Archives for December 2008

From sneers to full-blown smiles, our facial expressions are hardwired into our genes, suggests a new study.The researchers compared the facial expressions from more than 4,800 photographs of sighted and blind judo athletes at the 2004 Summer Olympics and Paralympic Games.

The analyses showed sighted and blind individuals modified their expressions of emotion in the same way in accordance with the social context.For example,in the Paralympics.

The athletes competed in a series of elimination rounds so that the final round of two athletes ended in the winner taking home a gold medal while the loser got a silver medal.

The blind silver medalists who lost their final matches tended to produce "social smiles" during the medal ceremonies. Social smiles use only the mouth muscles. True smiles, known as Duchenne smiles, cause the eyes to twinkle and narrow and the cheeks to rise.

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Julia Roberts reunites with Pretty Woman co-star Richard Gere and director Garry Marshall for this heart warming yarn about a woman who just can't commit.

Ike Graham (Richard Gere) is a New York newspaper columnist with a problem - his deadline is an hour away, his ex-wife is his boss and he's dealing with a dire case of writer's block.

Retreating to his favourite watering hole to "brainstorm," Ike hears about a young woman in rural Maryland named Maggie (Julia Roberts) who loves being engaged.But suffers very cold feet about getting married.Intrigued, Ike composes a column about Maggie, beginning a chain of events which leads him to Hale, Maryland, her hometown.

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Julia Roberts (not that one) is a friend of The PKD Foundation. Her daughter, Quinn Roberts, isn't just asking for dolls, or video games for Christmas this year. After watching her brother, Gage, only 9, go on dialysis and have a kidney transplant in 2007 -- and knowing she'll have to do the same, even as early as this coming year  what Quinn wants most of all this holiday season is a healthy kidney.

"Her quality of life is slipping away," said her mom, Julia. "She's unbelievably itchy, tired, crabby and just feels lousy - she knows her kidneys are causing this because we've always been open with her about her disease."

Quinn and her brother have polycystic kidney disease, PKD, a life-threatening genetic kidney disease affecting 600,000 Americans and 12.5 million people worldwide. PKD causes cysts to grow on the kidneys, often leading to kidney failure. Dialysis and transplantation are the only treatment options. There is no cure for PKD.

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Something about Clive Owen just screams international man of mystery. Look at his upcoming films: there's The International, about corruption in the international banking system.

Then he and Julia Roberts play corporate spies in Duplicity and now he's signed up for Cartagena, a story involving undercover work among Colombian drug-dealers.

This time, Owen plays an agent amid the Colombian cartels who gets caught in a complex plot, and has to elude not only the drug dealers but also international drug-enforcement agents in order to survive. The film's named after the city on Colombia's coast, one of the oldest in South America.

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Soundtracks in movies are a bit of a cheat, when you think about it. Like canned laughter in sitcoms, a sneaky way to tell us: right now you should be feeling scared, or happy, or sad. You would think that any story and acting that was good enough would not need that kind of help.

I never really think about it, until I sat down to write this column. Because soundtracks feel like part and parcel of anything we watch on screen.Film is a make believe world and in such a world bad things are foreshadowed by ominous music, romance or hope by a swell of violins.

So to end the year and bring in 2009, my next few pieces will be about music in the movies. Music that makes us cry, laugh, shudder, the soundtracks everyone has and the soundtracks everyone should have.The music that tugs at our heartstrings and the soundtracks we listen to over and over.

The composers and the singers. So watch this space.Let’s start with the easy one, the soundtracks everyone has. Admit it.If you have ever bought any soundtracks before, these are probably among them and in no particular order:

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Julia Roberts woke up Saturday morning at her home in Urbana, and for the first time in months, there was nowhere that she needed to be. There were no planes to catch.

There were no practices to get to. There were no piles of schoolwork that needed her attention.

That's how English romance novelist Elinor Glyn defined the term "it-girl," a phrase that entered the public imagination with the 1927 film "It," based on one of her novels and starring the original it-girl, Clara Bow.

Hollywood is perpetually on the hunt for this elusive quality, this blend of sexuality and innocence, of materialistic chutzpah and good values, of swagger and sincerity, that tends to sell tickets.

As the Cameron Diazes, Drew Barrymores and Gwyneth Paltrows age out of the ingenue role, a new crop of young actresses has emerged.

A group that includes Amy Adams, Michelle Williams, Scarlett Johansson and Keira Knightley, contenders to the crown that for years belonged to Julia Roberts, perhaps the last female movie star who everyone agrees actually guaranteed attendance in the theaters.

At the moment much of Hollywood is chattering about pretty Anne Hathaway, another dark-eyed, dark-haired beauty, who was plucked out of relative obscurity by Roberts' own star-maker, "Pretty Woman" director Garry Marshall.

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We already know Julia Roberts is into the whole ‘au natural’ scene when it comes to body odor. On last year’s green episode of Oprah, the actress revealed that she does not wear deodorant, saying that “it’s not her thing.” Now, a former bodyguard is backing up that statement with a bit more info:

“Julia is a total hippie. She’ll go days without showering.” said her former bodyguard, writes Times of the Internet. “She likes the smell of her natural oils.”

As we’ve mentioned previously, Roberts joins other stars like Matthew McConaughey and Orlando Bloom in conserving water by avoiding showers. I personally have nothing against it — but can attest to being in the company of some people that truly do smell; natural oils aside.

Talk show queen Oprah Winfrey has been named the most powerful woman in Hollywood in the Hollywood.

Reporter's annual list of the most powerful females in the US movie capital.Winfrey was chosen "based. On her dizzying array of Oprah-branded media and her immense cultural influence",

The trade publication's editor-in-chief Elizabeth Guider said in a statement on Friday.All the other women in the power top 10 were studio executives.

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If we are to believe the former bodyguard of the popular Hollywood actress Julia Roberts.

The pretty woman will first hit you with her wide smile, and if that is not enough for you to fall unconscious, the smell of the natural oils of her body will, which she cares for by not showing for a week.

“Julia is a total hippie” “She'll go days without showering” said her former bodyguard, writes Times of the Internet.However, Julies does not do this to get back at somebody. Just to let you know if you are ever near her, and you feel awkward. She is a hard line green environmentalist, and in that way saves water and saves the planet.

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