Celebrity Gossip: November 2009

The Princess and the Frog (2009)

Young viewers of The Princess and the Frog won't give a croak that the marvelous new adventure from Walt Disney Animation Studios has been created using the same hand-drawn, 2-D techniques that entertained those viewers' Bambi-loving grandparents more than 65 years ago. But adults should: This old-fashioned charmer holds its own beside the motion-capture elegance of Disney's A Christmas Carol, the engrossing stop-motion universes of Coraline and Fantastic Mr. Fox, the CG-enhanced genius of Up, the wonder of 3-D technology, and, indeed, the unique, hand-drawn Japanese artistry of Hayao Miyazaki's Ponyo as the year's deepest, most affecting, and most inventive movies.
Still, for the greenest or the grayest in the audience, the inclusive story of a resourceful African-American girl in 1930s New Orleans who kisses a frog with unexpected, funny results is its own reward: This A-level, G-rated entertainment is a fresh twist on the classic fairy tale about a handsome prince temporarily out of commission due to a malicious magic spell, a royal catch requiring the smooch of the right kindhearted, risk-taking heroine to restore him to his waiting throne. (As an added benefit, the smoocher gets to stand alongside her royal as his princess.) Only this time, the kiss that the lovely heroine, Tiana (voiced by Anika Noni Rose), bestows on frog-bodied Prince Naveen (Bruno Campos) backfires. He ends up in the same shape that he hopped into — and Tiana turns amphibian too. The patient, beautiful, hard-working, entrepreneurial young woman is particularly irked because she has no desire to be a princess at all; what she really wants to do is open her own restaurant.

Great swampy mess! The race to restore happily-ever-after order involves a jazz-loving alligator named Louis (Michael-Leon Wooley); Ray (Jim Cummings), a bebopping Cajun firefly; Dr. Facilier (Keith David), a shady New Orleans gent who dabbles in dark arts; and Mama Odie (Jenifer Lewis), ancient royalty of the bayou magic world with the power to undo Dr. Facilier's treachery. And this being the Disney kingdom under the beneficent creative rule of veteran directors Ron Clements and John Musker (The Little Mermaid, Aladdin) and composer Randy Newman (Cars, Toy Story), the frolic also includes songs of gumption (''Almost There''), mischief (''Friends on the Other Side''), optimism (''When We're Human''), spiritual uplift (''Dig a Little Deeper''), and the love of something up above — in this case, an evening star (''Ma Belle Evangeline'').

But while little kids laugh at the froggy humor (summed up in the excellent, repeated punchline ''that's not slime you are secreting — it's mucus!''), the firefly antics, and the cute sight of a fat alligator wailing on his trumpet like Louis Armstrong, adult viewers are rewarded with something more moving — a Proustian remembrance of the durable power of Disney at its old-school best. The filmmakers trust in story over special effects, and character over celebrity voices (there are almost none here, save for a brief cameo by queen-of-all-she-surveys Oprah Winfrey as Tiana's saintly mother, Eudora). They steep the movie in colloquial American culture. They offer a sophisticated musical experience (ragtime, zydeco, gospel, Tin Pan Alley) accessible even to the youngest ears. And in doing so, the creative team behind The Princess and the Frog upholds the great tradition of classic Disney animation.
The Princess and the Frog happens to introduce an African-American heroine, a Disney animation first. The story also happens to be set in an idealized New Orleans of an earlier time, a city whose historic beauty and cultural importance will forever be filtered by contemporary adults through grimmer awareness of the natural and man-made disasters of Hurricane Katrina. It's all the more effective, though, that this Big Easy of a movie needs no overt mention of Katrina to move our hearts, and inserts no overt lesson in the history of civil rights to distract from the groundbreaking matter-of-factness of Tiana's equality. What matters is that Tiana triumphs as both a girl and a frog, that dreams are fulfilled, wrongs are righted, love prevails, and music unites not only a princess and a frog but also kids and grown-ups.

Neha Dhupia has been around for more than six years now and has done films as diverse as "Mithya" and "Julie". But she neither believes in boasting about her body of work nor is she keen to approach leading actors and filmmakers to rope her in for their films."This is the way I have been throughout my career. I am not the type who would go and tell everyone what I have done in the past," Neha told. After having debuted opposite Ajay Devgn in "Qayamat" (2003), she has worked in close to 30 movies. "What's the point in doing that when you have your work to speak for itself? This is not to say that I am less ambitious than anyone. I work as hard as anyone else. It's just that I can't serve myself on a platter," she said.This is the reason why she is not complaining even if she is playing a supporting role in films like "Singh Is Kinng" and just released "De Dana Dan" with Katrina Kaif as the leading lady opposite Akshay Kumar."There is a thin distinction between lead and supporting roles today. You may not be a romantic lead in a film, but then you have to see the kind of value you bring to a film."For example, when Vipul approached me for 'Singh Is Kinng', I asked him why he was giving me that role. When he told me that he could visualise only me to be doing that role, I took it as a backhanded compliment."Same held true for "De Dana Dan" where Priyadarshan felt that he could see a naughty opportunist girl in her. In the film, Neha plays a club singer who has a 'bindaas' attitude towards life and is a 'huge advantage taker'. "I am happy that he felt so. My role is quite spunky in 'De Dana Dan'. There is a lot of spark in it."When it comes to commercial cinema, I have to thank people like Vipul, whose sensibilities I completely agree with, and Priyan Sir, with whom I have worked in 'Chup Chup Ke' and 'Garam Masala' earlier. They have always approached me whenever there is something good in the offing," Neha said. However, she has the trio of Rajat Kapoor, Saurabh Shukla and Vinay Pathak to thank for the complete shift in mindset that she went through at a crucial phase of her career. "These are the people responsible for opening up different avenues for me. By working in movies like 'Mithya', 'Raat Gayi Baat Gayi', 'I Am 24' and 'Pappu Can't Dance Saala', there is an altogether different dimension that I have been able to explore."I owe a lot to them," said Neha who is happy to be juggling between hardcore commercial mainstream movies and new age offbeat cinema.

