Movie Review: Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi; Star Cast: SRK, Anushka sharma, Vinay Pathak, Kajol, Rani, Preity Zinta, Priyanka and Others; Director: Aditya Chopra; Rating: ***
Destiny plays a cruel joke on an extremely enthusiastic young girl Taani (Anushka) as she loses her fiancé and his family in a road accident on the eve of her marriage. Her father, a retired professor, on his death bed requests her to marry his old favorite student, Surinder Shahani (SRK). Taani obeys his last wish and thus begins the start of this extraordinary love story between an otherwise ordinary jodi.
The shy, somewhat geeky Surinder has already fallen for Taani since the first time he has seen her but alls his hopes crash when Taani tells him the day they arrive at his house that she won’t be able to give him any love as that’s one feeling she has lost forever with the sudden turn of events in her life. The rest of the film is about how Suri transforms himself into a very hep flirtatious dude Raj to win her love using a dancing school as a platform for his antics. He is well aided with his childhood buddy Bobby (Pathak) who brings on the physical transformation in him. But what happens is Taani who is unaware of Raj being Suri himself ends up falling in love with Raj. Suri is now again in a fix but then he finally decides to take a bold step
Rab Ne has been definitely amongst the most awaited films of 2008 and there have been great expectations riding on it especially because it is Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jaayenge maker Aditya Chopra’s comeback film after a long gap of 8 years. The script has its moments and master craftsman Adi keeps you engaged initially with some really beautifully handled moments between SRK and Anushka. But as SRK’s character’s transformation comes in the grip slowly loosens and you start feeling restless with the pace slumping down considerably. What follows is a criss-cross between some really well penned and executed scenes and some really drab moments with badly placed songs acting as speed breakers. But Adi’s terrific dialogues deserve a special applause for touching the right chords.
Shah Rukh Khan is simply superb as first the shy Suri and then the flamboyant, full of energy, Raj. Newcomer Anushka gets a really well etched character to perform and it despite being her first film, she comes across an absolute natural. Vinay Pathak is fun and provides good comic relief.
Music of the film is good but the problem is apart from a very well tuned and picturised Haule Haule number, the rest songs appear wrongly placed. The picturisation of the number featuring Kajol, Preity Zinta, Bipasha Basu, Lara Dutta and Rani is mind blowing but again it coming at a wrong juncture doesn’t really make it work.
All in all, the film has the capacity to do very well in the North and the overseas but elsewhere the film won’t be anywhere near Adi’s earlier two works in terms of business.
Ashlee Simpson and husband Pete Wentz have welcomed their first child, a boy.
Bronx Mowgli Wentz - who weighed 7 lbs, 11 oz, and was 20.5 inches long - was born Thursday night, a spokesperson for the couple confirms to Usmagazine.com.
“Proud new parents Pete Wentz and Ashlee Simpson-Wentz welcomed new son, Bronx Mowgli Wentz, late this evening,” the rep tells Us. “Ashlee, Pete and baby Bronx are all healthy and happy, and thank everyone for their well wishes!”
Look back at Ashlee Simpson’s baby bump.
Us Weekly first broke the news that Simpson, 24, and Wentz, 29, were expecting in April.
“Carrying a child is the most inspiring, emotional, amazing experience of my life,” Simpson wrote on her MySpace page. “My weight and my pant size are the absolute last thing I am concerned about. I am only concerned with having a healthy pregnancy and a healthy baby.”
During her pregnancy, Wentz — whom she wed in May — doted on her, often fetching her No. 1 craving: green olives.
He said she wanted “green olives on everything! You always have to be ready.”
See what other pregnant stars snacked on.
As her due date neared, Wentz said Simpson couldn’t wait to give birth.
“She’s excited, she’s anxious… I think she wants it to be over,” he recently said on Ryan Seacrest’s KIIS-FM radio show. “She just wants to not be pregnant any more. She wants to have it because it’s, like, a struggle to go up and down the stairs … going out in public’s insane.”
(As for the baby’s name, Bronx, Wentz said his goal was to make sure his kid would have a moniker that would work as either “a rock star or a senator.” What do these famous baby names mean?)
No doubt Ashlee’s sister Jessica Simpson is thrilled: In September, she said she couldn’t wait to be an aunt.
Play Us’ Guess the Simpson Sister quiz.
“I’m going to spoil the kid rotten, that’s for sure,” she said. “I think my sister’s going to be pretty strict, actually, because she’s been so good throughout her pregnancy.”
