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Kidman named Australia's richest woman
DPA

Sydney, Sep 16 (DPA) A fortune estimated at $146 million has leveraged Oscar-winning actor Nicole Kidman to the title of Australia's richest young woman.


Local business magazine BRW said the 37-year-old divorcee was placed fourth on the list of the top 40 young Australians and was the first woman.

The Los Angeles resident came in ahead of singer Kylie Minogue, model Elle Macpherson and fellow Oscar winner Russell Crowe.

In 35th place on the list of the young rich ones was tennis player Lleyton Hewitt with a bank balance of $23 million.

Indo-Asian News Service

Sweden celebrates enigmatic Garbo's birth centenary
DPA

Stockholm, Sep 16 (DPA) Exhibitions, books and film screenings would form part of the commemoration of what would have been legendary Swedish film actress Greta Garbo's 100th birthday Sunday.

The Swedish Film Institute said it would screen the silent movie "Gosta Berling's Saga" Sunday as a tribute to the legend. The director of this movie Mauritz Stiller spotted the budding actress in a student show at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm, and is also said to have given her the stage name Garbo.

The 1924 film, part of a retrospective of 13 Garbo films, will include the premier of a newly written score by Matti Bye. A string quartet will accompany Bye on the piano.

Garbo fans will also be offered the chance to see the classic tear-jerker "Camille", where she made one of her most memorable performances.

Directed by George Cukor, it premiered 1936. After screening in Stockholm and Gothenburg the film will be shown at other locations in Sweden.

Other films in the retrospective include Garbo's first Hollywood movie, the seldom-screened "The Torrent" from 1926.

The film institute has also compiled the exhibition "Images of Greta" centred on nine statements by or about Garbo. It includes several unpublished photographs and memorabilia like her notebook from the Royal Dramatic Theatre drama school and film posters.

"Sincerely, Greta Garbo" at the Swedish Postal Museum in Stockholm offers an insight into another side of Garbo, who was a prolific letter writer, often homesick after her 1925 move to Hollywood.

The exhibition that runs to the end of March includes contributions from private collectors, Garbo's US relatives and several archives and museums.

The postal service has also issued stamps commemorating the star.

A Swedish language version of a book of portraits that the actress collected herself is also due. 

"Garbo - Portraits from her Private Collections" was compiled by her grand-nephew Scott Reisfield and New York art dealer Robert Dance. It offers are many original photos of Garbo by Clarence Sinclair Bull, Arnold Genthe, Ruth Harriet Louise, Edward Steichen and Cecil Beaton as well as family snaps.

Recently, author Tin Andersén Axell published a novel based on letters between Garbo and her close actress friend Mimi Pollak. They became friends at drama school. In the letters, Garbo often wrote of her deep affection for Pollak who died in 1999, aged 96.

"Greta told me that she was sad she never had her own family and children," Pollak's son Lars Lundell told the Aftonbladet newspaper earlier this year.

Garbo died in April 1990. Her ashes are buried at the Skogskyrkogarden Cemetery in the city.

Ukrainian heroine for Bhojpuri film
By Imran Khan, Indo-Asian News Service

Patna, Sep 16 (IANS) A Bhojpuri film released Friday is banking on its Ukrainian heroine for success.

Taking a leaf out of Bollywood films that feature foreign actresses, the Bhojpuri film "Firangi Dulhaniya" has Tanya, a 27-year-old model from Ukraine, playing the title role.

Tanya is not new to the world of showbiz in India. The economics graduate from Kiev University acted in a popular video remix, "Gori Hai Kalaiyan". Excited about her debut in a Bhojpuri film, Tanya will make a promotion tour across the state.

"After the premier show, she will visit different towns across Bihar to promote her film personally," the film's director Ranjan Kumar Singh told IANS.

"Tanya is making history by playing the lead role in this film, as she has become the first foreign actress in the Bhojpuri film industry," Singh added.

"The film is inspired by the real life story of a Patna student who went to study in Russia and fell in love with a Russian girl and married her and brought her here," said Singh.

The film shows how the "firangi dulhaniya" struggles to adapt to an alien language and culture.

Tanya too faced similar challenges during the shooting of the film. She, for example, learnt the Bhojpuri language. Made with a modest budget of Rs.7 million ($160,000), it was shot in Gujarat, Mumbai and London.

"The film has everything, a new face in Tanya, good music and an emotional story with family values," said producer of the film.

Indo-Asian News Service

Zellweger seeking annulment of four-month marriage
DPA

Los Angeles, Sep 16 (DPA) Four months after wedding country star Kenny Chesney, Oscar winning actress Renee Zellweger is seeking an annulment, according to People Magazine.


The pair married June 9 and as late as last week the "Bridget Jones" star insisted that she was "happily married". There was no word on what caused the sudden split, the magazine said Thursday.

The wedding in the Virgin Islands was the first for both Zellweger, 36, and Chesney, 37. The whirlwind romance began when they met at the Jan 15 Concert of Hope tsunami relief benefit, where he sang and she took phone pledges.

Indo-Asian News Service

Hacker of Paris Hilton's cell phone sentenced
DPA

Los Angeles, Sep 16 (DPA) A teenager who famously hacked into the cell phone of socialite Paris Hilton and exposed her celebrity address book has been sentenced to 11 months in jail, reports said.


