No, this isn't a remake of Madonna's rom-com "Who's That Girl?" (1987), it's "The Hunger Games" star Jennifer Lawrence, vamping it up for last night's Toronto International Film Festival premiere of her buzzy new film, "Silver Linings Playbook."

Lawrence looked nothing like the stunner who made everyone say, "Who's THAT girl?" while walking the 2011 Academy Awards Red Carpet (above right), when she was nominated for her lead role in "Winter's Bone" (2010). On that red carpet, then 20-year-old Lawrence stole many a headline while rocking a Fancisco Costa designed Calvin Klein Collection gown that made Jessica Rabbit look frumpy.

In Toronto, Lawrence's look was… well, different. In fact, she's nearly unrecognizable! We're not saying she doesn't look amazing and elegant in her mostly-crimson, somewhat gothic, strapless Christian Dior Haute Couture gown and Dior black shoes, but Lawrence does look significantly more severe. The pencil-straight auburn hair stands out in sharp contrast to her easy, breezy, carefree blonde waves we've gotten used to. And the dark makeup and fingernails gravely accentuate the striking difference.

Perhaps Lawrence's new dramatic look is an early marketing push to land her an Oscar? There is certainly plenty of Oscar worthy buzz surrounding the quirky dramedy "Silver Linings Playbook," directed by David O. Russell and co-starring Bradley Cooper and Robert DeNiro. Lawrence and Cooper play two messed up, over medicated, therapy magnets who come together in hopes of finding some sanity in this crazy world, or at least some good company.

The Hollywood Reporter gushed over the film, especially over Lawrence and Cooper's obvious synergy: "The chemistry between Cooper and Lawrence makes them a delight to watch, their spiky rapport failing to conceal a mutual attraction."

Deadline notes the film "will almost certainly put stars Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence and Robert De Niro all in major contention for acting nominations. In fact, in what has previously looked like a pretty weak field for lead actress this year, Lawrence leaps to the front of the pack with a revelatory performance that seemed to knock most observers out."

 Russian opposition punk band Pussy Riot have released a new video in which they set fire to a portrait of President Vladimir Putin in a stunt likely to anger the Kremlin.

Three of the band's members - Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich - were last month given two-year jail sentences each after storming the altar of Moscow's main cathedral and staging a "punk prayer", calling on the Virgin Mary to rid Russia of Putin.

Their jail sentences - for the crime of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred - drew sharp international criticism with opposition groups saying the case was part of a Kremlin crackdown on dissent.

In August, the all-female collective said that two other band members who had taken part in the same cathedral protest had fled the country - the whereabouts of the roughly dozen other members who did not take part in the stunt is unknown.

In the new video, which was released on the Internet and featured three anonymous band members who were performing on behalf of their jailed friends, women donning balaclavas - the band's trademark -
are shown abseiling down the facade of an abandoned or under construction building.

A giant white banner depicting a guitar-wielding woman in a red miniskirt with the caption "Pussy Riot" is unfurled on the building's facade and, beneath it, smaller cardboard portraits of Putin and of Alexander Lukashenko, the president of Belarus, are shown hanging.

"We've been fighting for the right to sing, to think, to criticise. To be musicians and artists, ready to do everything to change our country, no matter the risks. We go on with our musical fight in Russia and our country is dominated by an evil man," female voices, speaking in English, exclaim in turns.

A MUM and daughter are about to go head to head  in the Miss Plus Size  International beauty pageant for bigger women.

Here, single mum of four and tea shop owner Michelle, 41, and budding  baker  Bianca, 23, from Charlton, south-east London, talk to JENNIFER  TIPPETT.


Michelle says

“FOR us, this is the ultimate mother-and-daughter experience — and to both  make the final after 400 ladies from around the world entered is a real  honour.

“We both really want to win and that’s great.

“And we’re the only mum-and-daughter BBW (Big Beautiful Women) team competing  in pageants globally.

“It just shows that us full-figured girls from south-east London can set the  standard and show the rest of the world how it’s done.

“I don’t consider either of us large. We’re in the middle.

“We’ve never dieted and I don’t consider it necessary.

“Sometimes we over-indulge on special occasions but who doesn’t?

“I have taught all my children the value of healthy food.

“We don’t sit around stuffing our faces. Everyone assumes because we are big  that we are lazy, which is just not true.

“It’s about time people appreciated that big women are part of society.

“As mum and daughter, we represent different ages and different sizes.

