Archive for January, 2008

Britney Spears And The Paparazzi: Has Singer Developed Stockholm …

Everyone is trying to figure out what’s wrong with Britney Spears. Blender has a new diagnosis: Stockholm syndrome.

The magazine’s March issue, on newsstands February 12, claims the singer has a “self-created” relationship with the paparazzi, one in which she has been chased for so long and by so many that she has come to not only accept them but need them in her life. The dozen or so photographers who stake her out regularly also change her flat tires, pump her gas, give her directions when she’s lost and often pick up her tab. “She seems to be basking [in the attention], and she seems to be trapped,” Blender writer Michael Joseph Gross observed. “She plays the role they expect her to play.”

Riding along on one paparazzi chase, Spears adviser Sam Lutfi — whose name also frequently appears as “Lufti” — sent text messages on the singer’s whereabouts to the team captain for celebrity-photo agency X17, Gross reported. That outing took place before FinalPixx photographer Adnan Ghalib, described by Gross as an “alpha pap,” became Spears’ on-again, off-again boyfriend. When the chase proved dangerous, one X17 videographer reportedly said, “Somebody’s going to get hurt, man.” If Spears were to get hurt — or worse, killed — during such a chase, his regret would be that he couldn’t sell the video unless he could prove he were calling 911 at the same time. “That would be horrible,” he responded, according to Gross’ article. “No, no. Nobody wants that.”

Some have speculated that the reason Spears has used an English accent as of late — making the leap from being Brit to being a Brit — is that Ghalib has rubbed off on her in more ways than one. Asked on “Entertainment Tonight” if Spears was pretending to be British because of a fascination with Princess Diana, who was also chased by the paparazzi to an extreme degree, Ghalib said no. “She’s never mentioned Princess Diana,” he said. The only thing the two women had in common, he said, is “dating an Arab.”

Though speculation is also rampant that Ghalib is selling photos and video of Spears on the side — a charge he denies — it’s Spears’ relationship with Sam Lutfi that has her friends and family worried. Abandoned by her lawyers, dumped by her management and estranged from her family, Lutfi seems to be the only mainstay in the singer’s life, besides the paparazzi and photo agencies, which he accused Lutfi of being in league with. Besides tipping off X17 as to Spears’ whereabouts, X17 says Lutfi provides other invaluable information. After initially receiving tips from “funny pseudonyms,” X17 co-owner Brandy Navarre told Blender that “out of the blue, Sam started telling me things ..
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50 Cent Talks About Eminem's Health

Everyone was wondering what’s going on with Eminem since he suffered a recent heath scare and hasn’t been photographed in over a year. He was hospitalized over the holidays in Detroit with pneumonia and heart problems. Sources say Eminem weighs over 200 pounds, which is borderline obese for his height.

Friend 50 Cent says he’s doing OK, and that reports of his poor health are exaggerated. According to Fiddy, “I got a chance to see him a few weeks ago and people think he is in a worse state than he actually is.”

Also, gossip magazine In Touch recently posted a retraction of sorts regarding Eminem’s recent “fat picture”

“We published what we thought was one of the first pictures of Eminem looking heavy. The National Enquirer labeled the photo “Now” and included no disclaimer that it was a photo reproduction.
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Ghalib airs Spears' voicemails

Britney Spears’ paparazzo boyfriend Adnan Ghalib has been condemned by friends of the star for revealing her personal voicemails on TV.The British born photographer, who has been dating the ‘Piece of Me’ star since December, played several voicemails left on his mobile phone during an interview on US show Entertainment Tonight.In the clips played, Spears appears to mispronounce Ghalib’s first name as “Aiden”.Spears is heard to say: “Hi Aiden (sic), it’s your favourite person in the whole world, gimme a call, bye.
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50 CENT: 'HOLLYWOOD STARS MAKE ME FEEL NORMAL'

Rapper 50 CENT is unfazed by socialising with Hollywood stars – because spending time with them makes him feel "normal".The In Da Club hitmaker – real name Curtis Jackson – recently teamed up with legendary actors Robert De Niro and Al Pacino for new movie Righteous Kill, and Jackson insists he feels more comfortable in the presence of A-list stars. He tells MTV.com, " I get a chance to feel normal when they’re (other celebrities) around.
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Fifty-year journey from austerity to iPods

Fifty years ago Britain had only lately emerged from postwar austerity, and a thrifty nation spent so little on leisure that it did not even feature as a category in the inaugural Family Expenditure Survey.

