Martial arts - Bollywood spoiling for a fight

 After bankrolling glamorous cricket and motor sports leagues in India, Bollywood has turned its attention to the world of mixed martial arts with a series of events featuring local fighters squaring off against international opponents.

Actor Sanjay Dutt and entrepreneur Raj Kundra have launched the Super Fight League with events scheduled for Mumbai, Chandigarh and New Delhi.

The first event in Mumbai on March 11 will be headlined by veteran kickboxer and mixed martial artist Bob 'The Beast' Sapp and English fighter James Thompson.

Kundra, who with his actress wife Shilpa Shetty owns the Rajasthan Royals franchise in cricket's Indian Premier League, said the SFL was signing up established MMA fighters from across the world to take on local talent.

"I am very passionate about all sports. I enjoy football, cricket and I have been watching mixed martial arts for the last five years," Kundra told Reuters in an interview. "It is coming for the first time to India and I am confident it will be big."

Kundra accepted that initially it would be difficult to realise financial gains from the full contact combat sport in India but he believed its growing global popularity made it a good long-term investment.

After struggling to gain mainstream acceptance, MMA has become one of the world's fastest growing sports with sponsorship and media revenue starting to pour in.

The U.S.-based Ultimate Fighting Championship, the world's biggest MMA promotion, signed a seven-year multi-media deal with TV network Fox in August that will net a reported $90-100 million in rights annually.

Asian promotion ONE Fighting Championship, which has hefty financial backing from Middle East investors, is also capitalising on MMA's growing popularity and tied up lucrative deals with sponsors and broadcasters across the region.

"Honestly, I am really not doing this because of business since it is not like cricket where you can go, sell and make your money back," Kundra said.

"This is going to be a long-term view and I don't think I am going to really recover anything in the next few years.

"This is more of setting up the brand and then we will go into valuation afterwards."

SPORTS & ENTERTAINMENT

League revenues will come from advertising and sponsors while deals with websites and broadcasters were being worked out, Kundra said. The idea was lucrative enough for established fighters to sign on the dotted line, he added.

"Each fighter has a different deal. The fighters that are contracted to us get X amount of dollars per fight to turn up and next to win," he said.

"The big international fighters could charge anything between $20,000 to $1 million to turn up and fight."

The Indian Premier League dazzled fans with the exciting Twenty20 format, player auctions, post-game parties and heavy advertising.

Celebrity owners play a large part in pumping up the IPL's image and include Reliance Industrieschief Mukesh Ambani, Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan, as well as spirits and airline magnate Vijay Mallya.

Shah Rukh also became the co-owner of the Mumbai franchise in a recently launched motorsport league.

Kundra, whose business ventures and investments range from mining to real estate and renewable energy to entertainment and hospitality, said the SFL would be similar to the cricket league in terms of being an attractive mix of sports and entertainment.

"I own a cricket team and I own this league as well. The biggest difference between the two is that cricket happens over two months and my league will be once a month," he quipped.

"There are 10, 20, 30 movies that get released every month end. So mine let's just say this is another movie that comes out once a month."

(Reuters) -

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Lindsay Lohan "doing it well" on probation

Actress Lindsay Lohan, who is on probation after being convicted for drunk driving and theft, has made good on completing her court-ordered community service and therapy on time, pleasing a judge at a progress hearing on Tuesday.

"Just keep doing what you're doing, and you appear to be doing it well," Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Stephanie Sautner told Lohan at the hearing.

The "Mean Girls" actress, 25, was dressed conservatively in a pale blue cardigan and dark trousers during her the progress report of her second month of a five-month community service sentence at the Los Angeles County morgue, along with taking therapy sessions.

Lohan's next hearing is scheduled for February 22, before which she is required to complete 15 days of community service and five therapy sessions.

If she stays on track, the actress is likely to complete her DUI-related probation by March, and her theft violation will be downgraded to summary, non-supervised probation.

Lohan rose to fame as a likable child star of Disney movies such as "The Parent Trap," but since 2007, she has spent time in rehab and jail after being convicted on drunk driving and drug possession charges.

The actress pleaded no contest, which is the equivalent of guilty, to stealing a gold necklace from a jewelry story in 2011, and was sentenced to 480 hours community service at a L.A. women's detention center and the county morgue.

Lohan's failure to adequately perform that sentence led Sautner to angrily revoke her probation in October and send her to jail. The actress served just over four hours behind bars in November due to overcrowding and was assigned to community service at the county morgue and psychological counseling for the rest of her sentence.

