Archive for the ‘Rumours & Headlines’ Category

Nude yoga, or naked yoga, is trailing through the US like wildfire. More common in the underground yoga world, naked yoga is now being practiced by celebs like Gwyneth Paltrow and Nicolas Cage.

But that’s not it. Celebrity stars Halle Berry, Jennifer Lopez, Rita Wilson and Naomi Watts have all been catching on to the heat wave of naked yoga.

Reports the Hindustan Times, “The technique involves practicing conventional yoga postures without a stitch on.”

Adds the Times, “Exponents claim it liberates people from their inhibitions and helps unification of the mind, body and soul.”

Nude yoga clubs, studios and social networks are popping up across the States and Canada. Nude classes being profiled are offered under class names or catagories like ‘Sensual Candlelit Nude Yoga,’ ‘Bare Energy Yoga,’ ‘Naked Yoga Basics,’ Goddess Pelvis Ritual for Women’ and ‘Lovers’ Workout’.

While celebrities have been told to ‘rediscover yoga’ just recently, how does the ancient science house feel about bare bones yoga?

The Times reports Indian yoga expert Bharat Thakur is appalled at the rising love for naked yoga.

“It’s the worst you can do to yoga. There are other ways to lose your fears like singing before people, talking in front of a crowd, showing your poetry to a group of people. Shedding one’s clothes propagates perversion. You’ll be better off on a nude beach!”

Ruchi Kale of the Dhyan Foundation also commented to the Times that the trend is simply a “gimmick”. To view the full article, click here.

“Papa! Regard! Un chien!”

Those are some of the words heard uttered by Montreal model Gabriel Aubry’s 18-month-old daughter, Nahla, (oh, before I forget to mention, the mother is actress Halle Berry) as she toddled adorably into a beach cafe.

“The little girl was pointing at the colourful drinks in the cooler and speaking French, like ‘Papa!’ and ‘Regard!’ I’m not sure what else she said, my French is poor, but she was talking a lot,” said a cashier at Malibu Kitchen, located in a shopping mall across the street from the family’s home.

As Aubry got Nahla a drink, the curly headed toddler heard a dog barking outside and ran to the door, the cashier added.

“She was saying something about that too, and pointing. I asked her dad when he came back in to pay what she had said and he said, ‘Chien means dog in French. She said dog.’ ”

The cashier said Aubry was bubbling with pride at his daughter’s language capacity.

Aubry, 32, the successful French-Canadian model, has vowed ever since his and Berry’s baby was born March 16, 2008, that she would be brought up bilingual even though the family lives in white-bread Malibu.

Aubry’s family often visits from Montreal and in an earlier interview, his sister, Eugenie, said the dominant language in the house is always French — even when Halle is there.

“She’s picking it up and I’m glad the little one will speak French, too,” Eugenie said.

The part of Michelle Obama is being recast by producers of the soap-opera ‘All My Days’. Halle Berry will take over the part of the First Lady on September 1. The present actress for the part, Delores Goons, will be leaving the hit series.

Producers were looking for a younger actress for the role, and Ms. Berry was available. They also wanted a First Lady with a more “sportier look”. Ratings for the hit show have dropped sharply, and producers wanted a new face.

Producers had nothing but praise for Delores Goons work as Michelle Obama. Ms. Goons won a Daytime Emmy last season for her performance as the first African-American First Lady. Ms. Goons has been a familiar face to TV viewers for many years. She starred in many laundry detergent and dog food commercials before landing the role of Michelle Obama in 2006.

‘All My Days’, is also about to take a more melodramatic turn this Fall, according to producers of the soap-opera. Viewers can expect some marital infidelity and drug issues for the November sweeps.

“I grew up in an abusive family. I saw firsthand the destruction that abuse can do, especially to children,” says Halle Berry. “I’ve always cared about women and women’s issues.”

And those women’s issues include domestic violence. For 10 years, the actress has been a supporter and fund-raiser for the Jenesse Center, an org that provides support to abused women through its domestic violence intervention program. The Los Angeles-based center was founded in 1980 by five African-American women, themselves survivors of domestic violence. The center not only provides a shelter for victims, it teaches them self-sufficiency.

