A dozen hefty security guards held back the crowd gathered on a Paris street this week to glimpse US director Martin Scorsese jump into a limo at lunch break during the shoot of his latest film, a 3-D fantasy releasing late next year. But the Oscar-winning 67-year-old, shooting in the City of Light for only [...]

Mexico’s Jimena Navarrete was crown-ed Miss Un-iverse on Monday night in an upset victory that stunned a pageant world that had predicted a winner to emerge from Ireland, Venezuela or the United States. The 22-year-old from Gua-dalajara, resplendent in a flowing ruby-red eveninggown, has been modelling since she was 15, but nothing could quite prepare [...]

British pop singer George Michael pleaded guilty in a London court on Tuesday to driving under the influence of cannabis when he crashed his car into a shop last month, and could face jail. The 47-year-old Careless Whisper star also admitted possessing cannabis cigarettes when he appeared at Highbury Corner Magistrates’ Court. Dressed in a [...]

After forging a career as one of the biggest stars of lavish Bollywood movies, Aamir Khan is using his powerful public image clout to bring a grittier vision of India to the big screen. Khan, 45, the star of acclaimed films such as 3 Idiots and Ghajini, is the producer of Peepli Live, a dark [...]

A former British prime minister, haunted by ghosts from his past, is holed up in his exclusive compound waiting to be indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court in The Hague. It’s a gripping plotline; one that attracted and probably resonated with Oscar-winning director Roman Polanski, recently released from house arrest in Switzerland [...]

American singer Madonna, who by repute once famously greeted a caller at her door clad only in bubble wrap, chose a more modest outfit for her 52nd birthday party, held in London last Saturday. She chose a low-key bash to celebrate the big event, too, reportedly spending only US$150,000 on her little soiree at London’s [...]

The Tate Modern museum celebrates its tenth birthday this week having firmly won a place among the must-see attractions of London. When Queen Elizabeth II opened it on May 12, 2000 in a gargantuan former power station on the banks of the River Thames, few would have predicted the museum would attract more than 45 [...]

Playboy readers are going to need glasses for a close look at the upcoming issue of the magazine – 3-D glasses. The centrefold picture in the June edition of Playboy will be in 3-D, Playboy spokeswoman Theresa Hennessey said. “It’s definitely eye-popping,” Hennessey said of the 3-D centrefold featuring 2010 Playmate of the Year Hope [...]

Alate self-portrait by “pope of pop” Andy Warhol sold for a record US$32.5 million at Sotheby’s in New York on Wednesday, underlining the return of big spenders to the international art market. The stark 1986 image of Warhol’s famous face and unkempt hair was estimated to sell at between $10-15 million at the contemporary art [...]

Carla Albertí de la Rosa reports on a “sensory dining experience” in Seminyak    After 12 years of heralded French cuisine at Kafe Warisan in Kerobokan, founders Said Alem and Nicolas “Doudou” Tourneville have changed location in the hope of setting the bar even higher with their new venture, MÉTIS. Opened in October last year, [...]

UBUD A robust line-up of Bali-based artists’ works will go under the hammer at a special Art in Action auction at Gaya Gallery at Sayan, near Ubud, on Saturday (May 1). Abstractionist Theos (Professor Theos M. B. Sijrier), known as the king of action painting, will splash and daub his way across a 10.5 x [...]

A new book on Mahatma Gandhi has delved into the intimate life of the Indian icon whose famous vow of chastity did not prevent him sleeping with naked women and conducting bizarre sex “experiments.” Gandhi: Naked Ambition, by British historian Jad Adams, sheds new light on the spiritual leader and independence hero whose spartan existence [...]