KAREENA & PRIYANKA AT WAR

The B-town beauties, Priyanka Chopra and Kareena Kapoor, who don’t see eye to eye over Shahid Kapoor didn’t leave the golden opportunity to take digs at each other on Karan Johar’s controversial show Koffee with Karan. Kareena Kapoor who came along with beau Saif Ali Khan in the show said,
“I wonder where Priyanka got her accent from?”

When asked to comment on Kareena’s query, Priyanka Chopra, who came along with rumoured boyfriend Shahid Kapoor on Karan’s show had a smart reply for her arch rival, “I want to tell Kareena that I got my accent from the same place where her boyfriend (Saif Ali Khan) got his,” referring to Saif and her education overseas.

According to reports, Priyanka later told a couple of people in the industry, “I’m flattered that Kareena thinks I am a good actress. But otherwise I don’t think people take Bebo too seriously.”

Priyanka left no scope for doubt that the actors shared icy vibes, when she was asked what would she steal from computers of Bollywood superstars like Shah Rukh Khan, Shahid, Kareena and others. Priyanka giggled and asked, “Does Kareena have a computer in the first place?”

Well, over to you, Kareena!

SHAHRUKH DELIVERS BIG HIT

As the year 2010 ushered in, we have been bestowed with a number of films of varying genres and stars. In fact, SRK was part of the 1st important film that released this year ‘Dulha Mil Gaya’. However, Fardeen Khan and Sushmita Sen made sure that the film met with a disaster in the box office register.

But, SRK’s biggie ‘My Name is Khan’, so far, has been the biggest hit of 2010. Even though, a controversy and war with the Shiv Sena hoodlums did help the film, surely, it was the return of the King Khan that brought fame and money to the Karan Johar caper.

Not to mention, the coming back of Kajol did make the fans storm into the theatres. For a lover of love-stories, there is nothing better than a Shahrukh-Kajol rom-com. And, though the film was targeted on the relevant social issue of ill-treatment of the immigrant Muslims, it was the subtle romance between the single mother Kajol and an autistic SRK that held the maximum appeal and magnetised audience into the theatres.

Though, subsequent films like ‘Ishqiya’ and ‘Love, Sex aur Dokha’ were hailed by the critics for putting up a brave face, none could jingle the cash box as vigorously as did MNIK.

So, for the moment, 2010 has belonged solely to the Bollywood Badshah(Emperor)!

PERFORMER & ENTERTAINER

Kristina Guerrero on Main Street Mantra Show!

Kristina Guerrero is a Film major at UNLV where she is planning to put her focus on screenwritng. Entertainment is where it is for her. She is doing everything she can to break into the entertainment industry by networking and doing performances for UNLV as well as around the Las Vegas area. She has been singing ever since she was a little girl. Her mom always tells her stories of when she performed in Christmas pageants and school events. Her parents encouraged her to succeed in whatever she did, and she feel like they put and extra emphasis on her success as a musician and as a performer as a whole. As a result of her parents’ persistence, she is now able to write her own lyrics and compose her own music, which is a reflection of her life experiences and emotions.

She also acts, writes, dances and models. She some great opportunities lately to model for companies such as Redken 5th Avenue and the Magic Fashion show held here in Las Vegas every year. So far, she has been having such a great time doing what she loves to do, which is to perform. She says “I cannot see myself doing anything else. This is what I love to do. It’s who I am. It’s how I live.”

At the moment, she is part of an open casting call for the Fox TV show GLEE. The way for her to get on the show as a regular cast member is if people vote for her to be on it. All you have to do is sign into myspace.com and go to http://www.myspace.com/gleeauditions?link=115140939 and that will take you directly to her audition tapes. From there, you just give out stars. She says, “I just want to thank everyone who has supported my thus far. Knowing that people believe in me and what I do really means more to me than I can even imagine.”

Overall a performer and entertainer blooming to be the superstar of tomorrow!

A NIGHT OF SURPRISES

Contributing Writer: AMIT DAYAL, International entertainment columnist and film critic.

The city of angels, Los Angeles hosted the 82nd Annual Academy Awards at the Kodak Theatre. And what an event it was! We saw the $500 million extravaganza ‘Avatar’ humbled by a low budget independent movie depicting the everyday precipices of an American bomb squad unit posted in Iraq “The Hurt Locker”, walking home with six of the major awards including Best Picture and Best Director in Kathryn Bigelow, the first woman ever to win it in the category.