MIAMI - D’Zhana Simmons says she felt like a “fake person” for 118 days when she had no heart beating in her chest. “But I know that I really was here,” the 14-year-old said, “and I did live without a heart.”
As she was being released Wednesday from a Miami hospital, the shy teen seemed in awe of what she’s endured. Since July, she’s had two heart transplants and survived with artificial heart pumps - but no heart - for four months between the transplants.
Last spring D’Zhana and her parents learned she had an enlarged heart that was too weak to sufficiently pump blood. They traveled from their home in Clinton, S.C. to Holtz Children’s Hospital in Miami for a heart transplant.
But her new heart didn’t work properly and could have ruptured so surgeons removed it two days later.
And they did something unusual, especially for a young patient: They replaced the heart with a pair of artificial pumping devices that kept blood flowing through her body until she could have a second transplant.
Dr. Peter Wearden, a cardiothoracic surgeon at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh who works with the kind of pumps used in this case, said what the Miami medical team managed to do “is a big deal.”
“For (more than) 100 days, there was no heart in this girl’s body? That is pretty amazing,” Wearden said.
The pumps, ventricular assist devices, are typically used with a heart still in place to help the chambers circulate blood. With D’Zhana’s heart removed, doctors at Holtz Children’s Hospital crafted substitute heart chambers using a fabric and connected these to the two pumps.
Although artificial hearts have been approved for adults, none has been federally approved for use in children. In general, there are fewer options for pediatric patients. That’s because it’s rarer for them to have these life-threatening conditions, so companies don’t invest as much into technology that could help them, said Dr. Marco Ricci, director of pediatric cardiac surgery at the University of Miami.
He said this case demonstrates that doctors now have one more option.
“In the past, this situation could have been lethal,” Ricci said.
And it nearly was. During the almost four months between her two transplants, D’Zhana wasn’t able to breathe on her own half the time. She also had kidney and liver failure and gastrointestinal bleeding.
Taking a short stroll - when she felt up for it - required the help of four people, at least one of whom would steer the photocopier-sized machine that was the external part of the pumping devices.
When D’Zhana was stable enough for another operation, doctors did the second transplant on Oct. 29.
“I truly believe it’s a miracle,” said her mother, Twolla Anderson.
D’Zhana said now she’s grateful for small things: She’ll see her five siblings soon, and she can spend time outdoors.
“I’m glad I can walk without the machine,” she said, her turquoise princess top covering most of the scars on her chest. After thanking the surgeons for helping her, D’Zhana began weeping.
Doctors say she’ll be able to do most things that teens do, like attending school and going out with friends. She will be on lifelong medication to keep her body from rejecting the donated heart, and there’s a 50-50 chance she’ll need another transplant before she turns 30.
For now, though, D’Zhana is looking forward to celebrating another milestone. On Saturday, she turns 15 and plans to spend the day riding in a boat off Miami’s coast.
Source:Yahoo
The NFL stages its Week 4 on Sunday, while baseball concludes its regular-season schedule. This week’s NFL trends, free NFL expert pick and NFL betting odds are up.
Here’s a glimpse at the action in today’s edition of the Daily Sports Roundup.
The Gridiron Spotlight
The Titans, Broncos, Bills, and Cowboys will all be looking to run their records to 4-0 on Sunday when they take to the field. Tennessee and Dallas are both favored at home in their games; the Titans are favored by 3 points against the Vikings, while the Cowboys will be looking to cover an 11-point spread against the Redskins. The Broncos and Bills are both road favorites; it’s Denver (-10) at Kansas City, and Buffalo (-8) at St. Louis.
At the other end of the standings, the 0-3 Bengals will play host to the 0-3 Browns on Sunday afternoon. The loser of that AFC North matchup will be in a huge hole in the playoff race, and the oddsmakers have given the Bengals the 3.5-point edge to win.
Other Sunday afternoon matchups include San Francisco at New Orleans (-5), Arizona at the Jets (-1), Green Bay at Tampa Bay (-1), Atlanta at Carolina (-6.5), and Houston at Jacksonville (-7). As well, the 1-2 Chargers will be looking to get their record back to the .500 mark when they take on the 1-2 Raiders in Oakland as big 7.5-point road favorites.