“They have to take part in the programs: counseling, vocational educational and talking to lawyers,” says Berry. “The shelter is not just a safe haven. It’s a beginning for women…a chance for them to change their lives.”

Berry has had one-on-one involvement with many women who have just left their abusive partners. “I would clean them up, get them clothes and get them situated for their first night there. Sometimes I counsel them. They look at me as if I have all the answers,” says the actress. “But I’m not a therapist. I just try to be an ear, be a friend, someone who they can talk to, confide in.”

Berry vigorously fund-raises and hosts events that will bring more awareness to the Jenesse Center.

“Over the years, I’ve seen a big change in women willing to admit that they’ve been abused,” she adds. “A lot of the time, women are not really ready to leave their abuser. But Jenesse tells them, ‘You’re here. You’ve had to run here. Now is the time for you to get out of your situation.’ ”

Emergency shelter

Paulette is a woman who found herself in an abusive relationship. Then she heard about the Jenesse Center.

“My children’s dad was an alcoholic. He had been very abusive. Once, when he tried to hit me, he hit my 7-month-old baby instead. That was my turning point,” says Paulette. “Jenesse took me and my children into the emergency shelter. Then we moved to an apartment at one of the sites. I was with the program for two years. I had to learn how to be responsible, accountable. I didn’t have those things. I was all over the place. Jenesse really helped me start my life over.”

Today, Paulette is a successful property manager. “I’m able to stand out in my job,” she says. “My kids are in school. And I’m a better mom. And I can recognize a good relationship because I am in a good relationship right now.”

Jenesse.org

The first black woman to win a Best Actress Oscar, a mother at 41, voted the ‘sexiest woman alive’ at 42 – we salute Halle Berry, who has defied all prejudices to become a major Hollywood player. Now, to seal her superstar status, she has had a fragrance named after her. But life hasn’t always been so rosy for this human comet.

There’s no better backdrop for the fine-boned beauty of Halle Berry than the eternal sunshine of an LA day. And as the first (and, so far, only) black woman to win a Best Actress Oscar, she has earned a blissful bask in that sun.

Yet when I meet Halle, the human comet who conquered Hollywood, I’m amazed at how down-to-earth she is. After joining the ranks of  the A-listers with her Academy Award for Monster’s Ball in 2001, this multi-achiever then showed she really could have it all by giving birth to her first child, daughter Nahla, in March last year at the relatively advanced age of 41. It was, she said at the time, something she ‘had wanted for so long’. Yet I can see in her eyes that she still takes nothing for granted.

Given Halle’s status, she’s unusually forthright and informal. But the fabulous shots of a slinky Halle in her glamorous new perfume campaign for Coty – she’s launching her own fragrance Halle by Halle Berry – come as no surprise, since she was crowned the Sexiest Woman Alive by Esquire magazine only last October at the age of 42.

Yet she cheerfully sent up those good looks at the time. As she explains, ‘I think those things are kind of silly because nobody is the sexiest anything, so I asked them to let me write my own article to poke fun at the label. What I thought was interesting about them choosing me was that I had just had a baby, so it was all about saying that motherhood can be sexy – that was the important thing.

‘And I do feel sexier because I’m now more in line with my purpose for being on the planet. When you feel empowered, to me that’s sexy.’

As for being an older mother, if anyone can change Hollywood’s ageism as well as its sexism and racism, then this former beauty queen and current face of Revlon can. She even disclosed in the same Esquire piece that sex was better now she was older; as she playfully said, ‘I have much better orgasms than when I was 22 because I know what I like – and I initiate.’

Despite her new-found confidence, there’s something very human about Halle, who followed up her Oscar with a Worst Actress Razzie award in 2005 for Catwoman (she doesn’t do anything by halves) and, sportingly, became the first actress to show up in person to accept it, saying her mother had always taught her to be a good loser.

