Archive for the ‘Juicy Couture’ Category
January 19th, 2012
“Haywire”_ A straight-up action picture may sound unusual coming from Steven Soderbergh, but as he’s repeatedly demonstrated throughout his career, he’s keen to experiment with every genre imaginable. And if you look closely here, you’ll find it reveals glimmers of some of his greatest hits, including “The Limey,” “Traffic” and the “Ocean’s” movies. By comparison, it feels like minor Soderbergh: zippy, hugely entertaining and well-crafted as always (since he once again serves as his own cinematographer and editor), but not one of his more important films. It does, however, mark the auspicious film debut of MMA superstar Gina Carano as special-ops bad-ass Mallory Kane. Carano had never acted before, and not only did she do all her own stunts, she had to do them in a way that she wouldn’t injure her male co-stars, including Ewan McGregor, Michael Fassbender and Channing Tatum. Her dialogue delivery may seem a bit stiff and she has acknowledged that Soderbergh made some tweaks to her voice in post-production but she has tremendous presence: an intriguing mix of muscular power and eye-catching femininity. Mallory must figure out who double-crossed her, and why, after a mission in Barcelona. Soderbergh wisely emphasizes Carano’s strengths. He lets the elaborate fight scenes play out lets us see every kick, punch and body slam without a lot of needless edits and even without any music. You may feel as if you’ve been worked over as well. But in a good way. R for some violence. 93 minutes. Three stars out of four.
• Christy Lemire, AP Movie Critic
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“Miss Bala”_ Gerardo Naranjo may have made the least-glamorous movie ever about a pageant queen. And that’s what makes it so beautiful. With long, fluid takes that create a mesmerizing tension, the Mexican director and writer initially draws us into a world of youthful optimism, one which ends up being wildly unpredictable and increasingly desperate. Sadly, it couldn’t be more relevant in depicting the brutal violence plaguing Mexico’s northern border areas. At its center is the gorgeous, leggy Stephanie Sigman, a former model making her striking film debut. Sigman stars as Laura Guerrero, a young woman who hopes to be crowned the next Miss Baja California. (The title is a play on words: “bala” means bullet in Spanish.) When Laura goes to a club with her best friend, she finds herself in the wrong place at the wrong time, as gang members shoot the place up while targeting some DEA agents who are partying there. Laura escapes briefly but she’s seen too much, and ends up becoming their captive pawn. The group’s leader is the wily Lino (a subtly menacing Noe Fernandez), who’s been terrorizing northern Mexico with his minions while working the angles across the United States border, as well. Lino at first forces Laura to run a few errands, but the tasks become more and more dangerous. R for language, some brutal violence and sexuality. In Spanish with English subtitles. 113 minutes. Three stars out of four.
• Christy Lemire, AP Movie Critic
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“Red Tails” The famed Tuskegee Airmen get the John Wayne-style heroic rendering they very much deserve, but also a hackneyed and weirdly context-less story that does them a disservice. George Lucas’ pet project has the laudable goal of proving all-black movies can be a success, but “Red Tails” reduces a historical story of deep cultural significance to merely a flyboy flick. The film, directed by TV veteran Anthony Hemingway, superimposes the tale of the black World War II pilots on a dated, white genre of 1940s patriotic propaganda. “Red Tails” is blatantly old-fashioned, just with a change in color. It focuses entirely on aerial combat in Europe, skipping all that pesky backstory of black men braving the segregation of Jim Crowe America and, against the odds, rising up at the Tuskegee Institute. Cuba Gooding Jr. and Terrence Howard play higher-ups, but the film is centered on a band of pilots, particularly the brash, talented Joe “Lightning” Little (David Oyelowo) and his alcoholic captain Marty “Easy” Julian (Nate Parker). The script, by John Ridley and Boondocks cartoonist Aaron McGruder is swaggering but hopelessly corny and curiously avoids really fleshing out the Tuskegee Airmen’s other battle front: racism at home. The dogfights, though, are elegant and clearly staged, set against a majestic European landscape. PG-13 for some sequences of war violence. 125 minutes. Two stars out of four.
• Jake Coyle, AP Entertainment Writer.
January 10th, 2012
Washington Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrives in America’s backyard Sunday for a five-country trip designed to counter perceptions of Iran’s growing international isolation over its nuclear program.
The burr under America’s saddle will begin his Western Hemisphere visit in Caracas, Venezuela, where the open arms of the leftist-populist President Hugo Chávez will set the tone for a trip that will take in other Latin anti-American capitals, including Managua, Nicaragua, Quito, Ecuador, and Havana, Cuba.
