Kate Upton’s model career is shaping up nicely

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Usually, the world is buzzing right about now over who will grace the cover of the 2013 Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. But last year's chosen one, Kate Upton, is still in the spotlight — and is turning out to be the most profitable model the magazine has ever churned out.
This week, Upton will be unveiled as the new model for Sam Edelman in a campaign with photographer Sebastian Faena, a source tells us.
Ivan Bart, senior vice president and managing director of IMG, which reps Upton, tells Confidenti@l they knew they had something special “the minute she walked in the door” on her 18th birthday.
“I would try to get her in front of famous photographers, even though she was a voluptuous swimsuit model, and her personality would change that conception of her,” Bart tells us. “If we saw resistance, we would say, ‘Just meet her’ and she would change their minds. She’s hilarious and she makes you feel good. Brands know that value.”
Upton, 20, has done campaigns for Guess, Dooney & Burke, Skullcandy, SoBe and the swimwear company Beach Bunny. She has had roles in “Tower Heist” and “The Three Stooges” and photo shoots featured in Italian Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, V, GQ and Esquire. She’s flaunted her curves in commercials for Mercedes-Benz and Carl’s Jr., and that’s only a small slice of her resume, which has rocketed her to multimillionaire status in under a year. Irina Shayk, SI’s 2011 covergirl, has not been as successful as Upton. Brooklyn Decker, 2010’s face, has transformed into a successful actress.
“It’s really only the beginning for (Upton),” Bart says. “Kate’s only beginning to first realize the power that she has. Last year to this year it was still a lot of building blocks, now brands want to up their value. A lot of products are now approaching us because she’s accessible and women are captivated by her. Last year it became very clear in my mind that she was a supermodel like Cindy Crawford."
Upton’s agent, Lisa Benson, says Upton’s next foray will likely be in acting — but that she’s taking it very seriously.
“She has so many roles offered and network TV calls every single day with something,” she says. “What’s kept her apart is she’s doing the homework and studying, and should she make that transition, she’ll be ready. She is waiting for the right role that she will be good at.”
Benson adds that Upton is certainly not shedding that bikini any time soon, though. “Right now, she wants to focus on modeling because it is lucrative for her,” she says.
Susan Sarandon’s table-tennis hotspot, Spin, is being franchised. The New York-based social club, now open in Los Angeles as a private social club with Andre Balazs, also has locations in Toronto and Milwaukee. “She is franchising it and she’s opening many more locations across the country in the next few years,” a friend of the actress tells us. More beer. More pong. Never a bad thing.
She’s been nominated for nine Grammys and won two AMAs, but now Katy Perry’s been honored in a way she can really wax poetic about. The 28-year-old pop star was immortalized in wax over the weekend at the Las Vegas Madame Tussauds museum. On Saturday, Perry posed for the unveiling of a life-sized sculpture whose look was inspired by the blue ’do she sported during her 2011 California Dreams tour

Sundance kicks off with porn-obsessed 'Don Jon

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PARK CITY, Utah — The 2013 Sundance Film Festival got off to a rowdy and wry start Friday with “Don Jon’s Addiction,” written, directed by and starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and co-starring Scarlett Johansson and Tony Danza.

As a wanna-be womanizer hooked on porn, Gordon-Levitt (“Looper”) lends his charming smile to a role that highlights his offbeat sensibility. Johansson plays the woman who could reroute his libido to the real world.
ohansson — whose current Broadway role in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” kept her from attending the festival opener at the Eccles Theatre — adds mainstream marketability to “Don’s” indie spirit, still the hallmark of Sundance as it laps its 25th official year.
ScarJo may not have had to endure the frigid Park City temperatures, which struggled to hit the double digits, but Naomi Watts was looking great to promote “Two Mothers,” which also bowed Friday.
The film, about lifelong friends (Watts and Robin Wright) who fall in love with each other’s grown sons, marks the Australian star’s return to edgier material. Female audiences at the Eccles may have been distracted by Watts and Wright’s on-screen objects of affection, newcomers Xavier Samuel and James Frecheville.
Earlier, festival-goers got a look at “Kill Your Darlings,” part of “Harry Potter” star Daniel Radcliffe’s transition from boy wizard to grownup. Playing gay Beat Generation poet Allen Ginsberg, Radcliffe is unrecognizable in dyed black hair and horn-rimmed glasses (on the red carpet, he added some chin scruff).
The film, co-starring Elizabeth Olsen as the Beats’ guardian angel, Edie Parker, is one of two Beat flicks at the fest, sharing space with the Jack Kerouac flick “Big Sur.”
Keri Russell, TV’s former “Felicity,” gives a comic turn in the adaptation of the best-selling novel “Austenland,” as a woman so obsessed with Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” that she heads to a theme park devoted to the 19th-century author. And Shailene Woodley sparked the high school dramedy treat “The Spectacular Now,” which was met with thunderous applause
Kristen Bell goes from box-office sinker “When in Rome” to the thoughtful indie “The Lifeguard,” about a frazzled New York reporter going back to her Connecticut hometown to take a job at a local pool.
The serious-minded “Mud,” a chewy Southern tale from “Take Shelter” director Jeff Nichols stars Matthew McConaughey as a criminal hiding out in a swamp who is discovered by two Arkansas kids. A de-glammed Reese Witherspoon co-stars as his wild girlfriend.
Another buzz-maker was “Emanuel and the Truth About Fishes,” in which Jessica Biel plays a mysterious neighbor to a troubled girl (Kaya Scodelario).
Finally, one of Saturday’s midnight slots was occupied by the hyperjumpy horror flick “S-V/H/S.” A sequel to a cult hit about videotapes that reveal ghastly happenings, it debuted in the spot that unleashed “The Blair Witch Project” from Sundance nearly 15 years ago. If that kind of success happens again, it’s an example of another thing Sundance does best — create heat even when the temperature is crazy cold.

