Alex & Sierra duet with Leona Lewis on 'Bleeding Love', ruins song.
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Julia Roberts believes in marriage for everybody
Julia Roberts and her husband of 11 years, Danny Moder, have defied the odds of Hollywood romances, but the Pretty Woman actress reveals to Life & Style that marriage should be for anyone — gay or straight.
“I believe in marriage for everybody,” Julia explains to Life & Style, on newsstands now.
“It should be as difficult to get married as it is to get a driver’s license,” she jokes to the mag. “Less people would get married.”
She adds every marriage has its own secret to success and happiness. So what is Julia and Danny’s secret to wedded bliss?
“Making out every day!” she admits to Life & Style. “Think about it!”
Source
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440 lb. virgin shares traumatic experience on TLC’s Sex Sent Me to the ER
Everyone’s first time is memorable. But, Gregg Casarona’s was undeniably more memorable than most others: In an upcoming episode of TLC’s Sex Sent Me to the ER, Gregg recalled how his first time hooking up with girlfriend Jen Gerakaris resulted in a trip to the hospital.
The painful experience began when 110-lb. Jen decided to put the moves on her virgin boyfriend of a month.
“We were dating for a little while and he hadn’t put any moves on me yet so I made a move,” Jen told The Post.
Gregg didn’t require much convincing. Before long, they were hot and heavy — particularly Gregg, who was four times larger than his girlfriend. With so much cushion doin’ the pushing, Gregg accidentally propelled Jen into the sheet-rock wall.
“My initial reaction was, ‘I killed her… This is my first time. And Jen is dead,’” Gregg said.
Thankfully, Jen had a real sense of humor about it all.
“He looked like he was about to have a heart attack. So I just wanted to lighten the mood,” she said, explaining she asked him why he stopped.
Even though Jen tried to laugh it off, Gregg insisted they go to the hospital. Jen was then diagnosed with a concussion.
After that incident, the couple learned how to deal with their weight discrepancies.
“In the beginning, there were lots of pillows and we didn’t do it anywhere near a wall,” Jen said, explaining they worked out the kinks throughout their four-year relationship. They’ve since split, but remain friends.
“It’s a story we always tell over drinks.”
Source
Awkward first time stories?
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Madame Tussauds unveils new Brad and Angelina wax figures
Wax figure realism is an onging struggle. Some are really good, while others are really, really bad.
In honor of Brad Pitt's 50th birthday today, Madame Tussauds in London unveiled new wax figures of the actor and his fianceé Angelina Jolie. And, let's just say this newest statue really went for realism.
Every wrinkle, every crag, each droopy eyelid has been cast in immortal wax, reminding us all that 50 is not really the new 30. Jolie's figure, meanwhile, is devastatingly perfect.
What do you think of Pitt's latest wax tribute? Yay or nay?
"The new Brad and Angelina will be featured in our party area with an impressive line up of stars including Brad’s best buddy, George Clooney."
Source + Photos
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ONTD's fav Lorde's Asian boyfriend upends relationship stereotypes
In the last week, "Royals" singer Lorde managed to put out a new single, pick up several Grammy nominations, and — if that weren't enough — to catch flack online about her rumored boyfriend, James Lowe.
Commenters savaged Lowe for his appearance and for being Asian.
Celine Parrenas Shimizu, who teaches Asian-American studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, said Lowe's harsh treatment exposes an enduring stereotype of Asian men in U.S. society as embodying "effeminacy, asexuality or queerness" maybe ppl r treating him harsh bc he ugly and a pedophile???
"This explains why there is this incredulity of seeing a young white megastar with a person who is considered less appropriate a partner because he is short, because he looks like the president of a chess club," Shimizu said, citing commenter.have u seen her face
For his part, Alhambra comedian Andrew Fung went online to get a look at this fellow Asian guy and liked what he saw.
"And I was like, 'Oh, he's a skinny Asian guy! It's not like he's a buff K-Pop guy,'" said Fung, who's one half of the Asian-American comedy duo The Fung Bros. "That's very cool."
Asian-American men deal with a range of stereotypes — math nerd, kung fu master, submissive "yes" man — that don't do them any favors. A recent analysis of data of racial preferences from the dating site "Are You Interested?" shows that Asian men register low on women's list of romantic partners, while Asian women are the most popular.
The difference between how Asian men and women are treated in the dating world was not lost on some commenters:
#lorde& asian boyfriend #jameslowe make people uncomfortable, but if it was a pretty asian woman with average white guy, no one would care
— viet thanh nguyen (@viet_t_nguyen) December 13, 2013But photos of one of the most popular singers in the world draping her arms over a "skinny Asian guy" at a beach upends biases about Asian male desirability — much to the joy of some.
lorde is dating an asian guy #praisethelorde
— Chip Skylark (Ryan) (@rtsuD2) December 13, 2013Fung guessed there would have been less controversy had Lorde been linked to a more conventionally attractive Asian-American male such as John Cho ("Star Trek") or Sung Kang ("Fast and Furious 6").
But, Fung said, "I'm glad this nerdy Asian guy is in the limelight."
He and his brother, David, gleefully celebrated the couple in a new video on their YouTube Channel, which has captured more than 55,000 views.
