Pictures of Britney Spears and her infant son surfaced on the Internet on last week, but the singer said they were stolen and threatened legal action against anyone who showed the eagerly awaited images. Photos of Spears holding a
dark-haired child and another of the singer lying cheek to cheek with the baby had been removed from a number of Web sites by late on Friday.
Mario Testino, one of the biggest names in fashion photography, has come to the defense of Kate Moss, saying he has never seen the supermodel "debauched or out of control".
PHOTO: AP
Speaking on BBC radio's Desert Island Discs programme broadcast yesterday, Testino said: "I know Kate very well and I don't think she's at all tormented, torrid, depressed.
"I have to say I'm not a witness to seeing her debauched or out of control," added the Peruvian-born, London-based photographer, who listed David Bowie's Life on Mars and the Sid Vicious' cover of My Way among his favorite tunes.
Moss's career went into a tailspin in Sept. when the Daily Mirror newspaper -- which earlier lost a major lawsuit to her --
PHOTO: AP
published grainy images purporting to show her snorting cocaine in a London recording studio.
Several high-profile fashion houses reacted by cancelling their contracts with the 31-year-old runway queen, who has since gone into seclusion and into a drugs rehabilitation clinic in the US state of Arizona.
Sorry Oprah Winfrey and Madonna -- you just missed the cut.
Variety ranks the top 10 entertainment icons of the century in a new
commemorative issue marking the trade publication's 100th anniversary. The Beatles were dubbed the number one icon in the issue, currently on newsstands.
Following the Fab Four, the top 10 is rounded out by Louis Armstrong, Lucille Ball, Humphrey Bogart, Marlon Brando, Charlie Chaplin, James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, Mickey Mouse and Elvis Presley.
Variety also lists 90 more icons, though not ranked. It includes Frank Sinatra, Cary Grant, Bob Dylan, the Marx Brothers, Johnny Carson, Oprah Winfrey, Madonna and others. Bugs Bunny did not make
Variety's list, but Pac Man did. The most contemporary choices were Kurt Cobain, Tupac Shakur and Quentin Tarantino.
The Saatchi Gallery, ground zero for cutting-edge British contemporary art, was evicted last week from its central London premises for repeatedly breaching the terms of its lease.
A High Court judge ruled that the
gallery had deliberately breached the terms of its lease with Cadogan Leisure Investments by offering two-for-one
tickets in violation of a minimum
entrance fee for visitors.
He also ordered the gallery, which can appeal the ruling, to pay US$17,315 for damages caused by moving works of art into sections of County Hall not included in the lease.
The Saatchi Gallery -- which helped propel the likes of Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin into the limelight -- moved into County Hall, on the south bank of the River Thames, in early 2003.
"As yet we don't know what we're going to do," a spokesman for the gallery said, adding that the judge had yet to issue a possession order setting a firm date for vacating the premises.
Donald Trump isn't exactly saying he wants to fire his old friend and fellow mogul Martha Stewart but he says she's hurting the ratings of his television show The Apprentice. The Apprentice: Martha Stewart, a spin-off of Trump's corporate-themed The Apprentice reality show, was one of the most highly
anticipated and heavily promoted
additions to NBC's schedule this fall but it has proven to be a ratings
disappointment.
One of the stars of Australian television show Neighbors had an amphetamine drug habit while working on the
internationally popular programme and was the subject of complaints from cast and crew, a court heard last week.
Shane Connor, who played builder and family man Joe Scully in the suburban drama, is suing producer Grundy Television for the wrongful termination of his contract and seeking about US$150,375 in damages.
Connor, 46, was sacked in September 2003, nine months ahead of the end of his contract and some months after he had overcome his drug habit, his lawyer Dyson Hore-Lacy told the Victorian Supreme Court.
Justice Robert Osborn told the court he would be surprised if Connor was the only actor among the 20 or 30 people working on Neighbors to use drugs.
Michael Jackson has been summoned for jury duty in California but won't be serving because he no longer considers Neverland Valley Ranch his home, court officials said last week. It was not
immediately clear where the pop star would be hanging his famous black hat, although he has been in Bahrain for much of the past few months.
-- agencies
Even by the standards of Ukraine’s International Legion, which comprises volunteers from over 55 countries, Han has an unusual backstory. Born in Taichung, he grew up in Costa Rica — then one of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies — where a relative worked for the embassy. After attending an American international high school in San Jose, Costa Rica’s capital, Han — who prefers to use only his given name for OPSEC (operations security) reasons — moved to the US in his teens. He attended Penn State University before returning to Taiwan to work in the semiconductor industry in Kaohsiung, where he
On May 2, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), at a meeting in support of Taipei city councilors at party headquarters, compared President William Lai (賴清德) to Hitler. Chu claimed that unlike any other democracy worldwide in history, no other leader was rooting out opposing parties like Lai and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). That his statements are wildly inaccurate was not the point. It was a rallying cry, not a history lesson. This was intentional to provoke the international diplomatic community into a response, which was promptly provided. Both the German and Israeli offices issued statements on Facebook
May 18 to May 24 Pastor Yang Hsu’s (楊煦) congregation was shocked upon seeing the land he chose to build his orphanage. It was surrounded by mountains on three sides, and the only way to access it was to cross a river by foot. The soil was poor due to runoff, and large rocks strewn across the plot prevented much from growing. In addition, there was no running water or electricity. But it was all Yang could afford. He and his Indigenous Atayal wife Lin Feng-ying (林鳳英) had already been caring for 24 orphans in their home, and they were in
Perched on Thailand’s border with Myanmar, Arunothai is a dusty crossroads town, a nowheresville that could be the setting of some Southeast Asian spaghetti Western. Its main street is the final, dead-end section of the two-lane highway from Chiang Mai, Thailand’s second largest city 120kms south, and the heart of the kingdom’s mountainous north. At the town boundary, a Chinese-style arch capped with dragons also bears Thai script declaring fealty to Bangkok’s royal family: “Long live the King!” Further on, Chinese lanterns line the main street, and on the hillsides, courtyard homes sit among warrens of narrow, winding alleyways and
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