(Reuters) - 

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50 years of Bond cars on show in UK

LONDON: The largest collection of James Bond vehicles in the world opens to the public on Tuesday in Britain featuring classics such as the Aston Martin DBS from "Quantum of Solace."

From earlier Bond films, the Phantom III Rolls-Royce from "Goldfinger" and the Lotus Esprit S1, which takes a trip into the sea with Roger Moore at the wheel in "The Spy Who Loved Me", are also among the 50 vehicles on show.

The "Bond in Motion" show at the National Motor Museum in Beaulieu, southeast England, marks half a century of 007 films.

Also featured are the vintage 1962 Rolls-Royce from "A View To A Kill" which was pushed into a lake by Bond's foes Zorrin and May Day, played by singer Grace Jones, with Bond still inside.

The premiere of the exhibition on Sunday was attended by Bond stars such as Britt Ekland who played Bond's bumbling accomplice Holly Goodnight in "The Man With The Golden Gun."

The exhibition also showcases boats, motorbikes, sledges, jets and parachutes used in Bond films.

Sarah Wright, a spokeswoman for the National Motor Museum, said: "We anticipate many people coming through our doors to come and see one of the most unique exhibitions in the world." (AFP) 

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Iranian movie wins best foreign film at Globes

LOS ANGELES: Iranian movie "A Separation" won the best foreign language film award at the Golden Globes on Sunday, beating rivals from China, Spain and Belgium, as well as Angelina Jolie's directoral debut.

The movie by writer/director Asghar Farhadi tells the story of a married couple facing the dilemma of whether to leave Iran for the sake of their family.

It was up against "The Flowers of War" from China, Belgian movie "The Kid with Bike" ("Le Gamin au Velo"), and "The Skin I Live In" ("La piel que habito") by Spanish veteran Pedro Almodovar.

Hollywood megastar Jolie's first film as director "In the Land of Blood and Honey," set in Bosnia-Hercegovina, was also on the foreign language shortlist as it was and shot bilingually in English and Serbo-Croat. 
SOURCE : GEO

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10 things I hate about Indian soaps

1.    They are endless: Climaxes for these soaps do not exist. One of the characters in a Star Plus soap was shown to have lived through four generations. The director still planned to keep her alive had she not died a real-life death.

2.   There’s no such thing as certain death. Now, as far as I know, when you’re dead, you’re dead. But in Indian soaps a character can die and return as many times as the director wills it.

3.   Once a character is killed off, they may return to the show with a completely new face. Even the height, eye colour, and voice are different. Under some circumstances, the said character returns having suffered memory loss. This character thus remembers nothing except the latest fashion trends, of course.

4.    Endless affairs: In every soap, there must be at least one extra-marital affair, and every extra-marital affair has to produce an illegitimate child. I would have thought that science had progressed enough to take care of that. But it seems that in the world of Indian soaps, the plastic surgeons are much more advanced than the gynaecologists.

5.   Absurdly large families: I am always amazed at how so many people can be accommodated in one house. What is even more surprising is how easily room is made for any added member. Do all middle-class Indians live in palaces?

6.    The crazy math of money: Rich folk can lose their money if they screw up one deal out of the millions they conduct every day. They are shunted to a small house if one of their 50 factories catches fire. Meanwhile, the women may not have beds to sleep in, but they have gold jewellery that they can wear even as they do the dusting and sweeping.

7.   The universal utility of the set: the living room seen in the first soap becomes a restaurant, and 30 minutes later it turns into an office. The same building keeps changing into a club, a bar and even a five-star hotel.

8.    Drum rolls: Whether someone dies or a supposed-to-be-dead person returns (only to attend his/her spouse’s wedding, of course), your eardrums are sure to be pierced. These ear shattering notes follow arguments, slaps, and shocking moments in general.

9.    Non-existent door locks: You live in a huge mansion and you do not have locks on your bedroom door? Some nosy aunty from the family can easily peek into your bedroom when you are getting naughty with your husband’s sister’s husband’s cousin. Surely, a disaster waiting to happen.

10.   The age math. It is beyond me how the son can look older than his mother and younger than his wife. Maybe in the next season, they will all unveil themselves as the Cullens. Now that would be cool, wouldn’t it?

SOURCE : The Express Tribune

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Hrithik Roshan fit again for "Krrish" sequel

His chiselled face and wide smile don't give anything away but just a few months ago, a recurring back problem and fitness issues were plaguing Hrithik Roshan.