Much of the online vitriol has come from teenage fans of Justin Bieber and One Direction, who seem to be under the false impression that Lorde in some way slighted their idols. (Some also criticized a purported seven-year age gap between 17-year-old Lorde and the older Lowe.RME IT'S NOT PURPORTED...
UC Santa Barbara's Shimizu has examined the range of image problems Asian men have in her book "Straitjacket Sexualities: Unbinding Asian American Manhoods in the Movies."
For example, and unlike now, Asian men were portrayed at the other extreme in the 19th century: sexually dangerous, Shimizu said.
Now, Shimizu said, the image of Lowe with Lorde is a powerful counterpoint to prevailing stereotypes. "She's expanding our idea of who can be beautiful and who can be worth loving," Shimizu said.
News of the backlash to Lorde's boyfriend has made the rounds on social media, with many decrying comments as racist and mean-spirited.
But Brad Yau, a 29-year-old web designer from Pasadena, said he just chalked up the comments to ignorance.
Even though he knows some people think Asian guys are dorky, "It doesn’t matter what people say."
"I think I’m cool," Yau said. "Therefore, I am cool.”
source: sc public radio
this article is bending over backwards to praise lorde's creepy boyfriend
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Paul Walker's Brother Cody Walker May Fill-In for Final Fast & Furious 7 Scenes
Earlier this week, we reported that Universal Pictures may restart production on Fast & Furious 7 as early as January, if the latest script rewrite by Chris Morgan is approved by the studio. At the time of Paul Walker's tragic death, the actor still had more scenes to film, and the studio is currently mulling over whether or not to start the movie entirely from scratch, or continuing production with scenes they had already shot with Paul Walker. Today, we have word that the studio has asked the late actor's younger brother, 25-year-old Cody Walker, to fill in for him when shooting gets back under way.
Here's what an unidentified insider had to say: "Producers had a string of meetings right after Paul's death. They soon realized they needed someone who looked like Paul to finish the movie and that's when they approached his nearly identical brother, Cody. They can shoot Cody from behind and at distance and if it's a shot they need Paul's face in close up they can CGI it later on. If Cody agrees it's because he wants to honor his brother's memory. There are many details that still need to be worked out, but right now the family and cast and crew are all still grieving."
Cody Walker, who had previously worked as a movie stuntman in the past, resides in Oregon, although he has been in Los Angeles since his brother's death to help comfort his mother Cheryl.
When asked to comment on these developments, a Universal Pictures spokesperson released the following statement: "Right now, all of us at Universal are dedicated to providing support to Paul's immediate family and our extended Fast & Furious family of cast, crew and filmmakers."
The studio is also working with the actor's family, taking their guidance on what would be a fitting send-off for his character, Brian O'Connor. Our report from earlier this week revealed that Universal has already spent $150 million on the sequel, and if they decide to scrap the footage that has already been shot, the studio's insurance company, Fireman's Fund, may have to foot the bill, making it one of the largest insurance claims in Hollywood history.
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Miley Cyrus Flies To Miami With Kellan Lutz
New Couple Alert?
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Liam who? Miley Cyrus has already been romantically linked to several guys since her Sept. 16 split from ex-fiance Liam Hemsworth, but she’s never shared a private jet with any of them — until now! Miley and Kellan Lutz kicked the altitude — and possibly their relationship — up a notch when they shared an intimate flight to Miami on Dec. 18.
Did Miley and Kellan join the Mile High Club? We all know anything could happen when it comes to Miley Cyrus! The controversial singer seems to have taken an interest in the Twilight star, whom she recently starting following on Twitter. They were also both at the Z100 Jingle Ball in NYC over the weekend.
Miley is in Miami for another Jingle Ball performance on Dec. 20 — but what is Kellan up to? It’s possible the Legend of Hercules star, who split up with longtime girlfriend Sharni Vinson in 2013, tagged along simply to spend time with Miley – wouldn’t that be sweet?
The “Wrecking Ball” singer did reveal on Dec. 4 that she wants a boyfriend, and we think the handsome and newly single Kellan could be the perfect match for Miley!
Now that she’s mastered being alone, it might be a good time for her to test out a new relationship with Kellan!
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miley's taste in men THO
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Liam who? Miley Cyrus has already been romantically linked to several guys since her Sept. 16 split from ex-fiance Liam Hemsworth, but she’s never shared a private jet with any of them — until now! Miley and Kellan Lutz kicked the altitude — and possibly their relationship — up a notch when they shared an intimate flight to Miami on Dec. 18.
Did Miley and Kellan join the Mile High Club? We all know anything could happen when it comes to Miley Cyrus! The controversial singer seems to have taken an interest in the Twilight star, whom she recently starting following on Twitter. They were also both at the Z100 Jingle Ball in NYC over the weekend.
Miley is in Miami for another Jingle Ball performance on Dec. 20 — but what is Kellan up to? It’s possible the Legend of Hercules star, who split up with longtime girlfriend Sharni Vinson in 2013, tagged along simply to spend time with Miley – wouldn’t that be sweet?
The “Wrecking Ball” singer did reveal on Dec. 4 that she wants a boyfriend, and we think the handsome and newly single Kellan could be the perfect match for Miley!
Now that she’s mastered being alone, it might be a good time for her to test out a new relationship with Kellan!
