Actor Brad Pitt has filed legal papers in Los Angeles to adopt the children of actress Angelina Jolie, news media ssreported on Friday, adding that this might be a step leading to the couple's marrying. Life and Style magazine said Pitt, 41, has filed to become the legal adopted father of Jolie's two children, Maddox, 4, and Zahara, 10 months. They will go by the last name of Jolie-Pitt when the legal steps are completed, the magazine said, quoting a representative for Pitt.
Oscar-winning US movie star Gwyneth Paltrow is pregnant with her second child, the Web site of US celebrity television show Entertainment Tonight reported Friday.
The 33-year-old star of such films as Shakespeare in Love and Sliding Doors and her British rocker husband Chris Martin of the group ColdPlay are already proud parents of a 19-month-old girl named Apple.
Paltrow's publicist, Steven Huvane, would not confirm or deny the report that the actress was pregnant
Entertainment Tonight did not give any source for the news that the blond star and her 28-year-old husband were expecting a new arrival.
The pair, who met in 2002 and were married secretly in the California town Santa Barbara in December 2003, live in London.
The actress, who also starred as Estella in a movie version of Great Expectations and as US poet and novelist Sylvia Plath in Sylvia, won the best actress for 1998's Shakespeare in Love.
Alias star Jennifer Garner has given birth to her first child, a daughter, with actor-husband Ben Affleck, US Weekly magazine reported on Thursday. A publicist for Garner, 33, could not immediately be reached for comment. Affleck's representative declined comment on the report.
Movie icon Tom Cruise was Friday at the centre of a fresh medical row as experts expressed concern over his purchase of a sonogram machine to perform at-home scans on expectant fiancee Katie Holmes.
Cruise told US television interviewer Barbara Walters last month that he had bought an ultrasound machine to peek at the foetus of his unborn baby with the Batman Begins actress who he has been dating since April.
But medical experts were Friday warning that it is dangerous for untrained Cruise and Holmes to be operating a complex piece of medical equipment such as an ultrasound machine at home.
Both the The Society of Diagnostic Medical Sonography (SDMS) is up in arms at the Mission Impossible and Top Gun star's admission that he bought the machine that can cost anywhere between US$15,000 and US$200,000.
"The Society is concerned about the safety of Cruise's decision to purchase a medical device and perform a medical diagnostic procedure without appropriate training," the SDMS said in a statement.
"Diagnostic medical sonographers complete educational programs and take national certifi-cation examinations to ensure they can perform sonograms safely and in a manner that obtains accurate results, it added.
Rap moguls Irving and Christopher Lorenzo were found not guilty last week of laundering cash for a New York drug lord after two days of deliberations by a federal jury. The brothers, who called themselves Irv and Chris Gotti after the notorious Gambino crime family, broke into tears as the verdict was read in US District Court in Brooklyn and hugged family members after a successful defense contending the charges were based on guilt by association.
Playboy model-turned-TV personality Anna Nicole Smith turned up drunk and too scantily clad to a Live 8 concert, damaging the reputation of the international charity benefit, a lawsuit filed against a company affiliated with the actress claims. The suit was filed on Thursday in Los Angeles federal court and alleges that Smith "damaged Live 8's reputation and goodwill in the entertainment industry by her unbecoming and erratic behavior."
The Vatican on Friday defended its decision to exclude Brazilian singer Daniela Mercury from its Christmas concert, saying she had threatened to promote the use of condoms to fight AIDS during the show. "The Vatican decided to exclude Daniela Mercury from the cast not because of her convictions about contraceptives even if they are not in agreement those of the Catholic Church," said Father Giuseppe Bellucci, a priest who organized the show.
He has led civil rights marches, scolded the nation's leaders and even run for president, but the Reverend Al Sharpton now wants to do something completely different -- star in his own television sitcom. Sharpton, in an interview on Friday, confirmed a report in Daily Variety that he would soon be filming a pilot for a family show called Al in the Family that would revolve around his larger-than-life personality.
In the March 9 edition of the Taipei Times a piece by Ninon Godefroy ran with the headine “The quiet, gentle rhythm of Taiwan.” It started with the line “Taiwan is a small, humble place. There is no Eiffel Tower, no pyramids — no singular attraction that draws the world’s attention.” I laughed out loud at that. This was out of no disrespect for the author or the piece, which made some interesting analogies and good points about how both Din Tai Fung’s and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) meticulous attention to detail and quality are not quite up to
April 21 to April 27 Hsieh Er’s (謝娥) political fortunes were rising fast after she got out of jail and joined the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) in December 1945. Not only did she hold key positions in various committees, she was elected the only woman on the Taipei City Council and headed to Nanjing in 1946 as the sole Taiwanese female representative to the National Constituent Assembly. With the support of first lady Soong May-ling (宋美齡), she started the Taipei Women’s Association and Taiwan Provincial Women’s Association, where she
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) hatched a bold plan to charge forward and seize the initiative when he held a protest in front of the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office. Though risky, because illegal, its success would help tackle at least six problems facing both himself and the KMT. What he did not see coming was Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (將萬安) tripping him up out of the gate. In spite of Chu being the most consequential and successful KMT chairman since the early 2010s — arguably saving the party from financial ruin and restoring its electoral viability —
It is one of the more remarkable facts of Taiwan history that it was never occupied or claimed by any of the numerous kingdoms of southern China — Han or otherwise — that lay just across the water from it. None of their brilliant ministers ever discovered that Taiwan was a “core interest” of the state whose annexation was “inevitable.” As Paul Kua notes in an excellent monograph laying out how the Portuguese gave Taiwan the name “Formosa,” the first Europeans to express an interest in occupying Taiwan were the Spanish. Tonio Andrade in his seminal work, How Taiwan Became Chinese,
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