Also on the trip itinerary is Guatemala, where the Iranian leader will attend the inauguration of President-elect Otto Perez.
Mr. Ahmadinejad’s trip, his second to Latin America since 2009, comes amid rising tensions between Iran and Western powers intent on curtailing a nuclear program that much of the international community says shows every sign of aiming for nuclear weapons development. Iran claims the program is for strictly civilian purposes.
RECOMMENDED: Iran sanctions 101
The Iranian leader, known for his provocative rants at the United Nations’ annual opening session in New York, appears to be relishing a trip that is being interpreted as an affront to the United States – especially as it comes just as Iran is making a show of warning the US to stay out of its own backyard in the Persian Gulf.
In a high-stakes tit-for-tat that some international analysts blamed for a spike in oil prices last week, the US pointedly responded that it will maintain its presence in the Gulf and in particular will continue to ply the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow sea lane through which passes about one-fifth of the world’s oil.
The Ahmadinejad visit also places a spotlight on how Iran’s aspirations in Latin America have come to figure in American trade policy and politics.
In the run-up to Ahmadinejad’s trip, Iranian officials touted the rising importance of Latin America to Iran. “The promotion of all-out cooperation with Latin American countries is among the top priorities of the Islamic republic’s foreign policy,Cheap Ed hardy belts,” said the official IRIB News Agency last week.
Such talk irks the Obama administration, which has its eyes set on Latin America as President Obama pursues his 2010 goal of doubling US exports by 2015. The administration ushered free-trade agreements with Colombia and Panama through Congress last year, and Mr. Obama would like to announce their implementation by the time he attends a Summit of the Americas in Colombia in April.
The administration was largely quiet about Ahmadinejad’s last trip to Latin America (a trip that included powerhouse Brazil) in 2009, but that’s not so true this time around, reflecting the rising tensions between the two countries.
In a recent interview with El Universal newspaper in Caracas, Obama said the Venezuelan government’s “ties with Iran and Cuba have not benefited the interests of Venezuela and its people.”
“Sooner or later,” he added, “Venezuela’s people will have to decide what possible advantage there is in having relations with a country that violates fundamental human rights … is isolated from most of the world [and] has consistently supported international terrorism.”
The administration in May imposed financial sanctions on Venezuela’s state-owned PDVSA oil company for violating US law by selling two tankers’ worth of refined petroleum products to Iran.
But Republicans hoping to pin the “soft on Iran” label on Obama in this election year have sounded sharper alarms about Iran’s activities in Latin America.
Election 101: Where the GOP candidates stand on China, Iran, Israel and other key foreign issues
“Tour of Tyrants” is how House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R) of Florida last month described Ahmadinejad’s upcoming Latin America trip, adding that it was aimed at “expanding the Iranian threat closer to our shores.” In recent Republican presidential debates, both Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney said Iran and its proxies such as Hezbollah are increasingly active in the hemisphere, including in Mexico. (Mexico denied those charges.)
Iran and Latin America analysts say Ahmadinejad has accomplished two of his goals with his upcoming trip – riling the “Great Satan” and demonstrating to the Iranian public that Iran is a power with global reach. But many of them add that reports of Iran’s rising influence in America’s backyard are largely overblown.
“Without leaving Tehran,” Ahmadinejad “has already been successful at feeding fears of a minor Persian invasion,” writes Stephen Johnson, director of the Americas Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, in a recent posting on the center’s website.
The US and friendly governments in the region, he says, cannot just ignore reports of Iranian-Venezuelan missile development cooperation or of covert Iranian activity in the hemisphere, but neither should Americans buy everything they hear about Iran in Latin America – much of which he says is exaggerated.
Mr. Johnson points out that some analysts have headlined a “tripling” of Iran’s trade with Latin America in recent years. While that may be true, it’s also true that it has tripled from very low numbers, he adds, reinforcing his point that Iran and Latin America’s leftists are more important to each other symbolically than anything else.
RECOMMENDED: Iran sanctions 101
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January 8th, 2012
SAN FRANCISCO Former San Francisco Chronicle Editor Phil Bronstein has announced his resignation from Hearst Newspapers, the San Francisco Chronicle reported (http://bit.ly/xlHy1i) Friday.
Bronstein, 61, who has served as editor at large for the past four years, will move into an unpaid role with the nonprofit Center for Investigative Reporting in Berkeley,wholesale Ed hardy jeans, where he is president of the board, the newspaper reported.