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miley's taste in men THO
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Mum Direction: Zayn Malik's mother on raising a pop star
With sales of more than 19 million singles and 10 million albums, One Direction are arguably the most famous boy band in the world. But, in a rare interview, Zayn Malik's mother Trisha reveals he nearly missed the audition that made him a superstar.
"Whenever I took him out, as a toddler, little old ladies would say: 'Oh, he's cute, he's going to break a few hearts," says Trisha Malik, remembering the not-too-distant past when her son was more Bradford baby than boyband heartthrob.
It's the first time she has spoken to the media since Zayn, as one-fifth of One Direction, shot to fame on the seventh series of X Factor.
But things could have been very different, she says, if the 20-year-old had got his own way in the summer of 2010.
"On the morning of the audition Zayn didn't want to go," she recalls. "He chickened out, saying: 'Can't I just leave it?'"
Eventually, she coaxed him into going "just to see what happens".
"He hated dancing but loved singing," she recalls. "He used to sing until three o'clock in the morning and I often used to have to ask him to turn it down".
His "favourite song at the time was I Believe I Can Fly," by R&B singer R Kelly, she says - but he eventually chose the more contemporary Let Me Love You, by Mario, for his audition.
The teenager got a unanimous "yes" and proceeded to bootcamp, but he was still beset by nerves - and almost quit because he "felt like an idiot" during an early choreography session.
After a backstage pep talk from Simon Cowell, he was convinced to continue, and was eventually shepherded into a boy band with four other contestants.
One Direction may only have placed third in the contest (after Matt Cardle and Rebecca Ferguson) but they are the show's biggest success story, with three US number one albums, and a stadium tour booked for 2014.
And they still don't dance.
His mother is fiercely proud, but admits she has to watch much of Zayn's success from afar.
"He went to Australia recently and I didn't see him for almost three months," she says. "It's sad but the family had to check on the internet to see where he was".
However, she keeps her distance when it comes to social media, and gets annoyed with the many fake accounts that exist in her name.
"I don't have a Twitter account as I don't even understand it," she says.
"Me and Zayn's dad stopped looking at social media because he (Zayn's dad) used to get upset about what people had written.
"It's like a kick in the gut to read things that are, most of the time, not even true."
Born in Bradford Trisha Malik was born in Bradford to a white British working class family.
Her parents ran a pub in the city, but her life changed when she met and married a British Pakistani, Yasser, and converted to Islam.
"I've always tried to learn as much as I can about my husband's religion and culture," she says.
"I made sure the children went to the mosque. Zayn has read the Koran three times."
Since One Direction hit the big time, "I don't get introduced as Trisha Malik but as Zayn's mum," she laughs.
Life hasn't changed much in the Malik household, though. "I still shop in my local supermarket and go to the discount store for a pair of shoes," she says.
Indeed, our interview takes place, at her request, in a cafe at her local Bradford shopping centre, rather than any starry showbiz locale.
However, the family - Zayn's parents, three sisters and the family dog - have made one upgrade, moving to a new house in the city. Zayn paid for it himself and, in the recent One Direction movie, Trisha is seen, overcome with emotion, as she is handed the keys.
"We never had enough money to buy our own house," she explains. "We always lived in rented accommodation, so Zayn knew how very important it was for me to have my own place".
Until recently, Trisha worked as a halal chef in the kitchen of a local primary school, making meals for Muslim children. On Zayn's advice she gave up her job.
"Zayn said 'you don't have to do this anymore'. Instead, he puts my wage into my bank".
Trisha is keen to ensure her family remain humble and remember their early years of growing up in the Victorian-era terraced houses of the Bradford's East Bowling district.
"None of the sisters will follow Zayn's footsteps into a music career," says Trisha, who describes her offspring as "shy". They don't get to see their brother often but, when they do, she says it's just like it used to be.
"He'll tease his sisters, he'll hug them and they might have an argument like brothers and sisters do," she says. "He spoils the younger one."
And the family is set to expand soon, after Zayn got engaged to Little Mix star and fellow X Factor alumnus, Perrie Edwards.
"Perrie is a lovely girl and I get on really well with her" says Trisha.
"They're thinking of the end of next year, although no date has yet been set yet".
They might get time to discuss plans this Christmas, when the Malik family travel to London from Bradford to celebrate with Zayn and Perrie.
"I will cook the dinner," says Trisha. "Perrie and her mother will be there and we'll open presents, play games and stuff our faces," she laughs.
And Trisha's hoping that, once Zayn and Perrie tie the knot, they'll set up home a bit closer to her.
"If they have children I wouldn't like to be so far away from them. I would really like to still be part of their lives".
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Sharon Needles and Alaska Thunderfuck split
Needles (real name Aaron Coady), who won season 4 of the show, and Alaska, who was a runner up the following season, announced their breakup "on good terms" in a tongue-in-cheek press release, and included their wish "to clarify their intentions to admirers who may question the reason behind this mutual decision not to continue their relationship.""The survival of our partnership relies on simply changing the word 'boy' in boyfriend to 'best,'" Needles says. "And because of my severe vanity, I'd like to keep my social media as a place dedicated to my art, and not a place to talk about my personal life."
"RuPaul once said that people come into our lives for different reasons for different intervals of time," says Needles of her relationship, which began when they met in Pittsburgh. "I will treasure the four years we had together."
