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LONDON: Jean Simmons, the ethereal British film star who played Ophelia to Laurence Olivier’s Hamlet, sang with Marlon Brando in “Guys and Dolls” and co-starred with Gregory Peck, Paul Newman and Kirk Douglas, died on Friday.

She was 80 years old.

Simmons, who won an Emmy Award for her role in the 1980s miniseries “The Thorn Birds,” passed away at her home in Santa Monica, her agent Judy Page told the Los Angeles Times.

She had lung cancer.

Already a stunning beauty at 14, Simmons made her film debut in the 1944 British production “Give Us the Moon.”

Several minor films followed before British director David Lean gave the London-born actress her breakthrough role of Estella, companion to the reclusive Miss Havisham in 1946’s “Great Expectations.”
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It seems with age comes confidence for Hollywood star Sandra Bullock.
For most of her career the actress has kept her clothes on for movie roles that have seen her play a string of prim - if a little geeky - characters such as Miss Congeniality.
But now, aged 44, she has appeared in her first nude scenes in her new film The proposal.
Bullock joked that that she’ll be stripping for more roles following the romantic comedy’s runaway succes.
The Proposal, due for release in the UK on July 22, debuted at the top of the U.S. box office and sees her star alongside Ryan Reynolds, the husband of Scarlett Johansson.
Speaking to GMTV’s Ben Shepherd yesterday, Sandra said appearing in the buff helped the film do well in America and pledged to bare all well into old age.
She said: ‘Box office like this - I’m going to be naked in every single film!
‘I’m going to be 70 years old - everything like hanging down - and I’m just going to walk by in random people’s films.’
She continued: ‘Come on, can you imagine me at 70, walking naked in who’s film? Zac Efron! Zac Efron doing a big film – there I am, running naked in the background.
‘Just back and forth until someone notices. Big box office - they’re all going to want me in their film!’
The actress went on to reveal the key to ‘bringing in the money’ is not filming steamy sex scenes - but by being naked and funny.
She said: ‘If you’re naked and you’re trying to be sexy - you don’t really make as much money as if you’re naked and you’re funny.
‘And Will Ferrell has been onto that for quite some time. Have you noticed how he drops his trousers in every single film? I’m going to do that from now on. Action film - all naked!’
The Proposal took $34.1million to open as the weekend’s No 1 movie last month in the U.S.
The Disney flick - which sees Sandra as a publishing executive who coerces her assistant (Reynolds) into a fake marriage so she can avoid deportation - delivered the biggest opening ever for the actress.
It was nearly double that of her previous best of $17.6million for the 2007 paranormal thriller Premonition.
The Proposal is Bullock’s first romantic comedy since in five years since the 2005 movie Miss Congeniality 2: Armed & Fabulous.
Bullock shot to fame 15 years ago in the 1994 action film Speed, in which she starred alongside Keanu Reeves.
Speaking about the nude scenes in The Proposal last month, Bullock said: ‘It was all about choreography.
‘I mean, literally when you read it on the page, you saw it, and then you realised, “OK, there is no way to shoot this unless you are buck naked!”
‘Then I went, “Go to the gym, cut out the carbs!”‘
The scene - which involves a naked run-in sequence with costar Ryan Reynolds - took three days to film and over a dozen takes.
Bullock added: ‘Shooting it was odd. There are things stuck to areas that generally you don’t have things [stuck to].
‘I mean, you have things covering [your body], but not stuck to it. And then they got unstuck, and oddly we didn’t care because we were so tired.’
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Funstylers News Alert: LONDON - The heartbroken sister of pop superstar Michael Jackson told British tabloids her brother was murdered for his billion-dollar fortune.

“We don’t think just one person was involved in the murder,” LaToya Jackson, 53, told the News of the World. “It was a conspiracy to get Michael’s money.”

And she vowed to bring his killers to justice.
“I know who did it and I won’t rest until I nail them,” Jacko’s grieving sister told the paper.

Michael Jackson died June 25 at the age of 50. The cause of his death remains under investigation.

LaToya Jackson, in separate interviews with News of the World and The Mail, did not name the King of Pop’s killers or offer any proof of foul play.

She was clear about the motive.

“I feel it was all about money,” she told the News of the World. “Michael was worth well over a billion in music publishing assets and somebody killed him for that. He was worth more dead than alive.”

And Michael’s older sister dropped this bombshell: He was robbed of $2 million in cash and jewelry as he lay dying in his rented mansion.

LaToya claimed Jacko’s killers used powerful prescription drugs to keep him submissive and away from his caring family.

Jackson’s killers kept him doped up so he’d agree to the grueling 50-show comeback concert series in London that was scheduled to begin today, LaToya Jackson alleged.

Her brother Michael was forced to perform the shows he was rehearsing for when he died, she told News of the World.

