Tuesday 3 April 2018

The slow death of a US retail giant

Sears: 

Sears, once the largest retailer in the US, is struggling to stay afloat.
How did this retail titan go from boom to (nearly) bust? The BBC's Mat Morrison looks back

Wednesday 22 March 2017

Demi Lovato Is Thoroughly Unfazed By Hackers Stealing Her Private Photos

What’s wrong with being confident? Absolutely nothing when you’re Demi Lovato and you have better things to worry about than a hacking scandal.

The “Body Say” singer is the latest victim of the recent hackings of intimate celebrity photos, joining stars like Emma Watson and Amanda Seyfried in a club of famous women that absolutely no one asked to be in.

A photo of Lovato allegedly wearing an unzipped hoodie in bed has made the internet rounds this week. But if you think this is the scandal to bring Demi down, you clearly haven’t been paying attention. While other celebrities are attempting to secure justice using legal channels, the former Disney star is taking inspiration from her hit “Frozen” song and letting it go.

On Tuesday, the 24-year-old clapped back at hackers who thought a stolen racy photo of herself would faze her in the slightest with a series of tweets reminding everyone that she’s very comfortable in her own skin.

“I love how everyone’s freaking out about one picture. It’s not nude and it’s just cleavage ... Besides the world has seen me nude BY CHOICE before,” she tweeted, adding a string of our new favorite hashtags #vanityfair, #nicetry #cleavagegameonpoint, #myboobsarenteventhatbig and #angles.”

Lovato is referring to her 2015 Vanity Fair spread, in which she decided to forego all clothes and makeup for a stripped-down and stunning set of photos.

Speaking with the magazine, Lovato, who’s been open about her battle with eating disorders, said she wanted to show a “side of me that’s real, that’s liberated, that’s free.”

According to Gossip Cop, a second and reportedly more revealing photo of the star is also floating around somewhere, but from what we’ve gleaned from Demi so far, it’s pretty clear where she stands on the issue.

Monday 13 March 2017

Ivanka Trump, Cory Booker had 'private conversation' days after inauguration

New Jersey Senator Cory Booker revealed on Sunday that he met privately with first daughter Ivanka Trump days after her father's inauguration.

"I had a private conversation with her once at the Alfalfa dinner," the senator said on CNN's "State of the Union." "I saw her and had a very brief conversation." The nature of the pair's conversation wasn't revealed during the CNN interview.

Booker not only attended Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump's wedding in 2009 -- the Trump daughter also held a fundraiser for the senator in 2013.

Booker said he sees a lack of communication as a major issue ailing the United States at the moment.

"I think there's a problem in this country right now that we are having problems talking to each other," said Booker.

"There millions and millions of good Democrats, millions and millions of good Republicans who are Americans 99 percent of us are good people... I don't care what party you are, recognize this: We are at a time of increased fear in our country."

"And I don't care who you are, if you consider yourself a leader, you have an obligation to stand up and do something about it and lead with love and not appealing to people's darker angels or exploiting that fear."

Sunday 12 March 2017

Victorian contestants could win I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here Australia 2017

THE final of I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here is tonight, with two Victorians Dane Swan and Natalie Bassingthwaighte  in the final three.

They have stiff opposition against Sydney singer Casey Donovan, who has impressed all season with her honesty and warm personality

Channel 10 would be very happy with the cast this year, other then Tom Arnold, who is threatening to sue over alleged unpaid fees.

There were some great moments, probably the best storyline was the unlikely friendship between 3AW’s Steve Price and comedian Nazeem Hussain.

Hosts Julie Morris and Dr Chris Brown also have the gig down pat now.

All eyes now turns to 2018, when the show is sure to be back.

We have a look at the final three with a form guide

DANE SWAN

THE former Collingwood footballer has been able to show another side of himself to Australia, which has only been positive.

His friends have always said he has a great, dry, sense of humour, and we have all seen that the past six weeks. As well as being laid back, Swan has shown himself to be open minded and tolerant in the jungle, which has been really nice to see.

He has been very popular with the other camp mates, and with the Collingwood army behind him, he has a good chance of winning tonight.

What will Swan do next? First thing first, he has a comedy show at upcoming Melbourne International Comedy Festival.

CASEY DONOVAN

I SAW Casey Donovan in a bar a few years back in Melbourne perform and incredible gig, there would have been 25 people in the crowd.

She was incredible back then, and it was a real shame it was such a small crowd it should have been 2500 people.

Donovan is an honest performer, she has a vulnerable side which she isn’t afraid to show on stage, and what a voice. It is no fluke that she won Australian Idol back in 2004.

She has been quietly working away the past decade, and hopefully her time on I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here is a springboard to greater success. She has shown herself to be warm, funny, and genuine on the show. What you see is what you get.

NATALIE BASSINGTHWAIGHTE

OUT of anyone who signed up for I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here, it was Bassingthwaighte who had the most to lose.

She has a very established career, and initially you had to think why would she sign up?

