Kim Kardashian Reveals Mystery Plastic Surgery

Kim Kardashian thinks a spruced-up Bruce Jenner is better than ever.

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"Bruce has gotten a lot of media criticism in the past for getting an ill-advised partial facelift and a nose job," Kardashian tells PEOPLE exclusively as her step-father's latest plastic surgery is documented and revealed on the family's reality show, Keeping Up with the Kardashians.

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"He has never ever spoken about this until now," she says of the incident 25 years ago. "It's very heartfelt and I think people will see how sweet and simply human Bruce is."

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Regarding Jenner's look on her blog Monday morning, Kardashian writes, "Unfortunately, the result wasn't what Bruce had hoped for and for years since then he has been the victim of cruel taunts from the media. Since he's turning 60 in October, Bruce felt it was time to correct the mistakes made by the previous doctor so he went to a new doctor for a second facelift. The results are amazing! Bruce looks better than ever and he is extremely happy with the result."

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This time around the Olympian "just wanted to be more natural and refreshed," adds a source.

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Jenner's new look will be revealed next Sunday on the show.

Microsoft confirms Windows 7 coming this year

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Microsoft confirmed on Monday that it is planning to release Windows 7 this year, in time for the holiday shopping season.

"We are tracking well to a Windows 7 holiday," Microsoft Senior Vice President Bill Veghte said in an interview.

Veghte made a similar statement in a speech Monday at Microsoft's TechEd event in Los Angeles, California. As recently as January, Veghte was saying publicly that such a release was not a sure thing.

At the event, Microsoft also announced it plans to wrap up work on an update to its server operating system -- Windows Server 2008 R2 -- at the same time it finishes Windows 7 on the desktop side.

Microsoft issued a release candidate for the server operating system last month, alongside the near-final version of Windows 7.

For months now, Microsoft's official position has been that Windows 7 would ship by January 2010 -- the three-year anniversary of Windows Vista's mainstream launch. However the software maker has been aiming and planning for a 2009 release all along, as we noted last fall.

Computer makers have been indicating privately -- and in a few cases publicly -- that things have remained on track. But, with memories of Vista's delays fresh in its mind, Microsoft continued to hedge its bets.

At TechEd, Veghte also plans to show a demo of how Office 2010 will take advantage of some of Windows 7's features. For example, Office will make use of a feature called "Jump Lists," which allow users to quickly take action directly from the taskbar at the bottom of the screen. From Outlook's Jump List, for example, users will be able to start a new message, create a contact, or schedule a meeting with two clicks.

Those that have both products will also be able to drag an Office file from a Jump List directly into an e-mail, a big time-saver.

A technical preview of Office 2010 will kick off in July, with those at TechEd among the first to get to try out the software.

NASA astronaut first to 'tweet' from space

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It's not quite the achievement of a lunar landing, but astronaut Mike Massimino made Twitter history with a 139-character post to the micro-blogging site -- the first person to do so from space.

"From orbit: Launch was awesome!! I am feeling great, working hard, & enjoying the magnificent views, the adventure of a lifetime has begun!" he wrote at 4:30 p.m. ET Tuesday.

With the tweet, Massimino kept his promise to file updates from the space shuttle Atlantis as it readies to repair the Hubble Space Telescope.

Massimino began tweeting in early April as he prepared for the mission. By early Wednesday, his Twitter feed, astro_mike, had more than 241,000 followers.

Atlantis launched Monday afternoon with Massimino and six other crew members. It is NASA's fifth and final repair visit to the Hubble. The crew was expected to arrive at the space telescope on Wednesday.

"I'm going to put my spacesuit on, next stop: Earth Orbit!!" Massimino posted on Twitter on Monday morning before the launch.

Another astronaut, Mark Polansky, is posting Twitter updates as he prepares for the next planned space shuttle mission to the International Space Station.

Polansky, who is tweeting as astro_127, will be the commander of the mission, scheduled for June.

Top 10 Web tools for editing digital pictures

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Digital cameras are now as common and affordable to the average family as the Polaroid of the '60s.

Best thing about 'em? You don't even have to take your film in to the corner drugstore to get developed -- because digital cameras don't rely on film to make their pictures "stick." Thanks to technology, the entire process, from clicking the shutter to printing the pictures, is now entirely within the power of the consumer.

Maybe you've taken a picture that's just not as perfect as you'd like it to be. Instead of being at the mercy of a darkroom-shackled photo lackey to improve upon it, you've got more tools than ever to take it upon yourself to edit, store, organize, and share your images with the world.

Here's a roundup of 10 free, and mostly free, online tools for the budding digital photographer:

1. Picnik -- Summed up from the site: "Picnik makes your photos fabulous with easy to use yet powerful editing tools. Tweak to your heart's content, then get creative with oodles of effects, fonts, shapes, and frames." If you already use Flickr for your photos (here's what I do with mine), you're only a click away from taking a Picnik. That's how I discovered it, and it's worked fairly well for me to this point.

2. Splashup-- Splashup "is a powerful editing tool and photo manager. With all the features professionals use and novices want, it's easy to use, works in real-time, and allows you to edit many images at once." You'd wonder how something this extensive could be free - and it all runs within the browser.

3. FotoFlexer -- FotoFlexer bills itself as "the world's most advanced online image editor." With it, you can edit photos from Photobucket, MySpace, Facebook, Flickr, Picasa, and "more places." I'm not quite sure what "more places" means, but last I checked, this does not include a phone booth.

4. Pixlr -- "Pixlr is a free online photo editor; jump in and start: edit, adjust, filter. It's just what you imagine!" Alexa says it's the "fastest growing photo editor online." If these resources are starting to look similar to your eye, remember you don't have to use all of them - just pick the one that works best for your needs.

5. flauntR-- flauntR is a suite that includes the ability to edit images, add effects, add text, and print the results on everything from mugs to posters. You might be overwhelmed with the options here, but... isn't that better than being underwhelmed?

6. Photoshop Express-- Adobe's Photoshop was really the first image editor of its kind to herald in the age of digital photography, though it was designed for professionals and its endless options could be daunting (and bank- breakingly expensive) for the layman. Now, Photoshop.com is on the Web to help that very same layman -- for free or plus levels of membership -- edit, store, and share his photos. Lots of helpful tutorials promise to guide the casual user through editing pickles.

7. PiZap-- PiZap's tagline is "fun with photos made easy." It's another flavor of photo editor/storage center that, like flauntR, allows you to print the results to mugs, bags, and t-shirts. PiZap invites developers to check out its API for more personalization options (which is usually a good thing).

8. Aviary-- Aviary lets you: "edit images, create mind-blowing effects, design logos, find colors, collaborate, and more. All you need is a Web browser." This particular brand looks to be the one to beat, as they have several different tools in development. I'm guessing that within five years, this one is going to be at the top of every person's list of Web-based image editors.

9. DrPic-- DrPic says it's "the easiest free online picture editor" and that it has "processed over five million pictures." I say they're easy enough, but not necessarily THE easiest. Everything's relative, no?

10. Cameroid -- Cameroid lets you "take crazy (or not) snaps with your webcam straight from your browser." I featured this one in a CNN.com live video a while ago, and it certainly deserves to be mentioned again. If you're looking for something else to do with your webcam, give it a cameroid (which isn't as painful as it might sound).

