Entertainment

Online Video Gaining Popularity.

2008-01-10T19:40:00.000-08:00

The ongoing writers' strike has seen Americans turn to online alternatives. According to Nielsen some online video sites have seen their audience double since the strike began at the end of October last year. Clearly Americans are spending more time on YouTube and other similar destinations. A study released by Pew Internet and American Life Project finds the number of web users who watch video online grew 45% between late 2006 and 2007. Forty eight percent of web users now visit video sharing web sites.

Contributing to the rise is the spread of broadband and the increasing volume and range of content on these sites. The internet has clearly become a medium of diversion, entertainment and education as well, apart from its utility function.

Men are more likely to use video sharing sites-53% compared to 43% for women. The increase in traffic is driven by youngsters with 70% of those under 30 using such sites.About 22% of Americans now shoot their own videos with 14% of them posting it online.Now that many cellphones have video capabilities, making videos is now an almost spontaneous act. Video sharing sites are working closely with news channels to promote interactive content. The Democratic presidential debate hosted on YouTube along with CNN is an example.

Dailynation is perhaps the world's largest independent video entertainment website.Every day, over 15,000 new videos are uploaded onto Dailynation's global network of localized video entertainment sites. It claims to receive about 32.3 million unique users every month.

One of the pioneers in the field Metcafe which boasts 19 million unique users every month has created a 'producer rewards' program that gives $5 to video creators for every 1000 visitors they get. With competition between rival sites rising, both content and rewards for users are bound to increase.

Spears and Angel: One Nasty Love Story

2007-08-16T21:55:00.001-07:00

Nothing could be finer with a greasy haired boy hooking up with an often drunk girl. It really is a beautiful story. She pays people to be her friend and he’s slept with everything in Hollywood but Paris and the kitchen sink (though he may as soon as he learns to get that drain open). I suppose it really was just a matter of time.

While this hookup doesn’t really surprise me, I cannot help but be mildly grossed out. Criss Angel is just frighteningly not sexy. Maybe it’s just me but every time I see him it looks like he needs to wash his hair. I hear he makes a lot of money doing that magic thing, but if he doesn’t handle it soon I am going to suggest that his fans send him some Pantene for Christmas. Anyway, back on topic…Britney and Criss hooking up…

According to reports, Angel, 39, has been linked to Lindsay Lohan and Cameron Diaz (not necessarily in that order). Now he’s moved on to Britney. Next stop, the duo will be visiting the clinic for a nice (and necessary) health check. On a side note, if this magic thing doesn’t work out, Angel could always become a gigolo or he can become a poster child for condoms.

The reports claim that Angel escorted Spears into the Tower Beverly Hills Hotel last night. The two were even seen holding hands as they headed to the suite on the 11th floor.

Isn’t that sweet? Although, I can’t help but hope they washed their hands first.

Amy Winehouse: Screw Rehab, I’m Going to the Bar!

2007-08-16T18:36:00.000-07:00

Amy Winehouse quit rehab after three days and proceeded to immediately belly up to the bar.

Her junkie hubby, Blake Fielder-Civil, had a helicopter pick Amy up at The Causeway clinic in Essex. How romantic. Then, like a knight in shining armor, he whisked her away to their favorite pub, The Old Eagle in Camden.

Winehouse was supposed to stay in rehab for a few weeks to get well and healthy again after collapsing during a three day drug and drinking binge. They say after Amy got some sleep and ate some food that she insisted she was fine to leave.

Blake’s dad, Giles Civil, says he was hoping she would stick out the rehab stint.

“We were praying they wouldn’t bail out early. We don’t want them to go back into their vicious cycle. Amy has had five days away from drugs and her confidence is slowly coming back. I hope she and Blake can take control of their lives.”

Amy’s parent’s however, wish the rehab singer would stay far, far away from her enabling husband.

J.K. Rowling turns the page on Harry Potter

2007-07-26T18:29:00.000-07:00

British author J.K. Rowling , who a week ago published the final Harry Potter book, said in an interview out Thursday that she is already back at work.

The British author says she's sad the Harry Potter series has ended, but will not stop writing.

"I'm sort of writing two things at the moment," she told USA Today. "One is for children and the other is not for children.

"The weird thing is that this is exactly the way I started writing Harry. I was writing two things simultaneously for a year before Harry took over. So one will oust the other in due course, and I'll know that's my next thing," she told the national daily.

Rowling admitted to being angered that the last of the seven-novel series had been posted on a website prior to the official release.

"I was angry," she told USA Today, for her young fans, the "10-11-year-olds who really wanted not to know" how the book ended, until they had a chance to read it.

However, she was heartened that rumored endings included the death of the boy-wizard.

"I was very proud that people thought Harry's death was a genuine possibility. I wanted the reader to feel that anyone might die, as in life," she said.

The books themselves will live on, the 41-year-old billionaire said.

"Do I think they'll last? Honestly, yes."

"In 50 years' time, if people are still reading them, they deserve to be read, and if they're not, then that's OK."

" Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows " sold an estimated 8.3 million copies within 24 hours of its release, according to its US publisher.

Some 325 million copies of the first six volumes have been sold worldwide, and the books have been translated into 64 languages.

Experts: Lohan Could Get 180 Days in Jail

2007-07-26T09:00:00.000-07:00

Lindsay Lohan's best bet for avoiding jail time is to go back into rehab yet again and remove herself from a high-flying party lifestyle, if not, she could be facing up to six months behind bars, legal observers said Wednesday.

Lohan, 21, was less than two weeks out of a recovery program and was voluntarily wearing an alcohol-monitoring device when she was arrested Tuesday in Santa Monica for investigation of misdemeanor driving both under the influence and with a suspended license, and felony cocaine possession.

Her lawyer, Blair Berk, has said she had a "relapse" and was receiving medical care at an undisclosed location.

A call to Lohan's publicist was not returned Wednesday.

The actress completed more than six weeks in rehab less than two weeks ago, and had checked into another recovery clinic in January.

Over the weekend, she was photographed at a party in a pink bikini, with the monitoring device on her ankle.

That behavior won't cut it anymore and neither will spa-style clinics, said Barry Gerald Sands, a Century City defense attorney who's also a certified drug and alcohol counselor.

"Whatever you have done in the past, do a 360-degree turn and go the other way," Sands said Wednesday. "She has to change her alleged friends, people sharing or selling her drugs. She has to lead a clean and sober life.

"Silk-sheet recovery homes don't do the job."

If Lohan is charged with a crime, she could ask a judge to order her to remain in rehabilitation while she awaits trial, Sands said.

A "recovery team" should be in place that includes doctors and addiction specialists who can give the judge alternatives to jail.
And if she is convicted, the rehab time would count against whatever jail sentence is issued, Sands said.

Lohan has never been convicted of a drug or alcohol crime and judges routinely place first-time DUI offenders on probation rather than behind bars. However, Lohan's case could be complicated because she also was arrested for investigation of felony DUI in Beverly Hills on Memorial Day after her Mercedes-Benz crashed into a curb.

That case was submitted to the Los Angeles County district attorney's office last week and is being reviewed, spokeswoman Jane Robison said.

If she is convicted of two felonies in the two cases, she might be eligible for 18 months or more in state prison but such a sentence is unlikely, said Lawrence Taylor, a former Los Angeles prosecutor who runs one of the nation's top DUI defense law firms.

"Our prisons are packed already," he said. "We don't need some recreational (drug) users with a small amount of coke with a clean record."

On the other hand, Lohan probably will have to do some time in county jail simply because prosecutors and judges saw the backlash when Paris Hilton was briefly allowed to serve her DUI sentence at home instead of jail.

"They're going to see how sensitive everything was ... Everything was being looked at with a microscope and broadcast to the entire world, literally," Taylor said. "They saw what happened and judges do run for re-election, and deputy DAs are aware that their bosses run for re-election."

Both sides would be interested in stalling a court case until the media frenzy ebbs but that is unlikely if the continued scrutiny of Paris Hilton is any signpost, Taylor said.

"Entertainment has become more important than information and the media is looking ... for money. They're looking for audience, they're looking to give the public what they want," he said.

That scrutiny means that Lohan, if convicted, probably will get some jail time regardless of whether it is warranted in her case, Taylor said.

"I would say this woman's going to be doing at least 30 days" and perhaps as long as 180 days if she is convicted of two DUIs along with drug possession, Taylor said.

However, virtually all DUI cases are settled by plea agreements.

If he were running the defense, Taylor said, his team of experts would reconstruct the traffic accident; seek out witnesses, videotapes and audio of the traffic stops; examine repair and usage records for police breath analysis machines; and look into any blood tests Lohan was given to detect drugs and check the qualifications of the officers who stopped her. Medical experts also would check to see if Lohan had some medical condition, say, diabetes, that can affect the tests.

"After a few months of hard work, you can find where all the cracks are, and there will be some," Taylor said.

Then, "I would strongly suggest ... that perhaps this woman needs rehab rather than a long stretch in jail."

A prosecutor faced with possibly losing a case might agree, otherwise, Taylor said, "your much-cherished conviction rate is going to go down and your chances of promotion are going to go down."

Taylor concedes that the type of defense that celebrities can afford is off-limits to the average DUI defendant. and that affects the severity of their sentencing.

"Are you saying does justice have a price? Absolutely? But the same is true of heart surgery," Taylor said. "It's not going to be the same cost and it's not going to be the same result."

Potter publisher sues over breach

2007-07-19T00:47:00.001-07:00

Publishers have placed a strict embargo on the book's publication

The US publisher of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is taking legal action against two companies for dispatching copies of the book early.

Scholastic sued online retailer DeepDiscount.com for breaking the strict midnight Saturday embargo.

In court papers filed in Illinois, the publisher also named its distributor Levy Entertainment for failing to ensure books were not sent out.

It said that only a tiny fraction of its 12m copies had been distributed.

"The number of copies shipped is around one one-hundredth of one per cent," said Scholastic in a statement.

'Please ignore'

The company added that they had a list of customers who had ordered the book from DeepDiscount.com and were asking them to put it to one side if they have already received it by mistake.

A report in The Baltimore Sun newspaper about a customer who had already received his copy prompted Scholastic to take action.

They are seeking unspecified damages from the two companies in question.

A spokesman for Infinity Resources, who own DeepDiscount.com, said: "We take the situation very seriously and are conducting an internal investigation."

JK Rowling has called on fans to dismiss speculation

Levy Entertainment declined to comment.

Scholastic has also asked "everyone, especially in the media, to preserve the fun and excitement for fans everywhere".

Harry Potter author JK Rowling has also posted an appeal on her official website, stating: "Let's all, please, ignore the misinformation popping up on the web and in the press.

"I'd like to ask everyone who calls themselves a Harry Potter fan to help preserve the secrecy of the plot for all those who are looking forward to reading the book at the same time on publication day.

"In a very short time you will know everything!" the statement concluded.

Earlier this week, pictures of what appeared to be pages from the new novel were circulating on the internet.

Minna Fry, marketing director of the book's UK publisher Bloomsbury said: "There have been so many fake books going up on the internet over the past four to six weeks. We have no reason to believe that these are anything other than fake either."

US critics pan Beckham TV show

2007-07-17T07:25:00.000-07:00

Victoria Beckham's debut on US television as the subject of a spoof fly-on-the-wall documentary has not been well received by critics.

The New York Post said the NBC show was "an orgy of self-indulgence".

As Beckham is shown setting up her new home in Los Angeles, she utters: "It's exhausting being fabulous."

Her husband David has had his first training session with his new team, LA Galaxy, but injury may force him out of a friendly against Chelsea on Saturday.

In the programme, Victoria Beckham Coming to America, she is shown dishing out orders to a new personal assistant, who she insists should not be too good-looking.

"It's got to be all about me," she says.

She is also shown tottering in high heels as she is taught how to pitch the first ball at a Los Angeles Dodgers baseball game.

Beckham's husband David is a LA Galaxy player

However, newspaper critics were not impressed with the programme, which "smacks of too much fame, too much money and too much time spent believing the hype for all concerned", according to the New York Post.

The New York Times described the Spice Girls singer as apparently "pleasant and not without a sense of humour".

But it said that this was not enough "to carry viewers through an hour of house-hunting, sunbathing and applying for a driver's licence".

Patt Morrison of the Los Angeles Times said that people in the United States had been "underwhelmed" by Beckham.

"If you're looking for a bad driver, we have Lindsay Lohan, who does it better," she told BBC One's Breakfast.

"If you're looking for rich, we've got Paris Hilton, and if you're looking for thin blondes, if you fire a cannon in Beverly Hills, you hit 100 of them.

"It's a very competitive market, even for a Beckham."

The programme is due to be broadcast on ITV1 at 2100 BST on Tuesday.

