Lily Cole was at the “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” Film Photocall at the Cannes Film Festival on 22 May and this film has special significance as it stars Heath Ledger of Batman: The Dark Knight fame who died last year during when this  film was shot. It would have been a half finished film , but Terry Gilliam the Director decided to finish this fantasy film in honour of Heath Ledger instead of leaving it as an unfinished work.

Lily Cole at the The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus Photocall Cannes Film Festival

The Plot:

In the present day, immortal 1,000-year-old Doctor Parnassus (Christopher Plummer) leads a travelling theatre troupe that offers audience members a chance to go beyond reality through a magical mirror in his possession. Members of the troupe include a sleight of hand expert, Anton (Andrew Garfield), and a dwarf, Percy (Verne Troyer); Parnassus had been able to guide the imagination of others through a deal with the Devil (Tom Waits), who now comes to collect on the arrangement, targeting the doctor’s daughter (Lily Cole). The troupe, which is joined by a mysterious outsider named Tony (portrayed by Heath Ledger, Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell), embark through parallel worlds to rescue the girl.

Information courtesy Wikipedia

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus Trailer

The Full cast:

Christopher Plummer, Heath Ledger, Tom Waits, Lily Cole, Andrew Garfield, Johnny Depp, Jude Law, Colin Farrell, Verne Troyer

To be released in the UK June 6

Lily Cole at the The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus Photocall Cannes Film Festival

The Verdict

One for the arty film lovers this, good performance from Ledger from limited footage we have seen, this film is a bit on the quirky side and not for everybody but we have included here because of the Heath Ledger factor. This film looks to be a solid production. Has that Lion, Witch and The Wardrobe feel about it. Questionable box office success based on the film alone, but with the Ledger name in play this could prove very popular. Provisional Rating a very neutral 3 stars but the all star cast line up is impressive none the less!

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The 54th Ivor Novello Awards were held last night at the Grosvenor House in London, a music awards event that celebrates the talent and originality of British music.  Elbow was the major headline, scooping up two gongs to head the line up on a  star studded evening. Female Star Names like Sophie Ellis Bextor, Sharlene Spiteri of former Texas fame, Beverley Knight and more attended.

Photo below Duffy performing at the V festival in Perth Australia 5 April 09

The Welsh songstress Duffy won an award for her song Mercy with the Most Performed Work Award and is hitting the headlines of late as firstly she is breaking into film with a new film role, more news on that soon, and also the New Bond movie is on the drawing board the follow up to “Quantum of Solace ” and Duffy is rumoured to be hot favourite to sing the coveted title track.

On the red carpet, Sophie Ellis Bextor did it for us and scoops the gong for Best Red Carpet an award that is given by us by the star that shines more than most on the night or in this case during the day!

The Ivor Novello Awards Winners List

Best Contemporary Song: Elbow, Grounds For Divorce

Best Album: The Ting Tings, We Started Nothing

Best Selling British Song: Coldplay, Viva La Vida

Best Song Musically and Lyrically: Elbow, One Day Like This

Most Performed Work: Duffy, Mercy

Songwriter of the year: Eg White

Contribution To British Music: Massive Attack

Outstanding Song Collection: Vince Clarke from Erasure

Best Original Film Score: There Will Be Blood, composed by Jonny Greenwood

Best Television Soundtrack: Wallace and Gromit (A Matter of Loaf and Death) – Composed by Julian Nott

Special International award: Smokey Robinson

The Ivors inspiration award: Edwyn Collins

The Ivors Classical Music Award: Julian MacMillan

Academy Fellowship: Don Black

Academy Fellowship: David Ferguson, chairman of the academy

The Ivor Novello Awards Red Carpet

Sophie Ellis-Bextor

Beverley Knight

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Beyonce has a new single out taken from her latest  ”I Am….”  album called “Ego” and the official video is out now, hot off the press, and still smouldering in more ways than one. A black and white number in the “Single ladies” style, but a slightly slower tempo with less violent hip swinging and a curly haired Beyonce with no evidence of a Robotic arm.

She’s been on tour in Europe recently and is heading this way to London with her performance at the 02 Arena being held on Bank Holiday Monday 25 May and is billed as one of the big shows of the year up there with Britney Spears and Michael Jackson. Her sister Solange Knowles apparently will also be performing at the after event party.

Beyonce Ego Official Video

The Verdict.

Nice video, nice song, Beyonce as always looking good showing us some sexy dance moves, not sure about the curly hair though. This song has a slightly old school and faint motown sound to it, its catchy and we like the video although there is a striking resemblance to the Single Ladies video set up which marks it down on vid originality. One of those retro silver chunky mikes we think would just have rounded the video off nicely.

Beyonce is going through an experimental phase on this latest album trying out some newish things, something that artists tend to do when they have matured in career terms, she’s been around a decent period of time and just fancies a creative change and trying some new challenges, and why not!  It’s risky stuff though, but when you are that established and that big, with a huge fanbase, it doesn’t hurt to ring the changes, the fans will follow regardless, if it doesn’t go down well, just go back to what you did before as you know that works, its a win win situation.

Single Ladies has the edge over this new “Ego” offering in our opinion, but we still say that Single Ladies was not one of her all time best songs in the Beyonce scheme of things. Vocally we cannot fault, but this “Ego” song just lacks that certain something somewhere, what it is we wish we knew, but it lacks it all the same, “impact” could be the word we are looking for, otherwise its an OK number.  OK is not a word you associate with the likes of Beyonce. Nice songs get nice ratings that tend to leave us neutral. Rating 3 stars out 5.

