Khamis, 8 Mei 2014

The Star Online: Metro: Sunday Metro

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The Star Online: Metro: Sunday Metro


US, Philippine marines launch South China Sea drills

Posted: 08 May 2014 10:10 PM PDT

SAN ANTONIO, Philippines: Scores of US and Filipino marines launched mock assaults on a South China Sea beach in the Philippines on Friday in war games aimed at honing the allies' combat skills.

The exercise came as tensions simmer between the Philippines and China over rival claims to the strategic waters.

Three US rubber raiding craft and two small-unit Filipino riverine boats made repeated sallies at a desolate beach at a northern Philippines navy base in a practise stealth landing of squads of armed marines.

Shouting "Volume Fire!" and "Bounce Up", the teams scrambled up the sloping shore with assault rifles to surround a mocked-up enemy tent before running back to their boats in rapid manoeuvres.

"We're here for the sake of training, to build up and develop our capabilities," US Marines spokesman Captain Jeremy Scheier told AFP when asked if they had a specific enemy target in mind.

"There was no specific scenario," he said, adding that Friday's exercises began well before dawn and involved about 40 US and 80 Filipino marines.

About 5,500 US and Filipino forces are taking part in the annual war games over a two-week period.

At the opening ceremony in Manila last week, Filipino Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario said this year's joint manoeuvres were designed to help the hosts boost their "maritime capability" to address "challenges" in the South China Sea.

The Philippines, which signed a mutual defence treaty with the United States in 1951, has been involved in increasingly tense maritime confrontations with regional power China, which claims most of the sea including waters close to its neighbours.

The United States has said it takes no position in the territorial dispute.

However US President Barack Obama, on a state visit to Manila last week, warned China against using force in territorial disputes and said Washington would support Manila in the event of an attack. 

In the latest incident on Tuesday, Filipino police detained a Chinese-flagged fishing vessel and detained its 11 crew members.

It has ignored a Chinese demand to free the vessel and crew.

Philippine military spokeswoman Navy Lieutenant Annaleah Cazcarro said the amphibious landing exercises also involved two Filipino navy ships serving as launch pads about 3.7 kilometres (two nautical miles) offshore.

"This was planned years before," she told AFP when asked if the exercises had any bearing on the latest maritime incident involving China, which the Philippines said occurred near Half Moon Shoal, 106 kilometres west of the large western Philippine island of Palawan.

The Philippines on March 30 filed a formal plea asking a United Nations arbitration tribunal to declare as illegal what Manila said was Beijing's claim to 70 percent of the South China Sea.

The seabed in the area is believed to contain huge deposits of oil and gas and the waters straddle vital sea lanes.

Beijing has rejected UN arbitration and urged Manila to settle the dispute through bilateral talks instead. -AFP

One dead, 30 injured in southern Pakistan quakes

Posted: 08 May 2014 09:40 PM PDT

KARACHI: At least one person was killed and 30 others were injured when a series of quakes hit southern Pakistan on Friday, officials said.

One of the quakes struck at the relatively shallow depth of 10 kilometres (six miles), 27 kilometres (16 miles) northeast of Nawabshah city in Sindh province, with a magnitude of 5.0, an official in the meteorological department told AFP.

He said the quake was felt in Nawabshah and several nearby small towns including Sakrand, Daur, Daulat Pur and Bandhi.

A local administration official, Irfan Kathio, told AFP: "The quake killed at least one person and injured 30 others including women and children."

An emergency has been declared at the city's hospitals and district offices, with schools and colleges closed down, he said. Around 100 houses in Nawabshah had been damaged.

"We received 30 injured in our hospital, of whom one 71-year-old man died of his injuries," Mohammad Hashim, a senior doctor at Nawabshah's civil hospital, told AFP.

He said the condition of five of the injured was critical.

Taj Colony neighbourhood in Nawabshah was the worst affected, resident Ghulam Mustafa told AFP.

The roofs of many of the houses there had crumbled, he said, with electricity supply to the area disrupted.

The quake was followed two aftershocks measuring 4.7 and 4.9 magnitude with epicentres in northeast and northwest of Nawabshah, the meteorology official said.

Pakistan was hit by a 7.6-magnitude earthquake on October 8, 2005, that killed more than 73,000 people and left about 3.5 million homeless, mainly in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir and parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

A 7.7-magnitude earthquake devastated several areas, including Awaran in southwestern Baluchistan province, in September. It killed at least 376 people and left 100,000 others homeless. -AFP

Greenpeace: Japan imports tonnes of whale meat from Iceland

Posted: 08 May 2014 09:23 PM PDT

TOKYO: Environmentalists on Friday lashed out after Japan imported 2,000 tonnes of frozen whale meat from Iceland, in what they say is continued defiance of world opinion over the hunting of the mammals.

Packages containing meat from fin whales were unloaded Thursday from a vessel that had travelled from Iceland to Osaka, western Japan, said Junichi Sato of Greenpeace Japan.

The ship left Iceland in March carrying a cargo equivalent to almost all the whale meat imports from the north European country for the last six years, environment groups and news reports said.

An official at the port in Osaka confirmed the arrival of the ship.

"The ship, named Alma, arrived on May 7 and we were informed in advance that it would carry whale meat to be unloaded at Osaka port," he told AFP.

Greenpeace said it was puzzled by the size of the cargo.

"We don't know why Japan had to import such a huge volume of whale meat," accounting for about two thirds of the nation's annual consumption, Sato said.

"No matter what, we oppose such shipments," he added.

In December, Iceland said it had increased its 2014 quotas for whaling in a move likely to intensify international condemnation of the practice.

Since it resumed whaling in 2006 despite an international moratorium, Iceland, along with Norway, has come in for furious criticism from environmental groups and some other countries.

Icelanders eat little whale meat, and most of the catch is sent to the Japanese market.

Japan also hunts whales, but qualifies the activity as scientific research, even though whale meat finds its way to its restaurants.

In March, the United Nations' top court ruled the annual mission to the Southern Ocean by Japanese whaling vessels was a commercial hunt masquerading as science to skirt the international ban.

Tokyo said there would be no hunting in the Southern Ocean in the 2014-15 season, but vessels would be there to carry out "non-lethal research". However, the announcement raised the possibility that harpoon ships would return the following year.

That would put Japan on a collision course with anti-whaling nations like Australia, which brought the case to the International Court of Justice.

Although not difficult to find in Japan, whale meat is not a regular part of most Japanese people's diet.

Vessels involved in Japan's permitted coastal whaling programme and in its "scientific" hunt in the Pacific Ocean left harbour last month.

Supporters argue that the hunting and eating of whale is part of Japan's culture and complain of double standards from anti-whaling nations with large beef industries.

But critics say Tokyo's position is influenced more by a desire to support vested interests in the whaling industry than to protect a source of food that is no longer widely consumed.