She has been fallible in another way, too: in 2000 she was given three years’ probation and 200 hours of community service for leaving the scene of a traffic accident after crashing into another car on Sunset Boulevard (she had to have 20 stitches to a gashed head, while the other driver broke her wrist). Yet Halle’s successes far outnumber the mistakes.

Named after the department store Halle Brothers in her home town of Cleveland, Ohio, Halle was dubbed ‘Zebra’ by local bullies because of her mixed race. Yet her beauty also set her apart, and modelling became her stepping stone to TV acting, before her breakthrough on the big screen as a crack addict in Spike Lee’s Jungle Fever in 1991.

‘I’m much clearer about what a relationship is, which is why I will never marry again’

She followed that up with showy roles as the sexy mutant Storm in the X-Men series, Bond girl Jinx in Die Another Day and the wife of an executed murderer in Monster’s Ball – shocking blacks and whites alike with her graphic nude love scene with Billy Bob Thornton’s racist character. Such has been her impact on Hollywood that no wonder her website is punningly named Hallewood.com.

But her journey on the way up couldn’t have been tougher. Halle was raised by her white Liverpool-born mother Judith after her black American father Jerome had walked out on her, Halle and her sister Heidi – who is two years older – when Halle was only four. Worse was to come, however, for Jerome, who is now dead, drifted back to beat up Judith and Heidi.

As Halle once admitted, ‘My father was an alcoholic and pretty violent, and my formative years were filled with turmoil and abuse.’

Although, as the youngest in the family, she escaped the physical attacks (later agonising about her guilt at this), she could not escape the emotional scars that badly affected her relationships with men – until she met her current partner Gabriel Aubry, the father of Nahla.

Halle has two broken marriages behind her: to baseball player David Justice from 1992 to 1997 and to musician Eric Benét from 2001 to 2005. She even contemplated suicide after her divorce from Benét but couldn’t bear the thought of her beloved mother finding the body.

A fight with a boyfriend in the early 90s had also left her with some hearing loss in one ear. Yet that dysfunctional relationship history came to an end when she worked with Gabriel, a French-Canadian model ten years her junior, on a fashion shoot in Montreal in 2005.

As she tells me, ‘We clicked instantly. And yes, he’s not at all bad on the eyes,’ she adds, giggling. ‘I don’t know if younger men are easier to get on with because they’re not so set in their ways; all I know is that he’s easy for me to get along with.’

Yet although Nahla has been given Gabriel’s surname, Halle remains adamant that she will never tie the knot again. Clearly she’s a case of twice divorced, three times shy.

And when I ask her for the key to a perfect relationship, she laughs ruefully and sighs before replying: ‘I’m so not the relationship go-to girl. But I’m much clearer about what a relationship is, which is why I will never marry again. Gabriel and I have a great partnership and a lovely daughter. But I once was stupid enough to say, in a previous relationship, “I’m going to be with this person for ever,” and realised, as I grew, that I don’t know if for ever is possible.

‘Gabriel and I don’t look at our relationship in terms of for ever, we look at it as right here today. And today means being the best people we can be, the best parents we can be. It’s wonderful, but neither one of us feels the need to attach ourselves to each other for life – because it may not be that.’

If not a husband, then Gabriel certainly sounds like the perfect father. ‘When I’m not filming, I’m pretty hands-on with Nahla, and so is Gabriel; so much so that he’s my nanny – that’s what I tell him,’ she says, laughing. ‘I’m just kidding. But we work together so well on the childcare.’

‘As a teenager, I learned that the scent you wore defined who you were and said a lot about you’

Nahla, she proudly tells me, is African for loved one and Arabic for honey bee. The little girl is Judith’s sixth grandchild, since Halle’s older sister Heidi plunged into motherhood much earlier and now has five children.

‘But motherhood will always be my priority now, especially because I had a child for the first time at 41,’ says Halle. ‘My priority had been myself for a long, long time, but now it will always be Nahla. You think you know what love is – until you have a child and discover that unconditional mother love.’

Nevertheless, Halle is insistent that she won’t give up making movies in favour of full-time motherhood. ‘I believe that in order to be a good parent, I’ve got to be happy myself, and making movies is my form of expression – so I will find a way to balance the two,’ she says.

