Dasha
Zhukova was photographed to accompany an interview by the Russian
website Buro 24/7. The website said: 'We see this chair purely in an
artistic context.' It later recropped the photos to remove the chair.
Photograph: Oleg Nikishin/Getty Images
In an airy white blouse, art gallery owner Dasha Zhukova poses
serenely on a chair, in a photograph taken for a Russian fashion
website. The only problem: the chair is fashioned from a contorted
lifelike mannequin of a black woman, sparking an internet outcry and allegations of racism.
It
did not help matters that the photograph of Zhukova – a Russian
socialite and the girlfriend of oligarch Roman Abramovich – was
published on Martin Luther King Day, a national holiday in the US.
It seems odd that there's criticism from some quarters over the recent form of Mesut Ozil. Although
the German's performances are always looked at through the prism of the
£42.5 million price tag, it's curious that a minority of Arsenal fans
are openly questioning the talent and ability of the former Real Madrid
man. We live in a world of Pot Noodle opinion. A player can be
the hottest property one month, a failure the next. However, the issue
with Ozil is quite simple: he's a fantastic player who isn't playing as
well as he can. There's not a lot more to it than that. It's not
complicated.There's no doubt he can perform to a higher standard, he
even said so himself ahead of the Fulham game so he's not lacking
self-awareness, but perhaps there's just an element who always like to
complain about something without giving it too much thought.
Jenni Rivera's
daughter, Chiquis, has debuted a song dedicated to her late mother who
died when her plane crashed in Mexico back in 2012. She took to YouTube
to post the song entitled "Paloma Blanca" ("White Dove").
The song comes along with its lyric and an image of Chiquis wearing a
white dress while standing in front of a cloud-filled background. It
features her singing in banda style, which is a brass-based form of traditional Mexican music.
"You don't know how much I miss you... today I miss your laugh/ From a
star you take care of me," she sings at the beginning of the song.
Chiquis, who was reportedly not on good terms with her mom when she
died, also hints at the rocky relationship in the song. "I was probably
wrong, but it was never that bad/ It is out of this world to betray
someone that I love so much," she sings at one point.
The title of Chiquis' song is a nod to "Paloma Negra", a song which her mother dedicated to her during her last concert.
For 15 glorious minutes on Sunday at Stamford Bridge, Manchester United
fans briefly forgot the grim reality of their Premier League fortunes
and made believe that all was right with the world. As their
team attacked the Chelsea defense with the kind of energy and conviction
that reminded them of those heady days of seasons past, the supporters
reverted to their old cocksure, swaggering selves. "Jose
Mourinho, you wanted this job," they chanted at a very grumpy-looking
Chelsea manager who was reported to have coveted the United throne so
fiercely that he blubbered like a baby when David Moyes was crowned instead.
The news: If you've been on Facebook, Twitter or Reddit, chances are pretty high that you've seen this heart-breaking image
of a young Syrian child sleeping between his parents. It's a wrenching
testament to the devastating horrors of war and the pointless death
occuring across Syria in the battle against President Bashar al-Assad's
authoritarian government.
Jose Mourinho has predicted Manchester United will sell Wayne Rooney to
an overseas club this summer -- though David Moyes has refuted his
Chelsea counterpart's claim.
Mourinho, whose Chelsea side take on United at Stamford Bridge on
Sunday, believes the champions will offload the striker abroad at the
end of the season, when he will have just one year remaining on his
contract.
Sherri Shepherd defends herself in the accusation that she is anti-gay. The "The View"
co-host opened up to Alicia Menendez on "Fusion" that her upbringing
made her believe that homosexuality is a sin but she loves gays anyway.
"I think people don't know my heart," she said when asked what the
biggest misconception in her life is. "I think people feel I'm very
judgmental. I think people feel I'm very homophobic. If they knew me,
and knew
In Chelsea’s match with Manchester United this Sunday afternoon,
arguably the most fascinating battleground will be the central midfield
zone.
That is entirely common in matches between two big clubs,
but usually because of the vast quality on display. This weekend’s match
is different, as both teams are weakest in that very position: the
central midfield, the heart of the side.
There are injury
problems: Chelsea may be without Frank Lampard while David Moyes will
probably still be unable to call upon Marouane Fellaini.
Beyond
that pair, Chelsea have depended upon just four central midfielders and
have recently been using centre-back David Luiz in the holding role,
despite Jose Mourinho previously insisting he would not, and have now
re-signed Nemanja Matic -- a player they sold as part of the Luiz deal
in 2011 -- for 21 million pounds.
You probably know 21-year-old Irish actor Jack Gleeson as this guy
But, as it turns out, Game of Throne's King Joffrey in real
life is a deeply introspective, thoughtful, and pleasant person, able to
dissect his own celebrity and Hollywood culture with remarkable
clarity.
During a recent visit to the Oxford Union,
Gleeson launched into an enlightening conversation on what, exactly, it
means to be a celebrity and how it impacts the rest of us.
Gleeson says he was initially ambivalent about whether or not he
could possibly bring to his talk at the Union: "What the hell would I
talk about? ... I haven't tried to foster a universal compassion across
the globe, or
World champions Spain extended their tenure at the top the FIFA World Ranking after finishing at No. 1 for a 28thstraight month.
The top 25 remains unchanged after a lack of action, with Germany still
second and Argentina third. The 2014 World Cup hosts Brazil sit in 10th
place, with England just behind Greece in 13th.
