Contrary to a rumor which surfaced last month stating that the next Xbox will not have a disc drive at all, VG247 is hearing that the next-generation Xbox will have a Blu-ray drive. People have commonly assumed that, due to Sony’s involvement with the Blu-ray technology, Microsoft would never implement it in their console. However, this rumor certainly suggests otherwise.

VG247 is also reporting that they heard the following from various sources:

The next Xbox has been ‘detailed’ to select Microsoft partners.
Microsoft hopes to release the console by Christmas 2013.
An always-on connection will be required to fight piracy, similar to Steam on the PC.
On the hardware front, we can expect a four or six core CPU, with one core reserved for Kinect use and another for the OS. The console is also rumored to feature two GPUs, similar to the AMD 7000 series. However, the dual-GPU implementation is unlike Crossfire or SLI on the PC; the units will be able to independently function and draw separate items simultaneously, unlike on the PC where the GPUs work together to draw lines of the same object.
Kinect will be built into the device itself.

Now, don’t get your panties in a twist just yet; we’ll have to wait until 2013 to see if any of these rumors come to fruition (or if Microsoft will even release it that year; 2015 has also been rumored to be the release date of the next Xbox.) In conclusion, VG247 also reports that Microsoft will likely not announce anything related to the next Xbox until next year.

Last weekend, the folks over at BriefMobile had leaked the official Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich version of the Nexus S 4G. If you own a Nexus S 4G, and have not yet installed the leaked update on your phone until now but are planning on doing so, wait! Beginning from today, Sprint has officially started rolling out the Android 4.0.4 update for the Nexus S 4G.

The NS 4G never got the original Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich update, so quite a lot of users will be jumping directly from Android 2.3 to Android 4.0.4. For the unknown, the Android 4.0 update is possibly the biggest update ever in the history of this open-source mobile OS.

The ICS update includes a new and polished UI, GPU rendering, a new launcher with a sliding menu drawer, the ability to monitor data usage of individual apps, Android Beam, Holo theme for apps, a new and enhanced notification bar, new lock screen, a new camera app, an enhanced version of the Contacts app known as the People’s app, a new multi-tasking UI and a magazine like swipe UI throughout the OS.

If you have not already received the OTA update from Sprint on your handset, it should pop-up on your handset in the next few days.

Did rumored billionaire Jessica Simpson get a little too much inspiration from Christian Louboutin?

Pregnant Jess, who's herself hung up the stilettos, might soon be in some hot water over a pair of her brand's heels. The blog Cellar Paper noticed that a pair of towering strappy sandals named Evangel from Jessica Simpson's sprawling shoe line bear a surprising resemblance to Christian Louboutin's Staratata heels.

Simpson herself wears the shoes in an ad tucked into the new issue of Elle. Jessica's pink sandals retail for $98, while the red-soled version will cost you $995.

These hot heels are the latest in a series of fashion copycat skirmishes, including knockoff Michael Kors and Victoria Beckham dresses, Taylor Tomasi Hill's alleged Marc Jacobs ripoff and of course, that other famous copycat shoe case: Ivanka Trump's supposed lifting of Derek Lam sandal designs.

We've contacted Jessica Simpson's reps for comment and will update when we hear back.

We love to tease Britain's ASA (Advertising Standards Authority) for being somewhat overzealous, banning ads left and right because one or two grandmoms over in the UK thought they were a tad racy for kids these days.

But it looks like the ASA has decided to take on the mother of all sexy advertisers: American Apparel.

According to the Guardian, the ASA received a single complaint regarding several American Apparel ads, which stated that the photos were "pornographic, exploitative of women and inappropriately sexualised young women."

To which the ASA said: Well, duh.

Just kidding. The ASA, as always, takes every complaint seriously and investigates each one, meaning it examined eight potentially offensive ads from last October to see which ones were porny, which were overly sexual, which were exploitative and which were all of the above.

And as you will be unsurprised to learn, the ASA found plenty of sexual undertones in seven out of eight of the ads. A few, shown below, were axed for gratuitous nudity; a few more were deemed "exploitative" for sexualizing young women. And all but one were judged as being irresponsible "to consumers and to society" for their voyeuristic quality.

In conclusion, writes the ASA, "We told AA not to use similar images which were exploitative of women or that inappropriately sexualised young women in future."

Good luck. As most customers have come to know, the majority of the American retailer's ads have an overtly sexy feel. American Apparel has been using both implied and explicit nudity in its ads for years and is proud of it, archiving each advert on its website with the tagline, "Take a look at the unique images that define us."

The ASA has come down on the brand before, banning a 2009 spot "because the ad could be seen to sexualise a model who appeared to be a child, under the age of 16 years." But the UK watchdog has not attempted to take on American Apparel as a whole, a company that has built its image on, well, sexy images. American Apparel agreed to stop running these ads... but would anyone be surprised if the company's next round of ads is just as sexy?

Bobby Petrino's image of perfection has come to a sudden and surprising end at Arkansas.

The Razorbacks coach was put on paid administrative leave on Thursday night less than seven hours after his boss, athletic director Jeff Long, learned Petrino had failed to disclose he had been riding with a female employee half his age when his motorcycle skidded off the road over the weekend.

Petrino said he had been concerned about protecting his family and keeping an "inappropriate relationship from becoming public."

It was as stunning revelation for a highly successful coach who prides himself on complete control and intense privacy in his personal life. Petrino will now wait out his fate while Long conducts a review.

Beth Hall/US Presswire Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino had a 25-year-old female passenger with him during a weekend motorcycle ride that ended with a crash that sent him to the hospital, according to a police report released Thursday.

"I will fully cooperate with the university throughout this process and my hope is to repair my relationships with my family, my athletic director, the Razorback Nation and remain the head coach of the Razorbacks," he said in a statement issued by the university.

Long announced the decision to put Petrino on leave at a late-night news conference, one that was reminiscent of when the former Atlanta Falcons coach was hired by the Razorbacks on Dec. 11, 2007. Long said he had no timeline in determining Petrino's future with the Razorbacks.

"I'm at the beginning of the review. I don't know what I'm going to find," Long said. "I am disappointed that coach Petrino did not share with me, when he had the opportunity to, the full extent of the accident and who was involved."

Long said he didn't hear about the passenger -- former Arkansas volleyball player and current football program employee Jessica Dorrell, who is 25 -- until the 51-year-old Petrino called him Thursday afternoon, minutes before a police report was released that disclosed her presence at the accident.

Assistant head coach Taver Johnson has been put in charge of the program. Long's investigation could lead, based on conduct clauses in Petrino's contract, to a suspension or firing.

"I hope to have a resolution soon," Long said. I certainly don't have all the answers here tonight, as we meet. But again, I have an obligation and responsibility to obtain the information and then act appropriately on that information."

The "Hunger Games" cast is learning just what it means to be part of a successful blockbuster movie-- dealing with ridiculous criticism.

Jennifer Lawrence continues to prove that she really is the "coolest chick in Hollywood" by laughing off critics who say she's too "womanly" to play the lead role of Katniss Everdeen. Manohla Dargis claimed in her review for The New York Times, "A few years ago Ms. Lawrence might have looked hungry enough to play Katniss, but now, at 21, her seductive, womanly figure makes a bad fit for a dystopian fantasy about a people starved into submission."

A source told the Chicago Sun-Times that Lawrence was annoyed but amused by critics who thought she was too well-fed for the role. "Jennifer told me, 'This is hilarious. First, people say how so many actresses in Hollywood look anorexic, and now they are criticizing me for looking normal'" the source relayed to the paper.

It's true that hunger and starvation are a huge part of "The Hunger Games" books, but the film glosses over those concepts. While Katniss might be described as exceedingly thin in the books, the concept of hunger as a method of ensuring the submission of the people of Panem isn't really explored by the film, nor is Katniss and Peeta's obsession with the food they are finally able to gorge themselves on once they are in the Capitol. With the film only lightly touching on these aspects, criticism of Lawrence's body type seems more inane.

Lawrence isn't the only "Hunger Games" cast member who has responded to ridiculous critics. Actress Amandla Stenberg, 13, exhibited pure grace and dignity when she responded to racist comments that the filmmakers had cast an African-American actress in the role of Rue -- despite the fact that that's how she was described in the book.

There are downsides to being pretty -- the main one being that other women hate me for no other reason than my lovely looks."

Samantha Brick wrote these words in the Daily Mail Monday and provoked a barrage of criticism the likes of which we haven't seen since American mom Dara-Lynn Weiss defended her decision to put her child on a diet in the current issue of Vogue.

Brick, who describes herself as "no Elle Macpherson," but "tall, slim, blonde," wrote that she is constantly bombarded by positive male attention -- she recently received a bottle of champagne from a flight captain, and it wasn't the first time. And because she has the sort of looks that provoke such acts of devotion, she contends, other women resent her. In fact, she makes it sound like women in general are fundamentally jealous creatures out to undermine any woman more attractive than themselves:

If you're a woman reading this, I'd hazard that you've already formed your own opinion about me -- and it won't be very flattering. For while many doors have been opened (literally) as a result of my looks, just as many have been metaphorically slammed in my face -- and usually by my own sex.

