Gil Scott Heron Dies

Gil Scott Heron Dies

The "godfather of rap", Gil Scott-Heron, died Friday at 62. It was not immediately known what caused Scott-Heron's death at a New York hospital. The poet and musician first gained notoriety for his poetry and spoken word performances in the late 1960s, but he is best known for his controversial 1970 song "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised," which was considered so inflammatory it was banned by some radio stations at the time. His music has been sampled by such current rappers as Kanye West and Common. Scott-Heron released his latest album, "I'm New Here", last year after a 13-year hiatus.

Will Smith

Thank the show-biz gods for Jerry Seinfeld. Amid the "Super Size This" atmosphere of "Oprah's Surprise Spectacular," his comic tribute to Winfrey explained why her interplay with performers has often rubbed me the wrong way.
During a hilarious riff on her daily shows as training sessions for husbands like me, who can always use more training, he said that male guests on 'Oprah' actually learned to answer questions and listen.
Seinfeld made a brilliant joke out of Oprah's insistent kind of sincerity -- her view that her sofa was a hot seat for "the truth." Her demand for tell-all honesty made a lot of actors lose their playfulness and wit and edge -- or just go overboard. Is it any wonder that Tom Cruise jumped the couch on "Oprah?" These days it's a relief to see him revert to being a toothy variation on an old-time action hero.

For deadly Oprahfied sincerity, no one can top Tom Hanks. In the pre-Oprah Eighties he burst on the scene as a frolicking comic in TV's "Bosom Buddies" and a feather-light romantic lead in "Splash." In the post-Oprah Nineties and 00s he became increasingly earnest and often dull on-screen, and increasingly sappy off-screen. As one of Oprah's farewell hosts, you could believe in his pride and happiness and sadness and still regret that he wore his heart on his sleeve, his cuff, and his collar. His real emoting looked like mugging.
Not everyone succumbed to Oprah-itis during her final shows.

Chae Dong Ha

Chae Dong-ha, 30, former member of three-member boy band S.G. Wannabe, was found dead at his home in Seoul Friday morning.Chae’s manger and the 911 rescue team entered Chae’s locked house and found he had hanged himself with a necktie from a coat rack, police said. Police said they found a large amount of antidepressants, but no suicide note.
Chae’s concert scheduled in Japan that day was cancelled.
The former S.G. Wannabe leader came back as a solo singer in 2009, but failed to gain back his old glory.

N. Korea to release a Korean-American missionary
North Korea decided to release detained Korean-American missionary Jun Young-su “on humanitarian grounds,” its official Korean Central News Agency said Friday.
According to KCNA, Jun admitted his crime, but North Korea decided to free him taking into account pleas by Robert King, US envoy for North Korean human rights, having expressed regret over Jun’s alleged crime and vowed to ensure that similar incidents don’t happen again.

King arrived in the North earlier this week to assess the North’s food situation, a possible indication of the resumption of U.S. food aid to the North.
Meanwhile, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il was greeted by his son and heir apparent Jong-un and senior officials after his special train crossed the border, the KCNA said.

Foreign diplomats call for sharing of Information, inter-Korean interaction

Spread information to clarify any misunderstandings or distortions that North Korean people may have about the outside world.
This was the key message repeatedly emphasized by a group of foreign diplomats in Seoul on Friday at a forum hosted by the non-profit Korean Council on Foreign Relations.
And the group consisted of nine out of some 20 overseas ambassadors who currently represent their respective countries in both South and North Korea.
Expressing shock and frustration over how stagnant North Korean society is due to the regime's strict control of information, the ambassadors called on the South to further reach out and interact with the North Korean people.
Meanwhile, the general consensus seemed to be that even with the international community's support, the two Koreas should be at the forefront in dealing with issues on the Korean peninsula.

Selena Gomez And Justin Bieber

Selena Gomez and Justin Bieber weren't shy about showing off their affection while vacationing in Maui, Hawaii on Thursday. After exchanging several kisses on a jet-ski and holding hands on the beach, a bikini-clad Gomez, 18, jumped into her boyfriend's arms and straddled him on the beach.

Their fun in the sun continued when the Wizards of Waverly Place star and Bieber, 17, went parasailing later that afternoon. Still, Bieber -- who recently got an ace of spades tattoo on his left forearm -- didn't exactly feel like a daredevil during the excursion.
"1,200 feet in the air...not the best feeling," he tweeted.
The lovebirds flocked to the Aloha State on Monday, just one day after Bieber picked up several trophies at the Billboard Music Awards in Las Vegas.

Ryan Reynolds

As he prepares for the June opening of "Green Lantern," his 3-D comic book adventure, Ryan Reynolds has been making the media rounds.

And he has been fielding - or more aptly, sidestepping - questions about the breakup of his three-year marriage to actress Scarlett Johansson.

Pictures: Ryan Reynolds
Pictures: Celebrity splits

The 34-year old Vancouver native insists that the divorce is a private matter and that all the speculation in the press is just that - speculation.

"There was no story and no scandal, so the narrative was just created for me," he said in a rare interview in the June/July issue of Details magazine.

While Johansson has been photographed repeatedly with actor Sean Penn in recent weeks, Reynolds, named People magazine's Sexiest Man Alive in 2010, has kept a low profile and says he is not ready to start dating.

