2009 becomes the biggest year at the box office ever

Hollywood Box-Office announces that 2009 Y-T-D box-office has set a new record and surpassed 2007's record revenue

With 22 days left in the calendar year, Year-to-date box-office will hit $9,681,800,000 on Wednesday, December 9, 2009 and thus pass the record year of 2007 and its full-year total of $9.680 billion. Through this past Sunday, December 6, year-to-date revenue stood at $9,658,700,000, just $21.3 million short of surpassing year 2007’s record revenue. With Monday generating $7.5 million, Tuesday generating $8.1 million and a projected conservative estimate of $7.5 million for Wednesday, Hollywood.com Box-office places the year-to-date revenue (through Wednesday, Dec. 9) at $9,681,800,000.

With numerous huge films still on the way, we are poised for the first $10 billion year at the box-office, a milestone that has never been reached in the history of the box-office.

Jake Gyllenhaal Steps Out – Without Reese

Jake Gyllenhaal showed up dateless to his sister's Los Angeles movie premiere Tuesday night – but he was far from alone.

While actor's relationship with Reese Witherspoon recently ended according to a source, Gyllenhaal happily showed up without her at the premiere of Crazy Heart, which stars Maggie Gyllenhaal. Jake 28, stuck close by his big sis and their family for most of the night.

"He seemed very normal and relaxed, and very happy for his sister," said a fellow theatergoer. "Tonight was all about her."

In the film, Maggie plays a journalist and single mom who struggles through an off-and-on relationship with an alcoholic West Texas singer played by Jeff Bridges, whose bravura performance has already been garnering Oscar buzz.

According to a source, at the film's heartfelt finale, Jake, 28, wiped his eyes and nose and appeared to be fighting back tears.

Otherwise, the Brokeback Mountain star, who walked out of the theater arm and arm with his sister, seemed to have fun at the premiere, which was also attended by Sharon Stone, Gary Busey, and Eric Idle.

Lindsay Lohan: I Saved 40 Kids Today!

Lindsay Lohan saves lives.

At least that's what she says on Twitter.

"Over 40 children saved so far... Within one day's work... This is what life is about... Doing THIS is a life worth living!!!" she Twittered Wednesday. "Oh, and I'm talking about being in India."

This lofty post came only six hours after she Twittered to Jessica Alba's husband Cash Warren -- with whom she reportedly shared a "raw" kiss -- that her flight to the nation "landed."

The star, 23, is currently in India making a documentary on the human trafficking of women and children with BBC.

"Trafficking is a big issue here, I'm [here to do] what I can, and I will continue to do so as long as life when time permits it," she posted. "Never too late to star helping others, however you can."

Perhaps sensing a bit of skepticism over her ability to save dozens of lives in a single day, she Twittered that it was all about helping "one child at a time."

"I'm only one person," she posted. "Let's not start judging and looking for negatives that don't exist."

A $1,000 Apple Tablet? Let's Hope Not

If you've been following mainstream news today, then it's likely you've seen the story doing the rounds on new Apple tablet rumors, spurred by a note sent to clients from Oppenheimer analyst Yair Reiner. Never heard of him? That's not surprising, since he has no real connection to Apple, and his job mainly consists of telling people how to move their money around -- a Master of the Universe gear-cranker, you might say. Anyhow, Yair is sure that Apple will be releasing its 10.1-inch, multitouch tablet around March or April, with a ramp-up on production sometime in February. He also notes that the device will sell for $1,000 (so far we've heard rumored price points from $699 all the way up to $2,000), but ultimately Reiner seems most concerned with how it will impact Amazon, the Kindle, and book and media publishers.

According to the note, Apple has been in talks with publishers concerning a "very attractive proposal" in which the company will split revenue with publishing houses 70 / 30, as they do with iTunes and App Store sales (just as we speculated in our post on the Time Inc. digimag). What's most disconcerting about the report is that it seems more interested in disrupting or dismissing what Amazon is doing (particularly noteworthy as the company is in the midst of its biggest season for Kindle sales ever). When financial analysts start squawking in this manner, we like to approach with caution. As of right now, we have zero solid evidence that Apple is even producing a tablet, let alone ready to drop one for a G come March. We have heard plenty of other rumors that corroborate much of this, but if the above is the plan, you can expect a big reveal from Cupertino around the time of Macworld or CES, so you won't have to wait long to know the truth. For now, keep your BS detectors set to "stun."