This claim, combined with Brick's sanctimonious tone, were reason enough for many readers to react negatively to the piece. It's pretty much impossible to pen this kind of thing (or the follow-up from Brick published Tuesday) without opening yourself up to ridicule -- which the Daily Mail's editors almost surely realized when they published this inevitable traffic-driver. (See the Mail's in-depth analysis of the story's success, including a chart tracking the number of Twitter searches for Brick's name in the last 24 hours.)

Unfortunately, people have criticized Brick's looks more than her ideas, which are off-putting regardless of how beautiful she "really" is. Jezebel's Lindy West summed up the situation with the statement that Brick's piece:

begs women to go all mean-girl on her (every woman I spoke to succumbed to the temptation immediately), gives men a pass to comment on the relative value... of her body, and encourages both sexes to eviscerate, body-shame and judge Brick with impunity because her ideas are so repellant.

The claim that being beautiful is just soooo hard is especially difficult for people to swallow because beauty can give women very distinct advantages -- especially when it comes to their careers. According to an infographic that recently made the Internet rounds, research shows that attractive workers earn 10 to 15 percent more than their "unattractive" counterparts, and in a culture where thinness is often equated with beauty, women who weigh 70 pounds below average tend to earn over $20,000 more than women who are average weight.

The Maryland Mega-nut who insists she won a record Mega Millions jackpot now says she lost the winning ticket -- but is not breaking a sweat looking for it.

"I have no idea where it is. I'm not sure I have it," Mirlande Wilson said in her latest tortured explanation of the mystery ticket's fate.

The world's most famous McDonald's employee incredibly claimed she had not even checked the uniform she was wearing the night she bought it.

"I'm still looking for it. I haven't even looked in my uniform pants yet," the flaky single mom of seven admitted. "I'm still looking everywhere to find it, in my purse, everywhere."

And she did not put her kids to work on the treasure hunt even though they have the week off for spring break.

"I wanted to look for it. I was crying. She wouldn't let us. It's a lot of money," lamented her disappointed daughter Stephanie, 15.

Sure, One Direction may have debuted on top of the U.S. albums chart -- and made history -- with their teen pop record "Up All Night," but there's another British boy band hoping to make it big in America. Meet The Wanted.

In case you haven't heard, The Wanted -- Max George, Jay McGuiness, Siva Kaneswaran, Tom Parker and Nathan Sykes -- are sure to become this summer's next big thing, especially under the superstar guidance of Scooter Braun, Justin Bieber's manager.

The group's single, "Glad You Came," has already been featured on Fox's hit series "Glee," and the boys made their U.S. television debut on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show." The single peaked at number three on the U.S. Hot 100 and has sold over a million copies in America since its release.

To add to their stateside success, The Wanted made their "American Idol" debut on Thursday night's results show, singing their hit single "Glad You Came."

The Wanted recently released their new U.S. single "Chasing The Sun" on Thursday, and their U.S. album will hit shelves on April 24.

Watch a clip of The Wanted's live performance above, and tell us: Do you prefer The Wanted or One Direction?

Want to know if your favorite 90's pop group is reuniting in 2012? Check out the slideshow below.

After giving a flop in Orange, Ram Charan Teja is back with Racha. The audiences in general and fans in particular are keeping high hopes on the film. However, the film is coming from not a big director, but an able one like Sampath Nandi. People are having high expectations, as the film is coming from a successful production house like Mega Super Good Films of RB Choudary. Let us see whether it has lived up to their expectations.

Story:
There is a village called Rayadurgam. Raghupati (Nazar) and Suryanarayana (Parthiban), the two good friends of the village, get killed when they were discussing about a ritual to be held for the welfare of the village at the Rachabanda. Scene shifts to another place. Betting Raju (Ram Charan Teja) is the foster son of a couple (MS Narayana and Sudha). He ekes out his living by accepting challenges and winning the bets. Once he wins a car race with James (Ajmal).

At this juncture, Raju’s father suffers lever cancer and he needs a lot of money to save him. James comes to his rescue, who challenges Raju to win the heart of Chaitra (Tamanna) and take away Rs 20 lakh. Raju agrees to the challenge. Chaitra is the daughter of Ballari (Mukhesh Rushi), a mafia don. Raju starts luring Chaitra and succeeds in it to realise that her life is in threat and her don father is not her original father. However, the real story is something different. What is it? What is the relationship between Raju and Chaitra? Who killed Raghupati-Suryanarayana? Answers to all these questions form part of the climax.

Performance:
Ram Charan has experimented new dance steps, which are impressive. His performances for the title track and other tracks like ‘Dillaku dillaku...’, and ‘Singareni undi...’ are praise worthy. He has also flexed his muscles in action scenes and excelled in all the stunt sequences. However, his dialogue modulation is not up to the mark. Tamanna is too glamours in the film and her skin show is a treat for masses. Other artistes including Dev Gill, Mukesh Rushi, Kota Srinivasa Rao, Brahmanandam did justice to their roles, while comedians tried to tickle the funny bones of the audiences to the maximum extent. Especially, Ali made a hilarious comedy.

Technical:
It is Mani Sharma, who needs to be mentioned first among technicians. He has given excellent tunes to all the songs and the remix song ‘Vana vana...’. The choreography of songs too is worth praising. Next comes the cinematography by Sameer Reddy. He has shown his prowess in capturing the beautiful locales with his camera. Editing by Gauthamraju is adequate. Dialogues by Paruchuri Brothers are aimed at masses. Especially in the climax, ‘Edo cheppi thoda kotte vamsam kadura maadi’ kind of dialogues get good response from the audiences. Finally, Sampath Nandi has come out with a good film. Though, the story is not that great and is quite predictable one, the ability of the director made it quite interesting. Especially, the way he penned the screenplay has to be appreciated

Remarks:
The first half of Racha is entertaining with love and romantic track. The real story unfolds in the second half, and it is full of action and revenge drama. Don't miss the movie.

Temple bells will peal joyfully at the sunrise hour on Friday as lakhs of devout Hindus celebrate the birth of Lord Hanuman. The avatar of Lord Shiva is worshipped with offerings of sesame oil, banana, blue flowers and vermilion.

Goswami Tulsidas' Hanuman Chalisa narrates the various episodes that exemplify the singular devotion showed by the monkey god for his master, Ram.

After the battle of Lanka was won and the demon king, Ravan, was slain, it was time for Ram's coronation in Ayodhya. Each of the generals in battle had received prizes and honour when Sita's attention was drawn to Hanuman who stood silently by. Urging him forward, she gave him her own necklace made of the choicest pearls. However, to her astonishment, Hanuman began to take it apart with his teeth, breaking open each pearl, peering closely, then casting it aside with a look of disappointment.

When she asked why, Hanuman said he was seeking the image of his beloved Ram inside them but because he saw nothing, they became worthless. A sharp courtier interjected to ask if Hanuman saw Ram within himself. To everybody's amazement, the monkey king rended his chest to show the image of Ram and Sita embedded in his heart.

William "Dave" O'Shell, distraught over charges of child abuse that were being leveled against him, snapped on June 30, 2008, killing his wife, Tiffany O'Shell, in their Henderson, Colo., home before taking his own life.

Just a few weeks earlier, their green-eyed, 3-month-old daughter, Alyssa, had been placed in a foster home because x-rays revealed 11 broken bones and doctors assumed that she had been beaten.

But they were wrong.

On the same day as the murder-suicide, a doctor at Colorado Children's Hospital suspected something else and was later proved right: Alyssa had a rare genetic disorder that caused her bones to fracture -- one that authorities had confused for abuse.

Alyssa died of spinal muscular atrophy on Oct. 28, 2008, but the tragedy has rippled through a family and an aggressive social services system that is meant to protect children.

Now, four years later after all lawsuits have been unsuccessful, Alyssa's maternal grandparents are saying the tragedy could have been averted.

"We were looking for action. We could care less about the money," said Paul Cuin, Tiffany O'Shell's adoptive father. "We wanted someone to sit up and say, 'This is wrong and we need to change things.'"

Cuin said there were no avenues for the O'Shells, both respected police officers, to plead their innocence.

"If our kids had some sort of outlet or grievance process or gone to someone, we would have a whole different story today," he said. "The system has to change."

A judge gave Cuin, 59, and his wife, Jackie Cuin, 50, custody of Alyssa after the death of their daughter and son-in-law, despite the objections of social services, according to a story first published in the Denver Post.

The newspaper obtained medical, social services and police records in their investigation, as well as court documents on the Cuins' lawsuits.

"They were wonderful parents," said Paul Cuin, who is a supermarket manager. "We never had a single doubt in our minds [over whether] abuse was involved. We knew from the beginning, they loved that baby."