But it has done Bassingthwaighte no harm at all. You can just tell by watching her that the experience has meant so much to her personally, a real accomplishment spending six weeks away from her children and husband.

Bassingthwaighte comes across as a very generous and down to earth mother figure.

It’s been a real success for the Melbourne based all around entertainer.

You can see her getting a TV hosting gig out of the show in the future.

SNL's 'Complicit' Ivanka Trump ad gets the internet talking


Saturday Night Live, or SNL, has taken aim at different members of the Trump administration including showing White House strategist Steve Bannon as the Grim Reaper and having press secretary Sean Spicer played by a gum-chewing Melissa McCarthy.
In the most recent episode, the show decided to take a dig at President Trump's daughter Ivanka in a spoof of a high-end perfume ad for a product called "Complicit."
Played by actress Scarlett Johansson, she appears as a glamorous woman attending a fancy party with champagne; the female narrator says in a voiceover, "... A woman like her deserves a fragrance all her own, a scent made just for her because she's beautiful, she's powerful, she's ... complicit."
Later in the now-viral commercial, the narrator asks, "A feminist, an advocate, a champion for women...But, like, how?"
It ends with the voiceover line, "Complicit: the fragrance for the woman who could stop all this but won't."
According to the Huffington Post, "'SNL' has mocked Ivanka Trump in the past, but this is the first time the sketch show is casting a more critical spotlight on the first daughter. This time, it's attacking her feminist advocacy without reservation."

Sunday 18 December 2016

Customs court adjourns hearing of Ayyan Ali's currency smuggling case



Ayyan Ali finally appeared before customs court after five months in currency smuggling case, however, duty judge Shakeel Ahmsad adjourned hearing of the case till April 6, 2015 due to absence of of Judge Sheraz Kayani.

Earlier, customs court had expressed resenment over continuous absence of the accused. Ayyan Ali appeared in the customs court after the judge warned of stern action against her.

Ayyan, now out on bail, is facing a trial for trying to smuggle $506,800 after being caught in the act at Islamabad airport on March 14 last year.

Zsa Zsa Gabor, Actress Famous for Her Glamour (and Her Marriages), Dies at 99

Zsa Zsa Gabor, the Hungarian actress whose self-parodying glamour and revolving-door marriages to millionaires put a luster of American celebrity on a long but only modestly successful career in movies and television, died on Sunday in Los Angeles. She was 99.

The cause was heart failure, her longtime publicist Edward Lozzi said.

Married at least eight times, calling everyone “Dahlink,” flaunting a diamonds-and-furs lifestyle and abetted by gossip columnists and tabloid headline writers, Ms. Gabor played the coifed platinum femme fatale in plunging necklines in dozens of film and television roles, many of them cameos as herself. Her career, which began with the title Miss Hungary in 1936, was still going strong in the 1990s, outlasting those of her sisters, Eva and Magda, celebrities in their own right. She was the last surviving Gabor sister.

“A girl must marry for love, and keep on marrying until she finds it,” Ms. Gabor once said. Her husbands included a Turkish diplomat, the hotel heir Conrad Hilton, the actor George Sanders, an industrialist, an oil magnate, a toy designer, a divorce lawyer and a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony. Another marriage that nobody counted a case of bigamy at sea with a has-been Mexican actor lasted only a day and was annulled.

In 1989, she was arrested for slapping a police officer who had pulled her over for a traffic violation and found that her license had expired and that she had an open vodka bottle in her car, a Rolls-Royce Corniche convertible. Breezing into court, she took the stand and, by turns haughty, coquettish, weepy and coarse, spoke of Gestapo tactics in Beverly Hills. The judge gave her 72 hours in jail.Continue reading the main story

“You just cannot drive a Rolls-Royce in Beverly Hills anymore, because they have it in for you,” she said after things had blown over.Photo

From left, Zsa Zsa Gabor and her sisters, Magda and Eva, in 1955. CreditAssociated Press

Ms. Gabor appeared in more than 60 television movies and feature films, mostly American-made, although some were Italian, French, German and Australian. Critics said her best roles were early in her career, in “Moulin Rouge” (1952) and “Lili” (1953). She also appeared as a nightclub manager in Orson Welles’s 1958 classic “Touch of Evil” and, the same year, as a sexy alien in “Queen of Outer Space,” a camp favorite about virile American astronauts landing on a planet populated by scantily clad women.

From the 1950s into the ’90s, she was also on scores of television programs: talk shows, game shows, comedy specials, westerns, episodic dramas. On the 1960s series “Batman,” she played the gold-digging Minerva, whose mineral spa fleeced swells by extracting secrets from their brains. “A real vicked voman,” she described the character in her Hungarian accent.

Exploiting her naughty celebrity, Ms. Gabor, with the help of collaborators and ghost writers, published four books: “Zsa Zsa Gabor: My Story” (1960), “Zsa Zsa’s Complete Guide to Men” (1969), “How to Catch a Man, How to Keep a Man, How to Get Rid of a Man” (1970) and “One Lifetime Is Not Enough” (1991).

