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London, July 27 (ANI): It seems Madonna loves Britain even after splitting with her husband Guy Ritchie, and that’s why she’s directing her new flick ‘W.E.’ there.

The pop diva lived in England during her marriage to Guy Ritchie, 41, but moved back to New York when they divorced in 2008.

“Guy says she talks about their home in Wiltshire, the kids and their friends in London. She seems nostalgic for her old life,” the Daily Star quoted an inside source as saying.

“She had built up a big circle of friends and fell in love with London.

“She’ll always love New York but she feels more at ease in London. What it comes down to is that Madonna just feels quite alone. The person she spends most time with is her daughter Lourdes but she’s desperate for more adult company,” added the insider.

According to the source, location is one of the main reasons she chose to direct her movie in London.

“She is really enjoying directing her new film and feels like she is back home,” said the source.

“Lourdes has a cameo in the film so she gets to work with family and friends. And she’s always talking about the places she likes to visit when she’s in London.”

“At the end of the day, this is where she wants to be,” the insider added. (ANI)

London, July 27 (IANS) Supermodel Kate Moss, who thinks her London home is haunted, has hired a shaman to rid the place of what she thinks is “evil energy”.

“Her fella Jamie Hince is a believer in the supernatural and has persuaded her there is bad energy in the house which needs to be removed by a shaman priest. She has found one who will perform a ceremony to cleanse the place,” said a source close to Moss, reports thesun.co.uk.

Moss’ house has apparently been prone to many disasters in the past few months. In May, the supermodel lost an expensive painting, and just days later, sewage flooded into her kitchen.

Her sauna has also leaked and she has been told the house needs rewiring.

London, July 27 (IANS) Socialite Paris Hilton says she finds it difficult to maintain a relationship with high profile men, and would rather date an unknown guy to have a happy life.

“It’s really hard in my position just being in a relationship because so much goes along with it. The media are constantly making up stories and it’s just hard to know if you can trust a guy who has fame,” femalefirst.co.uk quoted her as saying.

“I’d rather be with someone who’s not in the public eye – I think it just makes it easier, and I don’t know there’s so much that comes along with it. I’d rather be with someone who’s not in this world,” she said.

Despite her single status, the 29-year-old star says she is happier than ever as she has more quality time to spend on herself and with her loved ones.

“I’m so happy right now. I’m spending time with my girlfriends and my sister and my family and just really getting to know myself. I’ve always had a boyfriend, so right now it’s really important for me just to focus on me and my life and not really put all that energy into someone else.”

“I’m having the time of my life – I didn’t know I could be this happy,” she added.

London, July 27 (ANI): Bollywood superstar Anil Kapoor, who rose to international fame with the success of ‘Slumdog Millionaire’, has confessed that he’s now tired of his link to the movie.

The Indian actor, who played the role of game show host Prem Kumar in Danny Boyle’s Oscar-winning movie in 2008, admitted he still fields questions about the box office hit two years later.

And now Kapoor is desperate to ‘move on’ from the role, which introduced him to international audiences.

‘It was such a long time (ago). Very nostalgic, but I want to get over it. I want to forget about it but people won’t let me forget about it. I just want to move on. Please, let’s move on. I’d been in 100, more than 100 films, (before Slumdog),’ the Daily Express quoted him as telling GMTV. (ANI)

Washington, July 27 (ANI): After the dazzling Moscow premiere of her latest flick ‘Salt,’ Angelina Jolie arrived in Japan with four of her six kids.

Clad in a black silk dress and flip flops, the 35-year-old star was spotted strolling hand-in-hand through Narita International Airport with her four kids: Maddox, 8, Pax, 6, Zahara, 5, and Shiloh, 4, reports the Usmagazine.com

The mother in Jolie took over for a while as she scolded Maddox when he hit Pax.

The actress recently said on ABC’s Good Morning America that she’s better at disciplining the girls and Pitt, 46, is better at disciplining the boys.

‘I think girls and Daddy can just bat their eyes,’ she said. ‘And the boys, funnily enough, can kind of get me,” she said. (ANI)

Los Angeles, July 27 (IANS) Pop singer Rihanna is set to make her film debut with Universal Studios’ “Battleship” along side Alexander Skarsgard and Taylor Kitsch.

The deal was announced Monday, reports variety.com.

Director Peter Berg is expected to soon begin shooting the live-action movie based on the naval combat board game.

The production house has decided to release “Battleship” on May 25, 2012.

Kitsch, who also works with Berg in the NBC series “Friday Night Lights,” stars as a naval officer who leads the fight. Skarsgard will play his brother.

London/Washington, July 27 (ANI): The Pentagon is reported to have zeroed onto a US Army intelligence analyst while investigating the biggest leak in US military history.