As you can see, there are plenty of options for photo editing, storing, and sharing out there. Some are going to fit your personal workflow more neatly than others, so it's worth it to try a few and see what works best for your needs.

Or maybe you swear by something that I totally missed? Don't be a miser - share it with the rest of the class! We'd love to know about it.

Why right-brainers will rule this century

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Graduation is here! The global marketplace is changing. The economy is in recession and the rules of business seem to shift every day. What does it really mean to be successful? Do you think you have what it takes? On Sunday, May 10, at 10:30 a.m. ET, watch Oprah's commencement speech at Duke University live on CNN.com and Oprah.com.

(OPRAH.com) -- Your left brain is logical, linear, by-the-numbers; the right side is creative, artistic, empathetic. Oprah Winfrey talks with Daniel Pink about his groundbreaking book, "A Whole New Mind", and explores how right-brain thinkers are wired for 21st-century success.

The best part: Anyone can tap into the right mind-set.

Pink, a former chief speechwriter for former Vice President Al Gore, presents a convincing argument that our country is entering a new era -- the so-called conceptual age -- during which right-brained skills such as design and storytelling will become far more crucial than traditionally left-brained skills such as accounting and computer programming.

While the latter skills are readily outsourced, transformative abilities such as empathy and creativity are crucial in a new age "animated by a different form of thinking and a new approach to life," he writes.

Because I've always been a right-brain kind of person -- more of an inventive and empathetic storyteller than a linear, logical number cruncher --this book really spoke to me. Now, you know what happens when something new excites me: I want to share it with as many people as I can.

In June 2008, I was invited to Stanford University to give the commencement address (my goddaughter Kirby was among the graduates). Oprah.com: Oprah's Stanford commencement address
After finishing Daniel's book, I ordered 4,500 copies, one for each student in Stanford's class of 2008. I wanted to present them (along with another of my favorites, Eckhart Tolle's A New Earth) as graduation presents. For four days straight, a team of people tied ribbons around the books, which were waiting on their chairs. Watch Oprah's Duke University address on Sunday on Oprah.com or CNN.com.

When we sat down in the studio in Chicago, I told him the story of my ribbon assembly line.

"That's the kind of work we typically try to outsource!" Daniel joked. In "A Whole New Mind," he explains that one of the trademarks of the Conceptual Age is the outsourcing of traditional white-collar jobs such as law, accounting, and engineering to less-expensive overseas workers, particularly in Asia. But as he points out, you can't outsource creativity.

Feel left out? Fear not, Daniel says: He has identified six right-brain-associated aptitudes that he believes anyone can develop, and tells us how we can use these skills not only to stay competitive in the workplace but to improve our lives and our world.

How to talk to your kids about sex

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When your child asks where babies come from, do you break a sweat and blame it on the stork? Have you had a conversation about oral sex, masturbation or contraception with your teen? If you haven't started "the talk" with your child, sex therapist Dr. Laura Berman says you could be making a big mistake.

Dr. Berman says kids today know a lot more about sex than we think they do. In fact, Berman says children are being forced to make sexual decisions by middle school, from receiving sexually explicit text messages -- also called "sexting" -- to feeling pressured to perform acts like oral sex.

What you need to do as a parent, Berman says, is arm them with knowledge that will guide them well into adulthood. "You want to start these conversations early with your kids -- before they find themselves in the circumstances where they're having to make those healthy sexual decisions."

O, The Oprah Magazine and Seventeen magazine joined forces for a groundbreaking new sex study that surveys moms and girls ages 15 to 22. The bottom line? Parents aren't talking to their kids enough about sex. Oprah.com: See the results of this groundbreaking study

"What is so fascinating to me is 90 percent of the mothers, our readers, thought that they had had the conversation with their daughters about sex," says Gayle King, O magazine's editor-at-large.

"When you talk to the daughters, you'll find out, well, no, you didn't really quite have the conversation."

Although some mothers shy away from the conversation because they don't want to seem like they're condoning sex, King says you have to arm your daughters with as much information as you can. "Knowledge is power," she says.

Seventeen magazine editor-in-chief Ann Shoket says girls don't only want the nuts-and-bolts talk about sex -- they want to learn more about the feelings that can come with it.

"It's clear that these girls are doing very advanced sexual things," she says. "And yet what they really want their mothers to talk about is the emotional side. They want their mothers to talk to them about: 'How do I know if this boy is just using me? How do I know if I'm ready for it?'

That's the part where mothers play a huge role that the Internet or their friends just can't do."

Berman says it's important to start an ongoing conversation when your kids are young that will continue to develop as they get older.

"They want a sense from a very early age, not so much about the nuts and bolts about sex, but that it's okay to ask questions about their body," Berman says. "If you wait to have that one big talk until they're 13, 14, it's often too late." Oprah.com: Get Dr. Berman's guide to help start the conversation

She believes that making them feel good about themselves is key.

"Feeling good about their bodies. Feeling good about their genitals. Feeling good about their sexual function. Feeling empowered about who they are as people and as sexual beings. And then that makes the path so much easier when they're in their teen years."

The magazines' survey says 78 percent of mothers think their daughters feel comfortable talking to them about sex -- but only 39 percent of daughters actually do.

When it comes to teenagers, Berman urges all parents to stay calm when approached for information. Overreacting, she says, could make your child hesitant to come to you in the future.

"Listen -- don't just lecture them," Berman says. "[Encourage them] to ask questions about the words and the terms and the things they're hearing about at school, to ask questions about what they're seeing in the media."

Amy, a mom from Tennessee, wants to have the talk with her 10-year-old daughter, Jordan, but she says she feels sick to her stomach every time she thinks about it. And it doesn't help that Jordan's asked for the talk one or two times a week for six months!

Amy says she's scared of saying the wrong thing. "Something that's going to scare her or confuse her," she says. "I don't ever want to let my daughter down. That's my biggest thing. I don't ever want her to ever think she can't talk to me."

Berman thinks Amy is putting too much pressure on herself. "What's happened now is that Jordan's been asking you and asking you, and there's this whole [air] of secrecy around it," she says. "The secrecy can be more damaging than just telling it like it is."

Berman says the main goal of any sex talk is to communicate that sex is a very normal and natural thing. There are three main topics to cover: male and female anatomy, the mechanics of making a baby...and becoming familiar and comfortable with your genitals. "I don't think I can say 'masturbation' to my 10-year-old yet," Amy says. "I don't even think I say that to my girlfriends!"

Berman says it's important to talk to kids about getting to know their own bodies -- and that many kids have been exploring themselves since they were babies.

"It's about soothing," Berman says. "It's not about sexual arousal and the sexual connotations that we put on it. It's just about normalizing it for them and setting the seeds that this is normal."

After some more coaching, Amy says she's ready to face Jordan. "I'm going to be sitting nearby, ready to hold your hand and jump in and help you," Dr. Berman says.

Jordan says she became curious about sex after reading a book about growing up. When she got to the section on sexuality, Amy closed the book. "She said it wasn't for kids," Jordan says.