The actor, who was one engaged to singer Alanis Morissette, also says he is still working through the pain of divorce and is not sure he will ever marry again.

What Reynolds appears to be dong is throwing himself into his work. In addition to "Green Lantern," he has "The Change-Up" coming out thus year and is now filming "Safe House" with Denzel Washigton in South Africa.

He's signed on to do three more projects, including a cop film with Oscar-winner Jeff Bridges.

"This is the most curious erection I've ever had," Ryan Reynolds e-mails from his approaching car. "Wear something sexy, we're going to a township," an earlier message advised. Then, as he arrived at my hotel: "We're two minutes away from the greatest interview I've ever given in South Africa."
It is a characteristically bright and beautiful April day in Cape Town, that vibrant dream city at the bottom of Africa, where Reynolds has been filming a CIA thriller called Safe House with Denzel Washington. If you want to talk with Reynolds these days, you go where he's working—and he has of late been a very busy man.
Last year he sweated out six months in Louisiana, sheathed in a heat-trapping motion-capture suit for the role of Hal Jordan in Green Lantern, this summer's $150 million blockbuster from DC Comics. That intensely physical shoot left the 34-year-old actor with a separated shoulder and in need of two operations. Back in Los Angeles, he joined Nicolas Cage and Emma Stone in voicing the 3-D animated comedy The Croods. Then down to Atlanta for the buddy-body-swap comedy The Change-Up with Jason Bateman, and finally to Africa, with the occasional red-eye break for a Green Lanternreshoot and a WonderCon appearance in San Francisco. In the midst of all this, he and his wife of two years, Scarlett Johansson, announced their divorce—a painful upending made more painful by the tabloid feeding frenzy it inevitably stirred up. "My face was on the cover of magazines I'd worked very hard to prevent being in," he says. He accepts the public scrutiny and media meddling as occupational hazards and does not sound indignant or petulant, just resigned to surviving something shitty and real.
Now Reynolds is in Cape Town, keeping busy doing what he likes to do and quietly repairing his lust-for-life mojo. "I have a blister on my hand from gripping the wheel," he says, giddily describing the car chases he's been filming. "I'm amazed that they let me do this stuff. In one chase I'm being choked to death while trying to drive the car into a wall to get the guy off me. It's a great job." It's not only the physical demands of the job that appeal to him. "I cried 26 times yesterday," he says, proud of his ability to well up for as many takes as Safe House director Daniel Espinosa demanded.
Always eager to throw himself into a role, yesterday he accidentally threw part of the role into himself, tossing a steel-legged table into his knees. "I had Denzel cuffed to an exposed pipe," Reynolds says. "My character is at a breaking point, so I throw this table across the room. I didn't account for the base of the table. It was that kind of pain where you're literally seeing red."
This is his first day off in weeks, and he's bummed we're not spending it doing something more exciting, like swimming with great white sharks. "Your employers wouldn't let us go shark diving," he says, "because they dislike adventure and good fellowship." (This is not quite true: My employers are pro-chumminess but anti-chum, which is what this fearful reporter was afraid of becoming.)
And the accidental kneecapping scuttled the backup plan to hike to the top of Lion's Head peak, overlooking the city and Table Bay. Instead we're with Pete (the bodyguard) and Wayne (the driver, who's big enough to bench-press Pete) in a black SUV speeding southeast toward the township Gugulethu to have lunch at Mzoli's, a combination butcher shop and braai (South African barbecue). Reynolds has heard good things about the place, including the fact that it's a bring-your-own-silverware joint.
I ask Reynolds whether the bodyguard-and-driver thing is a Cape Town-only arrangement or if this is how he rolls in L.A., too. "No! Why? Because I'm not P. Diddy," he says. "Also, I'm six foot two. If I need security around me, there's a problem. Then I'm really selling people a load of shit."
I should probably state here that Ryan Reynolds is not selling people a load of shit. The public and the private square up with uncanny precision. Yes, he is stupendously lucky and ridiculously handsome, but he wears his charms lightly, in a way that puts people at ease. "The Hollywood asshole is becoming a bit more of a dinosaur every day, thank God," Jason Bateman says. "But it's still not the norm to be as decent as Ryan is. Decent without being a boob. He's the World's Sexiest Man and all that shit, but he's still a real guy, not a noodle."
The two have been friends since growing up on sitcoms but hadn't found a project that worked for both of them before The Change-Up, directed by David Dobkin, of Wedding Crashers fame, and written by the duo behind The Hangover. What most impresses Bateman about his friend is the time Reynolds puts in honing his comic timing and acting chops. "The main ingredient to being funny," Bateman says, "is a willingness to be human, to show your flaws and risk your dignity."

