Carla Bruni-Sarokzy will lead a glittering line-up of stars at a concert to mark Nelson Mandela’s birthday, in what will be her first public show since becoming France’s first lady.

Bruni-Sarkozy, a model-turned-musician, will perform for the first time in public since marrying French President Nicolas Sarkozy at the concert at Radio City Music Hall in Madison Square Garden.

The event, which also stars Stevie Wonder and soul queen Aretha Franklin, ends a week of celebrations for the 91st birthday of the former South African president.

The organisers said in a statement:

“Mr Mandela is an iconic statesman whose sacrifice and leadership has had an enormous impact on humanity,”

The concert aims to raise funds for Campaign 46664, named after Mandela’s former prisoner number when he was jailed for 27 years under the South African apartheid regime before becoming the country’s first black president in 1994.

Other stars to take part on Saturday will include Hollywood stars Forest Whitaker, Susan Sarandon and Matt Damon, the organisers said.

Technorati Tags: Carla Bruni, Carla Bruni Sarkozy, Forest Whitaker, Matt Damon, Nelson Mandela, Susan Sarandon

Pop legend Michael Jackson is reported to have died of a heart attack after he was rushed to hospital in Los Angeles.

The entertainment TMZ website reports Jackson suffered a cardiac arrest earlier this afternoon and paramedics were unable to revive him.

Earlier, a fire department official told the Los Angeles Times that Michael Jackson had been rushed to the hospital.

Steve Ruda told the newspaper on Thursday that Jackson was not breathing when Los Angeles Fire Department paramedics responded to a call at his Los Angeles home about 12:30pm.

The paramedics performed CPR and took him to UCLA Medical Center, Ruda told the paper.

The report of the heart attack was confirmed by the OK! website, which said streets surrounding the Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre in LA had been blocked off with yellow tape.

TMZ reports that it had spoken with a Jackson family member, who said Michael was in “really bad shape”.

His family were heading to the hospital, the report said.

The story still developing…

http://www.tmz.com/2009/06/25/michael-jackson-dies-death-dead-cardiac-arrest/

Technorati Tags: heart attack, Michael jackson

The Italian Government is bracing for a fresh of wave of scandal after prosecutors investigating a cash-for-contracts rort allegedly unearthed wiretaps suggesting payments to young women to attend Silvio Berlusconi’s house parties.

The investigators had been probing claims of favouritism and corruption in the awarding of lucrative public health-care tenders in the south-eastern port city of Bari and had focused attention on a company owned by two brothers who are well-known local entrepreneurs. The company, Tecnohospital, has won a series of important contracts in a relatively short time. One of the owner-brothers, Giampaolo Tarantini, is believed to have been heard on the phonetaps discussing the parties he had attended at the Prime Minister’s Roman and Sardinian residences.

Local investigators have now brought in several young women for questioning in a bid to work out if the taped discussions were purely boastful or serious inducements to prostitution.

News of the investigation has emerged at the same time as an explosive front-page interview with a young blonde, Patrizia D’Addario, who told Corriere Della Sera that she attended two parties at the Prime Minister’s Roman residence — one on the night that Barack Obama was elected US President.

Ms D’Addario claimed that she was offered the opportunity to stand in a local poll as a candidate for a party associated with Mr Berlusconi’s proposed new People of Freedom Party and that she has both proof of the trips — and tapes of the evenings. The newspaper itself urged readers to exercise caution when reading the interview.

But yesterday La Repubblica appeared to confirm that she was indeed a candidate for the Apulia First party, which fought a local election recently and published a series of photos of her campaigning alongside both the Prime Minister and one of Mr Berlusconi’s ministers, Raffaele Fitto, late last year.

Ms D’Addario, who does not state her age or occupation, said she had been asked to attend the dinner party at Palazzo Grazioli by a friend in Bari and had been introduced by a man called “Giampaolo”. She said she agreed to attend the event for payment and described the evenings in detail, saying she had worn a recording device on both occasions.

She said she was picked up from her hotel on both evenings by “Giampaolo” and she and two other young women travelled to the Prime Minister’s residence in a limousine with darkened windows.

There she was told she had to adopt the name Alessia and found another 20 or so young women drinking champagne. She said the Prime Minister sang, told jokes and showed videos including footage of his Sardinian villa and his meeting with George Bush. She described a second evening in which she spent the night and insisted she had recordings and proof of both encounters.

