than ever.

Sporting a very toned body, Ali joined the cast of the ABC show Superstars a few months ago where she's been proving her true potential swimming, running and working out always dressed in short shorts and tight tops. Yet it's been hard to catch Ali in a swimsuit and her fans were starting to wonder why.

Finally this past weekend paparazzi caught her in a two piece on the beaches of Malibu, California. And these Ali Landry's bikini pictures prove that her body is as perfect as it ever was. The famous Doritos Girl was spotted playing with her daughter and husband and wearing a revealing red bikini that showed her perfectly trim body and some impressive abs. As you can see, motherhood has left her not only happy and vibrant but also in great shape.

Emma Watson Shows her Boob

Emma Watson better be careful, she's been accidentally showing more and more skin lately and that can lead to some seriously tainted reputation in Hollywood.


The latest Emma episode took place a couple nights ago when the young actress was on her way to a popular London nightclub after attending the London premiere for the latest Harry Potter movie.

Still sitting in her limousine, Emma Watson appeared to be caressing her left boob, which caused her dress to open a little too much, giving us an Almost-Emma-Watson-Nipple-Slip. Granted, no nipple was actually visible here, but you can see Emma Watson's boob here in its entire splendor (minus the nipple)

The Ugly Truth (2009)

Back in the days of Bogart and Bergman, Hepburn and Tracy, it was said that people learned how to fall in love — how to kiss, beguile, or just hold hands — by watching the people in the movies. Today, anyone eager for tips on how to find, and woo, the perfect mate hardly needs to look to Hollywood. Amorous instruction is everywhere — on reality shows; in hipper-than-thou men's and women's magazines; in music videos and stand-up comedy; in ruthless-as-you-gotta-be advice bibles like The Rules (guys are dogs who must be tamed!) and The Game (girls are princesses who must be knocked down!); in that big pink Sex and the City boxed set; in the endless massed shelves of chick lit...

Given all that, it's hardly a surprise to see a romantic comedy in which the two main characters aren't so much human beings as walking, talking extremes of he said/she said psychobabble. In The Ugly Truth, Mike Chadway (Gerard Butler), a ranting Neanderthal philosopher-lout, rises out of the swamp of public-access TV to land a segment, titled ''The Ugly Truth,'' on a local news show in Sacramento. Mike's idea of how to make a relationship work sounds like the braying of Andrew Dice Clay spiced with the hormonal sensitivity of Joe (Girls Gone Wild) Francis. He thinks that men want women to look hot and act hotter, and that women who think they're meant to do anything more are delusional. When Mike, on his new TV gig, leaps into a vat of Jell-O with a pair of wrestling bimbos, it's not because he doesn't believe in 
romance — it's because he thinks that's all romance is.

Mike's producer, Abby Richter (Katherine Heigl), finds Mike and his stripper-pole view of the world abhorrent (as well she should). That, of course, is because she's his opposite number, a control-freak prude who treats her prospective boyfriends as job applicants. She's also obsessed with ''class'' (you know, bistros and galleries). As Mike and Abby bicker and claw, they sound like dueling magazines: When Maxim Met Cosmo. But then, assuming that you've spun past the implausible notion that a local news station would ever hire a horndog firecracker like Mike (or that the viewers would give him a 93 percent positive rating), a second contrivance kicks in: He tries to win Abby over by coaching her on tactics to nail her latest prospect (eat hot dogs suggestively!), even giving her a makeover (more jiggle, shorter skirts). At around this point, the movie turns into When Clueless Met Porky's. Seriously, can you feel the love?

The Ugly Truth was directed by Robert Luketic (Legally Blonde), from a script by Nicole Eastman and the team of Kirsten Smith and Karen McCullah Lutz, the duo who wrote Legally Blonde and The House Bunny. Perhaps because it's less stylized than those films, The Ugly Truth isn't fizzy and fun — it's vacuously snappy. Butler, the gruffly bearded Scottish-born hunk, hasn't done much since leading the Spartans in the semi-digitized war epic 300 (2007); this is the first chance anyone who didn't catch RocknRolla or P.S. I Love You has had to see what he's like in an ''ordinary'' role. To judge from The Ugly Truth, I'd say he's a potato-faced Russell Crowe with a lot less charm. Butler has a jovial twinkle, but because he's working so hard to nail an American accent, he doesn't so much enunciate his words as masticate them. He tears into every scene as if he were devouring a 20-ounce steak.