Bronstein had worked as a newsman in San Francisco for 31 years, joining the then-Hearst-owned San Francisco Examiner as a reporter in 1980.
During his career, he worked as an investigative reporter, then as a foreign correspondent. His coverage of the fall of Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986 was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.
In the 17 years he worked as an editor for the Chronicle, Bronstein oversaw the newspaper’s investigation into the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, or BALCO, a steroids distribution ring. He also guided the paper through its expansion into the Internet age, and through belt-tightening as the newspaper industry ran into financial troubles.
He made headlines himself when he married actress Sharon Stone in 1998. Bronstein was in the news again in 2001 when a Komodo dragon bit his toe during a private tour at the Los Angeles Zoo, then again when he and Stone divorced in 2004.
Bronstein left the editor’s office in 2008 but remained as The Chronicle’s executive vice president.
“Phil has had a long and storied career with Hearst over many years, both as a correspondent and editor at the Examiner and as editor of The Chronicle,” said Chronicle Publisher Frank Vega.
“He has made many contributions in those roles. During his years as editor of The Chronicle, Phil brought many innovations and new thinking as we made a transition from a traditional newspaper into a world where The Chronicle and SFGate.com provide information through many sources.”
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Information from: San Francisco Chronicle, http://www.sfgate.com
January 6th, 2012
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) Geek chic will soon be back when Napoleon Dynamite returns in an animated TV show and joins “Family Guy” and “The Simpsons” on the Fox network’s “Animation Domination” night.
“Napoleon Dynamite,” the 2004 independent film about a socially awkward teenager in a small town, directed by Jared Hess and starring Jon Heder, became a hit and received praise for bringing something fresh to the teen comedy genre.
The film is about a high-school loser, Napoleon, who becomes a bit of a winner while retaining his geekiness. The original cast is voicing their animated characters in the TV shows that debuts on January 15.
They are joined by new characters and guest stars including Amy Poehler, Sam Rockwell and Jemaine Clement.
Heder, 34, talked to Reuters about returning to play Napoleon and working in animation.
Q: Napoleon is back! Why now?
A: “We played around with the idea of an animated series or live-action series for a sequel, but we never played around seriously because we made this with a bunch of friends, so we weren’t thinking cash franchise. But it came out and became a success, and I think all these years later, when Fox came to us, we said, ‘Hey, we’d talked about it. We think the time is right, let’s do it,’ and we were all on board.”
Q: Why animation over live action,wholesale Ed hardy sunglasses, especially with the original cast?
A: “Honestly, because it’s probably cheaper and we’re probably all old and flabby now! A live-action show still has a certain lifespan, but with shows like “Family Guy” and “King of the Hill,” successful animated shows can go on forever.”
Q: Where does the new series pick up from after the film?
A: “Napoleon is already friends with Pedro and Deb, and he still has a rivalry going with Summer and Don, but Kip really hasn’t met LaFawnduh yet. The idea was that Kip might have lots of potential female romantic interests. It’s kind of a prequel, in between the end of the movie and the wedding (between Kip and LaFawnduh), because the wedding at the end of the movie, that could have been much later, even years later, so maybe they took some time apart to try out some different mates.”
Q: What can we expect from Kip’s online dating adventures?
A: “We just like the idea that Kip is always online, especially because he doesn’t really know what he’s getting into. In one of the episodes, he’ll be talking to Tatiana from Russia, and he has no idea who she is, she could be a man, so we’re playing with the idea that Kip is clueless. It also lends itself to stories where Kip and Napoleon are going after the same girl, some sibling rivalry there.”
Q: Do you ever feel pigeonholed by playing Napoleon?
A: “He’s very much like me. He’s not pretentious. He was raised in a small town, and he’s an outsider. So, I relate a ton to the character. It is kind of a part of me and it probably will be for the rest of my life. That’s why I have no problem coming back and doing Napoleon again.”
Q: How do you think fans will respond?
A: “… I think true fans will like it, hopefully. It’s animated but it’s trying to capture the feeling and the integrity of the movie. There’s an innocence that’s still there and the naivety of the characters and there’s such a lovability about them.”
Q: Does Napoleon’s iconic dance to Jamiroquai’s “Canned Heat” make an appearance?
A: “Sadly, because it’s animated, unless they do some motion-capture on me, that was the only thing I was a little bit bummed about. I’m playing the part, but it’s only the voice, and so much of the Napoleon character is capturing the image and the physical movements. But from what I’ve seen, the animators are doing a pretty funny job.”