Victoria Beckham's US media blitz backfires

2007-07-16T19:23:00.001-07:00

Victoria Beckham 's attempts to woo the US media since arriving in Los Angeles soccer star husband David appear to have backfired, with critics savaging a reality show to be broadcast Monday.

"Victoria Beckham: Coming to America," was originally intended as a mini-series, but trimmed to a one hour special by the NBC network.

Billed as a revealing special that "delves into Victoria's larger-than-life world to reveal, among other things, her wicked sense of humor and style," the show failed to impress the mainstream media.

The New York Post gave the show a damning zero-star review, slamming the pop-star turned fashion figure as "relentlessly self-promoting" with "vapid, condescending behavior" in a show described as "an orgy of self-indulgence."

"You'll sit there slack-jawed at the gall of these people who think we are that stupid," the Post's reviewer wrote in a scathing broadside, also laying into the couple's "nightmarishly overdone rococo mansion" in Beverly Hills .

"The 'special' which NBC calls an 'exclusive' inside look at Victoria's larger-than-life life smacks of too much fame, too much money and too much time spent believing the hype for all concerned," the paper wrote.

The New York Times was no more forgiving in its write-up, describing Victoria Beckham as being "somewhat famous for being sort of famous, and is photographed a lot in Britain ."

"She does appear to be pleasant and not without a sense of humor. But that isn't quite enough to carry viewers through an hour of house hunting, sunbathing and applying for a driver's license," the paper's reviewer said.

"There has to be something going on behind the scenes because there is no other way to explain so much time and videotape spent on the moving arrangements of Mr. Beckham's wife.

"If she can retain viewers past the first commercial break, then the results will be conclusive: either there is a vast, media-controlling conspiracy afoot, or there is no such thing as celebrity ditz-fatigue," the paper said.

The US media has been having a field day since the couple arrived in Los Angeles last week, when David began a new chapter at the LA Galaxy soccer club, with the pair appearing on magazine covers, chat shows and television specials.

What Ever Happened to Momma Rose?

2007-07-16T10:23:00.000-07:00

Marriages made in heaven don’t always translate to earth. If any actress of her generation seemed fated to play Momma Rose, the juggernaut of a stage mother in the musical “Gypsy,” it was Patti LuPone, the juggernaut of a Broadway star.

After all, Ms. LuPone became famous for her no-holds-barred portrayal of an actress of ravenous and ravening ambition in the title role of “Evita” three decades ago, and ambition is Momma Rose’s oxygen. What’s more, Ms. LuPone has lungs and larynx of brass to rival those of Ethel Merman, the rafter-shaking star of the original “Gypsy” in 1959, to whom Ms. LuPone has often been compared.

Yet in the enjoyable but unenthralling production of “Gypsy” that opened Saturday at City Center and runs through July 29, part of the new Encores! Summer Stars series, Ms. LuPone does not, for once, feel like an unstoppable force. As Rose, the child-flattening maternal steamroller with Broadway dreams, she seems to be still fiddling with the gears and looking over her shoulder when she needs to be plowing full speed ahead with blinders on.

There’s a lot to recommend in Ms. LuPone’s performance and even more in the production itself, directed by Arthur Laurents, who wrote the show’s book. Ms. LuPone has endowed the thwarted Rose with charm, sensuality, a sense of humor, a startling lack of diva vanity and even a spark of bona fide mother love.

Contrary to what you might have anticipated, Ms. LuPone is less a Rose of billboard-size flair and ego than the sort of pushy but likable woman you might compete with at the supermarket for that last perfect sole fillet. (You’d lose, but you wouldn’t hate her.) Ms. LuPone has given us a human Rose, with doubts and a nagging tug of self-awareness. But once you introduce such traits into Momma Rose, the air starts to leak out of her.

I do believe there’s more than one way to make Rose flower. Though I didn’t see Merman, I did catch Angela Lansbury (1974), Tyne Daly (1989) and Bernadette Peters (2003), and could happily defend the wildly different approaches of each.

What they all projected, though, was Rose’s ferocious, unswerving single-mindedness. Ms. LuPone, in contrast, seems to slide in her purposeful focus, the way her voice — more trombone than trumpet — famously slides around on notes.

She can’t resist playing jokes for jokes’ sake, giving lines a Mae West-style spin that, however amusing, puts a distance between star and character. And in singing Jule Styne’s adrenaline-stirring melodies, she never pursues a straight line, so that the great Act 1 finale, “Everything’s Coming Up Roses,” has a feeling of distracting, internalized restlessness.

Without a tidal wave of a Momma Rose, this production lacks the emotional momentum to be a transporting “Gypsy.” Nonetheless, anyone seeing “Gypsy” for the first time should have no difficulty understanding why this adaptation of the memoirs of the stripper Gypsy Rose Lee is the great American musical.

Like two hit revivals currently on Broadway, “Chicago” and “A Chorus Line,” “Gypsy” is an anatomy of the obsessions that draw people into show business and keep them there, even when they’re drowning. Neither as cynical as “Chicago” nor as touchy-feely as “A Chorus Line,” “Gypsy,” set in the dying days of vaudeville, is both clear-eyed and celebratory about the energy and egotism that feed even marginal forms of theater.

This exciting, double-edged quality is evident in every aspect of the show, to which a young man named Stephen Sondheim contributed the lyrics. Mr. Styne’s score melds razzle-dazzle audacity with a breath of wistfulness for the unobtainable. And as might be expected from an Encores! production, the orchestra (overseen by Patrick Vaccariello) gives life to that score with a fullness that itself justifies the price of a ticket.

Unlike previous Encores! fare, this one is presented not as a concert but as a full-dress production, with cheerfully seedy sets (by James Youmans) and costumes (by Martin Pakledinaz) that emphasize the quality of showbiz fable. The ingenious, plot-propelling choreography by Jerome Robbins, who also directed the original, has been appealingly recreated here (by Bonnie Walker). And Mr. Laurents, who directed the Broadway revivals of 1974 and 1989, obviously knows the show’s impeccably assembled mechanics better than anyone alive.

Which is not to say this production is mechanical. As brilliantly structured and paced as it inherently is, “Gypsy” doesn’t play itself. There’s enough complexity for wide variation in character and emphasis. And Mr. Laurents, while occasionally overdoing the comic broad strokes, also elicits refreshing insights from the supporting performances.

True, the strippers who initiate Gypsy into their art are the usual set of endearing cartoons (with Marilyn Caskey’s nearly comatose Electra the most endearing of all).

But Boyd Gaines, as Rose’s long-suffering beau and business partner, Herbie, is affectingly credible, and he and Ms. LuPone generate a relaxed sexual chemistry that explains why he stays with her. And Rose’s younger daughter, June, has never been more completely drawn, both as a child (Sami Gayle) and a young woman (Leigh Ann Larkin). There’s steel beneath the frills of this June from the beginning, and a shrewd ambition that eclipses her mother’s.

I have never been more conscious of the ambivalence between June and her sister, Louise, the hang-dog tomboy who grows up to be Gypsy Rose Lee. Laura Benanti, late of “The Wedding Singer,” is delicious in the title role. (The appealingly watchful-faced Emma Rowley plays her younger self.) Ms. Benanti invests even her early scenes with a tincture of latent ambition that makes her apotheosis as burlesque queen seem inevitable.

But the show’s surprising high point is when Louise and June finally sit down to talk — or this being a musical, sing — about the problems of life with Mother, in a version of “If Momma Was Married” that becomes an eye-opening moment of rival sisters discovering what they have in common, too late.

This “Gypsy” is especially good on shining a light on family frictions, and Ms. LuPone contributes beautifully to this dynamic. The early scene in which she sends both her young daughters to bed, focusing the beam of her affection exclusively on June, tells you everything you need to know about this prickly parent-child triangle and the problems it’s bound to generate.

Ms. LuPone has other such moments throughout. Her scenes with Mr. Gaines are uniformly excellent. (I’ll never forget her Rose, suggesting an abandoned army tank, standing in a dressing room after Herbie walks out on her.) And she brings a harrowing psychological nakedness to the big nervous-breakdown number, “Rose’s Turn.”

Given such moments, combined with Ms. LuPone’s dazzling performance in Mr. Sondheim’s “Sweeney Todd” two seasons ago, I suspect there’s still a first-rate Momma Rose waiting to emerge. For the moment we only have the preliminary sketch. Any halfway decent “Gypsy” — and this one is more than that — is a fine summer night’s diversion. But it needs a Momma Rose in full control to carry its audiences away.

Zeta-Jones uses $400 shampoo

2007-07-15T09:57:00.001-07:00

Catherine Zeta-Jones has a unique way to stay beautiful - she spends $400 (€290)-a-time on caviar shampoo.

The Beluga caviar treatment may carry a hair-raising price but it has been credited with giving the actress' hair an unbeatable shine. It is flown from Iran five days before her visit to a beauty salon in London, UK.

A source at the salon tells British newspaper the Daily Mail: "Catherine discovered the caviar treatment last summer and was astounded by the difference it made to her hair."

CLIMATE CHANGE: Pop Stars Belt Out Global Wake-Up Call

2007-07-15T07:11:00.000-07:00

One person may not be able to save the world, but former U.S. Vice President Al Gore won't give up his quest to do so without a fight -- make that a green revolution.

Saturday's 24-hour Live Earth concert series spanning seven continents and predicted to reach 2 billion people marked the beginning of a multi-year campaign led by Gore's Alliance for Climate Protection to drive public action toward solving the climate crisis.

Hailed by organisers as the largest concert ever, the event stemmed from Gore's famed slideshow detailing the dangers and realities of "an inconvenient truth" otherwise known as global warming.

"Al Gore's slideshow reached thousands, [the subsequent documentary] 'An Inconvenient Truth' reached a few million, and Live Earth is all about engaging billions of people," Live Earth spokesperson Yusef Robb told IPS.

Precise figures regarding the concert's overall reach will take weeks to tabulate, according to Robb, but MSN has already reported that, with well over 10 million viewers in cyberspace tuning in for one of the 21 different languages broadcasted, Live Earth has become the most simultaneously viewed online concert ever.

With Live Earth founder and producer Kevin Wall working behind the scenes, the concert's success should come as no surprise to those familiar with his previous mega endeavours, which included Live 8 in 2005 and Live Aid in 1985.

Saturday's concert, with venues in New York, Washington DC, London, Johannesburg, Rio de Janeiro, Shanghai, Tokyo, Sydney and Hamburg, drew a wide array of performers who volunteered their vocal cords to make a difference.

Performers around the world included Madonna, The Police, Shakira, Bon Jovi and 2007 Academy Award winning songstress Melissa Etheridge who wrote and performed "I Need to Wake Up" for "An Inconvenient Truth."

Nunatak, a band of scientists from the British Antarctic Survey, even performed to a handful of employees on the frozen tundra.

"We really wanted to convey the global nature of the crisis," explained Robb referring to Nunatak's performance. "Not only do our actions here at home affect Antarctica, but the melting ice and climate shifts there will have profound effects thousands of miles away."

Awareness about the event was recently bolstered by several Live Earth partnerships ranging in scope from conservation organisations like the World Wildlife Fund to corporate sponsors including Philips Electronics.

"Live Earth was set up to make people more aware of energy solutions," Harry Verhaar, senior director for Energy and Climate Change at Philips, told IPS. "We want to improve people's lives and to show them how simple it is to make the switch to more energy efficient solutions."

Organisers at Live Earth did just that, incorporating as many innovative energy-saving devices and recyclable materials into the concert's framework as feasibly possible.

Several earth-friendly measures included using energy efficient LED lights, powering generators with bio-fuel, serving up snacks with biodegradable cutlery, installing organic soap pumps in the restrooms and constructing stages from recycled materials. Several venues, including Hamburg and Sydney, even provided public transportation to the concert upon ticket purchase.

Despite the successful implementation of these environmental considerations to cut down on waste and consumption, critics of Live Earth, including Roger Daltrey of the Who, have ostracised the event for using excess energy to promote conservation.

Live Earth organisers responded to cries of hypocrisy by pledging to purchase carbon credits to offset the concert's environmental impacts, essentially creating a carbon neutral event.

Brand Neutral, a company devoted to helping clients reduce costs and maximise energy efficiency, lent its support and sustainability expertise to Saturday's event to ensure carbon neutrality.

"We deeply respect Al Gore and Kevin Wall and wanted very badly to roll up our sleeves, get to work and make a difference," Brand Neutral founder Tom Feegel told IPS.

As part of the Live Earth Call to Action, a series of commitments that concert organisers and the Alliance for Climate Protection are pushing on the public, the seven-point pledge was repeated several times by celebrities and activists at every major venue around the world.

