Celebrities

The Cannes Film Festival, a scene of glitz and glamour.  Another place for the stars to shine, and also a place for some of the less mainstream, outside of Hollywood, films to maybe do the same. Amongst those was director Roman Polanski, there to premiere his latest film, Venus in Fur.  The film stars Polanski’s wife, Emmanuelle Seigner, and Mathieu Amalric.  Adapted from the play by David Ives, it tells the story of an actress and theatre director rehearsing Leopold von Sacher-Masoch’s 1870 novella Venus in Furs.  Examining the roles of gender, as the actress overshadows the director. Not that Roman Polanski is any stranger to controversy, his 1979 conviction of having sex with a minor, saw him flee the United States to avoid further legal issues.  (Maybe playing out vaguely somewhat like Lolita.)  Polanski has again courted controversy with his comments at the Cannes Film Festival in 2013. Whether ...

With the approach of May the 4th almost being with us, both the Rebel Alliance and the Empire are gearing up.  Meanwhile George Lucas is sitting about as pretty Jabba the Hutt after the US$4 billion sale of Lucasfilm and the Star Wars franchise to Disney.  (That Mouse has got some money!)  It was also announced that JJ Abrams will be directing (at least) the first movie in the new sequel trilogy.  The new trilogy movies will roll out in 2015, 2017, and 2019; with another two spinoff movies filling in the yearly gaps between Star Wars: Episode VII, VIII and IX. With not such a long time to go for this much new Star Wars, and many of the original cast rumoured to be returning how could things go wrong? Three words may sum it up:  Jar Jar Binks. And with JJ Abrams now directing both the new Star ...

Psy, he’s the South Korean rapper (maybe), or at least the K-pop sensation (for now), who shot to international fame in 2012 with his song Gangnam Style.  The film clip to which smashed all sorts of records and to date has garnered over 1.5 billion views on YouTube.  Not too shabby.  Even the respective leaders of the Beliebers (which apparently would now also have included Anne Frank) and the little monsters have yet to make such an achievement. How then do you follow up such a hit? You tweak it a bit.  Release more of the same.  Then hope lightning strikes twice. Which brings us to the new song, Gentleman.  You can watch it here, if you haven’t seen it already.  And it’s not going to also reach 1.5 billion views unless you pitch in! The film clip to the song Gentleman displays what Psy has described as the “arrogant dance”.  This is ...

Figuring it was probably best to give Kim Kardashian a break for awhile, because she has got bigger problems at the moment – like looking fashionable in maternity wear – it’s time to turn to one of her other sisters.  This admittedly does have a Cinderella-like quality to it.  Because compared to Kim, the others don’t seem to quite stack up the same. This time around, it’s Khloe Kardashian who has been placed on The Cheese Wheel. Why exactly? Well… There’s simply the fact that Khloe Kardashian is a Kardashian.  Kind of a no-brainer that one!  There was some consideration about putting the entire Kardashian family on here this time around, but it’s a cheese wheel and not a cheese platter. Yes, Khloe is known by many other references.  Here, keeping things a bit polite, she can just be referred to as the “husky Kardashian”. Then, there are the allegations of missing ...

Dead Before His Time Shain Gandee, the star of MTV’s reality show Buckwild was found dead inside his red Ford Bronco.  Three bodies were found, Shain Gandee, his uncle David Gandee, and a third unidentified person.  No foul play is suspected, and police reports believe that the three likely died from carbon monoxide poisoning; with the truck having been submerged up to its windows in mud. Shain was only 21 years old. In a statement issued by MTV:  “Our thoughts and prayers are with them.  Shain had a magnetic  personality, with a passion for life that touched everyone he met and we will  miss him dearly.” A sad time for those who knew Shain and the others personally, or had watched Shain Gandee on television. Empathy and Reframing to Grieve In no way to make light of the situation, it is interesting the way in which society (or societies, as attitudes do differ) deal with both celebrities and ...

Chuck Norris has recently been seen without a beard. Although Chuck Norris Facts knows he hasn't always had a beard, he now faces his toughest challenge yet...

Not that whacky news out of Hollywood and news about Kim Kardashian are any strangers to one another, but now there’s apparently a truth stranger than fiction: Kim Kardashian gets vampire facials! By extracting your own blood and then reinjecting into your face, under medical supervision of course, you can apparently take on the youthful look of a vampire.  Nothing says anti-ageing quite like the undead. At least these facials are using real blood, unlike the sparkle-in-the-sun vegan ‘vampires’ of the Twilight world.  (So that explains R-Patz?) Meanwhile, as prophesised, many continue to await the birth of Kim and Kanye’s child.  If the vampire facials indicate anything, the baby will be called Blade. This has others wondering though, if it’s vampire facials today, what famous monster will be the next “in thing” when it comes to celebrity beauty techniques? Maybe it’s not a Creature from the Black Lagoon day spa, but some crazy suggestions are floating out there… ...

Olivia Wilde incurred the wrath of the many Beliebers out there when she tweeted that Justin Bieber should keep his shirt on. The responses of over 17,000 hate-tweets were shot back at her.  Which gave her ample material to joke about!  Apart from showing she’s a good sport, if nothing else it demonstrated that the Beliebers can do two things: tweet and bite ankles. Meanwhile Justin himself is having a rough time, whether it’s showing up 2 hours late to his own concert (because he’s so rock and roll; but maybe less so than Noel Gallagher’s cat), or having rants including about how much he has achieved and he’s only 19. Some may ask whether it’s yet another child star imploding.  Especially without the close guidance of his parents anymore. Or as the lads over at South Park may suggest, it’s going to be a very good corn harvest in the ...