Ever since then, Jordan says her mom has been promising to have the talk. "It's been eight months," she says. "I get kind of frustrated. And I hope I learn about adult stuff that I need to learn. Because if I don't know when I'm older, it's going to be embarrassing."

After many frustrating months and a little help from Berman, Jordan finally gets the chance to ask her mom anything she wants.

Jordan got a lot of information in one sitting, but Berman says it's best to tackle the issue in stages. "They'll first ask how are babies made usually, and you can say, 'It comes from a very special place inside a mother's body named a uterus.' And you can even show a picture of the uterus at that point and get them familiar with anatomy," she says.

Berman says many kids will ask how the baby gets in the uterus, then how a man's seed gets into a woman. "It's sort of usually a more processed, kind of piece-by-piece conversation in an ideal world," she says.

Jordan says she's glad she got to talk to her mom -- and has more questions. "We were on the way home, and I asked her, 'Do old people still have sex?'" she says. "And she said it depends on the couple."

Can a Palm Pre multitask better than an iPhone?

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Palm's comeback attempt rests squarely on the notion that it has found a better way to manage your complicated digital life.

Ever since its January coming-out party at the Consumer Electronics Show, Palm has generated buzz for the Pre unlike any other phone released since Apple's iPhone arrived in June 2007 (that includes impressive phones such as Research in Motion's BlackBerry Bold and HTC's G1 Android phone.)

The two phones will be forever compared -- not just because of their consumer-oriented styles and emphasis on gesture-based user interfaces, but because of the very real enmity between the proud team that worked on Apple's historic iPhone breakthrough and the ex-Apple executives and engineers attempting to rebuild Palm.

While the iPhone has set the standard for future smartphones, Palm's WebOS delivers two important improvements that the iPhone can't yet match: true multitasking between applications, and a subtle notifications system that doesn't interrupt your train of thought.

It does that while unveiling its own stamp on the multitouch user interface that Apple introduced to the masses with the iPhone and finding room for a slide-out hardware keyboard favored by CrackBerry addicts.

There are several reasons why no one should expect the Pre to turn the smartphone world upside down just yet.

Business users still love their BlackBerrys and RIM is aggressively courting the consumer. Apple has a killer brand, great audio and video player technology, and more than 35,000 applications inside an easy-to-use App Store that grows by the hour.

How not to be -- or date -- an overlapper

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When I asked an old friend why she hadn't just broken up with her live-in boyfriend instead of beginning a messy affair with a married neighbor, she snapped, "Don't be stupid -- nobody leaves a relationship without having another one in place."

Oh, please, I corrected her. Of course they do. People fall out of love or get angry and leave without a safety net all the time. But as I thought back, I realized that for as long as I knew her, she never had.

Even when she pretty much hated the one she was with, she stuck it out until she'd lined up his replacement. I could never understand why. My friend is beautiful, successful and very smart; surely being single for a little while wouldn't end her world.

Women aren't the only ones guilty of this. I know -- and have unfortunately dated -- plenty of men who careen from one girlfriend directly into another, often with a big fat overlap; connecting the two relationships like a murky Venn diagram. I understand that being single can be annoying and lonely sometimes, but there are plenty of good reasons not to be -- or date! -- an Overlapper.

1. Karma! While overlapping is definitely cheating, the difference is these types go into it with the sole purpose of transitioning into another relationship. But however you word it, Overlappers deceive one or both parties in order to get what they want. When you begin a relationship dishonestly, it usually comes back to bite you in the butt.

At the very least, you will never be fully able to trust an Overlapper. Because -- as yet another cliche based in truth goes -- if he does it with you, he'll do it to you.

2. Drama! Breakups are never fun, however splits caused by infidelity are hands down the most explosive.

If you're like my friend and her man (who, against all odds, actually left his wife), this means that instead of talking about hearts, flowers, and butterflies -- like other new couples -- you spend your nights plotting how to hide assets and whether or not your overpaid lawyer is enough of a shark. How romantic!

3. The Pressure! Though they may appear independent, people who can't be alone are that way because they need to see themselves reflected in someone else's adoring eyes.

But when their mirror (aka, partner) develops a flaw (weight gain, job loss, etc.), their image of themselves reflects that. Being a narcissist, nothing less than perfection is acceptable, so they start looking for the next mirror. Got that, fatty? You'd better stay at the top of your game if you want to hang onto an Overlapper.

4. Not cute! "I met my boyfriend when his puppy peed on my foot" is the perfect example of a meet-cute story. It has all the key elements -- chance, humor, and, best of all, a cuddly puppy!

"I met my boyfriend because I was his kids' nanny and then his wife found out, which is how I got this black eye," is definitely not a tale you're going to want to share at parties.

How to flirt with text messages

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Dating advice books take a tech-addicted turn with the release of "Flirtexting: How To Text Your Way To His Heart."

The book's co-authors, Olivia Baniuszewicz and Debra Goldstein, seek to explain the dating scene based on the premise that men understand text messages while women need to catch up.

"It's official. Boys text, therefore girls must learn how to flirtext!" they say on their Web site, flirtexting.com.

Baniuszewicz and Goldstein offer up a new etiquette for what they call the "A.C." world of dating -- or "after cells." The pair, who described themselves as "best friends" and "best flirtexters," spoke with CNN about their book, and the text message's role in society.

British retailer admits bra boob

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Charging chesty women more for their bras doesn't win a lot of support, British retailer Marks & Spencer acknowledged Friday as it announced an end to the surcharge on its larger lingerie.

"We boobed," screamed a full-page Marks & Spencer ad, which appeared in British newspapers Friday.

Marks & Spencer gave in to campaigners who argued that the higher prices of the bigger bras was unfair.

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The retailer charged as much as £2 ($3) more for all sizes DD and up.

"It's true that our fantastic quality larger bras cost more money to make, and we felt it was right to reflect this in the prices we charged," the ad said. "Well, we were wrong."

It follows a nearly year-long campaign by members of the Facebook group Busts 4 Justice.

The women behind the site argued other chain retailers didn't charge extra for bigger sizes, so Marks & Spencer shouldn't, either. And it pointed out that the store doesn't charge extra for larger sizes of clothing, so it shouldn't charge more for larger undergarments. What's your view?

"We would like to thank everyone who has supported us on this issue; especially the thousands of brilliant, busty women that have joined forces with us. We couldn't have done this without you," the two administrators of the group, Becky Mount and Beckie Williams, posted Friday on Facebook.

"Busts 4 Justice remain committed to making things better for busty women on the high street, but for now we're happy just to be able to encourage all ladies to reward themselves and their boobs with some properly fitted, fairly priced lingerie."

Marks & Spencer is a stalwart British chain, known for classic wardrobe staples and low prices.

Its underwear department is the first stop for many British shoppers and is especially famous for reliable basics.

And to give customers an added lift, Marks & Spencer also announced it is cutting the prices of all of its bras by 25 percent for the rest of May.

"I think even though we all obviously held a bit of a grudge against buying our bras from M&S we should really be grateful they got rid of the surcharge and have given us the super generous 25 percent off," Mount wrote on the group's site Friday. "They may get cleared out by the time the weekend is over!"

Facebook urged to remove Holocaust-denial groups

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Part of the power of social networking is the ability to form communities with like-minded individuals.