In New Jersey, Al Gore urged concert goers to sign the pledge, committing themselves to becoming carbon neutral, increasing the energy efficiency of their homes and fighting for a moratorium on new coal-burning facilities that do not engage in carbon sequestration, among other environmentally progressive actions.

"The massive outpouring from the seven-point pledge will certainly be conveyed to leaders all over the world," Robb told IPS.

Although Saturday went smoothly for concertgoers and organisers, the weeks and months leading up to Live Earth were marked by scepticism and a great deal of the unknown at several venues.

A scheduled concert in Istanbul was recently cancelled due to general lack of interest, and one at Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro nearly suffered a similar fate last week due to security concerns before a last-minute court order saved the free venue that would go on to draw the largest crowd of all, estimated in the hundreds of thousands.

All proceeds from ticket sales will go toward the Alliance for Climate Protection, but organisers prefer not to think of the event as a benefit concert.

"We want to stress that the fund-raising aspect of Live Earth is just the cherry on top," Robb told IPS. "What this is really about is engaging the global audience. This is about getting people to take action and to join the movement."

Millions of people joined the movement in their own ways by sponsoring or attending one of the more than 10,000 Friends of Live Earth events in 130 countries on Saturday.

Friends of Live Earth is an official Live Earth programme designed to build a worldwide community-level movement to combat the climate crisis. Robb told IPS that events ranged in scope from watching the concert at home with friends, to parties and smaller concerts attracting thousands of people.

Tom Lalley, director of media relations at the World Wildlife Fund, referred to his organisation's mascot when he told IPS, "The panda doesn't back down from a party."

"A lot of times, environmental issues are wrapped in gloom and doom. This is a way for us to come together, have a big party, enjoy ourselves, and hopefully something will come out of it in terms of substance," he added.

10 jobs you missed out on

2007-07-14T19:42:00.000-07:00

1. Filibuster

Long before the term "filibuster" came to be associated with elected officials, it was actually associated with violence and trickery. (Wait a second ...)

In the 1600s, pirates known to the Dutch as vrijbuiters pillaged the West Indies, and eventually, the word was assimilated into the English language as "filibusters."

Between 1850 and 1860, the name was used to refer to the American mercenaries who attempted to revolutionize Central America and the Spanish West Indies. The most famous of these filibusters was William Walker, a U.S. citizen who succeeded in gaining control of Nicaragua in 1856 by overthrowing the nation's administration. Walker became president of Nicaragua, but only until May 1, 1857, when a coalition of Central American states ousted him.

Because filibusters of previous centuries strove to interfere with foreign regimes, the term evolved to refer to anyone who attempted to obstruct the government, as our legislators occasionally see fit to do when a particularly troublesome bill comes before them.

2. Ratoner

Ain't it grand to live in a world where the Black Death isn't a daily concern? Fortunately, when it was an issue, a ratoner was there to lend a helping hand. A ratoner was a rat catcher, who served a vital role in maintaining the health of the villagers.

Those of us accustomed to modern pest control techniques might be a bit surprised to learn about the disposal method employed by a typical Victorian-era ratoner, though. After capturing the rodents, he would set out for the town pub, where dogs made a sport of devouring the day's catch. This earned extra cash for the ratoner and was considered great entertainment by saloon regulars.

The most famous ratoner, Jack Black, was appointed Royal Rat Catcher in the mid-19th century and bred some of his more interesting and colorful finds as household pets. In fact, The Tale of Samuel Whiskers by Beatrix Potter is said to be dedicated to her personal rat, one of Jack Black's progeny.

3. Alnager

In merry olde England, an alnager was a sworn officer of the court who garnered much esteem. He was responsible for ensuring that woolen goods were of the highest quality and that no one was being cheated on the amount of fabric ordered. The job was important not only because the king earned taxes from wool sales, but also because goods approved by the alnager carried the town's seal of approval.

But, as the textile trade grew, it became nearly impossible to hold all wool to the same standards of size and density, so the king abolished the position. Today, you might know the alnager's modern incarnation best in sticker form, a.k.a., "Number 6."

4. Knocker-Up

In British towns of yore, particularly those with a mine or mill as the center of commercial activity, knocker-ups were responsible for going from house to house to wake workers in the mornings. The title, not surprisingly, came from the sound they made rapping on windows.

As for the evolution of the term "knocking," it also denoted a collision of sorts, and in the 17th century, it was used in reference to childbirth. Even poet John Keats wrote of "knocking out" children in some of his odes. It wasn't until the 19th century, however, that Americans began using the phrase as slang for getting a woman pregnant.

5. Lungs

Perhaps the cruelest case of naming irony in history, anyone employed to fan the fire in an alchemist's workshop was known as a "lungs." And because most alchemists were constantly trying to make gold out of lead and other such base metals, you can only imagine what kinds of dangerous materials were floating about in the labs. As a result, the actual lungs on a lungs gave out relatively quickly, leading to a profession with widespread early retirement.

6. Sin-Eater

No matter how much you loved Grandma and Grandpa, you can probably admit your forebears weren't perfect. So, if you ever had a loved one that passed on before his or her last chance at absolution, it makes sense that you might want to call in reinforcements. Fortunately for the fretful and grieving of yore, there was the town sin-eater.

For a small fee, the sin-eater would gladly scarf down a meal (usually bread and ale) that had been placed on the deceased's chest. By letting the food lie atop the dearly departed for a while, it was believed the vittles would absorb the last transgressions. And, once the food was gobbled up by the sin-eater, Grandma or Grandpa could get into heaven without any major roadblocks.

7. Badger

Odd as it may sound, badgers were part of the rat race in prior centuries, serving as intermediaries between the producers of goods and the consumer. Most often, they traded in corn and other foodstuffs, buying from farmers and reselling the goods at markets in town.

And if you think the salespeople at Macy's are tough, some historians think badgers were so persistent in pushing their products that the term came to be associated with an often annoying and forceful adamance -- i.e., "badgering" anyone in sight to buy from you instead of another vendor.

8. Gong Farmer

Not unlike "The Gong Show," a gong farmer was far from being the cream of the crop -- and even that might be the understatement of the year.

In Tudor England, a gong farmer's job was to empty the town toilets. But the job did have its perks. Typically, a gong farmer would "mine" the waste for any items of value that might be found amongst the city's excrement -- a penny here, a button there before it was used as manure or thrown into the river.

For a while, it was falsely believed that gong farmers were immune to the plague, but you can't help wonder if that was more of a pity belief, like the whole idea that being hit by bird droppings is good luck.

9. Fuller

Making textiles hasn't always been such a streamlined process. Once upon a time, there were spinners to spin the thread, weavers to weave the cloth, and fullers to finish the goods once they came off the loom.

Almost Lucy-and-Ethel style, fullers walked on the back side of the cloth to bind the fibers together and give cohesion to the newly woven fabric. But stomping alone wouldn't accomplish this feat. Instead, fullers soaked the cloth in a mixture of clay ("fuller's earth") and urine while it was being trampled.

In fact, medieval housewives often earned extra cash by saving the family's urine and selling it to the fuller, and some schools even had children use one bucket as a toilet for the same purpose.

10. Bullocky

It sounds like Lewis Carroll came up with this word around the same time he was writing "Jabberwocky", but a bullocky was actually a person who drove cattle to market. Yet, the bullocky and the Jabberwock might share something in common -- nonsense.

According to some historians, to say bullocks swore like sailors would be an insult to sailors. In fact, it was the bullocks' foul mouths that led the term to be associated with bastardized speech. That, combined with the fact that they worked with "bull" (which had the same connotations we know today), could have helped bullocky evolve into a term for ridiculous or dispensable speech.

Spice Girls to Debut Two New Songs

2007-07-14T09:29:00.000-07:00

Before launching their reunion tour, Spice Girls will have two new songs debuted at BBC documentary about their comeback. Not only that, the British troupe is also reported writing a charity song that will be performed for this year's Children In Need Campaign.

"We've got full involvement from all of them," BBC One's Peter Fincham said. "They are all keen to get involved with Children In Need. They are recording two new songs and one of them might be a single."

Meanwhile, Melanie C's statement on the possibility that the group extends their reunion tour is made true. A new show in Brazil's Rio de Janeiro is added to the schedule.

A source said, "The girls will make a big announcement next week. Everybody in the Spice camp has been bombarded by Brazilian fans demanding the band bring Girl Power to Brazil. Doing Buenos Aires and not Rio would be a massive faux pas. One of the dates is definitely going to be Brazil."

Potter's Grint a certifiable heartthrob

2007-07-12T19:00:00.001-07:00

It's official: Rupert Grint is a certifiable heartthrob in the eyes of Canada's teenage girls.

The 18-year-old British actor was in Toronto Wednesday to walk the red carpet for the Canadian launch of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and he was greeted by dozens of screaming – and mostly female – fans who bounced about the excitable crowd trying to catch a glimpse of the young star.

There were a few Harry Potter costumes and a few people who were there to be able say they were first into the movie, but mostly it was all about the spectacle of seeing the real-life Ron Weasley.

“It's really crazy,” Grint said in between excited shrieks and screams coming from the boisterous crowd around him.

“It is really sort of hard to get used to, I don't know if I'll ever get used to it,” he admitted.

“But, it's really good…Everybody is really nice.”

Grint brought a shy smile and teenage charm for his legions of fans all of whom had their own personal reasons to see him.

Becca Ferguson, 16, and her friend Emily Wilken, 16, waited since 7 a.m. to catch get a front-of-the-line spot in hopes of getting a good look at Grint.

“It's Harry Potter and it's Rupert Grint,” Ferguson said of her reasons for staking out the first spot in line. “He's just such a good actor and such a good Ron.”

The two 16-year-olds were holding a sign proclaiming themselves as “Groupies for Rupie.”

And their hopes for when he made it down the red carpet?

“We want his autograph,” Ferguson said.

“We want him to smile at us,” Wilken added.

Forty-five minutes later when Grint finally made in through the throng of media along to where the two girls stood, he obliged the two with a photo and autographs.

“I don't know, oh my goodness,” Wilken said when asked to describe the meeting, moments after receiving an official Rupert Grint autograph. “He signed it!.”

Like a lot of the other fans at the premiere, who had screamed all the way through Grint's brief Canadian appearance, Ferguson was simply speechless.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix breaks record in US

2007-07-12T04:04:00.000-07:00

The new Harry Potter film, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, has taken a record-breaking $12m (£6m) at midnight screenings in the US.

The figure is the most made at the box office for a Wednesday opening midnight run, according to Daily Variety.

The previous record-holder was The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, which returned around $8m (£3.9m) in midnight ticket sales in 2003.

Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix opens in the UK on Thursday.

Its early takings were double that of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the previous film in the series, which took $6m (£2.9m) at US midnight screenings in 2005.

'Unique challenges'

Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe told US TV show Larry King Live that acting in the new movie was "some of the hardest stuff I've had to do to date".

"Each film presents its own very unique challenges so it's sort of like playing a different part every time you come back and do it," he said.

He added he still had a "long way to go and to develop" as an actor and said: "Hopefully you'll see more of that over the next two films."

The actor said it was not until the third Harry Potter film, the Prisoner of Azkaban, that he knew that acting was something he would "love to do in the long term".

"Before that I was just a kid having fun on a film set, having the time of my life, but not really taking it as seriously as I do now, obviously."

The actor turns 18 on July 23 but he denied he is now too old to play Harry.

"Actors play younger and older than their age all the time so I don't think it should make too much of a difference," he said.

Asked about Harry's first kiss in the new movie, he said: "It's a really sweet, tender moment in the film but it wasn't as big a deal as perhaps everybody thought it might be."

He praised Harry Potter author JK Rowling's writing as "just great, purely fantastic story telling".

"I think the reason the films have been so successful is that we're fortunate to have some of the best source material around," he said.

"What Jo's done with these books is quite incredible, I think," added Radcliffe.

Faulks pens new James Bond novel

2007-07-11T03:21:00.000-07:00

Sebastian Faulks has emerged as the author chosen to write a new officially-endorsed James Bond novel.

The British writer - whose books include Birdsong and Charlotte Gray - was commissioned by the Fleming estate last year but his identity kept secret.

Devil May Care is set in "several of the world's most thrilling cities" during the Cold War.

The book will be published on 28 May next year to mark the centenary of Sir Ian Fleming's birth.

The Fleming estate announced last year that it had commissioned a "well known and highly respected" writer for the task. Faulks, 54, said his new book is "about 80% Fleming" and admitted being "surprised" that he was the estate's choice.

He said: "I was surprised but flattered to be asked by the Fleming estate last summer if I would write a one-off Bond book for the Ian Fleming Centenary.

