Rani’s smoking act in No One Killed Jessica promo creates controversy

Remember how Aishwarya got the heat for the poster of her latest film Guzaarish because it showed her smoking? It was thought to be irresponsible as youth of today are easily impressed with stars. Well, the next in line is Rani Mukherjee.

Her upcoming film No One Killed Jessica is garnering publicity not just because of the trailer, that certainly makes you sit up and take notice, but more so because the promos show her smoking. It’s strange because this isn’t the first time Rani has smoked in a film; she did it before in Laaga Chunari Mein Daag where she played an elite escort.

In this film, Rani plays a headstrong journalist who takes up the cause of the murdered Jessica Lal. As part of her character specification, she had to smoke on a few occasions. NGOs though aren’t interested in the creative aspect of the character and letters have been sent to the Health Ministry and censor board asking for the deletion of scenes involving the actress smoking.

Rani’s character also shows her using profanity on screen in both English and Hindi in the promos. We wonder if that too would be deleted. The director of No One Killed Jessica maintains that these days using abuses in everyday conversations has become a norm and should be considered harmless. Well, that’s yet to be seen.

Actress accuses Polanski of abuse in 1980s

LOS ANGELES: An English actress who appeared in Roman Polanski’s 1986 movie Pirates said on Friday that the director sexually abused her decades ago in Paris when she was 16.

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Actress accuses Polanski of abuse in 1980s

Crowe snaps over Irish Robin Hood accent

LONDON: Actor Russell Crowe stormed out of a BBC radio interview after suggestions that he had made the quintessentially British legend Robin Hood sound Irish in his latest movie.

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Crowe snaps over Irish Robin Hood accent

Rolling Stones revisit their days in Exile

NEW YORK: The Rolling Stones are revisiting their creative heights by releasing one of their greatest albums with 10 extra tracks, and reminiscing about their chaotic days in a grainy new documentary.

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Rolling Stones revisit their days in Exile

marley shelton

While its current movie output embodies the creative potential of sawdust, Hollywood’s rumor mill is second to none. And the hot topic on most of the town’s vacant minds is an alleged romantic connection between Josh Brolin and his friend, Marley Shelton.

Josh has been married to ‘Must Love Dogs’ actress Diane Lane since August of 2004, while Marley married film producer Beau Flynn in 2001 and became a mom with the arrival of daughter, West on September 6 of last year.

The pair have been friends for years without a hint of divorce or one trace of scandal, so naturally Hollywood’s chattering classes have decided they’re creasing the sheets.

Josh, 42, and his friend were seen sharing coffee in Santa Monica on April 28, and once the refreshments were over they hugged and went their own ways. And this, to some people, is grounds for a scandal.

RamSinghKumaresh – The Animation Masterclass kickstarts from April 24

In a unique initiative to spread animation awareness and to bridge the prevailing gap between animation training and animation education in India, industry’s three animation experts have to come together and initiated ‘RamSinghKumaresh – The Animation Masterclass.’
These three experts are namely Vivek Ram, Ranjit Singh and Vaibhav Kumaresh who have a collective 40 years of practical work experience among them. They share a common belief in imparting practical and useful education that can genuinely enhance the creative ability of their students.
The first module of the classes is scheduled for 24th of this month at the Whistling Woods International Campus, Mumbai and will include the topics like construction of a story, principles of animation, and anatomy of visual development.
Speaking to BollywoodHungama.com, Ranjit Singh shared, “We have launched a series of professional masterclasses wherein the craft of animation and its underlying building blocks will be shared with the audience through a sustained effort,”
“These classes will focus on the fundamental principles of the art-form, aesthetics in art, technology as well as the craft of animation. Assignments, collective reviews, interactive discussions as well as live demonstrations are an integral part of the module design. Each masterclass will be covered across 3 days with a minimum 2 week interval per day.” He added.
The target audience for these classes is animation students, practicing professionals and all students of visual media courses who may want to explore the powerful medium of animation. Vivek Ram, Ranjit Singh and Vaibhav Kumaresh are senior industry professionals who have been actively mentoring animation students individually for well over a decade.

