Smith still UK box office legend

Tuesday, 8 January 2008, 17:58 GMT

Will Smith plays the last man on Earth in I Am Legend
Will Smith's sci-fi drama I Am Legend has remained top of the UK and Ireland box office chart for a second week.
The film, about the global population being wiped out by a virus, has so far taken a total of £18.5m.

Romantic drama PS I Love You follows in second place, with fantasy drama Enchanted entering at number three.

Spoof comedy St Trinian's, starring Colin Firth, appears in fourth place while Daniel Craig's The Golden Compass rounds off the top five.


UK AND IRELAND BOX OFFICE
1. I Am Legend - £3.7m
2. PS I Love You - £1.7m
3. Enchanted - £1.4m
4. St Trinian's - £1.37m
5. The Golden Compass - £1.32m
4-6 January. Source: Screen International
Alvin and the Chipmunks fell from last week's fifth place to sixth, and Bee Movie also fell a place to number seven.

In eighth place was The Kite Runner, followed by comedy Balls of Fury.

Ang Lee's new erotic thriller Lust, Caution appeared at number ten.

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Stolen paintings recovered in Brazil

SAO PAULO, Brazil - Brazilian police recovered paintings by Pablo Picasso and Candido Portinari that were stolen last month from the country's premier modern art museum, officials said Tuesday. 

Two suspects were arrested with the paintings, but no other details were immediately available, said Rosa Maria da Costa, a spokeswoman with the Sao Paulo state public safety office.

Armed with nothing more than a crow bar and a car jack, thieves took just three minutes to steal Picasso's "Portrait of Suzanne Bloch" and Portinari's "O Lavrador de Cafe" from the Sao Paulo Museum of Art on Dec. 20.

The Picasso painting was valued by art experts at about $50 million, and the Portinari at $5-6 million.

Police planned a news conference later Tuesday.

The arrests Tuesday were the first since the thieves made out with the paintings in a brazen burglary just before dawn when the city's busiest avenue is deserted and the guards inside are changing shifts.

Hazy images from a security camera showed three men using a common car jack to squeeze inside a metal security gate, then smashing through two glass doors and running to the museum's top floor to grab the two paintings from different rooms.

The museum's security system relied solely on a few cameras and unarmed guards patrolling the building's interior. There were no alarms or movement sensors.

None of the museum's 8,000 works of art are insured. A local newspaper, Folha de Sao Paulo, reported the museum's collection is worth more than $1 billion.

Picasso painted "Portrait of Suzanne Bloch" in 1904 during his Blue Period and it is among the most valuable pieces in the museum's collection.

Portinari's work, which depicts a coffee picker, was painted in 1939 and is one of the most renowned works by one of Brazil's most famous painters.

Police believe the thieves were paid by a wealthy art lover adding to a private collection. The thieves ignored works including Pierre-Auguste Renoir's "Bather with a Griffon Dog," Vincent Van Gogh's "L'Arlesienne," and Henri Matisse's "Plaster Torso and Bouquet of Flowers." Instead they homed in on just the two paintings.

There was another robbery attempt at the same museum in late October but it was foiled by the alarm system.

Art thieves hit Brazil last year, when a gang of five men used a carnival street parade to cover the theft of four paintings from a Rio de Janeiro art museum. Those works, valued at around $40 million, have never been recovered.

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Posh Spice tops Blackwell worst-dressed

LOS ANGELES - A decade after singling out the Spice Girls as fashion atrocities, Mr. Blackwell put just one of them — Victoria "Posh Spice" Beckham — at the top of his 48th annual worst-dressed list.

The acid-tongued critic — who was designing dresses for the rich and famous when he originated the list in 1960 — skewered entertainment's biggest stars in the latest compilation of fashion follies.

Saying it's all in fun to encourage fashion consciousness, Blackwell heaped venom on Beckham, his No. 1 choice on the list, which was released Tuesday.

