NEWS: JONAS BEVACQUA (CO-FOUNDER OF LRG) PASSES AWAY AT 34

Twitter accounts have been tweeting the sad news about LRG co-founder Jonas Bevacqua’s passing. Bevacqua, 34 is a southern California native and is the Co-Founder and Creative Director of popular street label LRG (Lifted Research Group). They are known for … Continue

Source: http://concreteloop.com/2011/05/news-jonas-bevacqua-co-founder-of-lrg-passes-away-at-34

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Camille Grammer Sues for Custody of Children, Kelsey Fires Back


In round 216 of their never-ending, nauseating battle, Camille Grammer has fired back at her ex, Kelsey.

In mid-May, the former sitcom star filed for custody of the children he shares with the Real Housewife of Beverly Hills.

Now, claiming the actor took such a step "in order to create a false impression to the media and to wrongfully disparage" her, Camille has essentially done the same, submitting documents and fighting for primary custody of sons Mason, 9, and Jude, 6.

Scruffy KelseyCamille Pose

In response, TMZ has obtained the legal papers Kelsey has filed in return, which state he has no hope that a settlement will be reached and - once an expert has completed an investigation of all involved - he wants the case to move to trial.

It's an ugly mess, with two young children caught in between.

[Photos: WENN.com]

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2011/06/camille-grammer-sues-for-custody-of-children-kelsey-fires-back/

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New 'X-Men': A 'First Class' action movie

By Claudia Puig, USA TODAY

The potential for world annihilation and the fate of the human race are at the mercy of one of pop culture's most immutable forces: Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. We should have known.

  • Deadly games: Michael Fassbender, left, and James McAvoy play youthful versions of Magneto and Professor X in X-Men: First Class, which is set in the early 1960s at the height of the Cold War.

    By Murray Close, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp.

    Deadly games: Michael Fassbender, left, and James McAvoy play youthful versions of Magneto and Professor X in X-Men: First Class, which is set in the early 1960s at the height of the Cold War.

By Murray Close, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp.

Deadly games: Michael Fassbender, left, and James McAvoy play youthful versions of Magneto and Professor X in X-Men: First Class, which is set in the early 1960s at the height of the Cold War.

Apparently, the Cuban Missile Crisis was all Bacon's doing ? or at least that of his villainous alter ego, Sebastian Shaw, in X-Men: First Class. Actually, if Bacon's Shaw had his way, he'd have started World War III.

Lest this sound ridiculous, this fifth X-Men, a prequel set mostly in the 1960s, is a classy re-boot. For a film that's predominantly a set-up to the ongoing saga, it never stints on dramatic tension.

Director Matthew Vaughn knows how to pack an action movie with a stylish punch, as evidenced in last year's Kick-Ass. Here he revives the flagging franchise with this globe-trotting iteration, infusing it with new life and dazzling visual effects. Audiences get a full sense of the compelling back stories of elder X statesmen, Magneto and Professor X, who have more intrinsically intriguing stories than the hirsute hero in 2009's X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

The story, by former X-Men director Bryan Singer, links evil mutants ? Bacon's Shaw and January Jones as Emma Frost, his telepathic partner who morphs into a body made of diamonds ? to actual history. The story imaginatively alleges that Shaw and his ilk were puppet masters pulling the strings behind U.S.-Soviet conflicts.

The cast is top-notch, particularly James McAvoy as the calmly intelligent Charles Xavier/Professor X and Michael Fassbender as the intensely ruthless Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto. We get a sense of what motivated them and see their early friendship unfold.

* * * out of four

Stars: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Kevin Bacon, Rose Byrne, Nicholas Hoult, January Jones
Director: Matthew Vaughn
Distributor: 20th Century Fox
Rating: PG-13 for intense sequences of action and violence, some sexual content including brief partial nudity, and language
Running time: 2 hours, 12 minutes
Opens Friday nationwide

In style and spirt, this X-Men installment has more in common with James Bond movies than superhero capers. Even the music sounds Bond-esque, and Fassbender would make a great Bond when Daniel Craig tires of the gig.

Besides the nimble performances of McAvoy, Fassbender and über-baddie Bacon, the story is powered by the high-spirited performances of the young cast, particularly Nicholas Hoult as Hank/The Beast and Jennifer Lawrence as Raven/Mystique.

Scenes of their training in the early days of the Xavier Institute, under the tutelage of Magneto and Xavier ? and augmented by split-screen effects ? are immensely fun.

However, in a few sequences the youthful mutants seem transplanted from 2011 in their attitudes and phraseology. That and an overlong, sometimes repetitive climactic naval clash between the U.S., Soviets and evil mutants are the movie's only stumbling points. This X- Men is indeed first class: an exciting, bold and thoroughly enjoyable summer blockbuster.