Here's a tip: If you see one austerely hopeless movie this year about a father and son wandering through a junk-strewn postapocalyptic wilderness as they struggle to fight off demons of fear, madness, and starvation, not to mention roving bands of cannibalistic killers, then by all means make that movie The Road. In this adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's revered 2006 novel, Viggo Morten-sen, caked in grime, plays the father with a fierce physicality and tremulous woundedness. The film has one other thing going for it: Visually, it's one of the most spookily convincing, least ''movieish'' visions of a bombed-out wasteland future I've ever seen. (It's never stated that there was a nuclear war, a meteor, or whatever, but there's an ashy deadness to everything on screen.) The wreckage and twisted clutter, some of it spectacular, doesn't seem as if it was planted there by a set designer; it's an organic part of the landscape. This debris has integrity, almost the way the ruined city in Full Metal Jacket did.

Yet The Road, for all its vivid desolation, remains a curiously unmoving experience — or maybe not so curious, given that nothing really happens in it. In the novel, McCarthy played off postapocalyptic Hollywood thrillers, and so he gave you the heady feeling that you were seeing a movie unfold on the page. Yet he brought off that feat without much action; the backdrop was grand, the emotions interior and refined. That's a problem when The Road is done as a movie: It's like a zombie thriller drowning in tastefully severe art-house gloom. The darkest note in the story — it's what no conventional sci-fi blockbuster would dare to include — is the Mortensen character's despairing realization that he must be prepared at any moment to fire a bullet into his beloved son should they be captured, since the bandits who roam the land would rape and kill the boy if he didn't. That's a haunting thing to live with, and saucer-eyed Kodi Smit-McPhee plays the son with touching half-aware innocence. But that's not enough to save the movie from its creeping inertness.

The Road was originally set to come out last year, and in one sense the decision to delay its release was karmically right, since (like 2012) it addresses the current mood of nerve-jangling anxiety and doom. Yet the timing also works against the film. There's enough foreboding in America right now to make sitting through a movie such as The Road seem like one more heavy burden that, frankly, no one needs.

Six-year-old boys may laugh at the bowwow of a comedy Old Dogs. But then, 6-year-old boys laugh at the word poop — and the word poop plays a big steaming part in this stinky endeavor. So does the sight of Japanese businessmen getting hit in the crotch with golf clubs. And the sound of Robin Williams' dignity flushing further down the pipes. Williams and John Travolta play old pals in their 50s, a cartoonish sad-sack divorcé and a cartoonish bachelor swinger, respectively, whose odd-couple routines are upended by the arrival of 7-year-old fraternal twins that Williams' character never knew he had. (Travolta's wife, Kelly Preston, plays the kids' mom, and Ella Bleu Travolta debuts as the girl twin.)

Exhausted as the premise already is — hapless boomer learns that real manhood is a function of committed fatherhood — Old Dogs nevertheless finds ways to make the lesson even less tolerable. Directed by Walt Becker (who handled Travolta in Wild Hogs with similar material), the movie includes an interminable scene of the men taking the wrong medications for their various boomer ailments, with weirdly horrible comedic side effects. In other awful interludes, they and their many ill-used guest stars are shot in disfiguring close-ups. The late comedy king Bernie Mac (who died in August 2008) is among those guests, a clue that this movie is an old dog indeed.

The Kundra family is not yet full with their share of celebrations. After the grand and detailed wedding ceremonies and parties, Raj Kundra and Shilpa Shetty Kundra have some exhilarating holiday plans once they are done with their honeymoon. Raj has decided to take his as well as Shilpa's family for a Mediterranean cruises once they are back from their honeymoon.According to Shilpa, she and Raj will be going to the Bahamas for their honeymoon and once they return, Raj will be taking the entire family, which will be all the Shettys and the Kundras, on a Christmas Mediterranean cruise.As both their families had a tiring time arranging everything for the entire celebration, Raj felt that it was a well-deserved break that each one of the families needed. When asked about juggling her time between Mumbai and London, Shilpa said she had no intentions to move to London and is pleased with the fact that now she has two homes and she would be constantly traveling to and fro. The duo left for Tirupathi yesterday to seek divine blessings.

If sources are to believe actress Lindsay Lohan, who has earlier turned down a $700,000 offer to pose nude for 'Playboy' magazine, has now gone topless for a new photoshoot with French fashion magazine 'Purple'.

The Mean Girls star appears topless in a series of sexual poses in the provocative Terry Richardson shots, which will feature in an upcoming issue of the publication, reports Contactmusic.

According Life & Style mag, in one steamy snap, Lohan simulates a threesome with a male and female model.

However this is not that Lindsay has foray into naked pics. In 2007, Lindsay bared her breasts in a 'New York' Magazine photo tribute to film icon Marilyn Monroe.

The folks at the MPAA must have been snoozing when Ninja Assassin came up for its rating. Because this slick slice of martial-arts mayhem from the producers of The Matrix is awash in blood. It spurts and sprays in geysers. And it never lets up. There's a brutal (and admittedly very cool) fight scene every five minutes.

What story there is revolves around a ninja (Korean pop star Rain) who teams with a sassy Europol agent (Naomie Harris) to get payback on the clan who trained him to be a heartless assassin. But let's be honest, killing is this film's business...and business is good.

If anyone can knit the unraveling title character in The Private Lives of Pippa Lee into a recognizable woman, it's Robin Wright. Always an actor of great physical loveliness, the star, now in her 40s, has a unique talent for conveying the minute mood shifts of an adult woman wised up by her own aging. She's pleasing as ever to watch in this high-class production by writer-director Rebecca Miller (Personal Velocity), adapted from Miller's own novel. But the rarefied dramatique circles in which Pippa (literally) sleepwalks are such a mess of highfalutin complications that it's impossible to empathize with the sad, lost, fragile heroine. (She's much more relatable in the novel.) The mix is Lifetime soap–meets–Woody Allen smart-set comedy, with less humor and a genteel Connecticut setting.
This we know: Pippa is married to a much older man, Herb (Alan Arkin), a successful publisher who left his wife (Monica Bellucci) for Pippa when the former Pippa Sarkissian was a crazy, drug- and sex-addled filly (played, in flashback, by Gossip Girl's Blake Lively). Now while Herb makes eyes at a new younger, crazy woman (Winona Ryder), Pippa somnambulates her way into a bond with her neighbor's emotionally trip-wired son (Keanu Reeves). The name-brand cast gives the movie buzz, but no velocity.

