British

Calvin Harris’s girlfriend doesn’t like his music

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Rita Ora and Calvin Harris pictured leaving Nobu Berkeley restaurant and arriving at Proud Camden Galleries in Camden, London, UK

British artist Calvin Harris may be one of the most popular musicians right now and being requested to write songs by such artists as Rihanna and Kylie Minogue but his own girlfriend doesn’t seem to appreciate his music.

The Scotsman said his girlfriend, fellow musician Rita Ora, doesn’t like his music, which is dance music. He has said the two are unlikely to produce any songs together as they are trying to keep their business and personal lives separate.

Forbes magazine earlier this month named Harris the top-earning DJ of 2013 with $46 million. Tiesto was named number two on the Forbes list. Harris and Tiesto are to go on a UK Tour entitled “Greater Than” starting in December.

The tour will cover Belfast, Dublin, London, Manchester, and Glasgow. Harris has the record for the most top 10 hits from a studio album in the UK. The previous record was nine held by Michael Jackson.

Harris, who was born Adam Wiles in Scotland, is also a songwriter and record producer. He released his first studio album in 2007 and had a follow-up album in 2009. The Albanian-born Ora had her first release in 2007 when she appeared on Craig David’s song “Awkward”.

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Puerto Rico, rich port

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Puerto Rico is an island in the Caribbean Sea and is the fourth largest island in what is known as the Greater Antilles. It is an unincorporated territory of the USA and is close to both the British and United States Virgin Islands and has many smaller islands of its own, with Mona among its largest.

Puerto Rico also has a tropical climate and is affected by hurricanes. It is one of three countries in the Caribbean with Spanish as its official language. The island is mainly mountainous with the main mountain range in the centre of the country. There are coasts on the north and south while there are also several man-made lakes and more than 50 rivers.

The Puerto Rican culture relies heavily on music… singers such as Jennifer Lopez, Marc Anthony, and Ricky Martin all hail from Puerto Rico.

There is a large road network with the major towns and cities connected by freeways and expressways much like in the United States. The main areas are served by a public bus and there are also mini buses. There are three international airports in Puerto Rico 27 smaller ones.

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British musicians on the rise

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British musicians such as Adele and Calvin Harris have helped the country’s music revenues go past the £188m in royalties from overseas.

PRS for Music collects royalties from overseas on behalf of UK songwriters, composers, and music publishers and the body says the big hits from the two top performing British artists have helped push revenues.

In 2011 alone, UK songwriters and composers earned £187.7m. That was a 10% from 2010. The income earned overseas has also doubled over the last ten years.

Revenues are said to have increased within the last ten years primarily because of how popular British music is and because of improved licensing.

Harris and Adele are popular amongst American singers who have also asked them to write their songs.

Those include Rihanna and Nicki Minaj. Amongst the biggest consumers of British music are Brazil and China.

British artists also show interest in the country by performing in Brazil since it was awarded the 2014 FIFA World Cup of Football and the 2016 Olympic Games.

Royalties received from online sales by UK songwriters, composers and music publishers have increased within the last few years and should double by the year 2022.

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Catherine Zeta-Jones among hottest women over 40

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British actress Catherine Zeta-Jones has been turning heads for almost two decades and is now being named as one of the hottest women in Hollywood over 40 years old.

Other women over 40 on the list include Gwyneth Paltrow, who is married to Coldplay lead singer, Chris Martin, British supermodel Naomi Campbell who is 43, Colombian actress Sofia Vergara who stars in the American sit-com “Modern Family”.

It is perhaps a blessing that good Zeta-Jones is still considered hot. The 43-year-old Welsh-born actress, who starred in this summer’s sequel, “Red2”, is reported to be about to split from her husband of 13 years, Hollywood legend, Michael Douglas.

The Oscar-winning mother of two children Dylan and Carys, has not been pictured together with her husband for the last four months.

Both 68-year old Douglas and Zeta-Jones have struggled with personal health issues within the last few years. Zeta-Jones revealed that she was suffering from bipolar disorder while Douglas had a very public battle with throat cancer.

The pair live in separate homes, Zeta-Jones in New York state and Douglas in Manhattan. Douglas is currently on the East Coast of the USA filming a movie with Diane Keaton.

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British actors the hottest of 2013

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Some of the hottest young actors of 2013 so far have one thing in common – they are all British. According to UK Glamour, Andrew Garfield, Alex Pettyfer, Eddie Redmayne , Henry Cavill, Jack O’Connell, Jamie Bell, Jim Sturgess, Nicholas Hoult, Tom Hardy, Jamie Bower Campbell, Tom Sturridge, Tom Hiddleston, Max Irons, and Douglas Booth have rocked the television and film world so far this year.

Some of these actors have made the big time in the United Kingdom and America. Garfield, who was born in Los Angeles to British parents, was nominated for his role in the 2010 movie “The Social Network” and later won the title role in the 2012 movie “The Amazing Spiderman”.

Cavill has also played a super hero as this year’s Superman in “Man of Steel” after heating up TV screens as a Tudor in “Game of Thrones”. He will wear his cape again in the upcoming film “Justice League”.

Hoult hit screens as a young man alongside Hugh Grant in the film “About a Boy” before starring alongside Academy Award-winner Colin Firth in “A Single Man”.

Jamie Bell was introduced to and won the heart of a generation in the dance flick “Billy Elliot”. Now 27, Bell and his American wife, Evan Rachel Wood, welcomed their first child this year.

