Cannes jury gets Hong Kong flavour

A combo of recent pictures shows president of the jury Robert De Niro (C), and the eight jury members that will decide the Palme d�Or of the 2011 Cannes film festival that opens next May 11. From top left: Argentinian actress and producer Martina Gusman, French director Olivier Assayas, Chinese film producer Shi Nansun, US actress Uma Thurman, De Niro, Chadian director Saleh Haroun, US actor Jude Law, Norwegian film critic Linn Ullman, and Hong Kong director Johnny

There�s a distinct Hong Kong flavour to the nine-member jury that will decide the Palme d�Or at the Cannes film festival that opens May 11.

Hong Kong director Johnny To and film producer Shi Nansun, wife of director Tsui Hark, are both on the panel that is being led this year by Oscar winner Robert De Niro, said organisers in a statement.

French director Olivier Assayas, an aficionado of Hong Kong and Chinese cinema who has cast Hong Kong actress Maggie Cheung in his films even after their 2004 divorce, is also a juror.



To, who turns 56 on Friday, is a Cannes regular, having shown five times at the world�s biggest film festival, most recently in 2009 with the crime film �Vengeance�.

From Hollywood, Uma Thurman and Jude Law will join the jury that will be rounded out by Chadian director Saleh Haroun, Norwegian film critic Linn Ullman and Argentinian actress and producer Martina Gusman.


Nineteen films, the lion�s share from European directors, are in the running for the coveted Palme d�Or, including �The Skin I Live In,� the latest feature from Spanish director Pedro Almodovar.

Serbian director Emir Kusturica is chairing the jury that will judge the parallel Un Certain Regard section of the festival, and South Korean directors Bong Joon-Ho and Lee Chang-Dong are overseeing the panels deciding the Camera d�Or for best film and the Critics� Week prizes respectively.

Presiding over the short-film jury is French filmmaker Michel Gondry

Coen brothers' True Grit remake generates some serious awards buzz

The original 1969 movie won John Wayne his Oscar.

And now the film's remake, due out later this year, is sparking fresh excitement regarding the films awards worthiness.

The first trailer for True Grit was revealed yesterday and already movie pundits are discussing the likelihood of the film and its all-star cast receiving any of the coveted golden man statuettes.

Oscar worthy: Jeff Bridges and Matt Damon in the Coen's brother's remake of 1968 film True Grit

Western hero: The original film starred John Wayne who won a Best Actor Oscar for his role

In the new Coen brothers (No Country For Old Men and O, Brother Where Art Thou?) directed film, Oscar winner Jeff Bridges reprises John Wayne's role playing one-eyed Marshall Reuben 'Rooster' Cogburn.

Rooster is hired by a stubborn young girl to help track down her father's murderer, played by Josh Brolin, and avenge his death.

The girl insists on accompanying Cogburn, against his wishes, and the pair set out on a journey into the Indian nations.

The pair are joined by Texas Ranger LaBoeuf, played by Matt Damon, who has ulterior motives for hunting down the unsuspecting killer.

The role of the young girl, Mattie Ross, is played by 14-year old Hailee Steinfeld and this film is set to be her breakout role.

The film, which is released on Christmas Day in the U.S. is set to go up against The Social Network and The King's Speech in the Oscars race.

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Old drunk: Bridges plays Marshall Cogburn, an aggressive drunk who is hired by a young girl to track down her father's murderer

Texas Ranger: Matt Damon dons some serious facial hair as LaBoeuf

Bad man: Josh Brolin plays the sinister murderer Tom Clancy

Old cast: Kim Derby as Mattie Ross and John Wayne as Marshall Cogburn

MTV VMA music awards best moments.

Taylor Swift�s forgiving tune, Cher�s moment with Lady Gaga, Kanye�s toast to jerks everywhere, Eminem and Rihanna�s fiery opening, Lindsay Lohan�s cameo, and more�watch highlights and view photos of the 2010 VMAs.

