0 2011 Hollywood Breakups: A Year Of Failed Goes At Love

Relationships come and go as people seek out that special someone to spend the rest of their days with, and Hollywood certainly sees its fair share of unsuccessful tries at love.

The year of 2011 witnessed a number of high-profile marriages, though there were just as many couples who decided that it just wasn't meant to be.

Among the married pairs who sadly parted way during the past twelve months were Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony, who now find themselves in a dispute over custody of their shared baby twins, Max and Emme.

Other celebrities divorcing during the year were partners of 72 days, Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries, along with Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore, Scarlett Johannson and Ryan Reynolds, Ashlee Simpson and Pete Wentz, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver, and Zooey Deschanel and Ben Gibbard.

Meanwhile, there were a handful of stars who had, fortunately, not yet made it to the altar before deciding to call it quits.

The floundering romance of George Clooney and Elisabetta Canalis made plenty of headlines with Cameron Diaz and Alex Rodriguez, Kate Bosworth and Alexander Skarsgard and Renee Zellweger and Bradley Cooper also among the couples no longer together at year's end.

Rounding out 2011's Tinseltown breakups were Zoe Saldana and fiance Keith Britton, Chaz Bono and Jennifer Elia, Blake Lively and Leonardo DiCaprio, Mila Kunis and Macaulay Culkin, Amanda Seyfried and Ryan Phillippe and Jesse James and Kat Von D, who split not once, but twice over the past twelve months.

0 Bollywood rediscovered heroes in 2011

MUMBAI: Bollywood struck gold in 2011, revving up lacklustre box offices in India with help from its leading men who wooed audiences back to cinemas after a dismal 2010.

Domestic revenues hit 19.25 billion rupees ($363.2 million) this year, up from 14.5 billion rupees in 2010, and an unprecedented four films crossed the billion rupee milestone. Two of those blockbusters starred actor Salman Khan.

The solid performance contrasted sharply to the previous year when there were hardly any hits.

"Audiences and filmmakers have gone back and discovered stories that are close to our Indian roots," said Sanjeev Lamba, Chief executive of Reliance Entertainment, which produced two of the year's biggest blockbusters -- "Bodyguard" and "Singham".

"Bodyguard", in which Khan plays a personal security guard to a rich man's daughter and ends up falling in love with her, was the most successful Bollywood film, raking in more than 1.5 billion rupees ($28 million) at domestic box offices.

"Singham" told the story of a right-minded police officer who stands up to a corrupt politician and was accompanied by romance, drama and high-octane action.

Both "Bodyguard" and "Singham" were panned by critics but loved by audiences. And both featured strong central characters, harkening back to the 1980s and early '90s in Bollywood when films were centred on the hero and his defeat of a villain in a battle of good versus evil.

"Audiences have always loved the dilemmas of the hero, a little bit of action, some drama and some romance," Lamba said. "We had a lot of that this year."

Other themes were successful, too.

Offbeat films like "The Dirty Picture", based on the life of a soft-core porn star, proved to be sleeper hits and took industry analysts by surprise. Together with the likes of "Singham" and "Bodyguard", these smaller films proved audiences have an appetite for both mass market and niche-oriented work.

"It is not that more people are watching movies, but that the same audience is watching more movies," said Shailesh Kapoor of Ormax Media, a firm that specialises in film market research.

"HARRY POTTER" HOT; "RA.ONE" NOT

But widely-hyped movies like superhero film "Ra.One" were a let-down.

In spite of a publicity blitzkrieg, actor Shah Rukh Khan's film did not live up to expectations with around 1.2 billion rupees ($22 million) in net box office. That was just a bit more than its official budget of a billion rupees. Industry estimates put the film's cost at over 1.5 billion rupees.

Aside from that, for the most part, Bollywood managed to keep its purse strings in check, with production houses learning that budgeting a film right is half the battle.

"Balaji Motion Pictures made 'The Dirty Picture' at a budget of less than 300 million rupees but have chosen themes and subjects which are interesting, and (they) publicised their films so well that audiences have felt compelled to watch them," said industry analyst Vajir Singh.