They nursed Alyssa until her death and are convinced that if doctors knew more about SMA, the disease might never again be confused with child abuse.

A year after the 1996 Olympics, I ranked twenty-third in the world in the 100-meter breaststroke and twenty-sixth in the 200-meter.

My parents did their best to shelter me from the unanimous criticism of public opinion. I didn't need anyone to tell me how bad I stunk; I knew that already. The harsh numbers of my ranking told the whole story. At least that's what I thought until I got acquainted with a whole new kind of low.

I had come into the living room of our house to find the newspaper because I wanted the movie listings; I needed to find a flick I could lose myself in. After looking on the couches and coffee table, I sat on the recliner chair where my dad read the newspaper and all of his books. I saw a piece of newsprint sticking out from in between a stack of books. Thinking it might be the paper, I lifted up the four or five volumes on top. Instead I found a hidden stash of clippings and knew immediately they were about me.

Since the start of my career, my dad was my own personal archivist, clipping any and all articles about me so that I could have them later on in life. But after carefully cutting them out, he always put them into the big red scrapbook he kept in his room.

Reading the dozen or so articles in my lap, I saw clearly why these hadn't made it into the book. Sportswriters called me fat, washed-up, and finished. I'd never do anything good in swimming again, they wrote. There it was in black and white, a complete validation of the negative voice playing on a loop in my head. It was true, I was a fat loser. The words I attacked myself with stared out at me from the page, causing a kind of sweet dread. I had suspected that everyone was talking about me, and they were. The shame -- this wasn't just a couple of mean girls at school but the whole world -- hurt so much it almost veered 180 degrees into pleasure. I wrapped myself up in sadness like a martyr, then tucked the clips back in their hiding spot so my dad wouldn't know I had found them.

I didn't talk about what was happening to me with anybody -- not my dad, mom, friends, or coach. Everyone knew that I knew I sucked, but we all ignored it. Hop into the pool, do your sets, dinner, homework, bed. Business as usual. At the time I was grateful for the normalcy. The last thing I wanted to do was draw more attention to myself. Not addressing something, however, doesn't mean it goes away.

I was recently diagnosed with a medical condition. I've got a mild case of it, but it brings a few troublesome complications regardless, nothing serious. And as one might well do, the first thing I did when I got home upon receiving my diagnosis was Google it to learn more. The list of symptoms included what took me to treatment in the first place, a good number of troubles I don't have, and a surprising entry: poor body image. The diagnosis? Scoliosis.

Now, if I'm being officially diagnosed for the first time at age 35, obviously my scoliosis isn't terribly problematic. I was monitored for it as a child (do they still do those annual scoliois screenings at school? It somehow seems like a remnant of the '70s, like the Dorothy Hamill haircut) but it was so mild that it barely qualified as scoliosis, and it didn't warrant treatment -- certainly not intervention like surgery or a brace. Basically, my muscles compensate for my wonky spine, running me through varying degrees of pain; I treat it with exercise, occasional ibuprofen, massage, and masturbation. (Deenie in da house!) In other words, it's not a huge deal, and it's not something that weighs on my mind a lot.

But there it is, that symptom far down on the list -- below the physical pain, below the visual cues -- poor body image. There's a whole body of work devoted to studying the psychosocial effects of scoliosis, particularly in adolescents, but it boils down to this: Something about your body is "wrong," and chances are it's not something you ever thought was a problem, and you really can't do much of anything about it. Wearing a brace may or may not have an impact on patients' body image, but there's evidence supporting a correlation between scoliosis and body image, regardless of treatment.

Now, the people being studied aren't people like me: I'm an adult, for starters, and one with a very mild case of scoliosis. Though I've been told repeatedly by chiropractors, tailors, and osteopaths that there's something irregular about my form, nobody until recently has used the word scoliosis about my body since the sixth grade. Whatever body image problems I have come from the usual suspects -- perfectionism, media, growing up girl -- not my spinal curvature.

But it's not hard for me to see how my body image has shifted ever so slightly in the past few weeks. Part of it was the pain that drove me to seek treatment; it's difficult to feel like your body is something to be proud of when you're wincing whenever you take off your shirt. But more than that, I've learned that -- and this is an unkind term -- I'm misshapen. I found myself complaining of feeling "broken" and "twisted" -- words I've never used to describe myself. Whenever I've had a problem with my body, there's been a part of me that has known it's in my head, because the concerns I had were solely about about how I appeared. If I thought my thighs were unappealing, there was still a part of me that understood that "unappealing" was subject to interpretation. With a twisted spine that was causing me pain -- that wasn't in my head, that was in my bones.

Get ready to meet your new best TV friends: "Best Friends Forever" (premieres Wed., Apr. 4, 8:30 p.m. ET on NBC) is the kind of show you're gonna want to hang out with every week. Just trust me.

Written, created by and starring funny ladies (and real-life friends) Jessica St. Clair and Lennon Parham, "Best Friends Forever" is a sweet, funny, so-true-it-doesn't-feel-like-a-sitcom kind of sitcom. I visited the set and instantly fell in love with the whole vibe, but watching these two women work together reminded me of those "Best Friends" split heart charms you got with your grade school partner in crime -- they just fit together.

In this case, when Jessica (the "Be/Fri" half of the heart charm) gets served divorce papers, she moves back in with the friend who completes her, Lennon (the "st/ends" half of the heart charm). The only thing that can come between these two perfectly split halves is Lennon's new live-in boyfriend, Joe (played by Luka Jones).

Here's the gist:
Lennon: "Essentially it's a story about two best friends who are so close -- it's like that romantic relationship that girls have in middle school that travels with them."
Jessica: "Someone brought this up to us: The word 'friendsbians.' You're so close you might as well be having sex, but you're not. [Laughs.] So really it's a love story about two women. It's a romantic comedy, but instead of a boy and girl, it's Jessica and Lennon."
Lennon: "And the twist is that a month ago, I moved my forever boyfriend, who's the love of my life, into my old apartment and now Jess is back. So I'm having to balance the two of them for the first time together in the same place."

They complete each other's stories like this a lot, in real life and on the show. It makes viewers feel even more "inside" than just eavesdropping on a chat between good friends -- it makes you feel like you're in their company. And the way St. Clair and Parham write has a lot to do with that.

How does Kelly Clarkson celebrate her two Academy of Country Music wins? By singing Britney Spears' pop hit "Til the World Ends," of course!

"I thought this might be a fun one that you all might enjoy," Clarkson told the crowd at a recent concert. "I'm going to sing it a little differently ... I love that song."

Clarkson covered the pop princess' hit single Tuesday night in Los Angeles, as a part of her nationwide Stronger tour, but she put her own acoustic spin on the infamous dance track. The first "American Idol" winner slowed it down but still managed to bring the cheering fans to their feet.

The Fray should take note. This is how you properly rework a song.

Clarkson's latest album Stronger is currently holding steady at No. 19 on the Billboard 200 albums chart.

Speaking of covers, check out some of our favorite "Somebody That I Used to Know" covers below. The Gotye song will next be covered on "Glee."

Jeremy Renner is poised to become the next A-list star thanks to "The Avengers" and "The Bourne Legacy," which means it's just as good a time as any to revisit the time Christina Aguilera passed out at his birthday party.

The incident happened last year during a soiree to celebrate Renner's 40th birthday. At the time, the star was quoted as telling friends that he found Aguilera with her then-boyfriend in one of his bedrooms.

"I run up and open the door and I'm like, 'Um, hi. What are you doing?' She just starts slurring," he reportedly said at the time. "Her boyfriend was rubbing her back. Who comes to someone's birthday party that they don't know and gets in their bed?! My parents were there!"

Looking back on that fateful night with The Hollywood Reporter, Renner seemed a bit more level-headed.

"She was just chilling in one of the bedrooms," he said in a new interview. "I was happy to meet her. I was a big fan. Mind you, I was probably pretty shit-bagged at the time."

About that: during his sit-down with THR, Renner revealed that he likes to get "wasted" and took drugs when he was younger.

He's also got a history of violence -- which you might remember, if you saw the story about him being involved in a Thailand bar fight that left one man stabbed with an axe.

"It was a silly, tragic accident that happened to this guy," Renner said of the fight, which happened at 4 a.m. local time. "He was saying stuff, and 20 people jumped on him. I was in flip-flops. I don't do bar fights. Did he deserve to get stabbed and almost murdered by 20 people? F--- no."

The Aussie television viewers will miss all the action of the fifth edition of the Indian Premier League, starting in Chennai (capital city of south Indian state Tamil Nadu) on Wednesday, due to a stalemate involving Australian television networks and Indian cricket administrators.



Network Ten held the rights for the first four seasons of the IPL but declined to broadcast last year's tournament, mainly because of the poor ratings and also because it coincided with a diversification of its One HD channel away from consisting solely of sport, according to The Age.