Bootylicious… meet the 420lb mother of four with the widest hips in the world who measures a staggering 8ft in circumference

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One lady most certainly of the opinion that men prefer curves is Mikel Ruffinelli, a 420-pound mother of four who measures a staggering eight-foot in circumference.

At just five-foot-four, 39-year-old Mikel, who lives in Los Angeles, is substantially wider than she is tall, but says she wouldn’t want it any other way.
‘I love my shape and I see no reason to diet because I don’t have health problems,’ explains Mikel, has a proportionally small 40-inch waist. ‘Men don’t fancy skinny girls, they like an hourglass figure.’
While the likes of Jennifer Lopez, Kim Kardashian and Beyonce will probably all agree, they don’t have to face the kind of challenges that Mikel does on a daily basis.
As well as having to walk through most doors sideways, Mikel drives a truck because she can’t fit into a car. At home, the woman with the widest hips in the world has to sit in steel-supported chairs and sleeps on a 7ft-wide bed.
Mikel’s biggest fan is her husband, Reggie Brooks, a 40-year-old computer technician. They’ve been married 10 years and Mikel says that he finds her unusual shape sexy and tells her every day just how beautiful she is.
Mikel hasn’t always been plus-sized, as a teenager she was quite athletic and weighed 140-pounds although she did have big hips - a trait she says that runs in her family.
At 22, Mikel had her first child, Andrew, now 19, from a previous relationship, and that is when she started gaining the weight. From 182-pounds and a size 14, she piled on the pounds until she was 238-pounds and a size 18.
Then she meet Reggie and over the next decade had three more children: Destynee, 13, Autumn, nine, and Justyce, seven. Her hips ballooned as she reached 420 pounds and a size 30.
‘I put it down to my pregnancies. I don’t see why else the weight would go to my hips, although, I do eat lots,’ she told Closer.
Mikel, who is studying for a psychology degree, has a healthy appetite and typically consumes 3,000 calories a day.
'It sounds like a lot to have 3,000 calories, but for someone my size, it’s not really.
'I might have a breakfast of two eggs with sausage and bacon and a handful of potatoes. Lunch is fried fish and French fries, but dinner’s my big meal,' she confesses.
'I like to make barbecue chicken with rice or mash. I have a big portion – but I’m not greedy. I snack on peanuts, granola bars and crisps.'
As she has gotten older Mikel says she had grown more comfortable with her shape and size.
'In the past, I was self-conscious about my hips and tried milkshake diets, but they didn’t work. As I got older, I learned to love my body and now I’m not afraid to show it off.'
Over the past five years as her confidence has grown she has taken to modelling for a Big Beautiful Women website and earns up to $1000 per shoot.
She says: 'I mostly wear lingerie. I have two seamstresses who make my outfits, although I can easily find clothes for my top half, it’s the bottoms that are a problem.'
Mikel also makes an effort to be healthy and while running on land is problematic, she enjoys water aerobics.
Over the years Mikel has grown accustomed to people staring and making sarcastic comments, but has learned to just ignore them.
'I don’t want to get bigger, but I don’t want to lose my curves. I look great. I hope I inspire women to think, "She’s happy with her body and I can be too!"'

Jolie talking to Putin over US child adoption

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ANGELINA Jolie has approached Russian President Vladimir Putin about repealing the nation’s recent ban on Americans adopting children from his country. And, according to American tabloid the National Enquirer, the powerful politician responded by asking Angie to tie the knot with Brad Pitt in Russia.
“Instead of selling her wedding photos for millions and donating the money to charity, Angelina now has the chance to make a political statement with her walk down the aisle,” a source said. “After she asked President Putin to relax his country’s new adoption policy, he agreed to consider it - if she agrees to marry Brad Pitt in a high-profile ceremony in the heart of Moscow or one of the famous palaces in St. Petersburg.” On December 28, Putin signed a bill that bans US citizens from adopting Russian children, raising tensions with Washington.  