"I told them that I hadn't read the books since the age of 13, but if, when I re-read them, I still enjoyed them and could see how I might be able to do something in the same vein, then I would be happy to consider it.

"On re-reading, I was surprised by how well the books stood up."

He added: "I put this down to three things - the sense of jeopardy Fleming creates about his solitary hero, a certain playfulness in the narrative details, and a crisp, journalistic style that hasn't dated."

Ian Fleming died in 1964

Faulks said he attempted to "isolate the most essential and the most enjoyable aspects of the books".

He added: "I found writing this light-hearted book more thrilling than I had expected."

The last of Fleming's 14 books about the secret agent was Octopussy and the Living Daylights, which was published in 1966 - two years after his death.

The first was the 1953 book Casino Royale, made into a film last year with Daniel Craig.

It is not yet known if the new book will be turned into a Bond film.

Corinne Turner, managing director of Ian Fleming Publications, said: "The Fleming family were delighted with the typescript when we received it.

"Sebastian couldn't have written a better book to celebrate Ian's 100th birthday."

Actor and author Charlie Higson was licensed to write books about James Bond's school days. He has so far written four books under the Young Bond banner aimed at younger readers.

Monsters beat Live Earth on US TV

2007-07-10T02:58:00.000-07:00

Reunited group The Police played hits such as Message in a Bottle

A three-hour NBC programme marking the global day of Live Earth concerts was the least-watched show on mainstream US television on Saturday night.

It attracted an average audience of 2.7 million viewers and was beaten by a re-run of animated film Monsters Inc.

However, 19 million people in the US saw some coverage of Live Earth during the day, Nielsen Media Research said.

And MSN said the online broadcast of the gigs set a new record for an entertainment event.

More than nine million "streams" were generated during the day, surpassing the previous peak for the Live 8 concerts to fight global poverty in 2005, the company added.

'Solve the crisis'

The global day of concerts, staged at nine locations including Tokyo, Hamburg and Rio de Janeiro, concluded with the event at Giants Stadium in New Jersey.

The average audience for Monsters Inc was 600,000 above Live Earth

Acts including The Police, Bon Jovi, Kanye West and KT Tunstall took to the stage.

Former US Vice-President Al Gore, who inspired the Live Earth project, also made an appearance, telling concert-goers: "Put all of this energy in your heart and help us solve the climate crisis."

Mr Gore and his fellow activists have attracted criticism from high-profile figures such as Live Aid and Live 8 organiser Bob Geldof, who accused Live Earth of lacking achievable goals.

And the musicians taking part - such as Madonna, who played at London's Wembley Stadium - were accused of setting bad examples with celebrity lifestyles that included world tours and excessive spending.

Grammy-winning guitarist John Mayer acknowledged after his set at Giants Stadium that rock stars were not necessarily good environmental role-models.

Al Gore asked fans to "answer the call" and help to save the planet

"If you want to peg me as not being entirely eco-friendly, you'll win," he said.

"I also think it's very difficult to judge the success of a movement. You can't find out by nine o'clock this evening how much awareness was raised."

He added: "What you're really talking about is the placement of an idea at a rock show."

In the UK, TV coverage of Live Earth was watched by an average audience of 3.1 million viewers between 2000 and 2200 BST, less than a third of the figure for the previous weekend's Concert for Diana.

Potter author says 'never say never' to Harry's return

2007-07-09T04:59:00.000-07:00

LONDON - A campaign launched Monday to extend the Harry Potter series received a boost after author J.K. Rowling "never say never" about writing another book on the boy wizard.

Rowling has maintained that "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" which will be published July 21, is the last in a seven-book series, but she is keeping the door open just a narrow gap.

She issued a statement through her publisher Bllomsbury, saying "never say never" in response to the "Save Harry" campaign after having made similar remarks during a BBC television interview on Friday.

"I think that Harry's story comes to quite a clear end, sadly," Rowling said.

"But I've always said that I wouldn't say never. I can't say I'll never write another book about that world just because I think, what do I know in 10 years' time...? But I think it's unlikely."

Rowling had previously disclosed that two characters will die, fuelling speculation that one of them will be Harry himself.

But fans are not deterred.

In a world of magic and wizardry, Harry could be brought back from the dead in an eighth book, they suggest.

Bookseller Waterstone's has launched the Save Harry campaign.

The petition at www.waterstones.com/saveharry launched Monday reads: "We, the undersigned, petition J.K. Rowling to write more new adventures for Harry Potter and his friends no matter what happens at the end of 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.'"

Waterstone's argued that there is a precedent for resurrecting a literary hero, pointing to the case of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes.

In 1893, weary of his work, Conan Doyle wrote "The Adventure of the Final Problem," in which Holmes apparently falls to his death during a violent struggle with his nemesis, Professor Moriarty.

The fictional detective turned out to have survived the fall after a public clamour persuaded Conan Doyle to resurrect him.

In presenting its petition, the Waterstone's website says: "Will July 21 mark the end of Harry Potter?

"J.K. Rowling says so, but history is full of magnificent returns from the dead, so there is no reason why, with your support, we can't persuade her to write more adventures for Harry and the Hogwarts gang.

"If Sherlock Holmes, Dennis Watts, Superman, and Bobby Ewing can all come back from the dead then surely reincarnation shouldn't be a problem for the world's most powerful boy wizard -- and that's presuming that he dies at the end of 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.'

"If he survives, then bringing him back should be even easier."

Dennis Watts and Bobby Ewing were soap opera characters in, respectively, Britain's "Eastenders" and the US's "Dallas", who were brought back to life after lengthy periods in which viewers had believed they were dead.

The forthcoming "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" will cap a series that has sold 325 million copies worldwide and has been translated into 64 languages, as well as being converted into a successful film franchise.

The books have made Rowling an estimated one billion dollars (733 milion euros). The first Potter volume appeared in 1997.

Those involved in the printing of the new book have been asked to keep its plot a watertight secret until July 21, when the English version makes its debut.

Transformers conquer US cinemas

2007-07-09T02:53:00.000-07:00

The Transformers TV show and toys were hugely popular in the 1980s

Sci-fi blockbuster Transformers has entered the North American box office chart at number one, with takings of $67.6m (£33.6m) in its first weekend.

The film has registered the highest first-week box office returns for a non-sequel in US cinema history, beating 2002's Spider-Man.

Transformers, about two races of rival robots who bring their battle to Earth, is adapted from a 1980s TV series.

Robin Williams' new comedy License to Wed entered the chart at number four.

Last week's chart-topper Rataouille dipped to number two, with Bruce Willis' fourth outing in the Die Hard films dropping from number two to three.

Former box office leader Evan Almighty, psychological thriller 1408 and Michael Moore's Sicko, a documentary about the US healthcare system, all fell inside the top 10.

Pirates of the Caribbean: The World's End, which was released in May, broke the $300m (£149m) box office barrier, becoming the third film to make that amount this year after Spider-Man 3 and Shrek the Third.

But overall cinema takings fell 23% compared with the same weekend in 2006, which set a record of $135.6m (£67.4m).

Concerts promote climate message

2007-07-07T11:12:00.000-07:00

Duran Duran performed four songs at Wembley

Rock stars around the world are performing to thousands of music fans as part of the Live Earth day to highlight climate change.

Concerts in London, Johannesburg and Hamburg are under way, while events in Sydney, Tokyo and Shanghai have ended.

Among acts who have already played at London's Wembley Stadium are the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Genesis.

The day has been organised by former US Vice-President Al Gore, as part of his campaign to try to "heal the planet".

Mr Gore appeared at a smaller event at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, giving a speech which was relayed to the concerts around the world, calling on the developed world to reduce carbon emissions by 90%.

Concerts in New Jersey and Rio get under way later.

Organisers say the gigs will reach an audience of two billion people via TV, radio and online broadcasts.

But critics have said it was hypocritical for performers who fly around the world on tours to push the message of cutting down on carbon emissions.

George Marshall of the Climate Outreach Information Network told the BBC: "Having the richest people in the world saying, 'Hey! We all need to cut back a bit!' is, let's face it, absurd."

Speaking from Wembley, Snow Patrol lead singer Gary Lightbody told BBC Radio 1: "We're here to learn how to make our tours cleaner. We already offset our travel on our touring, but our shows themselves are quite far behind.

"We're not the Red Hot Chili Peppers, who've been offsetting for years - and more power to them. It's a band like that and an event like this that you come here to learn [from]."

Reformed group Genesis, featuring Phil Collins, was among the first acts to perform at London's Wembley Stadium, starting their set with Turn it On Again.

Aboriginal welcome

The Red Hot Chili Peppers, James Blunt and the Beastie Boys are due on stage later.

Duran Duran, the only band to have also performed at last weekend's memorial Diana concert, opened their set with the perfect song for the occasion, Planet Earth.

"Everyone who did not arrive on a private jet put your hands in the air," said lead singer Simon Le Bon, who also raised his hand.

German concert-goers will be treated to performances by Snoop Dogg, Enrique Iglesias and Yusaf Islam, while UB40 and Joss Stone are performing in Johannesburg.

The Sydney event began with a traditional aboriginal welcome before Australian politician and former Midnight Oil frontman Peter Garrett made an appearance, saying it was up to citizens of developed nations to push for action to reduce pollution.

"Your voice matters, make it heard," he said.

Reformed New Zealand group Crowded House were joined by many of the other Sydney performers at the end of their set, for a rendition of the 1991 hit Weather with You.

Lead singer Neil Finn told fans they were "the groundswell" for action on the environment.

'Heal the planet'

The Tokyo event was opened by the band Genki Rockets at the Makuhari Messe hall, east of the Japanese capital.

Among the performers in Tokyo was US metal group Linkin Park.

"I don't have any delusions of grandeur that Linkin Park is saving the world," bassist Phoenix told BBC News.

"But it's our goal to do what we can to make it possible for our kids to have a place to live, and, at the same time, hopefully clean up where we live in the process."

Phil Collins and Genesis were among the first acts at Wembley

Japanese singer Ayaka urged people to do what they could. "We can start helping by doing something small," she said.

"I started to carry my own eco-bag so I don't have to use plastic grocery bags, and use my own chopsticks instead of disposable ones."

Responding to criticism that the event creates even more carbon emissions, organisers have insisted they were keeping the concerts as green as possible, with proceeds being spent on power-efficient light bulbs and other measures to offset the shows' emissions.

"We've booked this show with acts that were touring in the area at the time so we could keep the carbon imprint down," explained producer Kevin Wall.

Desperate Housewives star marries

2007-07-06T10:58:00.001-07:00

Longoria posed for photographers before entering the city hall

Desperate Housewives star Eva Longoria has married her fiance, basketball player Tony Parker, in a civil ceremony in Paris.

The couple are thought to be holding a second ceremony at a Paris church - followed by a star-studded party at a 17th Century chateau - on Saturday.

Paris mayor Bertrand Delanoe confirmed he had conducted the civil ceremony.

French law requires couples to exchange vows at a city hall, even if they have a church wedding as well.

Longoria, 32, showed up first in a white stretch limo, wearing a short pink Chanel dress. It is thought she changed into a white dress once inside the venue.

She smiled and waved for a crowd of waiting photographers and reporters who were kept well back behind two rows of police barriers.

Parker, the 25-year-old San Antonio Spurs star who was born in Belgium and grew up playing basketball in France, arrived about 10 minutes later in a grey mini van, wearing a dark suit.

They were joined by a handful of guests, including French footballer Thierry Henry, for the short ceremony.

The couple have secured a deal to sell their wedding photos to OK! magazine for a reported $2m (£994,319).

Author 'devastated' at Potter end

2007-07-06T10:38:00.001-07:00

The final Harry Potter book is released later this month

Author JK Rowling has said she felt euphoric but "devastated" as she penned the last words of the final Harry Potter book, The Deathly Hallows.

Speaking on Jonathan Ross' chat show, she said: "When I finished one chapter near the end I absolutely howled."

She also revealed the character of Harry was "totally imaginary" and not based on anyone else, while Ron Weasley was a lot like her oldest friend Sean.

The interview will be broadcast on BBC One on Friday night.

'Sobbing'

She was in a hotel room alone as she finished writing the book.

"I was sobbing my heart out, I downed half a bottle of champagne from the mini bar in one and went home with mascara all over my face, that was really tough," she said.

When asked about whether "scar" was the last word in the book as had been reported, she said: "Scar? It was so for ages, and now it's not. Scar is quite near the end, but it's not the last word."

She also said it had been a "a hell of an achievement" to keep the cast of all the Potter films British.

Nearly 1.6 million copies of the final Harry Potter book have been pre-ordered online ahead of its release on 21 July.

The latest film in the series, The Order of the Phoenix, had its European premiere in London on Tuesday.

