Wal-Mart remains atop Fortune 500 list
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. remains atop the Fortune 500 list even as it struggled to keep its U.S. customers coming in the door.

The world's largest retailer held onto the top spot for the second year in a row thanks to gains at its international stores. The company's U.S. division has had seven straight quarters of declines in revenue at stores open at least a year compared with the same periods the year before.

Fortune Magazine, which ranked companies based on revenue for 2010, released its annual list on Thursday. It was filled with examples of how rising fuel prices are affecting the economy. Wal-Mart was followed by the three largest American oil companies: Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp. and ConocoPhillips.

Fortune said that America's top companies profited by boosting productivity and cutting jobs. Like Wal-Mart, they also relied on growing operations overseas. The strategy helped them increase earnings 81 percent to $318 billion. That's the third-largest combined profit gain in the list's history. The largest jump in profit came in 2004, when Fortune 500 companies reported a more than six-fold increase in earnings. Companies that made last year's list increased profits by more than four-fold.


Fannie Mae jumped from 81st last year to round out this year's top 5 companies, though the rise was mostly due to new accounting rules and continued support from the federal government. The housing finance giant also faces an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission, which is looking into statements that former CEO Daniel Mudd made about the mortgage giant's exposure to risky loans.

The top 10 companies also included General Electric Co., Berkshire Hathaway Inc., General Motors Co., Bank of America Corp. and Ford Motor Corp.

Ten companies cracked the list for the first time this year. Nineteen others, including Chrysler and Fidelity National Information Services, returned to the Fortune 500 this year.

The list now includes just one newspaper company, Gannett Co. Inc., at No. 415. A decade ago, five newspaper companies were among the top 500.
Source:Signonsandiego

Roswell aliens confirmed?
One of the thousands of documents the FBI placed in its new online site reportedly seems to confirm that aliens did land at Roswell, N.M., in 1947. Conspiracy theorists have said for years that the U.S. government covered up its discovery of this in a field, saying instead it was a weather balloon.
Source:Specials

"Dancing" pro Karina Smirnoff poses for Playboy3
Karina Smirnoff is going to show off the few inches of skin she hasn't already shown with her skimpy outfits on "Dancing With the Stars."
Hugh Hefner tweets that Smirnoff has posed for Playboy. She'll be on the cover and inside the May issue.

Smirnoff is now engaged to Detroit Tigers pitcher Brad Penny.

Prior to that, Smirnoff was engaged to fellow "Dancing" pro Maksim Chmerkovskiy, but they called off the engagement in September 2009. The pair, who are both natives of Ukraine, were a together for about a year and starred together on Broadway during the engagement. Smirnoff and Chmerkovskiy were to have tied the knot in 2010.
Before becoming involved with Chmerkovskiy, Smirnoff was romantically linked with one of her "Dancing with the Stars" partners, celebrity Mario Lopez of "Saved by the Bell" fame.

This season, the 12th edition of "Dancing with the Stars," Smirnoff is dancing with Ralph Macchio.
Source:Abclocal

Banks, retailers warn of massive e-mail breach

 

With the possible theft of millions of consumer e-mail addresses from an advertising company, several large companies have started warning customers to expect fraudulent e-mails that try to coax account login information from them.
A dozen companies said over the weekend that hackers may have learned their e-mail addresses because of a security breach at a Dallas-based company called Epsilon that manages e-mail communications.
Among the affected companies are banks like Capital One Financial, Barclays Bank, U.S. Bancorp, Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase, and retailers like Best Buy, TiVo, Walgreen and Kroger.
The College Board, the not-for-profit organization that runs the SATs, also warned that a hacker may have obtained student e-mail addresses.

Walt Disney Co.’s travel subsidiary, Disney Destinations, sent e-mails warning customers on Sunday.
Epsilon said Friday that its system had been breached, exposing e-mail addresses and customer names but no other personal information.
The e-mail addresses could be used to target spam. It’s also a standard tactic among online fraudsters to send e-mails to people, purporting to be from a large bank and asking them to login in at a site that looks like the bank’s site. Instead, the fraudulent site captures their login information and uses it to access the real account.
The data breach could make these so-called “phishing” attacks more efficient, by allowing the fraudsters to target people who actually have an account with the bank.
Epsilon sends more than 40 billion e-mails annually and has more than 2,500 clients.
Source:Usatoday

Google Inc. cofounder Larry Page is known for his vision, passion, and intelligence. Yet there is concern that his other known traits - aloofness, a rebellious streak, and an affinity for pursuing wacky ideas - might lead the company astray. Page takes over as chief executive officer Monday as fast-rising rivals and tougher regulators threaten Google's growth.
Investors used to Google's consistency in exceeding financial targets worry that new leadership will bring more emphasis on long-term projects that take years to pay off. And many people are not sure he has enough management skills to steer the Internet's most powerful company.
Page already has learned that smarts alone won't make him a great leader. Although Page impressed Google's early investors with his ingenuity, they still insisted that he step down in 2001 as Google's first CEO. He turned over the job to Eric Schmidt, who began working in Silicon Valley in the early 1980s while Page was still in grammar school.
Page's admirers say that at 38, he is more mature and less apt to be chronically late to meetings or tune out of conversations that do not stimulate his intellect - habits he fell into during his first stint as CEO.
"There are parts of being CEO that don't fit Larry's personality," said Craig Silverstein, the first employee Page and Google's cofounder, Sergey Brin, hired when they started the company in 1998. "You wear a lot of different hats when you're CEO. Some of them are very interesting to Larry and some of them, presumably, are less interesting."
True to his taciturn form, Page hasn't said much publicly since Google announced in January that he would replace Schmidt as CEO. Google said Page wasn't available for an interview.
Page, though, has left little doubt about his top priority: to dissolve the bureaucracy and complacency that accompanied Google's rapid transformation into a 21st-century empire. It is expected to end the year with more than 30,000 employees and $35 billion in annual revenue.
In Page's mind, Google needs to return to thinking and acting like a feisty start-up. Rising Internet stars such as Facebook, Twitter, and Groupon are developing products that could challenge Google and make its dominance of Internet search less lucrative.