P.S.: See what we mean? Now a Piper Jaffray analyst is 70 percent certain (70 percent!) that Apple will introduce an iPhone for Verizon in 2010. Hold onto your hats folks, we've only just begun.

Windows 7 download tool is back and now available under a GPL open-source license

Microsoft said Wednesday it has reposted a tool to the Internet that aids installing Windows 7 on Netbooks and computers without an optical drive.

The software maker pulled the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool off its Web site last month after it was pointed out that the software appeared to use open-source code licensed under the GNU Public License (GPL v2). Microsoft later apologized and said that the code did in fact use GPL code. Microsoft said it would repost the tool and make it open source under the terms of the GPL.

Microsoft posted the open-source version of the tool on Wednesday, although it took longer than the company had originally anticipated.

"As we previously explained, the testing and localization took longer than we expected, but the project is now hosted on CodePlex.com, Microsoft's Open Source software project hosting repository," Microsoft open-source community manager Peter Galli said in a blog posting.

Also, the whole effort to get Windows 7 onto a Netbook now takes longer as several other pieces of code that had been included with the tool are now separate downloads.

MBLAQ Lee Joon’s bloody fan letter!

Remember the crazed fan who wrote a blood letter, more specifically a a period blood letter for 2PM's Ok Taecyeon? Well, another fan has decided to go down this crazy route, and this time it's for MBLAQ's Lee Joon.


The only difference? This fan slit her wrists with a knife and then used that blood to write Lee Joon a letter.

The letter was posted online with photos and she wrote:
"ㅋㅋ What up with Ok Taecyeon period letter? If you're gonna do one, at least do it right ㅋㅋ How dirty. Period blood? Act your age ㅜㅜㅋ Don't do that, but do it right. Do it right. Copying that ajumma who wrote that period letter"


The letter said:
"Lee Chang Sun (real name) don't forget me, you are everything to me. I love you. Remember that. Soojin"

Xiao Xiao Bin kisses Ady on the mouth, Netizens get envious : We also want to !



TTV and SETTV's Idol drama "Autumn's Concerto" has been having great ratings, almost breaking 6 last week, not only the plot has been getting more and more exciting but it also fired up netizens discussions ! Among them, Xiao Le (by Xiao Xiao Bin) is the one who got the most attention, many fans noticed that in the drama he been "flirting" a lot with little girlfriend Tang Tang, saying he is very skilled in chasing girls ; and the other thing that made them envious is that Xiao Xiao Bin was very lucky, he even got the chance to kiss Ady An on the mouth !

2 years ago, a fortune teller read the future for Xiao Xiao Bin, saying that he would be famous from 4 to 19 years old, and unexpectedly, this year, he successfully got accepted for "Autumn Concerto" and CTV and GTV's " Down with Love", and now, 3 more advertisements ware wating for him; he'll even go to Mainland to film a drama before CNY. Xiao Xiao Bin got very popular, now, he is even his father's restaurant's living shop sign, many customers went there to eat only for his sake!
Now, he is the most well-paid child star.

In the drama, Xiao Xiao Bin and Ady rely on each other, sharing weal and woe, his cuteness and sensibility made many love him, last week, he who had always wanted to have a father, said to Vanness Wu :
"I know you are not my dad, I also know my dad is not an Alien" it looked like child talk but it was also the most honest and deep feelings he expressed, making the fans watching crying and smiling at the same time, supporting him to be registered as next year's "best supporting actor".

Other than that, Xiao Xiao Bin also had a little girlfriend in the drama, Tang Tang, the 2 flirting with each other made netizens could not help but joke : "Xiao Le is picking up girls ! "
No matter if it's in or out the drama, Ady and Xiao Xiao Bin share a very deep mother and son love, the 2 very oftenly kiss on the mouth, making the fans enviously say : "He is so young but got such good advantages ! he kissed so many big stars, I also want to !"

