Nicole Kidman and Naomi Watts - PEP TALK

Nicole kept Naomi going

         Nicole kidman convinced Naomi Watts not to give up acting. The actresses became friends growing up in Australia and both moved to Hollywood to pusue their careers. But while Nicloe became a huge celebrity, Naomi found the path to stardom harder. At one point, she considered a career change, until she was given a pep talk by her friend.

            Naomi said, "I'd been slogging away in Hollywood for five years, getting nowhere. At castings. I was constantly told I wasn't talented enough, I wasn't right, I wasn't beautiful enough, I was nowhere near sexy enough, I thought about quitting acting and took other jobs. Nicle actually gave me hope. She'd tell me that it would only take one film, one casting and everything would change." 

        Eventually Naomi, 41, got her break in the dark thriller Mulhooand Drive in 2001, and has since, become known for taking offbeat roles, appearing in The Ring and 21 Grams as well as box office smashes, including King Kong.

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CM WITH THE Ilaignan team at the launch

UNIQUE HONOUR

         Director Suresh Krissna is an excited man these days. And the reason for his excitement is his 50th film, Ilaignan, in which he is working with the Chief Minister, M Karunanidhi!

          Explaining how the project came his way, the director said, "Pa Vijay had met the CM to discuss a project they had in mind. It was a big project and the Chief minister told Pa Vijay that he would require a senior director to handle it. So, Pa Vijay called me and asked me if he could recommend my name to the CM. I replied that I would be honoured to direct this film and that I couldn't expect a bigger project than this. I told him that I would be overjoyed if I could be even a small part of the CM's illustrious career. I then went and met the CM and after that, have been interacting with him consistently over the past few months."

          Visibly delighted about the CM inaugurating the film, he said, "It was the proudest moment of my life when he rolled the camera by saying 'action' ". The film, a period one, will feature Pa Vijay, Ramya Nambeesan, Khushbu and Manivannan, among otthers. 

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Anuja Iyer - PRONOUNCE IT RIGHT!

Hail Thamizh!

          Beauty and brains rarely go together, but when they do, the combination is lethal. Anuja Iyer of Unnaipol Oruvan fame has time and again proved to be quite a head turner after making a mark on the silver screen with some commendable perfomances, and now, she's putting her hand to the pen.

             As a celebrity columnist for a popular website that focusses on the happenings in tinseltown. the actress hosts a fortnightly column and writes about her personal experiences in the field. "As actors, we constantly express, emote, laugh, cry, share and also make the audience a part of out lives. And I thought, why stop with just expressing myself on-screen, where one portrays emotions according to the director's vision of a character? What about my very own thoughts?"

         Thus began her journey of expressing herself in words. In her firstpiece, she toes a popular line -- giving Tamil its rightful due. "When I hear people pronouncing "Thamizh' as 'Tamil' (TAM-il), I immediately ask them to roll their tongue and stick it on the upper jaw to bring out the 'zha' in 'Thamizh', " writes Anuja.

         But Tamil is nhot the only subject that excites Anuja. Anything from interesting happenings on the sets to trends in the industry inspires her. Even as she works her grey cells, Anuja is busy with her next project, Kaadhal to Kalyaanam, directed by Milind Rau.

   With enough on her plate, looks like Anuja is quite the busy bee.

       

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Green Tea fight with Glaucoma

Green tea may help fight glaucoma

Washington: Green tea, renowned for its powerful antioxidant and disease-fighting properties, has been found to help protect against glaucoma and other eye diseases.

               The new study the first documenting how the lens, retina and other eye tissues absorb these substances, opens the possibility that green tea may protect against glaucoma and other common eye diseases. glaucoma is a disease in which the optic nerve is damaged, leading to progressive, irreversible loss of vision.

                Chi Pui Pang, department of ophthalmology and visual sciences, Chinese University of Hong Kong, and colleagues point out that the so-called green tea "catechins" have been among a number of antioxidants thought capable of protecting the eye.

                Those include vitamin C, vitamin E, lutein and zeaxanthin.Until  now, however, nobody knew if the catechins in green tea actually passed from the stomach and gastrointestinal tract into the tissues of the eye.

                Pang and his collegues resolved that uncertainty in experiments with lab rats that drank green tea, said a release of the American Chemcial Society (ACS).

                Analysis of eye tissues showed beyond a doubt that eye structures absorbed singnificant amounts of individual catechins. The effects of green tea catechins in reducing harmful oxidative stress in the eye lasted for up to 20 hours . "Our results indecate that green tea consumption could benefit the eye against oxidative stress," the study concludes.

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Health Issue - Painkiller

Painkiller from body's heat

messenger?

Washington: Researchers have discovered the body's own "heat messenger" , which helps nerves feel pain, and said that they hope to use it to design a new, safer class of painkillers.