(Editing by Bob Tourtellotte and Patricia Reaney)
January 5th, 2012
WASHINGTON Investigators are probing whether the Obama administration divulged too many details of the secret raid on Osama bin Laden to Hollywood filmmakers.
Rep. Peter King, who heads the House Homeland Security Committee, has questioned how much information was shared about the U.S. special operations mission in Pakistan that killed the al-Qaida leader in May. King on Thursday released a December letter from the Pentagon saying that the inspector general’s office covering intelligence matters “will address actions taken by Department of Defense personnel related to the release of information to the filmmakers.”
King, R-N.Y., also released a November letter from the CIA saying that its office of public affairs was developing a “single point of reference that will govern future interactions with the entertainment industry.”
King has expressed worries about the administration’s cooperation with Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. and Kathryn Bigelow, director of the Oscar-winning picture “The Hurt Locker,” who is working on a movie about the hunt for bin Laden. In August King wrote the inspectors general of the Pentagon and CIA noting a New York Times column saying that Sony and Bigelow had been given “top-level access to the most classified mission in history.”
In his letter, King said that leaks of classified information related to the bin Laden raid had already resulted in the arrests of Pakistanis believed by Pakistan authorities to have assisted the CIA. Participation by the Pentagon and the CIA in making a film about the raid “is bound to increase such leaks, and undermine these organizations’ hard-won reputations as `quiet professionals,’” King said.
He sought information on talks among the White House, the Pentagon and the CIA about providing Hollywood executives with access to covert military operators and asked whether the film would be submitted to the military and the CIA for pre-publication review.
White House press secretary Jay Carney, asked in August about King’s call for an investigation, said claims that the White House had given out classified information were false and that the most specific information the White House had released about the raid came from his daily briefings.
In a statement late Thursday,Replica Ed hardy, CIA spokeswoman Jennifer Youngblood said, “CIA has been open that as part of our public outreach, the agency has over the years engaged with writers, documentary filmmakers, movie and TV producers, and others in the entertainment industry.
“Our goal is an accurate portrayal of the men and women of the CIA, their vital mission and the commitment to public service that defines them,” Youngblood added. “And it is an absolute that the protection of national security equities is an integral part of our mission.”
Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal issued a statement in August saying the film “has been in the works for many years and integrates the collective efforts of three administrations, including those of Presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama, as well as the cooperative strategies and implementation by the Department of Defense and the CIA.”
The movie is expected to reach theaters at the end of the year.
November 29th, 2011
Extra, extra! The shoe that seems to be in the most demand around these parts is this “replication” of a $2000 sold out shoe by Balmain. We have seen the original Balmain beauty rocked by Rihanna, Jennifer Connelly and Audrina Patridge (hey, how did she get a pair?). Then Zara designed this $168.00 shoe for all of us who can’t even fathom spending more than $600 for a summer stiletto. Unfortunately they disappeared as quickly as the originals when they were all recalled back to Spain. That means a lot of broken hearts left on this side of the pond.
See more shoes Hollywood is lusting after.
On eBay, fashionistas are losing their s–t over this multi-diamante, studded and pearled sexy rock and roll/good girl gone bad shoe. I have to say I love the Zara version better because the pitch of the shoe and the heel is a little taller. They removed the thong at the toe and went a little sequin happy but who doesn’t love that? Just beware: if Solange or Mariah get their diva feet in these shoes, obsession over!
October 18th, 2011
Ever since Sarah Jessica Parker hit the pavement for the Sex And the City film outcome, people have slowly been losing their ideas over all of her Carrie Bradshaw couture costumes. We have no motif what’s going on with the plot, but we love the direction she looks. Always. Every detail — from pate to toe.
But the reality is that the most of the costumes are real clothing with really high price tags, which are deliriously outrageous. Luckily, on a nightly online surf, i found this shirt on the Forever 21 site that resembles 1 of SJP’s numerous looks that I base so sweet, modern and fresh. And, base line: It’s only $14.80!
You tin pair this shirt favor Patricia Field styled Parker — with a light-wash cropped jean and lilac studded lofty heels for sexy nation or a pencil skirt or leggings to be a bit more cultivated. I likewise love namely whether you favor the see but no this exact color, there are choices in ruddy, fuschia, green and yellow.
PRODUCT DETAILS
The Laura Plaid shirt namely a cute and accidental button-down featuring two chest pockets and short sleeves with smocked detail.
- Available in small, media and large
- 24″ approximate width from shoulder to hem
- 100% cotton
- Imported
Buy it here.