In addition to her steady appearances in movies and on television, Ms. Gabor operated a mail-order cosmetics company. She once offered $1 million to anyone who could prove she had had a face-lift.

In 1974, she bought a villa in Bel Air built by Howard Hughes and formerly owned by Elvis Presley. Her multitiered clothes closet — 30 feet long, 12 feet deep and 14 feet high — contained 5,000 garments that, except for favored gowns, were given to charities and replaced with a new wardrobe from time to time, according to her official fan site, zsazsagabor.org.

In early 2009, Ms. Gabor discovered that she had joined a long list of celebrities who were victimized by Bernard L. Madoff, the financial swindler whose worldwide Ponzi scheme that cost investors tens of billions. Her lawyer Chris Fields said she lost at least $7 million and possibly as much as $10 million.

Ms. Gabor had been in and out of hospitals for years. She suffered head and other injuries and was hospitalized for a month in 2002 after a car driven by her hairdresser struck a utility pole in West Hollywood. It left her in a wheelchair, and she retreated from the spotlight. She suffered a stroke in 2005 and had surgery for a blocked carotid artery. In 2007, she again underwent surgery to treat a leg infection and aftereffects of the stroke.

In July 2010, she underwent hip-replacement surgery after a fall at her home in which she also suffered a concussion. Released from the hospital in August, she was readmitted two days later for treatment of unspecified complications. In January 2011, her right leg was amputated above the knee after an infection proved resistant to antibiotics. Doctors said the operation was necessary to save her life.

Two months later, shock over the death of her friend Elizabeth Taylor sent her to the hospital with high blood pressure, and Ms. Gabor’s publicist, John Blanchette, quoted her as saying she feared she was next. In November 2011, she had emergency surgery after blood began flowing through a feeding tube inserted in her stomach.

Born Sari Gabor in Budapest in 1917 she always gave a birth date of Feb. 6 or 7, but not the year, though Mr. Lozzi confirmed on Sunday that it was 1917 Ms. Gabor grew up in relative prosperity, the second of three daughters of Vilmos and Jolie Gabor. Raised for stardom, the sisters attended private schools and were chauffeured to acting, dancing, music and fencing classes.Photo

Ms. Gabor in Budapest, Hungary, around 1940.CreditLaszlo Varkonyi/European Pressphoto Agency

On the eve of World War II, Ms. Gabor, her mother and her sisters emigrated to the United States, and by the 1950s the Gabor sisters had become as well known for their love lives as for their careers.

Magda, who acted on radio briefly and helped her mother operate a chain of jewelry boutiques, died in 1997, as did her mother. Eva, who was best known for her role on television’s “Green Acres” in the 1960s — and whom the public sometimes confused with Zsa Zsa died in 1995.

Zsa Zsa, who divorced seven of her eight husbands, was first married to Burhan Belge, a Turkish diplomat in Budapest, from 1937 to 1941. Her second marriage, to Mr. Hilton, lasted from 1942 to 1947. Their daughter, Francesca Hilton, an actress, was Ms. Gabor’s only child. She died in 2015.

Her other marriages were to Mr. Sanders (1949-54), who later married Magda Gabor; the investor-industrialist Herbert L. Hutner (1962-66); the oil magnate Joshua S. Cosden Jr. (1966-67); Jack Ryan, an inventor and toy designer who helped create the Barbie doll (1975-76); Michael O’Hara, a lawyer (1976-82); and Frédéric Prinz von Anhalt, whom she married in 1986.

Mr. Prinz von Anhalt, often described in the news media as a prince or the Duke of Saxony, was born Hans Robert Lichtenberg, the son of a police officer in Germany. He changed his name to include what sounded like a title after Princess Marie Auguste of Anhalt, the Duchess of Saxony, adopted him in 1980 as an adult. The adoption, widely reported to have been a business transaction, conferred only an illusion of nobility, reinforced by the name change.

Some biographies of Ms. Gabor also mention a 1983 marriage to Felipe de Alba, a lawyer who appeared in films in Mexico in the 1940s and ’50s, but Ms. Gabor said it lasted only a day. The ceremony was performed by a ship’s captain at sea but was probably illegal because the ship was not in international waters, and Ms. Gabor was technically not yet divorced from Mr. O’Hara. It was later annulled, just to make sure.

There were also notorious affairs with Porfirio Rubirosa, the Dominican playboy, and with Rafael Trujillo Jr., the son of the Dominican dictator.

Ms. Gabor is survived by her husband, Mr. Prinz von Anhalt.

Ms. Gabor’s many public appearances included a 1987 address to the American Bar Association convention in San Francisco, where she spoke to the family law section at a standing-room-only luncheon. “We’ve had enough of the routine speakers,” the chairman said, introducing Ms. Gabor as “an optimist who still believes in marriage.”

Telling her tales of marital joys and woes, Ms. Gabor confided, “I have learned that not diamonds but divorce lawyers are a girl’s best friend.”

Then, inviting questions, the chairman said, “Let’s keep it on direct, not on cross.”

“What does that mean?” she asked.

“That means they’ve got to be nice to you.”