Rounding out the Sunday NFL schedule will be Philadelphia at Chicago at 8:15pm ET. The Eagles are 2-1 in the tight NFC East, while the Bears have struggled to a 1-2 record on the season. And even though this game is being played at Soldier Field the Eagles have been pegged as the 3-point favorites, with the total listed at 40 points.
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California Vulcans Ready to Win PSAC
What’s this about? Just a cheap attempt of Grandmaster sports handicapper Joe Duffy to brag that his alma mater, the California Vulcans beat their chief rival, the Indiana PA Indians, expect the sissies they are, they don’t even call themselves Indians anymore.
Back to Division 1 or the FBS, whatever it’s called. Penn State football is back, but the USC Trojans, Georgia Bulldogs and Florida Gators await to see how far they’ve dropped in the college football polls. Regardless, the opening college football odds will be up later today and OffshoreInsiders.com will have them.
Other Notable Events
The drivers of the Sprint Cup Series will hit the track at Kansas Speedway on Sunday afternoon for the Camping World RV 400 presented by Coleman. Greg Biffle has won each of the first two Chase events, and he’ll be trying to make it three in a row on Sunday. Biffle and Johnson are tied for second place in the current driver standings, 10 points back of Carl Edwards. Jeff Burton and Kevin Harvick are sitting fourth and fifth.
Biffle won the series’ event at Kansas last season, and he’s tied with Johnson, Edwards, and Kyle Busch as the 6/1 Vegas favorite to take the checkered flag on Sunday. Tony Stewart, who won the Banquet 400 at Kansas back in 2006, is pegged at 11/1 odds to visit victory lane. Two-time Kansas champion Jeff Gordon is listed at 15/1.
The Rest of the Schedule
The NL Wild Card berth is still in play, with the Mets and Brewers now tied in that race. Milwaukee will send CC Sabathia (10-2, 1.78 ERA in the NL) to the mound at home against the Cubs on Sunday afternoon, while Oliver Perez (10-7, 4.25 ERA) will try to pitch the Mets past the Marlins at home at the same time. If those teams are still tied at the end of the day on Sunday they’ll play a one-game playoff Monday in New York.
Also still to be decided is the AL Central title, with the White Sox and Mark Buehrle (14-12, 3.87 ERA) hosting Cleveland on Sunday, and the Twins and Scott Baker (10-4, 3.59 ERA) getting a visit from Kansas City. Minnesota has a half-game lead on Chicago in the division, and they can clinch top spot with a win Sunday combined with a White Sox loss. However, if Chicago is still a half-game back after Sunday they’ll play a makeup game with the Tigers on Monday. Should the Twins and White Sox be tied in the standings after that Monday contest they’ll play a one-game playoff on Tuesday.
As well, the Yankees will have Mike Mussina (19-9, 3.47 ERA) trying for his 20th win of the season when they play at Fenway Park in Boston on Sunday afternoon, so they’ll be pulling out all the stops to try and get him to that mark for the first time in his career. New York and Boston will actually play twice on Sunday thanks to Saturday’s rainout.
The WNBA playoffs will continue on Sunday afternoon, with New York at Detroit in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals, and Los Angeles at San Antonio in Game 3 of the Western Conference Finals. New York holds a 1-0 lead in their three-game set, while San Antonio pulled out a victory on Saturday afternoon to tie up that series at 1-1.
Finally, the CFL concludes its week on Sunday with Saskatchewan at Montreal (-6.5), while the PGA Tour wraps up its playoffs on the final day of THE TOUR Championship.
News from the Wire
Notable players listed as OUT for Sunday’s NFL games heading into the weekend: Arizona DE Bert Berry (groin), Browns S Sean Jones (knee), Dallas S Roy Williams (forearm), Chiefs QB Brodie Croyle (right shoulder), Saints WR Marques Colston (thumb) and TE Jeremy Shockey (hernia), Jets K Mike Nugent (right thigh), Raiders RB Justin Fargas (groin), Rams WR Drew Bennett (foot), Buccaneers WR Joey Galloway (foot), Titans QB Vince Young (knee/hamstring), and Redskins DE Jason Taylor (calf).
A Peek at the Future
A slow Monday in sports will be highlighted by the matchup of the Ravens and Steelers in Pittsburgh. The Steelers opened as 7-point home favorites in that contest, but that line has since fallen to just 5 points (with the total pegged at 34 points) . . . as well, there will be a Game 3 in the WNBA’s Eastern Conference Finals in Detroit on Monday night if the Shock manage to knock off the Liberty in their Sunday afternoon matchup.