Miley Cyrus Remakes '80s Rock Ballad 'Every Rose Has Its Thorn'

Taking a page from a hair band classic, Miley Cyrus is remaking Poison frontman Bret Michaels's '80s rock ballad: "Every Rose Has Its Thorn."

" 'Every Rose' is one of her all-time favorite songs and she is really excited about cutting it," Miley's mom Tish Cyrus says.

Miley, 17, might be young but her love for Poison runs deep. Her first concert experience – other than seeing dad Billy Ray Cyrus onstage – was watching the band perform in Nashville. And now she’s been in the studio with Michaels – along with other producers – putting her own spin on the '80s ballad. She recorded the song in New York, her rep confirms.

And rumor is that Michaels might even dust off his blue rose guitar to play on the track.

Jennifer Garner Doesn't Need Ben Affleck

Jennifer Garner takes the January W cover, and it's fairly typical in its Jennifer Garnerness—pretty girl-next-door lady who loves Martha Stewart, baking cookies and taking care of her two daughters.

It's when the topic of her Ben Affleck comes up that her interview gets interesting. She paints him out to be this huge grump whom she seems to resent, just a little bit.

"Ben asks me, 'How come when I do an interview I manage to keep you out of it completely?'" she says when her husband's name comes up. "And I'm like, 'Either because you don't think about me or because boy magazines don't care about what I make you for dinner. But they should!'"

She goes on about how she doesn't even really need her husband around.

"I miss my girlfriends! That’s the hardest thing about being on location when it's not for your own project. When it's for you, you're on set with everybody you know, but if not, it's lonely. I can live with Ben working crazy hours. But I can't live without girlfriends around to talk about men with! It's fine if he's not there; I just need someone to bitch about it to!"

Well, good thing there's a fashion magazine for her to bitch to.

Carrie Underwood Disses Ex Tony Romo

Carrie Underwood isn't writing any sad songs about ex Tony Romo.

In fact, she assures Esquire magazine that her song "Cowboy Casanova" was most definitely not about the Dallas Cowboys quarterback.

"No, I would never immortalize a guy that did me wrong," the 26-year-old country star says. "I would never give him that much credit."

The American Idol alum dated Romo, 29, in 2007, but by October of that year, she seemed to have had enough.

"Point blank, he is about football. I don't know if it's that I'm not quite his type or whatever, but I don't think he's at the point in his life where he would be willing to sacrifice football," she said at the time. "He hated so much that people thought that he was paying more attention to me and that was causing him to not do well.''

Romo went on to date -- and dump -- Jessica Simpson, who did admit to penning a song, "Back in My Old Boots," about the athlete.

Acer Liquid A1 unboxed, video style



The Acer Liquid A1 just started shipping in the UK, and right on cue we've got a video unboxing. Turns out the box housing the 1GHz Snapdragon-powered Android set is fairly interesting itself, with a magnetic hinged design that opens to reveal the charger, manuals, and bundled 2GB SanDisk microSD card and SD adapter. As for the phone, don't hold out for an Android 2.0 surprise -- it's running Android 1.6 with Acer's custom Spinlets UI skin on top, which equals a frowny-face from us. Hopefully Acer manages to update things if this guy ever comes to the States, but for now we'll just let you head past the break and check the video for yourselves -- we're sorry about the terrible Owl City soundtrack, but we had nothing to do with it.

Google Goggles' visual search headed for Chrome

It appears that the Google Goggles search-by-sight tool could soon work not just with mobile phones, but through Google's Chrome browser, too.

"I am working on a 20 percent project to facilitate the input of Web image searching," Google programmer Xiuduan Fang said in a post Tuesday to the Chrome Extensions mailing list titled "Chrome extension for Web Goggles. The 20 percent figure refers to a Google program that permits engineers to devote a fifth of their time to projects of their own choosing.

"We would like to have some browser extensions so that the user can drag a Web image and drop it in an input box on the toolbar...The search results of the image will be shown," Fang said, then asking for advice on how to write it up for Chrome. The original message isn't online, though a response with some pointers is.