The actor, who turned 38 on Tuesday, says realisation dawned when he tried on his super-hero suit from "Krrish" before shooting for the sequel, and found he couldn't fit into it.

"At that point, I thought finished, game over. I can't do 'Krrish' (the sequel) and my back is bad, so I won't be able to do action," Roshan told reporters at his residence on Thursday.

"Depression … I was smoking three packets (of cigarettes) a day. But all that is out of my life now," he said.

The actor said he started a ten-week transformation program, which helped him regain his fitness and lose ten kilos.

"I did it for me, for my life, for health. I feel new," he said.

Roshan said his father had offered to postpone the film by a year till he got his fitness back, but he refused.

"The effort is to achieve a pain-free body. I am damaged goods. Knees are gone, back is gone, shoulders gone, elbows are hurting. But life is all about pain. I'll manage," he said.

Roshan will start shooting for the new film, the third in the super-hero "Krrish" series after he finishes promoting his next release, Karan Malhotra's "Agneepath".

The film, a remake of the 1990 Mukul Anand film of the same name, will open in cinemas on January 26, and sees Roshan revamping Amitabh Bachchan's role in the original.

Roshan said his first instinct was to say no to "Agneepath" because he is against the idea of remakes, but then he changed his mind on hearing Malhotra's script.

"His script managed to go through the layers and touch an actor with pre-conceived notions. As an audience, it touched me. I had to do it," he said.

(Reuters) - 

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Madonna not totally sharing the love with Lady Gaga?

Lady Gaga has been up front about her admiration for Madonna. But does Madonna share the love?

The "Material Girl" sounded lukewarm in U.S. interviews released on Friday, calling her influence on Gaga's music "interesting" and "amusing." Sometimes.

"I certainly think she references me a lot in her work. And sometimes I think it's amusing and flattering and well done," Madonna, 53, told ABC News in a television interview.

"There's a lot of ways to look at it. I can't really be annoyed by it...because obviously, I've influenced her," the pop star told ABC.

The comparisons between the two divas, both known for combining provocative stunts with catchy dance-pop hits, came to a head when Gaga released her "Born This Way" single last February.

The song was instantly likened to Madonna's 1989 hit "Express Yourself".

"When I heard it on the radio .I said that sounds very familiar," Madonna said. Asked if that felt annoying, Madonna responded, "It felt reductive."

Pressed by ABC interviewer Cynthia McFadden whether that was a good or bad thing, Madonna replied "look it up".

In a separate interview in the upcoming issue of Newsweek, Madonna described "Born This Way" as "a wonderful way to redo my song."

"I mean, I recognized the chord changes. I thought it was... interesting," she added.

"Born This Way" became an instant hit for Lady Gaga, 25, topping the charts in 19 countries and becoming the fastest selling song in iTunes history.

The Grammy-winning singer told U.S. talk show host Jay Leno in February that she was Madonna's "hugest fan personally and professionally."

As for "Born This Way", Gaga told Leno; "The good news is that I got an e-mail from her (Madonna's) people, and her sending me their love and complete support on behalf of the single."

(Reporting By Jill Serjeant; Editing by Piya Sinha-Roy) (Reuters) - 

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‘Smart TVs’ offer new windows onto the Internet

LAS VEGAS: Goodbye boob tube. Hello smart TV.

The world’s obsession with tapping into the Internet is being played out on the biggest screen in the house, with software startups, TV makers, and technology titans such as Google and Microsoft adding momentum to the trend.

Even the beloved firm behind iPads and iPhones is expected to weigh in soon with a revamped version of an Apple TV system that it has long called a hobby.

The Consumer Electronics Show that ends Friday in Las Vegas is brimming with companies large and small betting that “smart TVs” will quickly take over living rooms.
“The television is rapidly becoming the gateway of content from the Internet,” Sony executive deputy president Kazuo Hirai said during a CES presentation.

Samsung, Sony, and LG are among major industry players that unveiled new smart TVs at the show.

South Korea-based LG announced it is making its own chips to beef-up TVs with online capabilities along with gesture and voice controls.

“Since the start of the smart TV revolution we’ve found that industry chip sets have held us back from offering high performance,” said LG Electronics chief technical officer Scott Ahn.

“Starting this year we will apply our own L line chips to a premier TV line.”LG has joined a small cadre of manufacturers building televisions synched to the Internet with Google TV software.