But what happens when those communities are offensive to others?

That issue is at the heart of attempts by a Dallas, Texas, attorney to have social-networking site Facebook remove pages for Holocaust deniers.

The Holocaust Denial movement seeks to deny or minimize the Holocaust, in which Nazis killed about six million European Jews during World War II.

Attorney Brian Cuban, brother of Dallas Mavericks team owner Mark Cuban, has been trying since last year to have the pages of groups with such names as "Holocaust: A Series of Lies," and "Holocaust is a Holohoax" removed from Facebook.

He pointed out that Facebook has removed groups based on complaints before and said the site is "setting the subjective standard on what they remove and what they don't."

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Earth Hour: Save a watt, and maybe the Earth

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Earth Hour is a sort of open-source movement against global warming. On Saturday, March 28, at 8:30 p.m. in each time zone, millions of people in thousands of cities are expected to turn off the lights for one hour to raise people's consciousness about the link between global warming and energy use.

Started in Australia two years ago, the event is mushrooming thanks in part to the Internet and social media.

One day before the start of the event in Asia, "Earth Hour" is the top search item on Twitter. A 30-second clip about Earth Hour on You Tube has gotten almost 59,000 views. Facebook groups count hundreds of thousands of members.

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The goal for this year is to get 1 billion people to turn their lights off for an hour. In 2007, 2.2 million homes and businesses switched off their lights for an hour and in 2008, it went to 50 million.

But it's not just individuals: dozens of cities and 829 world landmarks, including the Eiffel Tower and the Great Pyramids of Giza, will be dark for one hour as well.

The whole point of Earth Hour is to cast a vote and make a visible statement by turning off the lights for an hour. But it's worth pointing out that that a few watts will be saved along the way and that people waste a lot of energy in their daily lives.

This week, a published study calculated that $2.8 billion is wasted from office PCs that aren't shut off properly. Perhaps people who participate in Earth Hour could unplug their home electronics as well.

Soccer

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Kim Kardashian: 'So What! I Have Cellulite!'

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Kim Kardashian's got nothing to hide – even if magazine editors and the public disagree, she says on her blog.

"So what: I have a little cellulite. What curvy girl doesn't!?" the reality star, 28, writes on her blog in response to a brouhaha in which a photo of her for Complex magazine was accidentally released on the Internet before editors realized their mistake and quickly replaced it with the official photo of her.

The official picture had been retouched to slim down her famously zaftig figure.

But they didn't make the switch quickly enough. The original photo was snatched up and almost immediately turned into Internet fodder, with some Web sites even showing animation comparing the original photo with the touched-up version.

Kardashian – seldom shy about showing off her body – isn't fazed, saying that retouched photos are standard in the industry.

"How many people do you think are photoshopped? It happens all the time!" she writes, later adding, "I'm proud of my body and my curves and this picture coming out is probably helpful for everyone to see that just because I am on the cover of a magazine doesn't mean I'm perfect."

And Kardashian even finds a silver lining in what would be a black cloud for most Hollywood types. "This all motivates me to stay in the gym because my goal this year has been to get in better shape and tone up!" she writes. "Hard work pays off!"

INSIDE STORY: Can Michael Jackson Pull Off High-Stakes Comeback?

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Michael Jackson didn't stay long or say much – and apparently he didn’t have to.

On March 5, the troubled singer made a five-minute appearance in the drafty, mall-like atrium of London's giant O2 Arena to announce an upcoming series of concerts.

The results were astonishing: For each second he was on the small stage, Jackson sold 25,000 concert tickets, eventually expanding his roster of London shows from 10 to 50 dates. Beginning on July 8, and running through February 2010, more than an astonishing 750,000 seats were sold to fans hoping to see Jackson in action for what he calls his career "curtain call" in London.

But can the 50-year-old King of Pop – whose last U.K. live performance, at the World Music Awards in 2006, was roundly deemed a flop – pull it off?

Physical Exhaustion?It won't be easy, says Ben Cardew, editor of Britain's Music Week magazine. "He has been away for a while and had some much-publicized problems" – Jackson's trial, and subsequent acquittal on child abuse charges in 2005, for instance, and his recent financial collapse – "and this is an incredible schedule, 50 dates over six months," says Cardew. "So, yes, people are wondering if he's going to do it."

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Adds BBC Radio 2 deejay Paul Gambaccini, "The risk of physical exhaustion is the main obstacle at this point." One U.K. bookie has placed the odds that Jackson will perform only one show at 12 to 1.

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But concert promoters are promising a new Michael with new dance steps. "He's working on a new move. Something like the moonwalk but different," AEG Live's chief executive Randy Phillips told the U.K.'s Daily Telegraph.

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Music industry sources also expect pyrotechnics and other frills – lots of them. "It takes pressure off the [the performer] when he can get five minutes when there are fireworks or someone else comes on," says Music Week's Cardew. "And that is the way things are going, just look at Britney Spears."

Bruce Willis Makes His Marriage Legal

. It's official: Bruce Willis and Emma Heming are husband and wife.

After their wedding celebration in the Caribbean last weekend, the actor and the model/actress were wed in a civil ceremony Friday at a friend's house in Beverly Hills, his rep, Paul Bloch, tells PEOPLE. "They could not be happier," Bloch says.

The couple, who met through mutual friends, have been together for more than a year. They said their first "I do's" on March 21 in a small ceremony at Willis's home in Parrot Cay, Turks & Caicos, with his ex-wife Demi Moore and her husband Ashton Kutcher among the guests. – Mike Fleeman and Elizabeth Leonard

Depp takes a vintage spin

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CRUISE CONTROL
He calls shotgun! A retro-cool Johnny Depp goes for a spin with costar Aaron Eckhart in a vintage red convertible Friday while shooting the 1950s-set film The Rum Diary, based on late pal Hunter S. Thompson's novel, in Puerto Rico's El Yunque National Forest.

Justin Timberlake Recalls His Grammy Surprise: No Rihanna!

. Six-time Grammy winner Justin Timberlake walked into his dressing room at this year's music industry awards to find a surprise gathering waiting for him: the president of CBS, the Grammy show producer and the president of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.

"Immediately, I'm like, 'What did I do?'" the singer joked during an appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show Friday. It wasn't a laughing matter, though. Chris Brown, accused of beating up his girlfriend Rihanna the night before, had dropped out of a scheduled performance on the live broadcast last month, and so had Rihanna.

Big problem: Rihanna was scheduled to sing opposite Timberlake. Left with a hole in the program, the show's producers appealed to Timberlake to help find a solution. So after looking at the list of performers and presenters, he came up with an idea: to sing with gospel and soul legend Al Green.

"I got a chance to watch it back," Timberlake said of the hastily organized number, which set the audience on fire. "What was so amazing about that performance is you can tell that we're sort of shooting from the hip."

Singing is not the only thing on his plate. Timberlake's clothing line, William Rast, is taking off, he says, and girlfriend Jessica Biel is a fan. "I can't get it off her," he said.

And while he pretty much steered clear of his personal life during the interview, he did correct one persistent misconception about the couple. "I'm not engaged," he said, "but if she is, we have a problem."