They claim the country has large stocks of frozen whale meat from its own hunts that it cannot sell because there is insufficient demand. -AFP

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: World Updates

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U.S. faults both sides for collapse of Israeli-Palestinian talks

Posted: 08 May 2014 09:15 PM PDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Israeli and Palestinian leaders were unwilling to make the "gut-wrenching" compromises needed for peace, a top U.S. official said on Thursday, faulting both sides for the collapse of talks last month.

Offering his first public account of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's failed, nine-month effort to strike a peace deal by April 29, U.S. special envoy Martin Indyk made clear there was blame on both sides, citing Israeli settlement-building as well as the Palestinians' signing of 15 international conventions.

However, Indyk suggested talks may resume eventually, citing the start-and-stop example of former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger's ultimately successful 1975 effort to disengage Egyptian and Israeli forces in the Sinai.

"What was true then is also possibly true today," Indyk told a conference hosted by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy think tank. "In the Middle East, it's never over."

The central issues to be resolved in the more than six-decade Israeli-Palestinian conflict include borders, security, the fate of Palestinian refugees and the status of Jerusalem.

"One problem that revealed itself in these past nine months is that the parties, although showing some flexibility in the negotiations, do not feel the pressing need to make the gut-wrenching compromises necessary to achieve peace," Indyk said.

"It is easier for the Palestinians to sign conventions and appeal to international bodies in their supposed pursuit of justice and their rights, a process which by definition requires no compromise," he said. "It is easier for Israeli politicians to avoid tension in the governing coalition and for the Israeli people to maintain the current, comfortable status quo."

"The fact is, both the Israelis and Palestinians missed opportunities and took steps that undermined the process," Indyk said.

On April 24, Israel suspended the talks after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's unexpected unity pact with the rival Islamist Hamas group, a step that appeared to be the final nail in the coffin of the U.S.-sponsored negotiations.

Indyk also described the Palestinian decision to sign the 15 international treaties - in what seemed a gesture of defiance toward Israel, which believes such moves may confer legitimacy on the Palestinians - as "particularly counterproductive."

He also detailed Israeli moves to build additional homes for Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank and cited these as among the central factors that undermined the negotiations.

During the past nine months, Indyk said Israel had tendered to build 4,800 housing units in areas that Palestinian maps have acknowledged would go to Israel. However, it also advanced planning for another 8,000 units in other parts of the West Bank where the Palestinians hope to establish a state of their own.

This, he suggested, undercut the talks by helping to convince Abbas that he did not have a serious negotiating partner in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The two sides met face-to-face, with the United States sitting in as a largely silent observer, for the first six months after the talks resumed on July 29, Indyk said.

In the next phase of about two months, the United States negotiated first with Israel and then with the Palestinians on "bridging proposals" to try to bring them closer together.

"During that time ... Abu Mazen (Abbas) shut down," Indyk said, saying Israeli settlement activity as well as uncertainty about who might eventually succeed him were factors.

"He came to the conclusion that he didn't have a reliable partner for the kind of two-state solution that he was looking for and he ... shifted to his legacy and the succession," he said. "He is 79 now. He is weary. He wants to leave office and he is more focused on succession now than on making peace."

(Editing by Paul Tait)

Afghanistan's 'forgotten' poor wince as billions in aid go to badlands

Posted: 08 May 2014 09:10 PM PDT

AAB BAREEK/KABUL Afghanistan (Reuters) - For all the billions of dollars in foreign aid that have poured into Afghanistan over the past 12 years, Sajeda, her head-to-toe burqa covered in dust, sobs that the world has forgotten the poorest of the poor in the largely untroubled north of the country.

A deadly landslide last week exposed the extreme poverty in the remote mountainous area and also highlighted one of the paradoxes of Western aid: the northern region which supported the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 has got significantly less help than the south and east, home of the Taliban militants.

Over the past decade, much of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) funding has been spent in the strongholds of the insurgents as part of Washington's strategy to win the "hearts and minds" of the local population.

"We are the poorest and most unfortunate people of this country and no one pays attention to us. We are forgotten," said Sajeda, who lost 12 members of her family in the landslide that killed hundreds in northern Badakhshan province.

Pointing to simple mud-brick homes that escaped the landslide in the village of Aab Bareek, the 33-year-old screams: "Look at those houses. Are those for the living?"

Time is running out for the mostly Tajik and Uzbek people of Badakhshan, home to the Northern Alliance which helped U.S. forces drive the Taliban from power, to tap international aid. As Western forces wind down operations in Afghanistan, foreign donors are also pulling back.

At the start of the year, U.S. lawmakers halved civilian aid for Afghanistan, reflecting growing reluctance in Congress to continue generous aid levels there, concerns about waste and fraud, and frustration with the Afghan government itself. Other foreign donors are expected to make similar cuts.

Over the past decade, a disproportionate share of U.S. aid, which makes about two-thirds of all development assistance in Afghanistan, has ended up in the southern provinces where it has been used to achieve political and military objectives.

A U.S. official said that between 2009-14 more than 70 percent of USAID spending, amounting to about $4.7 billion, went to the south and east. USAID, the lead agency for development assistance, declined immediate comment.

"For much of the intervention, we know that aid was distorted by military priorities, that is pretty clear," says Matt Waldman, an associate fellow at London think-tank Chatham House. "The trouble is that very often undermines its effectiveness."

WHERE IS THE AID?

Despite the most expensive reconstruction effort ever undertaken in a single country, Afghanistan remains one of the world's poorest states.

The poverty headcount varies significantly between the provinces, from as low as 10 per cent to more than 70 per cent. It is most severe in the northeast, central highlands and parts of the southeast.

Badakhshan stands as one of the poorest: more than 60 percent of the population there lives below the poverty line, according U.N.'s Office Coordination for Humanitarians Affairs, using an index showing it costs $25 a month to buy enough food to survive.

"Nobody has given money to spend on developmental projects. We do not have resources to spend in our district, our province is a remote one and attracts less attention," says Haji Abdul Wadod, governor of the Argo district that includes Aab Bareek.

"The government has done a lot, but the international community has paid less attention."

Badakhshan, once a stopover point on the famed Silk Route, is one of the poorest places on earth. There is just one paved road, dotted with pot-holes, from the provincial capital Faizabad to Kunduz, a city three hours to the west that is connected to Kabul and other parts of the country. Most travel in the province is by horse or donkey.

Reconstruction and relief in Badakhshan has mostly fallen on Germany, along with a handful of small non-governmental organisations, which have built among other things small mini-hydro plants on the slopes of the towering Hindu Kush mountains.

"Not only our villagers but most villagers around Badakhshan are forgotten by the government," says the village leader of Aab Bareek, Haji Azizullah. "We haven't received enough to even buy a box of matches."

Yet, this year the U.S. contribution to the international relief and reconstruction, starting from 2002, will top $100 billion, according to U.S. auditors, known as the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR).