Risk is not a trait we normally identify with rom-com leading men—or action stars, for that matter—but an eagerness to push himself and capture something real and human on camera is what drew Reynolds to Buried, a one-man, one-scene movie that takes place in a coffin. There's a moment in the film when Reynolds' character—Paul Conroy, a kidnapped civilian truck driver confined to a box somewhere under the Iraqi desert—is on the phone with one of his unseen captors. The voice on the line bitterly denounces the American military intervention.
"Stop! Just please, stop!" Conroy interrupts him, pleading forcefully, "I'm just a guy. . . . I'm nobody that makes decisions about anything."
That basic plea—I'm just a guy . . . —is a distilled version of what a lot of Reynolds' characters are saying. It's an Everyman cry. Sometimes played for comedy ("I'm just a guy. .
. . Why is my mean, hot boss proposing to me?"). Sometimes for dramatic effect ("I'm just a guy. . . . Why have Iraqi insurgents buried me alive?"). Sometimes for campy, comic-book wonder ("I'm just a guy. . . . Why have I been given a ring with special powers and zapped to the planet Oa to train with an alien army of Green Lanterns?").
And what's nice about Reynolds is that offscreen he is just a guy. A self-deprecating, dick-joke-making, guilelessly, legitimately, put-you-at-ease nice dude of a guy.
Right now, he's intent on putting himself at ease, too. Whatever you say about the shrinking smallness of the world, Cape Town feels very far away from everything, and Reynolds is enjoying a kind of working holiday here from the job of being Ryan Reynolds, movie star. Hiding in plain sight, as it were, getting lost in the work away from the tabloid press and taking his time to plan his next moves. "I don't really know what I'm going to do next," Reynolds says. "I'll meet with some directors via Skype. If the camera angle's just right, you can be ferociously masturbating and they have no idea."
We step up to the butcher case at Mzoli's—a not-very-refrigerated glass display containing beef, pork, lamb, chicken, and some parts you don't want to ask too many questions about. We pick out several slabs, which are piled in a bowl. I suggest we skip the poultry. "You're skipping the chicken?" Reynolds asks. "You wouldn't rather skip the gallbladder?"
While we're waiting at a picnic table for our meat to be incinerated, I try out a theory of mine on Reynolds. My theory, I tell him, is that it's time to declare a major. You've done funny, scary, dramatic, comic-book. You've done the CIA agent, the guy-in-a-coffin thing. It's time to . . .

