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Catholics slam Britney Spears pix as 'bottom of barrel' stunt

By NANCY DILLON
DAILY NEWS WEST COAST BUREAU CHIEF

Tuesday, October 30th 2007, 2:32 PM

Top of Form

Forgive me, Father, I have sinned! Britney Spears may have to sing a few Hail Marys after these pictures from her new album 'Blackout.'

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LOS ANGELES - Kinky photos of a half-naked Britney Spears perched on a priest's lap and leaning seductively against a church confessional sparked outrage among Catholic leaders.

At least one said the saucy snapshots, which grace the singer's thumping new dance album, "Blackout," are a "bottom of the barrel" stunt from a girl who really could use some quality time spent repenting sins in a wooden cubicle.

"This is all the puzzle pieces coming together. This girl is crashing," said Bill Donohue, president of the New York-based Catholic League. "She's not even allowed to bring up her own kids because she's not responsible enough. Now we see she can't even entertain."

A call to Spears' label, Jive Records, was not returned.

Her new album, which hits store shelves today, comes amid the "Gimme More" singer's custody battle with ex-hubby Kevin Federline.

The judge who stripped Spears of all but monitored visitation with her two young sons after dubbing her a "habitual" user of drugs and alcohol is expected to issue new custody orders this week.

Judge Scott Gordon chastised Spears on Friday for courting paparazzi attention with her nonessential daily trips to lens-friendly places like Starbucks.

"It does not seem [Spears] has been taking many steps to not keep herself in the public eye at all times," the judge said

Actor, singer Robert Goulet dies at 73

Wednesday, October 31, 2007 12:19 AM

By DAISY NGUYEN

Associated Press

Robert Goulet, shown here arriving at the 2005 Tony Awards, was awaiting a lung transplant when he died.

LOS ANGELES—Robert Goulet, the handsome, big-voiced baritone whose Broadway debut in Camelot launched an award-winning stage and recording career, has died. He was 73.

The singer died yesterday morning in a Los Angeles hospital while awaiting a lung transplant, said Goulet spokesman Norm Johnson.

He had been awaiting the transplant at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center after being found last month to have a rare form of pulmonary fibrosis.

Goulet had remained in good spirits even as he waited for the transplant, said Vera Goulet, his wife of 25 years.

"Just watch my vocal cords," she said he told doctors before they inserted a breathing tube.

Goulet's longtime friend Wayne Newton said his sense of humor "kept my spirits up in some of the lowest valleys in my life."

"His incredible voice will live on in his music, and as Bob so brilliantly sang, 'There will be another song for him and he will sing it,' for God now has another singing angel by his side," Newton said in a statement.

The Massachusetts-born Goulet, who spent much of his youth in Canada, gained stardom in 1960 with Camelot, the Lerner and Loewe musical that starred Richard Burton as King Arthur and Julie Andrews as his Queen Guenevere.

Goulet played Sir Lancelot, the arrogant French knight who falls in love with Guenevere.

He became a hit with American TV viewers with appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show and other programs. Sullivan labeled him the "American baritone from Canada," where he had already been a popular star in the 1950s, hosting his own TV show called General Electric's Showtime.

The Los Angeles Times wrote in 1963 that Goulet "is popping up in specials so often these days that you almost feel he has a weekly show. The handsome lad is about the hottest item in show business since his Broadway debut."

Goulet won a Grammy Award in 1962 as best new artist and made the singles chart in 1964 with My Love Forgive Me.

"When I'm using a microphone or doing recordings I try to concentrate on the emotional content of the song and to forget about the voice itself," he told The New York Times in 1962.

"Sometimes I think that if you sing with a big voice, the people in the audience don't listen to the words, as they should," he told the paper. "They just listen to the sound."

While he returned to Broadway only infrequently after Camelot, he did win a Tony award in 1968 for best actor in a musical for his role in The Happy Time. His other Broadway appearances were in Moon Over Buffalo in 1995 and La Cage aux Folles in 2005, plus a Camelot revival in 1993 in which he played King Arthur.

His stage credits elsewhere include productions of Carousel, Finian's Rainbow, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, The Pajama Game, Meet Me in St. Louis, and South Pacific.

Goulet also got some film work, performing in movies ranging from the animated Gay Purr-ee (1962) to Underground (1970) to The Naked Gun 2 1/2 (1991). He played a lounge singer in Louis Malle's acclaimed 1980 filmAtlantic City.

He returned to Broadway in 2005 as one half of a gay couple in La Cage aux Folles, and Associated Press theater critic Michael Kuchwara praised Goulet for his "affable, self-deprecating charm."

