Grammy Award 2009: Lil Wayne is in the lead with eight nominations

Year 2008 is going to end and the Grammy Award is approaching. The 51^st Grammy Award Ceremony, the most prestigious award in the American Music Industry, is going to take place on February 8. 2009.

The list of nominees for the award has been published. Famous rapper, Lil Wayne, has the top spot with eight nominations. His album, “The Carter III,” sold 1 million copies in USA, making it the best opening tally of the year. Lil Wayne, whose real name is Dwayne Michael Carter, received other nominations in the rap song section including rap album and rap songs.

Two famous British Rock Bands- Coldplay and Radiohead, will be fighting for the top honors. Coldplay is at the second place with seven nominations. Radiohead received four nominations. Jay-Z, Kanye West and R& B singer Ne-Yo received six nominations each. Lil Wayne, Coldplay, Ne-Yo and Radiohead will compete in the album of the year category.

“Raising Sand,” an album created by former Led Zeppelin frontman, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss has been nominated in four categories including: Album of the year, Record of the year (Please Read the letter), Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals (Rich Woman), and Best Country Collaboration with Vocals (Killing the Blues). Female British singer, Duffy, received three nominations including Best New Artist, Best Female Pop Vocal Performance (Mercy), and Best Pop Vocal Album (Rockferry). Fellow Brit female, Adele, received four nominations in Record of the Year (Chasing Pavements), Song of the Year (Chasing Pavements), Best New Artist, Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.

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Reuters

Entertainment Weekly

Roman Polanski lawyers request the court to dismiss the case

It has been thirty years since Academy Award winning movie maker, Roman Polanski, have been accused of rape charges by the US court. In order to avoid prison sentence, Roman Polanski fled to France. Now, the lawyers of the director requested the court to drop the charges. They said that they have evidence which shows that Polanski’s case was distorted by “judicial and prosecutorial misconduct.”

On December 2, 2008, the request was filed with Judge David S. Wesley in the Los Angeles Superior Court by Chad S. Hummel of Phelps& Phillips and Bart Dalton. Bart Dalton’s father Douglas Dalton represented Mr. Polanski in 1977. Now, he has joined in the filing with his son. Mr. Polanski will be represented by Mr. Hummel. New York Times reports:

Tuesday’s filing said Judge Rittenband, who is now dead, intentionally violated a plea agreement with Mr. Polanski after having engaged in what it called “repeated unethical and unlawful ex parte communications” with a deputy district attorney who was not involved in the prosecution, but was independently advising the judge.

The lawyers cited the documentary titled Roman Polanski:Wanted and Desired, which showed that a former deputy district attorney gave suggestions to the judge on how the case should be handled. The documentary focused on the rape incident of Roman Polanski in 1977.

Roman Polanski, who now lives in Paris with wife, Emmanuelle Seigner, was accused of raping a 13-year old girl at the age of 44. He spent 42 days in prison for psychiatric evaluation but left the country when he came to know that the judge was planning to send him to prison. He was indicted on six felony counts and faced life imprisonment.

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BBC

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Britney Spears is back in shape

American pop diva, Britney Spears, is under control of her life again. For the last two years, she became tabloid headlines for all the wrong reasons. Her marriage and divorce with Kevin Federline, her drugs habit, shaving heads, everything pointed at the end of her singing career. Now, the twenty seven year old mother is in her comeback stage. Earlier, Britney Spears gained lots of weight by drinking. She stopped drinking and got into weight loss program. In her recent European mini-tour, she showed off her body. However, it was a lot of hard work on her part and she is not happy at all. People Magazine reports:

"I have had to work hard at getting [my body] back to where it used to be," Spears tells Glamour in its January issue. "I used to be obsessed with working out ... But I can't get motivated right now because I'm so focused on my music."

On November 30, 2008, “For the Record” the much awaited documentary on the life Britney Spears was broadcast on MTV and it created lots of positive buzz. People have started to sympathize Britney Spears. They are saying that the documentary made them like Spears much more. Spears’ latest album, “Circus” is released today. One of the songs of the album, “Womanizer,” is ruling the top charts. Now, she wants to marry again to a person who could be a good father to her children.

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People Magazine

Four Christmases enjoys one of the biggest Thanksgiving opening weekends

The holiday season is upon us and Christmas is at the corner and there is no better way to enjoy the Christmas then watching a good Christmas movie and that is what Four Christmases provides to the movie goers. Starring Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon, Four Christmases is a romantic comedy that focuses on the spirit of Christmas. Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn are unmarried couples who plan a romantic get away every Christmas but failed to do this year. Now they have no other option but to spend Christmas with four of their divorced parents.