She clearly relishes a challenge, for the actress has just finished filming the role of a woman with a multiple personality disorder in Frankie and Alice and is considering playing an infertile mother who discovers the surrogate she has chosen to bear her baby is clinically insane in director Paul Verhoeven’s upcoming project The Surrogate.

Halle now has so much clout in Hollywood that she was able to hand-pick British director Geoffrey Sax for Frankie and Alice after she had seen his work on the BBC1 lesbian love story Tipping the Velvet.

Her next film shoot will be Nappily Ever After, a romcom about a broody woman finding herself late in life. Although the part requires Halle to shave her head for a hairdressing horror scene, she coolly claims to be ‘really excited’ at the prospect (and has the bone structure to carry it off).

Age, it seems, has brought a new confidence to Halle, who will be 43 on 14 August. ‘As a mature woman, you are no longer trying to prove yourself,’ she explains. ‘You pretty much have figured out who you are. And I feel the right to do and say and be whatever I want. I don’t have to make excuses. And I’m no longer so ambitious that I spend every waking moment trying to be something I’m not, which I did in my youth.’

When I ask if younger men continue to make passes at her, she giggles and shyly admits, ‘Sure, men will be men.’

So secure is Halle now that it was she who took the initiative in launching her first signature perfume, aptly named Halle by Halle Berry, which contains her favourite sensual ingredients of mimosa and fig. There were few luxuries when Halle was growing up, as her mother worked as a modestly paid psychiatric nurse, but perfume was one of them and played its part in building her self-esteem.

‘As a teenager, I learned that the scent you wore kind of defined who you were and said a lot about you,’ Halle recalls. ‘I used to mix my mother’s Chanel and Estée Lauder, and I’ve been mixing my own ever since. My partner is a Frenchman so I’ve got to smell right,’ she adds playfully. ‘Gabriel loves the perfume – he was my chief tester.’

Asked if she felt flattered to be approached for the campaign in such an ageist beauty industry, she admits, ‘Coty didn’t approach me – I approached them! I was pregnant and knew I wouldn’t be able to make any movies for a while. So I thought, “Now’s the time to create my own fragrance,” because I had wanted to do one for a long time. And luckily Coty said yes.’

Lucky for Coty, too, since the campaign photos of Halle in the sea, smiling seductively over one bare brown shoulder, irresistibly evoke her famous Venus-rising-from-the-waves scene in the Bond film Die Another Day. She looks terrific, and tells me that breast-feeding is her tip for regaining your figure after giving birth.

’It’s the absolute right thing to do for your baby – and the right thing to do for your body,’ says Halle, who admits she would like another child. ‘I’m certainly open to having another, so I hope so.’

So where next for Halle? Having reached the top, it’s tempting to assume she won’t have to fight prejudice again; but Halle is realistic. ‘Some people will still define me by my race,’ she admits. ‘But I wouldn’t have been able to accomplish anything if I didn’t feel positive that things will continue to change.

‘Now that Barack Obama is president, hopefully more people of colour will find equality at all levels of life. My daughter’s world will be indelibly different to my world, and that’s evolution. Twenty years ago, when I started in this business, it wasn’t like this at all. I’m happy to have been around to be a part of it.’

But Halle hasn’t forgotten the struggles along the way. Tellingly, her ambition is to play Angela Davis, the black political activist and academic who became an icon of the civil rights movement during the 1970s and the third woman in history to appear on the FBI’s most-wanted list.

‘She’s a fascinating woman, and I love the idea of playing her. But I would only do so if I could get her consent,’ she says.

All hail Halle. If anyone can pull it off, she can.