LaToya Jackson claimed she predicted her star-crossed brother would never play the long-awaited concerts.

“Less than a month ago, I said I thought Michael was going to die before the London shows because he was surrounded by people who didn’t have his best interests at heart,” she told The Mail.
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Funstylers Xclusive News Update: LONDON–Michael Jackson was killed by a band of greedy hangers-on, his sister La Toya alleged in interviews with British Sunday newspapers.

The King of Pop’s sister spoke about her younger brother’s death and the aftermath with the weeklies.

“I believe Michael was murdered, I felt that from the start,” the 53-year-old said.

“Not just one person was involved, rather it was a conspiracy of people. He was surrounded by a bad circle. Michael was a very meek, quiet, loving person. People took advantage of that.

“Less than a month ago, I said I thought Michael was going to die before the London shows because he was surrounded by people who didn’t have his best interests at heart.

La Toya said she had ordered a private autopsy.

Jackson, one of the world’s most popular entertainers, died on June 25 at the age of 50.

“Michael was worth more than a billion dollars. When anyone is worth that much money, there are always greedy people around them. I said to my family a month ago, ‘He’s never going to make it to London’. He was worth more dead than alive.”

Murder under Californian law can include killings that are not premeditated.

La Toya accused a “shadowy” group of cutting her sibling off from his family and friends and forcing him to sign up for 50 comeback concerts at London’s O2 Arena, shows billed “This Is It”.

They saw him as a “cash cow” and “got him hooked on drugs… I think it shocked his system so much it killed him,” she claimed.

“I am not going to stop until I find out who is responsible. Why did they keep the family away? It’s not about money. I want justice for Michael. I won’t rest until I find out what — and who — killed my brother.”

La Toya said Jackson was found in the bedroom of his physician Doctor Conrad Murray.

“Michael walked from his room to Doctor Murray’s room. What happened in there we don’t know,” she said.

La Toya said she was driving to see Jackson in hospital when her mother screamed down the phone: “He’s dead!”.

“I nearly crashed my car,” she said. “My legs went weak… They took me up to the area where Michael had been taken. Mother was crying and Michael’s kids were crying.”

She also claimed jewellery was missing from his house and no cash was found, despite the fact he regularly kept more than a million dollars around.

La Toya said the family had an open coffin viewing before the public memorial in Los Angeles’ Staples Center arena.

She put one of his sequined gloves in the coffin, while his daughter Paris, 11, put a one half a heart-shaped “mood necklace” around his wrist, keeping the other piece.

La Toya said it was Paris’s idea to speak at the memorial.

Of Jackson’s children, she said Paris wanted to be an entertainer, Prince Michael was “assertive”, while Blanket was “very funny, a real prankster like his father.”

La Toya said her brother would “absolutely not” be laid to rest at his Neverland ranch and added that Jackson’s brain, removed in the autopsy, had been put back in his body.

La Toya said Jackson wanted to give up music and become a film director.

“The first one was to be a horror film called ‘Thriller’,” she said. “‘This Is It’ really was the end. He didn’t want to perform any more.”

She said Jackson updated his will roughly every five years, “so we expect another one to emerge from 2007″.
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Funstylers Xclusive News: LONDON– U.S. and allied troops have pushed back Taliban insurgents in a major offensive in Afghanistan but there is still a long way to go, U.S. President Barack Obama said on Saturday.

“We knew that this summer was going to be tough fighting … They (the Taliban) have, I think, been pushed back but we still have a long way to go. We’ve got to get through elections,” he said in a televised interview during his visit to Ghana.

He said the United States and its allies would have to evaluate the situation after Afghanistan’s Aug. 20 presidential election to see what more they could do. “It may not be on the military side, it may be on the development side,” he said.

U.S. and British forces are both involved in fierce fighting in the Taliban bastion of Helmand in southern Afghanistan.

Obama praised the “extraordinary role” British soldiers had played in Afghanistan and said his heart went out to the families of eight British soldiers killed there in the last few days.

Asked whether Washington still needed British forces in Afghanistan now that it was ramping up its forces there, Obama said, “The contribution of the British is critical.”
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LONDON — Thousands of Harry Potter fans braved rain and hail Tuesday to cheer the cast of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince at its London premiere.
Stars Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint and other cast members, along with the boy wizard’s creator, J.K. Rowling, walked up a soggy red carpet before the screening in Leicester Square.

The sixth Potter film, Half-Blood Prince sees Harry and his friends at Hogwarts school battling evil Lord Voldemort — and their raging teenage hormones.

Fans cheered the film’s stars despite the weather, some holding placards reading Harry, I’ll be Your Chosen One and “Britain Loves J.K. Rowling.”