Hat-trick for Hungama Digital Media at ABBYs 2010

Hungama Digital Media, South Asia’s largest digital & mobile entertainment company, has bagged three awards at the Creative ABBY Awards this year for the launch of several interactive digital initiatives, covering mobile and social networking sites, for the entertainment store-front Hungama.com.

The brand has been awarded Silver for the launch of Hungama MyPlay Application for Facebook in the category Creative Use of Social Media. The presence of Hungama.com on mobile has been awarded 2 Bronze for the categories Best Application for Mobile and Best WAP Site.

Commenting on the success Neeraj Roy, MD & CEO, Hungama Digital Media said, “With more than 8 million users in India, Facebook is one of the most visited Social Networking Sites. A legal music streaming application like MyPlay on Facebook allows users to consume their favorite entertainment & connect with friends simultaneously. Similarly, with 500 mn users, India is one of the fastest growing mobile economies in the world where consumers are spending a lot of time on their mobile downloading entertainment content. Therefore, we introduced a WAP Site to facilitate legal music downloads & the MyPlay application to manage them on the device. A mix of these services on mobile & internet combine to create multiple touch-points for users to access Hungama.com from their preferred destination. It is a great honor to be recognized at a platform like Abby’s as we continue to work harder to create more such innovations in the digital space.”

Hungama.com, India’s premiere digital destination offers more than 300,000 music tracks, ringtones, music videos, mobile wallpapers and more ranging from genres such International, Bollywood, Regional, Devotional and more. The store-front has been launched with a simple objective- to make legalized entertainment more accessible to consumers.

obama palin

One person President Obama will not be taking advice from? Sarah Palin. Especially on nuclear arms control.

“Last I checked, Sarah Palin’s not much of an expert on nuclear issues,” Obama told ABC News in declining to react to Palin’s criticism of his new nuclear weapons policy.

Palin, speaking in Minnesota Wednesday, ripped the White House’s declaration that it will not respond to conventional attacks with nukes.

“No administration in America’s history would, I think, ever have considered such a step that we just found out President Obama is supporting,” Palin said at a rally with Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-Minn.) “It’s unbelievable. It’s like getting out there on a playground, a bunch of kids, getting ready to fight, and one of them says, ‘Go ahead, punch me in the face. I’m not going to retaliate. Do what you want to with me.’”

“No, it’s unacceptable,” Palin said. “This is another thing that the American public, the more that they find out, what is a part of this agenda, they are going to rise up and they are going to say ‘no more.’”

Bachmann and other members of the GOP have also been critical, and Obama did address their complaints, adding another dis of Palin.

“What I would say to them is that if the secretary of defense and the chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff are comfortable with it, I’m probably going to take my advice from them, and not from Sarah Palin,” Obama told George Stephanopolous.

mike nilon

Add Garcelle Beauvais-Nilon’s husband to the list of unfaithful spouses, says Page Six.

An e-mail written by The Jamie Foxx Show actress is apparently making the rounds at the Creative Artists Agency, where Mike Nilon works, with the subject line: Tiger Woods/Jesse James/Mike Nilon.

It says, “What do they have in common . . . I found out today that MY husband of almost 9 yrs has been having an affair for 5 yrs with some (one) in Chicago. I am devastated!!!! And I have been duped!!”

Beauvais-Nilon tells UsMagazine.com in a statement, “My focus at this time is on my kids and healing the pain. There will be no further comment.”

January 2010 Calendar

January 2010 Calendar Wallpaper, This post is part of the free calendar wallpaper series. Each month I create a new wallpaper featuring the current calendar. Looking at the same image over and over again is not very stimulating. Hence having a new desktop background each month should help getting your creative juices flowing. January 2010 Calendar Wallpaper is entitled “Beautiful Day” and has been created entirely in Photoshop. I hope you enjoy it and I wish you all the best for the new year!

As always the January 2010 calendar wallpaper comes in the following resolutions and non-calendar versions are also included:

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January 2010 Calendar was first posted on January 4, 2010 at 10:43 pm.

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