Source: DailyMail.co.uk

A Shreveport rapper’s performance on the floor of the Louisiana House of Representatives is being called an embarrassment by a New Orleans lawmaker. Rep. Austin Badon said when Chris Dooley, Jr., known by the stage name “Hurricane Chris,” performed his song “Halle Berry (She’s Fine)” Wednesday, he really couldn’t understand what he was singing. But when Badon came across the song while scanning the radio dial later that day, what he heard made him angry. “The words they were using in the song were just extremely derogatory, they were foul,” Badon told WWL First News. “They were curse words, using the ‘N’ word. It was just a derogatory song.” According to Hurricane Chris, the version he performed for lawmakers was a sanitized version. Hurricane Chris is the godson of Shreveport Rep. Barbara Norton. Badon said he hasn’t spoken to Norton about it, and isn’t sure if she knew the lyrics to Hurricane Chris’ song. “I have no idea. I have not spoken with her about it. I think that she probably knew what the content was,” Badon said. Badon said video clips of the House floor performance are already being spread across the Internet, and it’s not good for Louisiana’s image. Video clip of Hurricane Chris on the Louisiana House floor:

First Lady Michelle Obama, Grammy-winner Alicia Keys, Academy Award-winner Halle Berry and legendary entertainer Tina Turner are among Ebony magazine’s new list of  25 women who have the “It” factor.

In the exclusive, four-cover summer issue, the publication shines a spotlight on 25 black women who each have that one unique thing that puts them in a league of their own.

The list also includes famed rapper Lil’ Kim, activist Angela Davis, model Naomi Campbell and singer Grace Jones.

Want to weigh in? Log on to www.EbonyJet.com to vote for your favorite “It” women.

An international jewel thief took a plea deal Tuesday that should have her out of prison in time to watch actress Halle Berry play her on the big screen.

Doris Payne, 78, pleaded no contest in Santa Clara County Superior Court in Palo Alto to felony grand theft for the 2005 heist of a $30,000 diamond from the Neiman Marcus at Stanford Shopping Center. She will be sentenced to two years in state prison, but credits for time served and good behavior will likely knock that down to less than a year.

This could be the last in a string of prison stints for Payne, a lifelong thief notorious for her smooth style. Authorities said she would walk into a high-end department store, chat up the jewelry clerks while trying on items from different display cases, and then walk out with one of their priciest gems. According to a 2005 report by the Associated Press, the West Virginia native hit stores in New York, Monte Carlo and Paris over a five-decade career, always dressing elegantly to avoid suspicion.

Payne’s theft at the Stanford Shopping Center was caught on a security camera, though not until after she was gone, Palo Alto police Agent Dan Ryan said. Local police sent the images to the nonprofit Jewelers Security Alliance, which identified Payne as the thief and alerted jewelers nationwide.

Hours later, Payne was arrested at a Neiman Marcus in Las Vegas with a slip from a local pawn shop where she had dropped off the stolen ring. She served
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time in Nevada and then in Colorado on a prior warrant before being extradited to Santa Clara County in April.

She faced up to four years on charges of grand theft and burglary, prosecutors said. The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s office offered to drop the burglary count, cutting the time to two years.

Defense attorney Chris Mattison said she and Payne considered filing a speedy trial motion that would have given her a chance of getting off completely. They decided to take the plea deal after prosecutors agreed to credits that will minimize Payne’s sentence.

The timing could work out well for her, since Variety and other entertainment Web sites report a movie about her life starring Halle Berry is in development and on track for a 2010 release.

Prosecutor Paul Jhin said he hopes that means she’s finally through with crime. “Whether or not she’ll strike again, I don’t know at this point. I’ve read she has meetings with Halle Berry set up for when she gets out. Hopefully she’s moving on to bigger and better things.”

The votes are in; now watch your favorite celebrity win Spike TV’s coveted Mantlers at the 2009 Guy’s Choice Awards on June 21st at 10:00 pm. The Guy’s Choice Awards is the only awards show where guys pick the winners; it’s “all that’s important to guys everywhere”. Some of today’s hottest celebrities will be there including Jason Stratham, Halle Berry, Rosario Dawson, Clint Eastwood, Mickey Rourke, Brad Pitt, Katy Perry, Quentin Tarantino, and Ben Stiller. This is a night you don’t want to miss.

In the meantime check out http://www.spike.com/event/guyschoice/, for exclusive backstage coverage, photos, and video footage of the awards.