In a written statement issued yesterday, Mr Berlusconi has categorically denied the allegations saying he would not allow such “garbage” to distract him from the business of government. He bitterly attacked the newspaper – and Italian journalists – claiming the printed press was

“full of falsehoods and rubbish”.

“I will not be affected or moved by these assaults on me and will continue to work, as always, for the good of my country,”

Technorati Tags: house parties, Italian Government, Silvio, Silvio Berlusconi, young women

Michelle Obama, whom French fashionistas regard as the best-dressed American first lady since Jackie Kennedy, has lived up to her sartorial reputation during her trip to Paris, sporting a wardrobe of fashion-forward classics by top American designers.

But the woman who put more-casual retailers such as J Crew on the fashion map also showed a weakness for high-end fashion “a la Francaise”, taking her two daughters on a private shopping trip to the exclusive children’s couture house Bonpoint.

Mrs Obama’s visit to the City of Light was widely billed as a rematch of the “duel of charm” that pitted her in a glamour contest against France’s first lady, the former supermodel-turned-singer Carla Bruni-Sarkozy.

The two faced off before the cameras only once during Mrs Obama’s latest visit from Friday until Monday. For D-Day commemorations in Normandy, the first ladies chose strikingly similar looks, both in creamy white, knee-length dresses with contrasting belts and kitten heels.

The heels were a departure for Ms Bruni-Sarkozy, a leggy Italian-born heiress who leaped to fame in the early 1990s as a top model. Since she married France’s diminutive leader Nicolas Sarkozy last year, the 175-centimetre-tall first lady has largely stuck to flats for her public appearances.

Ms Bruni-Sarkozy’s outfit, which also included a swingy black cashmere coat, was signed Christian Dior – her favourite label. Also true to form, Mrs Obama’s dress was by Narciso Rodriguez, one of the stable of American designers she champions.

Britain’s Daily Telegraph said photos of the two striding side-by-side on the red carpet at Saturday’s commemorations were

“surreally interchangeable with shots from a catwalk show … They could almost have been modelling some designers’ collection named ‘First Lady Spring 2009′ “.

French fashion weekly Elle said the two looked like “twin sisters” and hailed their “sophisticated, feminine” 1950s-era looks as “a success: We want more!”

A similar thing happened at their last meeting, at a G-8 summit in the French border city of Strasbourg in April, when both showed up in stylish but proper coats embellished with flowing bows at the neckline and co-ordinated with matching dresses.

Then, the European fashion press generally concurred that Mrs Obama’s Thakoon ensemble, in black silk with fuchsia flowers, stole the show from Ms Bruni-Sarkozy’s Dior outfit in putty grey.

But it appeared that Ms Bruni-Sarkozy’s sophisticated Parisian style might be winning Mrs Obama over.

On Sunday, the US first lady and daughters Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7, went shopping at Bonpoint, a children’s clothing store favoured by wealthy Parisians and international jet-setters such as Sofia Coppola.

Bonpoint’s store in the Saint Germain des Pres neighbourhood was closed for inventory on Monday and store officials were not available to discuss what, if anything, they bought. The brand, known for its airy stores carrying cashmere baby sweaters and smocked pastel frocks, was a far cry from CrewCuts, J Crew’s children’s line, which the Obama girls wore to the inauguration.

Mrs Obama and the girls met the President in Paris, on the last leg of his six-day tour of four Middle Eastern and European countries. Barack Obama left Paris for Washington, DC, on Sunday morning, leaving his wife and children to enjoy the French capital on their own.

Apart from the D-Day commemorations, Mrs Obama’s Paris visit was a private one, closed to the press. Photographers and camera crews caught images of her and the girls visiting the city’s must-see monuments, including the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, the Pompidou Centre modern art museum and Notre Dame cathedral.

For those visits, Mrs Obama stuck to her signature looks, wearing cardigans and flats for her trip to Bonpoint and a teal jacket and printed scarf for the Eiffel Tower.

Mrs Obama and the girls also attended a private luncheon hosted by the Sarkozys. The event, at the gilded Elysee presidential palace, looked like an advance fete for Sasha’s eighth birthday on Wednesday.