That figure is a fraction of the amount the United States has spent on its military campaign.

Most of the U.S. money earmarked for relief and reconstruction since 2002 has actually gone to security, leaving just over $26 billion to governance and development, and nearly $3 billion for humanitarian aid, SIGAR says.

A report by the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations in 2011 said the United States was focused on short-term stabilisation projects in the south and east in a bid to win "hearts and minds" instead tackling longer term development projects.

Once the most violent city in Afghanistan, the security of Kandahar city in the south has improved significantly, and there have been noticeable improvements to roads, as well as new municipal buildings, schools and health clinics. However, millions of dollars have been skimmed by corrupt contractors and officials.

Multi-million power projects in Kandahar and Helmand, both funded by USAID and both strongholds of the Taliban, have been delayed for years due to issues with contractors.

The irony that most of Washington's aid has ended up in the 'badlands' of the south and east is not lost on the village leader of the landslide-stricken Aab Bareek village.

"They only invest in places where there are insurgents," complains Azizullah, the village leader. "After something is built the militants then come back in a day, or month, and destroy it."

(Additional reporting by Hamid Shalizi in Kabul; Writing by Jeremy Laurence; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)

Thai protesters rally to 'sweep' away Thaksin regime

Posted: 08 May 2014 09:00 PM PDT

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thousands of royalist protesters fanned out across Thailand's capital on Friday to try to bring down a caretaker government after a court threw Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra out of office and an anti-graft agency indicted her for negligence.

The interim government is hoping to organise a July 20 election that it would probably win, but the protesters want the government out, the election postponed and reforms to end the influence of Yingluck's brother, former premier Thaksin Shinawatra.

Protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban, speaking to supporters in a city park, urged them to rally outside parliament, the prime minister's offices and five television stations to prevent them being used by the government.

"We will sweep the debris of the Thaksin regime out of the country," said Suthep, a former deputy premier in a government run by the pro-establishment Democrat party.

Thaksin is vilified by his enemies as a corrupt crony capitalist. But he won the unswerving loyalty of legions of rural and urban poor with populist polices when he was prime minister from 2001 until he was ousted in a 2006 coup.

He lives in exile to avoid a 2008 jail sentence for abuse of power but has been the guiding hand behind his sister's government.

Tens of thousands of his "red shirt" supporters, angered by Yingluck's ousting, are also on their way to Bangkok for a rally on Saturday. They are clinging to the hope that the interim government will win the July election and bring the Shinawatras' party back to power.

The prospect of rival protesters in the capital over the weekend has raised fears of trouble. Both sides have armed activists in their ranks.

Twenty-five people have been killed since the anti-government protests began in November and more turmoil could further unsettle Southeast Asia's second-largest economy.

POPULIST POLICIES

Thailand is already teetering on the brink of recession amid weak exports, a year-long slump in industrial output and a drop in tourism, presided over by a caretaker government with curtailed powers. Consumer confidence fell to its lowest level in more than 12 years in April as the crisis took its toll. [ID:nL3N0NO1KN]

The anti-graft agency indicted Yingluck for negligence on Thursday - a day after the Constitutional Court threw her out of office - in connection with a rice-subsidy scheme under which the state paid farmers way above market prices for their crops.

The scheme, a flagship policy of Yingluck's administration, was aimed at helping her rural supporters. But the government could not sell much of the rice it quickly stockpiled and was unable to pay many farmers.

"Thaksin's lackeys have exploited populist policies to win over voters before betraying them," Suthep told his supporters late on Thursday. "The rice scheme is a clear example of this."

If Yingluck is found guilty of negligence by the Senate, she could be banned from politics for five years. Several other members of the family and about 150 of Thaksin's other political allies have been banned for five-year terms since 2007.

Yingluck dissolved parliament in December and called a snap election but the main opposition party boycotted it and anti-government activists disrupted it so much it was declared void.

Yingluck and the Election Commission agreed last week a new ballot should be held on July 20, but the date has not been formally approved.

Thaksin or his loyalists have won every election since 2001.

The anti-government protesters say Thaksin buys elections. They want to change the electoral rules before new polls to try to stop his party winning again.

(Writing by Robert Birsel; Editing by Alan Raybould and Raju Gopalakrishnan)

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: Entertainment: TV & Radio

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Mean business: 'Million Dollar Listing' heads to New York

Posted: 07 May 2014 09:00 AM PDT

Reality TV series Million Dollar Listing New York puts the 'real' in real estate.

Behind their carefully pressed suits, neatly combed pompadours and flashing white grin, the real estate world and its brokers are a gritty, cut-throat bunch – or at least that's what it seems in the pilot of Million Dollar Listing New York.

A spin-off of the successful Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles (spanning six seasons and counting), the reality TV series captures the day-to-day life of three property agents – Fredrik Eklund, Michael Lorber and Ryan Serhant in New York – each boasting a long list of high-profile, upscale clientele.

In a scene in the pilot, Eklund enters a restaurant and "bumps" into Serhant who is meeting a client. Immediately, the claws are out, with both brokers engaging in a balancing act of discrediting their opponent's capabilities and upholding their own in front of the client.

At one point, Serhant lets slip Eklund's former career path – an adult film actor – bringing the conversation to an awkward pause.

"I was a starving actor and a good friend of mine suggested I try real estate. I started at one of the worst times in real estate, but New York City is one of the only cities in the world where the market will always survive a financial crisis," Serhant shared with Star2 in an e-mail interview on his foray into real estate some time during the 2008 global financial crisis.

He recalled the moment he closed his first deal: "I was renting apartments when I first started and when I got my first commission, it was only a few hundred dollars but it lit a fire in me and motivated me to do more."

The 29-year-old has definitely come a long way since then, stating he had once closed a deal worth nearly US$1bil (RM3.25bil).

After the encouragement of a CEO in his real estate firm, Serhant auditioned for Million Dollar Listing New York and needless to say, booked the job.

He believes the show stands out from the other spin-offs (a Miami edition was just announced) because the stakes are much higher: "It is the most competitive market in the world. There are hundreds of thousands of brokers and agents competing for one listing on a small island that is only 22 sq mi (57 sq km)."

As a result, there's no shortage of drama and tension much like the aforementioned tug of war involving Serhant and Eklund (and a buyer in between) at the restaurant.

"We have a very competitive relationship but we respect each other as businessmen. I guess you can call it a love/hate relationship.

"Fredrik likes to play dirty and I do not. He is not really fun to be around and I have to watch my back sure," Serhant spoke of his co-star.

Meanwhile, he admitted to not knowing Lorber very well but described him as a "good guy, but he is also very competitive."

The show highlights other realities of the job which sometimes involves going beyond his field of expertise including ... marriage counselling? (In an upcoming episode, Serhant has a hard time finding an apartment for a picky couple.)

"I find myself in many different scenarios in this job. At the end of the day, my main priority is to nourish my relationships and I will do whatever I have to do to achieve that."

