"Even the juggling was pathetic." With that cutting blow, Simon Cowell ended Jason Anderson's moment in the spotlight. Anderson, all of 16, stormed out of his "American Idol" audition into his family's arms, obscenities flowing as freely as the tears.
High school can be vicious enough. But not as nasty as Cowell, who also told the would-be singer/juggler that he "summed up Minneapolis, mate — useless."
The "American Idol" juggernaut has become ever more popular in this, its sixth season. But it sure seems meaner, too. At least that's the talk this week as the judges — not just the acerbic Cowell, but the usually genial Randy Jackson and the kind but loopy Paula Abdul — up the torture quotient, taking train-wreck TV viewing to a whole new level.
Young or old, pretty or ugly, male or female: No category of contestant has been spared in this week's audition coverage. The judges have even taken swipes at contestants behind their backs, making snide remarks after the singers have left. "Obnoxious," Cowell sniffed of one who'd just been voted into the next round. "What a strange guy," Jackson said of another.
And if you argue the contestants are asking for it by merely deciding to appear, consider the supportive boss of Dayna Dooley, who flew her and her sister to Minneapolis from California, so strongly did he believe in her singing. After panning her performance, the panel repeatedly insinuated to Dooley that she was inappropriately involved with her boss. Then they called the nice man in, told him his employee was "terrible," and proceeded to make the same insinuation to him — while his wife sat just outside the room.
"It just seems like they're being a lot meaner," says Jessica Rhode. She should know. After the 21-year-old makeup artist was given a thumbs-down by the panel, she collapsed to her knees and wept, begging the judges for some constructive advice. "It would take an hour," Cowell retorted. He told her to be happy: Now she could move on, knowing she'd never be a singer.
"That was the worst thing, in my opinion," Rhode said in a telephone interview. "I expected at least one of them to say something nice. I was like, is this really necessary?"
The cruelest moment undoubtedly came in Seattle, where a spirited young man named Kenneth Briggs, who liked to compare himself to Justin Timberlake, was told by Cowell: "You look a little odd ... you look like one of those creatures that live in the jungle, with those massive eyes ... a bush baby." Once he left, the three judges were shown cracking up hysterically at the "bush baby" remark.
Their behavior brought a rebuke from the hosts of ABC's "The View." "The whole thing, it's terribly sad to me," said moderator Rosie O'Donnell.
Even the doors were mean. In a malfunction that seemed expressly designed to deepen the humiliation, one side of the double doors to the Minneapolis tryout room was locked or jammed. That meant Cowell got to smirk or roll his eyes every time a poor soul — Rhode was one of them — knocked into the wrong one during a hasty exit.
At least Stephen Horst managed to pick the right door.
"That's what my sister told me after the show," Horst says. It was the best thing she could think of, after the pummeling the 28-year old vocal coach took from Jackson.
Horst, of New York City, is a positive thinker if there ever was one. "I believe everything happens for a reason," he says. "I had a dream, and I went after it. Life is short, and you have to enjoy every sandwich."
So Horst, on his own dime, traveled to Minneapolis and stayed at a hotel during the audition process. He chose to sing Aerosmith's "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing." Maybe it was the song choice, or the singing itself, which veered into a sudden falsetto, or the fact that he was a vocal coach. Jackson went on a rampage.
"I thought it was awful," he said. "You shouldn't be a vocal teacher. I wouldn't take vocal lessons from you, I wouldn't tell anybody to take vocal lessons from you." Cowell feigned indignation. "Are you going to take that, Stephen?" he baited Horst.
"I was stunned," Horst said. "Randy just didn't like me." He's moving ahead with his music career, and doesn't plan to watch the Fox show anymore. "I need to create a new past," he says.
That's the kind of positive thinking that has helped Paris Bennett in her career. Bennett, unlike most of those at this week's auditions, was an "American Idol" success story, coming in fifth last year and eventually earning a record deal.
Yet she, too, endured her share of negative comments. Cowell once told her that her speaking voice reminded him of Minnie Mouse. She was 17 at the time.
"You can let it knock you down, or you can take it as constructive criticism," Bennett said in a telephone interview. She said her grandmother and her mother, both singers, had taught her to look at the positive, not the negative.