Singer Courtney Love has alleged that pop star Britney Spears was molested by her father, Jamie.The late Kurt Cobain’s wife made the shocking claim on her Facebook page, reports the Daily Telegraph.She wrote, "Britneys dad molested her, imagine the father that molested you owning you for slavery while your forced to sing songs picked for their sexual content every night, insane right?"She added, "I have it on First had authority, and fight as hard as she is and does she still didnt pull that card, it's a pride thing I can relate to, However they want to play dirty, lets go, Im SO not affraid of the little trolls who hit this when I was f***** up who are called lawyers. lets GO."

Katie Price has made an emotional phone call to ex-husband Peter Andre begging him to reconcile but the Australian singer doesn't want to reunite with her."Please take me back," thesun.co.uk quoted her as saying. She also apologised for being a "bitch" to him and pleaded for a reunion, saying: "I messed up." A friend of Andre said: "She said she was sorry for being such a bitch to him. She asked him straight out if there was any chance they could get back together and pleaded for a reunion. She was telling him she just couldn't stop thinking of him and their life together."Andre's friend also revealed that Katie Price, also known as Jordan, told her ex-husband that her romance with cross-dressing cage fighter Alex Reid had been "a mistake" and was over.Katie Price made the call Monday moments after quitting ITV's "I'm A Celebrity" reality show in Australia.It is thought Andre, 36, was the second person she phoned after her mum Amy. Jordan, 31, told him that her time in the jungle had brought memories of their love flooding back.The two met and fell for each other in 2004's "I'm A Celeb". They went on to marry and have two kids - Junior, four, and Princess Tiaamii, two. The kids are being looked after by Andre at his Brighton home along with seven-year-old Harvey, Jordan's son by footballer Dwight Yorke."Katie told him she even dreamed of him at night but would wake up to realise he wasn't there, and feel sad. She was being the Katie Pete fell in love with in the first place," said the friend.The friend told how Andre was shocked by the call and felt sick Jordan had "dared" to ask him to take her back. "He just assumed she wanted to speak to the kids, which she eventually did. But then she came out with all this stuff about how she missed him and knew she had been an idiot. The idea of a reunion is not something Pete would even consider. They are divorced and that's it," said the friend.A spokesman for Jordan confirmed the news saying: "Katie did speak with Pete, primarily about the children."

Richard Linklater's Me and Orson Welles is an amiable period-piece showbiz comedy set in 1937, when Welles, then 22, first blasted his way into the orbit of fame with his Mercury Theatre production of Julius Caesar. There's one great reason to see the movie, and that's Christian McKay's performance as Welles. He looks just like him — the boy-man face rounded out with a little too much baby fat, the eyes that twinkle with all-knowing charm. And McKay does an altogether uncanny impersonation of Welles the debonair egomaniac, who cut a swath through the Broadway world of stunned producers and leggy chorus girls. McKay gets that melting-butter voice to a T, and he makes the energy of Welles' genius contagious.

I wish I could say that the whole film was that good. Linklater has framed the weeks of rehearsal leading up to the premiere of Julius Caesar as the story of a naive young actor who talks his way into Welles' stock company. But Zac Efron, who plays this bushy-tailed rube, is mostly a cute blank here; when he woos the Mercury Theatre's secretary (Claire Danes), we seem to have landed in one of Woody Allen's more halfhearted fables. Except for McKay, Me and Orson Welles has so little fire that Welles himself would have wondered out loud what he was doing stuck in the middle of it.

This brave documentary takes on the topic of anti-Semitism in a relentlessly probing and original way. The director of Defamation, Yoav Shamir, is an Israeli who has grown disillusioned with the way his country's fixation on the Holocaust has, in his view, devolved from a moral necessity into a corrosive ideology of fear. Shamir intercuts teens from Israel on a field trip to Auschwitz; a complexly skeptical look at Abe Foxman, head of America's Anti-Defamation League; and a portrait of the ire faced by authors like Norman Finkelstein, who claims that anti-Semitism is now exaggerated by its victims.

Director Noah Buschel's melancholic neo-modern yarn about a hard-drinking private eye (Revolutionary Road's Michael Shannon) tracking a man reported missing is overly fussy and self-conscious in its noir details. But in The Missing Person, Buschel makes striking use of the Mike Hammer/Philip Marlowe tradition to tell a story of disorientation and loss in a post-9/11 world where the Twin Towers can go missing too.

As Shannon mumbles interestingly into a whiskey glass, he's abetted by a cool, theater-wise cast that includes Amy Ryan, Linda Emond, and Margaret Colin.

There was an alarming situation on the sets of the movie ‘Hello Darling’ quite recently when the two stunning actresses of the movie, Celina Jaitley and Gul Panag, met with an accident on the set!Both of them were shooting for an action sequence, which was to be shot in a car. The car clutch malfunctioned and the car lurched forward instead of going in reverse and it crashed into the camera!Two light men had a close escape but the camera was damaged, while Celina and Gul were almost thrown out of the car. Fortunately they were not injured, considering that on the other side there was nothing but ghats! Recalling this horrific incident Celina says, “Gul had a premonition since morning that something is going to happen while filming and I just laughed at her, but much to my shock the incident was exactly according to what she had described in the morning… It was like being in the twilight zone!”Looks like the girls’ guardian angels sure were on standby!

Pop princess Britney Spears' manager-boyfriend Jason Trawick has reportedly said no to her marriage proposal.

Spears, 27, who is in Sydney for her tour, had proposed marriage to her boyfriend of some three-years on November 20, and she is said to have been left devastated when he refused.

"She is in love with the idea of marriage," News.com.au quoted a source as saying. "She has been married only twice, but has proposed to many more," the source added.

Trawick, who flew to Australia from LA two weeks ago bringing Spears' two young sons with him, is credited with helping the pop star claw her way back from a very public breakdown two years ago.

Rihanna recently suffered a wardrobe malfunction just minutes before her performance on U.S. breakfast show Good Morning America

The pop sensation wore a white mini dress and stiletto heels for the show but was worried that her dress would pop off. "My dress! I''m a little too fat right now. My dress, the zip busted in the back,” the Daily Star quoted her as saying. She added: “They''re like, ''You''re a minute late!'' I wanted to stitch it up but I couldn''t." Meanwhile, she revealed that she felt disgusted and embarrassed by claims she had only been signed to Jay-Z’s record label because she was having sexual relations with the rapper.

