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  • 'Big Brother' Racist And Homophobic Comments Captured On Live Feeds

    The "Big Brother" live feeds are always streaming, and they've captured some racist and homophobic and comments from the show's contestants.

    In a video, GinaMarie, Aaryn and Kaitlin take turns hurling stereotypes at their Asian, African-American and gay competitors in a conversation that was edited out of the reality show's CBS airing.

    Aaryn and GinaMarie first made fun of Helen, an Asian-American contestant. "Dude, shut up, go make some rice," Aaryn says. Later, GinaMarie adds, "Andy was like, 'I'm gonna punch her in the face,' and I was like, 'Maybe that'll make her eyes straight.'"

    The conversation then turned to Howard and Candice, two African-American contestants. "Blacks stick together ... They're like tokens ... They're like black Barbie and Kens," someone on the tape says, before another voice says that Candice's "blackness" was coming out.

    They then worried aloud about Andy getting the MVP "because everybody loves the queers."

    Zap2It reports that after the conversation, producers got on the "Big Brother" house loudspeaker to warn the contestants not to use racial slurs against other housemates.

    Former "Big Brother" contestant Ragan Fox wrote an open letter to the "Big Brother" production team, urging them to actually air the racist comments on the show's CBS broadcast, to provide a full picture of how these contestants actually treat other people. "What’s the point of casting racial, ethnic, and sexual minorities if production’s going to edit out the racism, ethnic discrimination, and homophobia that these people encounter inside the house?" he asks.

    Taylor Swift's 'Red' Video Kicks Off July 4 Holiday, Is Like Trying To Know Somebody You've Never Met

    Entertainment editors hoping to get out a bit early to prepare for July 4 were thwarted on Wednesday afternoon when Taylor Swift tweeted her new video for "Red," the title track from her mega-selling 2012 album "Red."

    The catchy song is the fifth single off "Red," following in the footsteps of "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together," "I Knew You Were Trouble," "Begin Again," "Everything Has Changed" and "22."

    "So ..." Swift wrote on Twitter. So, indeed. Watch the "Red" video -- which is of the concert variety -- above.

    Vanessa Hudgens Steps Out In Spandex Yoga Pants After Pilates Class

    It's clear that Vanessa Hudgens works hard for her toned body, as the "Spring Breakers" star was spotted after a pilates workout in Studio City, Calif., on Thursday.

    Photographers snapped photos of the 24-year-old actress who was decked out in skin-tight spandex yoga pants and a grey tank top, and seemed to exhibit a post-workout glow. After getting her fitness on, Hudgens continued her health kick by picking up some juices over at Pressed Juicery.

    No wonder the former "High School Musical" star looked so fit when she learned how to surf last week with pal Ashley Greene.

    Jennifer Lopez & Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow Singer Performs For Turkmenistan Leader

    Jennifer Lopez sang "Happy Birthday" to the leader of Turkmenistan during a show, but her representative said she wouldn't have performed there at all if she had known there were human rights issues in the country.

    The singer and actress performed in the former Soviet bloc country on Saturday night. A statement released Sunday by her publicist to The Associated Press said the event was hosted by the China National Petroleum Corp. and wasn't a political event.

    However, the country's leader, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, did attend. Berdimuhamedow has been criticized for oppressive rule by human rights organizations. Human Rights Watch describes Turkmenistan as "among the most repressive in the world."

    After a United Nations visit last month, Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Ivan Simonovic said the country had made progress in the area of human rights, but "a lot more work is needed to complete this process and to ensure practice is in line with international standards."

    Lopez's publicist says the event was vetted by Lopez's staff: "Had there been knowledge of human rights issues any kind, Jennifer would not have attended."

    The birthday serenade was a last-minute request made by the corporation to Lopez before she took the stage, and she "graciously obliged," the statement said.

    Lopez is the latest celebrity to face scrutiny for performing in countries or for leaders with human rights violations.

    In 2011, Oscar-winning actress Hilary Swank profusely apologized after attending a birthday party for Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, who had been accused of torture and killings; she said she didn't have a full understanding of the event.

    Beyonce, Nelly Furtado, 50 Cent, Mariah Carey and Usher were paid handsomely to perform at parties linked to the late Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. All later announced plans to donate their performance fees to charity and said they hadn't known the leader was connected to terrorism.