“I can’t believe the dedication of the fans,” said Tom Felton, who play’s Harry’s rival, Draco Malfoy, in the film.

FIND MORE STORIES IN: Daniel Radcliffe | Emma Watson | Rupert Grint | J. K. Rowling | Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Paul Taylor, 45, a nursing-home worker from Sheffield in northern England, came dressed in a tailor-made wizard’s cloak and hat.

“It’s quite exciting. You get caught up in all the energy,” he said.

“I get quite involved with Harry Potter,” he acknowledged. “I travel on steam trains and go to conferences.”

Grint, who plays Ron Weasley, attended after recovering from a mild bout of swine flu. He said the illness was not severe and “just like any other flu I’ve had before.”

The cast members wore white ribbons in memory of Rob Knox, a young actor on the film who was stabbed to death in London last year.

“He would have loved to be here,” said Jessie Cave, who plays Ron’s sometime love interest, Lavender Brown.

The movie opens around the world July 15.

Two more films are in the works covering Rowling’s final book in the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
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LONDON: President Asif Ali Zardari has said that he wants to clear Pakistan from terrorism and militancy.

Zardari in an interview with British paper said that operations would in future target figures who were behind the militancy. “I don’t think anybody in the establishment supports them any more,” he said. “I think everybody has become wiser than this.”

“Military operations are all across the board against any insurgent whether in Karachi, Lahore or whether he is in any part of Pakistan,” he said. “My problem is terror. I have focused myself on terror. The PPP has focused itself against the extremist mindset. Terror is a regional problem, it cuts across borders.

“I would love to be remembered for creating a Pakistan where militancy – I know it can’t totally be diminished – is defeated.”

A day earlier Mr Zardari gained important support when Pakistan’s army chief, Gen Ashfaq Kiyani, said that the “immediate internal threat” of Taliban militancy was greater than any “external threat”.
Gestures of goodwill towards India allied to a campaign to end militant influence has attracted criticism but for the moment his opponents are at bay. “It rankles the small mind,” he said. “It does not rankle the army, because after India and Pakistan became nuclear powers, that position of being able to take over another state is nullified.”

He reiterated a call for the US to sell aerial drones to the Pakistan military in place of mounting cross-border attacks. “My position is that I have always asked for possession of the drone; I want the Pakistani flag on it.”

The legacy for which he aims is wrapped up in the continuing impact of Miss Bhutto’s assassination. On that day, he said, he had saved Pakistan. “The people in the street were calling for blood and we went for a democratic offensive.”
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Sir Ian McKellen CBE, 70, is an award-winning actor known for his film roles in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Da Vinci Code and Gods and Monsters. His extensive theatre career includes Trevor Nunn’s recent productions of King Lear and The Seagull. He lives in east London

I’d always known about Jonathan because friends had worked with him at the Glasgow Citizen theatre – a 1970s powerhouse of young actors and stylish productions. But we didn’t get to know each other until we were part of a company under Peter Hall’s regime at the National Theatre in the 1980s. We did four plays together and got on terribly well; it’s wonderful when you work with actors who you are absolutely in tune with.

I just assumed our paths would cross again, which they did a little socially. I met his wife [the Scottish opera singer Isobel Buchanan] while they were living in London. But then they moved and the chance to get to know them went with them to Devon.

It was only when Trevor Nunn was casting King Lear and The Seagull two years ago for the RSC that Jonathan’s name came up again, and I was enthusiastic that he should play Kent, Lear’s best friend, and Dr Dorn in The Seagull. He was hugely helpful to me in assessing our performance; he’s unique in that while he’s not a director, he’s able to see how things could be better. So, 20 years on from our original meeting, we became firm friends.

Now he’s in Peter Pan as Captain Hook, and he’s been staying in my spare room. He’s the perfect house guest; he cooks delicious dishes and he washes up. I normally live on my own but to know somebody’s going to be there when I get back and we can have a chat before bed, well, that’s pleasurable. With Jonny, I know the day will end with laughter.

I’m close to his wife, too – she’s adorable and an extremely talented singer. She’s been up to visit a lot and at my 70th birthday she sang an aria for us and it was absolutely beautiful. To watch Jonny when Isobel is singing is a joy; he’s so proud of her.

Like me, he enjoys high theatricality; when he does his Dame Edna impersonation, it creases me up. But the funny thing about Jonny is that, while he’s Australian and doesn’t have any sentimentality about this country, he looks like the ultra-English gentlemen, which he likes to play on a bit.

Jonny’s a more rounded person than I am; I’m just an actor. He’s a gardener, a house-maker, a wonderful painter and a fantastic cook. He’s a father and a husband, and I’ve never been either, really. He’s a proper man, and Isobel got him first.