British glamour girl Jordan and terrorist Osama Bin Laden have been voted the most unpopular plane seat neighbours in a poll

Reality TV star Jordan a.k.a Katie Price topped the list of female celebrities people would least like to sit next to on an aircraft.

According to British firm Consumer Intelligence, Bin Laden grabbed the top spot on the male list, reports Contactmusic.

Other names that featured on the list included British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Colonel Muammar El-Gaddafi.

Model-singer Carla Bruni, wife of French president Nicolas Sarkozy, has accepted Hollywood filmmaker Woody Allen's offer to appear in his next

France's first lady, who appeared on Canal television Monday to perform a cover of the "Beatles' And I Love Her" with the American entertainer Harry Connick Jnr, said Allen had asked her to work with him after a visit to Paris in June, guardian.co.uk reports. "Woody Allen kindly asked me not to do a film with anyone else before him," she said, admitting that she had said yes. She did not give any details of the role intended for her. "If anything concrete ever comes of it, it would be a great experience for me," she added. The 42-year-old Bruni said: "I go into everything blindly, or I'd never do anything at all. I am not an actress at all. Maybe I'll be completely hopeless, but I can't miss an opportunity like this one in my life. When I'm a grandmother, I'd like to be able to say I made a film with Woody Allen."

RnB singer Rihanna wants to enjoy this Christmas with some “great food and great sex".

The Barbados singer has avoided the dating since the brutal assault by ex-boyfriend Chris Brown in February. When asked what she wants this Christmas, Rihanna responded: "Some great food and some great sex. "That''s not too much to ask, right? The sex might be a little difficult but definitely my mum is coming to cook me some food,” the Sun quoted her as saying. "My mum cooks this thing called Pepperpot, which is like a stew. Sounds strange but it''s really good. It''s spicy, which I love. "But we do the whole traditional tree thing, it''s just not a white Christmas.” She added: "I might be in Barbados but I''m thinking about spending it with my grandparents in New York

Angelina Jolie hates US President Barack Obama because she thinks he is a ‘socialist in disguise’, according to reports.

The 34-year-old actress, who is also a Goodwill Ambassador for the UN Refugee Agency, allegedly disapproves of the president’s policies. "She hates him. She''s into education and rehabilitation and thinks Obama is all about welfare and handouts. She thinks Obama is really a socialist in disguise," Us magazine quoted a source close to the star as saying. The source added: "Angie isn''t Republican, but she thinks Obama is all smoke and mirrors.” The Hollywood beauty also has her differences with pro-Obama beau Brad Pitt over the topic, it was claimed. The source said: "They get in nasty arguments all the time about it. She doesn''t respect Brad when it comes to politics, but, in the end, this won''t tear them apart."

Victoria Beckham has revealed the secret behind her blissful married life - she sleeps naked and can't resist a nightly dose of sex when she and soccer hubby David hit the sack.When quizzed if she prefers sleep or sex in an interview with Allure, Posh replied, "Sex! I'm getting into bed with David Beckham every night, so, you know, there'd be something wrong if I said 'sleep'."The former Spice Girl also revealed she goes commando under the sheets, despite David's lingerie treats, reports The Sun.She said, "I tend to wear nothing, but David bought me these little sets from Agent Provocateur, his favourite store."

Veteran supermodels Eva Herzigova, 36, Helena Christensen, 40, and Claudia Schiffer, 39, have proved that age is no object when it comes to looking stunning.The models wore just leather thigh boots and a saucy wink for the naked mag shoot.Claudia said it was the chemistry of the three old-school catwalk queens and photographer Kayt Jones that made the pictures so sexy."A great photographer doesn't stop you or give you boundaries. It's about flow and chemistry - you just go together like a wave," News of the World quoted her as saying.The trio, all with 1 Model Management, also posed for stunning individual pictures for contemporary style guide i-D - including one with just a handbag protecting Claudia''s modesty.An insider said: "These women are so universally beautiful that they can wear high fashion, arty wear or more commercial stuff. Or they can just go plain naked."

With his scraggly gray beard more unkempt than ever, Brad Pitt looked unrecognizable as he walked through Nice International Airport in France Thursday.

So what's with the out-of-control facial fuzz?

Take a look at all of Brad Pitt's explorations in facial hair!

Pitt, 45, is likely "marking a transition or marking a new stage in his career," says Dr. Alan Peterkin, psychiatrist and author of One Thousand Beards: A Cultural History of Facial Hair.

Peterkin tells Usmagazine.com that a beard allows a man "to change his public face. Most men growing facial hair around his age are being ironic. It's a bit of a wink of the eye; 'I'm not taking this too seriously and nor should you.'"

Angelina Jolie's man -- who has often sported facial hair -- also may be "tired of being a part of one of the most beautiful couples in the world. He wants to try a new look."

Check out these stars before they were hunks!

Although Peterkin tells Us the look may appear "desperate on another man's face," Pitt's facial structure makes it work. "With a face like Brad's, you can do almost anything," he tells Us. "It is such a well put-together, symmetrical face."

But celebrity hairstylist Sally Hershberger isn't a fan.

"I don't love gray facial hair, especially on someone as handsome as Brad," she tells Us.

Now we know where he gets it! See son Maddox's wildest hairstyles!

Although she says "he has some reasoning behind his look," she suggests that he trim it and dye it all brown.

Still, she tells Us, "I would prefer for him to shave it completely."

SHE once made international headlines for her naked and pregnant Vanity Fair cover but actress Demi Moore has been caught up in a controversy of a different kind after appearing on the December cover of the American high-fashion bible W (pictured).

A super-svelte Moore, draped in Balmain leather and metal mesh dress gold, appears to have been heavily photoshopped in the image, with some blogs calling it the "worst photoshopping disaster ever".

One even points out that a whole chunk of her left hip was erased, so the lines don't match up with the curve of her thigh.

The Chaser's Chas Liccardello has even pitched in his 10-cents worth, twittering yesterday: "Either Demi Moore's been photoshopped or she needs hip replacement surgery."