Big studios like Reliance and UTV also have changed their business models, preferring to co-produce films rather than acquire them after completion. Last year, Reliance suffered losses after two big-ticket acquisitions, Mani Ratnam's "Raavan" and Hrithik Roshan-starrer "Kites" flopped at box offices.

"This year, all our films have been co-productions or our own productions and we have seen the successes," Lamba said.

"We prefer to be creatively involved from the beginning of the project rather than coming in at the end in an acquisition scenario."

Indian audiences also warmed up to Hollywood blockbusters including "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2" and "The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn" -- something that wasn't seen until just a few years ago due mainly to Bollywood's dominance of the box office.

"These days, the box office collections of good Hollywood films can rival those of a Bollywood film," said Sunil Punjabi, chief executive of the Cinemax chain of multiplexes.

"The Adventures of Tintin," which was released along with Ranbir Kapoor's "Rockstar" in November, made more than 70 million rupees its opening weekend. (Reuters)

0 'Silence of the Lambs', 'Bambi', among US film treasures

NEW YORK: The U.S. National Film Registry has named 25 films to be preserved as cultural treasures ranging from the 1942 Walt Disney classic, "Bambi," to the 1991 psychological thriller "The Silence of the Lambs."

The film list also includes the Academy Award-winning "Forrest Gump" starring Tom Hanks and the post-war noir film "The Big Heat," set in a fictional US town that examined domestic life in the 1950s. It includes Hollywood features, documentaries and animation, spanning the period 1912 to 1994.

The latest films were selected from 2,228 films nominated by the public, bringing the total number of films in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress to 575.

"These films are selected because of their enduring significance to American culture," said Librarian of Congress James Billington in a statement.

Independent filmmaking pioneer director and writer John Cassavetes' "Faces," (1968) that criticized middle class America was selected along with "I, an Actress" (1977) by low-budget filmmaker George Kuchar whose outlandish sensibilities inspired other directors such as John Waters.

Early films included "The Cry of the Children," and "A Cure for Pokeritis," -- both from 1912 -- as well as Charlie Chaplin's first feature, the silent classic, "The Kid" (1921).

"Stand and Deliver" (1988), directed by Cuban-born Ramon Menendez, highlighted the 1980s wave of films by Latino filmmakers, and "Hester Street" (1975), shot in black and white and partly in Yiddish, showed Eastern European Jewish life in the United States that was initially shunned by Hollywood.

Other films included Billy Wilder's drama about alcoholism, "The Lost Weekend" (1945), John Ford's 1924 western "The Iron Horse," and "Norma Rae" (1979) which starred Sally Field as an unlikely single mother activist trying to improve work conditions.

Composer George Gershwin "Porgy and Bess" (1959) marked the rise of the civil rights movement as some black actors turned down roles and "The Negro Soldier" (1944) showcased the heroism of black soldiers and became mandatory viewing for all soldiers.

Animations included a one-minute film by Pixar Animation Studios' co-founder Ed Catmull, "A Computer Animated Hand" (1972) that is one of the earliest examples of 3D computer animation. Documentaries included "Growing up Female" that gave a portrait of the US women's liberation movement in the early 1970s. (Reuters)

0 Hosanna among Top Music Downloads

Hindi film Ekk Deewana Tha's latest track Hosanna' has made its way to Top Music Downloads on Nokia OVI.

The track released on the Nokia OVI store has gone up the ranks and is currently at number 4 in the list.

The Fox Star India film stars Prateik and Amy Jackson.

"The fans have loved the music of Ekk Deewana Tha, composed by the Oscar winner musical genius A.R Rahman.

The music has done justice to the lyrics penned by Javed Akhtar," said an official spokesperson on Thursday.

With lyrics “Dil Hote Jo, Mere Seene Me do, Doosra Dil Bhi Main Tumhein Deta Todne Ko”, the song has been widely accepted and loved by the fans.