According to The Telegraph, 22-year-old Bradley Manning is alleged to have boasted online that he was going to reveal ‘the truth’ about the war in Afghanistan. Manning is currently awaiting court martial after his arrest in Baghdad in May.

During online chats with a hacker, a man thought to be Manning said he had passed material relating to Afghanistan to Julian Assange, the founder of the Wikileaks website which leaked more than 91,000 secret documents to the media.

Investigators believe Manning must have had accomplices.

Manning is alleged to be a whistle-blower who used the online name Bradass87 when he contacted a high profile Californian computer hacker, Adrian Lamo, on May 21.

Over the following five days, Bradass87 held a series of online conversations with Lamo, in which he identified himself as ‘an army intelligence analyst, deployed to eastern Baghdad’ with ‘unprecedented access to classified networks’.

He said his job gave him access to two high security networks: the Secret Internet Protocol Router Network, SIPRNET, which carries US diplomatic and military intelligence; and the Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System, which carries material up to and including ‘top secret’ classification.

Bradass87 said the networks had enabled him to see ‘incredible things, awful things that belong in the public domain and not on some server stored in a dark room in Washington DC almost criminal political back dealings the non-PR version of world events and crises’.

He said he had downloaded 260,000 classified or sensitive State Department cables and transmitted them by computer to Wikileaks.

He claimed he copied some of the information on to blank CDs labelled ‘Lady Gaga’ and hummed along to non-existent music while he downloaded secret information.

‘I want people to see the truth. It’s open diplomacy it’s Climategate with a global scope and breathtaking depth it’s beautiful and horrifying; it’s public data, it belongs in the public domain,’ Bradass87 said.

At one point in his conversations with Lamo, Bradass87 said: ‘I can’t believe what I’m confessing to you’.

Unknown to Bradass87, Lamo contacted the US military two days into the online chat, fearing that the leak of information would endanger lives.

On May 25, he met Pentagon officials in a branch of Starbucks and gave them a printout of the online chat.

Manning was arrested the next day at US Forward Operating Base Hammer near Baghdad.

Manning is also suspected of being behind the leak of a video, distributed by Assange in April, of a 2007 US helicopter strike in Baghdad which killed a dozen people including two Reuters employees.

Lamo has said he had no doubt Manning was behind the vast amount of leaked material from Afghanistan, though he strongly suspected the young analyst from Maryland could not have acted alone.

‘It was not my impression that he had the technical expertise to carry out some of these actions,’ he said. (ANI)

Washington, July 27 (ANI): ‘Transformers’ star Megan Fox recently locked lips with ‘Lost’ star Dominic Monaghan.

However, the newly-married star was not cheating on husband Brian Austin Green.

She was just shooting a cameo in Eminem’s upcoming video ‘Love The Way You Lie.’

Fox and Monaghan’s roles are reportedly inspired by Eminem’s relationship with ex-wife Kim (whom he married and divorced twice).

‘Things start off with a sex scene between Megan and Dominic,’ Usmagazine.com quoted a source as telling E!.

‘Then they fight but end up having sex again.’

The source added that the video, which also reportedly stars Rihanna, – is ‘gritty’ with ‘lots of passion.’ (ANI)

By Priyanka Sharma

New Delhi, July 27 (IANS) Renowned American illusionist Franz Harary, who once made the Taj Mahal disappear, says Indian magicians have no money, no technology, but their magic “blows my mind”.

“Magic started in India around 5,000 years ago and eventually became popular. But shortly after it was invented, it became stagnant. There is a whole lot of it to come out,” Franz, 45, told IANS over phone from Mumbai. “About 250-300 years ago it came over to the US.”

Harary, who has made several friends in India and frequently comes visiting, says the country has immense talent.

“About 12 years ago, I met a group of magicians who live in Shadipur in New Delhi. They are just unbelievable. They just blew my mind. They have nothing – no money, no technology and their magic is stronger than mine. What they do blows everything I do, leaving all the research and money I put behind,” he said.

“They tap into the core of the psychology of what makes Indian magic work. Their approach is real and not an illusion. When I saw it, I was surprised. It made me rethink everything I do.

“For the past 12 years I’ve been observing them and it has made me revise my own magic. They have helped me more than I have helped them,” he added.

Franz had been doing magic since the age of 13. He aspired to be a singer and dancer and used to design illusions as hobby. However, his commercial breakthrough happened at the age of 21 when he initiated a stage illusion for Michael Jackson’s 1984 Victory tour.

He made Jackson levitate and disappear on one side of the stage to reappear with his brothers on the other side.

Harary is here to judge STAR One’s reality show “India’s Magic Star”. He feels the show would help revive Indian magic.