Four Christmases which opened on November 26, 2008, collected

$ 46.7 million making it the third biggest Thanksgiving opening ever after Toy Story 2 ($80.1 million) and Enchanted ($49.1 million).

Twilight, which enjoyed the top position last week, took the second lead. Based on Stephenie Meyer’s 2005 bestseller novel by the same name, Twilight collected $35.7 million on its opening day. Overall, the movie collected $69.6 million in Canada and North America. This week it observed a steep decline of 62% in its collection.

Walt Disney’s animated movie, Bolt, took the third place collecting $36 million. Quantum of Solace, the latest James Bond flick, is still going strong at the box office. The movie is now at the fourth position which is followed by Milk, a biological movie on California’s first gay governor, Harvey Milk.

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Winona Ryder stole diamond jewelry this time

Famous Hollywood actress, Winona Ryder, is accused of jewelry theft. According to reports published by TMZ.com, an entertainment website, the actress had been accused of stealing $1,24,000 worth of Bulgari jewels which she borrowed to attend an event on November 20, 2008. The event was sponsored by Marie Claire magazine in Madrid.

Ryder said that she left the diamond jewelries in the hotel room as they were supposed to be picked up by someone from Marie Claire but some time after she left, the diamond bracelet and ring were missing. French celebrity magazine, Voici, reported that the actress left the jewelry at front desk of the hotel for safekeeping. However, the hotel management said that they did not receive any package from the actress and there was no surveillance footage which showed that Ryder gave any package for safekeeping.

Well, this is not the first time, Winona Ryder is accused of stealing. In 2001, Winona was accused of shoplifting at Beverly Hills, California. The actress was arrested on the charge of stealing $5,500 worth of designer clothes and accessories from a department store. Recently, on her way to London, the 37 year old actress forced to make a special landing over a mystery illness.

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New York Daily News

Stephenie Meyer's web promotion for Twilight

Twilight is now ruling North American box office. The movie collected around $100 million in the first ten days of its release. The novel, which was first published in 2005, turned novelist Stephenie Meyer from an orndinary homemaker into an American mainstream celebrity. Interestingly, internet played a major role behind Stephenie’s success.

In 2005, publisher Little, Brown and Company Books for Young Readers published 75,000 copies of the first book of Twilight series. For promoting the book, the company sent Meyer on a small author tour and set-up an “in-house web page.” Unfortunately, the site was not very successful. After this, Stephenie Meyers took things in her own hands. Henceforth, http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/ came into being. In the site, Stephenie wrote about her personal life, family and published photos. This gave people a chance to connect with her. She directly communicated with people and it gradually built up a strong fanbase over time.

Interestingly, one of the fans named Lori Joffs rewrote the book from a particular character’s perspective. She published it on fiction.net. Stephenie wrote a review and left her personal email address. The two chatted with each other. Then Lori Joffs and her friend, Laura Christiano, sought Stephenie's permission to set up a dictionary site for her novel. Stephenie agree and the two jointly set up http://www.twilightlexicon.com/ where fans would get reference. Last summer, the site even crushed from over use.

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Los Angeles Times

Australian government promotes tourism with Australia

Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman starrer, Australia, is now being promoted jointly by the Australian tourism department to attract tourists in Australia. Directed by Baz Luhrman, Australia is a romantic movie set in WWII era. Made in the style of epic movies like the Laurence of Arabia, the movie beautifully shows the diverse landscape and lives of Australian ranchers. In addition, there is the romance between Hugh Jackman, the “Sexiest Man Alive” and Nicole Kidman. Released in USA on November 26, 2008, the movie is getting positive reviews. The Australian tourism board developed a new tourism brand using the scenes, themes and actors from the movie. wsbtv.com reports:

"Through our marketing efforts we hope that as people get caught up in the romance and adventure of the movie that they will fall in love with the idea of holidaying in Australia," said Tourism Australia's managing director, Geoff Buckley, in kicking off the $26 million campaign

Australia is a developed country and has great attractions for tourists. Around half million people are employed in the tourism industry. Compared to last year, number of tourists visiting Australia rose by 2%. Of the total number of tourists, 21% are international tourists and the rest are domestic tourists. Last year, the tourism sector represented 3.7% of the country’s GDP.

Movie is the most popular media and can reach lots of people. Australian tourism board has made a good decision of promoting tourism through the movie.

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wsbtv.com