Argo triumphs at Critics Awards

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HOSTAGE drama Argo was the big winner at this year’s Critics’ Choice Awards, hours after director Ben Affleck missed out on an Oscar nomination.
Affleck jokingly “thanked the Academy” as he accepted best director, but added: “This is the one that counts.” The movie was also named best film.
Oscar favourites Daniel Day Lewis and Jessica Chastain won the best actor and actress prizes respectively. In a separate comedy category, Silver Linings Playbook swept the board.
The film won best comedy actor and actress for leads Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence, best comedy film, and best ensemble for a cast which includes Oscar nominees Robert De Niro and Jacki Weaver. Director David O Russell dedicated his award to his son - who, like the film’s male lead has bipolar disorder - saying: “I made it to give him hope,” adding, “That’s my silver lining.”
Lawrence, who bagged an Oscar nomination for best actress on Thursday, also took home the best actress in an action movie for The Hunger Games, based on the bestselling book.
“Critics aren’t so bad,” she joked, as she accepted the award,
Skyfall was named best action movie, a day after it failed to become the first Bond film to secure a best picture Oscar nomination.
Its star Daniel Craig also picked up the best actor in an action film prize, and Adele won the best song award for the title song Skyfall - a prize she is tipped to win at the Oscars. The awards are handed out by the 250-member Broadcast Film Critics Association, the largest film critics organisation in the United States and Canada. Les Miserables’ Anne Hathaway, who attended the ceremony in Los Angeles with her co-star Hugh Jackman received the best supporting actress prize, while Philip Seymour Hoffman was named best supporting actor for his turn as a cult leader in The Master.
Quentin Tarantino picked up best original screenplay for his spaghetti western-style film Django Unchained. Munich screenwriter Tony Kushner won Lincoln’s second award of the night, for best adapted screenplay. The presidential drama leads the Oscar hopefuls with 12 Academy Award nominations.
However, Life of Pi - nominated for 11 Oscars - only won two technical awards. Comedy writer and director Judd Apatow, best known for box office hits such as The 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up, received a special “genius” award created to honour “an unprecedented demonstration of excellence in the cinematic arts”. The awards precede Sunday’s Golden Globes ceremony.

Jodi Arias Femme fatale or woman of faith? Jurors hear conflicting persona in murder trial as prosecutors play phone calls of Arias lying

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Jurors in the murder trial against Jodi Arias are faced with two conflicting images of a beautiful brunette who killed her ex-beau: Was she a femme fatale or a timid woman of faith tricked into a lewd lifestyle?
As the trial continued this week, jurors in Arizona’s Maricopa County Court listened as a medical official gave the gruesome details in the 2008 death of 30-year-old Travis Alexander. Crime scene photos caused at least one juror to wipe away tears as the victim’s family was visibly shaken as well, ABC News reported.
Arias, who faces the death penalty, also broke down in the courtroom.
The 32-year-old has admitted to killing Alexander in his Mesa home, but claims it was in self-defense after he allegedly attacked her for damaging his camera. Police say the insurance salesman was shot in the head, slashed from ear to ear, and stabbed at least 27 times.
Phone calls were played of Arias telling police she tried to contact Alexander the week he died, although authorities say she was lying because she knew he was no longer alive.
Arias claimed she was driving from Los Angeles to Utah in June 2008 to see a new man she was dating, ABC News reported.
“On Tuesday night (I talked to him), it was brief though, 10 o'clock maybe,” she is heard telling a detective. “I'd say 10 p.m. or 9-9:30. I was calling people because I was bored on the road. He was nice and cordial, but kind of acting like he had hurt feelings.”
She went on that she tried contacting him the next day.
“I may have called (Alexander) Wednesday from the road, and I sent him a couple of text messages, and a couple of pictures,” she said, although his voicemail was full. “That’s unusual. He deletes all of his messages. I didn’t want to be obsessive about it because we’re not together anymore and I didn’t like to call too much.”
But it was that Wednesday when Arias had actually gone to see Alexander in his home, court records say. The pair had a final fling and even took pictures on Alexander’s camera, which despite being thrown into a washing machine was retrieved as evidence.
One photo showed Alexander in the shower moments before he was killed.
Prosecutors say that even though Alexander and Arias had broken up about a year earlier, they continued to have sex together and that she jealously stalked him. She reportedly converted to Mormonism for him.
Arias, a photographer from California, has given different versions of what happened that day, even telling the TV program “Inside Edition” after her arrest on July 18, 2008, that two intruders broke into the home and killed Alexander.
The new love interest, Ryan Burns, testified in court Wednesday that Arias finally did meet up with him, and the pair shared a chaste relationship — nothing like the one she had with Alexander — centered around their Mormonism.
“Every time we started kissing it got a little more escalated,” Burns testified. “Our clothes never came off. At some point she was kissing my neck, I was kissing hers, but our clothes never came off.”
He added that she “would often tell me about how she felt about her religious beliefs, the Book of Mormon.”
While Arias’ defense attorney has said in court that it was Alexander who was abusive, essentially corrupting her sexually, prosecutors say there are emails in which he felt sexually used.
Arias previously told “Inside Edition” that she believes she will be exonerated.
“No jury is going to convict me,” she said. “I am innocent and you can mark my words on that.”
The trial was scheduled to continue Thursday.

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2013 Oscar Awards Directors Kathryn Bigelow (‘Zero Dark Thirty’), Ben Affleck (‘Argo’) and Tom Hooper (‘Les Miserables’) are among the shocking snubs