The newspaper also reported that it is believed the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has sought a hefty price whenever a new IPL TV rights contract has been discussed with Australian networks.



So now the only option left for the Australian cricket fans is to watch the eight-week tournament via the internet, streamed live at ipl.indiatimes.com and youtube.com/indiatimes.



The successor to Ten for the now-lapsed IPL rights, Fox Sports, is about to begin its broadcast of the West Indies Tests, while on weekends it has significant AFL, rugby league, rugby union and soccer commitments. (PTI)

A federal appeals court judge on Tuesday seemed to take offense to comments President Barack Obama made earlier this week in which he warned that if the Supreme Court overturned his signature health care overhaul it would amount to overreach by an "unelected" court.

The Supreme Court is set to issue a ruling later this year on whether to strike down some or all of the historic health care law.

During oral arguments in Houston in a separate challenge to another aspect of the federal health care law, U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Jerry Smith said Obama's comments troubled a number of people who have read them as a challenge to the authority of federal courts.

"I'm referring to statements by the president in the past few days to the effect, I'm sure you've heard about them, that it is somehow inappropriate for what he termed unelected judges to strike acts of Congress that have enjoyed, he was referring of course to Obamacare, to what he termed a broad consensus and majorities in both houses of Congress," Smith told Dana Kaersvang, an attorney with the Justice Department in Washington, D.C.

On Monday, Obama issued a direct challenge to the Supreme Court, saying he didn't believe the high court would take the "unprecedented" step of overturning a law passed by a strong majority of Congress.

"I want to be sure that you are telling us that the Attorney General and the Department of Justice do recognize the authority of the federal courts through unelected judges to strike acts of Congress or portions thereof in appropriate cases," Smith said.

A somewhat surprised Kaersvang told Smith the Justice Department does recognize this power by the courts and made reference to a landmark 1803 case that formed the basis for judicial review.

However, Smith ordered Kaersvang to submit a letter to the appeals court by Thursday stating the position of U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and the Justice Department on the concept of judicial review.

"The letter needs to be at least three pages, single spaced, no less and it needs to be specific. It needs to make specific reference to the president's statements," Smith said.

If you've been feeling a little down about your looks lately, having a drink (or just believing you've had a drink!) can make you feel more attractive, according to a new study.

French scientists have conducted two experiments indicating that the more alcohol you think you've had in a day will increase your self-confidence in your appearance, even if you haven't had any.

The Agence France-Presse reports the scientists conducted one experiment in a local bar where 19 people were asked to assess their attractiveness on a scale of one to seven. Their alcohol levels were then measured, and the results were pretty interesting: the higher the amount of booze that was drunk, the higher the self-confidence of the testee.

But what's even more interesting is what happened in phase two.

The scientists asked 94 men to taste-test a new fruit cocktail and deliver a filmed message. The testers told the volunteers that half would be given an alcoholic version and the others would be given a placebo.

Those who believed they had drunk alcohol gave themselves high self-assessments, regardless of whether they had actually ingested any booze, while those who had believed they hadn't had a sip of alcohol gave themselves a low assessment, even when there had been a hefty amount of liquor in their drinks. So, basically, believing is feeling! Said lead psychologist Laurent Begue:

"Our study shows that the mere fact of believing that you have drunk alcohol makes you feel more attractive. The alcohol dose has no effect in itself."

So, why is it that we feel sexier with a glass of wine in our hands? According to the article, it's "alcohol-related expectancy," meaning the more we drink, the hotter we think we are, because we're more at ease with others:

"The concept of alcohol is linked to social lubrication, to making you feel at ease with others."

The season five premiere of "Mad Men" is almost upon us, meaning we've been seeing lots of January Jones lately. Although she's been keeping busy on red carpets, Betty -- er, January was able to fit in some retail therapy on Wednesday, seen shopping at Yves Saint Laurent in New York.

Unfortunately, it seems January couldn't find time to get her pants appropriately hemmed. Either that, or she's preparing for a serious flood in Manhattan. Those are the only two explanations we can think of for Jones' flared, cropped jeans.

Paired with the sheer peasant blouse, the look was certainly... something. Check it out and tell us: should flared flood pants make a comeback?

It seems that the age old question -- do women prefer chocolate or sex -- has finally been answered. At least for Jezebel readers. The publication has just concluded it's month-long face-off of sexual acts vs. types of chocolate.

The winner? Good, old-fashioned sex -- missionary style. Missionary trounced it's final competitor, brownies, by a wopping 6,350 votes to 3,443 votes. However, a survey from last October concluded that women thought about food and dieting more than they thought about sex, and in June Elle Canada reported on a study that found women found sex and chocolate equally compelling.

It's understandably a tough call. Chocolate is not only delicious, but has been shown to have (in moderation) a few health benefits, including decreased stroke risk, UV protection for your skin, improved blood flow and elevated mood. And besides being (hopefully) pleasurable, sex can help you burn calories, boost your immune system and lower your stress levels.

However from the looks of Jezebel's showdown, ladies would rather get down than chow down. This made us wonder what our readers would choose to give up. So vote! (And we've added a third option to make the stakes a little more interesting.)

Five Albuquerque Station Eight firefighters who won a $10,000 share of the Mega Millions jackpot last week have decided to donate an unspecified part of their winnings to fellow fireman Vince Cordova, who is suffering from a life-threatening tumor.

"We decided to get tickets ten minutes before the sales closed," said Capt. Jed Hyland told local news affiliate KOB. "I ran in shouting that we hit 5 of the 6 numbers."

After convincing their fellow firemen that it wasn't an April Fools' joke, Hyland and his four fellow winners (Steve Keffer, Paul McClure, Clinton Anderson and Si Do) decided to donate part of their winnings to the local firefighters Survival Fund. "Everybody at the station agreed that this would be a good opportunity," Hyland said.

KOAT reports that Cordova, 24, has a rare aggressive tumor that puts pressure on his brain. He'll die if the tumor isn't removed, but life-saving surgery from a specialist in Los Angeles costs several hundred thousand dollars.

While the $10,000 is only a small portion of Cordova's total medical bills, his fellow firemen hope that their donation will help raise awareness and encourage others to donate.

KRQE News 13 reports that Cordova has already undergone two of the three necessary operations, with the final to be performed on Wednesday.

"I'm nervous. I'm scared. I've got these butterflies in my stomach that just won't leave, but I'm hanging in there," Cordova told the station in an interview before his first operation on Saturday. "I can't believe that the fireman bond is so strong."

"I just want to tell everyone thank you for standing by me and staying strong," Cordova said. "Thank you for believing in me, and I promise to see you guys soon!"

"The kid's a Communist, the father is a mortician; does the mother run a leper colony?" Try the veal, y'all!

The first trailer for Woody Allen's "To Rome With Love" has arrived and it's as Woody Allen-y as you would hope. Jokes about Communism, misery, infidelity, intelligence, sexually adventurous brunettes, and nebbishes abound, as do a pair of big-screen revivals: Allen himself and Roberto Benigni.

In "To Rome With Love," a quasi-omnibus tale of a bunch of Americans and Italians living and loving in Italy, Allen appears in front of the camera for the first time since "Scoop" in 2006. The good news: He hasn't lost one smidgen of comic timing, as evidenced by his delightful repartee with nominal Allen regular, Judy Davis. Also: this looks a lot better than "Scoop"!

As for Benigni, the former Best Actor winner last appeared onscreen in "The Tiger and the Snow" in 2005; in "Love," he plays an Italian under some heavy media scrutiny.

Starring Allen and Benigni as well as Alec Baldwin, Penelope Cruz (as an Italian prostitute), Jesse Eisenberg, Ellen Page and Greta Gerwig, "To Rome With Love" arrives in theaters on June 22. Allen's last film was "Midnight in Paris," which won him a Best Original Screenplay Oscar and earned $148 million worldwide at the box office.

Divers searching an icy Alaska lake found a body they believe is of 18-year-old barista Samantha Koenig, who was abducted two months ago from a drive-up coffee stand, authorities said Monday.

A dive team recovered the body in icy Matanuska Lake, about 35 miles northeast of Anchorage, Police Chief Mark Mew told reporters at a news conference, and will conduct forensic tests to confirm that it belongs to Samantha Koenig.

Investigators believe she died within hours of her Feb. 1 abduction from the Anchorage coffee stand, Mew said.

"Investigators further believe that the person responsible for Samantha's death acted alone, and we're confident we have that person in custody," he said, adding that charges for Koenig's kidnapping and murder "will be forthcoming."

The sole person held in connection with Koenig's disappearance is Israel Keyes, a 34-year-old Anchorage construction contractor.

He was arrested last month in Lufkin, Texas, and charged in federal court with illegally using another person's bank card to withdraw cash in various states. He has pleaded innocent and was being held without bail.


Anchorage barista Samantha Koenig, 18, in this police file image.

Koenig was forced from her coffee stand at the end of her evening shift by what appeared to be an armed man, according to security-camera video. The video was not publicly distributed, but police said it showed a thin white man abducting the barista.