To be fair, a dancer doing their thing in public doesn't need any props to get noticed, but Scheinbert insists "it's not about the nudity."

"Now [pole dancing] is about acrobatics and trying to compete with somebody," Scheinbert said. "It's like playing H-O-R-S-E. One person does a move and another person tries to top it."

Andrew Katzander, founder of PoleRiders, a group of pole-based performance artists, believes that the activity is starting to become more mainstream and differentiated.

"There's a lot of dancers that have stayed with the whole high-heels and sexy moves, and others who have moved toward the gymnastic and athletic side of it," Katzander said. "Others are moving towards the more dance side of it."

A 12-year-old New York boy and his three 13-year-old friends accused of gang raping a 14-year-old girl over three days and attempting to rape another 12-year-old claimed in court today that the sex was consensual.

The boys, all students of Chestnut Ridge Middle School in Ramapo, have told the Rockland Family Court that they did not illegally enter the girls home and rape her on two different occasions and sexually attack another girl.

Giving evidence by closed circuit television to the court, the girl who is now 15, said that on the second day the boys let themselves into her home uninvited early on June 12th and took it in turns to rape her – only leaving that morning to catch a bus to school for an exam they didn’t want to miss.
One of the four boys who have not been identified accused of gang raping a 14-year-old girl walks away from Rockland Family Court with his parents with a jacket over his head

One of the four boys who have not been identified accused of gang raping a 14-year-old girl walks away from Rockland Family Court with his parents with a jacket over his head

In late August, the 15-year-old girl gave evidence from another room in the family court because prosecution psychologists had deemed it damaging for her to see the four defendants who are currently free under house supervision.

The teen claimed in evidence that the boys raped her again in the afternoon on the 12th and and finally returned on the 13th of June to rape her again but she told them she was menstruating and instead the boys attempted to attack a 12-year-old girl who was present in the home.

The older girl said that the attacks began on the morning of June 11th, when the boys entered the home, held her down and stripped her of her clothes, which she said she tried to resist.

‘I was yelling and screaming to leave me alone,’ she said, adding she felt ‘pain’ at being penetrated multiple times.

The 15-year-old claimed that in the afternoon of the 12th after they returned from school, the boys discovered her hiding in her parents  bedroom, overpowered her and held her down by her wrists while they took it in turns to rape her again.

Claiming that the boys knew where a key  to her front door was kept, the 15-year-old girl has testified that the  boys came back on the 12th and took it in turns to rape and sodomise her inside the bathroom.

The 15-year-old and 12-year-old girl who is now 13, didn’t tell their parents until a two days  after the alleged attacks.

In her testimony to the family court, the younger girl said that she kicked and screamed and bit two of the four boys as they tried to rape her on June 13th.

‘They pulled me into (the other girl’s) room. I was screaming, ‘Get off of me!’’, the girl told Rockland Family Court Judge Sherri Eisenpress according to The Journal News.

have pushed the price of smokes so high in some areas, it is literally more profitable to hijack a truck filled with cigarettes than an armored car.

The problem is worst in New York, which has the highest cigarette taxes in the land. In New York City, that tax is more than $5 a pack. Smugglers rush there from Virginia, which has the lowest state taxes on cigarettes, just 30 cents.

Now, they’re selling loose cigarettes – loosies, for 75 cents apiece on the black market.

Even 10 years ago, well before bigger tax hikes, Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms officials were saying traditional organized crime is involved in New York’s black market smokes, along with terrorist groups and street gangs. Numerous murders and shootings resulted.

You know who profits the most off of tobacco, besides smugglers?

That’s right, federal and state governments.

Tobacco companies’ operating profits are less than 50 cents a pack.

The feds get twice that, a whole dollar, thanks to a giant increase in 2009.

And many states, like New York, New Jersey and Rhode Island, make five to ten times as much in taxes than the manufacturers’ profit.

That’s why it costs more than $11 bucks for a pack of smokes in Manhattan.

And with a pack costing about $4 here, you can see the business opportunity for smugglers.

America’s history and tobacco are joined at the hip. Gold brought waves of settlers here in the mid 1800s, but before that, it was the golden leaf.

That’s why tobacco leaves adorn the state capitol.

Alexander Hamilton was the first to push tobacco taxes shortly after we declared independence, but we didn’t get serious about it until the Civil War drained the Union’s economy.

Tobacco taxes have soared in the past 20 years as smoking became one of the most reviled behaviors in the land.