"Forget the fashion spice, wearing a skirt would suffice! In one skinny-mini monstrosity after another, pouty Posh can really wreck-em," he said in a statement.

An e-mail message to Beckham's publicist, Cheryl Maisel, wasn't immediately answered.

Blackwell listed the Spice Girls as No. 1 in his 1998 worst-dressed list, deriding the group as "the only spices on the planet that have no taste."

Britney Spears, who has made the list many times before, is missing this year.

"I felt that it was inappropriate at this time to make comment, when her personal life is in such upheaval. I hope 2008 is a better year for her," Blackwell said.

The top 10 roll-call of fashion dishonors also includes:

• No. 2: Amy Winehouse — "Exploding beehives above, tacky polka-dots below, she's part '50s carhop horror."

• No. 3: Mary-Kate Olsen — "She resembles a tattered toothpick — trapped in a hurricane."

• No. 4: Fergie — "Yes, when it comes to couture chaos, guess it's all in a name!"

His top 10 also includes Kelly Clarkson, Eva Green, Avril Lavigne, Jessica Simpson, Lindsay Lohan and Alison Arngrim.

He also released a Fabulous Fashion Independents list that includes Reese Witherspoon, Jemima Khan, Beyonce, Angelina Jolie, Helen Mirren, Nicole Kidman, Katie Holmes, Kate Middleton, Katherine Heigl and Cate Blanchett.

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Oops, now Britney's lost her car

By JOHN ROGERS, Associated Press Writer
 
LOS ANGELES - It was just another night on the town Monday, and then another headline in the tabloids on Tuesday, for Britney Spears after the pop star had her car towed away and her visit to a high-end hotel triggered a scuffle between a photographer and a security guard.
 

The scuffle resulted in police being called to the Four Seasons Hotel near Beverly Hills about 90 minutes after they had a private towing company haul Spears' car away. But Officer Karen Smith said the pop star wasn't to blame for the Four Seasons dust-up.

to Federline and suspended Spears' visitation rights.

"She was leaving the hotel when one of the paparazzi and a security guard at the hotel had a scuffle," Smith said.

Police took a battery report but the photographer had left the hotel by the time officers arrived and no one was arrested. The hotel's head of security did not respond to a message for comment.

Police said Spears left her 2008 Mercedes-Benz on busy Sunset Boulevard, near the University of California, Los Angeles campus, about 8 p.m. Monday because of a flat tire.

"She left it unattended and it was blocking traffic, so it was towed," Smith said.

It was unlikely Spears would be ticketed because the car was disabled, but police said she would have to pay a towing and impound fee to get it back. The vehicle was taken to Quicksilver Towing, where an employee who answered the phone Tuesday said he didn't know if it was still there.

"We had several Mercedes towed last night," he said, adding storage charges are $35.20 a day.

According to the celebrity Web site TMZ.com, Spears caught a ride home from a member of the horde of paparazzi who follow her everywhere. Then it was off to the Four Seasons.

The car and hotel incidents were only minor bumps in the road for Spears, who is involved in a bitter, public custody dispute with ex-husband Kevin Federline over the couple's sons, 1-year-old Jayden James and 2-year-old Sean Preston.

Spears was hospitalized last week after an hours-long standoff at her home that was triggered by the custody battle. The next day, a court commissioner gave sole physical and legal custody of the boys

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Gay actors pigeonholed, Fry says

Stephen Fry stars as Peter Kingdom in ITV's hit drama

Last Updated: Tuesday, 8 January 2008, 13:13 GMT
 
Actor Stephen Fry has revealed his frustration at being pigeonholed as gay in TV and film roles.
"I think the fact that I'm so well known to be gay makes it very difficult to have a convincing relationship with a woman on screen," he said.

In the Radio Times interview, he also criticised the way straight actors are congratulated for playing gay parts.

"People say: 'Ooh, how brave of you.' Why should it be difficult for a man to kiss another man?"