“When I heard about the show, I felt it was an amazing opportunity to take everything that I have learned and developed as a Western illusionist and bring it right back to where it all began,” he said.

“Today, all of them (Indian magicians) are seen doing magic that was invented by my friends. They all look like American magicians from Las Vegas who happen to be Indian. I felt this is the opportunity to tell them: guys, you got to get up. I want to help them realise who they are and what you are and what you can do.”

Franz says he is ready to do anything for the entire culture to regain its position in India.

“This is not about just a television show; it is much bigger than this. It’s an attempt that the entire culture regain its position. I love India, I love everything that Indian magic stands for. Anything that I can do and in whatever way I am open for all that,” he said.

Franz has created illusions for Michael Jackson, Snoop Dogg, Cher, Steven Spielberg and even Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan during an awards function. And Salman Khan is next on his wishlist now.

“I had once made Shah Rukh disappear from one side of the stage and later he appeared on the other side. I would love to create a similar illusion for Salman Khan,” he said.

Franz signed off saying, “We are in talks for opening something in India that would be absolutely amazing. It will be based on my magic and the Indian magic and it would be the first of its kind on the planet. You would be able to go and spend a day there.”

(Priyanka Sharma can be contacted at priyanka.s@ians.in)

–Indo-Asian News Service

Pr/ar/pg/tb

London, July 27 (IANS) Pop singer Amy Winehouse has started playing golf to keep herself away from partying, and now plans to take professional lessons in the sport.

“She played nine holes and loved it, she had a natural swing. Amy wants to learn how to play properly now,” a source close to Winehouse was quoted as saying by contactmusic.com.

The singer has reportedly been hitting the golf course during breaks from recording her new album, a follow up to her 2006 album “Back to Black”.

London, July 27 (IANS) Veteran actress Jane Fonda is set to play a hippie grandmother in a new film about the Woodstock festival.

The Oscar winner is filming “Peace, Love & Misunderstanding” in the town near the place where the 1969 festival took place, reports contactmusic.com.

Fonda has posted pictures from the set on her blog, including one of the painted Volkswagen Beetle her hippie grandmother character drives in the film.

New York, July 27 (IANS) Hollywood actor Sean Penn has denied reports that he has reunited with ex-girlfriend and model Jessica White.

The two were recently spotted having drinks with friends at the Gramercy Park Hotel’s Rose Bar.

An onlooker revealed, “They kissed, sat close and ignored everyone”.

However, the “Milk” star’s representative have shot down rumours they are dating.

“It’s not true,” nypost.com quoted the representative as saying.

London, July 26 (IANS) Bollywood actor Anil Kapoor says he is tired of his link to Oscar winning film “Slumdog Millionaire” and wants to move on.

The 50-year-old star played game show host Prem Kumar in Danny Boyle’s 2008 movie.

In an interview to Britain’s GMTV, Anil urged his fans and friends to stop asking him about his “Slumdog…” success, reports contactmusic.com.

“It was such a long time (ago). Very nostalgic, but I want to get over it. I want to forget about it but people won’t let me forget about it. I just want to move on. Please, let’s move on. I’d been in 100, more than 100 films, (before Slumdog),” he said.

London, July 26 (ANI): ‘Rehab’ singer Amy Winehouse has decided to take up golf in a bid to distract herself from booze and drugs.

Winehouse, 26, was at the fairway recently, and she liked it so much that she plans to take lessons.

“She played nine holes and loved it, she had a natural swing,” the Sun quoted a source as saying.

“Amy wants to learn how to play properly,” the source added. (ANI)

New York, July 26 (ANI): American singer Jon Bon Jovi is mad at not making it to the two widely followed Forbes top celebrity lists.

Bon Jovi wasn’t included in the much-publicized ‘Power 100’ list of the world’s most powerful celebrities in June 2010, which was topped by Oprah Winfrey.

Then he got the second shock when he didn’t make it to the ‘Musicians’ Rich List,” led by rival rockers U2.

“Jon kicked up a huge fuss and got his people to complain. He couldn’t understand why he didn’t make the musicians list since Bon Jovi has been touring nonstop since February. Their contemporaries U2 and Bruce Springsteen were on the list. Even Britney Spears was No. 5, and she hasn’t done anything this year,” the New York Post quoted a source as saying.

The Forbes’ list of 12 of 2010’s top-earning musicians came out on July 16, 2010.

U2 was at the top spot with an estimated 130 million dollars earned on worldwide tour.

Forbes admitted that Bon Jovi’s people had complained about the matter.

“Forbes estimated each act’s earnings between June 2009 and June 2010 and included revenue streams such as concert dates, merchandise sales, licensing fees, music sales, and publishing royalties. Bon Jovi didn’t tour for eight of those months,” they explained.