         They found heat activates basic fatty acids similar to capsaicin, the compound that gives chili peppers their kick, and found two potential ways to block the sensation. "For the first time we have the opportunity to try to block pain at its source, " Kenneth Hargreaves of The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, who led the strdy, said.

         They are now working to develop either a pill that people could take to block the effects of these natural "heat messengers" , or engineered immune system proteins called monoclonal antibodies that could be infused to mop them up.

        

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HEALTH CARE: 5-Minutes Colon Cancer Test

5-minutes colon cancer test

could save thousands

London: A Five-minute colon cancer test could reduce the number of deaths from the disease by about 40% , a new study says.

          British researchers followed more than 170,000 people for about 11 years. Of those, more than 40,000 had a "flexiscope" test, and and exam that removes polyps,small growths that could become cancerous.
           The test invloves having a pen-sized tube inserted into the colon so doctors can identify and remove small polyps. Experts used the test on people in their 50s. In the UK, government-funder colon cancer screening doesn't start until 60.
           Researchers compared those results to more than 113,000 people who were not screened. They found the flexiscope test reduced peoples'chances of getting colon cancer by one third. It also cut their chances of dying by 43% Researchers said the test needed to be done just once in aperson's lifetime.
           The results were published online on Wednesday in Lancet, Experts said the findings could make some authorities reconsider how they look for colon cancer. Colon cancer is the third most commonly diagnosed form of the disease worldwide accounting for more than one million cases and 600,000 deaths annually. 
         

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T20 ICC WORLD TWENTY20 WEST INDIES 2010

T20 ICC WORLD

TWENTY20

WEST INDIES 2010

THE SCHEDULE

Group A:    AUSTRALIA, BANGLADESH, PAKISTAN

Group B:    NEW ZEALAND, SRI LANKA, ZIMBABWE

GROUP C: INDIA, SOUTH AFRICA, AFGHANISTAN

GROUP D: ENGLAND, WEST INDIES, IRELAND

GROUP STAGE

APRIL 30 (FRI): New Zealand vs Sri Lanka

Providence Stadium, Guyana 10.30 pm;

MAY 1 (SAT): West Indies vs Ireland, Providence

Stadium 2.30am; Afghanistan vs India, Beausejour 

Stadium, Gros Islet-St Lucia 7 pm; Bangladesh vs

Pakistan, Beausejour Stadium 11 pm.

MAY 2 (SUN): India vs South Africa, Beausejour

Stadium 7 pm; Australia vs Pakistan Beausejour Stadium.

MAY 3 (MON): Sri Lanka vs Zimbabwe, Providence

Stadium 7 pm; West Indies vs England, Providence

Stadium 11 pm.

MAY 4 (TUE): New Zealand vs Zimbabwe,

Providence Stadium 7 pm; England vs Ireland, 

Providence Stadium 11 pm.

MAY 5 (WED): Australia vs Bangladesh, Kensington

Oval, Bridgetown, Barbados 7 pm; Afghanistan vs 

South Africa, Kensington Oval 11 pm.

SUPER EIGHTS

MAY 6 (THU): A1 vs D2 7 pm; C1 vs B2 11 pm.

(Kensington Oval) 

MAY 7 (FRI): A2 vs C2 7 pm; B1 vs D1 11 pm.

(Kensington Oval)

MAY 8 (SAT): A1 vs B2 7 pm; D2 vs C1 11 pm.

(Kensington Oval)

MAY 9 (SUND): C2 vs D1 7 pm; B1 vs A2 11 pm.

(Kensington Oval)

MAY 10 (MON): B2 vs D2 7 pm; A1 vs C1 11 pm.

(Beausejour Stadium)

MAY 11 (TUE): B1 vs C2 7 pm (Beausejour Stadium)

MAY 12 (WED): D1 vs A2 2.30 am. (Beausejour Stadium)

THE FINAL COUNTDOWN

MAY 13 (THU): 1st Semifinal 9 pm; Beausejour Stadium

MAY 14 (FRI): 2nd Semifinal 9 pm., Beausejour Stadium. 

MAY 16 (SUN): Final, 9 pm., Kensington Oval 

(All times 1ST) 

*The teams will retain their standings in the Super

Eight Stage. For e.g., if India finish second they would

be C1 and if they are knocked out in the group stage

then south Africa will be C1 and Afghanistan C2

 

 

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Thandie Newton and Beyonce Knowles - ALL FOR A CAUSE

Beyonce and 

Thandie auction

for charity!

         Beyonce Knowles and Thandie Newton have raided their colsets to donate items to a Haiti charity auction. The Crazy In Love hit maker has donated a pair of gold shoes from her I Am...Sasha Fierce world tour, while Newton has offered up a signed jacket that she wore in last year's movie 2012. Other Lots include signed DVDs from The wire star Idris Elba and tickets to the semi-final of Simon Cowell's hit reality TV show. All proceeds from the auction will go to Britain's Disasters Emergency Committee to help fund rescue work in Haiti, which was hit by a massive earthquake in January this year.