"You want me to declare? I'm not declaring nothing, man! I'm getting away with something I'd like to continue getting away with."
Aggregate is a word Reynolds likes to use to describe his non-meteoric rise to the top of the Hollywood call sheet. It's a fair description of how he got here. Step one: Come out of nowhere (which is to say, Canada) and hustle your way into TV movies and a kids' series despite discouragement from your working-class Vancouver family. Step two: Make the jump to the big screen (1993's Ordinary Magic—he played Ganesh, a boy raised in India sent to live with family in Ontario. Sample dialogue: "They are not so very different, basketball and yoga"). Step three: Drive to L.A. from Vancouver "on the whimmiest of whims" in 1995 with an aspiring-actor friend and, after a few years, land a part on a sitcom (Two Guys and a Girl). And here's where the steps pile up and blend together, until finally, two decades later, you're People magazine's Sexiest Man Alive and the CGI-swaddled flying green lead of a summer blockbuster.
His long, meandering ascent has paid off, as Reynolds has become that scarce Hollywood commodity: the bankable generalist. "I'm really fucking lucky that I hit it late," he says. "None of this happened to me in my early twenties, so I didn't configure myself at an early age in the audience's mind as one guy."
On cue, a thirtyish South African guy ambles over, beer in hand, taps Reynolds on the shoulder, and says, "Excuse me, I've got to ask: Just one movie you were in? Was it a horror series or something? I see your face and I can see it."
Reynolds: "I've done a few different ones. I don't know which one you mean."
Guy [impatiently]: "That's what I'm trying to think of."
Reynolds: "I don't know . . . The Proposal?"
Guy: [blank stare]
Reynolds: "Buried? It's a little one . . ."
Guy: "No."
Reynolds: "Okay, let's not play this game. I'm terrible at it."
Accepting a stalemate, the guy seems happy to shake the unidentified actor's hand, and we're saved by the delivery of our bowl of mystery meat. Having no utensils, we pick up the char-grilled chops with our hands.
"I think this one," Reynolds says, gnawing at a bone, "is a tourist who was momentarily distracted."
"I out-cunted you on the drink order," Reynolds says proudly. He's asked the barkeep for a Macallan 18 to my bourbon on the rocks. Well played.
We've ditched driver and bodyguard and are back at his hotel, sitting at the outdoor bar overlooking the marina. Seagulls occasionally dip down and try to steal our potato chips. Reynolds warns that he could easily toss my tape recorder in the water if it captures something he regrets. Perhaps that's when his dark side comes out: once the interview is over. "You want to see what I'm like when we turn the tape recorder off?" he asks, affecting a very good quavering, crazy-person baritone. "I slit throats, that's what I do. I only drink panda tears. Do not bring me water. Do not bring me filtered water. I want the tears of a newborn panda, and I will have them—because I'm Ryan Reynolds!"
Sandra Bullock says her longtime friend and costar has a complexity beyond the friendly face that draws an audience in: "It makes you want to watch more of him to figure it out. As his friend, any dark secrets that I may or may not know are forever safe with me. Unless he doesn't do something I want him to do, like babysitting. When that day comes, I'll be sure to hold a press conference." The rest of his success she credits to his comic timing, height, and Canadian-ness. "He constantly talks of the healing powers of maple syrup," Bullock says. "I don't know if that's a Canadian trait, but it's always uncomfortable when it comes up."
"I love Canada," Reynolds says when I tell him Bullock's view of his nationality. "It makes a nice hat for America. When America runs out of water, it's the first place I'll go. I gotta go home. I haven't been there in a long, long time."
I suggest that announcing he has to go home and then marching off into the sunset would be an apt and dramatic turn for the story.
"Yes, like a zombie!" he says. "That would be a fucking fascinating ending. Can we say it happened? I just get up and cut a Ryan-size hole in the wall—in every wall until I get to Canada. Pete, Wayne, to the airport! Fetch my passport."
Instead, we settle in for another round. Reynolds is easygoing and jokey, and I feel a bit sheepish about asking him to talk about his life in grand, what-it-all-means terms. So what should the story of the well-adjusted generalist turned movie star be about?
"My divorce!" he says, laughing a little uncomfortably. Another of the benefits of not becoming insanely famous in his teens and twenties and before the age of TMZ and camera phones and instant everything is that Reynolds was allowed to do his youthful fucking up like the rest of us: without the world paying attention. As he's matured, he has built and maintained an utterly sane and relatively leakproof wall around the details of his romances and private life. His default approach is the politely disengaged "no comment."
"I'll say this: The media wasn't invited to my marriage, and they're definitely not invited into the divorce."
He will talk, in general terms, about the strangeness and pain of his separation. And as he does, many things about the private man become clear. He does not take any of this lightly. He has been using this time to heal, to make sense of things and figure out what comes next. "Anyone who gets divorced goes through a lot of pain," he says, "but you come out of it. I'm not out of it yet. At all. But I sense that as I do come through it, there's optimism. How can there not be? I don't think I want to get married again, but you always reevaluate these things. Any kind of crisis can be good. It wakes you up. I gotta say, I'm a different person than I was six months ago."
The downside to not talking to the press about your high-profile divorce is that in a vacuum without actual fact, they'll fill the void with rumors and falsehoods. "What was happening privately was the exact opposite of what was being reported," he says. "There was no story and no scandal, so the narrative was just created for me. That was the most disturbing part. I wasn't angry. I absolutely predicted every beat of it. There's an entire economy around this sort of thing—therefore it's gotta happen one way or another. There was a time, though, when looking at the Internet was a miracle cure for feeling good about myself."
He's not the self-pitying type, and frankly he knows better than to dwell on the negative. "I'm not an idiot," he says. "I know my station in life. It's not like I've got the chips stacked against me. I'm in a very lucky and fortunate place." What's striking when you talk to him isn't the humility but the sense of holy-shit wonder he's maintained through the recent massive uptick in his Hollywood standing. When he got the Safe House gig, he found himself wandering around the back lot at Universal with director Daniel Espinosa. "We're around the same age, which is sort of amazing," he says. "We've both had a couple moments where we scratched our heads and said, 'We get to do this, really?' I was just overwhelmed by the distance I'd traveled. I remembered walking down that very same street maybe 10 years ago, just shrouded in a sea of abject failure. I had, like, a stick with a handkerchief with some dry, stale bread in it and that was all. I got this vibe that Daniel was feeling something similar. We stopped and I just said, 'This is a moment in time worth remembering.' That can still happen, and I hope those moments happen when I'm 50 as well."
"Maybe you read only about his comedies," Espinosa says. "But he really surprised me with his intelligence and the depth of his thought process. You need to have that, you know? If there's no oil at the bottom, it doesn't matter how far you dig—you'll end up with sand."
In the interest of full disclosure, and because Reynolds and I are two guys drinking whiskey at a hotel bar half a world away from home, I tell Reynolds about my own marital meltdown. "Relationships ending move you from who you were to who you are at a much more accelerated rate than almost anything else on earth," Reynolds says, seemingly as much for my sake as about his own experience.
Being careful not to speak for Johansson, he is proud of how the two came through it. "Departing a relationship and still maintaining the idea that this is still the same person I married is a great luxury that I experienced. Thankfully I was in a relationship where two people chose to remain on the high road in every regard."
And yet there's no getting around the fact that it changes you, for better or for worse, and probably, truthfully, nobody knows what it all means.
"You've got walls up in a way you didn't before," he admits. "But you're also open to things in a way you weren't before. I have no interest in dating right now. It just seems so kind of alien to me at this point. I've been in relationships pretty much since high school. Some people look at that as a good thing. I think wiser people might see that as a house of cards."
Of course, there's the pretty German model he's been seen with around Cape Town. That's his business, but more to the point, he seems content to be his own man for a while and wait to see where the next adventure takes him.
"I'm very happy not to be in a relationship right now. That's okay. I didn't plan on it, that's for sure . . . but that's okay."