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Every year, movie fans and Academy Award aficionados watch the Oscar nominations to see whose work has been singled out.
And, just as much, to see who’s been left out.
The 85th Oscar noms, announced Thursday, are no different. While frontrunners like Daniel Day-Lewis (“Lincoln”) and Anne Hathaway (“Les Miserables”) provide a cozy sense of mission accomplished, it’s fascinating to suss out which actors and filmmakers were omitted -- and why.
In the Best Picture race, critical fave “Moonrise Kingdom” lost the independent slot — not necessarily but often now just a one-film option — to the more heavily-touted “Beasts of the Southern Wild.” Also: Appreciated as “Kingdom” director Wes Anderson is, none of his quirky, intricate films have ever been nominated for the top prize.
At the other end of the spectrum is the massive blockbuster “Skyfall,” one of 2012’s biggest hits and the highest-grossing James Bond film ever. Many thought director Sam Mendes brought the necessary touch of Oscar class, and the movie’s deeper themes might resonate with Academy voters. (The reason to expand the Best Picture list beyond five, back in 2008, was to accommodate popular popcorn flicks like this).
But in a year that also saw “The Avengers,” “The Dark Knight Rises” and “The Hobbit” make loads of cash but miss an Oscar spot, “Skyfall” may have been lumped in with them all.
 In the Best Actor race, Day-Lewis, Denzel Washington (“Flight"), Hugh Jackman (“Les Miz”) and Bradley Cooper (“Silver Linings Notebook” all were counted on, and did, get noms.
Cooper seemed vulnerable though, but got a spot, along with back-from-brink-of-weirdness genius Joaquin Phoenix. Left out were Richard Gere for “Arbitrage” — the movie was a video-on-demand miniature — and John Hawkes, whose turn as a paralyzed man seeking sex in “The Sessions” may have lost the sweetness vote to Cooper.
For Best Actress, former Oscar winner Marion Cotillard’s spot for “Rust and Bone” went to her elder countrywoman Emmanuelle Riva (“Amour”). And young Quvenzhané Wallis snuck up on Meryl Streep, whose common-gal performance in “Hope Springs” made her a dark horse.
 Also left out were Keira Knightley, whose “Anna Karenina” may have been tagged as too experimental for Oscar voters, and Helen Mirren, left in the shadow of “Hitchcock.”
Best Supporting Actor saw almost all safe-bet favorites get in. The outsiders were Leonardo DiCaprio, whose juicy, lip-smacking villain in “Django Unchained” lost a spot to his costar (and previous winner) Christoph Waltz. And Matthew McConaughey was a true wild card for “Magic Mike,” a popular hit that may have been too sassy for the Academy.

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Mila Kunis is a fashion fiasco as Hollywood's frumpiest, dumpiest celeb

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Sexiest? More like schlubbiest woman alive.
Sweatpants-loving Mila Kunis is a guy’s girl - and she’s got the wardrobe to prove it.
Seemingly eager to shed her Sexiest Woman Alive title - Esquire Magazine crowned the Ukrainian-born beauty last November - Kunis is rarely spotted these days in anything except dumpy, frumpy gym wear.

Apparently at chez Kunis, it’s laundry day everyday.
From morning coffee runs with boyfriend Ashton Kutcher to canoodling in the West Village, walking the dog or lunch in L.A., Kunis and Kutcher are a match made in casual dressing hell.
 At first, it was cute to watch them smooching in Central Park in matching T-shirts or see her run out in the morning without painting on a full face of makeup and cavorting Kardashian-style for the paparazzi. But now it’s time to shed the elastic waistband and invest in a hairbrush.
She’s a Golden Globe-nominated actress for "Black Swan,'' not a member of Justin Bieber’s entourage.
“I love her, and though I can certainly relate to her craving for comfort, there really is a better way to do it,” says Mary Kate Steinmiller, senior fashion market editor at Teen Vogue.
Unlike other Hollywood A-listers Gwen Stefani, Jessica Chastain and Jessica Alba with street style to match their flawless red-carpet looks, Kunis insists on dressing like an unwashed teenage boy.
 Hot mama Gwen Stefani instantly adds glamour to everything from a plain tank top and jeans to an oversized cape with a bold red lip and oversized shades. Jessica Alba, the master of casual chic, is constantly photographed around L.A. in comfy T-shirts and jeans accessoried with a designer handbag, colorful scarf, cute flats and denim jacket. And Jessica Chastain, currently in “The Heiress” turns Broadway into her personal runway everytime she shows up for a show in fitted coats, statement-making shoes and impeccable accessories.
To keep it casual but still chic, Teen Vogue’s Steinmiller suggests that Kunis try silk pajama-style pants by Piamita, stretchy denim leggings by Citizens of Humanity or cashmere Juicy Couture track pants in a bold color.
“I will never utter the word ‘jegging,’” she says about the superstretchy Citizen of Humanity jeans. “I know the loose freedom of a sweatpant hardly seems comparable to a legging jean, but these feel like wearing nothing.”
As for that we-just-rolled-out-of-bed-because-we-are-so-in-love hair that she can’t seem to wash away, it’s time to start throwing it up into a messy top knot, quick side braid or pick up some dry shampoo to soak up some of that greasy mane.

Hall of Shame! See the MOST awkward family photos EVER

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Awkward Family Photos
Sure, we all take awkward photos from time to time, but these images from Awkward Family Photos really take the cake. Check out the Awkward Family Photos hall of shame ... Where to look first? The outfits at this 1971 Christening aren't the worst part of this picture -- check out what's going on in the background! "My grandmother is pulling my sister's hair while my brother is recovering from a smack he got in the face! All of this right on the front steps of a church," said the woman who submitted the photo to the site.