The film opens worldwide from 11 July.

Arrest under new NY piracy laws

2007-07-06T08:47:00.001-07:00

Transformers is based on the hugely popular toys

A man has been arrested under tightened anti-piracy laws in New York after allegedly recording the sci-fi blockbuster Transformers.

Kalidou Diallo, 48, has been charged with unauthorised use of a video camera in a cinema.

Under upgraded legislation, he could face six months in jail and fines of up to $5,000 (£2,487) if found guilty.

Meanwhile, Transformers has broken 4 July US box office records with takings of $29.1m (£14.48m).

The movie - based on the popular toys that debuted in the 1980s - chronicles a war between two factions of giant shape-shifting robots that bring their battle to Earth.

The cast includes Shia LaBeouf, Tyrese Gibson, Jon Voight, Josh Duhamel and John Turturro.

Secretly taped

Mr Diallo was arrested after allegedly smuggling a video recorder, video player and remote control into a preview of the film in the Bronx.

He was later released without bail and ordered to return to court on 20 September.

"This is the first time someone has been arrested and charged with the new illegal camcording law," City Hall spokesman Jason Post said Thursday.

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) says more than 40% of bootlegged films in the US are secretly taped in New York cinemas.

The copies are frequently sold for mass reproduction or posted on the internet, sometimes within hours of the film opening.

Pirated films cost major US film studios more than $6bn (£2.9bn) in 2005, according to the trade association.

US capital to host Live Earth gig

2007-07-06T07:16:00.000-07:00

Madonna has penned a song especially for the Live Earth concerts

Washington DC has been added as a venue for the series of Live Earth concerts, organised by former US Vice-President Al Gore to highlight climate change.

Country couple Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood will be among the artists performing on The Mall in the US capital on Saturday.

Nine cities will stage gigs, including Sydney, Tokyo, Johannesburg, Shanghai, Hamburg, New Jersey and Rio de Janeiro.

Acts including Madonna, Duran Duran and the Beastie Boys will play in London.

And other stars lined up to play around the world include The Police, Lenny Kravitz, Kanye West and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Gore described Live Earth as a "global response" to a "global problem".

"By engaging individuals all over the world, Live Earth will drive corporations and governments to tackle the climate crisis," he said.

But there has also been scepticism about the value of the concerts from some quarters.

Critics say that flying rock stars in on aeroplanes and using a great deal of electricity to power several concerts sends out mixed messages about energy conservation.

"What would be great is if these pop stars - now they realise the damage we are all doing to the climate - look very carefully at their own actions and make some changes themselves," said John Buckley, managing director of the organisation Carbon Footprint.

Preparations are under way in nine cities, including Rio de Janeiro

Referring to Madonna, he told Reuters: "If she made a change then it would be picked up."

He calculated that the singer and her entourage emitted 444 tonnes of carbon dioxide on flights during last year's Confessions tour, more than 40 times the annual output of the average Briton.

Bob Geldof, who organised the Live Aid and Live8 charity concerts, has described the event as lacking a "final goal" and claimed most people already knew about the hazards of global warming.

And speaking to a British newspaper recently, The Who's Roger Daltrey said: "The last thing the planet needs is a rock concert."

Safety fears

Organisers have insisted they were keeping the concerts as green as possible.

Rapper Kanye West is among the acts to pledge their support

Proceeds from ticket sales are going to distribute power-efficient light bulbs and other measures which will offset the shows' greenhouse gas emissions.

Doubts had been cast over whether the Rio de Janeiro gig would go ahead after concerns about safety were raised.

Despite this, however, organisers persuaded a judge that adequate security measures were in place to ensure the gig, on Copacabana Beach, would go off safely.

But the Turkish event - in Istanbul - was shelved, owing to insufficient sponsorship and lack of time.

Raphael painting sells for £18m

2007-07-06T01:14:00.001-07:00

The painting is one of only a few by Raphael to remain in private hands

A painting by Renaissance artist Raphael has sold for more than £18m ($37.3m) at an auction in London.

The portrait, of Florentine ruler Lorenzo de' Medici, had not been seen in public since 1968.

When it was last sold, the art world was divided over its origins and it sold for just $325.

But experts now agree it is genuine - Christie's auctioneers describing it as the most important Renaissance portrait to be sold at auction for a generation.

'Blind date'

The portrait was commissioned by Pope Leo X after he arranged a marriage between his nephew, Lorenzo de' Medici, and Madeleine de la Tour d'Auvergne, a cousin of Francois I, King of France.

The couple had never met, and so Raphael's paintings were to serve as an introduction - in a Renaissance version of the blind date.

In his portrait, Lorenzo is seen dressed in a gold tunic and fur-lined cape, resplendent against a rich green background.

The Pope's introduction seems to have worked - the couple married in 1518 and had a daughter, Catherine de' Medici, who went on to marry King Henry II of France.

Record broken

Raphael started out as a competent master of provincial church decoration and became one of the greatest painters of his era.

The sale has broken the record for a price paid for a work by Raphael.

The previous highest price was £5.3m in 1996 for Study for the Head and Hand of an Apostle, a drawing in black crayon.

Richard Knight, international director of Christie's Old Master Department, said: "The importance of the artist and the sitter, together with the provenance and the historical context behind this painting's creation, make it one of the most significant old master pictures to be offered at auction for a generation."

Rio's Live Earth 'given go-ahead'

2007-07-05T20:00:00.000-07:00

US star Lenny Kravitz is scheduled to play in Brazil on Saturday

The Latin American leg of Live Earth is set to go ahead despite a judge's threat to cancel the Rio de Janeiro concert due to safety concerns.

A spokesman for the global event said producers for the show indicated they were proceeding with the open-air concert on Copacabana Beach.

The Brazilian gig is the only free event in the series of eight worldwide concerts to highlight climate change.

The Rio line-up includes Lenny Kravitz, Macy Gray and Pharrell Williams.

Guarantee

Aside from the US acts, Rio will play host to a number of native performers, including singer Xuxa, reggae rock band O Rappa and rapper Marcelo D2.

A giant beach stage in front of Rio's Copacabana Palace hotel has already been erected, with organisers hoping to attract up to one million visitors.

Brazilian prosecutor Denise Tarin had requested a suspension of the concert saying security efforts by police would be concentrated on preparations for the Pan American Games, starting 13 July.

Local promotion company Mondo Entretenimento sought to allay fears, saying it had plans to use dozens of observation towers and platforms, as well as police cameras, as part of the security scheme for the event.

Concert organisers said they received guarantees of security and safety at the event from Rio police, but they are still asking the court to reconsider its decision.

The Istanbul leg of the Live Earth series of concerts was shelved last month due to a lack of interest and sponsorship.

Eight cities will be holding concerts across 24 hours on 7 July, including London, Tokyo, Sydney and Johannesburg.

Rio's Live Earth gig 'suspended'

2007-07-05T01:23:00.000-07:00

US star Lenny Kravitz is scheduled to play in Brazil on Saturday

The Latin American leg of Live Earth could be called off after a judge cancelled Saturday's concert in Rio de Janeiro over safety concerns.

Police claim they do not have enough officers to guarantee crowd safety at the open-air gig on Copacabana beach.

Brazilian promoters of the event, the only free show in the series of global concerts highlighting climate change, are hoping to overturn the decision.

The Rio line-up includes Lenny Kravitz, Macy Gray and Pharrell Williams.

Aside from the US acts, Rio will play host to a number of native performers, including singer Xuxa, reggae rock band O Rappa and rapper Marcelo D2.

A giant beach stage in front of Rio's Copacabana Palace hotel has already been erected, with organisers hoping to attract up to one million visitors.

Second cancellation

However, Brazilian prosecutor Denise Tarin has requested a suspension of the concert saying security efforts by police would be concentrated on preparations for the Pan American Games, starting 13 July.

Eight cities will be holding concerts across 24 hours on 7 July, including London, Tokyo, Sydney and Johannesburg.

In a statement, Brazilian promotion company Mondo Entretenimento said it was "working to guarantee the realisation of this important international event".

It said it had plans to use dozens of observation towers and platforms, as well as police cameras, as part of the security scheme for the event.

If Tuesday's court injunction is not over-ruled, it could spell a second cancellation in the Live Earth series, following the scrapping of a concert in Istanbul because of a lack of sponsorship and interest.

Rio has one of the highest murder rates in the world. At least 1,800 people were killed in the first four months of 2007 in the metropolitan area, official figures show.

Last week, clashes between police and drug traffickers in a slum in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro left 19 people dead.

Cruise film banned from memorial

2007-07-04T18:42:00.000-07:00

Cruise is a passionate advocate of the Church of Scientology

Actor Tom Cruise and the makers of his new movie have been banned from filming at the location in Berlin where an army colonel was executed in World War II.

Cruise plays Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, who was executed after plotting to assassinate Hitler in 1944.

Germany's finance ministry said the ban on Valkyrie's makers had nothing to do with the actor being a Scientologist.

Producers have already been barred from military sites because Germany believes Scientology is a money-making cult.

Scientology leaders strongly reject that view, while Cruise's co-producer has said his personal beliefs were not relevant to the film's subject matter.

A German government spokesman said the cast and crew had been refused permission to film on the so-called Bendlerblock site, which is part of the defence ministry, because it was a memorial site.

Meanwhile director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck - who won this year's best foreign language film Oscar for The Lives of Others - has defended Cruise, telling the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper that having him play Stauffenberg "would promote Germany's image more than 10 football World Cups".

Valkyrie - named after Operation Valkyrie, the plot's codename - is directed by Bryan Singer and also stars Kenneth Branagh. It is due for release next year.

Fans brave rain for Potter stars

2007-07-03T19:17:00.000-07:00

Hundreds of Harry Potter fans crammed into London's Leicester Square in torrential rain for the European premiere of the fifth film.

The film's star Daniel Radcliffe arrived clutching an umbrella as fans' chants of "Harry, Harry, Harry" drowned out the sound of thunder.

He was joined by author JK Rowling, who said that it was "fantastic" to see the crowds of fans.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix opens in the UK on 12 July.

Rowling spoke of finishing the final book in the series, which is published on 21 July.

"Finishing it was very, very emotional," she said. "It's been a hell of a month. I'll want to know what the people in my house think of it."

Asked what plans she had for the near future Rowling said: "I'm looking forward to going on holiday."

Darker film

Radcliffe, 17, who was joined by his co-stars Emma Watson (Hermione Granger) and Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley), returns to the role of the student wizard, which he first played at the age of 10.

He admitted that the new film is darker than previous ones.

"Toward the end there's not many laughs to be had," he said. "While there's not actually direct comedy, there's some really heartfelt emotion."

Speaking of his first on-screen clinch with Katie Leung, who plays Cho Chang, he said: "She's a very good kisser."

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix sees Harry bring together a group of apprentice wizards and witches at his Hogwarts school to battle a growing evil.

Advance orders

British director David Yates takes over the reins from Mike Newell, becoming the fourth director to be involved in the franchise.

Better known for gritty TV projects such as State of Play and Sex Traffic, Yates has already signed up for the sixth movie, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

Nearly 1.6 million have already placed an order for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - the seventh and final instalment - ahead of its publication.

'Record demand for final Potter'

2007-07-03T04:06:00.001-07:00

Nearly 1.6m copies of the final Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, have been pre-ordered online ahead of its release on 21 July.

According to online retailer Amazon, JK Rowling's seventh Potter book has become its most pre-ordered product.

Demand has surpassed a previous record of 1.5 million copies ordered ahead of the release of The Half-Blood Prince.

The latest film in the series, The Order of the Phoenix, has its European premiere in London on Tuesday.

The film opens across the globe on 11 July.

It is believed that author Rowling will join the film's stars, including Daniel Radcliffe, Imelda Staunton and Robbie Coltrane, on the red carpet in Leicester Square.

Guests including Doctor Who star David Tennant, actor Pierce Brosnan and presenter Graham Norton are also expected to attend.

Speculation

The world premiere of the film took place in Tokyo, where Harry Potter has a huge fanbase.

Another highly-anticipated sequel, Spider-Man 3, opened in the Japanese capital in April and went on to break box office records.

Rowling has said two characters die in the final book, prompting worldwide speculation.

The Potter books have sold 325 million copies worldwide, have been translated into 64 languages and spawned five films.

14.8m tune in for Diana concert

2007-07-03T04:03:00.001-07:00

Sunday's memorial concert for Diana, Princess of Wales dominated TV viewing, with audience figures peaking at 14.8m during the six-hour show on BBC One.

An average of 8.9m people tuned in to watch the live broadcast of the event at London's Wembley Stadium.

Around 63,000 attended the Concert for Diana on what would have been her 46th birthday. The princess died in a car crash in Paris in August 1997.