He was being interviewed about his starring role in the ITV series Kingdom, in which his character, the lawyer Peter Kingdom, is single.


It wouldn't be at all difficult for me to kiss a woman - I'll kiss a frog if you like
Stephen Fry
He pointed out nobody tells a gay actor: "How brave of you to kiss that woman, that must have been very difficult for you."

He told the magazine: "It wouldn't be at all difficult for me to kiss a woman - I'll kiss a frog if you like. It's difficult to ride bareback backwards while unicycling, but to kiss someone isn't difficult.

"It's just part of the insanely irrational way that the human mind works."

Coming out

Fry has never made any secret of his sexuality and has campaigned for gay equality.

"If you have had the experiences I have had, not to share them where they can be useful is just mean.
 
"The obvious case is coming out as a gay man, which I did when it was quite a rare thing to do.

"You think of the average person in the playground who's terrified of being beaten up, or the people who are not in a job like mine, where it doesn't really matter.

"These people need to be reassured that they're not alone and they're not freaks."

'Just sad'

Meanwhile, fellow actor John Barrowman has gone further and criticised gay performers who fail to declare their sexuality.

"I know people who lie about being gay because they think it will affect their work chances. And that is just sad," he told The Stage.

Barrowman, who is about to star in another series of Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood, added: "I remember years ago when Saturday Night Fever was being cast and someone told me it was because I was openly gay that I did not get the part.

"But I think that is a bunch of rubbish because I was so not right for that part anyway. If it has affected me in any way, I don't know."

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Cruise biography branded 'nutty'

Cruise's belief in Scientology has often attracted criticism

Last Updated: Tuesday, 8 January 2008, 12:36 GMT
 
Actor Tom Cruise's long-time lawyer has branded a forthcoming book about the film star "outrageous, sick stuff".
Tom Cruise: An Unauthorised Biography, by British author Andrew Morton, is due on US bookshelves later this month.

Lawyer Bert Fields said it was full of "tired old lies", including the "nutty" claim that Cruise is second-in-command at the Church of Scientology.

He refused to say whether Cruise would sue over the claims. The publishers said they "stood by" the book.

Morton is notorious for his explosive book on the life of Princess Diana, first published in 1992.

He has since written about Monica Lewinsky, Madonna and the Beckhams, who tried to have their biography banned from British bookshelves.

The celebrity couple eventually reached a confidential out-of-court settlement with the author, allowing the book to be published.

But he remains an unpopular figure, with Bob Geldof calling him "loathsome" and Madonna admitting she was "angry" when he chose her as a subject.

'Hogwash'

Mr Fields said Cruise had no plans to read Morton's latest book, which claims that Nicole Kidman feared she would be barred from seeing her children if she spoke out about Scientology after her divorce from the Mission Impossible actor.

Kidman's spokeswoman was not immediately available for comment, but Mr Fields said the allegations were "absolute hogwash".

"The man should be ashamed of himself and so should his publisher," said Mr Fields.

"He pretends to be writing a biography without ever talking to anybody who has really known Tom for the past 30 years."

"Clearly the book is actionable, but I'm not commenting on anything to do with legal issues."

In a brief statement, publishers St Martin's Press said: "We stand by our book and our author."

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Dr. Phil Criticized for Britney Brouhaha

By JOHN ROGERS Associated Press Writer
LOS ANGELES Jan 8, 2008 (AP)

Dr. Phil's public brand of tough love sometimes makes him tough to love, particularly among mental health professionals who are accusing television's self-help guru of making an uncalled-for house call on Britney Spears this week.

Although Dr. Phil whose full name is Phillip McGraw announced Monday that he is shelving plans for a show on Spears' latest breakdown, some in the mental health community say just showing up at her hospital room last week was going too far.