"It all just depends on how you take it," she said. She obviously took it well. In March, her debut album comes out. The first single, "Ordinary Love," was released this week.
The Fantastic Four learn that they aren't the only super-powered beings in the universe when they square off against the power Silver Surfer and the planet-eating Galactus.
Los Angeles (E! Online) - One ring might rule them all, but one lawsuit's threatening the future of one of Hollywood's biggest franchises.
New Line Cinema cohead Bob Shaye has lashed out at The Lord of the Rings ringmaster Peter Jackson, calling the Oscar winner greedy for suing the studio over disputed profits from the first film in the trilogy. He also left little doubt that New Line considers the director persona non grata when it comes to future projects, including the highly anticipated big-screen adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit.
"I do not want to make a movie with somebody who is suing me," the studio chief told Sci Fi Wire while making the publicity rounds for his own directing effort, the family-friendly fantasy film The Last Mimzy. "It will never happen during my watch."
Shaye, who made the gutsy decision to greenlight simultaneous production on all three Lord of the Rings films, took particular offense at what he said was the New Zealander's "arrogance" and ungrateful attitude in the wake of his success.
"Not that I don't think Peter is a good filmmaker and that he hasn't contributed significantly to filmography and made three very good movies. And I don't even expect him to say 'thank you' for having me make it happen and having New Line make it happen," continued Shaye, who was an executive producer on the trilogy. "But to think that I, as a functionary in a company that has been around for a long time, but is now owned by a very big conglomerate, would care one bit about trying to cheat the guy...he's either had very poor counsel or is completely misinformed."
The executive was also irked when many of the LOTR stars declined to participate in a video celebrating New Line's 40th anniversary—mainly, he believed, because of their affection for Jackson.
"I don't care about Peter Jackson anymore," Shaye said. "He wants to have another $100 million or $50 million, whatever he's suing us for. He doesn't want to sit down and talk about it. He thinks that we owe him something after we've paid him over a quarter of a billion dollars...Cheers, Peter."
Such remarks would seem to put the kibosh on Frodo fanatics' dreams of Jackson returning to Middle Earth and helming The Hobbit and possibly another prequel.
Of course, it's possible both sides are simply engaged in high-stakes brinksmanship to get what they want.
In Shaye's case, by cutting Jackson out of the franchise that made his career and won him a trio of Oscars, the executive might be able to leverage a settlement to his liking. On the other hand, he could simply be reacting to Jackson, who, in a preemptive move, tried to force New Line's hand in late November by sending an open letter to theonering.net, voicing his issues with New Line.
In it, Jackson informed Tolkien devotees that the studio planned to move forward on The Hobbit without him, because New Line wanted to get the prequel in production before resolving his lawsuit.
The news prompted peeved fans to launch a letter-writing campaign urging the studio not to cut ties with the 45-year-old filmmaker or else face a boycott. In one hopeful sign, MGM—which owns the distribution rights to The Hobbit—told E! Online the "game is not over" and Jackson was still a possibility to direct.
Meanwhile, in response to Shaye's remarks this week, Jackson's company fired back with a statement Thursday, calling his former boss' comments "regrettable" and restating his case.
"Fundamentally, our legal action is about holding New Line to its contractual obligations and promises," the filmmaker said. "It is regrettable that Bob has chosen to make it personal. I have always had the highest respect and affection for Bob and other senior management at New Line and continue to do so.
"But the studio was and continues to be completely uncooperative [regarding an open audit of the films' books]," Jackson continued. "This has compelled us to file a lawsuit to pursue our contractual rights under the law. Nobody likes legal action, but the studio left us with no alternative."
Jackson also balked at Shaye's assertion that LOTR actors dissed the studio because of the bad blood between the filmmaker and the suits.
"I have never discussed this video with any of the cast of the LOTR. The issues that Bob Shaye has with the cast predate this lawsuit by many years," Jackson said.
An unnamed person Jackson's camp was quoted in Variety saying Shaye's disparaging remarks were an attempt to put the focus on the millions of dollars Jackson made instead of any book-cooking on the studio's part. The trade paper also reported that both parties appear to far from a settlement in the lawsuit.