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Cornish pasties, British delight

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Cornish pasties are a British delight loved in the isles and Ireland and make a good boxed lunch or a main course. To make the pastry it needs 4 oz all purpose flour, salt, 2oz butter, cubed, and 2-3 tbsp cold water. Ingredients for the filling are ¼ cup onion, finely chopped, 1/2 cup potato, cut into 1/4 inches, ½ cup swede cut into 1/4 inch dice, 4oz rump steak, cut into small cubes, salt and pepper, and 1 egg, lightly beaten.

Pre-heat oven to 425 °F and make the shortcrust pastry. First add flour, butter, and salt in a bowl. Rub the butter into the flour with fingers until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add water and use a cold knife to stir until the dough binds together. Add more cold water if the mixture is too dry.

Wrap the dough in Clingfilm and chill for a minimum of 15 minutes. Divide the pastry into 4 and roll each piece into rounds of 6-7 inches.

Add onion, potato, swede, and meat in a bowl. Season well with salt and pepper, then divide between each pastry circle and place to one side of the circle.

Brush the edges with a beaten egg and fold dough in half over filling so the edges meet. Crimp together to create a tight seal and brush with the remaining egg. Place on a greased baking sheet and bake for 45 minutes until golden brown.

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British teens do better in franchise films

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Australian star Liam Hemsworth who is in this summer’s biggest bomb “Paranoia” crashed and burned on his first outing outside of last summer’s movie franchise hit “The Hunger Games”.

Several of the biggest franchise movie names including Daniel Radcliffe of “Harry Potter” fame and Robert Pattinson who made his name in the vampire series “Twilight” have also had starring roles outside of their better known series.

Radcliffe starred in eight Harry Potter films and has had some big splashes in the theatre since. He starred in the play Equus as well as “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying”. He also starred in the movie “The Woman in Black” which gained mixed reviews and earned $127 million world-wide.

Radcliffe will next star as Igor in the upcoming film Frankenstein. Another British star, Pattinson, drew the crowds as Edward Cullen in Twilight but his other roles have been not so well received including his turn in the movie “Water For Elephants” alongside Reese Witherspoon.

He also starred in “Bel Ami” and “Cosmopolis” but neither film did well at the box office. Radcliffe’s Harry Potter co-star Emma Watson has had the biggest success so far starring in the acclaimed “Perks of Being a Wallflower” and “This Is the End”. 

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London museum acquires Vivien Leigh archive

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The personal archive of “Gone With The Wind” star Vivien Leigh has been acquired by London‘s Victoria & Albert (V&A) Museum. The archive includes personal diaries and letters to her husband Sir Laurence Olivier.

The museum said it bought the archive from Leigh’s grandchildren for an undisclosed amount. The collection also includes photographs, her awards, annotated film and theatre scripts, and thousands of letters from some of the most famous names in world history including Sir Winston Churchill, TS Eliot, Marilyn Munroe, the Queen Mother, and Noel Coward.

More than 200 letters exchanged between the screen legend and Olivier who was married for 20 years exists. Leigh won the Best Actress Academy Award for playing the strong-willed heroine Scarlett O’Hara in the American Civil War epic GWTW. She was also famous for the role of Blanche Dubois in the film version of the Tennessee Williams play “A Streetcar Named Desire“.

The British-born actress died of tuberculosis in 1967 at the age of 53. Items from the collection, which have never been on show before, are expected to go on display in October. 

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Minnie Driver discovers her dad was a married man

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British actress Minnie Driver discovered on television that her dad was a married man – and it wasn’t to her mom.

On the BBC1’s Who Do You Think You Are? Driver found out that her dad was married and had another daughter the entire period f his relationship to her mother Gaynor Millington. The pair also had another daughter, older than Minnie, Katie.

The actress who was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for her role as a pre-medical student in the 1997 film Good Will Hunting did not find out her parents weren’t married until she was a teenager. Driver never met her paternal grandparents or saw a picture of them until the programme.

Her father later moved to Barbados where she and her sister Katie were raised. She said having her son Henry Story Driver made her want to learn more about her roots.

Driver’s dad, Ronnie, was a World War II hero who also won a medal for bravery. He won the Distinguished Flying Medal for saving three injured crewmen in thebattle of Heligoland Bight in 1939.

He told her that he threw the medal in the River Thames because he didn’t believe he deserved it. Ronnie’s wife eventually discovered he was leading a double life and divorced him.

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Tom Hanks takes London festival by storm

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Tom Hanks

He is one of the biggest stars in the world and the weight of Tom Hanks’ stardom will be on the 57th annual London Film Festival with two of his movies set to open and close this year’s event.

Hanks’ films are already getting Oscar buzz with the Paul Greengrass thriller Captain Phillips to open the ten day-event and the John Lee Hancock-directed Saving Mr. Banks set to close things off on October 20.

Captain Phillips tells the story of the 2009 hijacking of a US container by Somali pirates in which Hanks plays the title role while Saving Mr. Banks tells the story of how the studios attracted PL Travers who authored Mary Poppins.

Hanks will star alongside British actress Emma Thompson in Saving Mr. Banks whileCatherine Kenner plays the wife of Captain Phillips.

Hanks has won the Academy Award for Best Actor on two occasions. He first won for 1993’s Philadelphia which he starred opposite fellow Best Actor winner, Denzel Washington, and again in 1994 for the film Forrest Gump in which he played the title character.

Captain Phillips will debut in the United States in mid-December.

Danny Boyle’s Best Picture Oscar winner Slumdog Millionaire has closed the LFF in the past.

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