Self-defense lessons
The case has gained a lot of attention in Anchorage. Posters of Koenig have been prominently displayed around town and family members and friends established a reward fund for information leading to her return. Supporters have held candlelight vigils for the missing teen, and volunteers have offered self-defense lessons to other Anchorage baristas.

News came from Bank of Baroda; the bank is going to recruit 2000 clerks. But you must be aware that bank will give opportunity to those candidates who earlier participate in IBPS clerk common written exam and received the score card. This exam was conducted by IBPS on 27th November and 4th December 2011.

Bank of Baroda Clerk Recruitment 2012 details

Vacancies: Total 2000 vacancies for clerk post. Please note that these vacancies are distributed to various states.

Pay Scale: One you select for clerk positions you will get salary under pay band Rs. 7200 – 19300 plus DA, HRA, etc.

Eligibility Criteria for clerk post

Nationality: Candidates should be an Indian Citizen

Age: Age should be between 18 years to 28 years as on 1st July, 2011. Plus three years upper age relaxation for OBC category candidates and plus five years upper age relaxation for SC and ST category. Please note that age relaxation is determined under government of India rules and guidelines.

Educational qualification: A degree (any discipline) from UGC recognized university.

Technical skills: Knowledge of computer and its applications

IBPS score: Total weighted score details given in advertisement. There are different cut off marks for each state. For this you need to see the full advertisement. Advertisement attachment given below of the post.

The candidate should have the knowledge of English language. They should be able to read, write and speak English language.

Selection process

According to the number of applications received, bank will prepared a list of short listed candidates on merit basis. Candidates who have the higher score will be rank in top order. Only short listed candidates will be invited for interview. Candidates will be informed by bank through call letter.

The next goal for candidates is to get qualifying marks in Interview. For General category candidates have to get 40% marks, if you are from reserved category you need to get 35%

If you looking for the interview venue, a week before the interview will be put on the website

Application fee and the procedure to apply online:

Bank has decide Rs. 150 (Rupee one hundred and fifty only) for General and OBC category candidates. Rs. 50 (Rupee fifty) only for candidates who belongs to SC/ST or PWD category. Fee is non refundable once paid will not be given back any circumstances.

Fee can be deposit online for offline mode. If you are choosing online mode you can pay online through your master card, visa card, credit card or net banking of any bank. Applicant must take the printout of the e-receipt which will have to be produced, if called for interview.

Fee can be paid offline mode also, for this candidates required to download challan form from bank's official website in recruitment section. After download fill the challan form and go to your nearest Bank of Baroda branch and deposit fee in favour of Bank of Baroda, Bandra Kurla Complex Branch, Mumbai, account number. 29040200000257.

After deposit fee log on to the Bank of Baroda website i.e. www.bankofbaroda.com, Go to the recruitment section, click on apply online link for clerk post, fill the required information with fee details and click on submit button.

Important Dates:

Online Registration starting Date : 24th March, 2012
Last date of registration by candidates : 10th April, 2012

Although soccer may be referred to as the "beautiful game," there is sometimes no substitute for unadorned power. Upon controlling a pass about 40 yards from goal against Osasuna on Sunday, Real Madrid superstar Cristiano Ronaldo fired off a laser strike that showed off his impressive strength.

After sending his shot whistling past the opposing goalkeeper, Ronaldo pulled up his shorts to reveal his muscled right thigh to the fans. He flexed his leg and pointed to it, seeming to thank his powerful peg for his most recent golazo. Of course, it's also possible that Ronaldo was merely paying homage to actress Angelina Jolie with this one-leg salute. Regardless, this goal staked Madrid to a 2-0 lead in the 37th minute of the first half.

Earlier, Ronaldo had assisted on the opening goal by sending a long cross across the penalty box to Karim Benzema who deftly volleyed the ball home.

Local midwife and doula Claudia Booker has a message for D.C.'s overachieving mom-types who want to take more than the recommended dose of placenta pills: don't.

On Wednesday, the Feminist Breeder's Facebook page had a feisty discussion with women sharing their placenta-eating plans in light of "Mad Men" actress January Jones' revelation to People magazine that consuming her placenta after giving birth helped her get her energy back.

New York magazine, among others, posits that placenta-eating is a veritable growing trend -- or at least it was in August 2011.

But just how common is the practice?

The always vibrant DC Urban Moms forum has had some of its own placenta-eating discussions -- one back in December, another in February that was especially fiery. (More current DCUM discussions are equally fascinating: they include "I'm fat ask me anything," "I’m 'closet' anti-LBGT" and "What if George Zimmerman DID act in self defense?".)

Citing purported health benefits and the prevalence of placenta-eating amongst non-human animals, a lot of the moms in these conversations said that they have eaten or will eat their placentas after giving birth. A fair number seemed passive-aggressively horrified.

I think its gross and that there are other ways to get iron, but to each her own.

Whatever, Hannibel Lecter. Try it with some fava beans.

Animals do this to hide their babies and keep them safe from predators. For a human, this is so beyond disgusting.

"Well, with middle-aged women, it gets easier to put it on and harder to take it off." At the ripe not-so-old age of 34, Betty (Draper) Francis is sitting in her doctor's office facing two of her worst nightmares -- she's "old" and "fat."

Last night's episode of "Mad Men" brought Betty back into the spotlight after she was noticeably left out of the season premiere. And though her storyline included a cancer scare and an almost-touching phone call with ex-husband Don, all anyone could talk about -- including Betty herself -- was her very noticeable weight gain. The opening sequence starkly contrasted Betty struggling to get into her party clothes and ultimately faking sick to get out of going to an event, with the thinner and younger Megan, who had no trouble at all getting zipped into her mod mini-dress for a meeting with Don and a Heinz executive. The aspirational Betty Draper that every fashion blogger felt compelled to write about during the show's first few seasons is officially a thing of the past. Just as Don is facing the prospect of getting older and therefore irrelevant, so too is former-model Betty.

Betty's fear of permanently losing her lithe figure is compounded by a visit from her mother-in-law, Pauline. The elder Mrs. Francis tells Betty that she has a wifely duty to lose the weight in order to keep her husband attracted to her. "Honey, I know how it happens. You get comfortable and you give up a little bit, and then it just gets out of control," Pauline, a larger woman herself, tells Betty. Then she advises her daughter-in-law, "There are things you can do about this, there are pills you can take."

Henry, Betty's politician husband, to his credit, never once shames her for her changing looks. I can't say the same for "Mad Men" viewers, many of whom appear to see Betty's weight gain as a reason in and of itself to dislike her. (Personally, I find her generally cold and selfish demeanor to be a far more compelling one.)

Nicki Minaj's latest album, Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded, hits stores in the U.S. on Tuesday. To prepare our readers for the album (which is not getting the best reviews), HuffPost Entertainment listened to every single song in one sitting and wrote down the lines that stood out. (For a track-by-track preview, head over to The Boombox.)

Ahead, the 19 most laughable:

1. "I am the ultimate Svengali, you b-----s can't even spell that." - "Roman Holiday"

2. "Quack quack to a duck and a chicken too / Put the hyena in a freakin' zoo!" - "Roman Holiday"

3. "When I'm sitting with Anna, I'm really sitting with Anna / Ain't a metaphor punchline, I'm really sitting with Anna." - "Come on a Cone"

4. "My ice is so cold, it should come on a cone." - "Come on a Cone"

5. "If you weren't so ugly, I'd put my d--k in your face / (singing) D--k in your face, Put my d--k in your face, yeah." - "Come on a Cone"

6. "Hit up Hot Topic, Nicki Minaj hoodies / I'm a Brand bitch I'm a BRAND." - "I Am Your Leader"

7. "N----s move weight and sell but live in Hoboken," - "I Beez In the Trap"

8. "Superbowl; Grammys / What a hell of a jammie!" - "HOV Lane"

9. "It ain't your split game, it's your d--k game." - "Right by My Side"

10. "Starships were meant to fly." - "Starships"

11. "Hey, you, jump in this ride / It's real nice, and slippery inside." - "Whip It"

12. "Bring the bill, Ri-ri-ri-ri-ring the bill / Br-bri-bri-bri-bring the bill, Bri-bri-bring the bill" - "Automatic" (Ed. note: Dubstep!)

13. "I see you in here dancing / Your preview is quite romantic." - "Beautiful Sinner"

14. "I didn't know that bad could look so good / You are the type of bad that feels so good." - "Beautiful Sinner"

Rihanna has officially thrown her hat in the ring for the role of Whitney Houston if there is ever to be a biopic and a role to be played.

Reports recently abounded that record label executive Clive Davis was heading up efforts to make a biographical film to honor his close friend, but Davis has since denied the rumors.

Rihanna was reportedly being considered for the role, but she recently revealed that she would "love" to portray the legend.