The ceremony kicked off with a hilariously witty musical performance by Neil Patrick Harris, “No one wants to do it alone”, mockingly introducing the two hosts for the evening, Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin, who then went on to present an extremely humorous monologue introducing all the major nominees. When introducing Sandra Bullock, Steve Martin said: “And there’s the beautiful Sandra Bullock. Wow. Who doesn’t love Sandra Bullock?” To this Alec Baldwin replied, “Well, tonight we may find out.”

Among the winners, Jeff Bridges sealed what was already looking like an unbeatable performance in “Crazy Heart” as the Best Actor, after claiming the Golden Globe and the Screen Actors’ Guild Awards in the same category earlier this year. He went on to thank his parents for introducing him to “such a groovy profession”.

Sandra Bullock on the other hand, won the golden statuette in the Best Actress category for her heart wrenching performance as an All American woman playing the Good Samaritan in raising an African American boy. The win did not come before receiving fierce competition from Hollywood icon Meryl Streep who had earned her 16th Oscar nomination this year for “Julie and Julia”, making her hold the record for the highest number of Oscar nominations for any actor.

Other wins included Austrian actor Christoph Waltz who won the Best Actor in a Supporting role for his terrifying portrayal of Col. Hans Landa in Quentin Tarantino’s directorial venture “Inglourious Basterds”. It was a rather disappointing night for Tarantino for he had hoped his movie would cause some major upsets in the Best Picture category. Mo’Nique received a standing ovation for her win in the Best Actress in a supporting role category for the movie “Precious: Based on the novel Push by Sapphire”. While accepting the award she thanked her husband for encouraging her to do the movie, he pushed her, she said by saying “sometimes, you have to forgo doing what is popular in order to do what’s right.” She added “Baby, you were so right.”

“Up” won the Animated Feature Film. Michael Giacchino also won the award for “Up” in the Original Score category, edging past master musicians like Hans Zimmer and James Horner. JJ Abrams’ spectacle “Star Trek” won in the Makeup category. It’s the first ever Oscar win for the ever so popular Star Trek franchise.

Other winners were, Mark Boal (The Hurt Locker) for Original Screenplay, Geoffrey Fletcher (Precious: Based on the novel Push by Sapphire) for Adapted Screenplay, Sandy Powell (The Young Victoria) for Costume Design, “The Cove” for Documentary Feature, “Music by Prudence” for Documentary Short, “The Secret in their Eyes” (Argentina) for Foreign Film, “The Weary Kind” Music and Lyrics by Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett (Crazy Heart) for Original Song, “Logorama” for Short Film Animated, and “The New Tenants” for Live Action Short.

Half way into the ceremony it was looking evidently clear that “The Hurt Locker” would outweigh the mammoth of a movie “Avatar”, having won three major awards for Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, and Original Screenplay against “Avatar’s single award for Art Direction . But then “Avatar” got back into the race by bagging two more awards for Cinematography and Visual Effects. Kathryn Bigelow’s thrilling Iraq war drama then won in the Film Editing category.
As the night neared its conclusion, it was a clear battle between the two strongest contenders for the top honors, “Avatar” and “The Hurt Locker”. Barbara Streisand presented the award for Best Direction. She announced the name saying, “The time has come”. The time had indeed come to make Oscar history for Kathryn Bigelow, as she became the first woman ever to win the Best Director award. In her acceptance speech she kept describing the award as “the moment of a lifetime”. She later expressed her notion of inspiring more women to reach her pinnacle by saying, “I hope I’m the first of many, and of course, I’d love to just think of myself as a filmmaker. And I long for the day when that modifier can be a moot point, but I’m very grateful if I can inspire some young, intrepid, tenacious male or female filmmaker and have them feel that the impossible is possible, and never give up on your dream.”

After that, it was a mere formality for her movie “The Hurt Locker” to walk away with the Best Picture award as Tom Hanks hastily entered the stage and announced the winner even before Kathryn Bigelow could exit the stage fully with her Best Director award. Not many people know that “The Hurt Locker” is the lowest grossing movie ever to win Best Picture. It has made a mere $21 million worldwide. The award was accepted by Kathryn Bigelow, Mark Boal, and Greg Shapiro. The third producer Nicolas Chartier was barred from attending the ceremony after he mailed numerous Academy members requesting them to vote for his movie.

All in all it was a great night for world cinema. For once, one didn’t feel that the Academy aimed for political correctness in awarding the winners. All the major awards were well deserved. Steve Martin ended the show by saying “the show is so long that Avatar now takes place in the past.” So true, but who’s complaining.

Contributing Writer: AMIT DAYAL, International entertainment columnist and film critic.

