When a film ‘flops’, always blame the actress

TrendPK.com: When a film ‘flops’, always blame the actress. If a film doesn’t flop, call it a flop and blame the actress. If a film is a hit, blame the actor.

The Huffington Post linked to the AP box office analysis piece yesterday with their own headline, titled simply ‘Gwyneth flops’. It wasn’t a surprise, as Huff Post (which I of course contribute to) and other entertainment websites and publications never miss a chance to trash any given actress for anything whatsoever. Never mind that Country Strong was a $15 million picture that opened with $7.3 million in the first three days, guaranteeing long-term profitability. Never mind that the opening weekend of Country Strong was nearly double the single-largest weekend ($4.2 million) for last year’s Crazy Heart. It’s no fun to merely report that Paltrow’s small picture had a modest opening that was relatively successful in regards to its budget and Paltrow’s long untested drawing power. It’s so much easier (and more fun) to just proclaim the film a flop and take the bitch down a peg or two. Because it’s always the girl’s fault, even when there is no fault to be had.

When The Tourist opened slightly below expectations, the headline everywhere was ‘Angelina Jolie BOMBS’. If you didn’t know better, you’d have no idea that Johnny Depp was the co-star of said movie and thus shared at least partial responsibility for the film’s relative under-performance over its first weekend. And the following week saw the very disappointing opening weekend for the James L. Brooks romantic comedy How Do You Know? The film starred Reese Witherspoon, Owen Wilson, Paul Rudd, and Jack Nicholson. Do you think the headlines all screamed about the box office failure of the all-star cast? Of course not, the blame fell entirely on the shoulders of Reese Witherspoon (who received $15 million for the film), as if Owen Wilson, Paul Rudd, and Jack Nicholson had no star power that justified their (respectively) $10 million, $3 million, and $12 million paydays for the $120 million comedy.

And let’s not forget Nicole Kidman, who got tagged as ‘box office poison’ after a series of uber-expensive (and sometimes troubled) genre pictures only opened to ‘just’ $15-30 million. Did Will Ferrell’s career take any real damage after Bewitched opened to a ‘mere’ $20 million? Of course not. Did Daniel Craig take any of the blame for the disappointing opening numbers posted by The Invasion ($7.9 million) or The Golden Compass ($25 million)? Nope, he’s got a shiny new franchise this summer with Cowboys and Aliens, plus a starring role in David Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo remake (and if that tanks, it will fall entirely on the shoulders of virtual unknown Rooney Mara). Did Hugh Jackman share any of the responsibility when the $120 million Australia opened with $15 million over Thanksgiving 2008? Nope, he still was able to star in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and got to host the Oscars to boot. But Nicole Kidman is of course box office poison.

But what if the film is a hit? Well, if at all possible, find a way to give credit to the male lead. Sandra Bullock had her (at the time) biggest hit ever with The Proposal in June of 2009, but if you read much of the press that followed, you would have sworn that most of that $33 million opening weekend and $164 million total came from fans of co-star Ryan Reynolds. And The Ugly Truth opened with $27 million later that summer on the strength of Katherine Heigl and Gerald Butler. He may have deserved some of that credit, but much of the press acted as if Gerald Butler was a known entity when it came to opening romantic comedies. So if he gets half the credit for that solid hit, why did he get none of the blame when it was falsely reported that The Bounty Hunter was a flop upon opening with ‘just’ $20 million? Because his costar was Jennifer Aniston, and no one, I mean no one, misses a chance to trash Aniston (notice how Jason Bateman escaped unscathed for the The Switch).

Call it sexism. Call it laziness. Call it a crass knee-jerk reaction to appeal to the baser instincts of uninformed readers. But pay close attention after this year’s Oscar ceremony. If it goes well, then more power to everyone involved. But if it fails as entertainment, who do you think the press will aim their swords at, James Franco or Anne Hathaway? As always, we’ll see…

Winehouse kicks off comeback shows in Brazil

BRASILIA: She has been rarely seen on stage in recent years but Amy Winehouse took to the mic in South America last night to do what she does best.

The 27-year-old singer was looking healthier than ever as she took to the stage for the performance in Brazil.

Dressed in a pink and white gingham dress which a dipping neckline, Amy wore her hair in a ponytail and not her trademark bee-hive, appearing fresh faced with her signature liquid eyeliner in place.

The Back to Black singer belted out a number of tunes from her back collection and performed a number of covers at the Summer Soul Festival in Florianopolis.

But after a long break from performing the set did seem to take its toll on Amy, who had to take a moment to wipe the sweat from her nose, and interrupted a song to have a sip of water.

Emma Watson beats Kristen Stewart on Forbes’ “Couples” list

On-screen couples appeared to be a thing of the past. Where Hollywood used to flock to see every Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn collaboration, those pairings are few and far between in the modern age of single-serving celebrities.