Heigl, who has mastered the art of acting insecure in order to make her porcelain-doll sexiness seem more offhand, has energy problems of her own. She's not just nervous, she's skittish; she can't relax for long enough to let the audience fall for her. She and Butler certainly generate sexual chemistry: They're both so tightly wired, and attractive in such outsize opposite ways (When Gladiator Met Barbie? Okay, I'll stop), that when they kiss on an elevator, they look as if they can hardly wait to go to bed. But does that mean they're right for each other? Or just ripe for an empty hot fling? Mike thinks that a ''refined'' woman like Abby needs a caveman to shake her up. He also thinks that's a finger in the eye of conventional wisdom. The ugly truth is that it's the ultimate chick-flick cliché.

Anna Friel Topless

Anna Friel's nice, perky and very natural tits are now bare and available for your viewing pleasure inside the latest issue of Vanity Fair.

After rising to fame in Pushing Daisies and Land of the Lost, Anna Friel has become one of England's best known and acclaimed young actresses. And as you can see in this Anna Friel topless picture, she's also extremely talented... at showing her titties and looking pretty!

In her featured interview, she told Vanity Fair: "It's a massive, massive challenge". No, they're not that massive, honey, but they're nice indeed. Oh, wait, she was talking about her work. Yes, I bet it's challenging. Mostly posing in famous jeweler David Morris' pearl, gold and diamond necklace and earrings, which by the way, she got to keep after the shoot.

G-Force (2009)

A family-friendly adventure about animated guinea pigs working as top-secret spies for the U.S. government, shot in Disney 3D and voiced by big-time stars including Nicolas Cage and Penelope Cruz, ought to be funny and kind of cute, right? Would you settle for frantic and loud, with a few lame jokes inserted pertaining to Cruz's Spanish accent? The first 3-D film produced by Jerry Bruckheimer turns out to be similar to 2-D projects from the same noise-making producer—heavy on action scenes and heavy, too, on message: Everyone is special, family is important, and smashed-up stuff looks cool.

Erin Andrews Sex Tape

If you like sports, you're probably familiar with the work and looks of Erin Andrews. And I bet you've secretly wished she had a sex tape.

In that case, your wishes just came true, because blonde bombshell Erin Andrews was just secretly videotaped while walking around naked in her hotel room. Technically it's not an Erin Andrews sex tape, but still, it's sexy, it's a tape, and it features Erin. Whoever made this tape did it by drilling a hole in the hotel wall and filming thru a small peephole.

This persoan is trying to sell the video, but no one wants to buy it. The reason? Being secretly filmed while you unknowingly move around a room in underwear or naked is a clear invasion of privacy and although we would all enjoy watching this tape, nobody wants to get in trouble for buying.

Evan Rachel Wood Naked

i-D Magazine may not be very well known yet, but they're doing their darnest to change that. Including having today's hottest celebrities naked on their pages.


Last month they brought us Lily Allen topless, and in their newest edition (which hasn't even hit the stands yet), they show Evan Rachel Wood naked. Shot by famous photographer Terry Richardson, these photos are actually unpublished images from the same photo shoot that GQ printed last April.

The troubling(?) thing here is that Evan Rachel Wood refused to pose for Playboy, but she's naked in i-D. May be she'd feel dirty posing for a naked magazine willing to pay her a million bucks, but is happy being naked in a non-nude publication for much less. Women, who can understand them!