"It's true people sometimes need to be placed under involuntary mental health treatment because they can't take care of themselves," veteran psychiatrist Dr. Jeffrey Sugar said of the 26-year-old Spears. "But there's a difference between being detained involuntarily for psychological treatment and being forced to endure Dr. Phil involuntarily."

Spears, who appeared to have enough trouble already, saw McGraw barge into her life Saturday when he showed up at her room at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center as she was about to be discharged. She had been taken there Thursday after an hours-long standoff with police that was triggered by her custody dispute with ex-husband Kevin Federline.

A court commissioner on Friday gave Federline full custody of sons, 1-year-old Jayden James and 2-year-old Sean Preston.

McGraw said he was invited to the hospital by Spears' family.

Sugar, chief of child and adolescent psychiatry, crisis and emergency service for the University of Southern California, said that isn't good enough. Late adolescent or not, he said, Spears is still an adult who has the right to decide who she lets into her hospital room.

In a statement posted on his Web site Monday, McGraw said he had hoped to film a show this week that might help other families facing the same troubles as Spears.

That's assuming, of course, they have been in and out of rehab in recent months, arrived in public in short skirts and no underwear, shaved their heads bald, run over a photographer's foot, banged up a car in a parking lot and left without notifying the owner, and attacked another car with an umbrella.

But in the end even McGraw, never too shy to blurt "What were you thinking?" to a troubled guest, seemed to agree that putting Spears or her family and friends in front of the cameras wasn't wise.

"Because the Spears situation is too intense at this time, and out of consideration to the family, I have made the decision not to move forward with the taping," he said on his Web site. He didn't say whether he planned to do a show later, and a spokeswoman for the show declined to elaborate.

"Certainly I think it's a good idea to stop that show dead," said Dr. Richard Harding, professor of neuropsychiatry at the University of South Carolina. "This isn't the time to be exploiting anybody and making examples out of anybody."

Sociologist Julie Albright, an expert in family therapy at USC, agreed with Harding that while McGraw's sometimes bellicose approach can be helpful under the right circumstances, Spears is in perhaps too fragile an emotional state for it.

"It looks as though her behavior has been unraveling for some time now. Frankly, it's reached a point of being pretty frightening," she said.

"People may have thought it was entertaining or funny, but really it's a cry for help, and I hope people around her will respond and get her the help she needs," Albright said.

Also, Albright said, the tough-love therapy that McGraw practices is really only the first of many steps therapists must take to change destructive behavior. What's more, she said, it really only works when the recipient is receptive.

"It's hard to do therapy or intervention in a half-hour or one hour-spot," she said. "They have these longer interventions that they follow up with. That's where important change will occur, not necessarily in the one-hour sound bite of a show."

Still, at least one pop psychologist couldn't fault McGraw for trying.

"I'm sure Dr. Phil does not want to exploit her. He has all this experience in helping people get over problems," said Dr. Joyce Brothers, who herself has been dispensing psychological advice to TV viewers for more than 30 years.
But Brothers, who like McGraw has a Ph.D. in psychology, acknowledged that key for any therapist is getting the person to listen to them.

"He has a lot to offer," Brothers said of McGraw. "But only to the person who wants it."

Associated Press writer Erin Carlson in New York contributed to this report.

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Madonna, Ritchie visit slums of Mumbai

MUMBAI, India - Madonna visited a crowded Mumbai slum Tuesday, where impoverished residents showered her with rose and marigold petals.

Madonna didn't speak to journalists, and a New York-based spokeswoman for the 49-year-old singer wasn't immediately available for comment.

Millions of people live in makeshift huts in slums along railway lines and roads in Mumbai, India's financial and entertainment center.

Wearing a black jacket, T-shirt and jeans, Madonna spent nearly 45 minutes with residents of the downtown shanty township.

She was accompanied by her husband, Guy Ritchie, and Australian author Gregory David Roberts, who made the Mumbai slum his home in the early 1980s.

