Julie Bertucelli’s film entitled ‘The Tree’ centres on the meaning of tree hugging.
The movie will appeal to people who would like to think that once a person dies, he is changed into other forms, and in this film, into a tall woody plant.
The movie, an Australian and French production, is an adaptation of a prominent Australian novel written by Julie Pascoe titled ‘Our Father Who Art In the Tree’. Those who are scared at the title must stay away from the movie, but given that a lot of moviegoers enjoy watching films with touchy themes, the possibility of it becoming a box office is high.
The excellent performance of child actress Morgana Davies is noticeable in the film. She plays Simone, a young girl who believes that her late father talks and listens to her by means of the branches of a tree near her house.
Charlotte Gainsbourg portrays the character of Dawn, Simone’s mom who is convinced that she can visit her husband amongst the tree’s leaves.
Moreover, the tree triggered a problem as its roots spread out in the search of water. The home of the family is in great danger, and the situation is aggravated by an upset neighbour who wanted the tree to be felled.
The cinematography of Nigel Bluck has its style and sweep, and the director was able to make the film revolve around Simone.
Pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao has been discharged from the hospital Tuesday after receiving treatment for mild ulcer possibly caused by his campaign for a seat in the Philippine House of Representatives.
Pac-Man, who was rushed to a hospital on Sunday for stomach ache, said he suffered from ulcer, which was possibly due to irregular eating habits during his political sorties.
“I must be disciplined and not miss meals during the proper time”, said Pacquiao in an interview with ABS-CBN news network.
The 31-year-old boxer, who was elected as the representative of the impoverished province of Sarangani last 10 May, has been making preparations before assuming his position in Philippine Congress.
Boxing promoters are now working to set up a fight between American boxer Floyd Mayweather and Pacquiao in November to settle once and for all their claims to the title of best pound-for-pound fighter of their generation.
When asked about the bout, Pacquiao replied: “Wait to see if (the fight with) Mayweather will push through. It is hard to say. Mostly, we hear a lot of talking”.
Earlier this year, negotiations for the Mayweather-Pacquiao bout failed when the American insisted to implement Olympic-style random drug testing before the fight, which the Filipino refused.
According to Forbes magazine, victories in boxing as well as commercial endorsements in 2009 made Pacquiao the sixth-highest paid athlete in the world, with earnings of $40 million.
Jailed Iranian movie director Jafar Panahi was freed Tuesday on bail worth £139,000 (2 billion rials), the news agency IRNA reported.
Panahi, an international awards winner who supported opposition head Mirhossein Mousavi in the disputed presidential election in 2009, was arrested last March along with his daughter and wife, who were both released later.
Even with his release, Tehran’s prosecutor’s office said his case, as well as the charge against him, would be forwarded to Tehran’s Revolutionary Court.
The IRNA hinted the director could still face trial, although it did not disclose further details.
Meanwhile, in her best actress award acceptance speech at Cannes film festival, French actress Juliette Binoche criticised Iran for detaining the director, saying that “his fault is to be an artist, to be independent.”
Panahi, whose movies often look into social issues dealt with by women in the Islamic state, had been invited to sit on the judges’ panel of the 2010 Cannes festival.
The director, who had gone into hunger strike, claimed he would not end this means of protest until he was given access to his attorney, allowed to receive family visits and be unconditionally freed until a trial was held.
Last week, Panahi’s family and attorney visited him.
“We had a meeting with him Thursday along with the prosecutor and although his general health condition was good he looked physically weak”, his wife Tahereh Saeedi said.
Iran’s June 2009 election plunged the Islamic republic into months of political chaos. The pro-reform opposition said the election was rigged to ensure the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. However, authorities described the massive protests that broke out following the election as a foreign-supported bid to undermine the election results.
With only a month to go before getting married, the Crown Princess of Sweden and her fiancé said goodbye to their bachelorhood with their own parties.
Sitting down with her family at the Royal Palace to celebrate her brother’s 31st birthday, Princess Victoria was suddenly held by a gang of masked men.
To her surprise, they told her that they came to kidnap her and quickly whisked her away. The ransom declared was to attend her hen party.
The masked men took Victoria to meet her closest girl friends: Caroline Dinkelspiel, Caroline Kreuger and Leonie Persson.
