Sajid Khan reportedly said that an action movie wanted to be his first step into the Indian film makers league but settled down with the idea of Hey Baby which came by. He claims his next move as a film maker with an action movie will be a heavy budget film. But he has full faith and confidence that Sajid Nadiadwala his producer will be kind enough to support him in this big budget idea of his.

The idea of making a spectacular movie with all the possible ingredients of realism and cinematic liberties is the driving force for Sajid’s confident move.

‘I wouldn’t want to make a film that I can be happy watching on television. With due respect, I wouldn’t pay Rs.400 to watch ‘Bheja Fry’ in a theatre. My films have to treat spectacle with dignity. You’ve to take cinematic liberties. The minute the heroes start singing a song, realism is thrown out of the window. Everyone from James Cameron to Sajid Khan takes cinematic liberties.’ - says Sajid

Sajid is currently all ready to make a comeback to Television. He has been putting efforts to lose weight for the small screen magic to revive all over again. The star anchor will be seen hosting two film based show on two different channels and judge a dance show. After Hey Baby’s success the master of satirical comedy Sajid Khan is all set to make a grand and mammoth action movie like never seen before on Indian screen.

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The movie produced by First Look Studios and Lakeshore Entertainment features Toni Collette, Rose Byrne, Brittany Murphy, Mary Beth Hurt, Nick Searcy, Marcia Gay Harden, Kerry Washington, Giovanni Ribisi, James Franco, Josh Brolin, Piper Laurie and Mary Steenburgen. The story revolves around the discovery of a mysterious dead girl and how it shatters lives of strangers around her. The movie will hit screens in France very soon. In acceptance of this top honour Moncrieff said,” The fact that you, with your culture and your film culture, are here honoring American movies is really astounding to me.”

This grand annual film festival awarded Gina Kim the runner up jury prize for ‘Never Forever’, based on the life of a women who encounters a series of sexual experiences with a Korean immigrant while she stives to save her marriage. Felicitating emerging talent has always been a highlight in film festivals across the world and so was the case in the 33rd Annual American Film Festival. French actor and director Gael Morel and his jury rewarded “Rocket Science,” directed by Jeffrey Blitz with the Cartier Revelation Award.

James C. Strouse was bestowed with the International Critics Prize for his movie “Grace Is Gone” based on the story of a father unable to tell the truth to his daughters about their mother’s death in Iraq. The Best Documentary was awarded to a 50 minute docu on World War II to ‘The War’ by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick.

Similar to that of the 64th Venice Film Festival the 33rd Deauville American Film Festival brought together some of the biggest names in Hollywood on one platform like George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. The visitors were provided with some special treatment with the premier of Paramount’s ‘The heartbreak Kid’. The directors Peter and Bobby Farrelly leading actress Michelle Monaghan and Malin Akerman of this movie joined in for a night of Mexican music, singing and cuisine.

Two more movies that were premiered at the film festival were Affleck’s directorial debut “Gone, Baby, Gone” and Lumet’s “Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead.” Gena Rowlands gave a surprised appearance at the festival and was given a standing ovation. The festival wrapped up in a grand fashion after 10 mammoth days of screening some of the best movies of America. It must have definately been days of cinematic bliss for both France and America.

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Fergie who also spent some time at a rehab for a crystal meth addiction completely empathises with the divas. Britney who has been in a rehab for a month this year made her comeback at this years MTV Video Music Awards. The 25 year old star can be seen in the news for even the smallest issues. 21 year old actress Lindsay Lohan has been spending her last few months in a Rehab at Utah to overcome her drinking addiction. Her issues with her father has been in the news for quiet some time.

Fergie feels the need for the media to leave these 2 stars alone so that they can cope up with their personal issues and make a successful comeback in their careers. This lead singer feels the need to give these stars their time and space to recover from their worldly problems. The nation has been pressurizing them by commenting upon every single move of theirs suffocating them for some space to solve their issues effectively.

“I was young when I went through my stuff. Leave them alone. If they want to get better, they’re going to get better on their own.” - says Fergie

The media in the west interefere too much in the personal lives of celebrities. Papparazi are always on a lookout for even the smallest peek into the lives of these superstars and splash millions of news on numerous tabloids. How much can the Right to Privacy be violated? has always remained a difficult question to answer and it seems to remain unsolved even today.

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Jessica, elder sister of pop sensation Ashley Simpson has just recently completed a film Major Movie Star and is all set to rock the world once again with her music. Jessica’s last album was Public Affair released in 2006 which did hit the Top 20 chart as well. But it could not sustain the position for long.

Joe Simpson strongly believes that the world of pop music has gone hay wire and Jessica’s next a country music album will bring her back to quality music. Whether her Texas roots will be accepted by her fans world over is an intriguing question at this time, But father-manager Joe believes that she will be accepted and this new look and style will be applauded.