Taylor Swift Forgives Kanye West

In an emotional performance, Taylor Swift forgave Kanye West for hijacking her speech at last year's show. A closer listen to her song, however, reveals that her lyrics do have some bite: �Thirty-two and still growing up now.�




Kanye Toasts Himself

In the grand finale of the show, an apologetic Kanye West toasted himself. While this seems like a logical move for the egomaniac, West�s catchy new song �Runaway� actually contains some not-so-flattering (and slightly NSFW) lyrics pertaining to himself. Yes Kanye, we have been putting up with your [expletive] for way too long. It was a �sincere� apology to Swift�which inspired the audience to give West a standing ovation while chanting his name.



Justin Bieber Gets Drummer Fever

Kim Kardashian kicked off Bieber fever by introducing her falsely rumored boyfriend and Best New Artist winner Justin Bieber. The tween sensation�s performance, seemingly designed under the assumption that if there are 9-year-olds on stage maybe he�d look older, had some strange vocals. Whether it was just nerves or lip synching is unclear, but Bieber tore it up with the sickest drum solo his audience had ever seen. An audience of prepubescent girls, that is.




The Return of the Lohan

As the first woman to host the VMAs in 16 years, Chelsea Handler needed all the inspirational spanks she could get before the show. But in a surprise twist to this opening bit, and in her first major role since being released from rehab, Lindsay Lohan showed that not only can she dole out a proper smack to Handler�s rear, but she can also poke fun at her own struggle with alcohol and the law. Here�s wishing Lohan the best of luck in turning her life around. Let�s hope she wasn�t invited to any VMA afterparties.





Lady Gaga and Legend Cher a Moment

Cher, the �oldest chick with the biggest hair� and a dangerously skimpy outfit at the show, presented the biggest award to the biggest winner of the night Lady Gaga. Accepting the Video of the Year award for �Bad Romance�, Gaga gave her little monsters a treat by announcing the title of her new record and singing the chorus to the album�s title song.



Eminem Sets Stage on Fire

After spending the better part of four years away from the stage while fighting an addiction to prescription drugs, Eminem opened the show by rapping �Love the Way You Lie� with surprise guest Rihanna. The real Slim Shady may be back, but he was unable to stand up to accept his awards for �Not Afraid�, because of a flight to New York for a concert.




Jersey Shore Hot Tub Knocks Up Host

Throughout the program Handler made some family-friendly jokes, like the one about Mrs. Bieber giving birth to her 401(k) plan. But it was when she was making crass jokes in a hot tub with the Jersey Shore cast, however, that she seemed to fit in fine. This may explain why by the end of the bit she was pregnant.

Lady Gaga says �not a piece of meat�

Lady Gaga said the controversial �meat� dress she wore at the MTV Video Music Awards was intended to make a statement.

Winning eight prizes at Sunday�s ceremony, the glam pop performance artist chose to accept one of her statuettes wearing nothing but a raw, red meat dress with a matching purse, that became one of the most talked about moments of the televised show.

�If we don�t stand up for what we believe in and if we don�t fight for our rights, pretty soon we�re going to have as much rights as the meat on our bones,� Lady Gaga, 24, told talk show host Ellen DeGeneres on her TV programme broadcast on Monday.

�And, I am not a piece of meat,� she added.

Sunday�s outfit comes on the heels of a meat bikini Gaga donned for the cover of Vogue Hommes Japan�s September issue. It was one of several different costumes the singer wore on Sunday, including one that looked like a large black trash bag.

Lady Gaga poses in an outfit made of meat, during the MTV VMA on September 12, 2010.



Animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said that �wearing a dress made from cuts of dead cows is offensive enough to bring comment.�

Lady Gaga told DeGeneres she meant no disrespect to anyone that is vegan or vegetarian, and called herself �the most judgment free human being on the earth.�

Singer Cher, whom Gaga asked to hold her meat purse while accepting her award on stage, defended the 24-year old songbird.

In a series of several tweets regarding the meat dress, Cher wrote on Monday that as an �art piece it was astonishing!� and that the meat purse was �genius.�

Continuing on Twitter, Cher added: �modern art elicits discussion, introspection & conflict! Everyone�s talking about it! BINGO!�

Lady Gaga�s eccentric outfits, string of hit records like �Bad Romance� and �Paparazzi� and startling live stunts including setting her piano on fire, have made her a worldwide pop culture phenomenon over the past two years with more than 10 million album sales.