Roberts worked for the city's crime bosses and set up a free health clinic in the slum when he took refuge in Mumbai after escaping from an Australian high-security prison.

The slum features prominently in Roberts' best-seller "Shantaram," which is being adapted into a film starring Johnny Depp and directed by Mira Nair.

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Cosmetics guru Shu Uemura dead at 79

By HIROKO TABUCHI, Associated Press Writer
 
TOKYO - Shu Uemura, the Japanese makeup artist who won acclaim in Hollywood and built an international cosmetics brand under his name, has died. He was 79.

Uemura, who gained acclaim working with actress Shirley MacLaine on the 1962 Hollywood film "My Geisha," died of pneumonia in Tokyo on Dec. 29, according to a statement released Tuesday by his company, also called Shu Uemura. Its products were mentioned in the more recent film "The Devil Wears Prada."

He is survived by his wife and a son.

Uemura's family and friends attended a funeral Friday, according to company spokeswoman Ami Nakano.

Uemura was working as a beautician in Hollywood when he was called to work on MacLaine's makeup for "My Geisha" after the staff makeup artist fell ill.

His transformation of MacLaine into a Japanese beauty catapulted the young Uemura to renown within the U.S. show business community. He soon became a favorite among top actresses as well as the likes of singer Frank Sinatra and actor Edward G. Robinson, according to his company's Web site.

In 1960, Uemura developed his first cosmetics product, a cleansing oil that remains popular today. He later opened a school to train makeup artists in Tokyo.

In 1983, amid Japan's economic boom and just as Tokyo was establishing itself as a fashion trendsetter, Uemura launched a cosmetics boutique in the capital. It drew crowds for its gallery-like interior.

Uemura gradually expanded his brand to include handmade makeup brushes, perfumes, and voluptuous fake eyelashes. The company's eyelash curlers were mentioned in the 2006 movie "The Devil Wears Prada" starring Meryl Streep.

The company, which has stores in New York, Paris, London and Hong Kong, was acquired by French cosmetics maker L'Oreal SA in 2004.

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Jan. 8, 1942: Birthday of a First-Rate Mind, and a Medical Marvel

Stephen Hawking (center) experiences the thrill of zero gravity on a flight aboard a modified Boeing 727 aircraft, owned by Zero Gravity.

Image: NASA

By Tony Long 01.08.08 | 12:00 AM


Stephen Hawking (center) experiences the thrill of zero gravity on a flight aboard a modified Boeing 727 aircraft, owned by Zero Gravity.
Image: NASA
1942: British physicist Stephen Hawking is born.
Hawking was born in Oxford (his website notes, in an interesting historical aside, that his birth coincides with the 300th anniversary of Galileo's death), where his parents moved to escape the German Blitz on London.
Naturally predisposed to mathematics, young Hawking switched to physics because University College at Oxford did not offer the discipline. He turned out to be pretty good at physics, too. From there, Hawking moved on to Cambridge to do his research in cosmology.
It was while attending Cambridge that he developed the first signs of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, the incurable neurological disease that, defying all odds, Hawking has managed to live with for more than four decades. The average ALS patient dies within a few years of diagnosis.
In fact, Hawking has done far more than simply "live with ALS." Almost willfully ignoring his disability, which leaves him wheelchair-bound, paralyzed and unable to speak, Hawking has carved out a brilliant career as a theoretical physicist specializing in the study of the universe.
His best-seller on the subject, A Brief History of Time, helped raise public consciousness regarding the nature of the universe, its possible beginnings and its probable end.
The very slow progression of Hawking's disease remains a mystery. A special computer rigged to his wheelchair and operated by a "blink switch" attached to his glasses gives him a limited self-sufficiency, although he still requires around-the-clock nursing care.
In April 2007, Hawking realized his dream of making a zero-gravity flight, making him the first quadriplegic ever to do so. He's scheduled for a sub-orbital spaceflight in 2009.

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