Angelina Jolie's casting as Cleopatra causes race row

Hollywood superstar Angelina Jolie is at the centre of a race row with objections being raised to her playing Queen Cleopatra on screen, a role many say should have gone to a black actress.

The 35-year-old actress is tipped to play the legendary Queen of the Nile and the film's producer, Scott Rudin had said that the role is being developed with her in mind as she has "the perfect look".

But the casting has angered members of the African American community, reported Daily Mail online.

An Essence Magazine story titled 'Another White Actress to Play Cleopatra?' raised the topic, saying, "Honestly, I don't care how full Angelina Jolie's
lips are, how many African children she adopts, or how bronzed her skin will become for the film, I firmly believe this role should have gone to a black woman."

"Why does Hollywood think it's even slightly plausible to cast white women in roles that would be more sensible to cast a black actress for? Especially when that role is an African queen," read the article.

Jolie adopted her daughter Zahara, 5, from Ethiopia and gave birth to Shiloh, 3, in Namibia. She also has 3 other children with partner, Brad Pitt. Maddox, 8, Pax, 6, and twins Knox and Vivienne, 2.

The film is being directed by Ocean's 11 director Steven Soderberg, who originally planned to turn Cleopatra into a USD 30 million 3D epic starring Catherine-Zeta Jones and Hugh Jackman.

The Egyptian royal was most famously portrayed by Elizabeth Taylor in 1963.

The casting of Jolie has been backed by Pulitzer Prize winning author Stacy Schiff, who wrote the book which the film is based on, Cleopatra: A Life.

"I think Jolie will be perfect for it and I can see a possible Oscar in her future. Physically, she's got the perfect look," said Schiff.

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Cameron Diaz is an incredible comedian, says Tom Cruise

Hollywood superstar Tom Cruise says his Knight and Day co-star Cameron Diaz is the most incredible comedian he has ever met.

The 47-year-old actor was also thrilled to work with his "great friend" Cameron, who he previously starred in 2002's Vanilla Sky with, again, Contactmusic reported.

"I haven't worked with her since Vanilla Sky, she's just wonderful to work with, an incredible comedian," Cruise said.

Cruise was joined by wife Katie Holmes and Diaz at the Spanish premiere of his latest film Knight and Day last night.

The actor admits he always puts storytelling at the forefront of his priorities when choosing a film role, and is delighted with the results of his latest effort, Knight and Day.

"It's a real kind of wish fulfillment film. It's got a very unique tone. It was something I was really looking to do next. The most important thing to me is entertaining the audience, and it always has been.

I've worked since I was eight years old and I saved money to go to the movies, so to have that opportunity. I just consider myself a student of film, of storytelling. The film itself is the most important," Cruise said.

Much of the action movie was shot in Spain and Cruise, who was accompanied to the premiere by wife Katie Holmes, was glad to be able to share his free time in the country with his spouse and their four-year-old daughter Suri.

"What we do is just hang out. In between, when we had the break, we just hang out. We like to walk around the city.

Suri loves it here also, so we just played around," Cruise added.

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Harry Potter stars slam London mayor

The stars of the Harry Potter franchise have criticised London mayor Boris Johnson after the politician complained the newly inaugurated wizarding theme park on the film should have been
built in Britain, not US.

Johnson recently blasted bosses at film giant Warner Bros, calling them "utterly mad" for allowing a Harry Potter park to be created in Florida, when the books and movies are all set in
UK, MTV online reported.

The franchise's stars, including Michael Gambon and Tom Felton, disagree with Johnson and have now waded into the debate, insisting a similar attraction would not work in London.

Speaking at the launch of 'The Wizarding World of Harry Potter
' in Orlando, Florida on Wednesday, Gambon, who plays Albus Dumbledore in the film, said, "Boris Johnson... What's he talking about? I mean only 10 people live in England don't they? You've got to have it in America to get the money back."

Felton, 'Draco Malfoy' in series, has also laughed off Johnson's comments, insisting the weather
isn't good enough in England to host the outside park. "I've got a few words for Boris... well mate, if you want the park to be open for 30 days a year then put it in England, but come on, realistically this is the place to do it," Felton said.

Daniel Radcliffe has also spoken out about the issue, insisting that if Johnson wants to build a Harry Potter theme park in the UK, then he should use his political influence to push the decision through. "Of course it would be absolutely wonderful to have an equivalent in London and I'm sure Boris,as the mayor of London, is surely the man with the power to make that happen, one would assume," Radcliffe said.

While Rupert Grint added, "We should have one, it's just amazing."

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Sex and the City 2 - Review

Sex and the City 2 comes to Indian theatres after having earned the dubious distinction of being the worst reviewed film in recent history. Critics across the US and the UK have lambasted it for being tone-deaf, vacuous and ridiculously-over-the-top.

I walked into the theater with the kind of perverse fascination that you reserve for a train-wreck, thinking: how bad can this be. Well, the reviews weren’t exaggerated. This film is just plain awful.

Or to paraphrase a line from American critic Roger Ebert: This movie isn’t the bottom of the barrel. This movie doesn’t deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence with barrels.

Sex and the City 2 reprises the adventures of the four New York fashionistas who have beguiled the world since the television series started in 1998. Only now they are battling mid-life problems.

So Carrie Bradshaw, played by Sarah Jessica Parker who has also co-produced the film, is trying to put sparkle into her two-year-old marriage. She’s afraid that she and her husband will grow into a boring, old married couple - the type who watch television in bed.

Miranda, played by Cynthia Nixon, is struggling with a nasty boss. Samantha, played by Kim Cattrall, is desperately fighting menopause with tablets and creams. And Charlotte, played by Kristin Davis, is trying to cope with the traumas of motherhood.

So when Samantha gets an all-expenses paid trip to Abu Dhabi, all four jump at it. What follows is a spectacularly aimless and obscenely extravagant adventure that helps the women come to terms with their various issues.

At its best, Sex and the City was a superbly entertaining female fantasy. The four friends never worked too hard but were always immaculately dressed. Yet their fierce bonding rooted the fairy tale in heart-felt emotion.

Sadly, that’s almost completely missing here. Except for one scene that rings perfectly true: Miranda and Charlotte discuss how hard being a mother is and Charlotte admits that when she thought her husband might have an affair with their young nanny, her first thought was: I can’t lose the nanny.

But the rest of this two and a half hour saga lurches from one random scene to the next without even attempting coherence.

Samantha gets arrested on the beach for having sex; Carrie runs into an old boyfriend and kisses him; Charlotte falls off a camel. And they do all this while changing a ridiculous number of outfits and wearing high heels on sand.

This film reportedly had a 10 million dollar costume budget. Of course the Abu Dhabi adventure brims over with cultural stereotypes but this entire film is so infantile that you can’t even seriously take offense.

Director Michael Patrick King who wrote the screenplay, attempts to make some statement about female solidarity and freedom but the writing is feeble and foolish.

Sex and the City 2 is unforgivably boring but what’s sadder is, that King has made these women, who were once so enjoyable, into caricatures of themselves. They all seem desperate, empty and in places, downright ugly. At one point, Carrie asks her husband: Am I just a bitch wife who nags you? You almost want to scream out aloud: Yes.

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Pic of the Day - 18th June

Cleaners clean carpet after heavy rain prior to a ceremony of the meeting Ukrainie's President Viktor Yanukovych and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev in Kiev on May 17, 2010. Medvedev arrived in Ukraine for a two-day official visit. (Photo: AFP)

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