A MUST READ!

Anjana Dayal on Main Street Mantra Show!

Anjana Dayal on Bruce Garrett Show!

About the book and the author: The book invites the reader to take a journey with Gudia that started from a railroad colony in the capital city of India to the central mountain region in Puerto Rico. The reader gets a glimpse into how she questions the rules of her society and in the process becomes an enigma to her society.

The journey includes the times when Gudia wanted to be a boy, fell in love with the wrong man, defeated tuberculosis, gave birth to her gorgeous son, supported the people suffering from calamities, traveled to beautiful places, was proposed by her prince charming while watching the Parthenon in Athens,
Greece, and experienced the emptiness of the loss of her father.

Taking a leap of faith, she left the prestigious job in New Delhi and moved out of her country in order to find a world where she and her son would not be questioned anymore…

Anjana Dayal was born in New Delhi, India, and educated in a convent school. She has developed herself into a humanitarian worker that served thousands of disaster-affected people in South Asia. She’s a psychologist, who received the Meritorious Service Award for her contribution. She is a consultant in psychosocial support, living in Puerto Rico with her son and husband.

BEST FILM DRAMA!

Blockbuster sci-fi epic Avatar has been named best film drama at the Golden Globe awards, boosting its chances of further glory at the Oscars in March. Its director James Cameron was also honoured at the event, held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles.

Sandra Bullock and Meryl Streep won the best actress prizes, with Jeff Bridges and Robert Downey Jr taking home their male equivalents. Ricky Gervais hosted the event, the first of 2010’s major Hollywood awards.

Presented each year by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the Globes often indicate who and what will go on to receive Academy Awards. Television shows are also celebrated at the gala, where prizes are divided between dramas and comedies or musicals.

Cameron’s double victory was a vindication of the 55-year-old’s faith in his ambitious and costly computer-generated fantasy. His best director prize also saw him triumph over his ex-wife Kathryn Bigelow, nominated in the same category for Iraq drama The Hurt Locker.

“This is the best job in the world,” he said as Avatar was named best film. “What we do is make entertainment for a global audience.” The Canadian film-maker previously won a Golden Globe for directing Titanic, which went on to win 11 Academy Awards in 1998.

But he steered clear of the self-aggrandising language of his “king of the world” Oscar acceptance speech, heaping praise upon Bigelow, and addressing his actors in Na’vi, the language created for his blockbuster film.

As Cameron accepted his prizes, it was revealed that Avatar had remained top of the US box office for a fifth week. Worldwide takings for the film now stand at $1.6 bn (£979m), setting it on course to top Titanic’s $1.8 bn (£1.1bn) haul this week – which would make it the top-grossing film of all time.

TIGER'S WOOS

The day after a Los Angeles woman claimed to have had a nearly three-year affair with Tiger Woods, the golf star released a statement of his own, apologizing for his “transgressions” and vowing to be a better husband and father in the future.

“I have let my family down and I regret those transgressions with all of my heart,” said Woods in a statement posted to his Web site. “I have not been true to my values and the behavior my family deserves.”

“I am not without faults and I am far short of perfect,” said Woods. “I am dealing with my behavior and personal fallings behind closed doors with my family. Those feelings should be shared by us alone.”

Woods’ statements comes on the same day that an issue of US Weekly magazine hit newsstands with the bombshell headline, “Yes, He Cheated,” featuring photographs of the golf star, his wife Elin Nordegren and one of his alleged mistresses, Jaimee Grubbs.

US Weekly spokesperson Ericka Souter said, that sources have also told the magazine that there are “several other women” who Woods’ had relationship with, adding that it has been made clear that “Woods like to party and be in the company of women.”

Rumors about Woods’ alleged extramarital affairs began swirling almost immediately after news broke of his early morning car crash last week.

On Nov. 27, Woods plowed his black SUV into a fire hydrant and then a tree near his Pensacola, Fla., home, causing $3,300 worth of damage to the property, according to a police report. Traveling at 30 mph in a 25 mph zone, Woods’ car had $8,000 of damage.

The report also states that Woods was not tested for alcohol or drugs at the scene.

While the Florida Highway Patrol announced Tuesday that they would not be seeking criminal charges against Woods, issuing him only a $164 traffic citation for “careless driving,” Woods’ problems were not over.

KAREENA AND SAIF

I think those scenes, and our pairing, have been blown out of proportion by people who can only think of us as an off-screen couple. When the audience sees Kurbaan, I want people to forget Saif and Kareena Kapoor and see the film for Ehsaan and Avantika, because on screen we only do what our characters demand.