Chart wise this could do well, not due to the song or even the Beyonce brand, but the clever timing of its release just after the Euro tour completion and as she arrives in the UK to perform live in London, its all in the marketing mix, timing, timing and more timing……..coincidence…….we think not!

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“Drag Me To Hell” premiered tonight 21 May at the Cannes Film Festival 2009 and this film got the red carpet treatment with names such as Alison Lohman the main female lead and Estelle Desanges attending the event. “Drag Me To Hell”  conjures up all sorts of images in the mind, is currently getting heavy advertising on bus sides in London, and meeting with a slight giggle on this site, and a real  itching to at least see the trailer, and put this film through its paces to see if anything is left at the other end!

If being “dragged to hell” involves meeting the likes of Estelle Desanges (pictured below) who was also at the premiere, then you can “drag me to hell” anytime you like, the sooner the better!

Film Details:

Directed by Sam Raimi of Spiderman fame and also of the absolutely superb cult film trilogy ”Evil Dead”, comedy horror at is best of which FJ is a serious fan, comes his latest offering about a bank loan officer after a promotion who has to show her mettle with a elderly lady regarding a decision on a mortgage extension. All simple stuff on paper,  but she makes the rather unwise decision of turning down this particular old lady and humiliating her in the process, only to find she becomes cursed by this woman with the prospect of “burning in hell”.

Drag Me To Hell Official Film Trailer

The Verdict:

Film poster and film title it has to be said had us laughing out loud and shaking our heads, and visions of yet another B Movie style horror film looked very much on the cards, and a resulting tear this to shreds review looked to be in the making with a  nasty 1 star rating at the end being the prospect.

That is on first impressions. A trailer based rating only this, but from what we have seen, this does actually look surprisingly good, had us jumping here, its all screams and shocks and the old woman from hell, who you really should have given the mortgage extension too! Critics hate horror films, and technically this is not a masterpiece, but it is frightening, and more importantly there is direction pedigree here with the Evil Dead films now reaching a cult status,  as they are totally hilarious.

“Drag Me To Hell” probably will affect how you look at little old ladies after viewing this film.  Some hiding under the bed covers whilst leaving the lights on at night, may also have to be expected. We think any mortgage extension requests from old ladies in future will also be given the very shaky “no problem” vote from loan officers at most banks from  now on. We like this …………… technical rule book has been thrown out the window, and if you pardon the pun “what the hell”  Rating  3 stars out of 5  is the surprising outcome! Now where’s those spppare light bbbulbs!!!

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British actress and model Lucy Gordon who is famous for her appearance in Spiderman  3 as reporter Jennifer Dugan, was found dead in her Paris apartment today in what appeared to be a suicide according to Paris police officials, but an autopsy and official investigation has to be carried out to establish the official cause of death.

Photo above is of Lucy Gordon  at the film premiere of ‘Spider-Man 3′ at the Kaufman Astoria Studios during the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival on April 30, 2007 in the Queens borough of New York City.

Lucy Gordon the Oxford born actress, was only 28,   and appeared in a number of films including Serendipity, The Four Feathers,  The Russian Dolls and Frost. She is to appear as British singer and actress Jane Birkin in the soon to be released biopic that was shot before her death called Serg Gainsbourg (a heroic life).
  

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 Rihanna is hitting the headlines lately again as she has been spotted with former child actor turned Rapper Aubrey “Drake” Graham at New York’s Lucky Strike Lanes and Lounge on Monday 18 May, and they looked close with plenty of lip locking at the bowling alley according to multiple sources. Plenty of onlookers noticed, but obviously pretended not to, as you normally do in these situations. Did you see Rihanna and Drake making out last night?…..nah was too busy bowling, didn’t see a thing!……..Yeah right!

A source told the New York Post newspaper: “She was drinking whiskey and apple juice and making out with him all night. They were really cute together.” So there you go!

Rihanna recently attended  the 3rd Annual DKMS Gala held at Cipriani in New York (photo above) and  Rihanna looked the business showing off an intersting choice of footwear, as she posed for photographers outside the event.

So with Rihanna happy and her love life looking to be sorted out, whats happening music wise with this lady. Rumours and rumours floating around about her new album and there are murmurings she could be recording some new tunes with Justin Timberlake, with Jay-Z, Kanye West and non other than Drake also possible hookups.

Apparently she was joined by Justin and Jay-Z at a recording session in the Chelsea District of New York on May 18th, all names mentioned are just wire  rumours and speculation at the moment and not backed up by anything solid as in a confirmation from the Rihanna camp.  She’s a bit of a dark horse is Rihanna, if you’re not in her circle you are very much guessing as to what will happen next. All mysterious stuff,  any further news and it will be here!

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A celebrity headline with a difference and a worrying headline, and a sign that the stars that appeared in the film SlumDog Millionaire were pretty real as Rubina Ali who is only nine years of age and stars in the multi Oscar award winning film has recently been made homeless in Mumbai along with the rest of her family. Officials turned up in bulldozers and cleared the shanty down in which she still lived to make way for an extension of the Bhandra East Railway Station according to the Free Paper Metro.

Photo below of Rubina Ali (centre) playing with neighbours at the lime Juice Vendors Shop at her previous home in Garib Nagar on April 22 in the slums of Bandra, Mumbai before the clearing.

This photo and news is in stark contrast to her appearance along with the rest of the stars on the red carpet at the Oscars earlier this year. Her father Rafiq Qureshi refused to let his home be destroyed when  confronted by the bulldozers and was beaten which resulted in him going to hospital. Last week the other SlumDog star Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail had his home in the similar area also demolished in the same manner.

Part of the perils of Shanty Town living not only in India but around the world as Shanty Town legal rights are pretty much non existent, and even these SlumDog stars are not immune from Shanty Town clearings!

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