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'Happy Birthday Marilyn' exhibit shows rare images of icon, a former Valley student

S
he's been gone for nearly a half-century, but the bombshell known as Marilyn will forever strike it hot.

On Wednesday, which would have been her 85th birthday, fans from across the globe hailed the former San Fernando Valley star as a Beverly Hills gallery debuted an exhibit of never-before-seen Marilyn Monroe photographs.

"Our warmest and deepest congratulations to the most beautiful, unique and stunning woman on earth," writes a German fan club in one of more than 100 birthday missives sent for the "Happy Birthday Marilyn" exhibit.

"You are Joyce and Shakespeare in the same way," adds a fan from France. "Beautiful and difficult to translate. ... We miss you. We love you." |

The Andrew Weiss Gallery, which claims the largest archive of Marilyn photos in the world, has hung more than 100 rare or never-before-seen images in what may be the most comprehensive Marilyn exhibition ever.

There's the Bill Carroll shot, among the earliest, of a 19-year-old Norma Jeane Baker before she had morphed into a sultrier Marilyn. Prints begin at $1,250 for a sweater or Malibu bikini shot.

There are the works of Tom Kelley, Milton

Greene and Bert Stern, which helped turn a starlet into an icon.

And then there are the never-shown images of George Barris, who took the penultimate pictures of Monroe, before she overdosed on barbituates in 1962.

A unique 30-by-40-inch Stern print known as "The Crucifix" of the beloved star sells for $35,000.

'Historic' exhibition

And in a first exhibition of its kind, the birthday wishes of the Marilyn Remembered Fan Club are being featured alongside images of the Playboy and silver-screen legend. The gallery is still seeking birthday card submissions.

"It's historic," said Lily Yu, director of the 40-year-old Weiss gallery. "It matters because she means so many things to so many people - from coming from nothing to living the dream of being a movie star and model.

"It's beyond her body. It's empowerment."

For some, she was the original Oprah, but with a soft baby-like voice. For others, she had curves that could captivate kings. And ex-husbands from high school sweetheart James Dougherty of Van Nuys to baseball legend Joe DiMaggio and playwright Arthur Miller.

It was as a 16-year-old student at Van Nuys High School - which she attended from 1941 to 1942 with Jane Russell - that Baker married Dougherty before launching her modeling career.

And winning a world full of adoring fans.

Including a 10-year-old boy ogling a drive-in screen in Monroe, Wis., during a re-release of "Some Like it Hot." Who melted before the larger-than-life blond.

"I was overwhelmed, with the incredible glamour," said Greg Schneider, of Los Angeles, who co-founded Marilyn Remembered 28 years ago. "She was magic. Glowing on the screen.

"She captured my heart."

Thus began a lifelong devotion. And one of the world's largest collections of Marilyn memorabilia - from her bungalow bedroom dresser, kitchen fridge and a dozen Marilyn movie dresses, including the white satin, chiffon and beaded number from "The Prince and the Showgirls."

Schneider said the Beverly Hills exhibit shows not just the glamourous Marilyn, but the personal Marilyn. The real Marilyn.

"Her soul speaks through all these photos," he said."

It was in July 1954 that a freelance photographer in New York City answered a call to shoot pictures of Monroe on the location of the "Seven Year Itch."

Photographer mesmerized

George Barris had seen her photos and knew she would be a star.

But when he climbed a brownstone on 62nd Street, he found the 28-year-old model leaning out a second-story window - and the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen.

And lunged for his Rolleiflex camera.

"I just saw her posterior. And I said, `I've got to photograph this.' She must have heard the shutter," recalled Barris, now 88, of Newbury Park. "She turned around and smiled.

"And said, 'I'll take a dozen of those."'

It was nearly a decade later that Barris, who photographed Elizabeth Taylor on the set of "Cleopatra," wished Marilyn a happy birthday on the Fox set for "Something's Got to Give."

One last shoot

In the summer of 1962, he was collaborating with Marilyn on a book. Unencumbered by makeup, he photographed her at a friend's house in North Hollywood and on the beach at Santa Monica.

He could see sadness in her eyes, he said. And he knew that her heart was breaking. Aside from a brief Life magazine shoot, it would be the last in-depth session with Monroe. She died on Aug. 5, at 36.

"Here was this beautiful woman," said Barris, emotional about the loss of his friend. "If only she had the love and kindness she deserved, she would have lived a lot longer. ... She lived alone, unfortunately, and she died alone."

Every year, he remembers her birthday. Now he says it's time he share his private prints.

"I feel she belongs to the world, and her fans," Barris said. "I want to share them with the people who love her."

 


The "Happy Birthday Marilyn" photo exhibit will run from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday, through Aug. 13, at the Andrew Weiss Gallery, 179 S. Beverly Drive, Beverly Hills. 310-246-9333. andrewweissgallery.com

.