"That would be something that I would have to give my entire life to do because I would want to really pull it off," Rihanna told The Press Association. "That's a huge, huge role and whoever does it has to do a good job."

Rihanna was on the short list of contenders for the role, along with Jennifer Hudson, Vivica Fox and "Sparkle" star Jordin Sparks. Brandy was also mentioned in some reports.

Though Rihanna may lack acting experience compared to the other candidates, she's not completely new to the industry. The Talk That Talk singer is set to debut her acting abilities in her first film, "Battleship," alongside Alexander Skarsgard, Brooklyn Decker and Liam Neeson. The sci fi thriller will be released in the U.S. in May.

But for Rihanna, portraying Whitney is not so much about acting experience, but about the chance to represent her musical inspiration on the big screen.

"My first song that I remember falling in love with was a Whitney Houston song -- 'I Will Always Love You,'" Rihanna said. "It was really inspiring and it made me develop a passion for music, so really she's partly responsible for me being here in this industry."

These days, most people consider themselves lucky if a new car lasts 5 to 10 years. Make it to 100,000 miles in your vehicle, and the car company might make a commercial about you. That makes 93-year-old Rachel Veitch a notable exception. Veitch is retiring her 1964 Mercury Comet Caliente after more than 576,000 miles on the road.

"I am legally blind, so I can no longer drive my lovely Chariot," Veitch told FoxNews.com. "They don't have to take it away, I would not dream of driving that car again." The car itself is fine, but Veitch has macular degeneration in both her eyes, making her legally blind. After running a red light in March, she decided to voluntarily give up the vehicle she's been driving since Lyndon Johnson occupied the White House.

"I have taken it in stride," she said. "I don't have cancer, I don't have Lou Gehrig's disease. I am lucky."

Yet for all the miles she has put on her vehicle, it doesn't come close to the world record. The Truth About Cars blog wrote that Irv Gordon's 1966 Volvo P1800 is scheduled to reach 3 million miles this year. Gordon has held the record in the Guinness Book of World Records for most miles on a noncommercial vehicle since 1998.

Even without the world record, Vietch is fond of noting that the car has outlasted three marriages. Mechanically, it's worn through three sets of shocks, 18 batteries and eight mufflers. Veitch bought the car in February 1964 for just $3,289.

She credits the longevity to a "near-obsessive" approach to the car's maintenance. "I've never been a destructive person and I've just taken care of everything, except my husbands," she told FoxNews.

Veitch, who appeared with the vehicle on an August 2010 episode of the "Tonight Show," said she would be happy to sell the vehicle to host Jay Leno, a known car afficionado. She's not sure if Leno would be interested, but her four children, nine grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren, aren't in line.

"Start drinking...now," says Alec Baldwin as club owner Dennis Dupree in the new trailer for "Rock of Ages." Good thinking, Dennis!

Not that you needed any further proof that Adam Shankman's adaptation of the famed jukebox musical was the party event of the summer, but the newest tease for the film highlights Tom Cruise's pet monkey. Yes: this is one of those movies.

Based on the Tony Award-nominated musical, "Rock of Ages" follows a small town girl living in a lonely world (Julianne Hough) who comes to Los Angeles with stars in her eyes and hairspray in her purse. There, she meets a good-hearted dreamer (Diego Boneta) and gets wooed by the rock-and-roll lifestyle, embodied by Stacee Jaxx (Cruise). Russell Brand, Paul Giamatti and Catherine Zeta-Jones are along for the ride too, as are covers of your favorite '80s songs -- ones that Ryan Murphy thankfully hasn't touched on "Glee" just yet. (Let's hear it for "Wanted Dead or Alive" as sung by Cruise!)

It all looks perfectly goofy, which is fitting since "Rock of Ages" is perfectly goofy. After all, there aren't many Broadway shows that sell Coors Light by the can.

Watch the trailer above, and check out a gallery of the best hairstyles "Rock of Ages" has to offer below. If you'd like to report a hair crime, call your local chapter of the wig police.

Oakland officials on Monday evening named the suspect arrested in the shootings at a small Christian college that killed seven and wounded three others earlier in the day as a 43-year-old man with the surname Goh.

At a press briefing with Oakland mayor Jean Quan and others, Police Chief Howard Jordan said the suspect was believed to be an Oakland resident. He said police had not identified a motive, nor did the suspect have any known criminal history.

Witnesses who were in the classroom where the shootings took place said the suspect first ordered students to line up against a wall and then pulled a handgun, the Oakland Tribune reported.

"The people started running and he started shooting," said Gurpreet Sahota, who relayed an account to the Tribune from his sister-in-law, Dawinder Kaur, 19.

The suspect, identified by the school as an ex-nursing student at Oikos University, had been absent for months before the incident, students in the class told the newspaper.

Chief Jordan said the suspect apparently comandeered a victim's car and drove it to Alameda, where he turned himself in to police at a Safeway store there, about five miles from the shootings.

Initial reports of the shooting said five had been killed. The City of Oakland later announced a higher toll.

"Ten people were injured during this morning's shooting, 7 of which are fatalities," Cynthia Perkins, a public safety official, said in a statement.

Some of the wounded at Oikos University were taken away by ambulance, while others were cared for outside the building, the Oakland Tribune reported.

The school's director said the suspect was no longer enrolled at Oikos, but he was unsure if the man had been expelled or dropped out, the Tribune reported.

In its web site, Oikos says it aims to provide "a Christian education based on solid Christian doctrine and ideology."

The institution, established in 2008, does not appear on the U.S. Department of Education list of accredited postsecondary institutions and programs. It has California state accreditation to award degrees in theology, music, Asian medicine and nursing.

Mega Millions mania has plunged a Maryland McDonald’s into a bubbling cauldron of controversy hotter than a deep-fried apple pie.

Workers at the fast-food joint who pooled their cash for tickets are furious at a colleague who claims she won with a ticket she bought for herself and has no intention of sharing.

“We had a group plan, but I went and played by myself. [The ‘winning’ ticket] wasn’t on the group plan,” McDonald’s “winner’’ Mirlande Wilson 37, told The Post yesterday, insisting she alone bought one of the three tickets nationwide that will split a record $656 million payout.
MONEY TROUBLES: Mirlande Wilson (above) claims she purchased a winning Mega Millions ticket for herself and won’t share it with co-workers in her pool, including Davon Wilson and Suleiman Osman Husein.
William Farrington
MONEY TROUBLES: Mirlande Wilson (above) claims she purchased a winning Mega Millions ticket for herself and won’t share it with co-workers in her pool, including Davon Wilson and Suleiman Osman Husein.
MONEY TROUBLES: Mirlande Wilson claims she purchased a winning Mega Millions ticket for herself and won’t share it with co-workers in her pool, including Davon Wilson and Suleiman Osman Husein (above, from left).
William Farrington
MONEY TROUBLES: Mirlande Wilson claims she purchased a winning Mega Millions ticket for herself and won’t share it with co-workers in her pool, including Davon Wilson and Suleiman Osman Husein (above, from left).
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“I was in the group, but this was separate. The winning ticket was a separate ticket,” the single mother of seven said as she and her fiancé left her home in the squalid Westport neighborhood to attend church.

The Haitian immigrant refused to show what she said was the winning ticket, claiming she had it hidden in another location and would present it to lottery officials today.

Pressed as the day went on, she became more cagey.

“I don’t know if I won. Some of the numbers were familiar. I recognized some of [them],’’ she said. “I don’t know why’’ people are saying differently. “I’m going to go to the lottery office [today]. I bought some tickets separately.”

With winning tickets also sold in Illinois and Kansas, a single Maryland winner would get an after-tax lump sum of $105 million, or $5.59 million a year for 26 years.

If Wilson won, and if it was with a pooled work ticket, the situation would be shockingly similar to that of New Jersey lottery louse Americo Lopes, who tried to screw five former colleagues after hitting a $24 million jackpot before a jury ordered him to spread the wealth.

Wilson’s co-workers — who make little more than $7.50 an hour — are sizzling with anger over the notion.

“She can’ t do this to us!” said Suleiman Osman Husein, a shift manager and one of 15 members in the pool. “We each paid $5. She took everybody’s money!”

A man identifying himself as the boyfriend of a McDonald’s manager named Layla, who was part of the pool, said Wilson bought tickets for the group at the 7-Eleven in Milford Mill, where the winning ticket was sold.

The group’s tickets — along with a list of those who contributed to the pool — were left in an office safe at the burger joint, said the man, who gave only his first name, Allen, as he stood next to Layla. She declined to comment.

Then, late Friday, before the night’s drawing, the owner of the McDonald’s, Birul Desai, gave Wilson $5 to buy more tickets for the pool on her way home from work, and she went back to the 7-Eleven and bought them, Allen said.

Wilson took those tickets home with her, Allen said.

But Wilson insisted yesterday that she had bought the second batch with an unidentified pal — not for the pool — and that the winning ticket was among them.