Cell phones help filmmakers reveal unseen Africa

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Resourceful African filmmakers are using cell phones tell their stories in spite of political censorship.

Kiripi Katembo Siku, an art school student from the Democratic Republic of Congo is one such director who shot his first film using only a mobile phone.

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The ingeniously devised "Voiture en Carton" ("Cardboard Car") provides a rare glimpse of street-life in Kinshasa, the country's capital, while highlighting the lengths filmmakers must go to in circumventing the eye of the law.

While the country's name implies freedom of speech, filmmakers in the country's capital are restricted by government censorship.

To get around these problems, Siku came up with a novel plan.

He attached his mobile phone to a toy car, set it to film, and gave it to a young girl to pull behind her on a piece of string as she walked through the streets of Kinshasa.

The film runs for seven minutes, during which time the toy car stops and starts (it also upends a number of times and has to be righted by Siku's young camerawoman) giving viewers a clandestine look at life in the capital -- the dancing feet of children, some teenagers gambling, and at one point a United Nations jeep passing by.

Siku is one of a number of filmmakers in DR Congo who say using a mobile phone allows them to film in ways that were previously impossible.

"Camera phones are affordable, small and easy to maneuver," Siku told CNN. "They allowed me to work more discreetly and get closer to my subjects."

Government officials try to keep reports of poverty and corruption quiet, which means filming permits have become virtually impossible for Congolese working in Kinshasa to obtain, according to filmmakers working there.

Salim Amin, Chairman of Kenya-based African news organization, Africa 24 Media, which has operated in DRC, agrees that it can be very difficult for filmmakers to work in the country.

"[They] try and stop stories of corruption from coming out by refusing accreditation to locals from the Ministry of Information. That's the way they weed out people who will be critical to government," Amin told CNN.

Those brave enough to defy the authorities and shoot without permission, whether or not they have an anti-government agenda, risk hefty fines, arrest, or worse.

A spokesperson from the DRC government was not available for comment.

'Monsters vs. Aliens' buzz gives boost to 3D revolution

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Buzz around the release of DreamWorks' latest animated feature, "Monsters vs. Aliens," will add new momentum to the drive towards a fully-3D movie industry.

It is a welcome boost to the 3D schedule: The introduction of special screens and digital projectors into cinemas across the world has slowed in the last six months along with the economy.

Instead of the 5,000 3D screens expected to roll out, the figure is closer to 2,000, as the cost of installing new technology during the downturn causes pause for thought.

The release of "Monsters vs. Aliens," along with the recent announcement that Pixar 3D animation, "Up" will open the prestigious Cannes Film Festival in May, should give Hollywood's new medium of choice a lift.

"Monsters vs. Aliens," which U.S. movie industry bible, Variety describes as "'Monsters, Inc.'

Meets 'War of the Worlds'" features a fight between a collection of well-loved movie monsters ( think 1950s B-movie characters like a 50 ft woman, a friendly amorphous blob, and a genius cockroach scientist) and alien invaders who want to take over Earth.

The brains behind the feature -- which has an all-star cast including Reese Witherspoon and Kiefer Sutherland -- are Rob Letterman, the writer-director of Will Smith animated pic, "Shark Tale" and Conrad Vernon, the director of "Shrek 2."

The film is one of a number of 3D films, like James Cameron's sci-fi "Avatar," already in production that are slated for 2009 and 2010 release.

Rock star: That's not me drinking on Google

. Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher on Saturday denied that he is the man shown pointing at the Google Street View camera as it drove past his local pub in London last summer.

"Just saw google earth apparently that's meant to be me, who ... wears legwarmers with reeboks?? Not this kid!! LG," he wrote on Twitter.

Though available for a while in the United States, Google Street View only launched in Britain last week. As in America, the launch in Britain prompted people all over the country to try to find themselves or spot funny images and famous faces on the service.

Gallagher was apparently spotted outside The Queens pub in Camden, in north London, a place he's known to frequent.

The picture shows a man dressed in a dark T-shirt and long shorts sitting at an outdoor table. He points at the camera, obviously having seen the Google car and its Street View camera drive by.

The service blurs people's faces so it is hard to confirm whether it is Gallagher.

Though the man isn't wearing legwarmers, Gallagher is apparently talking about the man's ankle-high shoes and thick black socks.

HSBC says 1,200 workers face axe

. Europe's biggest bank, HSBC, has said up to 1,200 of its staff in the UK could face redundancy.

The bank said the individuals who could be affected by job losses were being briefed on Wednesday.

At least a third of the staff cuts will come from back office operations such as call centres, not from High Street branches, a spokesman said.

Unions are disputing the figure, saying the total number of jobs lost in the UK will be closer to 3,000.

Madonna urged to rethink adoption

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Pop star Madonna has been urged by Save the Children to reconsider her apparent plans to adopt another Malawian child.

Malawian officials have indicated she will arrive in the African country this weekend in an attempt to adopt a four-year-old orphan called Mercy James.

The UK-based charity said ideally orphans should be cared for by their extended family or community and taking them abroad was "not a solution".

Madonna took then 13-month-old David Banda to the UK from Malawi in 2006.

The Reuters news agency reported that it was told Mercy James has "no father and mother, they both died", and an assessment had been completed on Thursday.

Madonna is expected to arrive in Malawi to attend a procedural hearing at the country's High Court on Monday.

Rap star TI sentenced to prison

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US rapper TI has been sentenced to one year and one day in jail after he pleaded guilty to three charges of possessing illegal weapons.

The star, whose real is name Clifford Harris, will have between 30 and 60 days to report to prison.

He has already completed 1,000 hours of community service, which has included warning young people about the dangers of guns, drugs and violence.

Harris pleaded guilty last March after he was arrested in 2007.
The arrest happened close to where he had been expected to headline the BET Hip-Hop Awards in Atlanta.

He had been attempting to buy unregistered machine guns.

He initially pleaded not guilty - and faced up to 10 years in prison for each of the charges.

Harris is best known in the UK for his guest appearance on Justin Timberlake's My Love single.

He won two Grammys in 2007, and appeared alongside Denzel Washington in the Ridley Scott movie American Gangster.

The star is not allowed to own or buy firearms because of a drug conviction dating back to 1998.

Apple unveils new iPhone features

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Apple has unveiled what it calls a "major update" to the operating system that drives the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Some of the 100 new features included in the update replicate those already offered by other smart phones.

The new functions include cut, copy and paste, long demanded by iPhone users, picture messaging and an in-phone search feature, but not Flash video.

"The upgrade is a big big deal and will help persuade consumers to stay with Apple," said Gartner analyst Van Baker.

"While things like copy and paste and multi-media messaging (MMS) are things they have needed to do for a while, other features will in essence stop consumers buying other smartphones and raise the amount of money people spend on the iPhone, " he said.

Analyst Gene Munster from Piper Jaffray agreed that the upgrade was a major step forward.

"We believe Apple addressed key issues that were leading some consumers to competing devices for multimedia messaging and enterprise email."

Some of the other main features Apple highlighted for consumers include a voice memo and stereo Bluetooth.

A new search tool called Spotlight to allow users to search files and applications on the iPhone or iPod Touch.