“She’s a singer from top to bottom. And everything in the music business, especially pop music, has moved away from singers. And I think country is the the only pure, storytelling kind of genre left.” - Joe Simpson

This seven time Billborad Top 40 hits singer who has been tasting fame since the early 90’s will definately give her best and her admirers will get to see a brand new look and listen to a different style all together. Jessica Simpson is going Country completely, only time can tell if its a right move or a upsetting one.

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India’s current tour to England has seen some marked performances from both the sides during the Test series as well as the ODI’s. India clinched the Test 1-0 and will be aiming to steal the ODI’s as well and repeat the history of Natwest Series 2002. Though the stage is all set for the final ODI, there are some concernes for both the English as well as the Indian squad.

The English contingent has witnessed some amazing cricket in this ODI series between the teams. They have been treated with matches with over 600 runs and some great bowling as well. The area of concern for England today will be that of ODI specialist Andrew Flintoff’s form. His run with injuries has been increasing with time, but the determined Flintoff has made his way into the Playing XI and will definately play to his potentials.

The focus today will be on the Indian team though. Their victory at the Oval in the 6th ODI would definately have boosted their confidence, but there are some areas of concern which the team will have to look into. The Little master Sachin Tendulkar and the Prince of Kolkata Sourav Ganguly have been firing in this series and providing the team with some great starts. Assuming that this may be the last time Sachin, Sourav and Dravid will play in Lords, they will surely eye at making a final mark on the English turf. Sachin has missed out on couple of hundreds this series with once the umpire not being on his side and the other his health wasnt supporting him. He has been practicing during the nets and looks surely determined to score his 42nd century.

Today’s match will see the young R.P. Singh replace Ajit Agarkar. Though Agarkar has been one of the wicket taking bowlers in the squad, he has also conceeded extra runs, which is an area of bother for the team. In this series team India has struggled to perform in the last 10 overs. The most crucial overs of the match, the deciding 10 overs has gone for many runs and Dravid has been unable to strike the perfect slog overs bowling combination. With Lords being a batting paradise with a quick outfield the Indian bowlers and fielders will be put to some gritting test.

Another area of concern today can be wicket keeper Dhoni’s form. He has had a good series with the gloves but hasnt fired as much with the bat. He did build a crucial partnership with Uttappa in the previous match, yet was still struggling to connect bat to ball. His form and ability to score quick runs will be important if India were to win today’s decider.

The positives for the team though is the batting form of the top order and the performance of Robin Uttappa in the previous ODI. Considering that he is a top order batsman and came in to bat at No.7 when the team needed over 9 runs per over, the young lad showed some awesome temperament and played an innings of a lifetime. His form and confidence will be sky high and he looks to be promoted up the order. The team can also breath easy with their spinners form. Both Romesh Pawar and Piyush Chawla have been the pick of the bowlers this series. Their form and wicket taking ability will come into play in todays match. Another reliving factor for India is paceman Zaheer Khan’s ability to strike at start of the match. He has been hitting the deck well enough in his opening spells along with taking some quick wickets. The English batsmen will surely keep caution from these 3 bowlers.

The confidence in the dressing room will be high and the team memebers along with the management must have discussed on the perfect winning combination. India have to play their best with the batsmen firing, the bowlers bowling with perfect line and length and with fielders keeping alert to make some staggering stops. The whole world will be hooked on to their television sets today to witness this historic clash between England and India hoping that history repeats itself.

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It is very inspiring to see such a display of great honour and celebration felicitating a person’s work of creativity. It encourages the master to create many such breathtaking designs. This kind of homeage to masters only shows how much corporate and professional bond co-exists between two strong names in the fashion world.

Where such kind of admiration will definately inspire Anna Sui to continue with the good work, Macy plans to continue this kind of celebration with designers every season. They plan to carry out their next event in Febuary 2008 at the New York Fashion Week. Only time can tell which great master of fashion will be honoured then, meanwhile, Macy’s thinking cap must be on and the store must be having a tough time deciding whose lined up next.

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Scream Yabbaa Dabbaa Doooo out of joy like Fred Flinstone.

Fight against the evil forces like Batman.

Almost every cartoon fanatic would want all this. The virtual world of cartoon characters never seem to come out of the TV sets. But, now each one of us can enjoy being a favourite character of our choice and interact with other toons with an innovative social networking site by Warner Bros, T-WORKS. The entertainment empire Warner plans to launch this unique social network for all its cartoon characters which includes favourites like Tweety, Bugs Bunny, Scooby Doo, Batman, Looney Toons, DC comics and many more.

Users of this site will be able to enter the world of cartoons by creating profiles on the site and personalizing them according to ones taste. Each user will be represented by a character of their choice making this network more appealing and exciting for youngsters. T-Works will also include videos and games for all the virtual toons hooked on to the network. The site concentrates on interactivity at a very high level by providing dedicated users a chance to earn points which can be used to buy decorative itenaries for their cartoon characters profile.