A major donor to President Barack Obama has been accused of defrauding a businessman and impersonating a bank official, creating new headaches for Obama's re-election campaign as it deals with the questionable history of another top supporter.

The New York donor, Abake Assongba, and her husband contributed more than $50,000 to Obama's re-election effort this year, federal records show. But Assongba is also fending off a civil court case in Florida, where she's accused of thieving more than $650,000 to help build a multimillion-dollar home in the state — a charge her husband denies.

Obama is the only presidential contender this year who released his list of "bundlers," the financiers who raise campaign money by soliciting high-dollar contributions from friends and associates. But that disclosure has not come without snags; his campaign returned $200,000 last month to Carlos and Alberto Cardona, the brothers of a Mexican fugitive wanted on federal drug charges.

Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt declined comment to The Associated Press. He instead referred the AP to previous statements he made to The Washington Post, which first reported the allegations against Assongba in its Sunday editions. LaBolt told the paper 1.3 million Americans have donated to the campaign, and that it addresses issues with contributions promptly.

Assongba was listed on Obama's campaign website as one of its volunteer fundraisers — a much smaller group of about 440 people.

Assongba and her husband, Anthony J.W. DeRosa, run a charity called Abake's Foundation that distributes school supplies and food in Benin, Africa. A photo posted on Assongba's Facebook page shows the couple standing next to Obama at a May 2010 fundraiser.

In one Florida case, which is still ongoing, Swiss businessman Klaus-Werner Pusch accused Assongba in 2009 of engaging him in an email scam — then using the money to buy a multimillion-dollar home, the Post reported. The suit alleges Assongba impersonated a bank official to do it. Pusch referred the AP's questions to his attorney, who did not immediately return requests seeking comment Sunday.

Meanwhile, Assongba has left a trail of debts, with a former landlord demanding in court more than $10,000 in back rent and damages for a previous apartment. She was also evicted in 2004 after owing $5,000 in rent, records show.

In an interview with the AP on Sunday, DeRosa said the allegations against his wife were untrue, although he couldn't discuss specifics because of pending litigation. He said he and Assongba were

The voice heard crying for help on a 911 call just before Trayvon Martin was shot to death was not that of George Zimmerman, according to two forensic voice identification experts, one of whom told MSNBC on Sunday that he believes the evidence is strong enough to use in court.

"The tests concluded that it's not the voice of Mr. Zimmerman," Tom Owen, of Owen Forensic Services LLC and chair emeritus for the American Board of Recorded Evidence, told MSNBC.

Asked if he thought such tests would be admissible in court, Owen said "yes" and noted he had recently used similar testing in testimony at a Connecticut murder case that involved 911 call.


The conclusions of Owen and another audio expert were first reported by the Orlando Sentinel on Saturday.

Zimmerman told police that he screamed for help during his confrontation with Martin, 17. He claims the shooting was self-defense.

The 911 call, reposted in this YouTube clip, came on the night of Feb. 26 from a woman who reported someone crying out for help in a gated community in Sanford, Fla.

In the recording of her phone call, panicked cries and a gunshot are heard.

Owen told the newspaper that the software compared the screams to Zimmerman's voice and returned a 48 percent match. He said he would expect a match of higher than 90 percent, considering the quality of the audio.

"As a result of that, you can say with reasonable scientific certainty that it's not Zimmerman," Owen told the Sentinel.

But he also said he could not confirm the voice as Trayvon's, because he didn't have a sample of the teen's voice.

How much do single women value sex? According to a new survey, it depends where you live.

Online dating site, Chemistry.com, asked over 10 million singles across the country whether they strongly believed that sex was an essential part of a relationship. The question was part of a larger personality test, overseen by the website’s chief scientific adviser, biological anthropologist Dr. Helen Fisher and addressed both men and women. After breaking down the data, Chemistry.com looked at the 10 cities that held the largest concentration of women who "strongly agreed" that sex was essential.

While not new, the idea that women are into sex has received particular attention from researchers and the media in the last year. A July 2011 study found that sexual satisfaction was more important to women in long-term relationships than frequent kissing or cuddling. And contrary to popular myth, women rated sexual satisfaction as more key to a lasting relationship than their male counterparts did. When it comes to singles, Match.com's survey of 6,000 men and women from February indicated the single women were significantly less likely to settle for a partner that they didn't find sexually attractive than men were. And in her new book "The Richer Sex," journalist Liza Mundy predicts that in the near future, women will want sex more than men.

Scroll down to see Chemistry.com's top 10 cities where women value sex. While California women overwhelmingly said that sex was very important in a relationship, Southern cities are glaringly absent from the top 10.

Adam Sandler can ditch the high heels. His movie Jack and Jill, in which he played the twin siblings in the leading roles, turned out to be a bigger drag than anyone expected.

On Sunday night, the critical dud "won" 10 of the 12 Razzies for which it was nominated – a new Razzies record – being "dis-honored" in the categories of worst picture, actor and actress, supporting actress (David Spade as "Monica"), supporting actor (Al Pacino as himself), screen ensemble, director (Dennis Dugan), remake/rip-off (of Ed Wood's notorious Glen or Glenda), screen couple (Sandler and Katie Holmes and/or Al Pacino and/or himself).

"It's not really a clean sweep," Razzies founder John Wilson tells PEOPLE, explaining that the 12 total nominations for the movie included more than one in the supporting acting categories. "So it will go into the record books with an asterisk."

The previous record holder was 2007's I Know Who Killed Me, starring Lindsay Lohan. It took home eight Razzies, including two for Lohan, who played twins.

With 657 voting members of the Golden Raspberry Award Foundation, the Razzies have been honoring the worst achievement in motion pictures for 32 years now.

This year's ceremony kicked off something new by not taking place on the night before the Oscars, but on April Fools' Day, instead. It also returned to Magicopolis in Santa Monica, Calif., a combination theater, magic shop and children's birthday venue. READ MORE

For Blake Shelton, a typical date night involves the company of his wife, Miranda Lambert and just one other thing.

"Uh, it entails dogs," says Shelton, 35, who graces the cover of PEOPLE Country's new Hottest Guys issue.

"Miranda loves to sit on the couch and watch movies and drink all night, and there will be at least four dogs piled up on us," says the country star, who's also a coach on The Voice.

And when his wife shakes her empty cup at him, "I go get her a drink," he says. "Whatever she needs. And she loves it. So that's an easy way for me to keep her happy."

For more of Shelton's hilarious interview, plus photos and updates on 25 other sexy Nashville men – as well as exclusive photos of Hillary Scott's wedding, Behind the Lyrics with Taylor Swift and more, pick up PEOPLE Country's April issue, on stands now

It was just another Tuesday evening in a normally quiet neighborhood in Pearland, Texas, where kids are often found playing with one another and driving go-carts.

A family had just returned from Galveston on a spring break excursion, when upon their return, all of a sudden the unthinkable happened.

“You don’t belong in this neighborhood!”

These are the words that Jules Moor, a 13-year old black child, says that Deanna Johnson, a middle-aged white female, said to him after Johnson slammed her 2011 Jeep Wrangler into his go-cart on Tuesday, March 13, 2012.


STRUCK BY VEHICLE - According to court documents obtained from Jules’ attorney, Sylvester Anderson, Jules went for a ride in his go-cart in his neighborhood with another 13-year old boy who had been spending spring break with the Moor family. A third minor boy, another friend of Jules’, rode a small bicycle behind the go-cart.

Jules saw two cars behind him while driving back home, so he decided to drive his go-cart completely off the road to his right onto the grassy edge of the neighborhood park to avoid being in the way of traffic.

It is then that Jules states that Johnson swung her vehicle across the south-bound lane of the road, ran over the curb onto the grass and deliberately and intentionally rammed her vehicle head-on into the go-cart.

According to Jules, Johnson got out of her vehicle and confronted the boys in a hostile and threatening manner yelling “Where do you live? Who are your parents?” while shaking her finger at the kids. Jules goes on to say, “With all due respect, Ma’am, I live down the street,” to which Johnson allegedly tells him that she didn’t care and that she was calling the police.

Jules called his mother and told her that Johnson had hit his go-cart and didn’t know why.

Police say a missing 11-year-old Dallas boy slowly starved to death after his parents locked him in his bedroom, feeding him just bread and water.

Police received a call on Friday from the grandfather of Johnathan Ramsey, who was concerned about his grandson because he had not seen him for at least nine months and possibly as long as a year, myFOXdfw.com reported.

During interviews with the child's father and stepmother, police received conflicting accounts of what happened to the boy.

The questioning led police to believe the child had died and search teams on Saturday began looking for his remains in a large field.

The father, 34-year-old Aaron Ramsey, and the stepmother, 31-year-old Elizabeth Ramsey, were arrested and charged with first-degree felony charges of injury to a child. They remained in custody Sunday, with bail set at $500,000 each.

Police records reveal that in the last few months of Johnathan's life he was locked in his bedroom and fed "military rations" -- bread, water and occasionally milk -- as punishment for bad behavior, The Dallas Morning News reported.