The juvenile's identity was not released. He has been charged with a variety of crimes allegedly committed in a 15-month hacking spree that began in March 2004.

Besides hacking Hilton's phone, the youth also hacked into unnamed Internet and telephone service providers and made bomb threats to schools in Massachusetts and Florida. Damages from these crimes amounted to about $1 million.

Indo-Asian News Service

Watson says Hermione is too much a part of her
Indo-Asian News Service

London, Sep 16 (IANS) Emma Watson, the teen star of the "Harry Potter" series, says she is sure that she is the only actress who can do justice to the character since audiences are used to seeing her in the role.


According to contactmusic.com, the 15-year-old Watson, who plays Hermione Granger in the Potter series, says she fears being typecast after having appeared in every Potter film so far. 

She says: "My biggest fear is getting stereotyped. I want to do other things. (But) I would hate to have another actress in the role. There is so much of me in her. Of course, J.K. Rowling wrote the character, but in film terms I had a part in creating her."

Knightley says she gets lonely at times
Indo-Asian News Service

London, Sep 16 (IANS) Actress Keira Knightley says she wishes she had a companion whenever her career requires her to go aboard as she is sick of spending nights in lonely hotel rooms.


According to contactmusic.com, she says: "I travel alone and I enjoy a lot of it, but it also gets to the point when you can find yourself seeing the inside of just one too many lonely hotel rooms. 

"My mother doesn't seem to mind traipsing after me, and I have been known to phone and say, 'If I can get you a ticket, will you come and save me? The more well-known you get, the harder it can be to go out and explore."

Heather McCartney loses prosthetic leg in clash
Indo-Asian News Service

London, Sep 16 (IANS) Heather McCartney, wife of Sir Paul McCartney, lost her prosthetic leg in a clash with security guards during a protest outside singer actress Jennifer Lopez's office.


According to ananova.com, the photographer Richard Corkey who witnessed the clash said: "I saw her touch her knee and I could see she was in pain. She limped to the ladies' room but it was locked. I found another door open which led on to a stairwell. At least she could have the private moment she needed."

The clash occurred when Heather was campaigning with animal rights activists at the New York headquarters of Lopez's Sweetface fashion range, which reportedly uses real fur in its clothes.

Biography says Olivier spent last days in misery
Indo-Asian News Service

London, Sep 16 (IANS) Legendary actor Sir Laurence Olivier spent the final days of his life in misery after his family conspired to deprive him of alcohol and wean him off his steroid medication, according to a new biography.


Terry Coleman's authorised biography of the star - who died in 1989 aged 82 - reveals that Olivier's son Richard's wife, a member of a new age group, enforced a new healthy diet on Olivier despite his worsening condition, contactmusic.com reports.

Coleman writes: "They tried to reduce his intake of steroids and to wean him off alcohol by mixing his wine, behind his back, with a non-alcoholic substitute called Jung.

"Sometimes his father went along with it, or seemed to. Sometimes he showed he knew and that he wasn't happy with it at all."

But Olivier had an ally in his youngest daughter Julie-Kate, who did not condone the way her father was being treated.

Crowe might quit Hollywood
Indo-Asian News Service

London, Sep 16 (IANS) Oscar winning actor Russell Crowe has reportedly said that he might quit Hollywood if he is found guilty in an assault case, according to contactmusic.com.


The "Gladiator" actor has been accused of throwing a phone at an employee at the New York City hotel in a fit of anger. Crowe, an Australian, faces immigration problems if he is convicted.

But Crowe said he would be more than happy to leave Hollywood since he has been mistreated with regard to the alleged incident.

He said: "Maybe it's better I don't travel to America. Maybe it's better I don't work in the area of the business that attracts so many flies. You tell me to p**s off too many times and I probably will."

Pitt and Jolie to marry in Italy?
Indo-Asian News Service

London, Sep 16 (IANS) Bard Pitt and Angelina Jolie might be planning their wedding at George Clooney's Italian villa, Internet Movie Database reports. 


According to reports in the Italian media, plans for a wedding are under way at George's home on Lake Como. Clooney reportedly offered the couple his villa because of its "secluded and discreet position". 

Clooney was also one of Pitt's friends to first speak out about his relationship with Jolie.

He said: "I've met her a few times. She is a very beautiful woman and very clued-up. I'm happy if he is happy. I see them together and they look very content."

Pitt's divorce from the "Friends" actress Jennifer Aniston is to be finalised next month.

Man gets jail for kinky Diaz snaps
DPA

Los Angeles, Sep 16 (DPA) A photographer was sentenced to four years in jail for his part in an elaborate scheme to blackmail actress Cameron Diaz with kinky photographs that she posed for before she became a Hollywood star.


John Rutter was convicted in July of grand theft, forgery and perjury after a jury found that he had forged Diaz's signature on a model release form for the photos and then trying to extort $3 million from her.

The bondage-themed topless snaps were taken when Diaz was an aspiring 19-year-old model.

Rutter, 43, had claimed that the case was a misunderstanding and that he had wanted to sell Diaz the photos to help her avoid embarrassment. He asked the judged for probation, but was sentenced instead to three years and eight months in jail.