Favouritism charges follow Tarantino Venice awards

Jury president Quentin Tarantino faced charges of favouritism today after he handed out two major awards at Venice film festival to his friends, including best picture to his ex partner Sofia Coppola�s �Somewhere�.

Another friend and mentor Monte Hellman landed a special career award, and Spanish entry �Balada Triste de Trompeta�, which picked up the director and screenplay prizes for Alex de la Iglesia, was widely panned by critics on the Lido waterfront.

Add to that a best actor award for Vincent Gallo in �Essential Killing�, during which he uttered not a single word, and no prizes for Italian films, and Saturday�s closing ceremony was one of the most unpredictable in years.

Coppola receives the Golden Lion from Tarantino (right) during the closing ceremony of the 67th Venice Film Festival September 11, 2010.



�The (jury) presidency of Quentin Tarantino runs the risk of being the most obvious conflict of interest, given that Somewhere and (Hellman�s) Road to Nowhere seemed charming and intriguing but nothing more,� wrote Paolo Mereghetti, veteran film critic for Italian daily Corriere della Sera, on Sunday.

Tarantino was quick to reject suggestions of favouritism.

�I wasn�t going to let anything like that affect me at all,� he told reporters after the awards were announced at the end of the September 1-11 festival. �I was just going to literally respond to the film. There was no me steering any direction.�

�Somewhere�, which won the prestigious Golden Lion best picture award, is an insider�s look at the life of a Hollywood actor who becomes numb to life through drink, drugs and a string of one-night stands, and stars Stephen Dorff as Johnny Marco.

His days are divided between five-star hotels, Ferraris and blonde pin-ups, but also loneliness, tiresome media attention and boredom, and he is finally faced with the question of where a life so enviable on the surface is ultimately heading.

The daughter of director Francis Ford Coppola partly based the film on her own experiences as a young girl following her famous father from one hotel to another.

Coppola�s victory at least guarantees a high-profile end to a festival which many experts feel has been overshadowed this year by up-and-coming rival Toronto, which overlaps with Venice and is attracting many of the industry�s biggest names.

Balada Triste de Trompeta (The Last Circus) was ranked 17th out of 24 competition films in an informal critics� poll published for journalists in Venice.

The ultra-violent horror movie, which doubles as a metaphor for fascist Spain, was described in reviews as �the demented Spanish circus movie� and �loud, tedious and unattractive in every sense�, although it had a handful of avid supporters.

A prize for Gallo�s speechless turn as a suspected Taliban fighter on the run from US troops came as less of a surprise, although it highlighted his bizarre behaviour at the festival.

The actor and director shunned all publicity, arriving in Venice in a balaclava and refusing to hold a press conference for his own competition movie �Promises Written in Water�. He did not take the stage to accept his award.

Some of the competition�s best liked films and performances were overlooked, including that of Natalie Portman, who won praise for her powerful turn as a disturbed dancer in �Black Swan�.

Also popular with critics were �Venus Noire�, the true story of a woman brought from South Africa to Europe in 1810 and turned into a freak show, and Chile�s �Post Mortem�, which looks at the 1973 military coup through the eyes of a morgue employee.

�Potiche�, a 1970s comedy starring Catherine Deneuve and Gerard Depardieu, left empty-handed as well.

2010 MTV Video Music Awards Ladies Red Carpet.

Unless she hit the tattoo parlor on Monday morning in the wake of her record-setting eight VMA wins the night before, we're surprised Lady Gaga's keen-eyed Little Monsters didn't already know the title of her upcoming album.

Lady Gaga announces new album title at MTV VMAs

While picking up the top prize at the MTV Video Music Awards on September 12, Lady Gaga offered fans a token of her own. She released the name of her new album, Born This Way, and belted out a few bars from the yet-to-be-released title song, all while wearing a dress made of meat.