Elizabeth Smart

Brian David Mitchell, the infamous kidnapper of Elizabeth Smart, has been sentenced to life in prison for the abduction he carried out in 2002.
Smart, now 23, was present in the Salt Lake City courtroom Wednesday along with her mother Lois, sister Mary Katherine and father Ed Smart.
Elizabeth Smart addressed the court and Mitchell, saying:
“I don’t have very much to say to you. I know exactly what you did."
"I know that you know what you did was wrong. You did it with a full knowledge. I also want you to know that I have a wonderful life now, that no matter what you do it will never affect me again. You took away nine months of my life.
"That can never be returned, but in this life or next, you will have to be held responsible for those actions, and I hope you are ready for when that time comes."
Ed Smart also addressed Mitchell.
“Your perversion and exploitation of religion is not a defense,” he said. “It is disgusting and it is an abuse that anyone should despise. Regardless of what the defense has proposed, you put Elizabeth through nine months of psychological hell."
"I hope at some time in your life you find what out you have done is wrong. Whether it’s your time on earth or in eternity, you’re going to have to face the guilt. ... I hope at some point in your life you’re going to be able to repent of it."

Mitchell abducted then-14-year-old Elizabeth at knifepoint from her Salt Lake City home in 2002. She testified that he raped her daily during her months long imprisonment, from which she miraculously escaped in 2003.
A jury convicted Mitchell of felony kidnapping and unlawful transportation of a minor across state lines for the purpose of engaging in sexual activity.
There is no parole in the federal system, but Mitchell will be incarcerated outside of Utah because there is no federal prison in the state.

Blake Lively

Blake Lively

Nothing to see here, folks.

Photos that are surfacing online purportedly showing Blake Livelynaked are "100 percent FAKE," the actress's rep tells PEOPLE. "Blake has never taken nude photos of herself."

Lively, 23, the star of Gossip Girland movies including The Townand Green Lantern, plans to fight the dissemination of the images.

Says the rep: "Blake will pursue legal action against the publication which initially published these photographs and any other outlets that republish them in any manner."

Marilyn Monroe

Talk about a garage sale find - a New Jersey man recently rediscovered an envelope of negatives he bought for $2 in the 1980s, which turned out to be rare pictures of Hollywood icons Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield.

Anton Fury didn't do anything with them at the time, according to reports, but he found the negatives again earlier this year after a flood at his studio forced him to clean out his belongings.

Pictures: Marilyn Monroe

Fury, a photographer, told the New York Daily News that 33 of the images are of Monroe (you can see some of them here), and another 71 are of Mansfield. He took the images to David Streets, a Beverly Hills art dealer and appraiser, who thinks the Monroe images were taken around 1950.

"This is before she became the iconic Marilyn Monroe," Streets noted.

Monroe would have been 24 in 1950, a big year for the then-still-unknown actress due to her roles in "The Asphalt Jungle" and "All About Eve." According to CNN, she wore two bathing suits (one of them a bikini) and short pants for the poolside shoot.

The mystery surrounding the photos - including who took them - is what Streets said drew him in.

"The fun part about it is we're all kind of sharing in the beginning stages," Streets told the Daily News. "The adventure is going to be finding out where, who, what, why and when."

Cecilia Cheung

Cecilia Cheung

Hong Kong screen veteran Patrick Tse on Tuesday let slip that his son Nicholas Tse has indeed been fighting with wife his Cecilia Cheung, reported Hong Kong media.

"It is a small matter; don't know why it kept getting escalated [by the media].

"Which couple doesn't fight?" said Patrick Tse, when asked if the statements made by popular Hong Kong radio personality Eileen Cha are true.

Cha had earlier claimed that Nicholas Tse and Cheung are now a couple in name only and are on the brink of separation after fighting for some time.

She further alleged that Cheung had demanded her husband turn over virtually all his assets to her, adding that cracks in their marriage had appeared long before Cheung's widely reported meeting with Hong Kong actor Edison Chen last month.

Patrick Tse expressed that he was furious with Cha for interfering with his family's affairs and said her comments were as irresponsible as they were inaccurate.

"What right does she have to talk about things?

"I will scold her if I see her. After all, these are somebody else's family matters. How can she know when even I don't?" said Tse.

Despite raising the ire of many netizens and Patrick Tse for her comments on Cheung's marriage, Cha maintained that she had done nothing wrong.

"I don't want to comment on this further.

"I only did what I should do from a journalist's standpoint, just reporting the truth," said Cha.

Will Smith

Will Smith, the multi-award winning American actor, is reportedly the favourite to land the lead role in Quentin Tarantino's new movie 'DjangoUnchained', however, 'The Wire' star Idris Elba has emerged as another candidate for the part. According to Collider.com, Will Smith is the front-runner for the controversial new flick, but a series of tweets from Elba have begun a new wave of speculation.

The movie, scheduled for release in 2013, follows the story of a freed slave who enlists the help of a German bounty hunter to track down his slave wife and liberate her from an evil plantation owner. It was previously reported that Will Smith had been "informally offered" the role of the slave, but Idris Elba may also be in line for the part. In a series of tweets, the 'Luther' star told followers, "Having one of the biggest meetings of my professional life today.meeting a very controversial director for a very controversial part". The internet became alive with rumours that Elba was meeting with Tarantino to discuss the lead role in 'Django Unchained'. Responding to the speculation, Elba tweeted again, saying, "I wish I could tell you more but.in due time. On the plane to the destination of my fate...ok.. a lil dramatic..destination of my life..?"
Will Smith's upcoming filming schedule could cause problems with a role in Tarantino's new movie. He is currently shooting 'Men In Black Iii' in New York City, and is scheduled to begin work on an untitled sci-fi project by Lana Wachowski and ANDY WACHOWSKI.