Alaska (real name Justin Andrew Howard), says, "I will always love Sharon and we will continue to be a part of each other's lives," adding that "authenticity and honesty to our fans is so important to us."
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'The Fault in Our Stars' tagline "One Sick Love Story" raises eyebrows, John Green defends poster
The movie poster for the upcoming film adaptation of The Fault in Our Stars is out!The new poster, released to Buzzfeed, depicts costars Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort lying on the grass while smiling and gazing into each other's eyes. While the image is precious, some fans are having issues with the tagline at the bottom of the poster.
Beneath Woodley and Elgort's heads reads "one sick love story." The problem? Some think the phrase makes light of the film's plot, which involves two teenage cancer patients who fall in love while battling the deadly disease.
One Twitter user reacted to the controversial tagline, writing, "So. The Fault in Our Stars tagline is a joke, right? A terrible, offensive joke?"
John Green, the author of the best-selling book, even took to his own Tumblr page to react to the movie studio's tagline and explain that he had no part in coming up with it.
"I like the tag line," Green writes. "I found it dark and angry in the same way that [the main character] Hazel is (at least at times) dark and angry in her humor. I mostly wanted something that said, ‘This is hopefully not going to be a gauzy, sentimental love story that romanticizes illness and further spreads the lie that the only reason sick people exist is so that healthy people can learn lessons.' But that's not a very good tag line. I like the tag line because it says, literally, the sick can also have love stories. Love and joy and romance are not just things reserved for the well."
He adds, "What matters most to me is that you're seeing Shailene as Hazel and Ansel as Gus for the first time, and it seems like people are (mostly) pretty happy with what they're seeing, which is what I was anxious about."
Source
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Tom Selleck & Arsenio Reenact Chris Brown & Frank Ocean's Twitter Beef
In this edition of "Master Tweets Theatre," Tom Selleck and Arsenio read Chris Brown and Frank Ocean's Twitter feud.
Source
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Four and Tris Get Close in First 'Divergent' Clip
Theo James plays tough and handsome Tobias "Four" Eaton in the upcoming hit book-to-screen adaptation "Divergent." And we get a real good look at him in the film's initial clip, seen here first on Yahoo Movies. Yup, Tris (Shailene Woodley) takes her opportunity to inspect Four's body, er, his tattoo… and likes what she sees.
omg this movie looks way worse than the trailer let on... theo james is fine as hell tho.
im still so mad i read Allegiant last week i just......
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Source
omg this movie looks way worse than the trailer let on... theo james is fine as hell tho.
im still so mad i read Allegiant last week i just......
Source
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Mariah giving us FRESH, FESTIVE circa-1994 vocals for Christmas
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Kim K shows off her post-baby bod.
She was cruelly taunted by fat jokes when she gained weight during her pregnancy with daughter North West.
But Kim Kardashian has seemingly now had the last laugh.
The reality star put all her critics to shame when she stepped onto the beach in Miami recently showing off her stunning post-pregnancy figure, just six months after giving birth.
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But Kim Kardashian has seemingly now had the last laugh.
The reality star put all her critics to shame when she stepped onto the beach in Miami recently showing off her stunning post-pregnancy figure, just six months after giving birth.
Source.
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Leona Lewis performs for Billboard + takes press to Winter Wonderland
Pop Juice Interview
It’s a Friday afternoon and I am at Winter Wonderland.
Winter Wonderland is a magical cash-absorbing place that springs up every year – during the winter – in London’s Hyde Park. It’s a complete end-to-end festive experience, by which I mean you can buy loads of sweets then go on fairground rides to sick them up again.
And you might say “hang on this is just a normal fairground with mulled wine everywhere and a bit of tinsel on its head” but that would be cynical and not in the Christmas spirit so shame on you.
Look, there’s ice skating!
Winter Wonderland is a magical cash-absorbing place that springs up every year – during the winter – in London’s Hyde Park. It’s a complete end-to-end festive experience, by which I mean you can buy loads of sweets then go on fairground rides to sick them up again.
And you might say “hang on this is just a normal fairground with mulled wine everywhere and a bit of tinsel on its head” but that would be cynical and not in the Christmas spirit so shame on you.
Look, there’s ice skating!
Having said this, it’s only a beautiful place if you really love Christmas.
But you know who really loves Christmas, right?
LEONA LEWIS.
Leona Lewis loves Christmas so much that she has made an album all about it. Or maybe she’s just pretending to like Christmas so she can convincingly flog a Christmas album. Either way, she wants to meet me at Winter Wonderland for an interview.
My original interview request was that Leona and I meet up and get “really pissed” but, as is the way with these things, this request morphed into something else (my next suggestion was “how about we just drink Christmas booze like Bailey’s”), then something else (“what about a mince pie taste test”) and now here we are at Winter Wonderland.
Still, who wouldn’t want to hang out with Leona for an afternoon? Just the two of you, LOLing your way around Winter Wonderland, cherishing each second of this special time you spend together.
Well readers I’ve got some sad news for you on that front because when I eventually locate Leona I discover that she is already filming an interview with SB.TV which makes the promise of special time together rather less exciting. It’s almost as if rather than just wanting to spend quality time with me she’s turning the whole thing into a promotional stunt.
I feel sad.
Leona does not feel sad.