Gaga (picture) spilled the news about her new album while accepting the Video of the Year Award for �Bad Romance� Sunday night in Los Angeles. Prior to the awards, the superstar promised fans that if she took home the evening�s top honour, she would share the title of her new album, the follow-up to her 2008 debut album �The Fame�.

In addition to winning seven other awards at the VMAs, she revealed a few details about the upcoming Born This Way, to be released in 2011, calling it the �absolute greatest work� she�s ever done. �I�m so excited about it,� said Gaga. �The message, the melodies, the direction, the meaning, what it will mean to my fans and what it will mean to me in my own life � it�s utter liberation. I�m on the quest to create the anthem for my generation for the next decade, so that�s what I�ve done.�

The US pop star hasn�t yet revealed the album�s producers and collaborators. �I will never tell, because as soon as I tell, everyone starts working with them,� she said. �So all I can say is that nobody knows who they are. They�re all new.�

Lady Gaga told US magazine Rolling Stone earlier this summer that she would release the title of the album at midnight on New Year�s Eve. �I�ve been working on it for months now, and I feel very strongly that it�s finished right now,� she said in the interview.

She also revealed that fans could expect a different type of music on the new album, saying that her subject matter had shifted from fame to politics. �The message of the new music is now more bitter than it was before.�

In November 2009 she released The Fame Monster � a re-release of The Fame featuring eight new songs including �Telephone,� �Bad Romance,� and �Alejandro�. The two releases have together sold well over ten million copies worldwide

Lady Gaga biggest winner at MTV music awards

Lady Gaga was crowned queen of the MTV Video Music Awards yesterday, winning eight prizes including video of the year.

The flamboyant pop singer tied Norwegian rock group a-ha, the big winners of 1986, as the second-most honoured act on a single night. British rocker Peter Gabriel set the record of nine competitive wins in 1987 for his innovative video �Sledgehammer.�

Most of Lady Gaga�s Moonman statuettes were for her video �Bad Romance,� a futuristic clip featuring plenty of skin-baring scenes and bizarre costumes.

�I was so nervous for tonight that I would let my fans down,� she tearfully said as she accepted the final award for video of the year.

Lady Gaga holds her video of year award for 'Bad Romance' with presenter Cher at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards in Los Angeles, California September 12, 2010.

Lady Gaga poses in an outfit made of meat at the MTV VMA

The 24-year-old New Yorker, as famous for her outre fashion sense as for her musical sensibilities, led the field with 13 nominations. In each of her three trips to the stage � the other awards were announced off-camera � she wore a different costume, including what looked like a large black trash bag.

The only other multiple winner was eight-time nominee Eminem, who won a pair of awards for his �Not Afraid.� The rapper opened the show with a medley of songs, but hastily exited the Nokia Theatre before accepting his statuettes.

Taylor Swift, who received a single nomination, went home empty-handed, brushed aside by the Lady Gaga juggernaut. But the country-pop starlet provided one of the show�s more provocative moments, debuting a song that recounted her on-stage controversy with Kanye West during last year�s ceremony.

Teen pop idol Justin Bieber was named best new artist for his �Baby,� featuring rapper Ludacris.

�I come from a little town in Canada, I never thought I�d be in this position,� said the 16-year-old native of Stratford, Ontario.

Other winners included actor Jared Leto�s rock band 30 Seconds to Mars for best rock video (�Kings and Queens�). Muse, the Black Keys, Jay Z + Alicia Keys, and Florence + the Machine won in technical categories.

Lady Gaga, whose real name is Stefani Germanotta, announced that the follow-up to her breakthrough album �The Fame� would be called �Born This Way,� and serenaded the crowd with a titbit: �I�m beautiful in my way because God makes no mistakes. I�m on the right track baby. I was born this way.�

In addition to winning video of the year for �Bad Romance,� Lady Gaga took home the prizes for female video, pop video, dance video, choreography, direction and editing. Moreover, her raunchy lesbian prison-themed video for �Telephone� featuring Beyonce won for best collaboration.

Swift�s plaintive ballad appeared to offer an olive branch of sorts to West.

The embattled hip-hop star was criticised following last year�s ceremony in which he stormed the stage during Swift�s acceptance of an award, grabbed the microphone from her and praised Beyonce, who was competing for the same award.