Do I look TWELVE to you 'Harry Potter' star Emma Watson stopped at JFK after agents said she looked too young to fly alone

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HARRY Potter” actress Emma Watson has grown up on screen before her fans’ eyes, but customs agents at Kennedy Airport apparently still see her as a kid.
The 22-year-old Brit revealed Monday in a series of Twitter posts that she was mistaken for an unaccompanied minor when she flew into JFK over the Christmas holidays.
“The really sad thing is that this is not the first time this has happened,” an embarrassed Watson tweeted.
She said she was asked where her parent or guardian was when she went through customs.
Passport control: ‘Unaccompanied minor?’ Me: ‘Sorry?’” Watson tweeted.
“Passport control: ‘Where is ur (your) guardian?’ Me: ‘I’m 22!!!!!!’
She said the episode taught her a lesson: “Never wearing a backpack again,” she tweeted.
Back in October, the youthful Watson gave a very grown-up interview to Glamour, dishing on hairstyles, fashion — and her dating life.
The onetime child star told the magazine she now works with a professional stylist.
“Yeah, I have to at this point,” she said. “When I was younger, I used to do it all myself, but I’ve had to get help because it’s gotten to a stage where I can’t show up in my Converses or whatever....
“You’re being photographed from every angle, so not only do you have to consider how the thing looks, but whether you’re going to be able to sit in it and whether people are going to be able to see up your skirt.”
Watson even ’fessed up about being caught kissing a male companion at the Coachella music festival.
“It was a huge crowd, and I thought there was no way anyone could get pictures of me, but somehow they found me.
“It’s difficult on my dating life, because anyone I get photographed with is automatically my boyfriend. So it just makes it look as if I’ve had, like, 6,000 boyfriends!”
The Glamour cover girl sported a short, chic hairdo, bare legs and a plunging black and gold necklace for her photo shoot with the magazine.
“Of course, men like long hair,” Watson said.
But the actress said chopping off her locks made her ooze confidence.
“I felt really good in my own skin,” she said.

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Still haven't slept Is that Chris Brown underneath Rihanna's sheets? New Year's Instagram pic reignites rumors about pair

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Smitten superstars Chris Brown and Rihanna may have rung in the new year between the sheets.
The singers both posted Instagram photos on New Year's Day showing the same black-and-white polka-dotted comforter, suggesting the pair may have spent a low-key holiday together in bed.
Good morning! Still haven't slept lol #hello2013," Rihanna wrote Tuesday.
Brown's post came an hour later - perhaps a coy way to announce to fans the on-and-off-again couple is back on for the new year.

The former couple - who first split in 2009 after Brown brutally assaulted Rihanna - was spotted together on Christmas day, at the Knicks-Lakers game at Los Angeles' Staples Center.
Brown, 23, and Rihanna, 24, have yet to publicly confirm their reconciliation, but haven't been shy about communicating on social media.
Last week, the "Diamonds" singer posted a photo of her perched on the hood of a car alongside Brown, with the message, "ThugLife #merryChristmas."

Kourtney Kardashian drops 44 pounds in six months after her second pregnancy

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Kourtney Kardashian managed to drop 44 pounds in six months after the birth of her second child, but it was not easy.
"It was harder to lose weight the second time around," Kardashian said. “I gained 45 pounds with Penelope."
The 33-year-old reality television star posed in a skimpy yellow bikini beside a Miami pool Dec. 13. The picture of her tiny frame of only 106 pounds just landed on the cover of US Weekly. The magazine says that the image has not been retouched.
Kardashian attributes her rapid weight loss to fighting off the craving for large portion sizes as well as working out regularly. She danced off the weight, she says, through the cardio-heavy dance exercise routines of fitness guru Tracy Anderson.
The socialite may be flaunting her new figure for the media, but she says that her top priority is being a good mother to her children with Scott Disick, 29. She says her primary role is being there for her 6-month-old daughter, Penelope, and 3-year-old son, Mason.
"This time, the focus is really on being a mom and being present, knowing my priorities," she said.
 Kardashian will appear in “Kourtney & Kim Take Miami” with her more famous sister, Kim, who still manages to go to the gym despite the pains of pregnancy.

Jennifer Lawrence Acting is stupid'

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She may be a virtual lock for an Academy Award nomination, but Jennifer Lawrence says acting “is stupid."
"Everybody's like, 'How can you remain with a level head?' And I'm like, 'Why would I ever get cocky?” the 22-year-old actress asked Vanity Fair. “I'm not saving anybody's life. There are doctors who save lives and firemen who run into burning buildings. I'm making movies. It's stupid.'"
It’s also a completely surreal profession, says the Kentucky native who was discovered as a 14-year-old tourist by a model scout in Manhattan’s Union Square. Sure the money is great after crashing the A-list with last year’s “The Hunger Games” — to which she’s currently shooting a sequel, “Catching Fire” — but there is a price to all those millions.
I call my mom sobbing all the time … dealing with the repercussions of having no more anonymity. You lose privacy," Lawrence says in the cover story for the magazine’s February issue. "As much as this is a curse, as stupid as it sounds, to make as much money as I am by doing something that I love, it's hard not to regret it when you're being chased by 15 strangers."
Lawrence says she’s still cowed by meeting her Hollywood peers.
“One time someone was introducing me to Bill Maher, and I saw Meryl Streep walk into the room, and I literally put my hand right in Bill Maher's face and said, 'Not now, Bill!,' and I just stared at Meryl Streep," Lawrence told Vanity Fair. “I just creepily stared at her.”
There are plenty of perks, however, like the intense physical training she endured to play Katniss in “The Hunger Games” that turned her into a real life action hero of sorts.
(Lawrence told The News last March she estimates she fired some 1,500 arrows during training.)
She was ready to put those skills to one day when she parked in her garage and heard strange male voices coming from her home, she told Vanity Fair.
Fetching her bow and quiver from the trunk, “I had my bow and I loaded it and I'm walking up the stairs. And I look, and my patio doors were open, and there were guys working right there, and I was like, 'Heyyy, how you doin'?'
"(My friends) were like, 'We've got to stage someone to break into your house and you can kill them!' That would be the funniest news ever. Katniss Everdeen actually kills someone with a bow and arrow!"