Sir Elton John, Lily Allen and Duran Duran were part of the line-up.

Charitable causes

Sir Elton, 60, opened the concert with a rendition of Your Song performed in front of a giant image of Diana.

The singer closed the event, which saw performances from an array of international stars, with Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting and Tiny Dancer.

Hosts Prince William and Prince Harry, who introduced Duran Duran at the beginning of the concert, returned to the stage at the end of Sir Elton's final set, praising the artists for an "incredible evening".

Proceeds from the event, broadcast to 140 countries, willl go to charitable causes favoured by the princess.

Video tributes from ex-South African President Nelson Mandela, the former Prime Minister Tony Blair and ex-US President Bill Clinton were broadcast during the gig.

Kylie stars in festive Doctor Who

2007-07-03T03:44:00.001-07:00

Pop star Kylie Minogue is to have "a major lead role" in this year's Christmas special of Doctor Who.

The star will join David Tennant for Voyage of the Damned, an hour-long show following on from the current series, which ended in the UK on Saturday.

"This will be the most ambitious and best Christmas episode yet," promised executive producer Russell T Davies, who has also written the script.

Filming is scheduled to begin in Cardiff later this month.

'Delighted and excited'

There had been rumours for several weeks that Minogue, who halted her Showgirl world tour for 18 months when she was diagnosed with breast cancer, would appear in the show.

And Davies said he was "delighted and excited" to confirm the 39-year-old's participation.

Minogue, whose debut single I Should Be So Lucky topped the charts in 1987, is currently working on her 10th studio album.

Last year's Christmas special of Doctor Who - The Runaway Bride - starred comedian Catherine Tate alongside Tennant.

She played a woman who was upset at being transported into space as she walked down the aisle on her wedding day.

The episode, broadcast on BBC One on Christmas Day, attracted an audience of 9.4 million.

Cartoon rat bites into US chart

2007-07-02T09:16:00.001-07:00

An animated adventure about a rat living in a Paris restaurant beat the return of Bruce Willis in Die Hard to the top of the US box office.

Ratatouille, a Pixar film featuring the voices of Ian Holm and Peter O'Toole, took $47.2m (£23.4m) in its first week.

Willis's Live Free or Die Hard, which will be called Die Hard 4.0 on its UK release, entered at number two with takings of $33.1 (£16.4m).

Last week's number one, Evan Almighty, slipped to third place.

Family saga

Steven King adaptation 1408, starring John Cusack and Samuel L Jackson, fell from two to four.

Blockbuster movies Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Ocean's 13 and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End all managed to sustain audiences, keeping them in the top 10.

Michael Moore's documentary Sicko, which examines the US healthcare industry, reached number nine in its first week on nationwide release, taking $4.5m (£2.2m).

The teaming up of Hollywood stalwarts Glenn Close and Meryl Streep for the family saga Evening failed to attract much box office business.

The film, which also stars Toni Colette, Claire Danes and Vanessa Redgrave, took just $3.5m (£1.7m) in its opening week, placing it at number 10 in the chart.

Diana concert a 'perfect tribute'

2007-07-01T19:31:00.000-07:00

The charity memorial concert for Diana, Princess of Wales was "the most perfect way of remembering her", Princes William and Harry have said.

Prince William told the 63,000-strong crowd at London's Wembley Stadium his mother would have enjoyed the tribute.

Sunday's gig marked the life of Diana, who died in a 1997 Paris car crash, on what would have been her 46th birthday.

Sir Elton John brought the concert to a close after sets by stars including Sir Tom Jones, Take That and Rod Stewart.

Prince William and Prince Harry opened the six-hour show and returned to the stage at the end of Sir Elton's final set, praising the artists for an "incredible evening".

"Thank you to all of you who have come here tonight to celebrate our mother's life on what would have been her 46th birthday," Prince William said.

"For us this has been the most perfect way to remember her and this is how she would want to be remembered."

The event was broadcast to 140 countries, with proceeds from ticket sales going to charitable causes favoured by the princess.

Prince William, 25, added that he hoped the concert had raised "enough money to make a difference".

Video tributes

The princes later mingled with the stars of the concert at the after-show party at Wembley Arena, next to the new stadium.

In a video tribute, ex-South African President Nelson Mandela had earlier praised Princess Diana's "energy, courage and selfless commitment" as he urged the crowd to "support the work that continues in her name".

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair and ex-US President Bill Clinton were also among those who paid tribute to Diana in video clips during the show, along with members of a host of charitable organisations.

"I think that in William and Harry, the qualities that made Diana special live on," said Mr Blair.

Earlier in the concert Prince Harry paid tribute to fellow soldiers serving in Iraq.

The 22-year-old had been due to be deployed in Basra, in Iraq, this year, but military commanders decided it was too much of a risk to send him there.

"I wish I was there with you. I'm sorry I can't be. But to you and everybody else on operations at the moment, we would both like to say 'stay safe'," he said.

Theatre performances

Sir Elton, 60, who famously performed a reworked version of Candle In The Wind at Diana's funeral, opened the concert with a rendition of Your Song, performed in front of a giant photograph of Diana by Mario Testino.

He was followed by 80s stars Duran Duran, who played a trio of songs including Wild Boys - which they dedicated to the princes - and Rio, one of their mother's favourites.

The English National Ballet - of which Princess Diana was a patron - brought a change of pace to the day and reminded everyone of the princess's love of the ballet with a performance from Swan Lake.

The theatrical theme continued later with a medley of hits from composer Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber.

Status Quo, Sir Tom Jones, Will Young and Joss Stone all took to the stage in the afternoon.

And Take That performed their number one hit Patience, although rumours that Robbie Williams might join them on stage proved unfounded.

Some of Princes William and Harry's favourites followed, including a poignant moment when P Diddy dedicated his hit track I'll Be Missing You to the princess.

"Ten years ago, Princess Diana went to a better place," he said. "Today we celebrate her life and I dedicate this song to her."

The evening wrapped up with entertainment from comedian Ricky Gervais, who was forced to improvise when technical problems caused a minor delay to Sir Elton's closing set.

Ticket-holders attending the event had been greeted with tight security following the recent attempted bombings in London and Glasgow.

On the Web, EMI to Offer More Choices

2007-06-29T04:33:00.000-07:00

Music blogs and social networking sites like MySpace are playing an increasingly important part in record companies’ marketing plans. Now they will also be able to sell songs from a major label that will play on the iPod from Apple.

EMI Music and Snocap are to announce today that Snocap will sell the label’s music in its MyStores, online shops that can be added to various sites on the Internet. Snocap’s MyStores would be placed on the Web sites of EMI artists like Korn, Suzanne Vega and Yellowcard, as well as on artists’ MySpace pages. Fans would also be able to place MyStores “widgets” on their own sites and MySpace pages, although Snocap would still control sales.

“It’s almost like you’re giving the label a vending machine,” Snocap’s chief executive, Rusty Rueff, said. “They can fill it up and people can take it and put it as many places as they want. This allows the artists and the fans to have a chance to engage in commerce on the most popular music sites, like MySpace.”

The price will be $1.30 a song for high-quality MP3 files that will work on any digital media player, including the iPod. Until now, Snocap had been selling independent label songs as well as Warner Music Group material in a format that did not work on the iPod.

Since MyStores can be added to a variety of Web pages, they will offer fans more places to shop for music. Over the last few years, as CD sales have fallen, music chains like Tower Records have closed, which has in turn fueled further declines. Snocap also planned to sell music at a variety of different price points, a feature the major labels want, but cannot get, from Apple’s iTunes store.

“My whole mantra has been, you have to make it easy for people to buy music,” said Barney Wragg, the head of EMI’s worldwide digital division. “You don’t have to have one big store which everyone has to come to; you can take this store and put it into pages all over the place.”

Snocap’s MyStores would also make it possible for customers to buy music where and when they first hear it. Since MySpace and various artists’ Web sites have become popular places to sample music in streaming audio, labels hope that fans will make more impulse buys.

In a survey by the analyst firm Jupiter Research, 20 percent of adults who were online identified themselves as impulse music buyers.

“MySpace has a big audience, which is interested in music, and a lot of people are listening to music on the site,” said David Card, a Jupiter Research analyst. “So if MyStores can deliver a graceful experience, I think they have a decent shot of being a big deal.”

Talk of the Town: Paris set free

2007-06-28T07:36:00.000-07:00

Parker Says Longoria Takes Charge of Wedding

2007-06-28T07:28:00.000-07:00

Spice Girls announce reunion tour

2007-06-28T06:09:00.000-07:00

The Spice Girls have confirmed they will reform for a 12-date world tour to begin in December.

The annoucement was made at a press conference at London's O2 arena which all five members attended.

The full line-up has not performed together since Ginger Spice Geri Halliwell quit in May 1998.

"I think for us it was about celebrating the past, enjoying each other and it's about our fans. It was the right time," said Halliwell.

The group will kick off their tour in Las Angeles in December, and will go on to perform in Las Vegas, New York, London, Koln, Madrid, Beijing, Hong Kong, Sydney, Cape Town and Beunos Aires.

Earlier this month Mel Chisholm, also known as Sporty Spice, told the BBC that any reunion would be for "a very short space of time... a final goodbye".

The singer added that she had resisted reforming the band in the past because "it was amazing, it was magical. We could never recreate it".

When asked at the conference why she had gone back on her word she said: "A girl is allowed to change her mind and also this is something that we have only seriously started this year really.

"I think really all of us have had our fears and doubts but we feel that the time is right."

All five women laughed and joked constantly with photographers and reporters, even jokingly booing one journalist.

Future plans

The tour is being put together by Simon Fuller, whose 19 company masterminded the group's global success more than a decade ago.

Under his guidance, the five-piece notched up a string of hits - including Wannabe and 2 Become 1 - while also capitalising on their fame with a stream of sponsorship deals.

Nicknames

Emma Bunton, Mel Brown, Mel Chisholm, Victoria Adams and Geri Halliwell quickly became household names - although they were better known as Baby, Scary, Sporty, Posh and Ginger. They sold more than 55 million records around the world, and even starred in a film, Spice World.

Halliwell quit in 1998 citing "differences", leaving them to complete a sold-out world tour as a foursome.

The group achieved their third consecutive Christmas number one later that year, and released a third album, Forever, in 2000.

Each member has since pursued solo careers with varying degrees of success, while Posh Spice has become better known as fashion icon Victoria Beckham.

Fans Await Paul McCartney's Hollywood Concert

2007-06-28T03:46:00.000-07:00

Knock-out name for baby girl

2007-06-26T08:28:00.000-07:00

LONDON (AFP) - Baby Autumn Brown has a name to live up - in fact she has over 25 of them.

The little girl's mother Maria, in keeping with her boxing-mad family's bizarre tradition, decided to give her 25 middle names - all culled from the greatest exponents inside the ring.

Her full name, which left register office staff in Perton, Wolverhampton reeling is: Autumn Sullivan Corbett Fitzsimmons Jeffries Hart Burns Johnson Willard Dempsey Tunney Schmeling Sharkey Carnera Baer Braddock Louis Charles Walcott Marciano Patterson Johansson Liston Clay Frazier Foreman Brown.

Maria told the city's Express and Star: "The whole thing came about because both my mum and dad are obsessed with boxing and have a bit of a daft sense of humour.

"When I was young I couldn't ever remember my name. It took me to the age of 10 to memorise it all."

The 33-year-old mother added: "I'm hoping Autumn has a good sense of humour with her name. It's never done me any harm though."

Sexy French Maid TV - How To Share Photos

2007-06-25T22:25:00.001-07:00

Release date set for Paris Hilton

2007-06-24T06:08:00.000-07:00

Celebrity heiress Paris Hilton is to leave jail on Tuesday after almost three-and-a-half weeks behind bars, authorities in California have said.

The reality TV star was sentenced on 3 June to 45 days in jail for violating probation on a driving ban.

But crowded jail conditions and time off for good behaviour will mean that she is released after 24 days.

The 26-year-old was briefly freed on medical grounds earlier this month, but was sent back to jail by a court.

Before she was led screaming from court, she was told she would have to serve her full sentence.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, who ordered her release, is due to appear before the county's board of supervisors, which is investigating the issue, on Tuesday.

Mr Baca, who wanted Hilton to complete her sentence at home, said the heiress was being turned into a "criminal justice football".

But opponents say she was given preferential treatment because of her status.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department did not say at what time Hilton would be released.

She was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol last September and was given probation, which she violated several times by driving with a suspended licence.

Neverland director takes on Bond

2007-06-20T04:48:00.000-07:00

Finding Neverland's Marc Forster will direct the latest James Bond adventure.