Los Angeles-based fashion photographer Anthony Citrano went further, saying: "(It's) simply bad art.

"When I look at it I can't appreciate it because I feel like there's a piece of dirt stuck in my eyeball. A neon arrow pointing at the f---up. When I see images like this I feel bad for the photographer, feel bad for the subject, feel like someone, somewhere, is a dumb-ass."

Heidi Klum didn’t plan on walking the runway of the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show last night, but let’s just say she’s a little bit impulsive. “I felt great the night of the fashion show and decided last minute to walk,” the supermodel, 36, who welcomed daughter Lou, with husband Seal, last month, tells PEOPLE exclusively. Klum, who had already been fitted for her dress, opened the Enchanted Forest-themed part of the show, wearing a vine-strewn corset and a full white skirt. “I loved my outfit,” she says, “so I thought, why not?” Her surprise appearance, known only to Victoria’s Secret insiders, drew screams and applause from a shocked audience during the live show Thursday night. Though Klum, who was expected only to host the festivities, said that while her new job behind the scenes meant there was “definitely less pressure,” walking in the show was a thrill for her. “I’m proud of being the curvy model on the Victoria’s Secret stage,” she says, adding that she enjoyed the show herself. “The Black Eyed Peas and all of the looks for the show were fantastic!” You can watch Heidi — and all the Angels — hit the runway when the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show airs on CBS at 10pm EST on Dec. 1.

At the moment, Madhuri Dixit is more bothered about her son's upset tummy than playing Indira Gandhi. While the actress says the former prime minister is her idol, she maintains that she hasn't yet given her consent to filmmaker Krishna Shah for the biopic.

Speaking from her home in Colorado, Madhuri sid: "The thing is, Krishna Shah approached me for the role. He's very keen that I do it. He came home, met me and showed me all the research that he had done. I was impressed by his preparations. But nothing has been finalised. We're still in negotiations."

The ever-cautious actress was last seen in Yashraj Films lukewarmly received "Aaja Nachle".

Director Krishna Shah's enthusiasm is understandable. But so is Madhuri's guardedness. Playing Indira Gandhi won't be easy even for an actress of Madhuri's stature. And we aren't just talking about the challenge of portraying the powerful personality. The challenge would be to get the Congress' and party president Sonia Gandhi's approval.

Jagmohan Mundhra tried making a a film on Sonia Gandhi but his efforts were deadlocked by the ruling regime. Two years ago, N. Chandra was to direct Manisha Koirala as Indira Gandhi in a project entitled "Indira Gandhi: A Tryst With Destiny". That too never happened.

Krishna Shah had last directed the low-budget "Hard Rock Zombies" for the American market in 1985. And his only feature-film in Hindi, "Shalimar" in 1978, had bombed at the box-office.

Madhuri, at this stage in her career when she is well-settled in life, wouldn't like to venture out into camera range unless she is absolutely sure of the project.

Says Madhuri: "I still have to decide. Mrs.Gandhi is my idol. At school, I remember impersonating her for a fancy dress competition. However, many other factors besides the bigness of the character go into making of a movie. There're many considerations to be gone through before I decide. Like I said, he (Krishna Shah) is keen. Everything has to fall into place.

"My decision would depend on where it would be shot and how long it would take to shoot the film. Also, who are the other actors in the project. The casting is very important. Because one would want large sections of the audience to see the film."

Tell Madhuri we are eager to see her back on screen and she rewards you with her trademark laughter. "There are offers. It's very sweet of people to want me back. But I can't jump into anything," she maintained.

PANAJI: Come Monday and the curtains will rise on the 40th edition of the International Film Festival of India (Iffi), the longest-running film extravaganza of the country. Graded in the `A' category by the Paris-based Federation International de Producers de Films, the 11-day-long festival promises to enthral filmmakers and enthusiasts alike, said director of film festivals S M Khan at a press conference at Panaji on Saturday.

While listing the events scheduled for Iffi '09, chief minister Digambar Kamat said that the inaugural ceremony has been scheduled for Monday evening at the Kala Academy, Panaji, and will be graced by veteran film actor Waheeda Rahman as chief guest and popular South Indian actress Asin Thottumkal as a special guest. Union minister for information and broadcasting Ambika Soni will also be present. `Wheat', a Chinese film depicting the long and bloody war between the ancient Chinese states Qin and Zhao, has been chosen as the opening film of the festival. The festival will be inaugurated at the Ravindra Bhavan, Margao, on Tuesday.

In a joint initiative by the ESG and the Directorate of Film Festivals, a separate section called `Goa as a celluloid destination' will be included. This segment will screen eight films of various languages which have been shot in Goa in the past, in a bid to promote the shooting of films in the state.

More than 55 films from around 47 countries will be screened in the Cinema of the World section. A specialized competition for feature films from Asia, Asia-Pacific, Latin America and Africa will also be organized. Two Indian entries, Atanu Ghosh's Bengali film `Angshumaner Chobbi' and Satish Manwar's Marathi film `Gabricha Paus' have been selected in the competition segment among 13 other films from Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Kazakhstan, Iran, Mexico, Peru, the Phillippines, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan and Argentina. Movies by UK-based director Gurinder Chadha will be screened in the Foreign Retrospectives section.

There will be nine different segments devoted to Indian cinema. In all, 77 films will be screened. `Paltadcho Monis', a Konkani film by award-winning Goan director Laxmikant Shetgaonkar, will open the Indian Panorama segment wherein 26 feature films and 18 non-feature films will be screened. The Indian Premier section will showcase eight films including `God lives in the Himalayas' by Sanjay Srinivas, and `Red Alert: The War Within' by Ananth Mahadevan. There will also be special sections devoted to golden jubilee retrospectives and tributes to film personalities who have passed away.

The film festival will conclude on December 3 with the award of the golden and silver peacocks for the best film and best director respectively, and the special jury awards. The Vasudha award and the golden and silver lamp tree awards will be given to movies selected in the short film segment. Malayalam movie star Mammootty will be the chief guest at the closing ceremony, while the Spanish movie `Broken Promises' will be the closing film.

With Shilpa Shetty and Raj Kundra tying the knot today, November 22, the venue in Khandala (a hill station near Mumbai) is brimming with activity and excitement.