Orphan (2009)

To really get under your skin, a bad-seed horror movie needs a demon child whose dastardliness sneaks up on you. There's nothing too subtle, however, about Esther (Isabelle Fuhrman), the 9-year-old orphan adopted by the Colemans (Vera Farmiga and Peter Sarsgaard), who are out to put their tragic memories of a stillborn baby behind them. Pigtailed and freckled, Esther dresses like a frumpy Victorian doll, and she's got a thousand-yard stare that could freeze rain. Worse than that, she was born in Russia and speaks with an accent that gets milked, in scene after scene, for its corny, junior-assassin malevolence. It's as if the movie were saying, ''Forget all the Hollywood devil children you've seen — this one's from the land of Putin!'' Esther loses no time smashing animals, then people, with rocks and hammers, and even then she's just getting started. She's so extreme, in fact, that Orphan isn't scary — it's garish and plodding. Farmiga, as the recovering-alcoholic mother, brings the movie a dash of neurotic tension, but the only moments of audience catharsis emerge out of unintended hilarity, such as the creepily incongruous scene in which Esther tarts herself up into an evil baby-beauty-pageant Lolita

Katie Price has no qualms dating a woman

Katie Price has revealed that she does not mind dating a woman after her split with husband Peter Andre.

The hottie, who seems to have reprised her wild alter ego Jordan, had recently expressed her desire to bed soccer stars Frank Lampard and Christiano Ronaldo.
However, she has now hinted that she can turn to women to fulfill her naughty desires.
“No one could ever bet or imagine who I’ll be going out with next. I don’t even know myself. Who knows? It could be a woman. Then they would all be wrong,” the Daily Star quoted her as saying.
Jordan added that she is in talks with filmmakers in LA about being cast in a Baywatch spin-off and Sex And The City 2.

She said, “They want a big-breasted English glamour girl and I have had the audition." Meanwhile, she has launched her raunchy novel, Sapphire.

In the Loop (2009)

The chattering smarty-pants who ran the U.S. government on The West Wing are slow talkers compared with the motormouthed and hilariously imperfect power elite in the brainy British comedy In the Loop. As in The West Wing, public policy, government protocol, and media strategy are at the heart of the matter; the process of diplomacy is as important (and amusing) a source of dramatic energy as the outcome of all those summit meetings and position papers. But the man in charge of this snowballing political mayhem is writer-director Armando Iannucci (a crucial collaborator in the comedy of Steve Coogan in his guise as insufferable TV celeb Alan Partridge), so the tone is scads more acerbic than anything that would have been tolerated in the White House of Jed Bartlet and the scripts of Aaron Sorkin. In the Loop invites its audience to think, and presumes a certain love of Monty Python. Not to mention an appreciation of Dr. Strangelove. Consider the movie — an outgrowth of Iannucci's BBC TV series The Thick of It — an offspring of the great 1980s BBC screwball political comedy series Yes Minister. And consider it a welcome oasis of script literacy in a summer of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

The troubles begin when doltish British government minister Simon Foster (Pirates of the Caribbean's Tom Hollander, always good at conveying twittishness) wanders off point during a TV interview, and in so doing nearly commits Her Majesty's administration to backing a U.S. war in the Middle East. Foster's fumble sends the prime minister's apoplectically irritable director of communications, Malcolm Tucker (Peter Capaldi, master of snarl in a Scottish accent), on an erudite, obscenity-laden rampage of ire that doesn't quit. Foster and Tucker then head to Washington, D.C., to meet with their dingbat American counterparts, including a ballbusting assistant secretary of state with bleeding gums (Mimi Kennedy), a wily Army general (James Gandolfini), and a State Department bigwig (David Rasche) in charge of a secret war committee. Anna Chlumsky does well as a sexy, ambitious aide. And let the record reflect that Gandolfini wears a chestful of medals with honor, representing Army bluntness at its most Yank, especially to Brits who think that hyperarticulate banter is the Empire's gift to peace.

Sienna Miller's parents hate to see her have sex

Brit actress Sienna Miller has revealed that whenever she does not want her father to view sexually explicit movie scenes of hers she just covers up his eyes.

The 27-year-old actress, whose latest film GI Joe will be out in the UK next month, admits that her parents are proud of her work and also offer support.

But Miller is still not able to do away with the embarrassment she feels when she is watching her more X-rated scenes with them in the room.

“My parents are very supportive of my work, but they hate seeing me die, overdose or have sex on screen. I have to cover dad's eyes for those parts!” the Daily Express quoted her as saying.