    Lopez has no other performances scheduled in the country, her publicist said. Her performance fee wasn't disclosed.

    Cirque Du Soleil Performer Sarah Guyard-Guillot Dies After Fall During Show In Las Vegas

    A Paris-born performer in Cirque du Soleil's "Ka" died after a fall during a show in Las Vegas.

    Sarah Guyard-Guillot was pronounced dead late Saturday night at a hospital after falling about 50 feet from the show's stage.

    Witnesses told the Las Vegas Sun (http://bit.ly/14H3Te0) that the accident occurred near the end of the production Saturday night at the MGM Grand.

    Visitor Dan Mosqueda of Colorado Springs, Colo., says the 31-year-old acrobatic performer was being hoisted up the side of the stage when she slipped free of her safety wire and plummeted to an open pit below the performers.

    He says the audience initially thought it was part of the show, but realized it was an accident when they heard the artist cry from the stage.

    Cirque officials issued a statement saying they were "deeply saddened" by the death and that performances of "Ka" have been canceled until further notice.

    Anna Nicole Smith Reincarnated In Actress Agnes Bruckner

    Anna Nicole Smith left a large mark on a then still-developing reality TV and celebutante culture, and when she left us in a wave of tragedy, it was hard not to feel for what she’d endured.

    Now Anna Nicole Smith has been reincarnated in actress Agnes Bruckner, for a new Lifetime movie on the tragic pin-up titled simply Anna Nicole.

    Smith had been through many ups and downs in her life, but it appeared to be the start of a new chapter for her when she gave birth to baby girl Dannielynn Birkhead. No sooner did Dannielynn make her way in the world, Smith lost her son Daniel — for whom the new baby was partially named, and very clearly the center of Anna Nicole’s world.

    We all know what happened next, and whatever your opinion of Anna Nicole Smith, any grieving parent can understand the inability to go on after the loss of a child — a child that was, by many accounts, the only constant in the star’s life.

    Now Bruckner’s turn as Anna Nicole Smith hits Lifetime tonight, and the star talks about the challenges of portraying a woman whose life played out in real time in front of viewers for years.

    On being Anna Nicole, Bruckner says:

    “I was very nervous and anxious about taking the part, because she was so iconic and so famous and larger-than-life. I asked myself ‘Am I going to pull this off?’ and ‘What kind of movie are we making?’ and all those questions … We really wanted to tell a different story. All those things gave me the confidence to play the part.”

    Fans of Smith will also recall that the star’s weight fluctuated, and even her time shilling a diet supplement. Bruckner says of the costuming for the role:

    “We worked so hard and we had prosthetic boobs and prosthetic cheek and neck pieces for when she was heavier. I bleached my own hair. And we also had wig pieces … she had such different looks throughout her journey. The wardrobe team created so many of these beautiful dresses that you see in the movie from scratch, working around the clock. The transformation is really a reason alone to see this movie, because it’s so unbelievable. It gave everyone chills when I showed up to set dressed as her.”

    Bruckner also said she cried watching Anna Nicole Smith’s life play out in the Lifetime version, due especially to the circumstances under which the star passed away.

    iPhone plastic shell leaks in China

    It’s time to get green, it would seem, as a brightly colored back shell of what’s said to be a next-generation iPhone leaks in China. This leak is consistent with several tips and suggestions over the past week involving the so-called “budget” iPhone, including the color similarity to current iPhone bumpers. This device would, if it proves to be real, be one of several color options for the iPhone later this year.

    This piece of hardware comes from micro-blogger 7mob, a fellow known for connections to China-based factory workers. In this case, the leakster claims he’s got a “friend’s friend” in with Foxconn, one of the largest manufacturing lines Apple has used in recent years.

    This device appears with a single LED flash hole to the right of a lens hole (both of them circular), with a microphone hole between the two. A black Apple logo rests in the standard location in the center and top half of the device, while the normal “iPhone” brand name rests in the same location on the lower half.

    It’s also been suggested that this green color is one of six options for the machine, with yellow, blue, pink, white – and it would appear that black is missing in action at the moment. Perhaps to differentiate between this low-cost model and the higher-end line with the iPhone 5, but no confirmations exist as such.

    SOURCE  ICTech

    Kylie Jenner, Jaden Smith Totally Confirm They're Dating After Being Spotted Holding Hands

    We all knew Kylie Jenner and Jaden Smith were dating, but now we have real proof.