Source: http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_18184747?source=rss

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'X-Men: First Class' co-stars take relationship public

'X-Men: First Class' Zoe Kravitz and Michael Fassbender stepped out on May 29 in New York.

Hector Vallenilla/PacificCoastNews

'X-Men: First Class' Zoe Kravitz and Michael Fassbender stepped out on May 29 in New York.

Talk about one super couple.

"X-Men: First Class" co-stars Zoe Kravitz and Michael Fassbender finally made their under-the-radar romance public on Sunday during a romantic stroll through NYC's West Village.

According to Us Weekly, the pair began dating last year while filming the superhero flick, but chose to not go public with their relationship until now. Excluding promotional appearances, this is the first time Kravitz, 22, and Fassbender, 34, have been photographed together.

Earlier in the day, they reportedly had brunch with some friends, including actor Ben Foster, who happens to be Kravitz's ex.

"They're really low-key, but they have a great time together just talking music or movies," a source told the mag. "They really didn't want to be a topic of conversation during the press for 'X-Men.' "

Kravitz, the daughter of rocker Lenny Kravitz and actress Lisa Bonet, reportedly captured Fassbender's heart right from the start and has since been the one who is talking control of their relationship.

"For how good-looking and smart he is, Michael's pretty shy," the source said. "She is actually the one taking care of him most the time. She really respects his talent."

And their 12-year age difference doesn't seem to be a problem for the pair.

"Zoe's really mature for her age in that she has very strong opinions and she is very confident in herself," the source added. "Most people are shocked to learn she's so young; she doesn't really bring it up, and age would never stop her from dating anybody."

Source: http://feeds.nydailynews.com/~r/nydnrss/gossip/~3/8Ia0Wvbfelo/2011-06-02_xmen_first_class_costars_zoe_kravitz_michael_fassbender_take_secret_relationship.html

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Maria Sharapova Loses French Open Semifinal

She?s one of the hottest ladies in tennis, but Maria Sharapova had a rough time during today?s French Open semifinal.

The 24-year-old Russian babe went up against China?s Li Na (29) this morning (June 2) at Roland Garros Stadium in Paris.

And despite her best efforts, Ms. Sharapova seemed to be thrown off by the winds, which affected her high ball toss on the serve.

In the end, Li Na emerged victorious, while Maria had to say goodbye to her shot at winning the career grand slam.

Source: http://celebrity-gossip.net/maria-sharapova/maria-sharapova-loses-french-open-semifinal-510616

Susan Ward Sienna Guillory Katharine Towne Sarah Gellman Amanda Bynes

?ROUND THE WAY: RIHANNA?S VIDEO CAUSES OUTRAGE / SHAQ RETIRING / COSBY CAST MEMBER PASSES & MORE

After releasing a rather graphic music video for her latest single, “Man Down”, the Parents Television Council are not at all pleased with the visual depiction of Rihanna‘s song, saying the video showed a “cold, calculated execution of murder”, according … Continue

Source: http://concreteloop.com/2011/06/round-the-way-rihannas-video-causes-outrage-shaq-retiring-cosby-cast-member-passes-more

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Critic's Corner Thursday: 'Dance,' NBA Finals, 'Community'

By Robert Bianco, USA TODAY

?It's a great night for fans of talent-laden competitions. Start out with summer's best reality contest, So You Think You Can Dance (Fox, 8 ET/PT), then there's The NBAFinals (ABC, 9 ET/6 PT) ? which, while not a reality show, is certainly a real contest.

  • Greg Grunberg stars as Judd in the curious Love Bites.

    By Chris Haston, NBC

    Greg Grunberg stars as Judd in the curious Love Bites.

By Chris Haston, NBC

Greg Grunberg stars as Judd in the curious Love Bites.

?The best scripted choices are two excellent sitcom reruns ? though they're airing opposite each other.

If you must pick one, go with Community (NBC, 8 ET/PT), if only because it includes a caper-gone-wrong scene that ranks with the show's funniest.

That means missing an equally good Big Bang Theory (CBS, 8 ET/PT) that boasts an office war between Raj and Sheldon. No one said these choices would be easy.

?There is one new scripted show, but it's more a curiosity than a viable option: NBC's Love Bites (10 ET/PT).

This romance anthology was to have premiered in September but was delayed by production problems, the biggest ? judging from tonight's segment starring Greg Grunberg as a regular guy who gets a chance to have sex with Jennifer Love Hewitt? being that it's terrible.

Enter your ZIP code below to see local listings.

Source: http://rssfeeds.usatoday.com/~r/usatoday-LifeTopStories/~3/kNdjM7oLBpg/2011-06-01-nba-finals-dance-community_n.htm

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