After a night out in Stockholm’s centre, they were taken to the harbour where they boarded a yacht. They spent the next few days travelling around the coast of Sweden.
Another notable attendee at the party was Princess Madeleine, Victoria’s little sister. She just could not miss the big party of her sister.
A few days before Victoria’s ‘kidnapping’, her fiancé also had his stag party, even though the bad weather condition nearly washed it out.
While Victoria was in the US, Daniele’s friends took advantage and went unannounced at the Drottningholm Palace.
Intending to go on boat trip with Daniele to party on an island, they were forced to go back to shore as the rain and strong winds set out. But it did not stop them from partying on dry land.
‘Saturday Night Live’ and ’30 Rock’ star Tina Fey is to be awarded with the prestigious Mark Twain Prize for American Humour – one of the United States’ highest honours in the comic world, the Kennedy Centre said Tuesday.
The honour is primarily in recognition of her work as a comedian and writer.
Fey, who shot to fame in 2008 when she impersonated former Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, will receive the award on 13 November on a night of humour that features other comedy stars.
The 40-year-old actress is only the third woman to become the recipient of the award in 13 years, after Whoopi Goldberg and Lily Tomlin.
Fey has already won six Emmy awards and two Golden Globes for her television comedy series ’30 Rock’, which she produces, writes and also stars in.
Before that, she had spent a total of nine seasons on the television satirical sketch programme ‘Saturday Night Live’. She later branched into films with ‘Date Night’, ‘Baby Mama’, and ‘Mean Girls’.
Founded in 1998, the Mark Twain Prize is an annual award that recognises individuals who have had an influence on society worthy of comparison to Mark Twain, the 19th century satirist and writer of renowned novels ‘The Adventures of Tom Sawyer’ and ‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’.
Among previous recipients of the award include playwright Neil Simon, stand-up comic George Carlin, and actors Steve Martin and Bill Cosby, according to the Kennedy Centre.
Giles Deacon, a British designer, has been chosen as Ungaro’s new creative director – a move targeted at revitalising the French fashion house’s reputation.
Deacon’s appointment came less than a year after Lindsay Lohan baffled the fashion world when she became an artistic adviser of the fashion house.
Last September, Lohan made her debut collection, which included cheap-looking cuts, garish colour combinations, and heart-shaped nipple covers – branded by the label’s founder Emanuel Ungaro as “a disaster”.
In March, Lohan announced that she left the label during Paris Fashion Week, which was followed by her co-designer Estralla Archs in April.
But before the Lohan debacle, Ungaro had been through a number of designers after its founder retired in 2004 and its successor left.
The bosses of the fashion house and followers were saddened by the struggle of the once distinguished Ungaro.
Fortunately, the British designer, who has his own label called Giles, has a very positive chance to revive Ungaro’s reputation.
Since his first collection was shown in 2004, he impressed the industry with his distinctive style that combines quirky and grand couture-inspired cuts.
Deacon is a graduate of the school of art at Central St Martins and has worked with Ralph Lauren, Louis Vuitton, and Tom Ford.
Ungaro is known for exotic patterns, colours and feminine frills, and according to Deacon, he likes “things that are very feminine, lots of colour, great prints, great quality, some unusual cuts”, and looks forward to make them for Ungaro.
Appointing a serious and experienced designer rather than a struggling celebrity is more appropriate for the house’s sophisticated heritage and the competitive market.
Brooklyn Beckham, the 11-year-old son of David and Victoria Beckham, copied the style of his father for a red carpet event in Los Angeles, California.
Wearing a granddad-style cardigan, a shirt untucked on one side, trendy trainers and dark cardigan jeans, popular football player David Beckham would have loved seeing his eldest son copying his style.
Brooklyn appeared a little nervous but showed a sense of humour at the LG Fashion Touch party, which was hosted by his mother.
As a novice on the red carpet, Brooklyn was thankful for the encouragement of Victoria, his mother who is a veteran in clothing and events.
Meanwhile, the 36-year-old Victoria was in her element with Brooklyn at the event as she reinvented herself again with a new hairstyle.
Popular for her ever-changing locks, it seems that Posh Spice has found the best look for her with a multi-layered, wavy look.
Dazzling in a cloud dress she designed, the former Spice Girls star rocked a short version of the gown she wore in March for the Oscars.