But the latest survey, published yesterday, charts the country’s transformation into a land of hedonistic homeowners prepared to spend nearly a fifth of income on housing and about the same amount on leisure goods and services, according to the Office of National Statistics.

The survey, conducted in 2006, surveyed 6,644 British householdsthrough interviews and asking participants to maintain two-week spending diaries.

Obtaining a truly robust picture of the changes in household spending over 50 years was hard, the ONS stressed, because social changes meant the classifications of expenditure were markedly different from those employed in 1957. For instance, gambling payments, which now account for 0.8 per cent of household spending, were not surveyed until the 1994-95 survey.

In a ranking of the top 50 spending categories of 2007, gambling occupied the same status as did purchases of mutton and lamb in 1957.

At 19 per cent of the total, spending on housing in 2006 is more than double the 1957 level. The ONS calculation breaks down to an average of ??52 a week on mortgages and nearly half that – ??24 a week – on council tax, water charges and other local taxes and services charges, ??23 on alterations and improvements and ??17 on rent, net of rebates and housing benefit.

By contrast, housing took only 9 per cent of household spending in 1957. Stephen Dunstan, a statistician with the ONS, said the sharp shift probably reflected both rising house prices and relatively low rates of home ownership in 1957 – only 30 per cent of the population against 65-70 per cent today.

Overall, leisure in 1957 was too insignificant to be counted. It did not account for even 1 per cent of spending until 1977.

And while 50 years ago only better-off families would have aspired to own a TV set, a digitised world has changed all that. Spending on cable, satellite subscriptions and mobile telephony, while not added to the full survey until 1996-97, now account for 1.
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Winehouse's mother: 'Amy is on Spears path'

Amy Winehouse’s mother is convinced her daughter is on the same path as troubled star Britney Spears – and has already prepared herself for the troubled singer’s impending death. The ‘Back To Black’ hitmaker singer checked into a London rehab facility on Thursday – just six days after video footage of her apparently smoking crack in a shocking drugs binge surfaced.But Janis Winehouse fears it may already be too late to help the 24-year-old star.She tells British newspaper the Sunday Mirror: “I’ve known for a long time that my daughter has problems. But seeing it on screen rammed it home. I realise my daughter could be dead within the year. We’re watching her kill herself, slowly.”I’ve already come to terms with her dead.
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A Britney-Spears-free zone

Let’s have a quick look at the important events of the day.

Grunty baby polar bear learns to crawl (CNN)

Mayor guilty of dog-napping? Vote for weirdest story (MSNBC)

Firm offers ‘heartache leave’

A company gives workers one to three paid days off after a bad break-up (Yahoo)

11-Year-Old Boy Deaf for Nine Years Suddenly Cured (Fox News)

New Jersey Cop Tickets Fellow Officers Last Day on Job (Fox News)

Jury to Be Picked for Mom Accused of Microwaving Baby (Fox News)

There. Informed?

But wait. If you were expecting a load of solemn head-shaking and grave tsk-tsking over our degenerate times, you are being spared. A century ago, Alfred Harmsworth, later elevated to the peerage as Lord Northcliffe, bestrode the London newspaper scene like a colossus. Here is how Piers Brendon describes the means of his success in Eminent Edwardians:

“Northcliffe’s success was largely built on his receptiveness to, and his mirroring of, public opinion. He was always reluctant to insult his readers gratuitously by telling them what they did not want to know. [emphasis added]. They did want to know about hats — ‘Terrors of Top Hat Wearing’ was a favoured early headline — and about skirts — ‘The Battle of the Skirts: Long v.
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50 CENT FORBIDS CIARA FROM DOING A COLLABO WITH ANYONE FROM CASH …

MediaTakeOut.com has learned that 50 Cent is asking Ciara not to do any collaborations with Cash Money artists – including Baby and Lil Wayne.