Entertainment Betting
What will Tina Fey and Saturday Night Live do next in mocking Sarah Palin? We expect BetUs Sportsbook will have more and more SNL proposition bets.
The lipstick of Rachel McAdams and death of Paul Newman are grabbing the headlines, but Dancing With the Stars dominates the Hollywood and entertainment betting odds.
Brooke Burke at +200 is the favorite to win Dancing With the Stars, but she’s followed closely by Toni Braxton, Cody Linley, Susan Lucci, Misty May-Treanor all at +400.
Not far behind at +500 is Warren Sapp and Lance Bass. The aforesaid Hollywood and entertainment betting odds have prop bets as well on Tom DeLay, Dan Rather, George Clooney, Wheel of Fortune, Heath Ledger and other actors in Batman-The Dark Knight.
Presidential Tracking
All political aficionados visit the political betting odds on a daily basis for the most accurate McCain-Obama tracking indicators.
Mitchell first objected to my point that Iran isn’t switching to natural gas cars to sell more oil (as claimed by Pickens in a TV ad), but rather to reduce its gasoline imports and, thereby, reduce international pressure on its nuclear weapons program.
But as pointed out in a January 2007 congressional hearing by Rep. Ed Royce (R-Calif.), “[… squeezing Iran economically… is having an effect… Iran’s oil minister admitted that this financial pressure has stunted its oil industry. It now has to import 42 percent of its refined gasoline.”
An Iranian political analyst said in July 2007 that “We will greatly suffer if [foreign countries] suddenly decide not to sell us fuel… Fuel rationing [Iran’s initial strategy for reducing imported gasoline] is a security-economic decision to reduce fuel consumption.”
Even Iran’s main car maker admitted to the Associated Press that natural gas cars “will greatly help Iran reduce, and even stop in the long run, importing gasoline from abroad.”
Although some Iranian politicians aligned with the national oil company have previously pushed for higher gas prices to curtail domestic demand for subsidized gasoline so that the Iranian government could invest in more oil production over the long-term, there’s no evidence that this is driving Iran’s switch to natural gas cars.
Moving on, Mitchell claimed that I “assaulted America’s natural gas supply, acting as if natural gas is already a scarce commodity in the U.S… Reality dictates a very different picture when it comes to America’s oil and natural gas supply.” Mitchell went on to say that the U.S. imports about 70 percent of its oil, while it has only 3 percent of the world’s oil reserves. In contrast, he says, 97 percent of U.S. natural gas comes from North America and these figures don’t account for the natural gas shale reserves that U.S. gas providers are able to access.
“Sleight-of-hand” is probably more appropriate than “reality” with Mitchell’s figures. When Mitchell talks about oil, he limits it to U.S. imports and sources. But when he talks about natural gas, he talks expansively in terms of North America — that is, the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Most of the oil used in the U.S. (53 percent), in fact, comes from North American sources, according to the Department of Energy (DOE). Next, the U.S. produces only about 83 percent of its natural gas. We import the rest, and this supply — just like our oil supply — is vulnerable to world events and market pressures.
Mitchell is wrong about known U.S. oil reserves — the actual figure is only about 1.6 percent (about a 3-year supply), according to the most recent DOE data. The good news — omitted by Mitchell — is that the U.S. reserve data excludes many known-but-not-counted domestic sources of oil, including the outer continental shelf (a 9- to 15-year supply), public lands like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (a 1.5-year supply in ANWR alone) and western oil shale (possibly an 800-year supply, according to the Department of Interior).
While Mitchell touts natural gas shale reserves as significantly adding to U.S. production, such “unconventional production” of natural gas is expected by the DOE to increase only from 44 percent of total domestic production in 2005 to about 49 percent by 2030 — not enough to reduce U.S. dependency on imported natural gas. The DOE says that liquid natural gas (LNG) imports will be the largest incremental source of natural gas for the U.S.
Source:
The ‘Sex and the City’ star said she and spouse Matthew Broderick decided to try and escape the media attention when they tied the knot in 1997.
Sarah - who has a five-year-old son James Wilkie with Matthew - explained: “I wore a black dress. As an actor, a lot of attention is paid to you. And for some reason, I felt on that day, that I should not bring attention to myself. And my husband kind of had the same attitude about it.
“I think we were embarrassed to be a traditional bride and groom. We wanted to throw a party, and deflect attention off us.”