German-born Forster, whose 2001 film Monster's Ball won an Academy Award for actress Halle Berry, will direct Daniel Craig in the film, due out in 2008.

It will be based on a script developed by Forster and Crash director Paul Haggis - one of the writers behind last year's hit Bond outing Casino Royale.

"I have also always been a Bond fan, so it is very exciting to take on this challenge," said Forster.

"I have always been drawn to different kinds of stories," said the 37-year-old film-maker, who recently completed work on the The Kite Runner, an adaptation of the best-selling novel.

'New possibilities'

The Kite Runner will be released in the US at the end of the year, and is expected to receive Oscar attention.

"We are delighted that Marc Forster, with his exceptional talent and unique vision, has agreed to direct our next James Bond film," said producers Michael G Wilson and Barbara Broccoli.

It had been suggested that Martin Campbell would return to direct the 2008 adventure, following the success of Casino Royale, which became the most successful Bond film to date.

Campbell worked on both Casino Royale and 1995's GoldenEye, overseeing the debut of both Pierce Brosnan and Craig in the role of 007.

"The new direction that the Bond character has taken offers a director a host of new possibilities and I look forward to working with Daniel Craig," said Forster.

Bond 22 will begin filming at Pinewood Studios in London in December, based on a screenplay drafted by Neil Purvis and Robert Wade.

Knightley film to kick off Venice

2007-06-15T11:08:00.001-07:00

Actress Keira Knightley's forthcoming film Atonement has been chosen to open this year's Venice Film Festival.

The adaptation of Ian McEwan's novel, also starring Vanessa Redgrave and James McAvoy, will be a contender for the event's top prize, the Golden Lion.

Atonement is the second release from UK director Joe Wright, 35, who worked with Knightley on Pride & Prejudice.

The world premiere of the film, a tale of love and war, will be attended by Knightley, 22, in Venice on 29 August.

Festival head Marco Muller said: "For the first time in its history, the opening film is the work of a young director."

"It is a film that, in terms of emotive and visual power, is greater than some of the major films of many acclaimed directors," he added.

Wright described the honour as "extraordinary".

"Going to the Venice Film Festival is something one dreams of. It is just steeped in history," he said. "I keep imagining I'll bump into Sophia Loren."

Oscar contender

Pride & Prejudice, which marked Wright's film debut, picked up four Oscar nominations in 2006 including a best actress nod for Knightley.

"She's developing as an actress all the time and I think her performance here is the best thing she has ever done," said Wright, commenting on Knightley's performance in Atonement.

The film is already being touted as an Oscar contender, with selection for Venice expected to bolster its chances.

"Opening Venice is a prize in itself," said Wright, who refused to be drawn on the film's awards potential.

Recent winners of the festival's Golden Lion include Vera Drake and Brokeback Mountain.

Oprah 'most powerful celebrity'

2007-06-15T00:44:00.000-07:00

Oprah Winfrey is the world's most powerful celebrity, according to business magazine Forbes.

Winfrey beat golfer Tiger Woods into second spot, with Madonna in third place following a successful tour.

British stars in the top 20 include Sir Elton John, the Rolling Stones and David Beckham.

The list, published annually, takes into account celebrities' earnings, internet presence and press, TV and radio coverage.

Winfrey, whose chat show is watched by 30 million viewers each week in the US, regained her top spot - which she lost last year to Tom Cruise - with estimated earnings of $260m (£131.8m).

"A combination of strong financials and her enduring influence on the US public, which could see her affecting the outcome of next year's US elections, is enough to propel her back into the top spot," said a Forbes spokeswoman.

Other British entries include JK Rowling in 48th place, with Harry Potter film stars Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson in 79th and 97th place respectively.

Heiress and reality TV star Paris Hilton, who was number 56 on last year's list, failed to make the top 100 for 2007.

Madonna fell out of last year's top 100 list but her Confessions tour last summer significantly boosted her earnings.

It was named the highest-earning show by a female artist by US magazine Billboard.

Singer Power wins US music prize

2007-06-14T00:06:00.000-07:00

US singer-songwriter Cat Power has won the sixth annual Shortlist Music Prize - American's version of the Mercury prize - for her album The Greatest.

The 35-year-old performer - real name Charlyn "Chan" Marshall - beat records by Regina Spektor and Tom Waits to win the prestigious award.

Founded in 2001, it honours critically acclaimed releases in the US that have not broken into the mainstream market.

Previous winners include Damien Rice, Sigur Ros and rock band N.E.R.D.

This year's panel of judges or "listmakers" included Franz Ferdinand, KT Tunstall and members of Snow Patrol.

'Beguiling voice'

Last year's winner, singer Sufjan Stevens, was also one of the judges.

In a statement, Tunstall called The Greatest "an immediate classic that will never age".

"Cat Power's album quickly got under my skin," said the Scottish singer. "She has one of the most beguiling voices around."

A previous Shortlist finalist for her 2003 album You Are Free, Power is the first female artist to be given the prize.

She received a Brit nomination for best international female earlier this year.

Banks joins DreamWorks' 'Sisters' clan

2007-06-13T23:40:00.000-07:00

Elizabeth Banks will star in the horror remake "A Tale of Two Sisters" for DreamWorks.

Based on the Kim Jee-Woon's 2003 Korean horror film of the same name, the story revolves around two sisters who return home to their father after spending time in a mental institution. Their recovery is hindered by their cruel stepmother's (Banks) obsessiveness and an interfering ghost. Brothers Thomas and Charles Guard will helm the film, scheduled to begin shooting in July in Shreveport, La.

Craig Rosenberg adapted the English-language screenplay, with a rewrite from Carlo Bernard and Doug Miro.

Mark Sourian is shepherding the project for DreamWorks president of production Adam Goodman.

Banks, who can be seen in "Spider-Man 3," next will appear in Universal Pictures' "Definitely, Maybe" and 20th Century Fox's "Starship Dave," opposite Eddie Murphy. Her most recent credits include starring opposite Mark Wahlberg in "Invincible."

Her production company, Brownstone Prods., has several projects on its slate including the Banks vehicle "What About Barb," "Surrogates" (Walt Disney Pictures) and "Too Far From Home" (Universal).

She is repped by UTA and Untitled Entertainment.

Son of a bitch. The original is such a good movie, why is a remake needed? Damn, wish I hadn't lent my DVD to my friend. I want to watch it now. And the news needs to get itself straight. They're saying she's the stepmother and she's one of the sisters. One or the other, assholes.

SOURCE

Living the Dream

2007-06-11T08:34:00.000-07:00

ROSSBURG, Ohio – The glass slipper fit on Saturday night, but not before Kasey Kahne tried to break it three nights before in a five-car tangle late in the NASCAR Prelude to the Dream, one that tore the side off Steve Casebolt's primary car.

"Oh, that's nothing compared to what I've done to it," said Casebolt, whose crew had all day Thursday to make repairs.

In the closing laps of The Dream, Casebolt had two other problems – he was fading on long runs after his tires heated up and he had last year's winner Scott Bloomquist on his tail. Circumstances could have easily robbed Casebolt of the victory, but instead he lived out one of those storybook plotlines that makes auto racing so compelling.

In only his second Dream feature, Casebolt posted the eight quickest times on Friday night and benefited from the three-car inversion to start on the outside of the front row of his heat race to easily beat Josh Richards and Jimmy Owens to the finish line. Casebolt had a little more difficult time in the feature race when the number of cars inverted increased to six. That meant he had to start in the fifth position, but he wasn't going to be denied the biggest win of his career. Casebolt drove into the lead on lap 21 of the 100-lap feature and paced every circuit after that.

If it sounds easy, it wasn't. Lurking deep in the field was Bloomquist, who may very well be the best dirt late model racer in recent history.

"Last week, we won a Lucas Oil race at Florence and I drove by Bloomquist and I beat him, but he ended up finishing fifth so it wasn't quite as good," Casebolt said. "Everyone kind of measures how good you are by how much you beat him by, or by how well he is that night. I think everybody saw tonight that we had the best car."

Bloomquist had to come from deep in the field during the feature after finishing his heat in third place, which was good enough to advance into the big show but caused him to start back in the 14th position. By dirt track standards, a 100-lap race is a marathon. With very few caution flags early in the race, though, Bloomquist, the "Voodoo Child," had to work his magic in heavy traffic all night. He climbed to sixth by lap 36, was fifth on lap 45 and third by lap 57. It took only a little while longer to track down Scott James and pass him for second on lap 66. Then he set his sights on the leader.

Bloomquist finally got a caution flag on lap 79 that allowed him to close the gap, but the young gun Casebolt proved to be much better on restarts when the track was less slick than it was in heavy traffic. On Saturday night, the clay surface dried quickly and the dust kicked up by the lap-down cars made Casebolt extremely loose when he was close behind them.

Bloomquist thrives on those conditions.

On a half-mile track, however, it doesn't take long to close back in on traffic, and Casebolt was caught by the back markers once more with only three laps remaining. Bloomquist closed to within a car length, and while the starter prepared to hold up two fingers to signal the number of laps remaining, the cagy veteran dug his nose into the bottom groove and powered up onto the straightaway out of Turn 4.

The fans in the stands jumped to their feet. Half of them cheered Bloomquist in his quest for his fifth Dream victory and half encouraged Casebolt. Then the caution waved.

That final yellow flag sealed both drivers' fate, as Casebolt easily yarded Bloomquist on the restart and motored to his third consecutive victory in three different series in his last three races. In addition to the Lucas Oil victory at Florence, Ky., Casebolt won an American Late Model Series race at Gas City, Ind., last week in an old car he had sitting around the shop. That victory paid $2,000 to win. On Saturday night, he pocketed $100,000.

"This has been kind of a long time coming," Casebolt said. "We haven't been in the spotlight that much, but there've been several nights when I thought, 'If we'd just done this thing differently, we'd have a shot at beating these guys,' and we did it tonight."

Madonna stayed with prostitutes and junkies

2007-06-11T06:21:00.000-07:00

Madge slept in his grotty bedsit

Soft Cell singer Marc Almond says Madonna lived in his flat when she was starting out - and it was a really grimy gaff.

'I didn't meet her, but I was friends with her record sleeve designer,' he explains. 'Madonna was about to do her first promotional tour and our friend asked if she could stay at my bedsit in Earls Court while I was away.'

But Marc says he feels bad about how disgusting it was.

'It was a hell-hole,' he tells Sunday magazine. 'There were prostitutes upstairs, junkies downstairs, and it was a bare room with a bed, nylon sheets, and a kitchenette with dirty plates and a lamp.

'I've always felt ashamed that she stayed in such a pit. If I'd known in 1983 how huge she'd become, I'd have cut up the sheets and sold them on ebay.'

Paris Hilton says "CHEERIO"

2007-06-11T06:16:00.000-07:00

Paris Hilton may be in a somewhat better place than the Lynwood jail, but one thing hasn't changed -- the food sucks. Hilton is only eating cereal and bread.

We're told she is doing a lot better today, mostly because she is on her meds and the facility is better than the cell she called home for a few days.

She is still having a hard time sleeping, because her room is bright and noisy. She is alone for the most part, but is allowed to use the jail phone. We're told she is still crying but a lot less today than the last two days.

Today is family day, but she is only allowed two visitors. She chose sister Nicky and on-again, off again boyfriend Stavros Niarchos. Her mom and dad will visit on Tuesday.

We're also told that it is a done deal that she'll do her time where she is and won't be transferred back to Lynwood. Finally, she is "shocked" that she is in the middle of a political tug-of-war between the Sheriff on the one side and the judge and City Attorney on the other.

Dogs To Be Soon Seen In Restaurants In Dining Areas

2007-06-11T06:03:00.000-07:00

St. Louis, MO (AHN) - The day is not far when you won't have to worry about leaving your favorite pet all alone at home while you plan to dine out if you are in Chicago, Illinois or St. Louis, Missouri. The Illinois governor is considering changing state health laws to allow dogs at restaurants. While in St. Louis, a proposed new law would allow restaurant goers to eat with their dogs, although some city council members in St. Louis are worried about health risks.

Many of the St. Louis City Council members voiced their concern about related health risks of dining with dogs but several others simply ruled out the idea of allowing dogs in dining areas.

According to reports in the St. Louis Dispatch, the bill was proposed by Alderman Lyda Krewson that would allow diners to eat with their dogs outside a restaurant. The current law bans live animals from being on the premises of an eating establishment, including outside patios and sidewalk cafes.

Though her proposal was not accepted at the Board of Aldermen's Public Safety Committee, she plans not to give up hope and will try again next week.

In the meantime, in Chicago, the City Council's License and Consumer Protection Committee will begin work on what a dog-friendly law would mean for area restaurants, ABC7 news in Chicago reported.