Until that happens, Jackson has plenty to keep him busy. His next directorial effort, Alice Sebold's ghost story The Lovely Bones, is due out later this year. He has also optioned Temeraire, a set of fantasy novels about dragons in the Napoleonic Wars, and is producing Dambusters, an effects-heavy remake of the World War II aerial battle drama.
One movie that's temporarily off the drawing board is the Jackson-produced Halo. The videogame adaptation project was indefinitely shelved after Universal and 20th Century Fox pulled their financing, citing rising production costs and Jackson's unwillingness to take a pay cut.
MySpace devotee Kary Rogers was expecting to see a gut-busting video when a friend from the popular online hangout messaged him a link.
First, though, he was directed to a page where he was supposed to re-enter his password. Rogers realized that someone was trying to steal his information, and he didn't take the bait. At best, he would be spammed with junk e-mails; worse, the Web thief might steal his real-life identity.
"I immediately went back and changed my password," said Rogers, 29, a network analyst for Mississippi State University in Starkville, Miss.
MySpace bills itself as a "place for friends." Increasingly, it is also a place for unfriendly attacks from digital miscreants on the prowl, luring users to sexually explicit Web sites, clogging mailboxes with spam messages and playing on the trust users have when speaking to "friends" to obtain passwords that could lead to identity theft.
Managing the risks that come with rapid growth is an enormous challenge for MySpace, now part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. media conglomerate. The site can't afford to drive away users, who might defect to one of a growing number of alternative sites, or advertisers, who pay top dollar to reach the growing MySpace audience.
Last month, MySpace inched past Yahoo Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO - news) in U.S. page views, recording 38.7 billion, according to comScore Media Metrix.
A key reason behind the popularity is its ease. Simply by adding a few lines of computer code, users can create elaborate profiles and personalize them with photos, music and video. A host of communication tools makes it easy to send messages to one person or a whole list of friends, who number into the thousands for some of the more popular MySpace users.
Those same tools can be used by vandals to make it look like an innocent user has sent spam to the same long list of "friends."
Programmers are writing scripts that take advantage of specific features on MySpace, including "friend request," where one user asks to be added to another user's list of buddies.
One recent scam works this way: A spammer posts a number of phony profiles featuring pictures of cute women, often promising nude photos. A "friend request" with the woman's photo is sent to hundreds of users.
Once the fake profile loads, a blue screen descends, saying the profile is protected by the "MySpace Adult Content Viewer." Unsuspecting users who try to download the viewer instead get a worm that installs adware on their computers.
Social-networking sites make good targets because of the implicit level of trust users have when they're interacting with "friends."
"The ongoing interaction lowers your reservations and security barriers," said Marc Gaffan, an expert in online fraud and security at RSA, the security division of EMC Corp.
MySpace, which News Corp. bought last year for some $580 million, has recognized the threat and is stepping up security efforts, said Hemanshu Nigam, its chief security officer.
The company is rapidly expanding its team of software engineers, lawyers and other experts who look for suspicious activity, educate users on how to prevent attacks and go after the worst offenders.
Under Nigam's direction, the company recently formed a Content Assurance Team. Employees post fake profiles on the site, pretending to be vulnerable teens or clueless adults. The profiles are designed to keep tabs on everything from sexual predators to spammers.
MySpace also is preparing to launch a more aggressive education campaign, urging users to take care and use tools that restrict the viewing of their profiles to only trusted sources.
When all else fails, the company is also files civil suits and is increasing cooperation with law enforcement officials.
"We're trying to take away the 'cool' factor of trying to attack us," Nigam said.
Nigam came to MySpace after stints as a federal prosecutor specializing in child pornography and computer crime cases. He also led security efforts at Microsoft Corp. and the Motion Picture Association of America.
MySpace hired him in May to strengthen security and safety efforts at the site and other Internet properties owned by Fox Interactive media.
"Security is a top priority because it's critical for our community of users and for our business partners," Nigam said. "If advertisers feel uncomfortable being on a site that is seen as not as secure, not as safe, then we lose revenue."
