Will.i.am, of Black Eyed Peas fame, was so inspired by a speech given by White House hopeful Barack Obama that he turned it into a music video entitled Yes We Can, words repeated in a speech the candidate gave in New Hampshire.
The video opens with a black-and-white shot of Will before cutting to a shot of actress Scarlett Johansson, as an acoustic guitar is strummed in the background.
As the song and speech continue, images of Obama are juxtaposed or share the screen with shots of celebrities including basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, jazz great Herbie Hancock, model-turned-actress Amber Valletta and Johansson.
PHOTO: AP
The video ends with the word “hope” morphing into “vote.”
The video and song were made in “a matter of two days,” and can be played or downloaded for free on the Internet.
Actress Kirsten Dunst has become the latest celebrity to enter rehab, a source close to the Spider-Man and Marie Antoinette star said.
Dunst, 25, has checked into the exclusive Cirque Lodge Center in Utah, People reported, the same facility that housed starlet Lindsay Lohan last year and where actress Eva Mendes is currently being treated.
People cited a source as saying that Dunst had entered rehab after the pleas of friends.
“She’s not doing well,” the source says. “People were pushing her to go in there but there was no intervention ... It’s good she’s getting herself help.”
Ex-Beatle Paul McCartney is to pay his former wife Heather Mills US$107 million in the highest divorce settlement Britain has ever seen, according to the British Daily Mail.
The 65-year-old musician had promised his wife the money in return for her silence on their marriage, the paper said referring to sources close to Mills and McCartney.
The two parties had also agreed to share custody of their four-year-old daughter Beatrice, it was said. The little girl was to stay with Mills, while McCartney would be allowed to see his daughter any time and take her home every other weekend.
Despite the record settlement sum for Mills, the total cost of the divorce, including lawyer’s fees, amounted to only 7 percent of McCartney’s fortune, the paper said.
Only a few days ago, British media reported Mills had been planning to reveal embarrassing details from the couple’s marriage during next week’s court hearing if a settlement could not be reached beforehand.
People’s all-star, pre-Grammy concert with Timbaland ended with a resounding crash when the superproducer and rapper delivered a foul-mouthed tirade against the magazine because some of his friends were apparently left outside the venue: “Next time I have one of my homeboys in line, let that (expletive) in!” Timbaland shouted as the event wound down after 2am Saturday, adding that he was a “peoples’ person.” “I don’t like to see my people turned around for some (expletive) magazine ... (expletive) y’all!” After his tirade ended, he walked offstage with music blasting.
People magazine did not have an official comment but a source close to the celebrity weekly said they were perplexed as to why Timbaland was upset and that they considered the event a success.
Mediation talks collapsed between Tim Burton and his ex-girlfriend Lisa Marie, who claims she was cheated out of her rights to assets that the director promised her during their nearly decade-long relationship, attorneys said.
The legal fight is now scheduled to play out before Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Harold Cherness on Aug. 12.
In December 2006, Marie sued Burton, saying he promised her that they would “combine their efforts and earnings and would share equally any and all” accumulated property. The lawsuit also claimed that Burton said he would financially support her for the rest of her life.
According to court papers filed by Burton’s lawyer, the director gave Marie US$5 million to sign a contract releasing him from any further claims to his assets. He maintained that if she wanted to rescind the contract, she was obligated to return the money.
A Superior Court commissioner gave Britney Spears’ father the power to fire the singer’s business manager, according to documents.
Commissioner Reva Goetz also ordered Howard Grossman to turn over “all documents, records and assets relating to Britney Spears” to James Spears, who is the court appointed conservator of his daughter and her estate.
Goetz issued her decision Friday after an emergency closed-door hearing requested a day earlier by James Spears. Grossman showed up at the hearing, but he and others were ordered to leave the courtroom.
Meanwhile, attorneys who have represented Spears in her child custody battle with ex-husband Kevin Federline filed papers to withdraw from that case.
A swimsuit left at a Swedish pool by Australian movie star Nicole Kidman was sold on Saturday at auction to buy cows for poor families in India.
“The swimsuit went to the highest bidder for 16,200 kronor (US$2,500). That’s enough to buy nine cows,” the suit’s previous owner Zlatko Nedanovski, 32, said.
Kidman, a keen swimmer, forgot the suit at a pool she had reserved for her personal use in the southwestern town of Vaenersborg during a 2002 stay in Sweden to shoot Lars von Trier’s Dogville.
Bids for the swimsuit had come from all over the world, Nedanovski said, but it finally went to 49-year-old Bengt Olsen from Trollheattan, Sweden, just south of Vaenersborg.
That US assistance was a model for Taiwan’s spectacular development success was early recognized by policymakers and analysts. In a report to the US Congress for the fiscal year 1962, former President John F. Kennedy noted Taiwan’s “rapid economic growth,” was “producing a substantial net gain in living.” Kennedy had a stake in Taiwan’s achievements and the US’ official development assistance (ODA) in general: In September 1961, his entreaty to make the 1960s a “decade of development,” and an accompanying proposal for dedicated legislation to this end, had been formalized by congressional passage of the Foreign Assistance Act. Two
Despite the intense sunshine, we were hardly breaking a sweat as we cruised along the flat, dedicated bike lane, well protected from the heat by a canopy of trees. The electric assist on the bikes likely made a difference, too. Far removed from the bustle and noise of the Taichung traffic, we admired the serene rural scenery, making our way over rivers, alongside rice paddies and through pear orchards. Our route for the day covered two bike paths that connect in Fengyuan District (豐原) and are best done together. The Hou-Feng Bike Path (后豐鐵馬道) runs southward from Houli District (后里) while the
President William Lai’s (賴清德) March 13 national security speech marked a turning point. He signaled that the government was finally getting serious about a whole-of-society approach to defending the nation. The presidential office summarized his speech succinctly: “President Lai introduced 17 major strategies to respond to five major national security and united front threats Taiwan now faces: China’s threat to national sovereignty, its threats from infiltration and espionage activities targeting Taiwan’s military, its threats aimed at obscuring the national identity of the people of Taiwan, its threats from united front infiltration into Taiwanese society through cross-strait exchanges, and its threats from
March 31 to April 6 On May 13, 1950, National Taiwan University Hospital otolaryngologist Su You-peng (蘇友鵬) was summoned to the director’s office. He thought someone had complained about him practicing the violin at night, but when he entered the room, he knew something was terribly wrong. He saw several burly men who appeared to be government secret agents, and three other resident doctors: internist Hsu Chiang (許強), dermatologist Hu Pao-chen (胡寶珍) and ophthalmologist Hu Hsin-lin (胡鑫麟). They were handcuffed, herded onto two jeeps and taken to the Secrecy Bureau (保密局) for questioning. Su was still in his doctor’s robes at
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