Though his real estate career has progressed in leaps and bounds, the once "starving actor" is still determined to break into showbiz. Serhant will be starring in an upcoming film, While We're Young, opposite Ben Stiller, Amanda Seyfried and Naomi Watts.

"I can't talk about the role right now but I can say that working with (director) Noah Baumbach and his amazing cast was truly a dream come true," he shared.

Asked about the ideal abode for this property agent, Serhant responded: "My dream home would be an architecturally significant penthouse apartment, modern in design, over 5,000 sq ft (465 sqm) and located on Central Park in New York City."

Million Dollar Listing New York premieres tonight at 9pm on Life Inspired (Astro Ch 728).

K-Pop Culture: Alien woes, new heartthrob alert and more

Posted: 07 May 2014 09:00 AM PDT

What's happening in the world of K-Pop and K-Drama.

A new Indonesian TV drama called Kau Yang Berasal Dari Bintang is allegedly a plagiarised version of Korean hit My Love From The Star, which stars Kim Soo-hyun.

SBS TV reportedly said that it had not given the legal publication rights to the Indonesian drama, which is being aired on the Indonesian television network RCTI.

The drama gained a lot of attention for having an extremely similar plotline and characters as its Korean counterpart, famed for portraying the love between a female movie star and a handsome alien who came to earth 400 years ago.

Heartthrob alert

Ji Chang-wook

The K-realm has a new heartbreaker and his name is Ji Chang-wook (pic). Last seen in Empress Ki with Ha Ji-Won, the Korean actor is laying the groundwork for widening his presence in Asia, benchmarking the hallyu-star formula already demonstrated by Kim Soo-hyun and Lee Min-ho.

Ji's popularity has been rising on the back of his role on Empress Ki, which drew up a stunning 28.7% viewer rating in the 51st and final episode at the end of April.

In the second half of this year, Ji will be visiting 10 Asian countries, including China, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Indonesia as part of the drama's overseas promotions.

Previously, Ji's international activities were largely kept to Japan, where he starred in musicals The Three Musketeers and The Days.

lee jong-suk

Doctor on diet

If you think actor Lee Jong-suk (pic) is too skinny for his own good, think again: the I Can Hear Your Voice star made a decision to shed even more weight to add to the authenticity of his North Korean scenes in SBS TV's new drama, Doctor Stranger.

"I know I am pretty skinny, but I still tried to lose extra weight for the part until my face got all bony," Lee said. The recently premiered Doctor Stranger is set in a famous hospital, and has Lee playing a genius chest surgeon who flees from North Korea, where he was brought to after being kidnapped as a child.

Choi Si-won of K-pop boyband Super Junior

Tops on Twitter

Choi Si-won (pic right), a member of the K-pop group Super Junior, recently broke the record for having the most number of Twitter followers among Korean celebrities; as of May 1 Choi had over four million followers, bypassing the likes of Psy, Big Bang's G-Dragon and Miss A's Bae Suzy.

Choi is known to write daily status updates on Twitter and often shares a variety of photos of him posing with A-list celebrities such as movie director Steven Spielberg, designer Karl Lagerfeld and actor Jackie Chan.

Following closely behind in the Twitter numbers is another member from the group, Donghae, who reportedly has 3.9 million followers.

Kim Jae-joong

Military duty

Fans of JYJ member and actor Kim Jae-joong (pic above) will be sad to see him go – the K-pop star recently admitted that the MBC TV show Triangle would most likely be his last show before military enlistment. His break from the industry will possibly stretch till 2017.

In Triangle, Kim co-stars with Z:EA's Im Si-wan to play long-lost brothers separated as children by unfortunate circumstances. Kim's character Heo Young-dal takes to the streets as a petty thug while his younger sibling Yoon Yang-ha, played by Im, is adopted into a chaebol household to be groomed as the heir to a casino empire.

Their ill-fated paths converge on casino territory where both, unaware of their blood ties, fall for dealer Oh Jung-hee, played by actress Baek Jin-hee, in what promises to become a high-stakes, soap-operatic love triangle. – The Korea Herald/Asia News Network

Move over, Hollywood: Today's TV stars are so much more in vogue

Posted: 07 May 2014 09:00 AM PDT

These days, television is the on-screen catwalk that really matters.

Fashion has moved with the times, and Hollywood glamour is getting left behind. Television is the on-screen catwalk that really matters. The pomp and bombast of silver-screen style – Scarlett O'Hara's Gone With The Wind ballgown, Ursula Andress's belted Bond-girl bikini – feel as overblown as a 1990s mobile phone. Saturday nights are spent on the sofa, watching a character wearing the same sweater she wore last week.

The new generation of screen goddesses aren't goddesses at all, but real women. It is probably significant that almost all the small-screen style icons who matter are in complicated, multi-episode programmes, rather than in one-off dramas.

Their lives have ups and downs and contradictions. They have talents; they have faults. They have love lives in which the narrative loops well beyond "fall in love, negotiate adorable/dramatic mishap, get married, the end" – and their wardrobes reflect this.

The world didn't fall in love with Sarah Lund's Faroe Islands jumper in (the hit Danish TV series) The Killing the first time she wore it. Only when it became a recurring theme – a part of the character – did it develop a cult following.

Clothes maketh the woman: Sofie Grabol who plays Sarah Lund in the Danish version of The Killing explains that the jumper best describes her character. 'It tells of a person who doesn¿t use her sexuality - that¿s a big point. Lund¿s so sure of herself, she doesn¿t have to wear a suit.¿

Sofie Grabol who plays Sarah Lund in the Danish version of The Killing explains that the jumper best describes her character. The video below is a fan-made parody of just how much Sarah loves the jumper...

As the actor who plays her, Sofie Grabol, explained, the jumper is "perfect because it tells so many stories. It tells of a person who doesn't use her sexuality – that's a big point. Lund's so sure of herself, she doesn't have to wear a suit."

In less than two decades, the fashion industry has been transformed beyond all recognition by new technology. Fifteen years ago, designer catwalk shows were open only to a couple of hundred people, and all images were kept under tight central control.

Now, by contrast, shows are livestreamed with the aim of reaching a global audience immediately. (Burberry, with its Tweetwalk, made it a point of pride that the looks debuted on Twitter a few seconds before they appeared on the catwalk; those watching on their laptops had the news before the front row did.)

The price-tag hierarchy of fashion has also been upended by the phenomenon of the designer-to-high-street collaboration. H&M has taken the mass appetite for fashion and used it to persuade Karl Lagerfeld, Stella McCartney, Martin Margiela and Isabel Marant to dance to its tune. Designers are now expected to serve the new, informed fashion consumer.

Any online retailer finding that, say, "jumpsuit" is becoming a popular search term is now in the habit of telling designers that they need to make more jumpsuits.