Goulet had no problems poking fun at his own fame, appearing recently in an Emerald nuts commercial in which he "messes" with the stuff of dozing office workers, and lending his name to Goulet's SnoozeBars. Goulet also has been sent up by Will Ferrell on Saturday Night Live.

"You have to have humor and be able to laugh at yourself," Goulet said in a biography on his Web site.

The only son of French-Canadian parents, Goulet was born in Lawrence, Mass. After his father died, his mother moved the family to Canada when the future star was about 13.

He received vocal training at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto but decided opera wasn't for him. He made his first professional appearance at age 16 with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. His early success on Canadian television preceded his breakthrough on Broadway.

Pianist Roger Williams said he first met Goulet when he performed on a Canadian television show.

"He appeared on the last part of the show, and I knew then that he was a tremendous talent," Williams told The Associated Press. "He could shake a room with that big beautiful voice."

In his last performance Sept. 20 in Syracuse, N.Y., the crooner was backed by a 15-piece orchestra as he performed the one-man show A Man and his Music.

Although Goulet headlined frequently on the Las Vegas Strip, one period stood out, evidenced by a photograph that hung on his office wall. It was the mid-1970s, and he had just finished a two-week run at the Desert Inn when he was asked to fill in at the Frontier, across the street.

Overnight, the marquees of two of the Strip's hottest resorts read the same: "Robert Goulet."

"I played there many, many years and have wonderful memories of the place," Goulet told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

His first two marriages ended in divorce. He had a daughter with his first wife, Louise Longmore, and two sons with his second wife, Carol Lawrence, the actress and singer who played Maria in the original Broadway production of West Side Story.

Courtesy--Google news..

Earn as you surf the net

Money----We all love it..Lets see if there are any possibility of any earning values while surfing the net

Money is any token or other object that functions as a medium of exchange that is socially and legally accepted in payment for goods and services and in settlement of debts. Money also serves as a standard of value for measuring the relative worth of different goods and services and as a store of value. Some authors explicitly require money to be a standard of deferred payment.[1]

Money includes both currency, particularly the many circulating currencies with legal tender status, and various forms of financial deposit accounts, such as demand deposits, savings accounts, and certificates of deposit. In modern economies, currency is the smallest component of the money supply.

Money is not the same as real value, the latter being the basic element in economics. Money is central to the study of economics and forms its most cogent link to finance. The absence of money causes an economy to be inefficient because it requires a coincidence of wants between traders, and an agreement that these needs are of equal value, before a barter exchange can occur. The efficiency gains through the use of money are thought to encourage trade and the division of labour, in turn increasing productivity and wealth.

Blogging and get connected

This is the time to get hitched to your close pals....

A blog (a portmanteau of web log) is a website where entries are written in chronological order and commonly displayed in reverse chronological order. "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.

Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs. Most blogs are primarily textual, although some focus on art (artlog), photographs (photoblog), sketchblog, videos (vlog), music (MP3 blog), audio (podcasting) and are part of a wider network of social media. Micro-blogging is another type of blogging which consists of blogs with very short posts.

As of September 2007, blog search engine Technorati was tracking more than 106 million blogs.

New Releases--

Music Composition---OM SHANTI OM

The much awaited music of Om Shanti Om finally arrives on stands this weekend. IndiaFM was invited for an exclusive preview for the film’s soundtrack. Read on to know more about what the album has to offer. Also, tune in on Saturday to hear the songs - yet again, EXCLUSIVELY on IndiaFM.

Expectations. Expectations. And some more expectations. This is how one looks forward to the music of Om Shanti Om from which one expects nothing but the best. And why not? After all:

a) This is the biggest ever film starring Shahrukh Khan
b) This is the second directorial venture for Farah Khan who made a smashing debut with Main Hoon Naa c) The film has created huge buzz accompanied by immense hype ever since it was launched
d) Vishal-Shekhar and Javed Akhtar saab are expected to bring on table a massy popular score
e) Last but not the least, the film travels decades which makes one look forward to variety in the soundtrack.

Write your own music review ofOm Shanti Om Under

Are these expectations met? Well, very much as each of the seven unique tracks bring on a variety that makes Om Shanti Om a winner all the way.

It is a truly unconventional beginning to Om Shanti Om as instead of an expected ‘Beat-one-Beat-two’ beginning from Vishal-Shekhar, one gets to hear a rather serene ‘Aankhon Mein Teri‘ which turns out to be an extremely soulful hear. On hearing it initially, it is the sheer ‘different’ factor due to which it takes some time to follow the composition. But once you have heard it closely with lights switched off and no interference around you, ‘Aankhon Mein Teri‘ turns out to be an irresistible piece of melody that lingers on for hours.