Not only has it been blamed for deadly diseases, tobacco has been wrongly been labeled a financial drain to our society.

This is what happens when a legal product becomes so politically incorrect that we suspend the usual fair trade rules and allow governments to sin tax the hell out of it.

But no matter how horrible we say tobacco is, we don’t have the guts to make it illegal because we’re right there in bed with the tobacco companies.

And do you know who gets screwed the most? Poor people.

Ben & Jerry's considers "Ben & Cherry's" in bad taste.

The ice cream maker that introduced the flavors Schweddy Balls and Karamel Sutra sued the maker of "Ben & Cherry's" X-rated DVDs Wednesday, saying the "hardcore pornographic" films have smeared its reputation.

The trademark lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Manhattan said the sale of hardcore and exploitive pornographic DVDs and related goods is tarnishing Ben & Jerry's Homemade Inc.'s name by creating an association with pornography. It said the claims arise from the distribution and sale of a series of DVDs containing "exploitative, hardcore pornographic films" featuring titles and themes based on "well-known and iconic" Ben & Jerry's ice cream flavors as well as packaging that contains key company features such as a grazing cow, green grass and large white puffy clouds.

The lawsuit by the Vermont-based company said the films would likely cause "confusion, mistake or deception" regarding the company's trademarks. It identified some of the X-rated names similar to its own as "Boston Cream Thigh," `'New York Fat & Chunky" and "Peanut Butter D-Cup." Ben & Jerry's has ice cream flavors titled: "Boston Cream Pie," `'New York Super Fudge Chunk" and "Peanut Butter Cup."

For nearly 35 years, Ben & Jerry's has produced and sold ice cream, frozen confections, frozen yogurt and sorbet, building the reach of its trademarks through more than 300 Ben & Jerry's Scoop Shops in the United States and another 150 shops internationally, as well as through supermarkets, drugstores, delis, ice cream cars and online, the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages. A message left with defendants Rodax Distributors and Caballero Video at their North Hollywood, Calif., offices wasn't immediately returned.

“Pride and Prejudice” and “Atonement,” the last two acclaimed novel adaptations directed by Joe Wright, were nominated for 11 Academy Awards between them. Which is part of what makes Wright’s new take on Leo Tolstoy’s epic “Anna Karenina,” with Keira Knightley in the title role, such a hugely anticipated film during this awards season. With few Best Picture contenders in the Oscar race at this point — and the pedigree of Wright, Knightley and Tolstoy — can “Anna Karenina” take the lead?

Judging from the early reviews: maybe? With “Anna Karenina” — which is out in the U.K. on Friday and also screened at the Toronto International Film Festival — Wright takes Tolstoy’s classic prose and filters it through a marvel of modern filmmaking. The entire movie (with apparently few exceptions) is set inside a massive theater that bends and folds to the venue of the scene; the actors are literally performing “Anna Karenina” on a stage. (For an explanation as to why this was done and a look at how Wright accomplished it, check out this video.)

While that type of stylistic flourish hasn’t prevented Wright from winning awards kudos before (“Atonement” has a particularly original mise en scene, especially for a film that was written off as mere Oscar bait), it might be a bridge too far for some when it comes to “Anna Karenina.” As Hollywood Elsewhere blogger Jeffrey Wells noted in his rave review, some audience members at the Toronto International Film Festival were openly mocking the film during moments of “high emotion.”

THR critic Todd McCarthy didn’t go that far — his review is of the mixed-positive variety — but he did write that the conceit loses steam as the film moves along.

    “As intriguing as it may be in big set pieces such as the ball and in small details such as a child’s toy train suddenly becoming a full-sized one on which crucial scenes are played out, the technique becomes palpably constricting in the second half, where the abridgments of Stoppard’s script become all too noticeable.”

As EW.com’s Dave Karger wrote on Twitter, Wright’s “bold directorial choices will turn some off.”

Of course, that risk is what makes “Anna Karenina” different. In his three-out-of-five star review for The Guardian, critic Peter Bradshaw echoed those thoughts: “The Wright/Stoppard Anna Karenina is not a total success, but it’s a bold and creative response to the novel.”

Even with mixed reviews, most critics seem to agree that the film is beautiful, thoughtful and lined up for a boat load of Oscar nominations in the technical categories. Knightley may also earn a second Best Actress nod — her previous one came after working with Wright on “Pride and Prejudice.”