So far, no major damage has been done on the site, although some users, increasingly annoyed by the fake friends and messages, are seeking other social networking alternatives.
"I don't have this problem on Facebook," Rogers said, referring to another popular site.
The Internet has weathered several threats over the years, but as users move on, so do the attackers.
Writers of malicious software used to count primarily on e-mail recipients to click on attachments to spread their wares. As e-mail recipients got more savvy, the writers looked to automate the process by exploiting vulnerabilities in e-mail programs, browsers and the Windows operating system from Microsoft Corp.
As those security holes get closed, virus writers are looking elsewhere, including social-networking sites � attractive in part because of their size.
"It's where the activity is and the attackers play the percentages," said David Cole, director of security response at Symantec Corp. "They go after the largest market share where there is the most activity."
KATHMANDU (Reuters) - A mysterious teenaged boy believed by some to be a reincarnation of Lord Buddha has reappeared in eastern Nepal after vanishing for nine months, a witness and a television channel said on Monday.
Sixteen-year-old Ram Bahadur Bamjon was spotted on Sunday by villagers in the remote and dense forests near Piluwa village in Bara district, 150 km (95 miles) east of Kathmandu, local journalist Raju Shrestha, who visited the boy, told Reuters.
Bamjon disappeared in March from the forests in nearby Ratanpuri village where he had reportedly been meditating without food or water for almost 10 months.
"I have been wandering in the forests since then," Shrestha quoted Bamjon as telling him.
"I am engaged in devotion which will continue for six years," the boy told Shrestha.
Hundreds of curious onlookers, including many Buddhists, thronged the site to see the boy, sitting in a meditating position.
A local TV station showed people pressing their palms together and lowering their heads in devotion in front of him.
"I don't think he is a Buddha. But he has some sort of extra strength to meditate. He eats herbs," Shrestha said.
Before his disappearance, an estimated 100,000 people from Hindu-majority Nepal and neighboring India flocked to see him meditate. They were not allowed to get closer than 50 meters (165 feet).
Shrestha, who met the boy up close, said he had shoulder-length hair and sat cross-legged under a small tree.
"He has an ash-color shawl wrapped across his chest," he said, adding the boy had a "flat-ended scimitar" next to him.
Buddha was born a prince in Lumbini, a dusty village in Nepal's rice-growing plains about 350 km (220 miles) west of the capital Kathmandu more than 2,600 years ago.
He is believed to have attained enlightenment at Bodh Gaya in the eastern Indian state of Bihar, which borders Nepal.
BALTIMORE - In 1942, the Gestapo circulated posters offering a reward for the capture of "the woman with a limp. She is the most dangerous of all Allied spies and we must find and destroy her."
The dangerous woman was Virginia Hall, a Baltimore native working in France for British intelligence, and the limp was the result of an artificial leg. Her left leg had been amputated below the knee about a decade earlier after she stumbled and blasted her foot with a shotgun while hunting in Turkey.
The injury derailed Hall's dream of becoming a Foreign Service officer because the State Department wouldn't hire amputees, but it didn't prevent her from becoming one of the most celebrated spies of World War II.
On Tuesday, the French and British ambassadors plan to honor Hall, who died in 1982 at age 78, at a ceremony at the home of French Ambassador Jean-David Levitte in Washington.
British Ambassador Sir David Manning plans to present a certificate signed by King George VI to Hall's niece, Lorna Catling. Hall should have received the document in 1943, when she was made a member of the Order of the British Empire.
"I think it was ironic that the State Department turned her down because she was an amputee, and here she went on and did all this other stuff," said Catling, who lives in Baltimore. Catling said she didn't learn many of the details of her aunt's espionage career until after her death.
Hall, who was fluent in French, was living in Paris when the Nazis invaded in 1940, and she decamped for London, where she was recruited by the secret British paramilitary service, the Special Operations Executive, becoming its first female field operative.
Hall was sent to Lyon, becoming "the heartbeat" of the local French Resistance, said Judith L. Pearson, whose biography of Hall, "Wolves at the Door: The True Story of America's First Female Spy," was published last year.