There are number of factors which go in making ‘Aankhon Mein‘ a song that would be remembered for time to come. First and foremost it is the re-discovery of Vishal-Shekhar who create an unconventional tune that breaks the norms which they had themselves set for them. Furthermore, Vishal himself writes lyrics for this track which turns out to be a unique experience since it shows the sensitive romantic side of him. But the biggest of all is K.K. who showcases once again that he is THE most versatile singer who we have in the Bollywood musical scene today!

Well, those who love the dance numbers coming from Vishal-Shekhar don’t have to wait for long with the arrival of ‘Dard-E-Disco‘. This is the very track which is much talked about for Shahrukh Khan’s ‘perfect-six-abs’ and unlike ‘Aankhon Mein‘ which grows immensely only after a few hearings, it is an instant hit from the GO. Reminding of the style, rhythm and the funk of ‘Kaal Dhamaal‘ [Kaal], ‘Dard E Disco‘ is a ‘jump-on-the-dance-floor’ number which has a Persian touch to it even as overall feel of the song stays on to be Western.

From the title of the song, one would have expected ‘Dard-E-Disco‘ to belong to the 80s era with a Mithun hangover it but that’s not the case as the song turns out to be pretty contemporary. Sukhwinder Singh is in his full elements for this track that has some spicy writing by Javed Akhtar saab. Marianne, Nisha and Caralisa come together for backup vocals who give the song a perfect disco feel. Later in the album arrives the ‘remix version’ which makes for a justified presence due to the song’s theme and keeps the entertainment alive.

One would have expected the graph of the album to at maximum stay steady after ‘Aankhon Mine‘ and ‘Dard-E-Disco‘ but to one’s pleasant surprise, it shoots up amazingly with ‘Deewangi Deewangi‘ which hooks you on within first one minute itself. A sure shot chartbuster which could well have been the opening number for the film’s promotion, ‘Deewangi Deewangi‘ is what qualifies as a trademark number which could have been lapped up by Yash Raj Films or Dharma Productions.

Coming together of Shaan, Udit Narayan, Shreya Ghoshal, Sunidhi Chauhan and Rahul Saxena (heard in Indian Idol) ensures that there is not a single dull moment in this instant-attention-grabbing track. Boasting of the innocence in melody that was witnessed in the 70s and now presented in the 21st century ‘avtar’ with a fusion of ‘qawalli’, ‘bhangra’ and western arrangements, ‘Deewangi Deewangi‘ that also incorporates the sound of Om Shanti Om would definitely lit up the screen when it is played. It’s ‘Rainbow Mix’ only confirms the thought as it helps in consolidating the sound of the song.

If you have ever been in love, you wouldn’t have missed out the dancing-couple-on-a-glass-floor gift item that has a sweet sounding tinkling sound which compliments their moves! This is the sound that marks the beginning of ‘Main Agar Kahoon‘ which reminds one of the 60s era when songs like these were in vogue. Picturised on the likes of Rajendra Kumar and Shammi Kapoor, they were mostly sung by Late Mohd. Rafi.

This is the very reason why Sonu Nigam has been roped in to croon ‘Main Agar Kahoon‘ which required the kind of rendition which would succeed in getting you nostalgic about the music of the era gone by. With Shreya Ghoshal in tow who is just the right fit for a song belonging to this genre, ‘Main Agar Kahoon‘ gives a completely different flavor to the album by bringing some ‘thehrav‘ to it after a rocking outing experienced in last few songs.

Names like Rahat Fateh Ali Khan and Richa Sharma are good enough reasons to expect a quality offering from Vishal-Shekhar in the song ‘Jag Soona Soona Lage‘. Written by guest lyricist Kumaar, this painful yet mellow track about separation has it’s beginning borrowed from the opening sound of ‘Main Agar Kahoon‘. Both the singers are highly competent in this beautifully written number that shows an altogether different facet of the composer-duo. A track which has a thorough Indian base to it and makes for a passionate outing, expect it to make multiple appearance during the film’s narrative.

It’s time for the world of ‘Tohfa Tohfa Tohfa‘ [Tohfa] as ‘dhols’ and ‘ghunghroos’ come together in unison to create the sound of late 70s and early 80s. With a Lakshmikant-Pyayelal patent all over ‘Dhoom Taana‘, it is only consolidated further as Shreya Ghoshal sings the song in a style that was made famous by yesteryear singer S. Janaki in Jeetendra-Sridevi-Jaya Pradha films. Roping in of Abhijeet too seems to be done with a purpose since it only brings the nostalgia of Kishore Kumar in spite of no conscious effort by the singer to do so.