Former ‘Dancing with the Stars’ pro Julianne Hough says physical and mental abuse she endured as a child ‘sucked the life’ out of her

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It has been a long road to recovery for Julianne Hough, who says the physical and mental abuse she sustained as a child “sucked the life” out of her.
“The light about me was gone,” the former “Dancing with the Stars” pro told Entertainment Tonight. “I was just a dark person."
The 24-year-old actress revealed her shocking history of abuse in February’s issue of Cosmopolitan.
The abuse began when she was just 10 while she was training to become a dancer in London at the world-renowned Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts.
“I was a tormented little kid who had to put on this sexy facade because that was my job and my life,” she told the magazine.
Hough told ET that she doesn’t like to speak about the ordeal and has since learned to put the past behind her.
“I had to leave that situation and kind of come into my own again, and I did,” she explained.
The young starlet continues to move forward. She’s set to star in the upcoming Nicholas Sparks flick “Safe Haven” as Katie, a woman also dealing with an abusive past.
Hough says the role was bittersweet.
“Being Katie, I relate a lot to her,” Hough said. “The fact that she had been in one situation that just sucked the life out of her – and it was a bad situation – and she needed to change and move on and kind of find her own again.
“And through that you find love and everything."

Apple tests iPhone 6 and gives sagging stock a needed boost

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Apple Inc has started testing a new iPhone and the next version of its iOS software, news website The Next Web reported.
Apple shares were up 2.6 percent at $546.06 in premarket trading. The stock closed at $532.17 on the Nasdaq on Monday.
Application developers have found in their app usage logs references to a new iPhone identifier, iPhone 6.1, running iOS 7 operating system, the website reported.
Apple's iPhone 5 bears the identifiers "iPhone 5.1" and "iPhone 5.2" and is powered by iOS 6 operating system.
Developer logs show that the app requests originate from an internet address on Apple's Cupertino campus, suggesting that Apple engineers are testing compatibility for some of the popular apps, the website said.
"Although OS and device data can be faked, the unique IP footprint leading back to Apple's Cupertino campus leads us to believe this is not one of those attempts," the website said.
Apple launched iPhone 5 in September and it has been reported that the new iPhone will be released in the middle of 2013.

TALE OF THE TAPE Photographer uses Scotch tape for a picture spread of fantastically mutilated faces

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A New Mexico-based photographer has uncovered the diverse nature of sticky situations using nothing but Scotch tape, his camera and a few beers.
In a collection of zany photos named simply, “The Scotch Tape Series,” Wes Naman, a 37-year-old photographer from Albuquerque, was able to capture a wide range of facial expression by snapping shots of people with Scotch tape affixed to their faces.

The series, which includes 33 photos of men and women with Scotch tape wrapped around different parts of their faces, offers expressions ranging from hilarious to horrified.
Some subjects are smoking cigarettes, while others are wielding axes or wearing wacky clothes and accessories. But the glue that holds it all together (other than the Scotch tape, of course)?

The intensely emotive facial expressions.

“We got a lot of great facial distortions. The best ones (I) got happened when I asked people to remove the tape,” Naman explained. “The grimaces they had when they were removing the tape — that brought forth the best expressions. A broad range of emotions.”
 The idea started when, last Christmas, Naman and his assistant were wrapping presents with Scotch tape.

“And I was just thinking about a fun project I could do,” Naman said. “I just wanted to get back to work and do something for myself and get away from the commercial work I’d been doing. My assistant and I were playing with the tape and just got a kick out of it, and then I just decided to gather some friends, buy them all some booze and just take their pictures with some Scotch tape.”

“We had a good laugh that night,“ added Naman, who started taking pictures in 1998, shortly after he graduated from college.

Before long, a local writer working for Wired Magazine took note of the photos and word of their charm quickly spread.

During the initial shoot, Naman photographed about eight people, but he expanded the series after the photos went viral.