The feud between Cash Money Records and G-Unit has been brewing for months – but now it’s bubbling over. You see, last week, MediaTakeOut.com learned that Young Buck announced that he’s leaving G-Unit and would be signing on with Cash Money Records.

Now 50 Cent appears to be doing anything in his power to hurt the New Orleans based label.

According to one of MediaTakeOut.
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US durable goods orders report spurs stock markets higher

TORONTO – Stock markets headed higher in early trading Tuesday morning on some strong U.S. corporate earnings reports and a better than expected snapshot of American manufacturing in December.

Toronto’s S&P/TSX composite index gained 32.09 points to 13,108.99 after a late-day rally in financial stocks had helped push the index up 92 points Monday.

The Canadian dollar jumped above parity with the greenback again, surging 0.89 of a cent to 100.45 cents US, partly because of higher commodity prices.

“We now have the broad consensus that the (U.S. Federal Reserve) will cut tomorrow by 50 basis points, highlighting the interest rate advantage the Canadian dollar will have over the U.S. dollar, going forward,” said Matthew Strauss, senior currency analyst at RBC Capital Markets.

“And on top of everything, we had strong U.S. data. Because if the U.S. economy does not fall as far as some in the market fear, that would definitely assist the Canadian economy.”

The currency last closed above parity on Jan. 3 and sank as low as 96.81 cents US earlier this month.

The TSX Venture Exchange moved down 3.52 points to 2,561.32.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrials moved up 56.1 points to 12,444 on top of a 176.72-point rise Monday on hopes the U.S. Federal Reserve will chop its key funds rate by a full half-point, on top of the three-quarters of a point drop from last week, to cushion the U.S. economy from the worst of the fallout from the imploding housing sector.

The Nasdaq composite index climbed 6.07 points to 2,355.98 after rising 23.71 points Monday. The S&P 500 index added seven points to 1,360.95 after the U.S. Commerce Department reported that demand for durable goods shot up 5.2 per cent last month, a far larger increase than the 1.8 per cent rise expected.

The strength came from a big increase in demand for commercial aircraft, but even excluding the transportation sector, orders posted a solid 2.6 per cent gain.

However, there were weak spots that bolstered confidence the Fed will continue to aggressively cut interest rates.

“For instance, manufacturing employment tumbled, manufacturing hours worked were lower, the Institute for Supply Management manufacturing index slid into sub-50 territory (showing contraction) and manufacturing production was flat in the month,” observed Royal Bank economist Rishi Sondhi.

“As a result, today’s report does not alter our expectation that the Fed will undertake further aggressive easing this week with the Fed funds rate expected to drop 50 basis points.’

Investors also took in another helping of bad housing sector news.

The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller 10-city composite home price index showed U.S. home prices plunged by a record 8.
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Harbhajan escapes ban, 50 per cent fine of match-fee imposed

Adelaide, Australia: January 29, 2008 – IR Summary -Indian off-spinner Harbhajan Singh was advised that if he wants to get out of the Code of Conduct Level 3.3 charge of racial abuse against him, he must accept a minor crime, since that’s the only way to come out of the main allegation.

Harbhajan Singh was further hinted that if he accepts that he gave a minor abuse, he might escape with some match-fine. just a 50 per cent fine of his match-fee.

As advised by Shashank and VR Manohar, the son-father duo of the BCCI, Harbhajan Singh admitted that he uttered a minor abuse to Andrew Symonds and did not do anything that could fetch him the charge of racial abuse.
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