    Jenner, 15, and Smith, 14, were spotted holding hands as they exited the Calabasas Commons movie theater where they saw "World War Z" on Wednesday. The pair appeared to be a bit camera shy as they quickly unlocked their hands once they realized photographers had spotted them.

    The last time we spotted the young couple together, the two were in New York and Smith was inexplicably dressed in an Iron Man costume. Smith was in town at the time to promote "After Earth," and Jenner was game to support her man, even after her family was dissed by Jaden's father Will Smith.

    Just last month, the former "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" star shot down comparisons to the Kardashian/Jenner family, telling Vulture:

    "Fame is almost an inconsequential by-product of what we’re really trying to accomplish. We are trying to put great things into the world, we’re trying to have fun ... So the idea of fame or exploitation or orchestrating the media is sometimes even less than desirable for us."

    Lost Moon Probes Scientists Search Lunar Surface For Signs Of Historic Spacecraft

     The moon is the final resting ground for scads of landed and crashed spacecraft, many of which have been pinpointed recently by sleuthing scientists.

    Using observations by NASA's sharp-eyed Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, for example, researchers have located and imaged Apollo moon landing leftovers, old Soviet-era spacecraft and, more recently, the impact locales of NASA's twin Grail spacecraft that were deliberately driven into a mountain near the moon's north pole.

    But the search is ongoing to find the exact location of several pioneering moon landers. [The Moon: Space Programs' Dumping Ground (Infographic)]

    No luck so far

    "We are still looking for [the Soviet Union's] Luna 9 and 13," said Jeff Plescia, a space scientist at the The Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md.

    "Those were the small 'beach ball' shaped spacecraft," Plescia told SPACE.com "The beach ball might be hard to find, but it made a descent on a larger vehicle which then popped the beach ball off."

    Plescia said he had assumed that it would be possible to find the landing sites of Luna 9 and 13 by spotting albedo marks — a change in the lunar surface brightness made by their descent engines.

    Plescia is joined in the hunt by Mark Robinson of Arizona State University, principal investigator for the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera, or LROC.

    "We've both looked, but no luck so far." Plescia said.

    Yet another search involves the impact sites of Apollo lunar module ascent stages, hardware discarded once moonwalking crews were snug within their respective command modules. Ascent stages were intentionally impacted into the surface as part of the Apollo Passive Seismic Experiment that studied the propagation of seismic waves through the moon to yield a detailed look at the body's internal structure

    The Story Of An Incredible Escape From North Korea

    A total stranger helped Hyeonseo Lee pay her mother and brother's way out of jail as they fled from North Korea. Now, four years later, Lee has been reunited with that stranger, getting the chance to thank him in person.

    In Lee's heart-wrenching TED2013 talk, "My escape from North Korea," she describes defecting from North Korea in the late '90s. But as she describes in the second half of her talk, after years of hiding she returned to China to help her family make their own escape. When her mother and brother were captured in Vientiane, Laos, and jailed for illegal border crossing, Lee describes how, out of money and desperate for a solution, she was approached by a foreigner. After hearing Lee's story, this stranger withdrew a large sum of cash -- £645 to be exact -- from an ATM. With the money to use as a bribe, Lee's family was able to escape.

    When Lee asked the stranger why he was helping her, he replied, "I'm not helping you. I'm helping the North Korean people." As Lee says in an emotional moment in her talk, "The kind stranger symbolized new hope for me and the North Korean people when we needed it most."

    Earlier this month Lee was invited to be a guest on the Australian broadcast show Special Broadcasting Service (SBS), where she had an unexpected visitor: Dick Stolp, the Australian backpacker who had helped her in Laos. Lee didn't have any of his contact information -- but Stolp had seen her TEDTalk and SBS, catching wind of the story, orchestrated the surprise reunion.

    "I was really happy ... I can't explain with words, but it was really amazing," Lee told Sky News after the reunion. "He says, 'I'm not a hero,' but I say he is a modern hero."

    Stolp, for his part, was excited to see the girl he had helped years ago. "You help a small hand and it reaches to other hands and you think, 'That's great, that's good stuff,'" he said. "I'm meeting someone who is now doing good things, and inside I can't help but feel 'Hey! I helped this lady to go out and change her life.'"

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