(After this picture was taken I said to Leona that you could probably bend over in front of the mouse and recreate the famous ‘Miley and Robin Thicke’ VMAs pose, and instead of looking mildly disgusted she offered to do exactly that for a picture. Except she said she would only do that if I also ‘assumed the position’, and if I then let her tweet the photo to all her followers. I’m afraid I let you down here because I completely bottled it. She was definitely up for it as well. Apols.)
Anyway we have a sit down in a big shed that bills itself as an ‘après-ski’ lodge which seems a bit ill-judged as we haven’t even eaten a yoghurt by this point, and we do an interview.
To kick things off we talk about when she started thinking about making a Christmas album.
“I decided to do it around February and made it over the summer,” is what she says on that topic. “I expected to walk into Biff’s studio and see Christmas trees and jumpers. I walked in and there was nothing. He’d put some fairy lights up for me in the vocal booth, but that was it. The air conditioning was on so it was quite cold, I suppose. That’s kind of Christmasy, right?”
(She’s clutching at straws here.)
If the last album had been more of a success, would you be doing this Christmas album now?
“Well,” she says, “I’ve been wanting to do a Christmas album since my first album was out, but I couldn’t because I had to prove myself a bit first. Then after the third album I went on tour and it was after that that we stated properly talking about doing a Christmas album. Doing a Christmas album allowed me to do something with a Motowny sort of feel.”
“You know Jingle Bells?” I say.
“Yes,” says Leona Lewis.
“Where are you on the whole ‘one horse open sleigh’ business?”
(The reason I am asking this is that Leona Lewis is pretty fond of horses and in the past has voiced some serious concerns about the welfare of these beautiful beasts.)
“I don’t like it that much,” Leona says of the controversial ‘Jingle Bells’ lyric. “The horses in Central Park really upset me. It depends how they’re looked after really. On one hand Jingle Bells is a classic, on the other hand there are animal rights issues and there’s nothing to say it can’t be rewritten to take into account more progressive views. Maybe it could be a battery-powered sleigh? It is the 20th Century, maybe it should be changed.”
Actually it’s the 21st Century but given the Olde Worlde surroundings of Winter Wonderland with its various lodges and Traditionale Foode Outletes, you can see why Leona’s mind is wandering back through time.
Re the present day, I ask her about her plans for Christmas 2013.
She says she’s going to see her family – IN WALES – which she does every year. She hasn’t done the I’ve-properly-grown-up-now-guys thing of having her family to her place yet, and I warn her off, detailing the woes of a prawn cocktail meltdown I endured last Christmas. She does a pretty good job of looking interested while I describe melodramatically scraping an unwanted starter into the food bin, but as I continue waffling and I notice a look of despair creep across her amazing face something tells me she’s wondering if it’s too late to get SBTV back. Anyway I conclude my anecdote with the observation that there’s “nothing like Christmas to bring out passive aggressive family issues”. This seems to ring a bell. Ding dong merrily on high, goes the bell in her head. (That’s a Christmas reference.)
“But it happens, you know,” she agrees. “You don’t see them for ages, then you’re all shoved together and you’re supposed to get on. Well that doesn’t happen in my house – there’s screaming kids, fighting, people getting slapped down for cheating at board games.”
Leona seems extremely offended when I ask if she cheats at board games and explains that she wins a lot not because she cheats but because she’s competitive. And then I say that if you’re really competitive then surely cheating has to be part of your arsenal, but she’s having none of it. “I like to win fair and square,” she says. And that is that.
The big Christmas question is whether Ellie Goulding should buy Leona a Christmas present to say thank you for ‘Burn’ which, as you know, was originally recorded by Leona. So I ask that question to Leona and she laughs and then she says this:
“What’s THAT supposed to mean? Well, I know what you’re referring to. Actually, I’ve recorded quite a few songs that other artists have done really well with.”
At this point I probably should have asked her to list all the hits she nearly released because that would have been quite interesting but instead I simply ask if this means Rihanna should give her a present as well.
“They should all, clearly, buy me Christmas presents,” Leona declares. She is joking. But is she? Yes she is. “The thing is, if I had released ‘Burn’, I don’t think it would have gone on to do as well as Ellie’s version. It wouldn’t have worked for me. It just wouldn’t have. It was meant to be hers, I’m glad she did it, and I think she did it really well. I really like Ellie Goulding, I’m a big fan.”
Yes but would you like a present from her?
“I’d like a present from everyone! I want a present from you?”
Very well Leona, what would you like?
“I’d like a gramophone,” she says, adding that she hadn’t played old records on a record player before messing around with one in Biff’s studio recently. “I tried to steal his but he wouldn’t let me,” she says, suddenly looking a bit sad. “So I’ll have top get someone to buy one for me.”
And who should get a potato in their stocking?
“There’s a guy who gave me really bad road rage the other day,” she says. She’ll later talk about this with Metro. “He was so aggressive. He was driving along in his big white van and he overtook me really quickly. I get mad with men who get aggressive when they’re driving.”
I ask if Leona, when faced with the problem of people overtaking, then drives really close to them, secretly hoping that they will have to suddenly brake. And hoping that she can then sail into the back of their vehicle, knowing that when the driver gets out and starts ‘giving it all that’ she can calmly say, “well, if you hadn’t been a dick and overtaken me I wouldn’t have been able to smash up the back of your vehicle”.