"Any agent from London came through her flat. She coordinated them with Resistance members," Pearson said. "Most agents only stayed about three months in the field. She stayed 15 months."
After the Gestapo wanted posters made her situation untenable, she fled through the Pyrenees mountains into Spain. During the journey, she sent a radio message to London, reporting that "Cuthbert" — her nickname for her prosthetic leg — was giving her trouble.
Her commanders didn't understand the reference, and their reply suggested the gravity of Hall's circumstances and her value to the Allied cause: "If Cuthbert troublesome eliminate him."
Back in London, she joined the American Office of Strategic Services — the precursor to the CIA — and returned to France in 1944, disguised as an elderly peasant. She located parachute drop zones where money and weapons could be passed to Resistance fighters and later coordinated guerrilla warfare. Her teams destroyed bridges, derailed freight trains and killed scores of German soldiers.
"I would certainly put her name in the pantheon of people who distinguished themselves in intelligence," said Peter Earnest, executive director of the International Spy Museum in Washington, which has an exhibit devoted to Hall.
Hall maintained her cloak of secrecy after the war. The certificate that went with her British OBE medal sat in a vault for more than 50 years because the British government was unable to track her down.
In the meantime, OSS chief William Donovan had presented Hall with a Distinguished Service Medal in September 1945 during a private ceremony in his office that was witnessed only by Hall's mother. She was the only civilian woman to win the medal for service in World War II.
In 1950 she married French-born OSS agent Paul Goillot. She took a job with the CIA in 1951 and retired in 1966, living out her days with her husband on a farm in Barnesville.
"She would talk about books and she was very into animals and things like that. But work, no. There was a big wall about anything like that," Catling said. "She always seemed kind of glamorous and mysterious."
On the rare occasions that Hall told war stories, they weren't particularly harrowing.
"One time she said she and Paul found a deserted chateau, and they discovered a whole wine cellar," Catling said. "They had a wonderful evening enjoying that."
As always...he is contraversial and straight to the point...bordering at times... plain obnoxious!!
Interview With Former Malaysian PM Tun Dr Mahathir Mohammad. Originally aired on Islamchannel.tv; Transcribed by Memritv.org; Uploaded from http://islamic-download.com
One More Chance for Michael Jackson??. I dont know what youre thinking..but does this song mark the beginning of the end of the "King Of Pop"??. Perhaps his farewell song to all his fans...??
And have your dog/cats be cared for by Award Winning Melissa-Jane and see the Multi Award Winning Dog Amber_Mae!!
Do you want Melissa ( my daughter ) get your furbaby to be as well trained as Amber_Mae?. Log into our pet-sitting site and find out more and
why not contact us or Melissa to enquire about the charges for Melissa to train your furbaby!. Please NOTE - this applies only for Basic Training ( Basic Commands etc ).
If you wish to move onto tricks like dancing etc the charges will be extra at : RM2,000.00 ontop of your Basic Training fees
In short here are the charges:
1. Training at our place for ten lessons (fixed): RM1,000.00
2. Training at your place : RM2,000.00 (KL & PJ only)
3. Training outta KL/PJ - Klang Valley only: RM3,500.00
at Puppy.Com's 4th Malaysian Dog Beauty Pageant (most intelligent dog award) and also as Miss K9 for 2007!!
Here are a few of those pics from the event of Jan 14th!
Amber_Mae during her dance routine with my daughter Melissa-Jane!
Amber_Mae poses with all her yummies and trophy!
Melissa recieves the coveted trophy!!
Amber_Mae was also featured in both the NST Page 26 with photo of my daughter and Amber_Mae doing the now famous dog dance routine and also in the Berita Harian!! Congrats to my furbaby and Melissa for doing such a great job!!
I will be posting the actual newpapers features once Ive had them all scanned!
A caption from Jan 15th's NST Page 26:
" Amber_Mae is only 14 months old but she's already a champion dancer and a beauty queen.
She beat 100 other contestants yesterday with her dance routine to emerge tops in the most intelligent dog category in the fourth Malaysian Dog Beuaty Pageant.
She was also crowned Miss K9!" unquote.
Article by reporter namely Nisha Sabanaygam (NST).