The sangeet held the previous day and the wedding will be a private affair attended by family and close friends only. They will take place at the Bawa Villa, Kiran Bawa's bungalow. Bawa is Shilpa's close friend and business partner of the Iosis spa in Mumbai

"Kurbaan" director Rensil D'Silva doesn't deny the similarities between the two films but doesn't comment on the similarity of the roles. "If there are similarities between 'Kurbaan' and 'New York' then that's fine. I've high regards for Kabir Khan as a filmmaker. If 'Kurbaan' reminds audiences of Kabir's film then I'm fine with that. It has worthy recall-value," D'Silva told IANS.

Releasing Friday, "Kurbaan" also stars Saif Ali Khan as a terrorist and Kareena plays his wife. Vivek Oberoi plays a pivotal role in the movie. The director cautions that every work on terror and terrorism has its own mood and purpose. "There can be any number of films on two people falling in love. It's about how the individual director interprets the emotion of love. Likewise with the theme of terrorism. It's open to a multitude of interpretations. I'd like to believe my film is essentially different from Kabir's," he said.

Paris Hilton’s mom Kathy has said that her famous daughter had once almost gave into the temptation of getting breast implants. However, Kathy confessed that she was really glad when Paris decided otherwise.

“At one point she was like ‘I wanna do this and that, I’m so flat!’ but then all of a sudden she was like ‘I love it. I don’t care. I love it’,” Fox News quoted Kathy as saying at the launch of Paris’s new all-in-one hair tool the Celebrity Styler and the Ultimate Brush at the Thompson Hotel in Beverly Hills.

“I’m proud of that; I think that’s really nice,” she added.

However, she herself never got too excited at the thought of boosting her assets.

“I’m way too scared, I hate needles and I hate blood. I’m a really big fan of the show ‘Nip/Tuck’ so I see how it happens. I’m just too scared. I’m happy with the way I am,” said Kathy.

An ultrapurist wouldn't let on in this review that Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner), the Quileute Indian tribesman and childhood pal of vampire-smitten high school senior Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart), reveals himself as a werewolf in The Twilight Saga: New Moon. (He also reveals himself as one tasty chunk of vealcake.) But I'm trusting that between the millions of Twilighters who have already read all four books in Stephenie Meyer's blockbuster series, and the additional billions who have seen the movie trailer, the beast is already out of the bag. The excellent news for fans is that this sequel to 2008's Twilight is a durable, recognizably faithful movie adaptation of New Moon. That, of course, is the second installment, in which Bella, a dazed, confused, moody, and otherwise identifiable teen-y girl, and Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson), a smoldering, inscrutable, broody, and otherwise identifiable teen-throb vampire, swear true and chaste love while trying to keep their hands off each other.

Actually, Bella is longing to go all the way even though sex = undeath. But Edward abandons her in a supreme act of self-control. It's only then that the devastated Bella, drawn to taking all sorts of crazy human risks, re-bonds with Jacob during a couple of motorcycle rides without helmets. Meanwhile, Edward heads to Italy to visit the high-class Volturi branch of the vampire empire, crossing paths with an enticing Dakota Fanning as Jane the pain-inflicter and, in a yummy little part, The Queen's Michael Sheen as Aro, a Volturi thought-reader.

The production itself, directed by Chris Weitz (The Golden Compass) from a script by Melissa Rosenberg, is fan-ready and saga-solid. Weitz goes for an appealing, slightly old-fashioned look, one in which the near- constant rain nicely mirrors Bella's internal weather conditions. (As embodied by Stewart, she's one pained and stormy chick.) Pattinson looks, to these post-teen eyes, even more to-die-for, with his red lips, amber eyes, and major hair. I wish Jacob, endowed with Lautner's lithe bod and Matt Damonesque grin, had more of a chance with Bella. But, well, book readers know best what happens next in Eclipse. Everyone else can catch up on screen next year. Guaranteed, it will still be raining in Forks, Wash.

Every so often, American pop culture coughs up a family that's too good to be true — and, of course, it's that very too-goodness that makes them irresistible to audiences (or is supposed to, at any rate). In the '70s, we had the wholesome double whammy of the Waltons and the Bradys, and in the '90s the compulsively charitable clan of 7th Heaven. More recently, the Duggars on 18 Kids and Counting have nudged that squeaky-clean homespun virtue into the reality TV era. According to The Blind Side, you can now add another family to the list: the Tuohys. That would be blond, tart-tongued, and down-home saintly Leigh Anne, played by Sandra Bullock, trying a middle-American-mom role on for size (and finding the fit comfortably snug); her husband, Sean, played by country superstar Tim McGraw as a benign domestic yes-man who is never more happy than when he's kowtowing to his wife; and their picture-perfect neo-'50s kids, beautiful teen achiever Collins (Lily Collins) and toothy scamp SJ (Jae Head). A glowing, prosperous bunch who live in one of the tonier sections of Memphis (Leigh Anne wears a six-studded diamond crucifix that looks like it must be worth $100,000), the Tuohys are all about sweetness and light, along with a spoonful of sass to help the sugar go down.

The day before Thanksgiving, they're driving along in their oversize car when they spot one of Collins' classmates at the Christian Wingate School. His name is Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron), and he's 17, doughy and tall, and appears every inch the lost, lonely, and homeless young fellow he is. Leigh Anne, as impulsive as she is good, doesn't waste a moment before asking him over to the Tuohy home, where they put him up for the night. He stays for Thanksgiving, when they all clasp hands to say grace, and before long he's been invited to live with the Tuohys and become part of their family. He trades in his worn gray clothes for a series of colorful striped rugby shirts, which is how we know that his mood is brightening.

Michael, known as Big Mike, is a refugee from the projects, and he's been wedged into the Wingate School by a football coach who sees his potential as a Mack truck of a lineman. But he can barely read, and doesn't have much inclination to talk. Aaron, who plays him, has an appealing gentle-giant presence. Since Michael rarely says more than a few words at a time, you keep scanning his kind, sad eyes and hesitant manner for a hint of what he's about, and also to see how, exactly, he's going to mesh with this family that's embraced him as an act of charity, adventure, and brotherly love. As The Blind Side presents it, however, there isn't a lot to Michael. He shows no interest in girls or friends or videogames or TV shows. Even compared with the superficially similar lost girl in Precious, he never asserts himself or asks for anything. He just hangs out, like a fifth family member who's also a kind of mascot. The three kids get along great — at one point Mike and SJ do a duet on ''Bust a Move,'' which is about as exciting as things get — and there's never a hint of tension, or of finely woven camaraderie, among them.