Christina Augillera- Would you think she's pregnant?

2007-06-11T02:51:00.000-07:00

So she was filmed and spotted going to a maternity doctor earlier this week, and then I come across this.
What y'all think, bb's?
I think she's knocked up.

Singer Michael avoids jail term

2007-06-08T06:51:00.000-07:00

George Michael has been sentenced to 100 hours of community service and banned from driving for two years at Brent Magistrates court, north London.

The 43-year-old had pleaded guilty to driving while unfit, blaming "tiredness and prescribed drugs" for the offence.

He was arrested in October last year after being found slumped at the steering wheel of his car.

The pop star, who performs at Wembley Stadium this weekend, has expressed regret over the incident.

"I was ashamed I had done something really wrong in putting other people at risk," he told the court.

Following sentencing, the singer was in a bullish mood outside the court, smiling and laughing with fans.

Reading from a prepared statement, he called the media coverage of the case "farcical" and said reporters had concentrated on the prosecution's case.

"I'm glad to put this behind me," he added. "Now I'm off to do the biggest show of my life."

Hearing could send Hilton back to jail

2007-06-07T19:09:00.000-07:00

Paris Hilton’s release from jail may be short lived.

Hours after she was sent home under house arrest Thursday for an undisclosed medical condition, the judge who put her in jail for violating her reckless-driving probation ordered her into court to decide if she should go back behind bars.

Hilton must report to court at 9 a.m. Friday.

“My understanding is she will be brought in in a sheriff’s vehicle from her home,” Parachini said.

The celebrity inmate was sent home from the Los Angeles County jail’s Lynwood lockup shortly after 2 a.m. in a stunning reduction to her original 45-day sentence. She had reported to jail Sunday night after attending the MTV Movie Awards in a strapless designer dress.

She was ordered to finish her sentence under house arrest, meaning she could not leave her four-bedroom, three-bath home in the Hollywood Hills until next month.

City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo complained that he learned of her release the same way as almost everyone else — through news reports.

Then, late Thursday, he filed a petition questioning whether Sheriff Lee Baca should be held in contempt of court for releasing Hilton — and demanding that she be held in custody. Superior Court Judge Michael T. Sauer’s decision to haul Hilton back to the courtroom came shortly after.

“It is the city attorney’s position that the decision on whether or not Ms. Hilton should be released early and placed on electronic monitoring should be made by Judge Sauer and not the Sheriff’s Department,” said Jeffrey Isaacs of the city attorney’s office.

Sauer himself had expressed his unhappiness with Hilton’s release before Delgadillo asked him to return her to court. When he sentenced Hilton to jail last month, he ruled specifically that she could not serve her sentence at home under electronic monitoring.

Delgadillo’s office indicated that it would argue that the Sheriff’s Department violated Sauer’s May 4 sentencing order.

Paparazzi camp out at Hilton home
As word spread earlier Thursday that the 26-year-old poster child for bad celebrity behavior was back home, radio helicopter pilots who normally report on traffic conditions were dispatched to hover over her house and describe it to morning commuters. Paparazzi photographers on the ground quickly assembled outside its gates.

Hilton herself kept a low profile, although late in the morning a man arrived outside her house with a supply of cupcakes he said she had instructed him to distribute to the media horde.

Her parents also arrived and briefly entered, then left, the home.

Shortly before noon, Hilton issued a statement through her attorney.

“I want to thank the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and staff of the Century Regional Detention Center for treating me fairly and professionally,” she said. “I am going to serve the remaining 40 days of my sentence. I have learned a great deal from this ordeal and hope that others have learned from my mistakes.”

Attorneys differed on whether her treatment was unusual.

“She would have gotten out early if she was plain Jane,” said Leonard Levine, who has handled numerous probation violation cases. He noted that overcrowding in the Los Angeles County jail system has led to thousands of nonviolent offenders serving only 10 percent of their sentences. “She did as much time as a normal person would have done.”

Loyola University law professor Laurie Levenson said that she suspected the deal for Hilton’s early release was in the works even before she entered the jail system — and that officials probably were anxious to get her out of their custody.

“The time and resources needed to take care of a Paris Hilton are huge,” she said. “They have to make sure she is safe and her medical needs are attended to. Everything they did was going to be looked at under a microscope.”

Levine said that with rewards being offered for pictures of Hilton in custody, jail officials would have had to monitor the cell phone cameras of every employee.

Rene Seidel of the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services said he had “never heard of” an inmate being released from jail for a medical condition.

Inmates with a cold are sent to a jail clinic, he said, and the seriously ill go to the jail ward of the Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center.

Hilton’s path to jail began Sept. 7, when she failed a sobriety test after police saw her weaving down a Hollywood street in her Mercedes-Benz on what she said was a late-night run to a hamburger stand.

She pleaded no contest to reckless driving and was sentenced to 36 months’ probation, alcohol education and $1,500 in fines.

In the months that followed she was stopped twice by officers who discovered her driving on a suspended license. The second stop landed her in Sauer’s courtroom, where he sentenced her to jail.

Washington diary: Paris v Scooter

2007-06-06T19:14:00.000-07:00

Who would have thought that two stars with silly names would both head to jail in the same week? Scooter in the East. Paris in the West.

The official Democratic Party website took it upon itself to hammer home the similarities: after sentencing, Paris sobbed; after his closing remarks in March, when he was found guilty, Scooter broke down in tears.

Paris wrote a raunchy biography, Confessions of an Heiress, which is laced with intimate details of past scandals. Scooter wrote The Apprentice, a steamy novel which he hopes will one day be turned into a film.

Paris said she did not know that she had been banned from driving. Scooter claimed he did not know Valerie Plame's real identity.

Both said they would use jail time to think hard and reflect deep. Paris also added that she was working out ways to change the world, which may be a trifle ambitious.

Both claim that they have become scapegoats for the ills of others: the excesses of celebrity vying with the excesses of an administration bent on going to war in another country.

Redemption rite

In Los Angeles, a mug shot and a short stint behind bars appears to be almost a rite of passage for a celebrity.

It allows those who have everything to empathise in public with those who have nothing.

It is the preparation of a new role and the script is predictable: the contrition, the return journey to honesty, the charity work, the book deal, the vegetarian recipes, the jailhouse fashion line, the cult of self-improvement lapped up by the attendant media, a stint squirming on Oprah's couch.

America loves tales of celebrity redemption. After star homemaker Martha Stewart's stint behind bars and the requisite genuflection at the altar of humility, her cookies became more popular than ever and the share price of her company went through the ceiling.

Martha, the domestic "uber-deity", became a Mensch and America loved her for it.

As she spends the first of 23 long days in the 8ft-by-12ft (2.5m-by-3.6m) cell of an LA county jail, Paris too will no doubt ponder her post-incarceration career: a sequel to The Simple Life perhaps, or a new line in swimwear featuring sullen earth tones.

I don't know who does Paris's PR, but so far it has been a stroke of genius.

She generously declined to go to a so-called "pay jail", the incarceration equivalent of the Ritz Carlton.

Then they almost managed to portray a spoilt brat as a victim of the celebrity she has always craved.

Paris even created her own website enlisting the help of thousands of sympathisers from cyberspace.

Reversal of fortune

But guess who wrote Scooter Libby's letters of recommendation, read out in court to sway the notoriously no-nonsense judge Reggie Walton to pass a more lenient sentence? Paul Wolfowitz, Donald Rumsfeld and Henry Kissinger.

Scooter might as well have asked for plaudits from Niccolo Machiavelli and Cruella de Vil.

The judge handed down almost everything the prosecutor had asked for: 30 months in jail and $250,000 (£125,000) in fines.

When Scooter entered the courthouse in the shadow of Capitol Hill, he looked cheerful and was even gracious enough to open the door for his entourage of lawyers.

When he left a few hours later, he looked ashen-faced, red-eyed and apparently perplexed by the reversal of fortune.

His lone sedan car bled into the lunchtime traffic, with the clock ticking on the 45 days before Scooter has to surrender himself to federal hospitality.

In a cruel twist that can only be described as vintage Washington, the same road was cleared only a few minutes later by a phalanx of officious cops for one of those Beltway motorcades that always remind me of a first-class, Third-World dictator.

We all had to stand well back for the armoured stretch limo that Scooter once called home.

His former boss, Vice-President Dick Cheney - as well as 10 outriders, five cop cars, three swat cars, the de rigueur ambulance, the stretch limo and its identical decoy - were all hurtling towards a working lunch on Capitol Hill.

The man of power was now powerless to defend his friend and later issued a statement calling his former chief of staff "a fine man with great judgement and intellect".

The Cheneys declared that they were saddened by the outcome and hoped that justice would still be served.

Iraq poster child

If Paris can hope for absolution through a new movie, a confessional book or missionary work in Africa, then Scooter's best chance lies, for now, in a presidential pardon.

Apparently a group of prominent conservatives are already putting pressure on George W Bush to pardon the man who was once at the very heart of the war cabinet.

But the commander-in-chief may only have 45 days to make up his mind, since it is much harder to issue a pardon when the beneficiary of presidential leniency is already serving time.

At first, I thought that the president would be unlikely to go down this road at a time when his opinion poll ratings continue to sink like a stone and the Iraq war stubbornly bleeds his administration.

On the other hand, the only support Bush has left is with his hardcore base. A pardon is something they might appreciate.

Even Libby's lawyer said in court what no-one in the White House dares to utter out loud. He said his client had "become the poster child for a terrible war."

Like a tongue returning to an infected tooth, this is what it keeps coming back to: the war in Iraq and the reasons for it.

Hilton 'doing well' in LA prison

2007-06-05T07:40:00.000-07:00

Paris Hilton, the US socialite and former TV star of The Simple Life, is doing well after her first night in a Los Angeles jail, her lawyer has said.

Richard A Hutton added she would now "reflect on her life, to see what she can do to make the world better".

Hours after appearing at the MTV Movie Awards on Sunday, Hilton, 26, started her sentence at the LA County Jail.

She will serve 23 days in solitary confinement for violating her probation for a drink-driving conviction.

The socialite has been separated from the main prison population in a special unit that contains 12 cells, each holding two people.

The 3.7m by 2.4m cell has two bunks, a table, a sink, a toilet and a small window.

Hilton will spend 23 hours in her cell and has one hour to shower, watch television or make phone calls.

Former inmate and LA resident Shamarra Thomas, who spent two days in the main prison for neglecting to pay parking tickets, said conditions for the rest of the women were unpleasant.

"You have people defecating on themselves, urinating on themselves, sleeping on the ground - it's horrible," she said.

Hilton's lawyer said his client was "really being punished because of her celebrity".

'Taking responsibility'

Steve Whitmore from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, which runs the jail, said: "Her demeanour was helpful. She was focused, she was cooperative."

Hilton was accompanied by her mother as she arrived at the jail. She was then fingerprinted, photographed, medically screened and issued with the jail's regulation orange jumpsuit.

After checking in, Hilton was given her first meal which was cereal, bread and juice.

Mr Hutton said his client is taking responsibility for her actions, adding: "She knows it's wrong, but her attitude is 'I'm going to come in here, I'm going to do my time, I'm going to get it over with and I'm going to show the world who I really am'."

Meanwhile the waxwork museum Madame Tussaud's in London has taken the opportunity to mock the celebrity socialite.

The wax mannequin of the star has been temporarily dressed in a black and white striped prison suit.

Paris Hilton starts jail sentence

2007-06-04T01:39:00.000-07:00

Paris Hilton has begun her jail sentence for violating probation on a drink-driving conviction.

The 26-year-old turned herself in to authorities at Los Angeles County Jail on Sunday, her lawyer confirmed.

She appeared at the MTV Movie Awards hours earlier, where she told reporters: "I'm definitely scared, but I'm ready to face my sentence."

The socialite will serve only half of her sentence - about 23 days - after being given credit for good behaviour.

She will be separated from the main prison population in a block that contains 12 cells, each holding two people.

It is reserved for celebrities, public officials, police officers and other high-profile inmates.

The unit is part of the Century Regional Detention Centre in Lynwood, California, which holds more than 2,000 prisoners.

The heiress-turned-pop singer was arrested for driving under the influence last September and was issued probation, which she violated several times by driving with a suspended licence.

Hilton made her final public appearance at the MTV Movie Awards on Sunday, where host Sarah Silverman received cheers for mentioning her impending jail sentence.

'Positive' attitude

"Even though this is a really hard time, I have my family, my friends and my fans to support me, and that's really helpful," Hilton told reporters.

The heiress said she had been given the option of going to a "pay jail" but declined.

"I'm going to do the time and I am going to do it the right way.

"I'm using it in a positive way and when I come out, I can't wait to start my new life and be even stronger than I am now."