“Alright, calm down!” she laughs.
We talk a bit about the album she wants to record next year: she’s going to work with Biff again, she reckons, but she’d also like to work with The Smeezingtons and Bruno Mars. But that’s not very festive so we circle back around and discuss festive tunes, specially Kelly Clarkson’s ‘Underneath The Tree’ which as all sensible people know is seven different kinds of amazing.
When you first heard Kelly Clarkson’s Christmas song, I ask, what did you think?
“I really liked it,” she says. She’s pretty convincing. She might even be telling the truth. Who can say?
“I feel like it’s much more standard than mine – it’s what you’d expect,” she adds. This will probably be interpreted as ‘shade’ by The Ladies And Gentlemen Of The Internet but actually Leona doesn’t mean it in that way as the following clarification proves: “It’s beautiful, and beautifully produced. But I feel like mine is coming from a different angle.”
Did you think, just a bit, “fuck you Kelly Clarkson, Christmas was supposed to be mine this year”?
“I didn’t no,” she laughs. “That takes the love out of it, doesn’t it? That takes the soul out of it. I am competitive but toward my fellow artists I feel like there’s enough Christmas to go round..”
The X Factor winner adds: “Trying to do something better than someone else isn’t why I got into this.”
But were you not a bit fucked off?
“Not at all! And I wasn’t even supposed to release my Christmas album in the US, then at the last minute the American label heard it and were really into it, so it’s coming out there too. So that’s cool for me.”
We move on to the topic of Christmas shopping and January sales.
Being a global songstress do you still wait for the sales every year, or can you now just get stuff full price?
“I never used to wait for the sales,” she says. “Don’t forget I worked at H&M – and I vowed to myself I would never buy anything in a sale, ever. I like things nicely and neatly laid out before me. Even if it means I need to spend a little more. My mum and dad had a shop when I was younger and I hated it when they put on sales. I went to a sample sale once. I almost got taken out by this one woman who had a sparkly dress I had in my hand.”
Was it Ellie Goulding?
“YES! AND SHE WORE IT ON THE X FACTOR! No, it wasn’t. But I won. I got the dress. But you don’t want to be getting into fights in sample sales, do you?”
Our special time together it coming to an end because Leona probably has to talk to Gigwise or something so I finish things off by wondering out loud whether the world be a better place if one year in every ten years they banned Christmas, threw anybody buying a present in jail, and instead insisted that all money was given to homeless charities.
“That would be amazing,” Leona decides. “How can we enforce that?”
Well if you want to ban Christmas you need to sit down with David Cameron, I say, and have a discussion.
“About banning Christmas? I don’t think I’d want to ban Christmas per se, I don’t think that would go down very well, but spending money on presents is something I would like to ban. Celebrating Christmas is allowed. Buying presents is not.”
And with that, it’s time to take some photographs of Leona in a variety of madcap festive locations.
I ask Leona if she is ready to go and pretend to have fun. She doesn’t like the idea of this.
“Can we not have actual fun?” she says. “I don’t want to pretend.”
Billboard Interview + Performances
One More Sleep
Winter Wonderland
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One Direction Perform Your Fave Single at Voice Spain
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How to Train Your Dragon 2 Full Trailer
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"12 Years A Slave" Continues To Slay At Critics Choice Awards
Best Picture: "12 Years a Slave"
Best Director: Steve McQueen, "12 Years a Slave"
Best Actor: Chiwetel Ejiofor, "12 Years a Slave"
Best Actress: Brie Larson, "Short Term 12"
Best Supporting Actor: Jared Leto, "Dallas Buyers Club"
Best Supporting Actress: Lupita Nyong’o, "12 Years a Slave"
Best Adapted Screenplay: "12 Years a Slave"
Best Original Screenplay: "American Hustle"
Best Cinematography: "Gravity"
Best Animated Film: "Frozen"
Best Documentary: "20 Feet from Stardom"
Best Foreign Film: "Blue is the Warmest Color"
Best Ensemble: "12 Years a Slave"
Best Picture: "12 Years a Slave" (Runner-up: "American Hustle")
Best Director: Steve McQueen, "12 Years a Slave" (Runner-up: Alfonso Cuarón, "Gravity")
Best Actor: Chiwetel Ejiofor, "12 Years a Slace" (Runner-up: Joaquin Phoenix, "Her")
Best Actress: Cate Blanchett, "Blue Jasmine" (Runner-up: Judi Dench, "Philomena")
Best Supporting Actor: Jared Leto, "Dallas Buyers Club" (Runner-up: Michael Fassbender, "12 Years a Slave")
Best Supporting Actress: Lupita Nyong'o, "12 Years a Slave" (Runner-up: Jennifer Lawrence, "American Hustle"
Best Adapted Screenplay: "12 Years a Slave" (Runner-up: "The Wolf of Wall Street")
Best Original Screenplay: "Her" (Runner-up: "American Hustle")
Best Art Direction/Production Design: "The Great Gatsby" (Runner-up: "American Hustle")
Best Cinematography: "Gravity" (Runner-up: "Inside Llewyn Davis")
Best Visual Effects: "Gravity" (Runner-up: "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug")
Best Animated Feature: "Frozen" (Runner-up: "The Wind Rises")
Best Foreign Language Film: "Blue is the Warmest Color" (Runner-up: "The Hunt")
Pauline Kael Breakout Award: Lupita Nyong'o, "12 Years a Slave" (Runner-up: Michael B. Jordan, "Fruitvale Station")
Best Picture: “12 Years a Slave”