Google TV launched in 2010 but has yet to gain momentum in the market.

“We believed we have some great technologies that would make a Google LG a popular choice,” Ahn said.

“Our technology coupled with the Google TV platform will form the basis of a strong long-term relationship with Google.” Internet pioneer Yahoo! kicked off the trend at CES three years ago, with “widgets” embedded in Connected TV models to link them to online services the way “apps” link mobile gadgets to games, video or other Internet content.

More than eight million TVs with Yahoo! widgets have been bought and sales are accelerating as the technology improves and more sets come with wireless Internet connections, according to Connected TV director Russell Schafer.

“The next stage is really about engagement; providing relevant content,” Schafer told AFP.

Frequency and Shodogg were among startups at CES out to make names for themselves by helping people navigate, sort or share the dizzying amounts of video available once TVs link to the Internet.

Los Angeles-based Frequency released iPad and Internet browser versions of a service that lets people program channels based on their interests.

“You can create a personal TV Guide, basically,” Frequency chief executive Blair Harrison said, as he demonstrated the technology on an iPad.

“I can watch Facebook, TMZ, TED… as if they were video channels, or make channels on any particular topic.”Frequency applications are free, and the software will be embedded in Samsung televisions this year, according to Harrison.

“When I come home I want to turn on the TV and have it say ‘Hello Blair, here is what you want to watch’,” he said of where smart televisions were heading.

“I don’t want it to tell me the channel it was on when I turned it off, which is what it does now.”New York-based Shodogg launched a service that lets people “fetch, toss, and share” online video wirelessly across all kinds of devices, from smart televisions to tablets or smartphones.

“You can be watching video at home, toss it to your mobile device and finish watching it on public transit,” Shodogg chief innovation officer Rajiv Lulla said at the startup’s booth on the CES show floor.

“If you want to share the content with your kids in the next room or your grandmother living in India, you can do that, as long as they are connected.”The Shodogg application is free, with the company making its money by sharing in revenue from advertising in video routed through the service.

SOURCE : DAWN

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Online RISK game lets Facebook users conquer world

SAN FRANCISCO: US videogame superpower Electronic Arts is sending Facebook members out to conquer the world with a humor-infused version of the classic strategy board game RISK.

The game – in which players march across the globe and seize territory with the goal of world domination – has been re-designed for Facebook, with on-screen characters including zombies, cats, donkey cannons, and mermaids.

“RISK: Factions for Facebook” is based on versions of the game released in 2010 for play at Microsoft Xbox Live and Sony PlayStation Network, two online entertainment services.

“Fans of the classic game will find familiar features such as dice-based combat, iconic maps, and the player turn sequence of reinforcing troops, attacking and fortifying territories,” EA said in a statement.

SOURCE : DAWN

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"Harry Potter," Katy Perry big People's Choice winners

LOS ANGELES: "Harry Potter" cast a spell at the People's Choice awards on Wednesday on a night that also saw big wins for singer Katy Perry at the start of the Hollywood awards season.

"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2" -- the last installment of the hit movie franchise about the British boy wizard -- won four awards, including best movie and favorite ensemble cast.

Perry won five trophies, including best female music artist, favorite song for "E.T." and favorite tour headliner. But the perky "Firework" pop star pulled out of Wednesday's live TV ceremony at short notice, following her split with British comedian Russell Brand two weeks ago after 14 months of marriage.

The People's Choice is the earliest of Hollywood's glittering annual awards shows. But unlike the Oscars or the Golden Globes, the People's Choice winners are determined by fans and provide few insights to the likely winners of the movie industry's highest honors in February.

The "Harry Potter" stars did not make the trip from Britain to the awards show in Los Angeles so none of their wins were announced on the two-hour televised ceremony.

Female romp "Bridesmaids" won best comedy movie and Johnny Depp picked up the best actor award.

Emma Stone, 23, took the trophies for both movie actress and favorite comedy actress for her roles in civil rights era film "The Help" and "Crazy, Stupid, Love."

"I moved to LA eight years ago this week with my mom and it is so insane to be standing up here right now," Stone told the audience.

Former Disney Channel star Demi Lovato, 19, was voted favorite pop artist following her return to showbusiness after an emotional breakdown in late 2010, beating the likes of Lady Gaga and Beyonce. Maroon 5 won best band.