Hollywood style has displayed a fatal reluctance to move with the times. It is striking how often "old-school glamour" is referenced in descriptions of red-carpet dressing.

Today, we like our icons a little more real. The style crush on Carrie Mathison in Homeland, played by Claire Danes, or on Stella Gibson in The Fall, played by Gillian Anderson, has quite a bit in common with our running obsession with the wardrobes of Michelle Obama and the Duchess of Cambridge. (Note, for instance, how the duchess "recycling" a dress for a second outing is a news story that gets more hits, these days, than her wearing a new one.)

Small-screen style icons capture our imagination because clothes are part of character. These wardrobes are about a sense of self, not about adhering to trends. Real style is intimate, psychological and complex - just like good TV. – Guardian News & Media

The Guardian writers choose their small-screen crush

Carrie Mathison, Homeland

American Vogue loves to put serene, beautiful actresses on its cover; crotchety-faced, nervous-wreck federal agents, not so much. Interesting, then, that when Annie Leibovitz photographed Claire Danes last summer, it was not the sunshine-blond, movie-star-and-mum version of Danes who gazed out from the newsstands, but Carrie Mathison, her Homeland character.

Her gaberdine and leather Burberry trench was tightly buttoned, the collar turned up incongruously against the August weather; her hands were thrust into the pockets, her gaze cool and level.

In one of the pictures inside, Danes was in a surveillance van, wearing a knee-length Victoria Beckham sheath dress accessorised with bulky headphones and trademark crossed-arm pose.

Claire Danes in Homeland is all about pantsuits and shoulder bags.

Similarly, when Danes starred in a fashion shoot for the New York Times's magazine, she was wearing Comme des Garcons and Valentino, but still recognisably Carrie, with that shiny, natural hair, posing against the backdrop of Tel Aviv.

Carrie wears trouser suits, macs, shoulder bags: A commuter-train uniform chosen for its practicality and anonymity. The level of repeat in her wardrobe has a heartening reality. She wears the same pieces again and again and again, as a working woman in her position would. She looks fantastically sexy in black leather jacket and grey cotton marl T-shirt.

She has a grey trouser suit that does nothing for her, and looks as if the real Carrie might have bought it on a distracted shopping spree – a marvellous, ego-less touch from the wardrobe designer. She is not using fashion to armour herself against the world, as many of us do, and there is a lack of artifice that lends her an emotional vulnerability. The dark colours and lack of artistry leave the spotlight on her face, which is marvellous: the suspicious, twitchy eyes, the epic crying, the manic, toothy smiles. – Jess Cartner-Morley

Peggy Olson, Mad Men

Peggy Olson's (Elizabeth Moss), wardrobe has become less fussy, more focused.

Peggy Olson, Mad Men

At first it almost hurts to look at Peggy (Elisabeth Moss) – and not in the good way it hurt (and still does) to look at Don and Joan. A tight ponytail and tiny, fearful fringe topped off a motley collection of overly fussy blouses tucked unflatteringly into frumpy skirts in pukesome shades of green and beige.

Everything screamed social and sexual immaturity and vulnerability, which, of course, attracted the disgusting Pete Campbell to her as blood attracts sharks. This in turn led to an interlude of secret maternity wear, followed by secret baby and secret adoption.

A girl grows up fast under these conditions, and since then Peggy's wardrobe has – like the woman herself – become less fussy, more focused, more put-together. Ponytail and separates have gone out, a bob and dresses have come in.

But it is still clearly armour. Necks are high, patterns sober, hemlines sensible, at least for the 1960s. – Lucy Mangan

Jane Tennison, Prime Suspect

What I most love about DCI Jane Tennison's clothes is that she doesn't really give a damn about them. Yes, she looks chic and stylish in her simple blouses and plain tailoring (it's hard to make Helen Mirren look bad, in all honesty), but her image is largely unimportant to her.

Jane Tennison, Prime Suspect

Even in simple blouses and plain tailoring, Jane Tennison (Helen Mirren) looks chic.

Sometimes we see Tennison stir after a late night of heavy drinking and obsessing over evidence, having slept in her crumpled workwear. And even when she's on top of her game, nothing is overdone; every last detail feels authentic. Her shoes are always sensible courts, never dominatrix heels. She goes for soft tailoring, not power suits with sharp angles and jumbo shoulder pads.

Her shirts look stylish, but generic and robust enough to deal with the odd yolk stain at post-briefing fry-ups with the lads from the station. Nothing is perfect, everything is functional, ticking all the right boxes, while her attention remains firmly on the job at hand. The sheer ordinariness of her wardrobe is exactly what makes DCI Tennison's such an unforgettable look. – Sali Hughes

House Of Cards

Claire Underwood

Claire Underwood, House Of Cards

Say what you like about Claire Underwood, the blond, terrifying one played by Robin Wright in House Of Cards: her wardrobe is cold, hard perfection. As one half of a Washington DC power couple, Underwood knows that perception is everything, and dresses accordingly.

At work, she is pristine in form-fitting shift dresses, crisp shirts, mannish trousers, tailored overcoats and expensive accessories: Louboutins, perhaps, or an Yves Saint Laurent tote.

By night, at the Capitol Hill galas where she publicly swaps longing looks and urbane witticisms with her husband, she binds herself into chic, corseted gowns and strapless cocktail dresses. Whatever the occasion, her palette is as controlled as her small talk: black, navy, charcoal, pewter, cream, white. Every outfit shows off her tanned, gym-toned biceps and lithe, bare legs (hosiery is for wimps). – Hannah Marriott

Stella Gibson (Gillian Anderson) loves power blouses.

Stella Gibson, The Fall

I always suspected that power blouses were unwearable by mortals like me, who live in the same world as bra straps, spaghetti bolognese and an ironing deficit. Watching Gillian Anderson coolly cut a swath through BBC crime drama The Fall in a succession of the glorious things left me wholly convinced.

Those silken, cream-coloured blouses were part of that stillness, yet they almost revealed her flesh; a hint of woman in a man's world.

These are blouses that make a subtle joke about their own femininity; associated with Tory wives who pretend to be ladylike while actually wearing the trousers, or royal women who have to look pretty for the camera while commanding with a will of steel.

In fact, a plain silk blouse is one of the sexiest things you can put on, if you're not really meant to be wearing clothes that make people look at you. I dread to think how much you have to spend on one that sits right on the body like Gibson's, effortless and breezy as expensive milk. – Sophie Heawood

Related story:

Bring on the wow: Say hello to fashion-conscious TV characters

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Gerard Butler drops out of 'Point Break' reboot; let's start re-casting

Posted: 08 May 2014 01:25 AM PDT

As the search for his replacement begins, check out our suggestions.

Gerard Butler is said to have dropped out of the highly-anticipated Point Break remake, citing "creative differences" and "scheduling conflict" as part of the reasons.