Best Director: Steve McQueen, “12 Years a Slave”
Best Actor: Matthew McConaughey, “Dallas Buyers Club”
Best Actress: Emma Thompson, “Saving Mr. Banks”
Best Supporting Actor: Jared Leto, “Dallas Buyers Club”
Best Supporting Actress: Lupita Nyong’o, “12 Years a Slave”
Best Screenplay: Spike Jonze, “Her”
Best Foreign Film: “Blue is the Warmest Color”
Best Documentary: “Blackfish”
Best Animated Film: “Frozen”
Best Cinematography: Emmanuel Lubezki, “Gravity”
Best Film Editing: Alfonso Cuaron & Mark Sanger, “Gravity”
Best Art Direction: Andy Nicholson, “Gravity”
Best Costume Design: Patricia Norris, “12 Years a Slave”
Best Score: Hans Zimmer, “12 Years a Slave”
Best Song: “Please Mr. Kennedy,” “Inside Llewyn Davis”
Best Visual Effects: “Gravity”
Best Family Film: “Saving Mr. Banks”
Best Horror/Sci-Fi Film: “Pacific Rim”
Best Comedy Film: “This is the End”
Best Action Film: “Lone Survivor”
Youth in Film: Tye Sheridan, “Mud”
Breakout Filmmaker of the Year: Ryan Coogler, “Fruitvale Station”
Best DVD: “Breaking Bad – The Complete Series”
William Holden Lifetime Achievement Award: John Goodman
LVFCS Top 10 Films of 2013
1. "12 Years a Slave"
2. "Dallas Buyers Club"
3. "Gravity"
4. "The Wolf of Wall Street"
5. "American Hustle"
6. "Inside Llewyn Davis"
7. "Saving Mr. Banks"
8. "Nebraska"
9. "Her"
10. "Lone Survivor"
Black Film Critics Circle
Florida Film Critics Circle
Las Vegas Film Critics' Society
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The Top 10 (5) Breakthrough Actors Of 2013
2013 has been a great year for screen performances of all kinds, from veterans getting back in top form—Robert Redford, Tom Hanks, Oprah Winfrey—to rising stars showing us new depths of talent—Chiwetel Ejiofor, the whole wild cast of American Hustle. But today we want to celebrate the actors who broke through in a huge way this year. Whether complete newcomers or up-and-comers who exploded suddenly, these 10 actors have shown how much can happen when one great performance gets everyone talking.
Dane DeHaan
While Dane DeHaan has been popping up here and there for years, making memorable impressions on HBO’s In Treatment and in last year’s surprisingly thrilling and inventive superhero tweak Chronicle, 2013 was truly a watershed year for this beguiling, wily actor. In the spring he anchored the third leg of Derek Cianfrance’s gorgeous family melodrama triptychThe Place Beyond the Pines, playing what could easily have been a stereotypically angsty teenager with intelligence and woundedness that broke our hearts in just the right ways. Then this fall he played another fascinating variation on a troubled youngster in John Krokidas’s enveloping biographical drama Kill Your Darlings, playing an alluring and maddening Lucien Carr to Daniel Radcliffe’s understandably lovestruck Allen Ginsberg. (He was also in Metallica’s experimental concert film Through the Never, if that’s your bag.) DeHaan displays the focus and cerebral intensity that we associate with other brilliant characters actors who can also play leads, like Kevin Spacey. His alienly appealing good looks don’t hurt either. DeHaan will test the big-budget superhero movie waters as a villainous Harry Osborn in next summer’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2, but let’s hope that’s his last tortured soul for a while. We’ve a suspicion that he’s capable of much, much more.
Michael B. Jordan
A decade after devastating viewers of The Wire as Wallace, the doomed teenage drug dealer who loses his innocence on the inner-city streets of Baltimore, Michael B. Jordan graduated to big-screen heartbreak this year in Fruitvale Station. The celebrated Sundance indie, which won the Grand Jury Prize, featured the Friday Night Lights and Parenthood actor as Oscar Grant III, the real-life 22-year-old who, while unarmed, was fatally shot by a white Bay Area Rapid Transit police officer in 2009. The gut-wrenching role won Jordan a handful of Breakthrough Performer awards amongst a tidal wave of critical accolades. Up next, he’ll test-drive his comedic skills with That Awkward Moment, a romantic comedy in which Jordan’s character deals with, rather than doles out, heartbreak—and slowly wades back into the New York City dating scene alongside his single pals played by Zac Efron and fellow 2013 breakthrough actor Miles Teller.
Brie Larson
She had gotten really good at playing the pretty girl—crushing on Jonah Hill in 21 Jump Street, menacing Michael Cera as his ex in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, surrounding Ben Stiller with teenage energy in Greenberg. But it took this year’s indie standout Short Term 12 to prove how much more Larson had to offer. Playing the fiercely committed supervisor of a short-term care facility for foster kids, Larson created a believably selfless but imperfect character, a young woman who gives up so much to take care of other kids but who doubts her own abilities at every turn. With John Gallagher Jr. she created a convincingly intimate but challenged romantic relationship, and with lesser-known co-stars like Kaitlyn Dever and Keith Stanfield explored the furthest depths of empathy—an emotion so rarely celebrated onscreen. Larson won a Gotham Independent Film Award for Best Actress and many other nominations, and the industry has paid attention—she’ll star opposite Mark Wahlberg in an upcoming remake of The Gambler. Roles as rich as the one in Short Term 12 don’t come around often, but all the great ones should now be going to Larson, who at 24 has already proven she can handle just about anything thrown at her.