Aaron Ramsey, who once served in the military, told police that his son had begun acting in a violent manner early last year, including punching his stepmother in the stomach, causing her to have a miscarriage.

After that incident he hit the child and locked him in his bedroom, where he remained until his death, slowly withering from 90 pounds to about 60 pounds between March and August last year.

Elizabeth Ramsey described the boy as "looking like one of those kids you see on commercials from Africa," in interviews with police. She described him "as being really thin and explained that he was unable to walk at times due to loss of strength."

Aaron Ramsay said sometime in August last year he found the boy unresponsive on the floor of his bedroom and, after washing his body, placed him in a sleeping bag before dumping the body in a storm shelter of a vacant house nearby.

Later he dumped the boy's body in a wooded area -- leading to the search Saturday, which was called off about 5:00pm local time without anything being found.

"I thought a break from 'Family Guy' would be a good thing," Seth MacFarlane told The Huffington Post after debuting footage from his new comedy, "Ted," at the South By Southwest Film Festival in Austin last month. Though not too much of a break. The restricted trailer for MacFarlane's feature-film directorial debut has arrived online, and it not only showcases MacFarlane's familiar voice work as the titular Ted -- a stuffed teddy bear that magically comes to life one fateful night -- but also his signature dirty sense of humor.

Written and directed by MacFarlane, and starring Mark Wahlberg and Mila Kunis, "Ted" follows a Massachusetts-born man named John (Wahlberg) who, when he was a kid, wished his teddy bear would come to life. The bear does, and "Ted" picks up with John and Ted as 30-something burn-outs -- something that John's long-term girlfriend (Kunis) grows increasingly unhappy with.

The R-rated comedy combines live-action and animation.

"One of the great things when we finally got [the effects done], was that Mark was so good and so convincing," MacFarlane said at SXSW. "When we finally put the bear in, it felt so organic and so real. It would sink or swim on whether you believe these two guys were together."

Judge for yourself by watching the red band trailer above. "Ted" arrives in theaters on July 13.

The 2012 Academy of Country Music Awards kicked off in typical fashion, with veteran co-hosts Blake Shelton and Reba McEntire trading barbs about current events and their fellow country superstars. However, one joke involving a well-known bit of gossip seemed to genuinely stun one of the superstars in the audience--namely, Taylor Swift.

Shelton and McEntire, while cracking a few jokes about current NFL darling Tim Tebow, made reference to the rumor that the uber-famous quarterback had gone on a date with Swift--a report that made headlines all over at the end of February. "Now we know what he's been praying for," Shelton deadpanned.

When the camera flashed on Swift, the blond singer had a baffled look on her face. Now, we know Swift is notorious for her dramatic on-air reactions, but in this case it appeared to be the real thing.

The incident sparked some chatter on Twitter, with viewers mostly chuckling about the joke. "Taylor Swift was looking extra salty after that Tim Tebow joke, HA!" one fan tweeted, while another enthused, "Oh T-Swift you're just too cute. And you so just confirmed that date with Tebow."

Other fans felt Shelton went too far: "He was making fun of Tim Tebow and Taylor swift," read a disgruntled tweet. "It was just rude."Taylor Swift--"What you talkin' about, Blake?"

Swift is up for several awards at the ACMs, including the coveted entertainer and female artist of the year categories. Early winners included Miranda Lambert for album of the year, Lady Antebellum for group of the year, Toby Keith for video of the year, Jason Aldean for vocal event and single of the year, and Thompson Square for duo of the year.

A few days ago on Twitter, after I said that fans would be yelling "Holy shit" after the "Spartacus: Vengeance" season finale, a fan responded to me with a question: Could anything in the season's final episode top the moment in which Ilythia killed Seppia and then had sex with Glaber?

I'm going to say the answer is yes.

Let's review, shall we? "Spartacus" killed off Oenomaus (NO!); "Spartacus" killed off Glaber by shoving a sword down his throat (okay, so he had it coming, but damn, I loved that character this season); "Spartacus" killed off Ashur (OK, so I saw that one coming -- nobody who predicts a golden future for themselves ever lives long on this show, but damn! Ashur!); "Spartacus" killed off Lucretia (Noooooo!); and not only that, the show killed off a newborn baby, gods help us -- Spartacus' own son, according to Ilythia, who herself was mortally wounded in the closing minutes of the episode. (And by the way, if you want to know if Ilythia's really dead and how Lucy Lawless feels about the demise of Lucretia, read my interviews with Lawless and "Spartacus" creator Steven DeKnight here.)

It was completely insane, and yet it made complete sense. And you know what I mean, because you're a "Spartacus" fan. That's what I love about this show: Love, logic, vengeance and mercy combine in ways that seem chaotic and nuts, but deep down, we know that everything that happens makes sense on both an intellectual and emotional level.

These "Holy shits!" are earned, my friends. Am I right?

Another thing I love: The show leaves everything on the table. They don't save plots and characters for a rainy day. Everyone is vulnerable and everyone's on the chopping block, all the time.

This season, "Spartacus" killed off major characters that any other show would have held onto for several more seasons. There's no bigger fan favorite than Oenomaus, but he was sent to his beloved wife in the afterlife. Thanks in part to great writing and in part to Parker's terrifically committed and nuanced performance, Glaber emerged as the guy you loved to hate this season, but he's now gone too. We have loved Miss Twisted herself, Lucretia of the House of Batiatus, for two seasons and a prequel, and Lawless has established the character as one of the most memorable small-screen women in recent memory ... but she's gone too.

The Trayvon Martin case has exposed some of the media's worst tendencies--selective editing, rushing to judgment, stoking anger for ratings and page views--and it's taken more than fake photos, the incendiary stumbles of Geraldo Rivera and Spike Lee and verbal clashes between Piers Morgan and Toure to shine a light on them.

Here are three recent, troubling examples:

1. After ABC News aired surveillance video of George Zimmerman, Martin's shooter, entering a police precinct without any apparent injuries, the Daily Caller treated the tape like a Zapruder film, enhancing still images from the video and concluding that it found "what may be an injury to the back of his head." The site's photo "analysis" of the back of Zimmerman's head--replete with yellow Photoshopped arrows--"indicates what appears to be a vertical laceration or scar several inches long."

Keep in mind, this is the same Daily Caller that published 152 pages of what the conservative site claims were Martin's tweets--which, if they were, prove that Martin was a pretty typical high school male, preoccupied with girls, sex and getting out of class early.

2. NBC told the Washington Post that it has launched an internal investigation of the "Today" show's editorial process after its morning show aired an edited conversation between George Zimmerman and a 911 dispatcher recorded moments before the shooting. The investigation came after Fox News and others pointed out that the network spliced two parts of the call together, making it appear as if Zimmerman had said, "This guy looks like he's up to no good. He looks black." In reality, Zimmerman was answering a dispatcher's question:

A few days ago on Twitter, after I said that fans would be yelling "Holy shit" after the "Spartacus: Vengeance" season finale, a fan responded to me with a question: Could anything in the season's final episode top the moment in which Ilythia killed Seppia and then had sex with Glaber?

I'm going to say the answer is yes.

Let's review, shall we? "Spartacus" killed off Oenomaus (NO!); "Spartacus" killed off Glaber by shoving a sword down his throat (okay, so he had it coming, but damn, I loved that character this season); "Spartacus" killed off Ashur (OK, so I saw that one coming -- nobody who predicts a golden future for themselves ever lives long on this show, but damn! Ashur!); "Spartacus" killed off Lucretia (Noooooo!); and not only that, the show killed off a newborn baby, gods help us -- Spartacus' own son, according to Ilythia, who herself was mortally wounded in the closing minutes of the episode. (And by the way, if you want to know if Ilythia's really dead and how Lucy Lawless feels about the demise of Lucretia, read my interviews with Lawless and "Spartacus" creator Steven DeKnight here.)

It was completely insane, and yet it made complete sense. And you know what I mean, because you're a "Spartacus" fan. That's what I love about this show: Love, logic, vengeance and mercy combine in ways that seem chaotic and nuts, but deep down, we know that everything that happens makes sense on both an intellectual and emotional level.

These "Holy shits!" are earned, my friends. Am I right?

Another thing I love: The show leaves everything on the table. They don't save plots and characters for a rainy day. Everyone is vulnerable and everyone's on the chopping block, all the time.

This season, "Spartacus" killed off major characters that any other show would have held onto for several more seasons. There's no bigger fan favorite than Oenomaus, but he was sent to his beloved wife in the afterlife. Thanks in part to great writing and in part to Parker's terrifically committed and nuanced performance, Glaber emerged as the guy you loved to hate this season, but he's now gone too. We have loved Miss Twisted herself, Lucretia of the House of Batiatus, for two seasons and a prequel, and Lawless has established the character as one of the most memorable small-screen women in recent memory ... but she's gone too.