It wasn’t immediately clear what Mrs Obama or Ms Bruni-Sarkozy wore to the lunch, so fashion watchers will have to hold on for round three of the first ladies’ fashion face-off.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-to-kisa2s

Technorati Tags: Carla Bruni, Michelle Obama

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has threatened to sue the Spanish newspaper El Pais over the publication of photos that show topless women and a naked European leader during a private pool party at his summer estate.

The faces are pixelated to comply with privacy laws but the former Czech prime minister Mirek Topolanek, who was Mr Berlusconi’s guest last year, confirmed in Prague he was the man depicted.

“It is clearly also the result of a photo-montage,”

Italy’s prime minister hits out after a Spanish newspaper publishes photos of topless women and a naked man at his seaside villa.
The pictures show topless women in the garden of Mr Berlusconi’s Villa Certosa in Sardinia during a party for the Czech delegation.

Mr Berlusconi banned publication of the images in Italy where he owns a large share in the country’s media industry, and expressed outrage over the publication.

He told Italian state radio:

“These are innocent photos. There’s no scandal, but this is a violation of privacy and a scandalous aggression,”

Asked why there were naked women at his home, Mr Berlusconi continued:

“Do you take a shower dressed? These girls were bathing in a whirlpool bath inside a private home, and they were assaulted in a scandalous way.”

The Prime Minister learnt about the pictures when photographer Antonello Zappadu was trying to sell them for €1.5 million to the magazine Panorama, which belongs to Mr Berlusconi’s media empire.

Italian police confiscated thousands of Zappadu’s pictures after Mr Berlusconi requested a prosecutor to stop their publication.

Zappadu, who took hundreds of pictures, claims Mr Berlusconi often threw parties for showgirls, nude models and actresses at his 60-hectare estate. He told El Pais that “virtually every weekend” Italian air force flights brought Mr Berlusconi’s friends, dancers and TV hostesses to the luxury property.

The mainly female guests were asked to call him “Papi” to avoid his name being mentioned in private telephone conversations.

This codename was revealed recently when Mr Berlusconi’s wife accused him of having an affair with an 18-year-old model.

Technorati Tags: Italian Prime Minister, Mirek Topolanek, nude party, nude pics, Silvio Berlusconi

The MTV Movie Awards were a blood bath on Sunday night with Twilight taking five trophies, including best movie. But it was Sacha Baron Cohen who gave the show it’s trademark bizarro moment when he landed on Eminem – who may or may not have been deeply offended.

The popular vampire drama starring Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart sucked up the golden popcorn trophies for best movie, fight, kiss, breakthrough male performance and female performance during Sunday’s over-the-top ceremony at the Gibson Amphitheatre in Universal City, California, which honours the best in film from the past year as voted on by viewers.

Stewart said while accepting her best female performance trophy (which she promptly dropped on the floor, breaking off a chunk of the golden popcorn):

“The fans are the ultimate driving force,”

Other winners included High School Musical 3: Senior Year star Zac Efron for male performance and his co-star Ashley Tisdale for female breakthrough performance.

Miley Cyrus accepted the best song from a movie prize for The Climb from Hannah Montana: The Movie, preventing Twilight from winning all six categories in which it was nominated.

Amy Poehler’s urinating in a sink in Baby Mama won an award that was new to this year: The WTF moment.

Presenter Hayden Panettiere, the teen star of TV show Heroes said :

“For those of you still living in a cave, the WTF award means, What the (bleep),”

But even that was upstaged by Baron Cohen, who flew in above the audience as his flamboyant character Bruno. Dressed in a pair of feathery white wings with his rear end mostly exposed, the comedian crashed into an overhead obstacle and was lowered directly into in Eminem’s lap in the audience, his bare hindquarters in the rapper’s face.

Baron Cohen chirped:

“Is the real Slim Shady about to stand up?”

Members of Eminem’s entourage roughly removed Baron Cohen as the rapper struggled to get out. But had Baron Cohen and MTV punked the self-styled homophobic rapper, or was he in on the elaborate joke?

Eminem acted visibly upset at the mishap, saying “Get this (expletive) off me” and turning his face away in disgust. He then stormed out with his entourage in tow – and cameras rolling – and beat a path for the exits.

Baron Cohen’s descent to the audience was included in earlier rehearsals, but Eminem – who performed on Sunday night – didn’t take part in that piece of the run-through.