US President Barack Obama was among those who criticised him.

Swift sang that West was �32 and still growing up. ... Lost your balance on the tightrope, it�s never too late to get back.�

MTV, owned by Viacom, was possibly the night�s other big winner. Last year�s ceremony drew nine million viewers, a six per cent increase over 2008 and the largest turnout since 2004. The Swift-West drama was expected to boost viewership this year as well.

Sandra Bullock earns top paycheque in Hollywood

Bullock displays her Oscar at the 82nd Academy Awards in Hollywood March 7, 2010. � Reuters pic

Nobody would argue that 2010 has been an up-and-down year for Sandra Bullock, given her best actress Oscar for �The Blind Side� followed by her divorce from scandal-plagued husband Jesse James.

But yesterday, Bullock landed atop Hollywood�s heap again when financial website Forbes.com named her the highest paid actress of the past 12 months having earned US$56 million (RM179 million) from two box office hits, romantic comedy �The Proposal� and football film, �The Blind Side.�

Bullock not only received a fee for acting, but also participated in the profits, and for both films, the box office numbers were hefty, according to Forbes.com. �The Blind Side� took in nearly US$310 million at global box offices on a budget of around US$30 million, while �Proposal� racked up just under US$320 million and cost roughly US$40 million.





Tied for the No. 2 spot were Reese Witherspoon and Cameron Diaz, both making US$32 million. Though Witherspoon has not been on screen since 2008, she received advance pay cheques for upcoming films, �How Do You Know� and �Water for Elephants�.

Diaz�s pot of gold was filled with money from the �Knight and Day� and �Shrek� films, which have grossed US$2.8 billion at the global box office.

Jennifer Aniston came in at fourth place with US$27 million, and �Sex and the City� star Sarah Jessica Parker was No. 5 at US$25 million.

To determine actresses� compensation, Forbes.com talked to talent agents, managers, producers and lawyers and looked at other means of revenue such as perfume and clothing lines and ad campaigns.

Forbes.com based its figures on earnings from June 2009 to June 2010. Angelina Jolie and Jennifer Aniston were the highest paid actresses during a similar period one year earlier.

See the full list of Forbes.com Hollywood�s Highest Paid Actresses. The full list can be found at www.forbes.com.

Lady Gaga wins record 13 MTV nominations

Lady Gaga performs at Madison Square Garden in New York July 7, 2010. � Reuters pic

Lady Gaga won a leading 13 nominations for the MTV Video Music Awards yesterday, setting a new record for the most nominations ever in a single VMA season, MTV said.

Rapper Eminem was the most nominated male artist with eight nods after the success of his latest album �Recovery�, while Canadian teen idol Justin Bieber scored his first nomination in the best new artist category for the music video of hit single �Baby�. Newcomer Ke$ha joined veterans Jay-Z, Alicia Keys, Katy Perry, Usher and indie band Florence and the Machine among the other nominees.

Lady Gaga has two entries in the coveted video of the year category � �Bad Romance� and �Telephone� featuring Beyonce � where her competition includes Eminem for �Not Afraid� and rapper B.o.B for �Airplanes�.







The glam pop singer also won nods in the best pop, best dance and best female music video categories.

�I�m so honoured for all the little monsters and self-professed freaks of the universe, to have more VMA nominations in a single year than any artist in MTV history. Ironically, I�m even more proud it�s an unlucky number; 13,� Lady Gaga said in a statement.

�A long time ago the world told me and my little monsters we would never be heard, together we changed the rules. God put me on Earth for 3 reasons: To make loud music, gay videos, and cause a damn raucous. Thank You MTV!,� she added.

The awards will be presented in a live telecast from Los Angeles on September 12.

Eminem noted sarcastically that the award show fell in the middle of his US tour. �Apparently MTV doesn�t care that I have two massive stadium shows on the other side of the country the day after the VMAs,� he said. �I mean, I�ll be there but don�t expect me to be nice about it.�

Viewers can vote for the general categories on website vma.mtv.com starting yesterday, and voting by text message for the best new artist will continue throughout show time on September 12