Vanessa Minnillo

Vanessa Minnillo has a head start on love rival Jessica Simpson in their race down the aisle.
The 30-year-old former MTV host threw a lavish wedding shower with fiancé Nick Lachey, 37, on last night at the London West Hollywood hotel in Los Angeles.
The couple rented out the lavish roof top pool garden for the party and celebrity guests including NFL star Matt Leinhart and the groom-to-be’s brother, Dancing with the Stars champion Drew Lachey.
The romantic location, which boasts city views, was decorated with white couches, chairs and ottomans on the grassy lawn, reports Us Magazine in America, and guests danced to a DJ in the lounge area.
The British-themed hotel is located just off the famous Sunset Strip and is home to Gordon Ramsay’s fine dining restaurant, The London.

Lachey and Minnillo have been dating for four years and got engaged last November, just one week before the 98 Degrees singer’s ex-wife Jessica Simpson announced that she was tying the knot with former NFL player Eric Johnson.
It was a busy weekend for Simpson’s ex-boyfriends - Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo (whom she split from in 2009) married beauty queen Candice Crawford on Saturday.

Snooki

Looks like Snooki has already encountered drama in Italy -- but it has nothing to do with booze or boys.
The "Jersey Shore" star was taken to a police station to fill out an accident report on Monday after she was involved in a fender bender with a patrol car in Florence, Italian police confirm to PEOPLE.

Deena Nicole Cortese and a member of the show's production team were also in the Fiat Multipla when Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi, who was driving, crashed into the back of a traffic patrol car, sandwiching her vehicle between the highway wall and the police cruiser. No one was in serious condition, although a male and female police officer were taken to the emergency room of the local Careggi hospital to be treated for whiplash, bruises and cuts.
Polizzi and Cortese refused medial treatment, police say.
The irony? The police car Polizzi collided with was an escort appointed for their personal safety.
Snooki and Cortese were taken into the central police station of Florence to file routine paperwork -- not because they had been arrested, police say.
The "Jersey Shore" crew is currently in Italy filming season four of the MTV series.

Lisa Raye

There were rumors circulating in early May that Lisa Raye and Stacey Dash were involved in a physical altercation. Lisa Raye has publicly addressed those rumors stating that they are indeed false and that there was no fight between the two actresses.
The fight was rumored to have taken place on the set of Single Ladies. Lisa Raye addressed the issue, along with other things, on the Wendy Williams Show. She stated that she is too grown to fight and that she doesn’t have a problem with Stacey Dash.
Lisa Raye also went on to discuss her ex-husband and his cheating on her.

Stacey Dash is an actress who is mostly noted for her role in the movie Clueless. She is related to hip hop mogul Dame Dash.

Raj Kiran

Raj Kiran

In a heart-rending revelation, Rishi Kapoor tells us that the missing actor, his co-star in Karz is alive, living in a mental asylum and fending for himself.

It was an unwelcomed plan by destiny. He played the supportive friend to Shabana Azmi in Mahesh Bhatt's Arth, and made Tum itna jo muskura rahe ho a legendary song with the actress. The actor Raj Kiran, who can immediately be recalled as the one who played Rishi Kapoor's 'pre-incarnation' in Subhash Ghai's Karz was at the peak of his career in 1970s and 80s, went missing for almost a decade and then later was assumed dead even by friends.

While most had accepted the worst, acquaintance Rishi Kapoor didn't give up.

He decided to locate the missing actor. And on his recent trip to the USA, Kapoor did what he resolved to do. He found out Raj Kiran, alive in a mental institution in Atlanta.

More than a month ago, Deepti Naval had posted on her FB wall, "Looking for a friend from the film world his name is Raj Kiran - we have no news of him - last heard he was driving a cab in NY city if anyone has any clue, please tell . . ." She was frantically searching for her friend and colleague. Now for everyone like Deepti, here is a piece of important and awakening news.

For someone who is remembered as an engaging, polite and cultured actor, it was shocking that his rumoured death could gather momentum so easily. During his trip, Rishi Kapoor met the missing actor's brother Govind Mehtani. Says Rishi, "I've been wondering where Raj had disappeared.

The question was haunting me for a very long time. Then these rumours of Raj being no more began doing the rounds. I was really disturbed. How can a colleague with whom I shared some really good times, just vanish from the face of earth? I decided to look up Raj's elder brother Govind Mehtani to find out about Raj."

It was then that the shocking truth about Raj Kiran spilled out. Says Rishi emotionally, "I was so relieved when Govind told me Raj was alive. But he was confined to an institution in Atlanta due to health problems." What's perturbing is that his family too has more or less left Raj to his own devices.

He pays for his own treatment in Atlanta. Says Rishi, "Yes, apparently, he looks after his own treatment by working within the institution. It's a heart-rending situation for an actor who was so successful at one time. But I'm just happy to know he's alive.

Raj was very well read and clever with his repartees. I used to enjoy our sparring sessions when we worked together. Though he's younger to me, we always got along really well. I miss him."

It appears that his wife with their son abandoned him at some unknown point, the shock of which he couldn't bear. The rest of his family too didn't bother, seemingly because his mood swings were intolerable and then it was far too expensive for them to get him treated.