Written and directed by John Lee Hancock (The Rookie), The Blind Side is a feel-good movie that never stops feeling good. The film is based on a true story (it was adapted from a nonfiction best-seller by Michael Lewis), but you never feel that Hancock has honestly captured what's true about it. He's so devoted to showing us what upbeat, selfless folks Leigh Anne and her family are that the movie never quite gets around to discovering what any of those far superior saintly-family TV shows surely would have: a dramatic conflict. Not that there aren't, you know, plot points. Will Michael manage to get his grades up? Will he make it on the football team? And how will he handle those college recruiters? In theory, it's fascinating to see Bullock harness her considerable appeal to the role of a   Republican Christian housewife who's a card-carrying member of the NRA. Yet what The Blind Side offers is a kind of liberal Hollywood version of conservative values: all rock-solid valor, all the time. The result isn't solid at all — it's more like cotton-candy uplift.

Britney Spears is back in the spotlight, this time proving that her headlights work. At least while in Australia, because in the US she's been hiding them.

Probably because her dad is always watchful while on American territory, Britney has been dressing very conservatively lately, but now that she's in Perth for the Australian leg of her "Iz Can Wave My Handz" world tour, the blonde princess of pop is letting her top assets hang loose.

The oldest of the Spears sisters was spotted walking around downtown without a bra in a semi-seethru shirt, while being very, very cold. Or was she just happy to the see the paparazzi from down-under?

It takes only one look at the rigid, rubbery aliens in this sci-fi spoof to know that we aren't dealing with topflight computer animation here. But Planet 51 still delivers a few pleasant surprises, including a smart story — a reverse-E.T. riff that plops an American astronaut down in a world of just-like-us-only-green creatures — and clever characters, like a lovable NASA rover with canine programming. He's no WALL·E, but you'd have to be an alien yourself not to smile when he starts wagging his antenna like a robot beagle.

In his schlocky paycheck movies, Nicolas Cage glowers and throws tantrums, as if trying to prove he really means it, man. He does the same thing in Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, Werner Herzog's loopy and improbably entertaining remake of the 1992 Abel Ferrara dark-side-of-everything cult classic. Except that Cage is now doing his operatic bug-eyed intensity thing because the role actually calls for it. As Terence McDonagh, a homicide cop who is always high on coke and heroin, Cage walks with a crooked slouch and a barely visible tilt of the head; he gives this rogue officer a touch of Igor. McDonagh whips himself into adrenalized states beyond doubt or fear, but he also uses his addictions to be a better cop. He's a crackhead undercover agent in hell.

Bad Lieutenant doesn't go where you expect, but it has a stubborn, trippy logic. Herzog stages the film as a modern noir, with McDonagh's investigation into a gang slaying entangled in his gambling habit, his attempts to keep his hooker girlfriend (Eva Mendes) happy and high, and other troubles. The film even has iguanas — real live scaly ones, shot in acid-head close-up, which doesn't sound like much until you realize that the only one who can see them is McDonagh. They're a vision of evil, of the way that addiction drags you down into the serpent world. Bad Lieutenant makes that a scarily arresting place to be.

Good nipple slips are hard to come by, so when we come across a top notch Eva Mendes nipple slip, we have to pay special attention to it.

Eva Mendes wore a white blouse and no bra to the premiere of the movie "Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans" and as she moved around to say hello to other celebrities and pose for the paparazzi, one of her nipples was clearly visible thru the gap on her shirt.

Nipple slips are not common for this Cuban-American actress, even though she has no trouble showing her tits for "artistic purposes". In the more than 10 years than Eva Mendes has been part of Hollywood's elite group, this is just the second time she experiences a wardrobe malfunction, so take a close look at this photo... it's not likely we'll see another one in a while!

A vibrant, mature love letter to the making of movies, the meaning of movies, and the dark-eyed muse Penélope Cruz, Pedro Almodóvar's Broken Embraces doesn't so much break new ground in the filmmaker's instantly recognizable terrain as deepen an Almodóvarian's understanding of how this uniquely stylish Spanish artist sees the world. And as every frame of this chic and playful comedy/melodrama attests, he sees the world — of personal relationships and creative collaboration, of natural landscape and man-made decor — through a cinephile's magnifying lens.

Lluís Homar plays a blind screenwriter who was once a movie director and who once loved his leading lady (Cruz, delectable). As for the lady, she was once the mistress of a jealous tycoon, who once bullied his gay son into spying on the mistress by documenting the shooting of their ill-fated collaboration —a movie bearing a crazy resemblance to Almodóvar's own classic Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. The plot thickens! Further fun: Many of the characters go by two different names. So best advice for optimum viewing is, see Broken Embraces...twice.

Flying arrows rain down like deadly needles. Soldiers wield their shields in formations worthy of a Busby Berkeley musical. A beautiful woman pours tea with intoxicating precision. There's plenty of vivid action to fill two and a half hours in John Woo's Chinese historical war epic Red Cliff, a rewarding change of terrain and era for the inventive Hong Kong director. The spectacular battle scenes are the engorged heart of the delirious adventure. But Woo also gets maximum romantic value from Tony Leung as a war hero married to Chiling Lin as the tea-pouring beauty.

Marissa Miller is currently teaching the girls of America's Next Top Model how to look hot and sexy in a bikini.

Obviously nobody on this Earth would be able to achieve such sexiness as Marissa herself, but she's nevertheless doing a great job training these model aspirants. For this purpose, the Victoria's Secrets' latest angel put on a very revealing bikini and rolled around on the sand while the girls observed (and their jaws hit the floor).

Needless to say, traffic on the Pacific coastal highway in California stopped for hours (seriously) as countless drivers stepped out of their vehicles to witness the class.