Making music

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Can a simple idea help make the world a better place? Each week we ask a guest to outline an idea to improve all our lives. Here, neuroscientist Gregory Berns believes everyone should learn to play music.

When I say make music, that means sing, play an instrument, or simply bang out a rhythm by whatever means that are available to you.

I do not mean computer games like Guitar Hero.

It doesn't matter whether you have talent or if you think you're tone deaf - the simple act of producing a rhythmic or harmonious statement, teaches us skills that so often fall by the wayside in modern life.


I think it's a shame that we take music for granted now, perhaps it is because music is so ubiquitous. But I see music as something to celebrate humanity.

I see it as something every man, woman and child should do on a daily basis.

Apart from developing communication skills, making music helps us to listen to each other.

It is impossible to make music with other people without listening to your fellow musicians.

Making music also develops motor skills. It develops parts of the brain that would otherwise not be used - and most importantly - it feels good.

Gregory Berns is the Director of the Centre for Neuropolicy at Emory University in Atlanta, USA.

Secrets of the Wizard of Oz

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The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is one of the world's best-loved fairytales. As Judy Garland's famous film nears its 70th birthday, how much do its followers know about the story's use as an economic parable?

Dorothy in Kansas conjures up nostalgic thoughts of childhood Christmases hiding behind the sofa from the Wicked Witch of the West. Or those flying monkeys.

It's unlikely its young fans will have been thinking about deflation and monetary policy.

But the story has underlying economic and political references that make it a popular tool for teaching university and high school students - mainly in the United States but also in the UK - about the economic depression of the late 19th Century.

At a time when some economists fear an onset of deflation, and economic certainties melt away like a drenched wicked witch, what can be learnt from Oz?

The 1939 film starring a young Judy Garland was based on Lyman Frank Baum's book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, published in 1900. It told of an orphaned Kansas girl swept by a tornado into a fantastical world, but who wants to return home to her aunt and uncle.

Thinking the great Wizard of Oz can grant her wish, she sets out to meet him with her beloved dog, Toto, joined by a scarecrow, a tin woodman and a lion.

Baum published the book in 1900, just after the US emerged from a period of deflation and depression. Prices had fallen by about 22% over the previous 16 years, causing huge debt.

Farmers were among those badly affected, and the Populist political party was set up to represent their interests and those of industrial labourers.

The US was then operating on the gold standard - a monetary system which valued the dollar according to the quantity of gold. The Populists wanted silver, along with gold, to be used for money. This would have increased the US money supply, raised price levels and reduced farmers' debt burdens.

First Superman fetches $317,200

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A rare copy of the first Superman comic, dating from 1938, has sold at auction for $317,200 (£227,000).

The online auction started two weeks ago and attracted 89 bidders. Neither the buyer nor the seller were named.

The copy was described as unrestored. The cover shows the cape-wearing action hero from the planet Krypton lifting a car above his head.

There are only 100 copies left of the first Superman comic, which sold for 10 cents when it appeared in June 1938.

Stephen Fishler, the owner of the online auction site Comic Connect said the Superman comic had been in the same hands since 12 years after it was published, when a young boy on the US west coast bought it for 35 cents.

He then forgot about it until 1966 when it emerged in his mother's basement. He held on to since then, hoping it would gain in value, Mr Fishler told CNN.

He said before the auction the comic might fetch as much as $400,000.

Superman is generally recognised as the first superhero to appear in comics - predating the likes of Spider-Man and Batman.

The crime fighter's secret alter ego is Clark Kent, a mild-mannered, bespectacled reporter for the The Daily Planet, who dashes into phone booths to change into Superman.

The now-dilapidated house in Cleveland, Ohio where writer Jerry Siegel and illustrator Joe Shuster created Superman sold in an online auction last October for $100,000 (£71,000).

Fritzl's face is caught on camera

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The face of Josef Fritzl, the Austrian charged with crimes against children he kept and abused in a cellar, has been caught on camera at his trial.

The accused, whose lawyer said he had been "ashamed" to show his face, had been covering himself with a folder since the trial began on Monday.

A verdict for Mr Fritzl, who has access to a psychiatrist as an anti-suicide precaution, is due on Thursday.

Jurors have been watching hours of videotaped testimony from his children.

Mr Fritzl has pleaded guilty to incest and "partially" guilty to rape but not guilty to enslavement or murder at the trial in the town of St Poelten.

He is said to be watching the recordings "attentively" at the trial, which is closed to the press and public until Wednesday in order to protect the identity of victims.

The court also heard expert testimony on infant care on Tuesday.

One of the charges against Mr Fritzl is that he murdered his own newborn baby boy by failing to provide him with proper medical care

Transformers back again in 2011

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A release date has been announced for the third movie in the Transformers series, three months before the sequel even hits cinema screens.

Paramount says the film will be ready for 1 July 2011.

However, director Michael Bay said on his official website that Paramount have made a "mistake", stating that its release date will be in 2012.

A first sequel, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, is set for a summer release on 24 June.

It is one of the summer's most anticipated blockbusters.
In a comment posted on Tuesday, Bay said: "I said I was taking off a year from Transformers.

"Paramount made a mistake in dating Transformers 3 - they asked me on the phone - I said yes to 4 July - but for 2012 - whoops! Not 2011!!!

"That would mean I would have to start prep in September. No way. My brain needs a break from fighting robots."

The first film was one of the highest earners of 2007, making $708.2m (£503.5m) worldwide.

Shia LeBeouf reprises his role of teenager Sam Witwicky, caught in the middle of a war between two races of transforming robots, the Autobots and the Decepticons.

The films are based on the hugely popular line of toys launched in 1984.

Helicopter Prison Break

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The director of a maximum-security prison and two of his colleagues resigned Monday after two inmates escaped by helicopter.

The Greek minister of justice, Nicholas Dendias, said he had asked for and received the resignations of the director, security secretary and head of inspection and control at Korydallos Prison, in a suburb of Athens.

"The government will not tolerate the current situation," he said in a written statement. "Those involved in this escape will be brought to justice and punished."

The escape played out like a Hollywood action film.

It began around Sunday afternoon, when two men hijacked a helicopter from Athens International Airport and ordered the pilot to fly to the prison.

The helicopter hovered over the roof of a prison compound where inmates Vassilis Paleokostas, 42, and Alket Riza, 34, were located. Rope ladders were unfurled and the prisoners climbed into the helicopter and escaped, the Justice Ministry said.

Prison guards shot at the helicopter during the escape, witnesses told local media. There were no reports of injuries.

The pilot was found gagged near the helicopter north of Athens, a state-run media report said.

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The prison break by helicopter is the second from the prison for Paleokostas, who was convicted for abducting a businessman and escaped the first time in June 2006. He was recaptured several months later and returned to the prison.

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Investigators searched for the inmates and unidentified accomplices Sunday.

On Monday, the justice minister announced the resignation of Leonidas Karampekiou, the prison director; Foti Vlachou, the security secretary there, and Apostolos Economou, the head of inspection and control at the prison.

Cairo bombing

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The weekend bombing in one of the Egyptian capital's busiest tourist districts was not orchestrated by any known extremist group, state-run media reported.