“Keira Knightley as Anna — a Best Actress performance if I’ve ever seen one,” Wells wrote, before adding that the detractors of the film — who laughed during his screening — should be “slapped around.” (The man is a big fan.)

"The zombies are coming!" the Homeland Security Department says.

Tongue firmly in cheek, the government urged citizens Thursday to prepare for a zombie apocalypse, part of a public health campaign to encourage better preparation for genuine disasters and emergencies. The theory: If you're prepared for a zombie attack, the same preparations will help during a hurricane, pandemic, earthquake or terrorist attack.


The Federal Emergency Management Agency hosted an online seminar for its Citizen Corps organization to help emergency planners better prepare their communities for disaster. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last year first launched a zombie apocalypse social media campaign for the same purposes.

Emergency planners were encouraged to use the threat of zombies – the flesh-hungry, walking dead – to encourage citizens to prepare for disasters. Organizers also noted the relative proximity to Halloween.

Among the government's recommendations were having an emergency evacuation plan and a change of clothes, plus keeping on hand fresh water, extra medications and emergency flashlights.

A few of the government's suggestions tracked closely with some of the 33 rules for dealing with zombies popularized in the 2009 movie "Zombieland," which included "always carry a change of underwear" and "when in doubt, know your way out."

In her next movie, Kristen Stewart goes to bed with two men at the same time, gives both of them simultaneous hand jobs in the front seat of a car and performs oral sex on one of them while he's driving said car. She also appears topless twice, once just minutes into the movie, and spends much of the rest of her time doing drugs and robbing people.

But wait. Before you scroll down to the comments to register your disgust at Stewart's latest attempt to lead the nation's youth into a ditch of vice and vulgarity, try to imagine any of her fellow Millennial über-celebrities giving a performance as brave, or as powerful, as the one Stewart delivers in "On the Road," a new adaptation of Jack Kerouac's famous novel, directed by Walter Salles ("The Motorcycle Diaries").

For Taylor Swift, edgy is writing a breakup song and encouraging her fans to figure out who she's talking about. For Miley Cyrus, it's letting her side boob hang out. For Kim Kardashian, it's dating Kanye West and daring the world to decide if the whole thing is one giant put-on.

Is Kristen Stewart the only major celebrity of her generation who also happens to be a true artist?

It's certainly telling that she chose to make her big post-scandal comeback at last night's North American premiere of "On the Road," which took place at the Toronto International Film Festival. It was her first outing since photos of her fooling around with director Rupert Sanders blew her fairytale romance with Robert Pattinson to bits. And while it's possible Stewart was contractually obliged to support the film, the decision to spend an hour communing with her fans and answering questions from the press had to be hers. Again and again, she told reporters that she would be just as happy to be there promoting "Twilight," but I wonder. I suspect it's important to her to remind the world that she's more than just a twinkling star in the celebrity-weekly firmament. She's a real actress.

Like her contemporary Shia LaBeouf, Stewart gets a lot of flak from people who can't stand her zillion-dollar franchise. I won't claim to be a "Twilight" fan, but I'm consistently impressed by Stewart's work in what you might call more "serious" films, and "On the Road" is no exception.

This is definitely an "On the Road" for our times, directed by a Brazilian Boomer for a global audience of Millennials. The film doesn't shy away from the destruction that Kerouac's speed-demon hero, Dean Moriarty (Garrett Hedlund), wreaked on those around him, and, as a result, the women register with far more impact than they do in the book. Kirsten Dunst plays Dean's second wife, Camille, as an arrogant princess whose dreams fall victim to her man's wanderlust, but it's Stewart who steals a sizeable portion of the film. Not in a showy way -- it's remarkable how much time this massive global superstar spends in the back seat, literally and figuratively. But hers is a bold, brave, indelible performance. When we first see her, she's topless on a bed, shaking off her sexual afterglow so she can roll a few joints for Dean's friends. "You're the only girl I've ever known who can roll tea like this," Sam Riley's Sal Paradise tells her, as smitten as the audience would be if their inner tabloid editors weren't reminding them that they're supposed to be mad at her for breaking RPattz's heart.

The toplessness itself is an extremely courageous choice for someone as famous as Stewart. There is no question that screen shots of those scenes will proliferate all across the Internet, in contexts that would make even Marylou blush. But Stewart has proven that she's the kind of actress who puts her commitment to the role above concerns like that. To some people, her self-seriousness comes off as pretentious, but I see it as her way of protecting herself from the madness that surrounds her.