The actor Roger Lloyd-Pack has died, aged 69. He had been suffering from pancreatic cancer.
A fine character actor, on TV and in plays by Alan Bennett and William Shakespeare,
his job in a comedy was often to be the character who pulls the wheels
off the wagon; to undercut whatever point is being made with a line that
takes a step towards joining in, while proving that he has absolutely
no idea what is going on. Not just in the conversation, but in life.
Here’s something like this, from his most celebrated role, as Trigger in Only Fools And Horses:
Or this, as the disgusting, dour farmer Owen in The Vicar of Dibley:
But his fame as Trigger did not precluding him taking dramatic roles; he also appeared in Harry Potter and
It's rare for astronomers to spot a planet in a star cluster. That's
partly why a cluster called Messier 67 is so special: We now know that
it has three planets orbiting stars.
Even more exciting: One
these planets orbits a star called YBP1194 that is so similar to our sun
that scientists call it a "solar twin." The results are described in a study in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.
A solar twin is similar
to the sun in mass, temperature and chemical abundances. This particular
star is the first solar twin found in a cluster that has a planet,
astronomers say.
For many stars, winning an Oscar isn't just the cherry on top of an
illustrious career — it's the award that cements them in movie history
and gives them complete creative freedom and a guarantee of future financial success.
For others, though, the award seems to have the opposite effect. Here
are six stars we thought would go on to become some of the biggest
names in Hollywood before they had their Oscar moment and faded.
Cuba Gooding, Jr. won the Oscar in 1996 for his breakout role as Rod Tidwell ("Show me the money!") in Jerry Maguire. The next year, he was nominated again for his supporting role in As Good As It Gets. And that's pretty much as good as it got.
Batman's love interest, Bond girl and a femme fatale in LA Confidential (for which she won her award), Kim Basinger was the babe of all babes during the '80s and '90s. But since LA Confidential and
Arsenal's Mesut Ozil is the only current Premier League player to
feature in the UEFA.com team of the year, but Barcelona's Lionel Messi
has not been named in the side.
Messi lost his FIFA Ballon d'Or award to Cristiano Ronaldo on Monday,
and that was followed up by the announcement that he failed to make an XI made up from a poll of UEFA.com readers who were asked to select the best Europe-based players in a 4-4-2 formation.
Paris Saint-Germain striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic has a place in attack
alongside Ronaldo, while Borussia
Michael's estate and Lloyd's of London have settled a lawsuit over a $17.5 million insurance policy.
The two parties announced the settlement on Wednesday, January 15 in
Los Angeles. The insurer previously claimed that they shouldn't have to
pay the policy because they said Jackson or his camp did not reveal the singer's drug use. Jackson's estate then countersued for breach of contract.
"The estate and Lloyd's of London are glad this matter got resolved," Jackson estate's attorney Howard Weitzman said in a statement, as quoted by Los Angeles Times. Details of the settlement were not revealed.
This Iranian man you see above hasn't allegedly had a bath for 60 years.
Daily Mail reports that 80 year old Iranian Amou Haji hasn't washed for
60 years because he believes being clean will
make him sick, and his favourite food is rotten porcupine.
To relax he likes to sit down and have a smoke, from a pipe packed with animal faeces. Mr
Haji says he chose this way of life after going through some
emotional setbacks in his youth and since then - perhaps unsurprisingly -
he has become a bit isolated.
His home is in Dejgah village in the
southern province of Fars in Iran where, once, a group of young men
offered to give him a shower - but luckily he managed to escape.
At
night he either sleeps in a hole in the ground, which is quite like a
grave, or in an open brick shack which concerned locals built for him.
She isn't the only one making big waves in pop music with her feminism. Lily Allen and Miley Cyrus
also took to the air waves to spread their viewpoints and messages on
the topic. And the world listened because, increasingly, a feminist
stand from a pop star in the spotlight often elicits major Internet
discussion.
Miley Cyrus took a more sexualized, overt route to express
her brand of feminism — twerking away the naysayers. When asked about
her views on feminism, she told BBC Radio 1's Newsbeat, "I feel like I'm one of the biggest feminists in the world because I tell women to not be scared of anything."
Lily Allen, on the contrary, released a feminist anthem called "Hard Out Here," directly mocking Robin Thicke's
"Blurred Lines" and alluding to Cyrus' in-your-face approach to pop
music. Her anger about the state of the genre (especially its
sexualization of young women) comes across in the song, one line of
which states, "I won't be bragging 'bout my cars or talking 'bout my
chains / Don't need to shake my ass for you 'cause I've got a brain."
Although Casper Smart is wonderful with children, Jennifer Lopez is unsure if she wants to get married again. The singer, who has got divorced three times, talked about her private life at the "American Idol" panel during the Winter TCA press tour on Monday, January 13.
When asked about possible fourth wedding, Lopez admitted that she did
not know if she would marry Smart. "I don't know. We'll see. I don't
know," she answered, as reported by E! News. "I always believe in
A BBC reporter Jon Sopel explains how, during an exclusive BBC interview
with
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Prime Minister and Vice
President of the UAE, and
constitutional monarch of Dubai, halted planes in the sky in order for
the
interview to take place.
The roar of aircraft engines was making a lot
of noise and they stopped planes from flying.