The group’s two-year world tour started in February 2010, with 28 dates played before the Forbes deadline.

“That’s ridiculous. Last year, the band took an eight-month break from touring, so there was no expectation that they would rank on this year’s list,” said Bon Jovi’s rep. (ANI)

New York, July 26 (ANI): Paris Hilton has apparently shown
his ex boyfriend Doug Reinhardt way out from a club, while partying with
Malaysian big-spender.

Hilton has been vacationing in St. Tropez on the yacht of
mysterious Malaysian Jho Low, who has been repeatedly spotted spraying her
bikini-clad body with bubbly.

On Thursday, Hilton and Low, with a large entourage, found
themselves sitting opposite her ex, and now enemy, Doug Reinhardt at glitzy
club Les Caves du Roy.

According to a source, after guzzling Champagne with Low and
swapping dirty looks with her ex, ‘She asked the deejay to announce,
‘Paris wants Doug Reinhardt to get out.’

“He left 30 minutes later with his head down,’ the New
York Post quoted the source as saying. (ANI)

New York, July 26 (ANI): Jessica White and Sean Penn seem to be cozying up to each other again – fuelling rumours that they are back together.

The two were recently spotted having drinks with friends at the Gramercy Park Hotel’s Rose Bar.

‘They kissed, sat close and ignored everyone,’ The New York Post quoted an onlooker as saying.

All would have been quiet had it not happened again the next night, when the duo had dinner with Spike Lee, after White was filmed for a documentary on her life at the launch party for men’s clothing line Tween.

‘She mentioned she was back on with ‘her man,’ on- and off-camera,’ said a source at the party.

Penn’s rep denied that they were dating. (ANI)

London, July 26 (ANI): In what could have been the coolest musical treat for Partygoers at a karaoke bar in Michigan, Gerard Butler, Demi Moore and Michelle Monaghan all took to the stage to sing.

Butler and Monaghan are currently shooting ‘Machine Gun Preacher’ together.

And Moore is working on ‘LOL: Laughing Out Loud’ with Miley Cyrus, reports the Daily Express.

Still, the three Hollywood hotshots managed to take time off from their busy filming for a night out.

The actors headed to the Rockstarz Karaoke Bar n Grill in Garden City, Michigan where they took to the stage together and stunned patrons with a performance of AC/DC’s classic hit ‘You Shook Me All Night Long’, according to TMZ.com. (ANI)

New York, July 26 (ANI): Legendary singer Michael Jackson loved Nazi videos and Judy Garland TV specials and dramas that showed troubled boys in dysfunctional families.

According to the King of Pop’s former movie peddler, Jackson displayed the tapes along the walls of his video vault at the Neverland ranch.

“Michael Jackson was a very special client to me,” The New York Post quoted Norman Scherer, owner of a videotape distribution company in the 1990s as saying.

A New Yorker in 1995 who was looking to place big orders for a ‘famous’ client approached Scherer but he wanted him to be discreet.

“He had a really good collection,” Scott Schaffer, Jackson’s former personal assistant, who hunted down Scherer to buy obscure titles, said.

“I knew what Jackson wanted,” he added.

The Hitler movies included ‘Nazis Of Pure Blood,’ ‘Oasis of the Zombies’ and ‘Hitler’s Children.’ (ANI)

Washington, July 26 (ANI): While Angelina Jolie’s ‘Salt’ got a big welcome at the box office, it was ’Inception’ that racked up the most moolah from the ticket window.

The Christopher Nolan-Leonardo DiCaprio dreamscape stayed atop the weekend box office with an estimated 43.5 million dollars.

‘Salt’ settled for second, with a gross 36.5 million dollars, reports E! Online.

The action flick’s debut was bigger than recent star movies from Tom Cruise (‘Knight and Day’) and Matt Damon (‘The Green Zone’), and about even with Russell Crowe’s ‘Robin Hood’.

At the third place was ‘Despicable Me’—the 3D Steve Carell toon stayed strong with 24.1 million dollar.

Rounding up at the fourth and fifth place are ‘The Sorcerer’s Apprentice’ and ‘Toy Story 3’ with 9.7 million dollars and 9 million dollars respectively.

Here’s a complete look at the weekend’s top-grossing films, per Friday-Sunday estimates compiled by Exhibitor Relations:

1. Inception, dollars43.5 million
2. Salt, 36.5 million dollars
3. Despicable Me, 24.1 million dollars
4. The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, 9.7 million dollars
5. Toy Story 3, 9 million dollars
6. Ramona and Beezus, 8 million dollars
7. Grown Ups, 7.6 million dollars
8. The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, 7 million dollars
9. The Last Airbender, 4.2 million dollars
10. Predators, 2.9 million dollars (ANI)