Television honors included "Glee" star Lea Michele and Neil Patrick Harris for "How I Met Your Mother," which also won favorite TV comedy show. "Two Broke Girls" was voted best new TV comedy.

Adam Sandler won best movie comedy actor and "Water for Elephants," starring "Twilight" heartthrob Robert Pattinson, won best movie drama.

Sandler beat perennial favorites like Steve Carell and Bradley Cooper. Both Sandler's movies this year -- "Jack and Jill" and "Just Go With It" -- were mauled by critics but as Sandler noted while accepting his trophy, "You the people seem to enjoy" them.

The People's Choice hands out awards in more than 40 categories covering film, music and television. Organizers said on Wednesday that the winners were decided by more than 230 million public votes online, via text and through social media websites.

The popular "Twilight" vampire romance franchise, which has dominated People's Choice for the past two years, was not eligible to compete this year because of the timing of the "Breaking Dawn-Part 1" release in November.

In a new category, Morgan Freeman triumphed over George Clooney, Harrison Ford, Tom Hanks and Robert DeNiro to win favorite movie icon.

Freeman, the Oscar-winning star of "Million Dollar Baby", said he wasn't sure what an icon was. But he added, "I hope I represent a working actor who is so incredibly proud to be in this business ... and forever grateful for this honor."
SOURCE: GEO

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Beyonce's new baby makes Billboard chart debut

LOS ANGELES: She's not even a week old, but the baby daughter of Beyonce and Jay-Z has become the youngest person ever to be credited on the U.S. Billboard chart.

The cries and coos of Blue Ivy Carter, who entered the world in New York on January 7, are featured on the new single "Glory" released by proud dad Jay-Z on Monday.

The track made its debut on the Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop songs chart this week at No. 74 -- the chart's highest new entry -- with the newborn credited as "featuring B.I.C.", Billboard said on Wednesday.

For fans old enough to remember Stevie Wonder's 1977 ode to his new daughter Aisha "Isn't She Lovely", which also featured the baby's gurgles, Billboard had a simple explanation.

"Isn't She Lovely" was released almost two years after Aisha was born and she wasn't officially credited on the song, Billboard said.

Jay-Z, 42, released "Glory" just 48 hours after the birth of the music industry power couple's first baby. He also revealed in the lyrics that Beyonce, 30, suffered at least one miscarriage in the past. (Reuters) 

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Nintendo gives 2nd glimpse of Wii U game machine

LAS VEGAS: Nintendo Co.’s upcoming Wii U game console will come with a controller that has a big, touch-enabled screen. At first glance, that seems like an obstacle to the kind of casual multiplayer gaming that made the first Wii console such a breakout hit.

But in demonstrations Tuesday, the company emphasized that the Wii U will work with the cheaper, stick-like Wii controllers as well, making family multiplayer games feasible.

The Japanese company is giving some journalists hands-on time with the console on the sidelines of the International Consumer Electronics Show, which started Tuesday in Las Vegas.

It’s the second time the U.S. media is getting a glimpse of the device, which was first shown in June. Nintendo said the device will go on sale after the next Electronic Entertainment Expo gaming trade show in Los Angeles in June.

Nintendo went against conventional wisdom with the original Wii in 2006. The quirky, cheap game console relied not on high-end graphics and complex buttons to lure in hardcore players, but on simple motion controls to lure in everyone.

Although the company successfully courted casual gamers with the Wii, it is now facing increased competition from Apple Inc.’s iPhone and other devices that offer simple games. It had hoped to win new gamers through a 3-D handheld device. But sales were slow, and Nintendo slashed prices on the 3DS within six months.

The Wii U will be sold as a bundle with one touch-screen controller, which is almost as big as the game console itself. Nintendo hasn’t said what the package or an extra controller will cost. Touch screens are expensive, often accounting for nearly half of the cost of a phone or a tablet computer.

Nintendo’s demonstrations reveal that the touch-screen controller is designed to work with older controllers. For example, in one of Nintendo’s demonstration games, four players with Wii remotes chase a fifth, who uses the touch controller. The fifth player uses the screen on the controller to guide his movements, which are thus kept secret from the other players. The other players keep track of their own movements on the TV screen.

In another demonstration game, two players with Wii remotes collaborate to fight a third, who zooms around in a spaceship, controlled through the touch controller.