Google Goggles currently is available as an application for phones running Google's Android operating system, but Google is working to release other versions, too. A Web browser interface would expand the service's availability beyond phones. Though there are plenty of situations where you might want to point your phone at a subject while out and about, there also are plenty of images on the Web that might provoke further inquiry.

The Goggles feature works by comparing an uploaded image to a database of billions Google has collected and analyzed. It can recognize landmarks and read the text of wine labels, among other things, but until Google works out privacy controls it doesn't make use of its ability to recognize faces. The effort is part of Google's unending effort to expand the scope and utility of its search service.

The new beta version of Google's Chrome browser adds support for extensions, though at present with some limits on user interface choices for programmers.

Bugs Music Awards winners are all SME artists?

An online music site Bugs announced the results from their online music awards. They held a poll starting on the 27th of November and kept it going for 20 days. The results are based only on the online voting and in total, 110,000 votes were cast.

There were 8 awards in total, including "Song of the Year," "Pop Song of the Year," "Hip Hop Song of the Year," "Indie Song of the Year," "Best New Artist," "Best Girl Group," and more.

For the girl group category, SNSD, KARA, and f(x) were up against each other but SNSD won in the end.

The "Song of the Year" went to Super Junior's Sorry Sorry and second place went to Gee. 2PM took third place with Again & Again. 2009 late comer, Kim Tae Woo grabbed fourth place with Love Rain/

"Best New Artist" went to a SM Entertainment rookie, f(x). Though SME artists didn't win the hip hop, indie or other awards, they sure snatched the big three. Quite the opposite of MAMA... what do you think of the results, are they accurate or not?

Lee Byung Hun targeted for blackmail

Get ready for what will surely become another entertainment industry rollercoaster of scandalous claims: Lee Byung-hun, megastar and current lead in KBS drama IRIS, has been accused by a Korean-Canadian woman of sexual misconduct and slapped with a lawsuit. Lee refutes the claims and is fighting back.

According to Lee’s management company, BH Entertainment, the star had been the target of “severely slanderous” phone calls beginning in November from an undisclosed group of men, who blackmailed Lee with threats to “expose him to a scandal” if he did not pay them several billions of won. On December 8, a lawsuit was filed with the Seoul District Court by a 22-year-old Canadian gyopo (a Ms. Kwon), who charged that Lee had lured her into a sexual relationship with false promises of marriage. As a result of the mental and physical harm she suffered, she demanded compensation for damages. The amount is for 100 million won, or roughly $86,000 USD.

The woman in question had been a student studying rhythmic gymnastics at York University in Canada before meeting Lee in September 2008, and was a Canadian national athlete. He had been in Toronto to promote his movie The Good, The Bad, The Weird when they met through a friend’s introduction. The president of a company that sponsored Lee told her that she could continue to study and practice gymnastics in Korea and asked her to move to be with Lee. Lee approved the idea, and she left Canada. However, she says that Lee’s behavior changed after her arrival in Korea, and he grew indifferent. He set her up in a home in Seoul but left her to be alone most of the time. She emphasized, “I believe that as a famous star, he used his celebrity and financial power to merely toy with me then abandon me.”

A BH Entertainment representative explained, “Lee Byung-hun did have a girlfriend whom he met last autumn and broke up with this spring, but the abovementioned men threatened to create falsehoods about him and the ex-girlfriend while demanding money. However, when Lee Byung-heon refused to comply, they presented the woman as plaintiff in a civil suit.” The threats demanded 2 billion won (approx $1.7 million) and the men are said to be connected to Ms. Kwon, although their exact relationship was not disclosed. The rep explained that as Lee’s side had done nothing wrong, they had requested an investigation into the threats. They will counter through legal channels with their own lawsuit for defamation of character.

Zhou Xun Aiming to Go Strong

'The Message' star Zhou Xun graces the January issue of ELLE, China. The actress talked about her favorite actresses Juliette Binoche, Cate Blanchett and Isabelle Huppert, whom she thought to have great inner power. She described them as elusive, strong and attractive.


Zhou's role of Gu Xiaomeng in 'Message' has demonstrated great bravery in the face of death, however, the actress confessed that she is not really strong in real life. She said she thought man is not born strong but asked to be while the actress herself grows stronger as she experiences more.



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