Shiney Ahuja

The controversial ‘Bai commercial’ rolled out by MicromaxMobile, depicting Shiney Ahuja, has been withdrawn by the company after theactor initiated legal action, confirmed Shiney’s publicist Dale Bhagwagar.The said advertisement, which tried to take a humorous digat the Bollywood star out on bail, had infuriated the actor, who sent a legalnotice to the mobile company, claiming that the advertisement amounted towillful character assassination and contempt of court.The critically acclaimed actor best known for his filmsHazaaron Khwaishein Aisi, Sins, Life In A Metro, Woh Lamhe, Bhool Bhulaiyaa andGangster, had to spend time in jail after being accused of raping his housemaid; a charge he has constantly denied.“As we know, Shiney had challenged his conviction and theMumbai High Court has admitted his appeal, which is currently pending hearing.For the mobile company to air such a commercial influencing public opinion whenShiney’s appeal is pending hearing, is equivalent to contempt of Court,” the actor’spublicist Dale Bhagwagar had said.
However, he confirmed that the mobile company had sent areply to Shiney’s notice, stating that the said commercial was withdrawn. Theactor is expected to be back in action with the release of his upcoming moviesEk Accident, Ghost, Chaloo Movie and Har Pall.

Drew Barrymore to Co-Host ‘The Essentials’ on TCM

A new season of Turner Classic Movies' Saturday evening salute to classic films, The Essentials, returns March 3, 2012 with a new co-host, Drew Barrymore. Barrymore will replace the outgoing Alec Baldwin to introduce classic movies alongside longtime host, Robert Osborne. The pair plan on introducing a mix of older classics and more contemporary films, including Dinner at Eight, which starred Drew's paternal grandfather John Barrymore (Grand Hotel, Twentieth Century) and grand-uncle Lionel Barrymore (It's a Wonderful Life). Other offerings this coming season will include To Have and Have Not with Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, Some Like It Hot with Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis and Marilyn Monroe, and The Third Man with Joseph Cotton and Orson Welles. Contemporary titles will include Martin Scorsese's Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, Steven Spielberg's sci-fi opus Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and former host Rob Reiner's hilarious mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap. ''I'm a TCM nut. I watch Robert Osborne every day of my life. To get to talk about classic cinema with such a brilliant man, I am simply in heaven," the 36-year-old, who was recently dubbed the most overpaid actor in Hollywood by Forbes, gushes about her new gig. "This is just the most wonderful opportunity to discuss my greatest passion, which is movies."

Will Marilyn Finally Get Her Oscar?

Despite being one of the most iconic actresses in Hollywood history, Marilyn Monroe never managed to secure an Academy Award nomination.Her fortunes might change somewhat with the release of My Week with Marilyn, a British-made drama starring Michelle Williams as Monroe.
The movie focuses on Monroe's first trip to England, where she mixed business with pleasure by shooting The Prince and the Showgirl while on honeymoon with her third and final husband, playwright Arthur Miller. While on set, she meets a young assistant director named Colin Clark, who winds up showing Monroe how the British live while allowing her to escape her Hollywood pressures, if only for a week.Williams breathes life into Monroe and manages to rise above caricature to inhabit the role, making her an easy contender for the Oscar nomination that eluded Monroe during her lifetime. My Week with Marilyn opens on Nov. 17.
                                  WHAT WAS SO SPECIAL ABOUT MARILYN MONROE?

                              

There is no simple answer to the question, why her.

What was it in this particular woman that makes heads turn around till this day? What was it in her looks or character that still inspires the creation of Marilyn Monroe art 50 years after her death? She was a reasonable actress and wasn’t an amazing singer, but till this day, 80 years after she was born as “Norma Jean”, every child still knows her name.When she died she left behind her nothing but the wondrous shadow of her image that even in the most sexual photographs, including some completely nude, there was still a quality of innocence. Good Marilyn Monroe art will always express this quality.Marilyn truly was representative of the ‘American dream’. She went from rags to riches. Due to her mother’s mental instability and the fact that she wasn’t married at the time, Marilyn as a baby girl who was then called Norma, was given to a foster family. She was fostered for 7 years, then returned to her mother for a short time, soon to be looked after by a close family friend, Grace Makey, as her severely depressed mother was hospitalised in Santa Monica mental institute in 1934.Grace loved and adored her, but had to give her up to an orphanage due to financial difficulties. She once told the young Marilyn ‘don’t you worry Norma Jean – you’ll be a beautiful girl when you grow up, an important woman, a movie star’. And we all know that Grace’s predictions would turn out to be true with Monroe reaching a whole new level of stardom and inspiring authors, journalists and Marilyn Monroe art for years to come.The transition from this troubled childhood to the life of the bleached blonde iconic star we all adore is an essential part of Marilyn Monroe’s mystifying appeal. It is this essence that artists such as myself try to capture in our Marilyn Monroe art works.While working in a parachute check-in factory in 1944, Marilyn was pictured by the army in order to show women contributing to the war effort. One of the photographers, David Connover asked to continue taking her pictures and by Spring, 1945, she rapidly became known as every photographers dream and appeared on 33 national magazine covers. Many of these unforgettable photographs were the muse of the Marilyn Monroe art we see today, including my own.In the Summer of ’46 Marilyn changed her name from Norma and signed a contract with 20^th Century Fox. This led to her movie career, in which she starred in a total of 28 movies, including ‘Some Like It Hot’ (my favourite!) In 1949, Marilyn agreed to model nude for a pin-up calendar, an act that was very controversial for the continuance of her career as a Hollywood star.Marilyn’s fame was overwhelming. Her story ended in bitter tragedy. Her health deteriorated in the late 50s due to drug addiction, an unhappy marriage with Arthur Miller and the suffocating existence of stardom. She reportedly had affairs with both J F Kennedy and Bobby Kennedy not long before her tragic early death which aroused much speculation.It is this amazing story of a poor girl reaching fame and success, but then being swallowed by the pressures and demands of our consumerist world, along with her unrivalled combination of sexiness and innocence, that inspire Marilyn Monroe art and our undying interest in this icon’s life.

Princess Grace Returns to the Big Screen

According to Deadline Hollywood, producer Pierre-Ange Le Pogam (Taken, Tell No One) has ponied up $15 million to fund a movie that focuses on Grace Kelly's reign as the Princess of Monaco.
But it won't be your standard biopic; instead, Arash Amel's script depicts a six month period in 1962 where Prince Rainier III and French President Charles de Gaulle clashed over Monaco's status as a tax haven. Prince Grace played a significant behind-the-scenes role in helping resolve the conflict while saving the monarchy.No word yet as to who might play Princess Grace, but hopefully producers will make an inspired choice.

Doris Day to Receive Lifetime Achievement Award

This past Saturday, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association announced that actress Doris Day will receive their Career Achievement Award alongside other Critics Award winners on Dec. 11th.
The multi-talented girl next door was one of the biggest box office draws in the 1950s and 1960s, ably performing in dramas, romantic comedies and even thrillers. She starred opposite some of the top leading men of her day, including James Stewart in Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much, Rex Harrison in Midnight Lace and Cary Grant in That Touch of Mink.
Day reached the pinnacle of her film career opposite Rock Hudson in the hugely successful romantic comedy, Pillow Talk, which earned the actress her only Academy Award nomination. She abruptly left acting in the 1970s following The Doris Day Show and became a committed animal rights activist. Of course, Day was also a top-selling recording artists and had hits with Teacher's Pet, Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera) and Love Me or Leave Me.