Instead, security officials believe the blast -- which killed a French tourist and injured 24 other people Sunday -- likely was carried out by a few individuals with "extremist thoughts," according to Egypt's official Al-Ahram newspaper Monday.

The wounded were mainly Europeans, including 17 French nationals and a German. Three Saudis and three Egyptians -- including a soldier and a boy -- also were hurt in the explosion.

Al-Ahram reported that government security agencies were conducting a wide investigation into all extremist groups and cells in the Cairo area.

The explosion occurred during the height of the evening rush at 6:30 p.m. (11:30 a.m. ET) in an area of coffee shops located near the Al Hussein Mosque, one of Cairo's largest.

The bomb was left under a marble bench, authorities told the newspaper.

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An undetonated bomb was found near the mosque, which sits close to an entrance of the Khan el-Khalili bazaar, a huge market and a tourist attraction, officials said.

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Authorities said both bombs contained black explosive power, pieces of iron and some rock, the newspaper reported.

Lost hero Amundsen's plane

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Norway's navy announced on Monday that it will help search for the missing plane of 20th century explorer Roald Amundsen, more than 80 years after his death.

The search -- scheduled for later this year -- will focus on a 40 square-mile (104 square-kilometer) area of the Arctic Ocean where researchers believe Amundsen's plane crashed in 1928.

Story Highlights

*Unmanned submarine to be used in search for Roald Amundsen's plane
*Amundsen's plane crashed in 1928 while he was on a rescue mission to North Pole
*Amundsen first to reach South Pole; credited with being first to both poles
*Search due to begin later this year

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"If there is something down there, we will find it," said senior Commander Frode Loeseth told CNN.

Loeseth said they will be concentrating on finding the plane's wreckage, and do not expect to find any remains.

Amundsen, who is a national hero in Norway, led the first successful expedition to the South Pole from 1910 to 1912. He is also credited with being the first person to reach both the North and South Poles.

He went missing in June 1928 at the age of 55 while flying to the North Pole for a rescue operation.

The location of his disappearance "is one of the remaining unsolved mysteries in our time," a press release from the Norwegian Navy said.

Loeseth said the navy will participate in the search along with the Norwegian Aviation Museum; Kongsberg Maritime, a Norwegian maritime technology company; and Context TV, a German TV production company that will document the operation.

The search is scheduled to begin the last week of August.

There have been several attempts to find the location of Amundsen's crash, most recently in 2004. But this time Norway's navy will be able to scour the depths of the Arctic Ocean with a submarine, named after a character in Norse mythology.

"We have one special tool -- Hugin -- that is a state-of-the-art submarine, unmanned, and can search for 18 hours," the commander said.

Hugin is the mythological raven that traveled around Earth and informed the Norse god, Odin, of what happened that day.

Loeseth said the navy has had the unmanned submarine for some time, but the one that will be used in the search is the Hugin 1000, a "newly modified and upgraded" model.

Loeseth would not say how much the operation was expected to cost, or which organization was funding the bulk of the search.

He stressed that the partners have an agreement and a budget, and Norwegian taxpayers will not be paying for any part of the search.

He said Amundsen's relatives support the project. He noted that it has been five years since the last search for Amundsen's wreckage because "it takes time to raise funding for such projects."

SAG board turns down 'final offer' from Hollywood studios

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The board of the Screen Actors Guild rejected the "last, best and final offer" by producers Saturday night, continuing a months-long deadlock over contract talks.

The two sides have been trying to hammer out a deal to resolve a labor dispute that threatens to shut down production of many movies and television shows.

The guild, considered Hollywood's biggest actors' union, and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) appeared close to a deal earlier this week. SAG said it agreed to concede on the amount actors should be paid when their movies or TV shows are distributed on discs or through "new media," such as mobile phones and the Internet.

However, talks stalled Saturday night over another sticking point: The AMPTP insists that a new contract between the two sides start from the time it is ratified and continue for three years.
The guild wants the new contract to take effect, starting from the time the last one expired on June 30.

The distinction is an important one for SAG. A three-year deal would mean that SAG's contract would expire a year after that of the other guilds, such as the writers' and directors' guilds.

It would also prevent SAG from joining the other unions when it came time to renegotiate with AMPTP two years from now.

"What management presented as a compromise is, in fact, an attempt to separate Screen Actors Guild from other industry unions," SAG's board said in a statement after 73 percent of them voted to reject the offer.

"By attempting to extend our contract expiration on year beyond the other entertainment unions, the AMPTP intends to deleverage our bargaining position from this point onward," it said.

The studio alliance issued their own statement after the talks faltered, saying, "We have kept our offer on the table -- and even enhanced it -- despite the historically unprecedented economic crisis that has clobbered our nation and our industry."

"We simply cannot offer SAG a better deal than the rest of the industry achieved under far better economic conditions than those now confronting our industry," the AMPTP said.

Terminally-ill reality TV star Jade Goody marries

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British reality TV star Jade Goody married Sunday after being told by doctors last week that her cancer is terminal.

Goody, 27 tied the knot with boyfriend Jack Tweed, 21, in Hatfield Heath, Essex, east of London, UK media reported.

Highlights
Publicist: Couple receive standing ovation, lots of tears, laughter, smiles.

British 'Big Brother' star fast-tracked plans to get married after cancer spread.

Shetty says she was invited to ceremony but unable due to film commitments.

Charities report marked increase in public seeking details about condition.

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After the ceremony Max Clifford, the couple's publicist, told waiting reporters that there had been "lots of tears and smiles and laughter" and that the congregation gave the newlyweds a standing ovation after the signing of the register.

Goody sprung to fame in "Big Brother" in 2002, going on to launch a range of her own products and host TV shows.

But her return to the celebrity edition of the show in 2007 ended in international ignominy, after her taunting of Indian Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty. Goody's behavior resulted in more than 40,000 complaints and sparked protests in India.Shetty said last week that she was unable to attend the wedding due to filming commitments but was praying for Goody.

In August 2008 Goody appeared on the Indian version of "Big Brother," only to fly home after she was diagnosed with cervical cancer.

News of Goody's condition has sparked massive interest in the UK, both from the media -- which bid for rights to her story -- and among the public, who have contacted charities for information about cervical cancer.

Critics have attacked Goody's decision to sell rights to what may be her final weeks, although the star has told British media that she wants to leave her children by a previous relationship -- sons, Bobby, five, and Freddie, four -- financially secure.

But Clifford told ITN: "Ironically, a big part of what she's doing now is to fund her children's education. To give them the education she never had."

Charity Cancer Research UK said in a statement earlier this month that daily visits to its Web site had increased two- to three-fold since news of Goody's illness was announced.

'Madea Goes to Jail' wins big at the box office

..If anybody had a reason to doubt whether Tyler Perry has become one of the most bankable brands in all of movies, be skeptical no longer.

The domestic dramedy maestro's latest release, Tyler Perry's "Madea Goes to Jail," ran away with a big victory on the typically slow Academy Awards weekend, grossing a hefty $41.1 million, according to early estimates from Media by Numbers.

That opening sum is the biggest of all time for a Tyler Perry film, besting the $30 million debut of 2006's "Madea's Family Reunion." Too, it's the top bow in the history of indie studio Lionsgate, improving upon all the Tyler Perry and "Saw" flicks that came before it. The movie's per-theater average of $20,236 ranks in the top 40 for all wide openers ever.