T-Works will go by merchandising to boost the overall brand value of the social network. Social Networks has made the world a small place in the recent past. With sites like Orkut.com, Hi5.com, Ringo.com, Facebook.com etc it hardly seems impossible to get in touch with anyone in any part of the globe. This interactivity will definately come in advantage of T-Works with loveable cartoon characters being their trump card up their armour.

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For instance in the ongoing Natwest Series between England and India, the Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar was denied his 42nd century in the 2nd ODI at Bristol by the home umpire Ian Gould although the replays clearly suggested that Andrew Flintoff’s bouncer flicked the arm guard on its way to the keeper. Such judgments just lower the standards of umpires and bring them more and more under scrutiny.

Considering this issue as a concern the Board of Cricket Control in India has appointed 13 coaches for umpires and handled the responsibility of having a check on the standard of umpiring in the country. Srinivas Venkataraghavan, the boards director of umpiring will take in charge of the panel. Each coach will keep a check on the umpire’s performance and will discuss the feat with utmost detail aiding the umpires to improve. This panel is picked from umpires who received training from Australia’s very own and ICC’s Umpire of the year Simon Taufel at National Cricket Academy in Bangalore.

The umpire coach panel includes the following names: Borni Jamula, Subroto Porel, Subrata Banerjee, AL Narasimhan, Jasbir Singh, Vijay Chopra, RS Rathore, Shyam Bansal, BK Sadashiva, Tej Handu, Narendra Menon, VK Ramaswamy, KS Giridharan .

With this step taken by the Board one can only hope that the standards of umpiring in the game are maintained. Also being an avid fan of the sport we can only expect better results and not predict. Like in the words of Sir Geoffrey Boycott ‘my mum is sometimes right but often comes up with rubbish predictions.’

The GenX fad has been widely spoken about amongst the youth and numerous controversies have also erupted with rave parties, an offshoot of the culture. The biggest question facing the people today is What on earth is the rave new world ?. A lot is written and spoken about the latest pop culture on the block but not every one is aware of the crux of this unique way of life.

Rave is all about having excitement in an outgoing way with those whose attitudes match. It is forming a community with like minded people and connecting with them on a different level all together. Rave parties the event which brings such people together is all about loud music, dancing, drugs and socializing. The term rave came into use first during the 50’s in Britain referring to wild parties. Ever since then these parties have spread the fervor in different parts of the world.

In most of the cases these parties are held outdoors in beaches jungles or deserts where massive sound system and large amount of people can be accommodated. Typically the news about a rave party is received from other ravers. It is a close knit circle where not everyone is invited. Only those who belong to the family and believe in not being dictated by any forces of the society are invited, which in most cases are druggies.

Rave parties are not planned before hand. Every raver is informed about the party secretly and the precise location is not disclosed till the raver starts is journey. It gathers people in the age group of 18 to 28 where the youth set themselves free and get involved in the music, drugs and at some occasions sex as well. It is said that these rave parties takes individuals to a metaphysical level where they connect with each other as one family.

The question that arises though is has the country been completely lured by the western culture. There are numerous debates on India adopting a more westernized outlook and forgoing its traditional roots. This argument can go on and on and will never come to an end. But this has not affected the youth to stop living. There have been many raids in places like Goa, Pune, Karjat etc but the ravers still continue to find peace and solace in the rave rage.

‘They liked her, they loved her, and they regarded her as one of the people. She was the people’s princess, and that’s how she will stay, how she will remain — in our hearts and in our memories forever.” - British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Diana, the elegant Princess of Wales is today just a memory in the hearts of millions. 1st September, 1997 the world lost one of the most stylish and loving princess ever witnessed, in a mammoth car accident at the Pont de l’Alma tunnel in Paris. The tragic event was one of the most iconic moments of the 20th century that left along numerous unanswered questions.


There were endless conspiracy theories in regards to what happened that night. But today, after a decade of curious emotions, a documentary named The Witness in the Tunnel, directed by Janice Sutherland and Stuart Tanner attempts to silence at least some of the questions posed over these years. The documentary features the view point of those French Paparazzi who were arrested that tragic night. They witnessed the catastrophe with a magnified eye. Photographs clicked by these paparazzi are woven into this story that seeks to unveil the occurrences in the tunnel.

The Witness in the Tunnel was aired on Channel 4 on 1st September 2007, in the memory of the princess. The royal family did not appreciate the effort of the channel to air these pictures and made an appeal to them claiming the pictures would cause distress to the family. But the world had to be exposed to the truth. The well wishers of the princess want answers to the reason behind her death. Millions across the country still wonder if Princess Diana’s death was an accident, with the car driver Henri Paul high on alcohol driving at more than 120mph or a successful attempt to murder.

One can only wait till the complete truth unfolds but none can forget the spirit of the Princess in her words, ‘The kindness and affection from the public have carried me through some of the most difficult periods, and always your love and affection have eased the journey.’