Aug 29 - 31 Weekend Box Office Estimates (U.S.)

1 Tropic Thunder - DreamWorks SKG

2 Babylon A.D. - 20th Century Fox Distribution

3 The Dark Knight - Warner Bros. Pictures Distribution, Warner Bros. Pictures International

4 The House Bunny - Sony Pictures Releasing

5 Traitor - Overture Films

6 Death Race - Universal Pictures

7 Disaster Movie - Lionsgate Films

8 Mamma Mia! - Universal Pictures Distribution

9 Pineapple Express - Sony Pictures Releasing

10 Vicky Cristina Barcelona - MGM Distribution Company, The Weinstein Company

11 Star Wars: The Clone Wars - Warner Bros. Pictures Distribution

12 Mirrors - 20th Century Fox

Aug 22 - 24 Weekend Box Office

** the first number shows the moie's rank for this weekend and the second figure show's the movie's rank last week:


1 1 Tropic Thunder - DreamWorks Pictures
2 - The House Bunny - Sony Pictures Releasing
3 - Death Race - Universal Pictures
4 2 The Dark Knight - Warner Bros. Pictures Distribution
5 3 Star Wars: The Clone Wars - Warner Bros. Pictures Distribution $
6 5 Pineapple Express - Sony Pictures Releasing
7 4 Mirrors - 20th Century Fox
8 - The Longshots - Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (MGM)
9 7 Mamma Mia! - Universal Pictures Distribution
10 6 The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor - Universal Pictures Distribution
11 10 Vicky Cristina Barcelona - MGM Distribution Company, The Weinstein Company
12 - The Rocker - 20th Century Fox Distribution

http://movies.yahoo.com/mv/boxoffice/weekend

Find out how much Britney spends to stop looking perpetually pregnant

Britney was getting sick of the constant pregnancy rumors, so she decided to do something about it that. Yes guys she's been spending $2200 per month! on a personal trainer, nutritionist and dance choreographer.

The Daily Mail reports, She has also taken on some of Victoria Beckham's diet tips, eating plenty of steamed fish and snacking on edamame beans.

Britney also endures intensive work-outs with Pussycat Dolls' personal trainer James Van Daff as well as three-hour dance classes six times a week. The source added: 'Britney piled on a lot of weight earlier this year.

She was so stressed about the custody case and her medication for her bipolar disorder also made her put on weight.
She was tired of being flabby and wanted to do something about it.'Now, says the insider: 'Britney is so proud of herself because her ab muscles are back. She's feeling better than she has in ages.'

story and pic from http://gossipfiles.blogspot.com/2008_07_01_archive.html

Laurence Fishburne : CSI's New Man

After some time, CSI has finally got a new man on the team, and that man is Laurence Fishburne. yep, the matrix guy. He plays a college lecturer and former pathologist who is focused on why people commit acts of violence. i know, i know, he's got nothing similar to Gil Grissom, but maybe that's exactly what they want. a fresh character. maybe the producers are actually doing everything that they can to stay clear of any comparison between the two.

what can i say about their choice. i am skeptical. i am so used to grissom's scholarly, mysterious approach. i assume fishburne's character will be street smart and arrogant, because that is how he usually plays his character. anyway, unlike others, i still have faith in the CSI franchise. i'm sure the powers that be made all the necessary considerations and they felt he is the best choice.

i'm giving him a chance...

Jennifer Garner Pregnant With 2nd Baby

Congratulations to Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck. after months of leting the press speculate about whether there in a bun baking in her oven, finally the cat's out of the bag. yep, they're pregnant. little violet will be having a brother or sister!

Matt Damon Welcomes 2nd Baby

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Hollywood actor Matt Damon and his wife Luciana on Wednesday announced the birth of their second child, a baby girl named Gia Zavala, US media reported.

"Everyone's doing great," Damon's rep, Jennifer Allen, told People magazine.
"She is a healthy baby girl."
Damon, 37, met Luciana at the Miami bar where she worked in 2003, when he was filming the movie "Stuck on You."

The couple married in December 2005. They live with their first-born daughter, Isabella, 2, and Alexia, 10, who is Luciana's daughter from a previous relationship.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080820/en_afp/entertainmentuspeopledamonchildren_080820230919


Happy news all around! people getting married and people getting babies! Congratulations!

Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi Gets Married

Yep, they did it. They really did tie the knot. After Ellen DeGeneres announced in her show last May that they are getting married, a lot of people are anticipating their next move. will they actually take the plunge? they made the announcement after California's Supreme Court ruled a previous ban on gay marriage to be unconstitutional.

A month after the announcement, Portia de Rossi, 35 was seen sporting a 3-carat diamond ring that Ellen, 50, gave to her. They have been dating since 2004.

The intimate ceremony was attended by 19 guests, including their respective mothers, who witnessed the couple exchange handwritten vows.

Congratulations to the happy couple!