The integration of the older remotes and the touch controller goes even further. The existing Wii console is able to keep track of where the old-style Wii remotes are with the help of a ”sensor bar” that attaches to the TV set. That’s how the Wii remote can be used to ”point” to things on the screen. The new Wii U controller has its own sensor bar, so the Wii U can figure out where a Wii remote is in relation to the controller, not just the TV set.

This sounds complicated, but it enables simple, unexpected forms of game play. For instance, Nintendo showed in a video how the Wii U controller could be placed on the floor for a golf game. The screen of the controller shows a teed-up golf ball. Swinging a Wii remote like a golf club above the controller gets the ball flying.

While the ability to use older remotes will appeal to consumers, supporting multiple remotes could pose a challenge for game developers, who might decide to drop support for older hardware. To make things more complicated, there are two versions of the Wii remote, with differing motion-sensing abilities, and an accessory ”Nunchuck” controller.

SOURCE : DAWN

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Katrina Kaif to star with Rajnikanth

MUMBAI: Bollywood bombshell Katrina Kaif will now been seen with the superstar Rajinikanth in Kochadayaan.

After considering several B-town glamorous stars, including Anushka Sharma and Vidya Balan, Soundarya Ashwin, Rajini’s younger daughter who is also directing the movie, finally zeroed in on the B-town beauty.

Soundarya confirmed that talks with Katrina were underway and hoped the agreement would be finalized.

Kochadayaan, A 3D film, is said to be based on the life and times of the Pandia emperor from 735 AD.

A.R. Rahman has composed music for Kochdayaan. 
SOURCE : GEO

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Beyonce, Jay-Z welcome baby girl

NEW YORK: Music royalty Beyonce and Jay-Z are the proud parents of a baby girl named Blue Ivy, media reports said Sunday, breaking the news of one of the biggest celebrity births in years.

Pop diva Beyonce, 30, gave birth by caesarian section on Saturday night in a private wing of the Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan with rapper Jay-Z, real name Shawn Carter, by her side, E! Online reported.

Initial reports had the baby's name as Ivy Blue, but those close to the couple confirmed later it was the other way around. The Houston Chronicle, Beyonce's hometown paper, was alone in spelling it Blu Ivy, without the "e".

The Twitterverse was abuzz as celebrities and fans alike delighted in news of the star couple's first child.
SOURCE : GEO NEWS

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Cruise rings in New Year at top of box office

LOS ANGELES: Tom Cruise's "Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol" topped the North American box office for a second straight weekend, ringing in the New Year with $30 million in ticket sales, industry estimates showed Sunday.

The action film, the fourth in the series, thus far has taken in $133 million, according to Exhibitor Relations.

In second place was "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows," a sequel to the 2009 film about the detective created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It took in $22.1 million in the third week since its release.

In third place with $18.3 million was "Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked," the third animated film about the adorable singing critters.

Fourth place went to Steven Spielberg's "War Horse," about the bond between a boy and his horse during World War I, which was expected to reap in $16.9 million.

"The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" -- the Hollywood adaptation of the wildly popular Stieg Larsson novel, starring Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara -- took in $16.3 million for fifth place.

Family film "We Bought A Zoo" starring Matt Damon finished in sixth place, taking in $14.3 million.

Another Spielberg film, "The Adventures of Tintin," about an intrepid Belgian boy reporter, was seventh with $12 million.

Star-studded holiday romance "New Year's Eve" earned $6.7 million for eighth place, while thriller "The Darkest Hour" took ninth place with $4.3 million.

Rounding out the top 10 was "The Descendants" starring George Clooney, which grossed $3.7 million. 
SOURCE : GEO NEWS

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Bollywood looks east to tap Chinese market

MUMBAI: India's Bollywood film industry is eyeing its Asian rival China as a potential market, after a successful run of "3 Idiots", the coming-of-age comedy starring Aamir Khan.

The 2009 film, about a group of struggling students at one of India's elite universities, opened in China in October and takings have so far topped 160 million rupees ($2.9 million), according to producers Vinod Chopra Films.

"The Chinese audience identified with the societal and parental pressures on today's generation of young students seeking success," said Vinod Chopra, who helped to adapt Chetan Bhagat's novel "Five Point Someone" for the big screen.

The writer-producer-director said he was already receiving enquiries from China for his next film "Ferrari Ki Sawaari" (A Ride in a Ferrari), which is due for release at the end of April.

He and other industry figures said he hoped the success of "3 Idiots" would see more Hindi-language films released in China, where only a handful of foreign movies are allowed to be shown each year.

