A leading Beijing newspaper has chosen actress Zhang Ziyi (章子怡) as the most beautiful person in China for 2008.
In a ranking of the top 50 most beautiful people on Friday, the Beijing News (新京報) picked Zhang, whose film credits include Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Rush Hour 2, and Memoirs of a Geisha. The paper said Zhang’s press conference during the Cannes film festival to raise money for the Sichuan earthquake garnered respect worldwide. The earthquake killed 70,000 people in May.
“I don’t pay a lot of attention to matters of appearance,” she told the newspaper. “Beautiful women are fundamentally independent and confident.” Cannes best actor winner Tony Leung Chiu-wai (梁朝偉) came second in the ranking.
The mother of an 18-year-old man who plans to marry Alaska Governor Sarah Palin’s pregnant daughter, Bristol, has been arrested on drug charges, authorities said on Friday. Sherry Johnston, 42, was taken into custody at her home in Wasilla, Alaska, on Thursday after an undercover narcotics investigation, Alaska State Troopers said in a statement.
American socialite and heir Paris Hilton was robbed at one of her homes, Los Angeles police said, while local media reported that the burglar swiped US$2 million worth of jewelry and other valuables.
The break-in took place around 5am on Friday at a home the young heiress owns in the Sherman Oaks area northeast of Los Angeles, police spokesman Richard French said.
“According to detectives, a man wearing a hooded sweatshirt and gloves forced entry through the front door, ransacked her bedroom and took an undisclosed amount of property and then left the scene,” said French, of the Los Angeles Police Department.
“Miss Hilton wasn’t at home at the time the burglary occurred,” he said.
US actor Ben Affleck and Rolling Stones front man Mick Jagger unveiled on Wednesday a film they hope will raise awareness about refugees hit by the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The 23-minute film, Gimme Shelter, is directed by Affleck and features the Stones’ hit, taken from their 1969 album Let it Bleed, the UN refugee agency said in a statement.
The film features footage shot last month in the strife-torn eastern region of Nord-Kivu, where 250,000 people have been forced to flee their homes since fighting between rebels and government forces flared up in August.
“We made this film in order to focus attention on the humanitarian crisis in the DRC at a time when too much of the world is indifferent or looking the other way,” said Affleck.
Jagger said he hoped the film — which aims to raise US$23 million for clean water and emergency assistance kits for Nord-Kivu — would raise public awareness of the ongoing crisis.
Famously drug-addled Rolling Stone Keith Richards turned 65 last week, but was tight-lipped about any wild party plans he had to celebrate becoming a pensioner.
The legendary guitarist, songwriter and archetypal wild rocker reached the landmark age — more usually associated with gardening and cardigans — on Thursday, only a few months after Jagger, who turned 65 in July.
“He wants to keep it very private,” was all a spokesman for Richards would say when asked how the musician would mark his birthday.
Named by Rolling Stone magazine as the 10th best guitarist in the world, the shaggy-haired star has proved remarkably resilient to a lifetime of substance abuse, explained by his view that his body was a “laboratory.”
Actor Dennis Quaid and his wife have reached a US$750,000 settlement with a Los Angeles hospital for a blunder which almost killed their twin babies, court documents showed on Tuesday.
The Quaids’ children Thomas Boone and Zoe Grace, born in November last year, almost died after being given 1,000 times the normal dose of anti-clotting agent Heparin by staff at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
Cedars-Sinai was not sued but the hospital was described in a court filing as a “potential defendant.” Papers filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Monday reflected the new settlement.
Heparin is used to flush out intravenous tubes and prevent blood clots. Babies typically receive 10 units of the drug, but Quaid’s children were reportedly given 10,000 units before the alarm was raised.
Quaid, and his third wife Kimberley Buffington, are also suing pharmaceutical company Baxter over the blunder in a lawsuit that alleges labels on the bottles of 10 units of Heparin and the bottles of 10,000 units are similar.
Quaid, 54, is best known for roles in a string of hit films during the 1980s including The Right Stuff, Enemy Mine and Innerspace.
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