As the rapper stormed off it sounded as though he was wearing a microphone, and cameras were in position to record his fast exit, but he was not seen or heard from again.

Host Andy Samberg ad-libbed :

“This is very exciting TV,”

Actor Ben Stiller told reporters backstage :

“I enjoyed his (Cohen’s) precision landing,”

“I did not see that coming.”

It wasn’t the first tantrum for Slim Shady at an MTV ceremony:

Sparks flew when the rapper was interviewed by Triumph the Insult Comic Dog at the 2002 show.

The MTV awards are nominated and voted on by fans through online polls, producing a more populist selection than the Oscars or the Golden Globes. Winners get a golden popcorn statuette.

Slumdog Millionaire, which won a leading eight Oscars in February, went into the MTV Movie awards with six nominations but came away empty-handed.

Twilight won none of the mainstream movie awards earlier this year but has taken more than $382 million at the box office worldwide and has turned its star Robert Pattinson from an unknown into an international heartthrob.

Viewers also got brief previews of other popular blockbusters due for release later in 2009, including Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

Oscar-winner Forest Whitaker sang a classical arrangement of the Dick in a Box parody sketch made famous by Justin Timberlake on Saturday Night Live.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23O-0WjD9_E

Technorati Tags: Bruno, Eminem, MTV Movie awards, Sacha Baron Cohen

Heather Mills’ ex-fiance has compared her to a “tornado in all its fury”.

Chris Terrill – who has just finished filming a documentary called Nature’s Fury – was engaged to the former model for a year.

He claims living with Heather was “terrifying” and worse than the most savage thunderstorm he endured while shooting his new show.

He told Britain’s Radio Times magazine: “I have indeed just spent a year in the grip of the planet’s most savage storms – giant hail, multiple lightning strikes, deafening thunder, 160mph winds, mountainous seas and ferocious firestorms.

“It was thrilling and terrifying all at the same time. Heather, bless her, was also an amazing experience, for much the same reason. She was a force of nature in her own right who can do a very passable impersonation of a tornado in all its fury.

“We had a whirlwind romance and a brief engagement before she took up with some bloke called Paul!”

Heather married Sir Paul McCartney in 2002.

The former model was awarded multi-million dollar settlement in 2008 following a bitter divorce from the Beatles legend.

Technorati Tags: Chris Terrill, Heather Mills

Cynthia Nixon is engaged to her partner, Christine Marinoni.

A representative for the Sex And The City actress confirmed the engagement. No other details were given.

Nixon showed off her engagement ring at a rally supporting gay marriage in New York at the weekend.

She has two children from her relationship with photographer Danny Mozes.

Technorati Tags: Christine Marinoni, Cynthia Nixon, Sex and the City

Rihanna is the latest to become embroiled in a nude photo scandal with images of the star leaked on the internet.

Of the photos, only two show the singer’s face. The others reveal her naked body and backside but her face is hidden from view.

The photos were reportedly taken at The London West Hollywood hotel, where Rihanna once stayed with her former boyfriend Chris Brown.

In one image, a woman who bears a resemblance to the singer takes a photo of her reflection in the bathroom mirror.

There is a message on the mirror which reads:

“I love you Robyn. I miss you”.

Robyn is Rihanna’s real first name.

The singer, who attended a charity event with Kylie Minogue in New York on Thursday night, is yet to respond to the claims.

The scandal comes as her former boyfriend Brown faces charges relating to an alleged assault on Rihanna earlier this year.

She suffered cuts, bruising and bites during the attack which shocked fans. The couple attempted to reconcile but have since split up.

Technorati Tags: nude photos, Rihanna

Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich has lost one of the yachts in his sizeable personal fleet in a game of poker, a Russian newspaper reported.

The popular daily Moskovsky Komsomelets said the oligarch lost the $US500,000 yacht while playing poker in Barcelona, which he was visiting to watch the London football team he owns, Chelsea, in action.

Abramovich’s yacht collection, thought to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars, has been dubbed The Roman Navy by Britain’s press.

The Russian newspaper said his poker habit had become a sore point between him and girlfriend Daria Zhukova and that the billionaire, who made his fortune in Russia’s sell-off of state assets in the 1990s, had instead turned to gambling online.

Technorati Tags: loses yacht, poker, Roman Abramovich