Miz Right New kid in town Samantha Barks scores breakout role in Les Misérables

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Third place made Samantha Barks a winner.
Barks, who plays the lovelorn Éponine in the new film version of “Les Misérables,” got her break on the British reality contest show “I’d Do Anything.”
She finished third in a competition to play Nancy in a West End revival of “Oliver!” — but was launched into a musical theater career that led to her featured role in the Golden Globe-nominated film and potential Oscar contender.
In a movie that touts Anne Hathaway and Amanda Seyfried (as Fantine and Cosette), Hugh Jackman (as Jean Valjean) and Russell Crowe (as Inspector Javert), it’s the unknown Barks who turns out to be the revelation of the French Revolution poperatic drama.
Even though she played Eponine for a year in London’s West End — and for a 25th anniversary concert at London’s O2 Arena — Barks had to go through four months of auditions before she landed the role in Oscar-winner Tom Hooper’s (“The King’s Speech”) film, reportedly beating out Taylor Swift and a handful of other Hollywood starlets.
“It was a grueling audition process,” Barks tells The News. “But then, I’d never done a film.”
She learned she had won the role in “Les Miz” during a curtain call with a different stage production of “Oliver!” in Manchester. Cameras caught the young actress’ look of shock, relief and amazement.
Having played Éponine in front of live audiences for a year, Barks had no problem with Hooper’s decision to have the actors sing live for the camera, rather than prerecording vocals and lip-synching for the camera.
“It’s not like I was going into an unknown role,” she says. “The main difference in doing it for the camera is that, while you still need the same emotional scale and climax, you don’t have to heighten it to hit 2,000 seats. You can rely on the beauty of the text. You can be more real, more subtle, more intimate.”
Barks, 22, started dancing at 3. At 10, she discovered singing and acting as well, always performing in something within the comfortable confines of the Isle of Man — population 84,000 — off the British coast. “I did plays and straight acting in school during the week and sang with rock groups at the weekend,” Barks told The News.
At 16, her parents sent her to London to study professionally. “In hindsight, it was probably scary,” Barks says. “I couldn’t believe how lucky I was that my parents supported me doing it.”
When Barks was 18, she landed on “I’d Do Anything,” whose judges included composer Andrew Lloyd Webber and “Les Miz” producer Cameron Mackintosh. After coming in third on the reality show, Barks almost immediately went into a U.K. touring production of “Cabaret” for a year, before playing Nancy in an “Oliver!” tour and then Eponine.
“I wasn’t disappointed that I didn’t win,” she says. “I came third and I couldn’t believe how lucky I was to be third. I thought the whole thing was a fantastic opportunity. And I ended up playing the role, eventually, anyway. But it came around at the right time, when I was ready to play it.”
The competition, she says, helped her focus on a direction for her quickly budding career.
“I’ve found that musical theater is my passion,” she says. “I would love to have a varied career, like Hugh Jackman. He started in musical theater, then established himself in film, but he still does a lot of stage work. And he does it all beautifully.”
Jackman, a potential Oscar nominee, proved to be both mentor and role model. His work ethic in the demanding role, Barks says, was stimulating. “He’s such a hardworking person and he does it with such grace,” Barks says. “To have him as our leader was very inspiring for the whole cast.”
Barks’ turn in “Les Miz” has earned her big buzz as the film won the Christmas box office — the biggest-ever opening day for a musical.
But she says she wants to pick her next projects carefully.
“It’s a new world for me,” she says. “I want to make smart choices.”
Her dream role?
Barks laughs.
“I’d love to be a Bond girl.”

Tom Cruise took Queens native Cynthia Jorge on dream date

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Tom Cruise cast a normal Queens gal in a starring role - his leading lady on a wild night on the town.
Less than six months after his divorce from Katie Holmes, the 50-year-old “Jack Reacher” star had a passionate pas-de-deux with Cynthia Jorge, a brunette Fresh Meadows native half his age, including some dirty dancing at the trendy Mulberry St. club, Le Baron, on Dec. 18.
The hookup came two days after Jorge attempted the “Mission: Impossible,” slipping her card to Cruise after a lunch at Beauty & Essex, the lower East Side restaurant she manages, according to In Touch magazine.
"He was mesmerized by Cynthia," a witness to the salsa dance interlude told In Touch, which broke the story. "She had her hair in a bun, wore tight black pants and looked gorgeous.
"At one point, they began grinding together. It was straight out of ‘Dirty Dancing.’ Tom seemed to be in his own world, completely smitten."
He wasn’t only in his own world — he was just a few subway stops from the apartment of his ex-wife Katie Holmes in nearby Chelsea.
But the head doorman at the Le Baron nightclub, who refused to give his man, doubted the dirty-dancing episode ever occurred.
"I was here all night and I didn’t see him," the doorman told the Daily News. "I read about it and I was surprised. If he was here, I would have seen him. I don’t believe it. It didn’t happen here.”
A source said the action hero and Jorge, 26, are not currently an item — and a relative of Jorge’s expressed surprise at the news of his cousin’s close encounter with the Hollywood hunk.
“I don’t know what to say. What would you say if your cousin was dating Tom Cruise?” said Pietro Jorge, 25.
He wouldn’t comment on whether the pair are in a relationship, but he did say Cruise would be the lucky one if there is: “She's nice. She's outgoing. She's a people person," he said.
Jorge’s also not seemingly ready for her closeup. After news of Jorge’s star-studded dance date went public, her bosses at Beauty & Essex asked her to stay home Wednesday night.
"She's a sweetheart,” a restaurant worker at the posh eatery told the News. “She's not working tonight. They called her off work because of (the media scrutiny)."
Jorge may not be a regular on the red carpet, but the 2008 Boston University graduate has made a name for herself in a few short years in New York City’s culinary world.
“As a New Yorker, I have learned that in order to succeed, one must work fast, strike hard and make every move count,” she wrote on her Linked In profile.
Jorge previously worked at Benvenuti Public Relations firm and as the marketing director at Benjamin’s Steakhouse in midtown.
“She was a hard worker," said a floor manager at Benjamin’s.
She told Joonbug.com six months ago that she liked her job at Benjamin’s because she enjoyed, “meeting new people, from CEOs to celebrities to just really interesting people in the industry.”
And, apparently, dating them, too.
In the topsy-turvy world of silver screen romances, it’s not uncommon for stars to connect with civilians. Indeed, Matt Damon dated and later married bartender Luciana Barroso, who he met in Miami. Nicholas Cage met his current wife Alice Kim, 21 years his junior, when she waited on him at a Los Angeles restaurant.
“We have seen this with a lot of people in Hollywood where they say, ‘Maybe it’s better if I date someone who’s not famous,’” In Touch Weekly senior editor Dorothy Cascerceri told the News.
“She’s just an average kind of girl from Queens, but she’s beautiful and Tom Cruise seems to be very taken by her.”
At the end of night, the witness said Cruise played the role of perfect gentleman, ordering a private car to whisk her home to distant Queens.
It had been a rough year off screen for Cruise, who had been reportedly blindsided and “devastated” by Holmes’ divorce filing in June - his third strike after failed marriages to Nicole Kidman and Mimi Rogers.
“Kate has filed for divorce and Tom is deeply saddened and is concentrating on his three children. Please allow them their privacy,” Cruise’s rep said in a statement to the Daily News at the time.
Then an explosive cover story surfaced in the October issue of Vanity Fair, claiming the Church of Scientology had auditioned Iranian-American actress Nazanin Boniadi to be his girlfriend before his courtship with Holmes. (Cruise vehemently denied those rumors through a rep.)
Cruise’s luck with the ladies, however, may finally be changing.
“People love these kind of stories because it gives them hope that it could happen to them. It’s like winning the lottery,” says Cascerceri.
With Kerry Burke and Allison Joyce