All through this vintage song, the ‘dhol’ beats accompanied by the chorus of ‘Dhoom Taana‘ is hard to be missed though there is a shift in mood mid-way with rock-n-roll. Just recently there was news around Deepika Padukone shaking a leg with Sunil Dutt, Jeetendra and Rajesh Khanna, courtesy SFX. Well, ‘Dhoom Taana‘ seems to be just the candidate for that setting! A winner which should definitely have the house on fire as it unfolds on the big screen. Especially watch out for the crescendo towards the song’s end.

Finally comes a track which seems to be set in accordance to the reincarnation theme of the film. Set as a tribute to ‘Ek Haseena Thi Ek Deewana Tha‘ [Karz] with even the lyrics taking a cue from the classic track by Lakshmikant-Pyarelal, ‘Dastaan-E-Om Shanti Om‘ is set in exactly the same story telling mode. The styling of this Shaan rendered track follows the same mode as one expects a high voltage dramatic narration when the song is on.

High on orchestra, ‘Dastaan-E-Om Shanti Om‘ is an elaborate number which has a lot to convey through it’s lyrics by Javed Akhtar saab. With its ‘mukhda’ based on the film’s theme music, the song makes an appearance again towards the end of the album. In it’s ‘remix version’ as ‘Dastaan - The Dark Side Mix‘, it is pepped up further with additional arrangements.

Another remix track which takes the album towards its completion is ‘Om Shanti Om - Medley Mix’ which basically is an amalgamation of all the tracks from the film presented in a ‘club-mix’ avtar. A good way to wind up the album. Finally comes a minute long theme piece which is titled ‘Om Shanti Om - Themes’. Played on a piano, it leaves a lasting impact even as one can revisit the sound in at least half the tracks in the album.

Credit must go to Farah Khan who mixes the commercial elements of the movie with an inherent class which she wanted to lay out in the soundtrack for Om Shanti Om. This is why a fine balancing act is done in the album with hardcore massy tracks like ‘Deewangi Deewangi‘ [best of the lot], ‘Dhoom Taana‘ and ‘Dard-E-Disco‘ presented along with touching tracks like ‘Aankhon Mein Teri’, ‘Main Agar Kahoon’ and ‘Jag Soona Soona Lage‘. And then there is always a ‘Dastaan-E-Om Shanti Om’ to bring the nostalgia of ‘Ek Haseena Thi‘ [Karz’].

Om Shanti Om is easily one of the most complete scores by Vishal-Shekhar and Javed Akhtar.

Entertainment

SAAWARIYA RELEASE---

By Subhash K. Jha, Mumbai, Oct 31 : At two hours and eight minutes of playing time "Saawariya" is one of Sanjay Leela Bhansali's shortest films ever. His last work, "Black", was just a few minutes longer but had no songs.

Bhansali's second film "Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam" had 10 songs and a playing time of three hours.

"Saawariya", with eight songs, is far shorter than the opulent and stunning "Devdas" which ran into three hours and 10 minutes with a mix of songs, dances and operatic drama.

Economy of expression defines the romance between Ranbir Kapoor and Sonam Kapoor in the much-awaited film. From the time his eyes fall on Sonam, Ranbir celebrates his love in ecstatically composed and choreographed numbers that create a waltz of a thousand steps with just gestures and whispers.

"Saawariya" is Sanjay's subtlest, most quiet and mellow film to date. While almost every sequence in "Devdas" and "Black" culminated in an operatic crescendo, the shot compositions in "Saawariya" suggest a symphony rather than an opera.

The eight elaborate songs and dances in the musical love story take up quite a chunk of the film's precious playing time. What remains between the two people in love are those unspoken words and unshed tears of a relationship that knows no full stop.

Songs have been used to propel the story forward in "Saawariya" and every song tells a tale. Monty Sharma's tunes and Sameer's lyrics create a structure akin to a raga.

"Saawariya" is a formally structured romance with the episodes between the protagonists moving forward in power-packed pirouettes of passion.

The presiding colour of "Saawariya" is blue, which defines the spaces that separate and bring the lovers together. But the mood after the film's first screening was anything but blue.

It was unanimously felt that Bhansali's latest work takes him far ahead of his earlier films. For those who think all his films are about thundering passion, "Saawariya" is a bolt from the blue.