Butler was set to star as Bodhi, the surfer-turned-bank robber played by Patrick Swayze in the original 1991 hit, with Luke Bracey as undercover FBI agent Johnny Utah, originally played by Keanu Reeves.

The original Point Break with Keanu Reeves (left) and the late Patrick Swayze.

The reboot is helmed by director Ericson Core from a script by Kurt Wimmer, and is set for a 2015 release.

We're not sure if the studio or director has anyone in mind to replace Butler, but here are our top choices (and a few we hope will NOT be chosen).

Josh Holloway is a natural on the beach...  

Alex O'Loughlin is also used to being on the beach, but we're not sure if he can carry off playing someone named 'Bodhi' though. 

Josh Lucas, anyone?

Matthew McConaughey classic would've been perfect at Bodhi but Matthew McConaughey 2.0, the one who keeps winning awards, may no longer fit the bill. Still... THAT HAIR.

Apparently, Robert Downey Jr is starting to get sick of playing Tony Stark. Will he take on this challenge?  

Robert Pattinson? .... Just kidding.

Shia LaBeouf = NEVER. 

Heh. Just because.

'The Quiet Ones' slowly creeps up on you

Posted: 07 May 2014 09:00 AM PDT

The movie features a doll that you'd not want to cuddle and play with.

Olivia Cooke is doing just fine, though the actress didn't look it in The Quiet Ones.

Ah, the power of movie magic. The Bates Motel star plays Jane Harper, a disturbed young woman who may be possessed by a doll named Evey (short for "Evil"– get it?).

Jane is the subject of "The Experiment" conducted by an unorthodox Oxford University professor played by ex-Mad Men star Jared Harris, who may or may not be a phony. The Quiet Ones is said to be based on actual events – according to production notes, a 1972 Canadian study that attempted to prove that supernatural events are just a state of mind.

"My character had to look dirty, gaunt, hollow, pale and sickly," says Cooke. "It was two hours in the make-up chair just to get my hair that greasy. Jane had to be as 3D as possible."

Harris was impressed by his co-star.

"That was a tough part to play, very draining," he explains. "You have to be in such a dark place all the time – bandaged up, suicidal. After a while, that stuff starts to get you down."

That said, everyone in the cast and crew thought the role of Jane was a star-making opportunity.

"The movie wouldn't work if the absolutely right person wasn't in that spot," Harris says of the 20-year-old doe-eyed brunette. "There was something very special about what she was doing."

As for his character, the 52-year-old London-born actor – screen great Richard Harris' son – relished taking on the randy, chain-smoking Joseph Coupland.

"There are so many layers to him," says Harris, who is also co-starring in an upcoming Poltergeist remake.

"You get to take a ride, because he changes so much throughout the movie. The structure of the story and the way it approached the subject of the supernatural is what really appealed to me. It was juicy!"

Was Coupland based on anyone in particular?

"I think a bit, yes," he admits. "I went to a Catholic boarding school from the age of seven. It was run by Benedictine monks, and there were certainly some interesting teachers there. But at the end of the day, even if you're playing a semi-historical figure, it has to come from an exercise in imagination."

All those cigarettes – not the healthiest prop.

"I think they were an excuse for the cinematographer to create that 1970s-period feel," Harris says, adding, "You could also see how my character was handling a certain level of anxiety, if you like."

Speaking of anxiety, if you live in a house with dolls around, you may want to do a bit of housecleaning after you've seen this flick.

"What is it about dolls? They're babies, which are so innocent but have lifeless eyes," muses Cooke, who remembers being creeped out by a Furby while growing up in Manchester, England.

"Wherever you go, those eyes follow you about the room." — The Miami Herald/McClatchy-Tribune Information Services

> The Quiet Ones is playing in cinemas nationwide.

All grown up: Zac Efron is bad to the bone in 'Bad Neighbours'

Posted: 07 May 2014 09:00 AM PDT

Zac Efron has come a long way since playing teenage heartthrob Troy Bolton in High School Musical.

Come October, Zac Efron will be celebrating his 27th birthday, making it eight years (and 14 other film projects) since his debut in High School Musical.

In that time, Efron has become far removed from the persona we first encountered in the hit Disney musical, which brought him fame and fortune.

His image took a turn when he entered rehab for alcohol and drug addiction late last year; and just last month he was involved in a tussle with a homeless man, resulting in the actor getting hit in the face.

A recent cover story in The Hollywood Reporter reveals that Efron is keen to concentrate on his career by working hard and leading a more "low-key" lifestyle; he'll just keep the bad boy image for the big-screen.

This is exactly what he does in his latest film, Bad Neighbours. In it he plays Teddy Sanders, a college student, who together with his frat brothers move into a quiet neighbourhood and starts all kinds of trouble, especially for his next-door neighbour Mac and Kelly Radner (Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne).

In an interview transcript provided by United International Pictures, Efron talks about the role.

What made you want to do this film?

Seth Rogen and (director) Nicholas Stoller got in touch with me about the project, and I immediately said yes. It's a dream come true. If I had a fear, it was that Teddy would be a one-dimensional character.

There was a potential for the portrayal of fraternity guys to be that way since they've got a bad reputation, especially with parents. They, of course, do pretty bad things like partying hard, but at the core, the fraternity is built on a brotherhood, a bond.

It's a system of breaking you down to build you up and taking you out of being so self-centred and worrying about yourself and caring for the group as a whole. You learn to work together and everyone helps each other.

Teddy is sort of a leader in that way. I wasn't involved in a fraternity, but I know guys who were. While they've all been as crazy as Teddy in some ways, they're also great guys. They'd take a bullet for you.

The moments that I am really grateful for in the film were the ones where we were able to show Teddy's humanity because he does care about his brothers.

Were those party scenes in the film fun to shoot?

On set, everything was very professional. We would utilise every single element of the party. As soon as we cut, it was down to business with me working on the character and Seth producing. There was a lot to get done and a lot of moving parts, so it was strange. It was a really exciting party that was very tense!

It seems that improvisation played a big part in the film. How much input did you get when shooting a scene, such as the one where Teddy and Pete (Dave Franco) riff off about "bros before hoes?"

Some of the lines were strung together for that particular scene in the film. I don't think we got all of them consecutively like that, but most of that scene was straight improvisation. Some of it didn't even make sense.

We were literally trying to come up with them on the fly. If I ever started to struggle, Dave would whisper something to me and I'd finish it and vice versa.

Then, out of nowhere, Nick or Seth would yell one line from off camera and we'd start laughing.

There's no ego; if you're given something great, you take it.

You get to fight Seth Rogen in the movie, what was that like?

It really was fun to shoot that fight scene. I was looking forward to it. Since we shot that towards the end of the movie, I think we were ready for it. It was all comedic fighting and never that serious. There were some fun stunts as well.

Was it easy finding a rhythm with Seth Rogen?

It was natural working with Seth. I really liked that the relationship evolves because they could have been best friends in another life. I think they're very similar in a lot of ways.