And, no surprise, "Madea Goes to Jail" achieved all this success with a solid A CinemaScore grade from a crowd that included mostly older women.

Second place went to "Taken," which added another $11.4 million to its four-week tally, bringing said total to $95.2 million. Fellow strong holdover "Coraline" (No. 3) was next with $11 million.

"He's Just Not That Into You" (No. 4) declined a sharp 56 percent to bank $8.5 million on its third weekend. And Best Picture favorite "Slumdog Millionaire" rounded out the top five with $8.1 million -- a sum that brings its domestic total to $98 million.

Mike Myers, Paris Hilton big 'winners' at Razzies

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It was a night for neon pink bow ties and words like "disaster" and "monstrosity." It was not the night, however, to be Paris Hilton, Mike Myers or Uwe Boll.

The 29th Annual Golden Raspberry Awards honored the worst film achievements of the year in a small theater in Hollywood on February 21. The night opened with a parody of the "Mamma Mia" song, "Dancing Queen," and ended with "Love Guru" being named worst picture.

"It wasn't just the economy that tanked, so did the qualities of the movies being offered," Razzie founder John Wilson told CNN several weeks before the show. "I would suggest putting away all sharp [instruments] before putting the DVDs in your machine."

Paris Hilton and Mike Myers came out on top -- or bottom -- for the awards. Hilton earned both the worst actress and worst supporting actress awards for her roles in "Hottie & the Nottie" and "Repo: The Genetic Opera." She was also awarded worst screen couple for her on-screen time with her co-stars Christine Lakin and Joel David Moore.

Razzie host Gretchen Enders said that "Hottie & the Nottie" was "a vanity production in the worst sense... Hilton, who served as executive producer, has no one to blame but herself."
Hilton's film had a budget of $2 million but only earned about $27,000 at the box office.

"Under Obama's new plan, they wouldn't even have to pay taxes," Wilson deadpanned.

A rich night for best picture 'Slumdog Millionaire'

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"Slumdog Millionaire," the little film that overcame tremendous odds simply to earn an American release, won eight Oscars Sunday night at the 81st annual Academy Awards, including best picture.

"Most of all we had passion and we had belief, and our film shows if you have those two things, you have everything," said producer Christian Colson, surrounded by many members of the film's huge cast and crew.

It was a supremely unlikely success story.

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"Millionaire," which combines elements of Bollywood melodrama and documentary grit, features no stars.

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It's set largely among the poverty-stricken districts of Mumbai, India, and one-third of the film is in Hindi. Its initially reluctant director, Danny Boyle, is better known for brash British films such as "Trainspotting" and "28 Days Later." And the film almost went straight to DVD in America, thanks to the folding of initial studio Warner Independent Pictures (like CNN, it's a unit of Time Warner).

But the film's orphaned, poverty-raised hero, played by Dev Patel, overcomes his challenges to earn a spot on the game show "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" -- not necessarily to win money, but to connect with his lost love. On the show, he's told that perhaps he is a figure of destiny.

"It is written," the show's smarmy host tells him, somewhat mockingly, after Patel's character aces several questions.

"Slumdog's" filmmakers were jubilant at the wins, which also included Oscars for best director (Boyle), best adapted screenplay (Simon Beaufoy), score (A.R. Rahman), cinematography (Anthony Dod Mantle), song, sound mixing and film editing.

Boyle jumped up and down as he accepted his award, saying he'd told his children that if he ever won, he'd bounce like Tigger from "Winnie-the-Pooh."

Rahman was equally appreciative.

"All my life I've had a choice between hate and love, and I chose love, and now I'm here," he said.

Music Oscar

Oscars snub Springsteen: WTF?!

The first thing that jumped out at me from this morning's Oscar nominations: The Best Original Song category has only three nominees. Two of those are from Slumdog Millionaire, which seems like a bit much. And none of them are Bruce Springsteen's brilliant, Golden Globe-winning title tune from The Wrestler, as some of you have already noted over at Annie's Oscar snubs post. For shame, Academy!

I can't figure out what's going on here. I don't think it's an eligibility issue, since The Wrestler itself got two acting nods. And aside from being totally great on its own terms, "The Wrestler" is an emotional ballad by a mainstream boomer icon -- just the kind of song you'd think would appeal to a ton of Academy members. (You can hear it below if you haven't yet.) It's certainly comparable to Springsteen's masterful "Streets of Philadelphia," which took home a Best Song Oscar in 1994. Even putting aside my love of the Boss, how bizarre of the Academy not to fill out this category with a full five nominees, as it's done in most previous years. Truthfully, the Oscars telecast needs compelling music performances far more than Bruce needs another statuette on his shelf. So the real losers here are all of us in the TV audience, wouldn't you say?

Sexism blatant

ShePop: And the Oscar for blatant sexism goes to ...

So Jessica Biel's the lucky lady who'll get to host the Oscars for Geeks -- a.k.a. the Scientific and Technical Awards -- this weekend, becoming part of a long, proud Academy tradition of actresses who kindly bestow their hotness on the less telegenic honorees as a sort of consolation prize for their being left out of the main event. Past years' presenters have included the gorgeous Salma Hayek, Jessica Alba, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Rachel McAdams, and Jennifer Garner. (Think of it as the super-pretty-gal equivalent of the Miss Golden Globe honorary title that goes to celeb kids like Rumer Willis -- i.e., a relatively pointless exercise.) We like pretty ladies, too -- and certainly women watching the Oscars on TV won't complain about staring at host Hugh Jackman for a few hours -- but can't a dude once in a while take what's basically the Oscar equivalent of a weekend shift? Maybe even a dude with geek cred and a legit reason to be there, like J.J. Abrams or George Lucas? (Props to Richard Dreyfus, the last guy to host, way back in 1996. Maybe because he once co-starred with that awesome Jaws fin?) Presuming that won't happen, Katherine Heigl and Isla Fisher, get your Scientific and Technical Oscar gowns ready for next year...

What do you think, PopWatchers: Is having a hottie host for the technical awards sexism or just good fun? And who's the logical choice to snag this "honor" next year?

Fashion Oscar

Oscar fashion preview: White knots on the red carpet?

Could white knots -- worn to support marriage rights for gays and lesbians -- be the hot accessory at this year's Oscars? The symbol showed up at the Grammys, on the lapels of Foo Fighter Dave Grohl and former Eurythmics member Dave Stewart, sparking speculation that it could take off at the Academy Awards on Feb. 22 -- especially in the wake of recent outcries against California's Proposition 8 from celebs like Drew Barrymore, Jack Black, and Brad Pitt.

It certainly isn't hard to imagine the cast of Milk -- including Best Actor nominee Sean Penn -- jumping on board, along with gay-friendly celebs like Anne Hathaway and high-kicking host Hugh Jackman. Come to think of it, we wouldn't be all too surprised if actress-cum-activist Sharon Stone showed up at the show wearing three white knots...and nothing else.

What do you think, PopWatchers? Will white knots take off? And should stars make political statements on the red carpet, or just fashion ones?