'The Artist' tops Golden Globes nominations
French-directed silent film "The Artist," a tribute to the pre-"talkies" era, won six Golden Globe nominations Thursday to lead the field as Hollywood gears up for its annual awards season.
Tied for second were "The Help," about black servants in the pre-civil rights era US south, and "The Descendants" starring George Clooney, both nominated in five categories for the Globes, to be presented next month.
Other "A" listers nominated included Angelina Jolie, Meryl Streep - and even Elton John and Madonna, in what one commentator said showed the Globes organizers' desire to get celebrities on the red carpet.
But "The Artist" was the big winner, triggering elation from its French director Michel Hazanavicius.
"I feel like I have a big, stupid smile on my face. I made this movie out of desire, and never expected this sort of response," he told the Hollywood Reporter.
The Golden Globe winners will be announced on January 15, in a show hosted for a third time by provocative British comic Ricky Gervais, invited back despite allegedly ruffling feathers at last year's show.
"The Artist" was nominated for categories including best comedy or music film, best comedy or music actor for Jean Dujardin, best director, and best supporting actress - for Hazanavicius's wife Berenice Bejo.
LOS ANGELES: TP MD, Dec 16, 2011
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Veena Malik defends ISI tattoo for FHM photo shoot
Pakistani model and actor Veena Malik defended on Saturday her front cover photos for men’s magazine FHM, where she appeared with ISI tattooed on her arm, but denied the photo shoot involved any nudity.
“In India everything is referred to ISI (Pakistan’s spy agency Inter Services Intelligence)”, she told Geo TV. “Even if a very small thing happens, they say ISI is behind it. Everybody blames ISI for everything.”
Malik said the original idea had been Kabeer Sharma’s, editor of FHM’s Indian edition, but that the photos had been “morphed”.
“He told me that (the tattoo) will be very bold and will cover the upper portion of the body, which it did not.
“I agreed to a photo shoot and having an ISI tattoo in a humorous way but I did not have any nude photos. My pictures have been morphed,” said Malik.
“They have the videos of the shoot but it would be in clothes and not without clothes,” the actress said.
Also speaking to Geo, Sharma said Malik had been “very excited for this shoot” and the tattoo by the makeup artist had been “in very thin font, but (Malik) asked to make a bold tattoo of ISI”.
ISLAMABAD: TP MD, Dec 03, 2011