However, her co-host for the event, Eva Longoria, made a fashion faux pas with a weird mini-dress.
The 35-year-old actress wore a grey and black frilly mini with a blouse attached on top.
Possibly, the ‘Desperate Housewives’ star was a tad jet-lagged after her recent journey to Cannes. She also appeared heavy-handed with her concealer as it stood out under her eyes next to her olive skin.
Ian McEwan, best known for his serious literary writing style, has won the comic fiction award of the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for his satirical novel ‘Solar’.
Everyman’s Library publisher David Campbell, who is one of the judges, said: “It was an easy, unanimous decision by the judges. This is a brilliantly funny book, by a great writer”.
Published on 18 March 2010, ‘Solar’ focuses on climate change and tells the self-deceptions and ambitions of Michael Beard, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist whose life is complicated and chaotic.
The Financial Times stated that the book “is a stunningly accomplished work, possibly his best yet — the book does contain a truly shocking surprise — not that it deals with climate change, but that it is a comedy”.
As part of the tradition, McEwan is presented with one case of first-rate Bollinger champagne and a Gloucestershire Old Spot pig named after his winning novel.
The other four authors nominated in this year’s gala were Malcolm Pryce (‘From Aberystwyth With Love’), David Nicholls (‘One Day’), Tiffany Murray (‘Diamond Star Halo’), and Paul Murray (‘Skippy Dies’).
Previous winners of the prize included ‘Salmon Fishing in the Yemen’ by Paul Torday, ‘A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian’ by Marina Lewycka, and ‘All Fun and Games until Somebody Loses an Eye’ by Christopher Brookmyre.
The Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize, which is the only literary award-giving body for comic writing in Britain, was established in 2000 and was named after renowned English writer P.G. Wodehouse.
English soap opera actress Sally Whittaker was diagnosed with cancer six months ago as she was inspired to check her breasts after a ‘Coronation Street’ plot, wherein her character developed the disease.
But yesterday, the 46-year-old actress came back to work wearing a wig that looked like her hairstyle before she underwent chemotherapy.
According to the star, the soap probably saved her life as it was her character’s storyline that inspired her to check herself.
In an interview, she said, ”If I had not been researching this storyline, I may not have discovered the lump in my breast and had it looked at so quickly. I had never properly checked my breast before because I thought this wasn’t going to happen to me”.
Whittaker also confessed that she felt the lump during a holiday last year but ignored it. With her upcoming scenes in the soap opera, she was inspired to research about the disease and checked herself.
”It’s a stupid thing to think, but I think a lot of women are like that. Then one day, while filming the scenes about Sally having cancer, I had an hour off [and went to see the nurse]”, she explained.
She was immediately booked in a hospital and in November, she was discovered to have a 1.8-centimetre grade 1 tumour, with the diseased cells already spread to six of her lymph nodes under an arm.
She finished filming her storyline and took a one-month break to undergo radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Whittaker is back filming again.
Irish rock band U2 has called off their headline spot at the 2010 Glastonbury Festival after frontman Bono was advised to take a break for at least eight weeks.
Bono said he was “heartbroken” following the cancellation of the gig, which had been scheduled to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the world’s biggest open-air festival.
The Grammy Award-winning band has also been forced to pull off their scheduled concerts in North America as part of their U2360 Tour.
The 50-year-old lead singer was rushed to Ludwig Maximilians-University Hospital in Munich, Germany, last week after suffering from a back injury and was discharged Tuesday after undergoing an emergency surgery.
His doctors told him to undertake a rehab and rest for at least two months.
“I’m heartbroken. We really wanted to be there to do something really special – we even wrote a song especially for the festival”, said Bono as he called Michael Eavis to explain why the band cannot play at the upcoming event.
Eavis, organiser of Glastonbury Festival, said: “At this point, we have no comment to make about possible replacements for U2’s Friday night slot. Instead, we would simply like to send Bono our very best wishes for a full and speedy recovery”.
Paul McGuinness, U2’s manager, who was at the Munich hospital, said the singer felt he had let down the concert-goers.
“Our biggest and, I believe, best tour has been interrupted and we’re all devastated. For a performer who lives to be on stage, this is more than a blow”, said McGuinness.
