Strawberry Picks

Andrew Lloyd Webber blasts The Voice

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 13:48:00 +0000

Kim Kardashian TRASHES Khloe!

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Sun, 17 Jun 2012 17:22:00 +0000

New Study: Some Kids Self-injure When Stressed

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 12:23:00 +0000

911 Callers Report Fight in Face-chewing Attack

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Sat, 02 Jun 2012 09:33:00 +0000

Raw Video: Bizarre Police Chase Ends at Airport

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Mon, 28 May 2012 15:47:00 +0000

Engine Glitch Aborts SpaceX Falcon 9 Launch

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Sat, 19 May 2012 17:15:00 +0000

Bin Laden Documents: al-Qaida in Disarray

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Thu, 03 May 2012 21:12:00 +0000

Nick Jonas Dating Smash Star Megan Hilty?

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 16:55:00 +0000

No Sign of Human Remains in NYC Basement

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 16:54:00 +0000

'The Avengers' Come Together on the Red Carpet

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 12:09:00 +0000

Rihanna Docks Her 'Battleship' in Japan

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 17:32:00 +0000

Meet Beyonce, the Coffee Cup-sized Puppy

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 20:19:00 +0000

Katy Perry & New BF's Twitpic!

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 20:17:00 +0000

Madoff Victim Trustee, Mets Settle for $162 Mil.

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 20:48:00 +0000

Raw Video: Deadly Bus Crash in Switzerland

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 13:08:00 +0000

Nicole Richie looks stunning in yellow.

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 13:06:00 +0000

TV NEWS: Benedict Cumberbatch voted 'Best Sherlock'

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 15:20:00 +0000

Search Teams Suspend Operations at Italian Ship

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 15:18:00 +0000

ShowBiz Minute: Shelton, Deen, Brooks

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 13:44:00 +0000

Katherine Heigl greets fans

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 12:50:00 +0000

Kate Beckinsale leave Largo

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 12:47:00 +0000

John Krasinski is seen leaving Largo

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 12:46:00 +0000

Courtney Cox Shops!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 10:35:00 +0000

Cher is back in 'Burlesque'

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 17:36:00 +0000

LOS ANGELES – Getting Cher to commit to "Burlesque" took some doing.

"I drove all of them crazy," Cher recalled. The big-screen musical, about a veteran nightclub performer and the newcomer she takes under her wing, was already well on its way. Co-star Christina Aguilera was in place. And, for a while, so was Cher, marking her first major feature-film role since 1999's "Tea with Mussolini."

Then she changed her mind, explaining that her character "wasn't exactly who she turned out to be on screen, and I needed her to be that character."

That's when the director and the head of the studio resorted to stalking Cher.

"I mean, I never thought, 'Oh my God, why haven't I done a movie lately?'" Cher said. "There just was nothing. There was one movie with Meryl (Streep), 'Mamma Mia!' but I couldn't, because I was on tour. And then this (movie) came up."

Shortly after getting word Cher had changed her mind, writer-director Steven Antin and Screen Gems chief Clint Culpepper got word she was doing dubbing work just steps away from their offices on the Sony lot. "There we were, stalking Cher for an hour and a half," Antin recalled. "It was insane."

The two convinced Cher to come up and see storyboards detailing Antin's vision for the movie. "We said, 'Five minutes,'" Antin remembered. She stayed three hours and, again, agreed to sign on.

Two days later, she was off again, but not forever.

"Well, Clint doesn't let you say 'no,'" Cher said, with a laugh. "And I wanted to sing in a movie."

She has two numbers in "Burlesque," including a ballad, "You Haven't Seen the Last of Me," to which Cher could relate. "I have had so many dips in my career and so many times where I thought, 'How am I going to get this back? What am I going to do?'"

The 64-year-old Cher said she's well aware of the country's current economic woes, and that she hopes "Burlesque" provides at least a little break from that harsh reality.

"There's something fun about losing all of your problems for the amount of time that you're in this film," she said. "You just look at (the characters and say), 'What a great time. I'm part of it.'"

And — at last — so was Cher.

Guinea election peace tour cancelled as candidate pulls out

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 15:36:00 +0000

CONAKRY — Guinean presidential hopeful Alpha Conde on Thursday pulled out of a peace tour with his rival to visit hotspots of political and ethnic violence ahead of a much-delayed runoff vote.

The show of solidarity between Conde and rival Cellou Dalein Diallo to calm tensions in the country was set to take place in the wake of an announcement of a new date for the run-off poll for November 7.

"The professor (Alpha Conde) wanted to go, but the crowd came to his home. It is his base that is against this tour," said Francois Lonseny Fall, spokesman for the pro-Conde Rainbow alliance.

A spokesman for Conde's Rally of the People of Guinea (RPG), Ahmed Tidiane Traore confirmed that "RPG militants don't agree that their candidate should move because it is not necessary."

The two presidential candidates, accompanied by government and religious representatives, were to take an "awareness tour" to regions where political and ethnic violence have flared around a run-off presidential vote.

Speaking to AFP in Dakar via telephone, rival presidential candidate and poll favourite Cellou Dalein Diallo said he had consulted security officials and had accordingly decided to cancel his own trip.

"I'm disappointed," he told AFP.

"I deplore that while we are taking measures to restore confidence, my brother Alpha Conde has shirked his responsibility after having accepted it" in front of transition president General Sekouba Konate and electoral authorities.

The two candidates would have visited Mamou in the centre of the country and Kissidougou and Siguiri in the east, where rival supporters clashed over the weekend. At least two people are reported to have died in clashes and scores have been injured.

Human rights groups have raised concerns about police brutality in quelling election protests as well as ethnic tensions which have flared since the final two candidates were chosen from the two ethnic majorities.

Poll favourite Diallo, who won 43 percent of votes in the first round, is Fulani, while Conde, who won 18 percent, is a Malinke.

State radio and television said the visit was initiated by Konate to "bring the candidates closer together and show their supporters that they have to work and live together."

Conde said he remained available to carry out the tour before the second round vote on November 7, a date announced in a decree by Konate on state television on Wednesday night.

The election will take place more than four months after a peaceful first round of voting on June 27, aimed at ending over half a century of military rule and despotism in the poor but bauxite-rich west African nation.

The run-off vote, which was supposed to take place on October 24, was postponed as rival parties accused each other of inciting violence and disrupting the organisation of the vote.

Guinea has been under military rule since a coup in December 2008 shortly after the death of longtime president and former putchist Lansana Conte.

The country plunged deeper into crisis in September 2009 when security forces carried out a massacre against opponents to coup leader Captain Moussa Dadis Camara, killing over 150 people and raping scores of women.

General Sekouba Konate has been leading the transition to the election of a civilian president since January, after Camara was injured in an assassination bid.