It seems Raj went through a series of domestic crises which left him in a state of acute depression. He was apparently institutionalised in India before he left for the US where he now lives.

His family including his elder brother Govind and younger Ajit, are not in touch with him. When Rishi asked Govind for Raj's phone number, the brother didn't have it! Says Rishi, "I wanted to speak to Raj and visit him in Atlanta. But I couldn't get his contact number. I'm definitely going to visit him and urge him to return home.

Though Raj has not been working for a long time, he invested well. So he was not financially challenged by his illness."

The actor, whose dazzling smile had lit up many potboilers for two decades, giving remarkable performances in films like B R Ishaara's Kaagaz Ki Nao, Ghar Ho To Aisa with Anil Kapoor, Meenakshi Sheshadri and Deepti Naval and Kaaran apart from Subhash Ghai's hit Karz and Mahesh Bhatt's critically acclaimed Arth in the 1980s, had vanished for almost a decade.

Rishi wants to bring Raj Kiran back to Mumbai and to movies. "I want him to know we care for him. We want him back where he belongs. I'll personally help him get roles and re-establish himself in Bollywood."
- with inputs by Noyon Jyoti Parasara

The Raj Kiran I Knew...
I had worked with Raj Kiran in Arth and at that time he had never given me a reason to believe that he would ever suffer from such an organic problem. But then years later we heard about bizarre incidents that happened in Bangalore.

He had gone to Puttaparthi and there he apparently, tried to scale a wall and got violent and was accused to have attempted to assassinate Sai Baba. He was brought back to Mumbai where he was kept in a Byculla asylum.

I had gone to meet him there. Some time after that I heard his brother took him to the USA. Now I hear that he in Atlanta and again in an asylum. I had experienced Parveen going through these breakdowns. And it got worse with each breakdown.

It hurts when we see someone being reduced to such a human wreck. You actually mourn at your helplessness.

Remembering Raj
'That's awful. I always wondered where he got to. He was a wonderful actor.

We even did film together years ago. Where is his family?
- Shekhar Kapur

I always feel sad about Raj Kiran. He was a thorough gentleman as a new comer in Karz. But I guess after Karz he got too much of media hype and didn't get the success he expected. It made him disturbed apart from his personal life problems. I don't know thereafter.
- Subhash Ghai

"I am deeply, deeply sorry to hear this. I had met him several years ago at a mental institution in Mumbai and he seemed to be on his way to recovery because he had periods of lucidity.

He was so good in Arth. My heart goes out to him..."
- Shabana Azmi

"Oh my God! We have worked in many films together. He was a very good actor and very nice human being. I pray he gets well soon."

Felixia Yeap

Felixia Yeap

Felixia Yeap is the first Malaysian woman who became Playboy bunny. But do you think of elegance in advance of his body. Because the former 25-year-old kindergarten teacher did not take off her clothes.

Chinese media reports, if there is a perception among Felixia feel about these rabbit girls.

"Our job is only to serve and entertain, there is no such thing as getting undressed," said Yeap.

He is contracted to the club finished Macau Playboy bunny girl. Yeap is currently still in training before being assigned.

"The difficult part is when serving. We must not bow, and had to move the knee, "said Yeap.

Kuala Lumpur-born woman who grew up in Ipoh was admitted, his parents support this new career.

"My father did not say anything about my work, but my mother support," he said.

Candice Crawford

NFL star Tony Romo married Candice Crawford Saturday night in Dallas, Texas. The couple said "I do" in front of 600 guests, including R&B singer Ashanti and Kim Kardashian's ex-beau Miles Austin.
fter Romo, 31, and Crawford's ceremony in a covered white tent, the song "I Gotta Feeling" by the Black Eyed Peas played. An insider told Us Weekly the reception was held on a white-covered balcony outside a huge, white air-conditioned tent. Strands of white lights were wrapped around several trees, and a jazz band played "Beyond the Sea," "Let's Get Lost" and other tunes throughout the night.
Wedding planner Todd Fiscus told local station WFAA-TVthat the couple and their guests dined on short ribs, and the reception also included a pizza bar. In lieu of a limousine, the newlyweds left the wedding party in a vintage Cadillac.

Romo and Crawford, 24, began dating in the summer of 2009 and were engaged in December 2010. Crawford is the kid sister of Gossip Girl star Chace Crawford, and also a former beauty queen and local news TV personality.
Romo famously dated Jessica Simpson for nearly two years; he ended their relationship in July 2009, the night before her 29th birthday. Before Simpson, he also romanced Carrie Underwood and actress Sophia Bush.
Simpson, 30, got engaged to another footballer, Eric Johnson, in November 2010. She confirmed her good news days after ex-hubby Nick Lachey announced his own engagement to Vanessa Minillo after four years of on-and-off dating.

Marilyn Monroe

Beverly Hills could turn into a pilgrimage site this June 1st, as the Andrew Weiss Gallery will launch a major exhibition of rare and never-before-seen original photographs of the legendary Marilyn Monroe. The opening day coincides with the birthday of Norma Jeane Mortenson. Titled “Happy Birthday Marilyn”, the exhibition will include photographs from the personal collection of George Barris, as well as photographs by Bill Carroll, Laszlo Willinger, Tom Kelley, Milton Greene, Bert Stern and many others.
The opening ceremony will be attended by George Barris, who had this to share about the photographs:
“Marilyn was much more than a photography subject, she was a friend. She had an inner light that comes through in her images, even many years later, and I am pleased to work with the Andrew Weiss Gallery to share my experience of Marilyn with her fans and the public.”