Lupita Nyong'o
Lupita Nyong’o’s role in 12 Years A Slave practically requires that you don’t know her. As Patsey, one of many slaves working in brutal conditions on the Louisiana plantation owned by Michael Fassbender’s Epps, Nyong’o recedes into the background at first, one of the many weathered faces that Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor) encounters when sold into slavery. But Patsey emerges throughout the film as a woman with a strong spirit who lives in daily terror; the contrast between her relationships with Epps and Solomon display Nyongo’s full range of vulnerability and ferocity, and in the film’s showstopper climax it’s her emotions that bring the true devastation. Nyong’o is practically a guaranteed Oscar nominee for her role, and the question isn’t whether she’ll be great in what comes next, but how she’ll top her thrilling debut screen performance.
Miles Teller
Miles Teller may not have classic leading-man looks, but the 26-year-old positively radiates charm, which explains why some in-the-know types have him pegged as the next Tom Hanks. Or is it John Cusack? In James Ponsoldt's festival hit The Spectacular Now, Teller complicates the party-boy image he's built up in pictures like 21 and Over and Project X, showing us all how Lloyd Dobler might have behaved if he'd been born in 1987 and accepted by the "in" crowd. Teller has so much charisma that it's almost possible to believe that Shailene Woodley would be the nerd to his prom king, but we also glimpse the soul behind his smirk. Next year, Teller will sync up with Woodley again in Divergent, split the screen with Zac Efron and Michael B. Jordan in That Awkward Moment, and return to the festival circuit with Damien Chazelle's Whiplash. He's also rumored to be director Josh Trank's top choice to play Mr. Fantastic in an upcomingFantastic Four reboot.
Vanity Fair
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"All I Want For Christmas is You" hits 1 million sales in UK
Mariah Carey's festive favourite, All I Want For Christmas Is You, has seen a seasonal sales surge tip it over the 1 million sales milestone in the UK. And, as new Official Charts Company data shows, the British public have bought an incredible 15 million Christmas tunes, digitally, since downloading began in 2004.
Mariah's much-loved seasonal classic passed the landmark sales threshold yesterday, establishing itself as one of the UK's all-time greatest hits. The US singer was triumphant when told of the achievement yesterday, telling OfficialCharts.com: "I just landed back in the US after performing a charity show in Africa for the Red Cross. I'm driving home looking at the snow in my hometown of NYC, celebrating selling 1 million copies of All I Want For Christmas Is You in the UK. Thank you, thank you to all of my British fans! Love, Mariah."
The British public can't get enough of Mariah's sleigh bell-adorned classic, having snapped up 68,000 copies already in 2013. Co-written/produced by Mariah along with Walter Afanasieff, the track first appeared on the festive album Merry Christmas and its lasting appeal has seen it generate an estimated $50 million in royalties globally since.
All I Want For Christmas Is You peaked at Number 2 in 1994, after being kept off the festive top spot by East 17's Stay Another Day. It was unavailable for several years, however, thanks to the advent of digital and the song's feel-good singalong factor, it returned to the Official Singles Chart in 2007 and has done so over and over again every December since, charting at Number 4 (2007), 12 (2008), 18 (2009), 22 (2010), 11 (2011), 20 (2012) and this year (it reached Number 12 in last Sunday's chart).
The song is one of only 142 singles in the history of the Official Charts to pass the million copies mark in the UK. All I Want For Christmas joins eight other seasonal big hitters to have reached this landmark including Bing Crosby's White Christmas, Slade's Merry Christmas Everybody and Band Aid's Do They Know It's Christmas. Mariah is currently working on a new solo album, due for release in spring 2014.
The digital revolution has transformed the market for classic Christmas tunes. Brand new Official Charts analysis indicates that, over the past 10 years since legitimate downloading was born in the UK, a total of more than 15.4m Christmas tracks have been sold digitally (spanning festive songs, plus Christmas Number 1s past and present).
A range of classics, including The Pogues' Fairytale Of New York, Wham!'s Last Christmas and Slade's Merry Christmas Everybody, regularly sell between 40,000 and 100,000 copies every year. Official Charts Company chief executive Martin Talbot says: "We've always known that British music fans love their Christmas tunes, but this new analysis shows just how much. Every year, these classics are selling well over 500,000 copies between them, year after year - with some of the biggest titles selling over 100,000 copies a year. We certainly are a nation of festive classic fanatics."
Gennaro Castaldo of the BPI, the trade body for the UK recorded music industry says: ":Along with CD compilations, downloads and now streaming have helped to give our classic Christmas songs a new lease of life and make them a permanent part of our festive celebrations each year. It's great news, not just for the artists who are kept in royalties and for fans who love them, but also for the wider UK music industry, which benefits from the increasingly important contribution they now make."
Source
another day, another record broken. CHEERS, DAHLING
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