Goodbye veganism, hello pregnancy!

(from left to right) Christian Bale, Natalie Portman, Melissa Leo and Colin Firth Photograph by DVIDSHUB

Oscar winning actress Natalie Portman went from being a vegan to a vegetarian due to her pregnancy.

Portman turned vegan after reading Jonathan Safran Foer’s Eating Animals and launched a vegan footwear line in 2008.

In a recent interview with an Atlanta radio show, Portman said that “If you’re not eating eggs, then you can’t have cookies or cake from regular bakeries, which can become a problem when that’s all you want to eat.”

She also said that people who stay vegan have to be extra careful and need to watch their iron levels and B12 levels.

Portman was “listening to her body” when making the decision to switch back.

“In general, listening to your body is important,” she said. “Not feeling good can be a sign there’s something you should do differently.”

Pregnant women need to be getting the right amount of protein which is a challenge for vegan moms-to-be.

Portman and fiancé Benjamin Millepied are expecting their baby this summer.

Lifestyle TV Intro

This is the introduction I created for Lifestyle TV which will be aired on RUtv this season.

Enjoy.

Olsen twins up for CFDA Fashion Award

 

Photographed by Bruce Weber for Vogue

From acting to designers, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen are touching new heights each and every day.

The Olsen twins have recently gotten a CFDA Fashion Award Nomination for their new label The Row in Swarovski emerging womenswear design category, which honors new talent.

They are up against designers Joseph Altuzarra and Prabal Gurung who made his catwalk debut at New York Fashion Week for his Fall 2010 collection.

The CFDA Gala will be held on June 6th where the Olsen twins and other designers will be honored for their fabulous work.

Marc Jacobs will be receiving a lifetime achievement award while Lady Gaga wins fashion icon of the year.

Dragon, robots and a lot of glitter!

Photograph By Danny Choo

Photograph By Danny Choo

Photograph By Danny Choo

Zack Snyder has managed to turn the ladies of his new film, Sucker Punch, into action stars after three months of intense empty-hand weapon training and martial arts.

Stunt co-0rdinator Damon Caro prepared the stars of the film Emily Browning, Abbie Cornish, Vanessa Hudgens, Jamie Chung and Jena Malone, who endured five hours of training each morning for three months before the film began its shoot in Vancouver, B.C.

“Zack keeps a really healthy set, but every now and then Emily would bring a few Tim Tams to the trailer and we would all eat them,” said Hudgens in a recent interview with Stuff.

Sucker Punch is a film about Browning’s character, Baby Doll, who is sent to Lennox House for the Mentally Insane after she accidentally kills her sister in an attempt to save her from their violent stepfather.

There, Baby Doll creates an escape plan with fellow patients Sweet Pea (Cornish), Blondie (Hudgens), Amber (Chung) and Rocket (Malone).

“It is sort of a dream within a dream movie,” Snyder explained in an interview. “It’s like The Wizard of Oz. It’s a movie about people who go into a dream world to fight and they find things that impact their real lives.”

Here begins a journey where they must slay dragons, battle giant samurais, engage in trench warfare and fight robots on a distant planet in order to escape from the asylum.

In between all the action and fighting, the girls are forced to work at a brothel where they perform burlesque type dances for the wealthy clients.

Dressed up in corsets, fishnet stockings, fake eyelashes and lots of glitter, these girls are determined to find a way out.

Hollywood icon dies at 79

Elizabeth Taylor By Classic Film Scans, Kate Gabrielle

Hollywood icon and two time Oscar-winner, Elizabeth Taylor, died today at age 79.

Taylor was practically born in the spotlight and rose to stardom as a child. She captured the world’s attention at the age of 12 when she starred in 1944’s “National Velvet.” She went on to do dozen more films such as “Butterfield 8” and “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”

Taylor was reportedly taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles due to a congestive heart failure in early February 2011. At approximately 1:30 a.m. today, she “peacefully died there” according to her publicist, Sally Morrison.

She was surrounded by her children – Michael Wilding, Christopher Wilding, Liza Todd and Maria Burton said Morrison in a statement.

Morrison also said that Taylor’s condition had stabilized and the family was hoping she would be able to return home.  Sadly, that is no longer the case.

Even long after she retired from movies and became a perfume mogul, she “lived life to the fullest, with great passion, humour, and love,” said her son, Michael Wilding, in a statement.

Known as Hollywood’s most striking beauties, with eyes so blue they look violet, Taylor will always remain a Hollywood legend.

Beastly: A bland and lifeless adaptation

Beastly is a modern day take on Walt Disney’s Beauty and the Beast.

The rich, arrogant and good-looking Kyle, played by British actor Alex Pettyfer, is transformed into a hideous monster by goth girl Kendra, played by Mary-Kate Olsen. In order for him to turn back to his normal self, he must find true love.

On his last night before he is transformed, Kyle seems to have made a connection with the normal and intelligent girl from school Lyndy, played by Vanessa Hudgens. Lindy is forced to live in Kyle’s out of the city home/ in hiding after her dad is blackmailed by Kyle who sees him kill a thug. Why would he do this? Well, he only has a year to woo the beauty and break the curse and Lindy seems to be the only girl who doesn’t get shocked when she sees his face. Kyle, who now goes by the name of Hunter to keep his curse a secret, has never had to depend on his personality to win over a woman. This is where his Jamaican maid and blind teacher, played by How I Met Your Mother’s Neil Patrick Harris, come in and mentor him to become worthy of a girl as sweet as Lindy.