Meet Hollywood's 'most bankable' actors

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Black Swan” was the dark horse Natalie Portman rode to the top of Forbes’ Most Bankable Actors list.
Films in which Portman stars reportedly earn $42.70 for every dollar she earns on average.

With a budget of about $13 million, “Black Swan,” the critically acclaimed juggernaut, grossed $329 million worldwide.

Her roles in “No Strings Attached” and “Your Highness” were also taken into account. “No Strings Attached,” a romantic comedy with Ashton Kutcher, earned $150 million at the global box office and only cost about $25 million to produce.

“Your Highness,” on the other hand, was a veritable flop. The $50 million budget produced a movie that only grossed $25 million, failing to cover expenses. But that was not enough to topple her ranking as the actor who provides studios the best bang for the buck.
Coming in second place, Kristen Stewart is part of movies that rake in $40.60 for every dollar she is paid. Since the “Twilight” films grossed $3.3 billion worldwide, her return on investment was high.

Stewart received the same salaries as her Twilight co-stars Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner for the final films. But Pattison ranked the fourth most-bankable actor, and Lautner placed sixth.
This happened because “Snow White and the Huntsman” – which grossed $400 million with a $118 million budget – pushed her ahead to become the list’s runner-up.

Forbes assembled the rankings by comparing actors’ earnings from the magazine’s Celebrity 100 list with movie grosses and budgets from Box Office Mojo.
We looked at the last three films each actor starred in over the last three years that opened in more than 2,000 theaters, calculating the return on investment for the studios who pay his (or her) salary,” explained Forbes writer Dorothy Pomerantz, who oversees the Celebrity 100 list.

Forbes did not take into account supporting roles, so Portman’s part in “Thor,” for instance, did not come into play. Even with this money-making marvel omitted, Portman still skyrocketed to the top.

Land a starring role in 'The Great Gatsby' for only $15,000

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You can  watch “The Great Gatsby” when it opens on the silver screen next year, or you can live like Fitzgerald’s greatest character with a Roaring Twenties getaway reminiscent of the fictional East Egg.
The Oheka Castle hotel on Long Island is offering a $15,000 “Romantic Evening Package” this holiday season, putting the hotel that’s located inside what was the second-largest private home in the country at your beck and call.
This Gatsby-esque one-night hotel stay in Cold Spring Harbor begins with a limo drive from anywhere in the five boroughs to the 127-room Oheka Castle, which is named from the letters in original owner Otto Hermann Kahn’s name.
Kahn, by the way, not only inspired “Gatsby” author F. Scott Fitzgerald, but also the makers of Monopoly, providing the look for the board game’s fictional capitalist, Rich Uncle Pennybags.
Upon arrival, a white-gloved butler will carry your bags to your luxury suite. Then you can take over the entire ballroom: It’s been reserved for just you and your date. If the Charleston isn’t your thing — heck, Gatsby wasn’t such a great dancer — the hotel includes a lesson and a string quartet.
Follow that up with a dozen roses and a seven-course menu designed in consultation with your private chef.
You also get a personal photographer to record it all.
Long Island was home to more than a thousand such castles in America’s Gilded Age — six are now open to the public. Kahn’s summer home on 443 acres cost $11 million a hundred years ago. That would be roughly $110 million by today’s standards.
Original plans were found and checked for historical accuracy. Slate roof tiles were cut from the same Vermont quarry that formed the original ones. More than 250 windows and doors were replaced.
Oheka again has eight reflecting pools and three fountains. No wonder it’s a popular wedding and event venue and has been home to countless movie and advertising shoots.
The USA Network’s show “Royal Pains” filmed there, too.
Oheka fell into disrepair after Kahn’s death in 1934, becoming a summer retreat for New York City sanitation workers, a training school for the Merchant Marines and a military academy. Abandoned in the 1970s, vandals stripped the plumbing, plundered ornate chandeliers and even stole most of the 39 gigantic fireplaces right from the walls.
In 1984, Gary Melius bought the shell of the glorious estate and 23 acres around it for $1.5 million.
He restored the mansion and gardens to grandeur, investing $30 million in the painstaking process.
 If the Jay Gatz-like price of $15,000 a night is out of reach, old sport, you can still visit Oheka, where $25 guided tours are offered every day.