We’re serious actors… creative artistes, cinema is our business, we’re passionate about our careers, our work, we have individual takes on cinema and that is what makes us push ourselves to do films like this one where the roles are powerful. Really, this is not some candy floss-mini skirt love story… it is a love story, yes, but intense and complicated, and beautifully woven with terrorism to be a thriller.

Of course, Saif and I are happy to come together in this film, but it’s not as if Dharma Productions had us in mind from the start. I remember Karan Johar spoke to us individually. He chose us separately as actors, because Avantika’s role was so apt for me, and Ehsaan’s was almost written for Saif. It’s great if directors like Karan, and Shriram Raghavan of Agent Vinod, pair us together as actors because they believe we can sink our teeth into meaty roles… and not just because Saif looks hot and I look beautiful, as a jodi. We’re not selling ourselves as a pair, you know.

But, yes, Kurbaan was a great journey because of Karan… and a special one because of Saif. Karan is not just a professional filmmaker with whom I discuss cinema, he’s a friend and philosopher on whom I rely upon when taking the most personal decisions. He’s truly a superlative person, multi-tasking all the time, making films, but always available for family and friends. There was also director Rensil D’Silva, who is edgy in personal life, so he brought a fresh take to the film that was real and slightly borderline… but it being a Karan Johar film, Kurbaan is also commercial, so there’s a wonderful balance.

As for Saif… what can I say, he is truly one of the best actors in the country today. So versatile. And, like with Aamir Khan opposite whom I am also cast in my next film, there’s also so much to learn from Saif. They keep me on my toes. Aamir is a method actor, Saif is both — method and spontaneous, you cannot take one Saif Ali Khan film and put it into another… you cannot compare an Omkara with a Love Aaj Kal. And while I enjoy different schools of acting, I rely on spontaneity, so I could glide through my role in Kurbaan as a result.

It’s different working with Saif because we know each other so well and there’s the need to switch off and go into character. That’s why we chose a real and serious kind of film instead of some romantic comedythat had flippant roles. It was easier to perform because the scenes were raw and edge of the seat.

Switching off Saif and Kareena and switching of Ehsaan and Avantika was complicated, difficult, but in the end, that is what made us select this film. The roles. And that’s what I want you to see it for.

ABHISHEK BACHCHAN

Ghajini gal Asin Thottumkal will be seen romancing opposite Junior Bachchan in Ashutosh Gowariker’s upcoming flick ‘Khelein Hum Ji Jaan Sey”, which is based on the Chittagong uprising.

Abhishek Bachchan will be donning the character of Surjya Das in the film.

Previously, Gowarikar offered the same role to Abhishek’s real-life wife Aishwarya Rai Bachchan.

A source said, “This will be the first time that Abhishek and Asin will be paired opposite each other. The film’s first schedule will tentatively start around November 25.”

There are also reports that the actress accepted the role in the movie without even seeing the script as Gowariker’s name was connected with it.

‘Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey’ will be Thottumkal’s third Bollywood movie after Ghajini and London Dreams, which is due in theaters on October 30.

ROMANCE LIVES ON

Film actors have remembered Dirty Dancing star Patrick Swayze following his death at 57 from pancreatic cancer. Whoopi Goldberg, who starred with Swayze in Ghost, said in tearful tribute on US TV: “Because of Patrick Swayze, I have an Oscar”. The actress also hailed his bravery and touched upon the star’s fun side.

Keanu Reeves, Swayze’s co-star in Point Break, said he was “a beautiful person” and hailed his “passion and lust for life and his craft”. Speaking at the Toronto Film Festival, Reeves added: “He had a really good sense of humour and he lived life to the full.” He recalled how Swayze became a fan of sky diving during filming, and was eventually asked by producers to stop.

Jennifer Grey, who co-starred with Swayze in Dirty Dancing, said in a statement: “Patrick was a rare and beautiful combination of raw masculinity and amazing grace. Gorgeous and strong, he was a real cowboy with a tender heart. “He was fearless and insisted on always doing his own stunts, so it was not surprising to me that the war he waged on his cancer was so courageous and dignified.”

Demi Moore has also paid tribute to her co-star in the hit film Ghost, saying: “Patrick you are loved by so many and your light will forever shine in all of our lives.” She added: “I love and will miss you Patrick.”

California governor and former Hollywood actor Arnold Schwarzenegger called Swayze a “talented and passionate artist who struck a memorable chord with audiences throughout the world.”

In January, Swayze admitted he might only have two years to live, but denied he was near death.