Aug 15 - 17 Weekend Box Office

Weekend Box Office Estimates (U.S.)
Aug 15 - 17 weekend

This Last
Week Week Title

1 - Tropic Thunder

2 1 The Dark Knight

3 - Star Wars: The Clone Wars

4 - Mirrors

5 2 Pineapple Express

6 3 The Mummy:Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

7 6 Mamma Mia!

8 4 The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2

9 5 Step Brothers

10 - Vicky Cristina Barcelona

A Lighter, Paler Beyonce?

Beyonce--who, incidentally, has long been managed by her own parent, daddy Mathew, and styled by her mother Tina--found herself in the center of controversy this week. Only weeks after her Dreamgirls co-star Jennifer Hudson was accused of being over-Photoshopped in her album-cover photo, allegations surfaced that Beyonce's likeness was also digitally altered--this time for a new L'Oreal print ad. It seemed the B'Day girl looked a little paler than usual in the magazine advertisement, thus creating a public outcry. Beyonce's camp has remained quiet on this matter so far, but L'Oreal reps adamantly deny that their famous spokesmodel's complexion was lightened in the somewhat suspicious photo. "We highly value our relationship with Ms. Knowles. It is categorically untrue that L'Oreal Paris altered Ms. Knowles' features or skin tone in the campaign for Feria hair color," the company insisted in a statement.

source: http://new.music.yahoo.com/blogs/thatsreallyweek/21502/august-4-11-beyond-the-pale

Actor Bernie Mac Dies at 50

Bernie Mac blended style, authority and a touch of self-aware bluster to make audiences laugh as well as connect with him. For Mac, who died Saturday at age 50, it was a winning mix, delivering him from a poor childhood to stardom as a standup comedian, in films including the casino heist caper "Ocean's Eleven" and his acclaimed sitcom "The Bernie Mac Show."

Though his comedy drew on tough experiences as a black man, he had mainstream appeal — befitting inspiration he found in a wide range of humorists: Harpo Marx as well as Moms Mabley; squeaky-clean Red Skelton, but also the raw Redd Foxx.

Mac died Saturday morning from complications due to pneumonia in a Chicago area hospital, his publicist, Danica Smith, said in a statement from Los Angeles. She said no other details were available.

"The world just got a little less funny," said "Oceans" co-star George Clooney.

Don Cheadle, another member of the "Oceans" gang, concurred: "This is a very sad day for many of us who knew and loved Bernie. He brought so much joy to so many. He will be missed, but heaven just got funnier."

Mac suffered from sarcoidosis, an inflammatory lung disease that produces tiny lumps of cells in the body's organs, but had said the condition went into remission in 2005. He recently was hospitalized and treated for pneumonia, which his publicist said was not related to the disease.

Recently, Mac's brand of comedy caught him flack when he was heckled during a surprise appearance at a July fundraiser for Democratic presidential candidate and fellow Chicagoan Barack Obama.

Toward the end of a 10-minute standup routine, Mac joked about menopause, sexual infidelity and promiscuity, and used occasional crude language. Obama took the stage about 15 minutes later, implored Mac to "clean up your act next time," then let him off the hook, adding: "By the way, I'm just messing with you, man."

Even so, Obama's campaign later issued a rebuke, saying the senator "doesn't condone these statements and believes what was said was inappropriate."

But despite controversy or difficulties, in his words, Mac was always a performer.

"Wherever I am, I have to play," he said in 2002. "I have to put on a good show."

Mac worked his way to Hollywood success from an impoverished upbringing on Chicago's South Side. He began doing standup as a child, telling jokes for spare change on subways, and his film career started with a small role as a club doorman in the Damon Wayans comedy "Mo' Money" in 1992. In 1996, he appeared in the Spike Lee drama "Get on the Bus."

He was one of "The Original Kings of Comedy" in the 2000 documentary of that title that brought a new generation of black standup comedy stars to a wider audience.

"The majority of his core fan base will remember that when they paid their money to see Bernie Mac ... he gave them their money's worth," Steve Harvey, one of his co-stars in "Original Kings," told CNN on Saturday.

Mac went on to star in the hugely popular "Ocean's Eleven" franchise with Brad Pitt and George Clooney, playing a gaming-table dealer who was in on the heist. Carl Reiner, who also appeared in the "Ocean's" films, said Saturday he was "in utter shock" because he thought Mac's health was improving.

"He was just so alive," Reiner said. "I can't believe he's gone."

Mac and Ashton Kutcher topped the box office in 2005's "Guess Who," a comedy remake of the classic Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn drama "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?" Mac played the dad who's shocked that his daughter is marrying a white man.

Mac also had starring roles in "Bad Santa," "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle" and "Transformers."

But his career and comic identity were forged in television.

In the late 1990s, he had a recurring role in "Moesha," the UPN network comedy starring pop star Brandy. The critical and popular acclaim came after he landed his own Fox television series "The Bernie Mac Show," about a child-averse couple who suddenly are saddled with three children.

Mac mined laughs from the universal frustrations of parenting, often breaking the "fourth wall" to address the camera throughout the series that aired from 2001 to 2006. "C'mon, America," implored Mac, in character as the put-upon dad. "When I say I wanna kill those kids, YOU know what I mean."