"This has demonstrated that universal themes will cross cultural and linguistic boundaries," Chopra added.

Indian films were popular in China in the 1940s and 1950s but ties between New Delhi and Beijing became frosty, not least because of India's granting of asylum to the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.
SOURCE : GEO NEWS

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Streep hits red carpet for British premiere of Thatcher film

LONDON: Meryl Streep, whose portrayal of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher in “The Iron Lady” is tipped for an Oscar, takes to the red carpet Wednesday for the film’s European premiere in London.

Streep’s performance as the grocer’s daughter who changed the face of Britain has earned her a Golden Globe nomination, putting her in line to win the third Oscar of her career next month.

The film has already opened in Australia and the United States, but its premiere at the BFI Southbank along the Thames from the Houses of Parliament which Thatcher dominated for more than a decade, has special resonance.

Few of Thatcher’s cabinet colleagues or rivals have seen the film, which only opens in Britain on Friday, yet many who have say Streep has captured the essence of the woman whose legacy is still the subject of intense debate.

Charles Moore, who is writing Thatcher’s authorised biography, said: “She captures the intense, uneasy, passionate woman rising to greatness, the Gloriana figure at the height of her power, and the rather touching old lady known to her intimates as ‘Lady T’.”Film critics have pointed to Streep’s bouffant hair and trademark blue outfits as near-perfect, and the distinctive voice which she worked so hard to perfect pierces through the dialogue.

Streep has confessed she knew little about Thatcher’s policies before accepting the role but said she saw the film as less about politics and more about “what was the cost of her political decisions on her as a human being”.

Director Phyllida Lloyd – the woman behind the Abba smash hit “Mamma Mia!”– starts the action in the present day, with an elderly Thatcher clearing out

her late husband Denis’s clothes.

The ghost of Denis, played by Jim Broadbent, himself an Oscar winner in 2002, is ever present as his wife looks back on her career as she rises from modest beginnings to become Britain’s first and still only woman premier.

Thatcher took over a country whose economy was sorely in need of modernisation, yet the often ruthless way she achieved her goals continues to divide opinion, as does her rush to war over the Falklands.

Yet Streep also shows her undoubted toughness as she brushes off the IRA’s attempt to kill her in the bombing of a Brighton hotel in 1984.

While Streep’s acting has won acclaim, the film overall has not met with unanimous critical acclaim.

Some critics say it brushes over important issues such as her deep and bitter dispute with the coal miners, which gripped Britain in the mid-1980s, and some of her supporters have responded negatively to her portrayal.

Bernard Ingham, Thatcher’s loyal press secretary when she was in office, has taken issue with the film showing his old boss, who at the age of 86 is rarely seen in public, as “demented”.

“She is not demented when I see her,” Ingham wrote in the Yorkshire Post.

“She takes a lively interest in what I have to tell her about the latest follies and, while prevented by loss of short-term memory from cross-examining and arguing with me, she clearly shows her frustration in wishing to do so.”Norman Tebbit, a hardline Conservative who served in Thatcher’s government from 1979 to 1987, condemned the “half-hysterical, over-emotional” woman portrayed by Streep, saying it bore little resemblance to the Thatcher he knew.

SOURCE : DAWN

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Veena regrets ‘tragic’ nude photo shoot

MUMBAI: Pakistani starlet Veena Malik, who made a splash in the Indian showbiz industry last year with her sleazy stint in reality TV ‘Bigg Boss 4,’ regrets the latest controversy that stirred her nation.

The actress from across the border has confessed that she has made a mistake by posing topless for the magazine but has categorically denied going nude. She had indeed covered her modesty with her arms and was wearing a bikini bottom while shooting for FHM magazine.

However, according to her, the magazine cheated on her by tampering with her images.

Talking to a daily, Veena said, “Yes, of course, both the images were morphed. My upper portion was covered with tattoos. I think if I could rewind this time, I would like to delete. I feel cheated.”

“But we all make mistakes, I have made a mistake, learned from it and want to move on,” she added.

Reportedly, Veena’s father had disowned her following the news that shamed him utterly and also called in for severe action against her. Her subsequent participation in ‘Swayamwar’ forced many Islamic bodies to issue ‘Fatwa’ on her for disrespecting their community.

“It has been tragic and traumatic, really sad. It has been very difficult,” the tainted actress said.

Most of her actions have made news and it is believed that she is a desperate publicity seeker!

Well, we really wonder if you sincerely repent for the controversy Ms Malik!

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