Teddy lives in fear that he'll never really have what Mac has with his family and is looking at the peak of his life. Mac sees all the potential in the world in Teddy, so it's a fun dynamic.

The buddy moments are fun, too. All of the scenes where we're happy together were improvised. We just sat on a couch and talked about things.

What was the most challenging thing to shoot?

Some of the fight scenes with Dave Franco were really difficult. In one scene, it was just supposed to be a simple punch, but when I connected with the wall, I got a boxer's fracture in my hand.

It was the first take, so we still had several hours of shooting to get through. If anyone had found out about my hand, it would have stopped filming for the day, so I didn't tell anybody. We kept filming even though I knew my hand was broken.

Nick was the first one to notice it and asked me if there was something wrong with my hand. By then, it was swollen like a grapefruit. I got surgery that night. That was a hard day!

> Bad Neighbours opens in cinemas today.

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Gerard Butler drops out of 'Point Break' reboot; let's start re-casting

Posted: 08 May 2014 01:25 AM PDT

As the search for his replacement begins, check out our suggestions.

Gerard Butler is said to have dropped out of the highly-anticipated Point Break remake, citing "creative differences" and "scheduling conflict" as part of the reasons.

Butler was set to star as Bodhi, the surfer-turned-bank robber played by Patrick Swayze in the original 1991 hit, with Luke Bracey as undercover FBI agent Johnny Utah, originally played by Keanu Reeves.

The original Point Break with Keanu Reeves (left) and the late Patrick Swayze.

The reboot is helmed by director Ericson Core from a script by Kurt Wimmer, and is set for a 2015 release.

We're not sure if the studio or director has anyone in mind to replace Butler, but here are our top choices (and a few we hope will NOT be chosen).

Josh Holloway is a natural on the beach...  

Alex O'Loughlin is also used to being on the beach, but we're not sure if he can carry off playing someone named 'Bodhi' though. 

Josh Lucas, anyone?

Matthew McConaughey classic would've been perfect at Bodhi but Matthew McConaughey 2.0, the one who keeps winning awards, may no longer fit the bill. Still... THAT HAIR.

Apparently, Robert Downey Jr is starting to get sick of playing Tony Stark. Will he take on this challenge?  

Robert Pattinson? .... Just kidding.

Shia LaBeouf = NEVER. 

Heh. Just because.

'The Quiet Ones' slowly creeps up on you

Posted: 07 May 2014 09:00 AM PDT

The movie features a doll that you'd not want to cuddle and play with.

Olivia Cooke is doing just fine, though the actress didn't look it in The Quiet Ones.

Ah, the power of movie magic. The Bates Motel star plays Jane Harper, a disturbed young woman who may be possessed by a doll named Evey (short for "Evil"– get it?).

Jane is the subject of "The Experiment" conducted by an unorthodox Oxford University professor played by ex-Mad Men star Jared Harris, who may or may not be a phony. The Quiet Ones is said to be based on actual events – according to production notes, a 1972 Canadian study that attempted to prove that supernatural events are just a state of mind.

"My character had to look dirty, gaunt, hollow, pale and sickly," says Cooke. "It was two hours in the make-up chair just to get my hair that greasy. Jane had to be as 3D as possible."

Harris was impressed by his co-star.

"That was a tough part to play, very draining," he explains. "You have to be in such a dark place all the time – bandaged up, suicidal. After a while, that stuff starts to get you down."

That said, everyone in the cast and crew thought the role of Jane was a star-making opportunity.

"The movie wouldn't work if the absolutely right person wasn't in that spot," Harris says of the 20-year-old doe-eyed brunette. "There was something very special about what she was doing."

As for his character, the 52-year-old London-born actor – screen great Richard Harris' son – relished taking on the randy, chain-smoking Joseph Coupland.

"There are so many layers to him," says Harris, who is also co-starring in an upcoming Poltergeist remake.

"You get to take a ride, because he changes so much throughout the movie. The structure of the story and the way it approached the subject of the supernatural is what really appealed to me. It was juicy!"

Was Coupland based on anyone in particular?

"I think a bit, yes," he admits. "I went to a Catholic boarding school from the age of seven. It was run by Benedictine monks, and there were certainly some interesting teachers there. But at the end of the day, even if you're playing a semi-historical figure, it has to come from an exercise in imagination."

All those cigarettes – not the healthiest prop.

"I think they were an excuse for the cinematographer to create that 1970s-period feel," Harris says, adding, "You could also see how my character was handling a certain level of anxiety, if you like."

Speaking of anxiety, if you live in a house with dolls around, you may want to do a bit of housecleaning after you've seen this flick.

"What is it about dolls? They're babies, which are so innocent but have lifeless eyes," muses Cooke, who remembers being creeped out by a Furby while growing up in Manchester, England.

"Wherever you go, those eyes follow you about the room." — The Miami Herald/McClatchy-Tribune Information Services

> The Quiet Ones is playing in cinemas nationwide.

All grown up: Zac Efron is bad to the bone in 'Bad Neighbours'

Posted: 07 May 2014 09:00 AM PDT

Zac Efron has come a long way since playing teenage heartthrob Troy Bolton in High School Musical.

Come October, Zac Efron will be celebrating his 27th birthday, making it eight years (and 14 other film projects) since his debut in High School Musical.

In that time, Efron has become far removed from the persona we first encountered in the hit Disney musical, which brought him fame and fortune.

His image took a turn when he entered rehab for alcohol and drug addiction late last year; and just last month he was involved in a tussle with a homeless man, resulting in the actor getting hit in the face.

A recent cover story in The Hollywood Reporter reveals that Efron is keen to concentrate on his career by working hard and leading a more "low-key" lifestyle; he'll just keep the bad boy image for the big-screen.

This is exactly what he does in his latest film, Bad Neighbours. In it he plays Teddy Sanders, a college student, who together with his frat brothers move into a quiet neighbourhood and starts all kinds of trouble, especially for his next-door neighbour Mac and Kelly Radner (Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne).

In an interview transcript provided by United International Pictures, Efron talks about the role.

What made you want to do this film?

Seth Rogen and (director) Nicholas Stoller got in touch with me about the project, and I immediately said yes. It's a dream come true. If I had a fear, it was that Teddy would be a one-dimensional character.

There was a potential for the portrayal of fraternity guys to be that way since they've got a bad reputation, especially with parents. They, of course, do pretty bad things like partying hard, but at the core, the fraternity is built on a brotherhood, a bond.

It's a system of breaking you down to build you up and taking you out of being so self-centred and worrying about yourself and caring for the group as a whole. You learn to work together and everyone helps each other.

Teddy is sort of a leader in that way. I wasn't involved in a fraternity, but I know guys who were. While they've all been as crazy as Teddy in some ways, they're also great guys. They'd take a bullet for you.

The moments that I am really grateful for in the film were the ones where we were able to show Teddy's humanity because he does care about his brothers.

