Americans would invite comedian Ellen DeGeneres to a holiday party, take a vacation with actor George Clooney and ask US first lady Michelle Obama to decorate their Christmas tree, a survey released on Thursday suggested.
The first lady received 38 percent of the vote among Americans asked who should decorate their home for the holidays, followed by former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin with 22 percent, according to the study conducted for HomeGoods stores.
Given a list of celebrities to select from, 39 percent of Americans picked DeGeneres as their No. 1 cocktail party guest, followed by comedian Whoopi Goldberg with 29 percent and talk show hosts Kelly Ripa with 21 percent and Kathie Lee Gifford with 11 percent.
As for a holiday getaway, 43 percent said they would like to spend a day at Clooney’s Lake Como villa in Italy, 27 percent chose Oprah Winfrey’s Santa Barbara estate, 20 percent picked the French chateau of actors Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie and 11 percent liked rapper Jay-Z and singer Beyonce’s New York City home, it said.
Following the first lady and Palin on the decorating wish list, Playboy founder Hugh Hefner got 16 percent, comedian Joan Rivers 13 percent and entertainer Lady Gaga 11 percent.
And if the idea of Lady Gaga decorating your house doesn’t bring tears to your eyes, try the new Narnia film — it reportedly did the trick for Queen Elizabeth.
Describing a poignant scene toward the end of the third film in the blockbuster series, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, actor Liam Neeson said he became emotional during its royal world premiere last week.
“I shed a tear the other night and I was told the Queen shed a few tears as well,” he told a news conference on Thursday.
Neeson provides the voice of the animated lion Aslan in the movies, based on the children’s classics by C.S. Lewis.
Or if you just want to look like you’ve been crying, a couple hours at a performance by Buju Banton is almost guaranteed to leave your eyes glazed and bloodshot. The Jamaican reggae singer will hold a concert to raise money for his security and other expenses while he awaits retrial on federal drug charges in Florida.
As a condition of his release from jail last month, Banton must remain in his home under electronic monitoring and pay a private security team to ensure that he does not flee the country.
US District Judge James Moody said on Wednesday that Banton is allowed to perform so long as he follows security measures filed with the court. The concert is scheduled for Jan. 16 in Miami.
Banton is accused of conspiring to buy cocaine from an undercover officer. He’s been nominated for a Grammy for the album Before the Dawn, released in September just after Moody declared a mistrial because jurors deadlocked.
Far from Florida, Dutch actor and singer Johannes Heesters has given up smoking for love — at age 106.
“I did it for love, for my wonderful wife,” Heesters, who is better known as “Jopie” in Germany where he has spent most of his 90-year career, told the German magazine Bunte. “She should have me as long as possible.”
Heesters, who turned 107 yesterday, has been married to German actress Simone Rethel, 61, since 1992. Heesters said he quit smoking three weeks ago.
Heesters, who in 2008 apologized for his cooperation with the Nazi regime, is known for his roles in the film Die Fledermaus (1946) and the German film The Moon Is Blue (1953).
Japan is celebrated for its exceptional levels of customer service. But the behavior of a growing number of customers and clients leaves a lot to be desired. The rise of the abusive consumer has prompted authorities in Tokyo to introduce the country’s first ordinance — a locally approved regulation — to protect service industry staff from kasuhara — the Japanese abbreviated form of “customer harassment.” While the Tokyo ordinance, which will go into effect in April, does not carry penalties, experts hope the move will highlight a growing social problem and, perhaps, encourage people to think twice before taking out their frustrations
Two years ago my wife and I went to Orchid Island off Taitung for a few days vacation. We were shocked to realize that for what it cost us, we could have done a bike vacation in Borneo for a week or two, or taken another trip to the Philippines. Indeed, most of the places we could have gone for that vacation in neighboring countries offer a much better experience than Taiwan at a much lower price. Hence, the recent news showing that tourist visits to Pingtung County’s Kenting, long in decline, reached a 27 year low this summer came
From a Brooklyn studio that looks like a cross between a ransacked Toys R Us and a serial killer’s lair, the artist David Henry Nobody Jr is planning the first survey of his career. Held by a headless dummy strung by its heels from the ceiling are a set of photographs from the turn of the century of a then 30-year-old Nobody with the former president of the US. The snapshots are all signed by Donald Trump in gold pen (Nobody supplied the pen). They will be a central piece of the New York artist’s upcoming survey in New York. This
Oct. 7 to Oct. 13 The Great Dragon Flags were so lavish and intricate that it’s said to have exhausted the supplies of three embroidery shops. Others say that the material cost was so high that three shops quit during production and it was finished by a fourth. Using threads with pure gold, the final price to create the twin banners was enough to buy three houses in the 1920s. Weighing 30kg each and measuring 454cm by 535cm by 673cm, the triangular flags were the pride of the Flying Dragons (飛龍團), a dragon dance troupe that performed for Chaotian
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