Which makes this list from Forbes Magazine all the more interesting. The editors decided to rank the “Top Grossing On-Screen Couples,” using as a criteria that the actors “had appeared on screen together more than once in the last 10 years.”

So who topped the list? Sorry, “Twi-hards,” but it was “Harry Potter” starlets Rupert Grint and Emma Watson who were named No. 1 on the chart. As Forbes pointed out, the duo’s contributions to the “Potter” franchise have helped the series earn “a whopping $6.3 billion so far,” and is on track to pass $7 billion when part two of “The Deathly Hallows” arrives this summer.

Next on the list were Viggo Mortensen and Liv Tyler for their work in Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” films. Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley landed in the No. 3 slot for the “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise. They might have moved even higher had they stuck around for the fourth “Pirates,” due in theaters this summer.

So where are Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart, power-couple extraordinaire of the beloved “Twilight” series? They’d be at No. 5, right behind “Titanic” twosome Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet.

Natalie Portman confirms she’s engaged … and pregnant!

Is anyone having a bigger “moment” than Natalie Portman?

It’s possibly, though highly unlikely. She is enjoying career-best reviews for her performance in “Black Swan,” and is riding waves of awards momentum. She’ll be in three high-profile 2011 films, including the Medieval comedy “Your Highness” and the anticipated comic-book blockbuster “Thor,” which kicks off the summer popcorn season.

And off screen? Portman just announced that she’s going to become a wife … and a mother!

People reports this morning that Portman and choreographer Benjamin Millepied “are engaged and expecting their first child,” which will be delivered in 2011. The couple met while working on “Swan.” It will be the 29-year-old actress’s first child.

Congratulations to Millepied and Portman, who truly is having a magnificent hot streak both personally and professionally.

Nepal plane crash kills all 22 on board

All the 22 people including the passengers and crew members on board a small passenger plane that crashed in a mountainous area in eastern Nepal were killed, police said Thursday after a rescue team reached the site.

The Twin Otter plane carrying three crew and 19 passengers including one American smashed into a mountainside shortly after taking off from a small airstrip 140 kilometres (90 miles) east of Kathmandu on Wednesday afternoon.

We have recovered 20 bodies. We are still searching for the other two, but we can be sure there are no survivors, police spokesman Bigyan Raj Sharma told the reporters. The aircraft has broken up completely and is scattered over 200 metres (yards) of dense forest.It is not yet known what caused the Tara Air plane to crash.

Sharma said the bodies of the victims would be flown by helicopter to Kathmandu later Thursday. The United States embassy in Kathmandu confirmed that one was an American citizen and said it was in contact with the man’s family. The other passengers were initially thought to have been Nepalese, but media reports suggested they may have been Bhutanese pilgrims who claimed to be locals to qualify for a cheaper air fare. This could not immediately be confirmed, but Sharma said identity documents from Bhutan had been found at the crash site. Khotang, the remote district in eastern Nepal where the plane took off, is not a major tourist destination, but it is home to two sites of religious significance, a Hindu temple and a Buddhist monastery.

Air travel is popular in Nepal, which has only a very limited road network. Many communities, particularly in the mountains and hills, are accessible only on foot or by air.Aviation accidents are relatively common, particularly during the summer monsoon, when visibility is usually at its worst. Last month, a helicopter crashed near Mount Everest during a mission to rescue two stranded climbers, killing the pilot and an engineer. In August, a plane headed for the Everest region crashed in bad weather killing all 14 people on board, including four Americans, a Japanese and a British national.

An investigation blamed the crash on a power failure. It said the plane’s generator failed and the pilot did not follow the proper procedures to conserve the remaining battery power.Tara Air is a subsidiary of Yeti Airlines, a privately owned domestic airline founded in 1998 which runs a service to many remote destinations across Nepal.Yeti’s last major accident was in 2008 when a passenger plane crashed on landing at Lukla airport, the gateway to Mount Everest, killing all 19 people on board, most of them German tourists.

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange arrested in UK

Julian Assange, founder of a whistleblower website, has reportedly been arrested by Londons Scotland Yard Tuesday.

Police said that he would soon be presented before Westminster magistrate in rape case. Earlier, Julian surrendered himself as part of a Swedish sex-crimes investigation — one of a host of international legal, financial, and security challenges closing in on the secret-spilling website.