Were those party scenes in the film fun to shoot?

On set, everything was very professional. We would utilise every single element of the party. As soon as we cut, it was down to business with me working on the character and Seth producing. There was a lot to get done and a lot of moving parts, so it was strange. It was a really exciting party that was very tense!

It seems that improvisation played a big part in the film. How much input did you get when shooting a scene, such as the one where Teddy and Pete (Dave Franco) riff off about "bros before hoes?"

Some of the lines were strung together for that particular scene in the film. I don't think we got all of them consecutively like that, but most of that scene was straight improvisation. Some of it didn't even make sense.

We were literally trying to come up with them on the fly. If I ever started to struggle, Dave would whisper something to me and I'd finish it and vice versa.

Then, out of nowhere, Nick or Seth would yell one line from off camera and we'd start laughing.

There's no ego; if you're given something great, you take it.

You get to fight Seth Rogen in the movie, what was that like?

It really was fun to shoot that fight scene. I was looking forward to it. Since we shot that towards the end of the movie, I think we were ready for it. It was all comedic fighting and never that serious. There were some fun stunts as well.

Was it easy finding a rhythm with Seth Rogen?

It was natural working with Seth. I really liked that the relationship evolves because they could have been best friends in another life. I think they're very similar in a lot of ways.

Teddy lives in fear that he'll never really have what Mac has with his family and is looking at the peak of his life. Mac sees all the potential in the world in Teddy, so it's a fun dynamic.

The buddy moments are fun, too. All of the scenes where we're happy together were improvised. We just sat on a couch and talked about things.

What was the most challenging thing to shoot?

Some of the fight scenes with Dave Franco were really difficult. In one scene, it was just supposed to be a simple punch, but when I connected with the wall, I got a boxer's fracture in my hand.

It was the first take, so we still had several hours of shooting to get through. If anyone had found out about my hand, it would have stopped filming for the day, so I didn't tell anybody. We kept filming even though I knew my hand was broken.

Nick was the first one to notice it and asked me if there was something wrong with my hand. By then, it was swollen like a grapefruit. I got surgery that night. That was a hard day!

> Bad Neighbours opens in cinemas today.

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

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IGB Corp JV invests RM314m in London property

Posted: 08 May 2014 07:07 PM PDT

KUALA LUMPUR: IGB Corporation Bhd's 50:50 joint venture company Black Pearl Ltd is buying Blackfriars Ltd, which owns property in southwest London.

IGB said on Friday, its unit Verokey Sdn Bhd would finance its 50% investment in Blackfriars by advancing up to £57.131mil (RM314.79mil) to Black Pearl as part payment.

"It is the JV's intention to submit and obtain amendments to the current planning permission for the property and as such, no estimated gross development value and total development revenue for the property may be ascertained at this juncture," it said.

Verokey owns 50% of Black Pearl and the other 50% stake is owned by Tower Ray Ltd.

IGB said it would fund the development cost of the property by bank borrowings in the UK.

On Thursday, Black Pearl had entered into a share purchase agreement with Panthermane Ltd and Ostingale Ltd to buy Blackfairs.

IGB said Black Pearl was buying 10,000 shares of £1 each in Blackfriars, representing 100% of paid-up of Blackfriars, from the sellers, for £1.

Black Pearl would also settle the £65mil which was the outstanding sum owed by the sellers to the National Asset Management Agency for the latter to release its security over the property.

Black Pearl would also assume £49.26mil in loans from Panthermane to Blackfriars.

Cautious start for KLCI as UMW, Genting slip

Posted: 08 May 2014 06:33 PM PDT

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's FBM KLCI fell in early Friday trade as investors stayed on the sidelines, in line with the key regional markets due to external worries.

At 9.10am, the FBM KLCI was down 2.94 points to 1,859.90. Turnover was 133.32 million shares valued at RM47.56mil. There were 131 gainers, 97 losers and 182 counters unchanged.

Reuters reported Asian shares got off to a lacklustre start on Friday after a flat performance on Wall Street, with a tense situation in Ukraine adding to the cautious mood ahead of China inflation data later in the day.

JF Apex Research, in its market outlook, said Asian stocks would likely resume their downtrend as investors brace for the latest round of Chinese inflation data.

"We expect the KLCI to continue hovering below its resistance of 1,872," it said.

At Bursa, plantations fell the most but in thin trade, as Kluang lost 40 sen to RM3.60 and PPB Group 28 sen to RM16.22.

UMW lost 26 sen to RM10.56 while Genting Bhd shed seven sen to RM9.75 with 100 shares done.

MPHB Capital lost four sen to RM1.90 in active trade after Bank Negara Malaysia did not approve its proposed five sen dividend.

Petronas Gas rose the most, up 42 sen to RM23.42 with 200 shares done. Petronas Dagangan rose 10 sen to RM27.

Public Bank edged up six sen to RM20.10 with 200 shares traded.

Omnicom, Publicis call off proposed US$35b merger

Posted: 08 May 2014 06:13 PM PDT

LONDON/NEW YORK: The proposed US$35bil merger between US-based Omnicom Group Inc and French rival Publicis Groupe SA has been called off as the challenges in forming the world's largest advertising agency proved too immense for the partners.

Presented in July as a merger of equals, the deal began to seriously unwind after Omnicom Chief Executive John Wren expressed doubts about the deal, citing tax complications, during an earnings call in late April.

"The challenges that still remained to be overcome, in addition to the slow pace of progress, created a level of uncertainty detrimental to the interests of both groups and their employees, clients and shareholders," Wren and Publicis CEO Maurice Levy said in a joint statement on Thursday. "We have thus jointly decided to proceed along our independent paths. We, of course, remain competitors, but maintain a great respect for one another."

The deal announced in July was called off over a number of sticking points including the companies' failure to agree on a chief financial officer who would have taken charge of implementing the deal, a source close to Publicis said.

Neither company will pay a termination fee.

Another source familiar with the matter said broader cultural differences between the two companies proved to be too difficult to overcome as tension over leadership and strategy came to a head. The boards of the two companies met on Thusday to unwind the deal, a third source said.

All three sources requested anonymity because they are not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

The merger called for a 50-50 ownership split of the equity in the new company, Publicis Omnicom Group, with Wren and Levy serving as co-CEOs for 30 months from the closing.

One of the sources said that "big egos" were involved.

The crucial choice of CFO, a key position that would determine how the company would operate, hewing either to Publicis' centralized structure or Omnicom's less controlling approach to subsidiaries, had been a particular sticking point as the months dragged on.

As the companies struggled to keep the merger on track they had faced a fight to retain clients and talent.

Wren and Levy, celebrating the deal with champagne toasts in Paris last summer, said it would enable them to better compete with the likes of Google Inc and Facebook Inc which dominate digital advertising, which accounts for nearly a quarter of global marketing spending. - Reuters
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