IMPORTANT: Count The Days Until "He" Returns and goes up against more villains!
MoonDance sung by who else than ...Michael Buble himself!!
Such a great rendition too...some saying he's the next Sinatra...wat yu say??
Get Hot with The King of Pop Michael Jackson - one of my fav dance hits of his!!
CABLE TV / MOVIE MANIA
Stills from my fav TV HBO mini-series "Band Of Brothers"
Be careful what you wish for..as Shrek 3 is currently in the works and will be released sometime next year!
Personally, I cant wait to laugh myself silly once again!!
Watch the exclusive trailer of Spiderman 3!!. Whoaaaa!!!!
Spidey's a cool cat in this jazzy rendition (Michael Buble) of the original Spider-Man theme song. Buble's life-long love of swing and big-band music takes the webslinger to a new level of hipness.
Henry Wanyoike
He was training to become a professional runner in Kenya, then in 1995, he had a stroke that left him blind.
But thanks to a rehabilitation program, Henry began running again. He quickly established himself as a world-class non-sighted runner, earning a spot on the Kenyan national squad in the 2000 Sydney Paralympics.
Now Henry is running again - this time to raise awareness and support for a cause dear to his heart - the 100,000 Miracles campaign. Sign the petition with a message of your choice to support Henry in this courageous effort!
Malaysia's first astronaut will begin training in a few days in Moscow's Star City before he blasts off in a year's time on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft, the Russian space agency Roskosmos said.
Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, 34, a doctor and part-time model, and his back-up, Faiz Khaleed, 26, an army dentist, left Malaysia Tuesday, where Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi told the pair to do their best and forge a good name for their country.
"Bon voyage and carry out your duties well," Abdullah was quoted as saying by the state Bernama news agency.
On Friday, Russia and Malaysia signed a contract detailing the mission, a last formality that permits Muszaphar to begin preparing for his historic flight, Roskomos said in a release.
The project was conceived in 2003 when Russia agreed to send a Malaysian to the space station as part of a billion-dollar purchase of 18 Sukhoi 30-MKM fighter jets.
A formal agreement to send the first Malaysian into space was signed last May. Muzaphar and Faiz were chosen earlier this month from a contest of thousands of hopefuls. As part of their contract, neither man is allowed to marry until the mission concludes in 2008.
Keith Urban: "Tonight I Wanna Cry" - The most beautiful song Ive ever heard!!
If youre not prepared to shed a tear..youd better not listen to it !!
Photos from our MKA trip to A Famosa Resort, Melaka (West coast of Peninsular Malaysia ) and our fur-babies Amber_Mae and Faith entering the competitions
Notice to all Malaysian Dog Owners:-
We are providing Pet Home Boarding at our home:
For exclusive information,vids,info on our two pedigree dogs,pics.
For more please log onto this site owned and maintained by my daughter Melissa-Jane
SONE VIDS OF OUR TWO DOGS: Amber_Mae(Ambush) and Faith (Foo Fei):
Amber_Mae in the midst of obedience training
Faith jumping over Amber_Mae!
Amber_Mae weaving....uhh?....weaving..?
Amber_Mae and Faith wrestling....whats new?!
One of many vids from A' Famosa Melacca trip!
Water balloon play...Melissa (my daughter) made this playtoy!!
Amber_Mae enjoying her treat....yummie!
My wife riding a horse at A' Famosa resort...nice horsie!
Reflection: Played by who else than Ms Vanessa Mae who happens to be under the same international recording label as I am - EMI Records.
I guess you know which Disney animated movie this wonderful theme song comes from dont you?
Christina Aguilera's version (original and best!) of Mulan's "Reflection".
Amazing vocals!.
When I first heard this song, it was when I caught up in a traffic jam near
Taman Megah in Kuala Lumpur. I was totally mesmerized by her vocals!
I thought it was a black negress singing. A new discovery by Disney!
It turned out that Christina was formerly from the Mickey Mouse Club just
like Justin Timberlake - another amazing vocal talent and performer!!
This is another favourite of mine. Michael Buble's "Home". Great song!!
I Wanna Go Home...!!