The 43-year-old actress also revealed the first day of shooting ‘Sex and the City: The Movie’ was one of the most memorable days of her life.
She added: “The first scene was in chronological order. It was the scene of the four of us on Park Avenue. Kim Cattrall is in the red, I’m in the white Ralph Lauren, and it was one of the most unforgettable days of my life.
“It was this perfect September day and the streets were lined with hundreds and hundreds of people watching. It was like being in an alternate universe for about two hours.”
Sarah Jessica Parker has captained both a career and a public image that could be accurately classified under the heading Revenge of the Nerd.
As a pubescent actor most famous for her roles in the acclaimed high school-set TV series Square Pegs and in the big screen’s Footloose and Girls Just Want to Have Fun, Parker played the skinny girl with frizzy hair who was either the sidekick or underdog; when she wasn’t cleaning up after Lori Singer in Footloose, she was battling snotty rich girls for the right to dance on local television in Girls Just Want to Have Fun.
However, thanks to perseverance, talent, a fabulous stylist, and an HBO series called Sex and the City, Parker had emerged, by the end of the 1990s, as one of the most glamorous and employable actors around, known as much for the designer frocks she wore to awards ceremonies as for her work on the screen.
Source:msn
Veteran funnyman Billy Crystal is to star in his first film in more than six years with a role in the comedy “Tooth Fairy”, entertainment industry press reports said Wednesday.
Crystal, 60, the star of hits such as “When Harry Met Sally” and “City Slickers”, will join a cast that includes Julie Andrews, Dwayne Johnson and Ashley Judd when filming begins next week, Daily Variety reported.
Crystal, an eight-time host of the Academy Awards, last appeared in a live-action film in 2002’s comedy “Analyze That”, where he starred as an analyst treating Robert DeNiro’s mob boss in a sequel to “Analyze This.”
Since then Crystal has had voice roles in animated films including “Howl’s Moving Castle” and “Cars.
Source:msn
LAS VEGAS, N.M. - It was shocking enough when six high school football players were accused of sodomizing six younger teammates with a broomstick during training camp. But the scandal was raised to a whole new level when the coaches were accused of turning a blind eye to the hazing.
Since then, Robertson High’s head football coach and all five assistants have resigned, and prosecutors are considering charges against adults and youngsters alike.
The incident has turned student against student in the town of 14,000, and subjected some of the school’s athletes to lewd taunts from spectators.
“I’m very sad, so very sad for these young men,” said Veronica Sanchez, a retiree who knows one of the victims and one of the accused. Her friends and family, she said, are split “kind of 50-50″ on whether to blame the coaching staff or the older players.
The scandal unfolded at a four-day, mid-August preseason training camp in the mountains west of Las Vegas, a predominantly Hispanic, once-booming Old West town 60 miles from Santa Fe, now known for its stately Victorian homes.
According to state police reports, a group of juniors assaulted several younger teammates over two days, holding the victims down while a broomstick was forced into their rectums over their athletic shorts.
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WASHINGTON - In an industry first, Eli Lilly and Co. says it will begin disclosing how much money it paid to individual doctors nationally for advice, speeches and other services.
The drug company’s move comes as members of Congress push a disclosure bill in an effort to prevent such payments from improperly influencing medical decisions.
Beginning next year, Eli Lilly will disclose payments of more than $500 to doctors for their roles as advisers and for speaking at educational seminars. In later years, the company will expand the types of payments disclosed to include such things as travel, entertainment and gifts.
Some have voiced concerns that doctors are influenced by these payments in their treatment decisions and that this in turn can drive up medical bills. Although most physicians believe that free lunches or trips have no effect on their medical judgment, research has shown that these type of payments can affect how people act.
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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Prices of U.S. existing homes suffered a record drop in August and the rate of sales tumbled, offering little sign of improvement in the source of the financial crisis in the United States.
The pace of existing home sales decreased 2.2 percent to an annual pace of 4.91 million units while the median national home price declined a record 9.5 percent to $203,100, the National Association of Realtors said on Wednesday.
In what would normally be a potentially bright spot, the overstock of homes for sale shrank. However, the trade group said as many as 2 in 5 home sales were by borrowers who have seen their property lose value or are facing foreclosure.
“The NAR estimates that 35-to-40 percent of all sales are of distressed property, so underlying private activity is weaker than the headlines (imply) and there is little sign of imminent improvement,” Ian Shepherdson, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics.
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