The exhibition will open to the public June 2nd and continue through August 13th. This is an opportunity for Marilyn enthusiasts, fans of the featured photographers and art collectors of all kinds to see a lot of these stunning, ground-breaking photographs for the first time. The address of the gallery is 179 S. Beverly Dr, Beverly Hills 90212.
In other news, photographer Anton Fury discovered in the 1980s, at a garage sale, some never published photographs of the star and about 70 negatives of actress Jayne Mansfield.

Agnes Monica Meninggal

Agnes Monica Meninggal

Agnes Monica rumored dead. News of the death of this talented singer lively discussion on Twitter. In fact, some artists also contributed to wonder.

One of them, Jenny Cortez. The actress who often open-opening scene in the movie write status of BBM (BlackBerry Messenger), "Seriously not the Agnetha Faltskog die!"

Monitoring Legal, Sunday (5/29/2011), the negative news that had already reached the ears of Agnes.Chanter Paralyzedwas responding to news of the death on Twitter with ease.

"Heehhee ... gpp .. I'll be Stronger Than BABYYYYYYYY ever! Yeaaaah RT @ kiewuiwuit: Agnes is dying km hoax blg! Geez ..! Thanks god .. nezz GWS," said Agnes replied to a greeting followernya @ kiewuiwuit, approximately an hour ago.

The singer who started her career as an artist also agrees that little prayer of his other followers, "hahahahaha. AMIIIIIN. RT @ iwankecil: Recently there is a message chain open bbm @ agnezmo died .. ada2 aja tuh gossip, but he said a long life loh kalo digossipin so ".

The singer who started to go international was also expressed himself well. The truth is Agnes left the hospital, not dead.

"Hihihi that bener that .." Dead "my hospital .. Bwahahahha RT @ edrictjandra: Hehehe can make hoax aja org @ agnezmo died, sy just chatting lively masi tu .. she's strong more than you thought," wrote Agnes.

Approximately at 12.00 pm, the singer is reportedly close to Denny Sumargo pebasket that inform his health gradually improved and was allowed home from hospital today.

"@ Agnezmo: Yaaaay .. Today UDH get out of the hospital .. Praise the Lord.:) Thank You, Jesus ...: ')" the tweet Agnes.

Approximately 10 minutes ago, Agnes is still undergoing physiotherapy before being allowed to leave the hospital. "@ Agnezmo::) just finished physiotherapy ..: ') hurt a little. But pain does not kill me. I'll be Stronger Than ever. Watch me!: D," wrote Agnes.

Agnes treated at Siloam Hospitals Kebon Jeruk, West Jakarta, since a few days ago because of back pain and acute gastritis.

Rajinikanth In Singapore

It is learnt that the Tamil superstar Rajinikanth has been brought to Singapore for taking special treatment for his ill health and he has been admitted to the Asia’s popular hospital Mount Elizabeth Medical Centre at Singapore.
The superstar Rajinikanth arrived Singapore on yesterday with his wife and two daughters after taking treatment at Ramachandra medical university, Porur, Chennai for about two weeks.
The 61 year old Tamil superstar is now at Mount Elizabeth Medical Centre which is considered as one of the popular and sophisticated hospital in Asian Continent.
The hospital has treated familiar Indian politicians including Amar Singh who had his kidney transplant here in 2009.
The administrative officials of Mount Elizabeth Medical Centre did not mention anything about Rajinikanth’s admission there and refused to say anything about his health condition.
However, the bulletin released by Ramachandra Medical Centre said on his discharge mentioned his health status as cheerful.

The bulletin added that Rajinikanth is cheerful, taking food from his home and spending his time with his family and he is going abroad for taking rest and in the meanwhile he will undergo certain specific tests on his health.
The superstar who looked tired from exhaustion on April 29th during the shooting of the film Rana and admitted to Isabel Hospital in Chennai. Though he was discharged within a day, he was readmitted to the same hospital on May 4.
However, again, he was admitted to Ramachandra Medical Centre on May 13 where he was treated at ordinary ward and at intensive care units.
The superstar Rajinikanth was said to have viral fever, respiratory problem, abdominal discomfort and finally he had problem with kidney when he was treated at Chennai.

Jill Scott

Jill Scott and producer J.R. Hutson think that her new jam “So In Love” is compelling because of the “chemistry” she shares with Anthony Hamilton — and it’s on obvious display in the official Taj-directed video. Just like we told you, Jill looks straight gorgeous, and the clip starts as she opens the drapes to let the morning rays fill her house — a subtle nod to her eagerly-awaited LP, The Light Of The Sun. And from there, the romance starts… quickly. Is it getting warm in here, or is it just Jill?
Well who wouldn’t melt after receiving flowers from Anthony Hamilton? Jill has said she thinks “So In Love” has a shot at becoming the next big wedding theme, and the video certainly won’t hurt her case.

Would you play it at your wedding? Let us know in the comments below, or on Twitter orFacebook.