In an interview, Pamela Anderson has revealed how she told her two sons about her sex-tape with former hubby Tommy Lee.Anderson decided to make the confession before her boys heard about it from pals. The former Baywatch star said she felt it was time to let their sons - Brandon, 12, and Dylan, 11 - know about their home made videotape after it was mentioned in the hit Borat movie starring Sacha Baron Cohen.“I just said, ‘Look, Mummy and Daddy were massively in love, we videotaped everything, everything was videotaped, and you’re probably going to hear about something at school,’” the Daily Star quoted Anderson, as telling a chat-show host.The chat also saw the star open up about her booze and drug habits and how she contracted hepatitis C.

Washington ::American glamour model Carmen Electra can be seen doing a seductive dance in a new video that has been leaked online.
Electra, 37, can be seen wearing nothing but black high heels, stockings, panties, a red bra and a diamond-studded choker in a new short posted on website NucleonForce.com, reports Contactmusic.
She was also seen cavorting with a brunette pal, simulating a little lesbian foreplay, and at one point even unzipping the cameraman’s trousers, though there was no actual sex involved in the footage.

The former Playboy pin-up, who has released a successful stripper-pole guide DVD, is engaged to rocker Rob Patterson.

Bipasha Basu and Vidya Balan, the warring actresses have ended their battle. The cold war that was on between themended in 'All The Best’ party at a five-star hotel, where Bipasha went up to Vidya and hugged her. The cold war began after rumours of John Abraham’s chemistry with Vidya Balan on the sets of Salaam–e-Ishq came out in 2007. It is said that despite Nikhil Advani calling a cut for a romantic scene under a dupatta, John and Vidya continued to remain inside the dupatta for at least a minute before coming out of it.Apparently, Bipasha was so furious that she asked John to never work with Vidya again. This time however, Bipasha decided to forgive and forget as she patched up with the actress. According to the buzz, when Vidya came to the party, she was given a warm welcome by Bips. During a discussion with the cast and crew of the film, Vidya was informed that she was the original choice for Bips role in the flick. Post chatting up with the crew, Bips came to greet Vidya and surprised everyone.Confirming the story, a source told a news daily, "Bipasha just went up to Vidya and hugged her. Later, John too spoke to Vidya." Talking about Vidya, Bips told the news daily, "I never had any problem with Vidya. Many ridiculous stories are printed every day in the media. I don't change my attitude towards people according to them." However, Vidya chose to remain mum about the issue.

Talk about being stripped of all the luxuries...on UTV Bindass Big switch, one of our contestants Pooja Mishra, a model and VJ had more than just luxuries to live without.

While all the contestants had brought their bags filled with the clothes they needed, Pooja brought everything from her make up kit, to bracelets and earings forgetting just one critial thing.In the frenzy that followed, Pooja after being selected for Big Switch packed in a hurry and hence forget to pack one of the essential items, her underwear!

Realizing her folly after reaching the Big Switch house that she had forgotten to bring them along left her embarrassed to let anyone know about it and Pooja managed to complete TWO days in the Big Switch house without her innerwear.

Hollywood actress Brooke Shields has revealed she wanted to take her own life when she first became a mother because she was suffering from severe post-natal depression.The actress who has two daughters, Rowan, six, and three-year-old Grier, with husband Chris Henchy suffered from severe post-natal depression and didn't think her life was worth carrying on with, reports femalefirst.co.uk."I finally had a healthy beautiful baby girl and I couldn't look at her. I couldn't hold her and I couldn't sing to her and I couldn't smile at her... All I wanted to do was disappear and die," said the former model about Rowan's birth."I should not exist. The baby would be better off without me. Life was never going to get better - so I better just go," she added.Shields, 44, was given medication for her depression but stopped taking it, thinking she didn't need it, which resulted in almost fatal consequences."I almost did not resist driving my car straight into a wall on the side of the freeway. My baby was in the back seat and that even p****d me off because I thought she's even ruining this for me. I just wanted to drive into the wall and my friend stayed on the phone with me until I got home safely," she said.She later called her doctor to ask for more help, and was eventually diagnosed with a chemical imbalance."I learned what was going on inside my body and what was going on inside my brain. I learned I wasn't doing anything wrong to feel that way. That it was actually out of my control," she said.

"Paris is furious that Kim got her start by hanging out in Hollywood with her and now the Kardashians have it all - the reality shows, the magazine covers, the big appearance fees and promotional deals," a source told Female First online reported.

"She used to command USD 100,000 for club appearances, but now Kim is the hottest girl and they aren't friends anymore. The magazines are bidding around USD 300,000 for Kourtney's baby shower and baby pictures. And Khloe's wedding brought in record ratings," the source added.

Hilton has also stopped her boyfriend Doug Reinhardt seeing his friends, it has been claimed.

'The Hills' star Brody Jenner hasn't seen Reinhardt since he reconciled with the socialite in August and insists that their friendship is now over.

"We used to be best friends, now I never see him. Some people are so involved in relationships they lose their other friends. Partners come and go, your friends are there for you always. I'm done. Paris has taken him away," Jenner said.

Like many other Bollywood personalities, actress Neha Dhupia too is online, connecting to her friends and fans on a social networking site. In fact she is so regularly online changing her status frequently. However she also seeks opinion from them. Recently she asked people which hairstyle she should go for. Neha, who was not able to decide a haircut, posted a query on the website. Many answered her back like don’t cut her hair too short. So the actress picked the most common opinion and is now ready to chop her tresses.

Meanwhile many other celebrities from the industry are already online like Karan Johar, Reitesh Deshmukh, Preity Zinta are on Twitter connecting to audience. Most of them also have verified their account, so that you can know they are the real celebrities.

Now a day when every Bollywood star is acquiring new skills like new dance forms, diving or horse riding to be competitive in the industry, newbie Adah Sharma goes way back to Indian classics. Adah recently performed a kathak dance at some event to pay tribute to the Late Natraj Gopikrishna. It was eight minute performance and the actress managed to impress audience including veteran actress Asha Parekh, who was the chief guest at the event. So, Adah is all thrilled to know that Ashaji loved her dance.

Adah first horrified us with her acting skills in 1920 and now she impressed everyone with her dancing skills. Now we wonder if some filmmaker gives her opportunity to display her dancing skills. Meanwhile the one film wonder is next coming up with films- Phhir and an unknown rom com.

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