The movie tries to be dark and sexy but there is nothing you can hold onto. The film is not only shallow and bland but is predictable to anyone who has seen or knows the story of Beauty and the Beast. It’s a lifeless version of Disney’s animated classic which feature characters that were more alive and human than this live-action film. Hudgens, however, brings sunshine and realism to the film even though her character isn’t as great.

At times the script is silly. Yes, the movie is a fantasy but every genre should be attached to some  realism in dialogue and action.

Beastly’s message is to look beyond the surface and find inner beauty. Can they find true romance and live happily ever after across the river from Manhattan? The answer is pretty obvious.

Stabbing investigation continues

Two boys taken to the hospital after a stabbing took place at Cineplex Odeon movie theatre, located at 785 Milner Avenue, at 9:20 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2011.

The boys were stabbed in the neck and back and face non-life-threatening injuries.

Investigators have released security camera images of three suspects. Two of which have been described as brown, the third is black and are all around the ages of 18-20.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective Mark Niezen or Detective Constable Tony Cruz at 416-808-4204. The public may also contact Crime Stoppers anonymously at 416-222-TIPS (8477) or text TOR and your message to CRIMES (274637). Tips can also be submitted online at www.222tips.com or on Facebook.

Vaccine-Autism Scandal Exposer, Brian Deer

Brian Deer

Either a journalist becomes a doctor or a doctor becomes a journalist, said Brian Deer, a British Press Award winner, at Ryerson University.

“The role of the journalist is to test the evidence,” said Deer.  

Deer talked about his seven year journey of investigation on the Measles Mumps Rubella (MMR) vaccine to the development of autism in children and the aftermath.

His story exposed Andrew Wakefield’s, a former British medical researcher and surgeon, research linked to the MMR vaccine to be false. 12 children in the UK whom the vaccine was linked to, was published in The Lancet, one of the most respected medical journals in the world.

“Not only was it false but it was intended to mislead,” said Deer.

For a story like this, Deer had to not only look at this subject matter from two points of view; he also had to make sure he understood it himself as he reviewed the Lancet children’s medical records.

Throughout Deer’s journey, he was attacked quite a bit by the press.

“I can now go online and see myself be abused in real times,” said Deer.

Deer also talked about his love for newspapers: “The magic is in television but the romance for me is print newspapers.”

His proudest moment was the mentioning of his name in an editorial in The New York Times.

Print vs. Technology

An Evening with Tea and a Newspaper, Matt Callow

Newspapers are in constant competition with other forms of media. Clay Shirky, writer of “Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable” wrote about how newspapers are “broken” and what the future may hold for them. Louie Rosella, Mississauga News reporter says “There has never been more media in the GTA than there is now. So no, newspapers aren’t broken. They’ve just had to reinvent themselves by providing video content and more visuals to their products.”

Rosella believes that the next generation or maybe the one after that, newspapers will be strictly digital and online, with the ability to access them on your phone or computer with ease.

Especially with our generation, we are letting technology take over not only newspapers but our lives as well. “Older people, like the baby boomers, aren’t catching on to the technology,” says Julia Le, reporter at the Mississauga News.

Carleton University professor, Paul Adams believes that newspapers are the foundation of news however they are likely to decline over time shifting but will never completely disappear.

“We are creatures of habit and some things can never totally be replaced. There’s not much that can replace that great feeling of waking up on a Sunday morning with a cup of coffee and racking open the newspaper on your kitchen table…” says Rosella.

Like Shirky said, “What will work in its place? Nothing will, But everything might.”

From Old Lines to Shorter Cuts

Paris-Byzance Show Fittings, Benoît Peverelli

In 1909, one of the greatest fashion empires of the world was born; Chanel. Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel opened up her first store on the ground floor of Etienne Balsan’s apartment in Paris. By 1915, her fashion became known for its simplicity throughout France and she established a reputation as a meticulous fashion couturier according to My Fashion Database.

Chanel No. 5 was introduced in 1921, which is one of the best-selling fragrances today.

Chanel later joined forces with Pierre Wertheimer, who funded her venture and founded Parfums Chanel in 1924.

When France fell under control of Adolf Hitler in 1940, Wertheimer fled to the United States with his family and Chanel fled to Switzerland following the war where she started creating her own perfumes, violating Wertheimer’s legal rights. He gave her limited rights to selling her perfumes in Switzerland to which she stopped making perfumes after the agreement.

Chanel returned to Paris in 1953 and took on the challenge to create haute couture, prêt-a-porter, costume jewelry and fragrance. Chanel and Wertheimer re-joined forces and with her unerring sense of style, Chanel once again became the single, most prestigious label in all of fashion.

After the death of Chanel, Karl Lagerfeld took over as chief designer for Chanel in 1983. He changed Chanel’s fashion lines to shorter cuts and eye capturing designs.

The House of Chanel is now owned by Alain Wertheimer and Gerard Wertheimer who are the grandsons of the early Chanel partner Pierre Wertheimer.