Jonathan Hyde, 61, is an Australian-born British actor, known for his film roles in Titanic, The Mummy and Jumanji. As a member of the RSC, he has appeared in productions including King Lear and Les Liaisons Dangereuses. He lives in Bath with his wife

I’d just arrived in London after graduating from university in Australia in the early 1970s, on the hunt for a career, when I saw Ian perform as Richard II. I was so bowled over, I saw him again; he had this astonishing ability to convey outrage and hurt. I thought, “That’s what I want to do, that’s what I want to be.”

We met fleetingly several years later at the Theatre Royal in Stratford East, when I was playing the wicked African magician in A Night in Old Peking, and he was in the bar afterwards. But it wasn’t until I was asked to join a company he’d formed within the National Theatre in 1985 that we started to form a professional bond.

Ian led the company magnificently thanks to his poise and invention and since then I’ve felt such an affinity with him; we became friends and started seeing each other socially. When Ian was involved in the Clause 28 campaign [relating to the treatment of homosexuality in schools] a few years later, I wanted to support him, so both my wife and I took part in it too. I think he uses his celebrity for the very best causes, for his activism, but as a man he’s pure Lancashire: straightforward and ordinary with people.

Ian loves having pals around him. His friends are his family in a sense, and my wife adores him; she sang a wonderful aria from Adriana Lecouvreur for Ian’s 70th. He had 80 people – it felt like half of British Equity was there – spilling out on to his riverside terrace. The sun had come up before people stopped talking.

I said a few words, but the quotation I wish I’d used was from Henry V when he talks about “A largess universal like the sun, his liberal eye doth give to everyone,” which I think sums up Ian; he’s incredibly generous. In between a round-the-world tour in 2007, he took a close group of us on a sensational road trip from LA to Denver – Ian’s treat. We had so many laughs.

Playing the Earl of Kent [opposite McKellen's Lear] in King Lear two years ago really cemented our friendship. I call it my year of selfless devotion, because Kent has to look after Lear, and I wouldn’t have done the job if it hadn’t been Ian playing him; you don’t selflessly devote a year of your life to just anybody.

Hyde appears in ‘Peter Pan’ at Kensington Gardens Theatre, London, until 30 August (0871 386 1122, www.visitlondon.com/peterpan). McKellen is currently appearing in ‘Waiting for Godot’ at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket, London SW1
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Three days before Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince premieres in London, Grint, who plays Ron Weasley, was revealed to have taken several days off from filming the next in the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. “He has now recovered and is looking forward to joining his fellow cast members at the junket and premieres this week, and will then return to filming directly afterwards,” his publicist said.

In a sign of concern in the Islamic world at the potential of the annual hajj in November to exacerbate the flu crisis, Tunisia suspended lesser pilgrimages to Mecca known as omra.

Tunisian Religious Affairs Minister Boubaker el-Akhzouri said at the weekend that officials should “reflect on whether or not to postpone the hajj” after taking what he called the “necessary decision” to suspend omra travel.

Global health chiefs warned that international politicking could prevent lives being saved in poor countries. Access to a swine flu vaccine remains a “critical question”, World Health Organisation assistant director-general Keiji Fukuda said during a summit on the virus in the Mexican beach town of Cancun.

Mr Fukuda said guaranteeing the vaccine was distributed to underdeveloped nations would require political goodwill.

Fears have emerged that most of the vaccine stock to be produced has been reserved by the US and European countries.

Mexican Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova said money should not be the only factor taken into consideration.

The virus has infected almost 90,000 people in 125 countries and territories worldwide and caused more than 380 deaths, WHO says.

Macedonia and Syria on Saturday became the latest countries to record their first cases.

The weekend developments followed a chilling assessment from British Health Secretary Andy Burnham, who said there could be 100,000 infections per day across England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales by the end of next month.

Four people have died of swine flu in Britain, and the country has Europe’s highest number of reported cases, with nearly 7500.

In Brazil, which has confirmed 756 cases, a troupe of actors and entertainers was placed in quarantine after one of them contracted the virus.

New Zealand recorded its first deaths linked to swine flu, with authorities there reporting that three people who died in the past week had the virus.

New Zealand Chief Coroner Neil MacLean said it was “strongly probable” that the AH1N1 virus, which causes swine flu, was a major factor in the deaths of two men, aged 19 and 42, although one had underlying medical conditions as well.
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LONDON: British foreign secretary David Miliband has said that terrorism poses real threat to Pakistan and not India.

In an interview to a US news channel, Miliband replying to a question said Pakistan faces no threat from India.

He pledged continued support to Pakistan, saying there are disputes among provinces of Pakistan.

British foreign secretary said the real causes for Muslim’s inclination towards extremism still exist and cited British businessmen doing business from Pakistan as one of the causes.

He said Pakistan has seen 31 years of military rule and that there are disputes among provinces.
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