The 39-year-old Australian’s legal troubles stem from allegations leveled against him by two women he met while in Sweden over the summer.Assange is accused of rape and sexual molestation in one case and of sexual molestation and unlawful coercion in another.Assange denies the allegations, which Stephens has said stem from a dispute over consensual but unprotected sex. Stephens said the two women involved made the allegations only after they became aware of each other’s relationships with Assange.The Internet-based organization’s room for maneuver is narrowing by the day. It’s been battered by web attacks, cut off by Internet service providers and been subjected to a barrage of muscular rhetoric out of the United States. In the latest development, Swiss authorities closed Assange’s bank account, depriving him of a key fundraising tool. MasterCard has also pulled the plug on payments to the site, according to technology news website CNET. A European representative for the credit card company didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment. The attacks appeared to have been at least partially successful in stanching the flow of secrets — WikiLeaks has not published any new cables to the Internet in more than 24 hours, although stories about them have continued to appear in the New York Times and The Guardian, two of the papers given advance access to all 250,000 documents.WikiLeaks Twitter feed, generally packed with updates, appeals, and pithy comments, has been silent since Monday night, when the group warned that Assange’s arrest might be imminent. Although unrelated to WikiLeaks’ mass disclosures, which have infuriated U.S. officials, Assange and his lawyers have suggested that the prosecution is being manipulated for political reasons.

Karachiites suffer power failures despite winter, holiday

Staff Report

KARACHI: The load shedding continues in Karachi despite winter and holiday. The Karachiites suffer power cuts problem for five to eight hours daily.

The Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) started long power cuts during the summer, saying that it did so because of increased demand of electricity in the city and dearth of enough gas supply. But now when the cold season has been started and the business activities all over the city are suspended due to holiday, people still suffer the problem for five to eight hours daily.

The sources told that Site industrial areas, Usmania Colony, Rizwia Society, Nazimabad number 3, Paposh Nagar, Pirabad, Ahsanabad and other areas face the load shedding problem on Sunday from 10am to 6pm due to repair work. Trend Pk

Brazil’s First Female President Celebrates Victory

SAO PAULO: A former Marxist guerrilla who was tortured and imprisoned during Brazil’s long dictatorship was elected Sunday as president of Latin America’s biggest nation, a country on an economic and political rise.

A statement from the Supreme Electoral Court, which oversees elections, said governing party candidate Dilma Rousseff won the election. When she takes office Jan. 1, she will be Brazil’s first female leader.

With nearly 95 percent of the ballots counted, Rousseff had 55.6 percent compared to 44.4 percent for her centrist rival, Jose Serra, the electoral court said.

Rousseff, the hand-chosen candidate of wildly popular President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, won by cementing her image to Silva’s, whose policies she promised to continue.

She will lead a nation on the rise, a country that will host the 2014 World Cup and that is expected to be the globe’s fifth-largest economy by the time it hosts the 2016 Summer Olympics. It has also recently discovered huge oil reserves off its coast.

Rousseff was already speaking like a president-elect when she cast her vote Sunday morning.

”Starting tomorrow we begin a new stage of democracy,” Rousseff, 62, said in the southern city of Porto Alegre, where she cast her vote. ”I will rule for everyone, speak with all Brazilians, without exception.”

Silva used his 80 percent approval ratings to campaign incessantly for Rousseff, his former chief of staff and political protege. She never has held elected office and lacks the charisma that transformed Silva from a one-time shoeshine boy into one of the globe’s most popular leaders.

Silva was barred by the constitution from running for a third consecutive four-year term. He has batted down chatter in Brazil’s press that he is setting himself up for a new run at the presidency in 2014, which would be legal.

Despite Rousseff’s win, many voters don’t want ”Lula,” as he is popularly known, to go away.

“If Lula ran for president 10 times, I would vote for him 10 times,” said Marisa Santos, a 43-year-old selling her homemade jewelry on a Sao Paulo street. “I’m voting for Dilma, of course, but the truth is it will still be Lula who will lead us.”

China set for Asian Games extravaganza

BEIJING: China’s booming southern metropolis of Guangzhou is gearing up for next month’s Asian Games — the biggest sporting extravaganza the nation has seen since the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

After seven years of preparations, the city at the heart of China’s economic miracle has reinvented itself for the November 12-27 spectacle and is hoping the event will help transform it into one of Asia’s elite cities.

The country’s state media is stirring up excitement with regular updates on Team China, a day-by-day countdown on China Central Television and coverage of the nationwide Asiad torch relay.

Organisers are hoping that a successful Asiad — the world’s second-largest sporting event after the Olympics — will pave the way for an eventual Summer Games bid.

“In my personal opinion, in 10 years time, Guangzhou may have the opportunity to bid for the

France faces more protests as pension vote looms

PARIS: The French government sent police to clear access to barricaded fuel depots as trade unions kept up their resistance on Wednesday to an unpopular pension reform due for a final vote in the Senate this week.

Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux said three depots were unblocked overnight as France braced for more public sector strikes and protests against the reform, which would lift the minimum retirement age to 62 from 60.

Backed by a majority of French people, unions are trying to force President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose ratings are at rock-bottom 18 months before a presidential election, to retreat on what is being seen as the defining reform of his presidency.

The centre-right government has stood firm through a wave of protests and strikes since the summer which gathered momentum last week with stoppages at oil refineries and blockades of fuel depots

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