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Asin : IN DEMAND

Asin in the

spotlight

       Asin seems to be the most in demand girl in Bollywood these days, Her contemporaries, beware! Recently, there was news that Neil Nitin Mukesh took her to dinner. Then she was bonding with John Abraham over bikes. And now, we have stories of how the reticent Team India captain Mahabendra Singh Dhoni has allegedly been struck by Asin's hospitality and charm.

        The MS-Asin link is definitely a recent development. In fact, when Asin shot for her commercial with Dhoni, she clearly said that she met him during the shoot, and that they just exchanged pleasantries. Now, things seem to have moved in a positive direction. 

         And we are sure some other south Indian Bollywood beauties are eating their hearts out.

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Katrina Kaif - IN DILEMMA

Kat has her cake...

but can't eat it!

       You'd have never guessed it, but fact is that Katrina Kaif loves cakes. And then, because she is a primma donna, she won't eat just about any cake. she loves this particular cake that is available in Dubai; and she has several well-wishers who will bend backwards to fly the cake in for her. However, the last time around, when boxes of her favourite cake arrived, Kat was angry. She was staying in this small hotel in Malshej, shooting for Tees Maar Khan. And she was on a strict diet so she could show off her nice figure. Kat was happy with the frugal food she was given at the hotel; except that on two days when she came into her room, there was a surprise waiting for her. It was her favourite cake. The actress now truly believes that someone got sadistic pleasure in sending her the cake, knowing very well that she wouldn't even nibble at it.

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Leona Lewis - WORKING TACTICS

Leona's motivational mantra

        Leona Lewis writes words of encouragement on her hands. The Bleeding Love singer admits that she gets nervous before she performs. However, she has learned little tricks to help he stay focussed and stop letting her worries get the better of her. She said, "I try to faocus on what I'm doing . I get really nervous beforehand, but as soon as I go out, I'm kind of okay.

         Something else kind of takes over and the nerves just disappear, I think that getting up there and performing in front of thousands of people is like putting on a bit of a character. I sometimes write stuff on my hands, like words from my songs or mantras or something I've read that really helps me." Leona shot to fame after winning the talent show, The X factor, in 2006.

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Arun Vijay - ON A HAPPY NOTE

DELAY NOT A

        DILEMMA

     There's a slight delay in the release of Arun Vijay's next flick Maanja Vellu, but the star is not nonplussed about it. Reason? The delay is due to requests from theatre owners who have a long list of films waiting to be screened. These films haven't been screened because of the cricket season that's been hogging audience interest. Maanja Velu, which also features Karthik in an important role, will now release on May 21.
       "All the theatres that screened our unit's previous hit Malai Malai (MM) wanted to screen Maanja... too and requested us to postpone the release date," says Arun, who appears bald in the climax of the film.
         "The owners who screened MM are close to our team and they think that we give the audience the right mix in terms of commercial ingredients," he adds. Meanwhile, the details of his next flick, Kaval Thurai, which will, as the title suggests, provide an insight into the functioning of the police department.

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Imran Khan - FOR A CAUSE

    Imran: the 

dustbin man

        Imran Khan can be counted on if you have a good cause. He was gung ho when Karan Hohar suggested making a film that would inspire first time voters to get out and cast their vote. And he is also said to have got super excited when his close buddy Abhay Deol recently suggested that the wanted to gift Imran two dustbins, one for wet garbage and one for dry garbage, so that he could make compost from the wet one. Imran actually went out of his way to take time from promoting his upcoming film I Hate Luv Stories to go pose with a dustbin. He told Ahay that he believed in the climate cause and would do anything to support it. Even if it meant romancing a dustbin for a photograph!

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Amrita Rao - POLITICALLY INCLINED

Bollywood to Poliwood?

          Amrita Rao recently had a power-packed rendzvous in mid-air when she happened to meet the former CM and good friend Riteish Deshmukh's dad Vilasrao deshmukh on a flight. The two were seated next to each other, and while most would've expected their conversation to revolve around films, Amrita, however steered it towards politics. Having a heart-to-heart chat with the politico, she could almost be mistaken for a journalist, with a barrage of questions she had about the state of affairs in the city. From the water problems to traffic congestion, the two discussed just about everything.

       Convinced with Deshmukh's vision of making the city into a world city like Singapore, the pettie actress even shared her inputs as a citizen. Impressed, Deshmuch even suggested that Amrita consider joining politics at some point. Now, the hottie giving up Bollywood for 'Poli'wood  seems unlikely.However, we're sure that a pretty face in politics might just prove to be an inspiration for many around. So, what say, Amrita?

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