The series won a Peabody Award in 2002, and Mac was nominated for a Golden Globe and an Emmy. In real life, he was "the king of his household" — very much like his character on that series, his daughter, Je'niece Childress, told The Associated Press on Saturday.

"But television handcuffs you, man," he said in a 2001 Associated Press interview before the show had premiered. "Now everyone telling me what I CAN'T do, what I CAN say, what I SHOULD do, and asking, `Are blacks gonna be mad at you? Are whites gonna accept you?'"

He also was nominated for a Grammy award for best comedy album in 2001 along with his "The Original Kings of Comedy" co-stars Harvey, D.L. Hughley and Cedric The Entertainer.

Chicago music producer Carolyn Albritton said she was Bernie Mac's first manager, having met him in 1991 at Chicago's Cotton Club where she hosted an open-mike night. He was an immediate hit, Albritton said Saturday, and he asked her to help guide his career.

"From very early on I thought he was destined for success," Albritton said. "He never lost track of where he came from, and he'd often use real life experiences, his family, his friends, in his routine. After he made it, he stayed a very humble man. His family was the most important thing in the world to him."

In 2007, Mac told David Letterman on CBS' "Late Show" that he planned to retire soon.

"I'm going to still do my producing, my films, but I want to enjoy my life a little bit," Mac told Letterman. "I missed a lot of things, you know. I was a street performer for two years. I went into clubs in 1977."

Mac was born Bernard Jeffrey McCullough on Oct. 5, 1957, in Chicago. He grew up on the city's South Side, living with his mother and grandparents. His grandfather was the deacon of a Baptist church.

In his 2004 memoir, "Maybe You Never Cry Again," Mac wrote about having a poor childhood — eating bologna for dinner — and a strict, no-nonsense upbringing.

"I came from a place where there wasn't a lot of joy," Mac told the AP in 2001. "I decided to try to make other people laugh when there wasn't a lot of things to laugh about."

Mac's mother died of cancer when he was 16. In his book, Mac said she was a support for him and told him he would surprise everyone when he grew up.

"Woman believed in me," he wrote. "She believed in me long before I believed."

Mac's death Saturday coincided with the annual Bud Billiken Parade in Chicago, a major event in the predominantly black South Side that the comedian had previously attended.

"It's truly the passing of one of our favorite sons," said Paula Robinson, president of the Black Metropolis National Heritage Area. "He was extremely innovative in putting his life experiences in comedic form and doing it without vulgarity.

"He was an ambassador of Chicago's black community, and the national black community at large."


Associated Press writers F.N. D'Alessio, Daniel J. Yovich, Caryn Rousseau and Carla K. Johnson in Chicago contributed to this report.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080809/ap_en_ce/obit_bernie_mac

madonna after botox?

i am a madonna fan. let me just get that out to the world. i love her songs. i don't really like her as a person, but much to my hubby's dismay, i do have her cd's and i just can't resist tapping my feet or just swaying to the beats of her music. and i heard she writes most of her music.

she was not made up in this pic and you can actually see how old she now looks... and skeletal. and some are saying that she just had her face done, facelift or botox, this after she had her boobies done.

when she performs onstage it seems she hasn't aged at all, and yet now looking at her pic, i guess it was all done with smokes and mirrors.

scary.

eva mendez:: sizzling hot!

Calvin Klein's Obsession., incredibly sexy model... need i say more?

review :: a very special love

hubby and i finally gave in. we watched a special kind of love featuring john lloyd cruz and sarah geronimo.

to be honest, i have been apprehensive to watch this movie. being a movie buff, i love most movies i watch, but i've had my share of disapppintments when it comes to pinoy movies, quija being one of them. in my experience, pinoy movies are just combinations of formulaic scenes taken from different successful movies, and sometimes the end result isn't at all pretty.

i have been a fan of john lloyd since his tabing ilog days, i have seen his acting prowess a number of times and so i was sure that he will give a solid performance. while i have always loved sarah's singing, i was pleasantly surprised that she is now a lady acting in a major love story movie. what surprised me even more is that she is actually good! not OA at all! she is so charming and endearing. her performance is very raw and heartfelt. yep, i expected the worse from her and she proved me wrong. hehehe

the storyline however was as i expected it. nothing new there. typical pinoy love story, with the compulsary drama, comic relief, kilig moments and yes, even the ever-present-in-pinoy-movies musical production number. i really wish pinoys will soon come up with something original, something out of the ordinary, not the usual fare we've gotten used to.

the supporting roles were solid and impressive: Dante Rivero, Rowell Santiago, Matet, Gio Alvarez, Al Tantay and Irma A. (sorry i forgot). they really played their roles well. hubby kept commenting on the fact that the "extras" or the "supporting actors and actresses" were actually bida quality.

anyway, it was a feel good movie, and hubby and i did come out of the movie house pleased and content... the movie's theme song etched in my memory, a terrible case of LSS.

i'm glad we watched this movie. sulit talaga, because aside from the cast's wonderful acting... one thing is for sure... ang gwapo talaga ni john lloyd!!!