Page has drawn comparisons to two high-tech geniuses who are even more accomplished: Microsoft Corp. cofounder Bill Gates and Apple Inc. cofounder Steve Jobs. Like them, Page invented and cultivated a product that changed the world.
But Page has yet to match them in this respect: As CEOs, Gates and Jobs brought out the best in the companies they created, delighting stockholders as their investments soared.
Page has wanted to control his own destiny, and legacy, since reading a biography of inventor Nikola Tesla before he was even in high school. Tesla wasn't rewarded or widely recognized for his breakthroughs in X-rays, wireless communications, and electricity. Page didn't want that to happen to him as an entrepreneur.
So Page embraced the chance to be Google's CEO when the company started in a rented garage not far from its current headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. It also helps explain why he and Brin created a separate class of stock with greater voting power so they and Schmidt could remain in charge after Google went public in 2004. Page's stake has made him one of the world's wealthiest people with an estimated fortune of $20 billion.
Hoping to smooth the transition to a new CEO, Google is keeping Schmidt, 55, as executive chairman and chief liaison with lawmakers and regulators around the world. It is an important job as Google faces scrutiny over its ambitions to enter new markets. Brin, 37, intends to focus on long-term projects, leaving Page to manage daily operations.
Schmidt guided Google through an uninterrupted stretch of prosperity that has topped the performances of other technology trailblazers, including Apple and Microsoft, at similar stages of their corporate lives.
Page is better prepared to be CEO after a decade as Schmidt's apprentice, said Douglas Merrill, who worked with both executives before leaving Google in 2008 as vice president of engineering.
"Larry has grown over time," Merrill said. "He has learned how to make projects work. He has learned how to make sure things happen on time and in a predictable fashion. Larry is a sort of a learning machine."

It seems Kendra Wilkinson is concerned Hugh Hefner has not sent a wedding invitation to her. To his credit, his bride-to-be, Crystal Harris may be behind the poor wedding-planning.
The Playboy himself and his former playmate were an item at one time, but love is in the air for Hugh Hefner and his new gal pal, Crystal Harris.

It may turn out to be the wedding of the century and “Hef” may find himself in the Guinness Book of World Records for the oldest magazine founder/publisher to get hitched, if there is such a category.

If Kendra Wilkinson has something to do with Hefner's wedding, it may be giving a lesson to the busy couple on how to send out the "save the date" invites to everyone, at the same time, even former gal pals.

Yea, Kendra Wilkinson is fuming with Hugh Hefner; her wedding invitation never arrived. Perhaps, it's like "the check's in the mail" or something similar -- for her sake. Seriously; she is "pissed," according to an E! report.
"I haven't gotten my save the date yet," Kendra exclusively tells us. "I'm not joking, I'm really pissed off about it."


In all probability, Crystal Harris, Hefner's fiancé has forgotten about sending Wilkinson an invite. Surely, she's not using the power of the RSVP, or the lack thereof, to deal with bottled-up jealousy?

Wilkinson claims she has another "save the date" invite for the same date Hefner and Harris are jumping the broom. What a pickle she's found herself in? She's only doing damage control, and needs to coordinate her day, right?

It's probably an oversight, and a wedding invitation is in the mail. Just blame the missing invitation on the US postal service in her area.

Do you think Kendra Wilkinson's anger with Hugh Hefner about the wedding invite is justified?
Read More:Examiner

Lady Gaga’s Birthday Reveals Her Real Name And A Strange Birthday Cake
Yesterday was Lady Gaga’s 25th birthday. What has stumped most of her fans is what her real name is. Search terms like “lady gaga real name” and “what is lady gaga’s real name” spiked to record levels during her birthday. All her fans would have to do is a Google search and Wikipedia would bring it up for them as Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta. Lady Gaga got her stage name in a weird way. According to her producer, Rob Fusari, he sent her a text and meant to put Radio Ga Ga. The text auto corrected itself from Radio to Lady. When Gaga got the text she loved it and the rest is history.

Another spotlight for Lady Gaga’s birthday was when Ellen DeGeneres called her up to wish her a happy birthday. Ellen had a truly Gaga style cake made. This sucker had Kermit the frog, two humongous bows, smoking cvc pipes, and some crown thing on top. Ellen said it could be a hat, a dress, or whatever she wanted to wear it as. Lady Gaga was thrilled. I hope she had a great birthday.


Watch the video of Ellen’s cake below.
Source:Flynews

Simpsons episodes pulled over nuclear jokes

The nuclear disaster in Japan has moved at least one Canadian broadcaster to pull episodes of The Simpsons from its rotation.

OMNI Television spokeswoman Koreen Ott said the station, which airs reruns of The Simpsons at 6 p.m., has “pulled any nuclear episodes from The Simpsons” from the air.

“We’re reviewing our inventory for any further sensitive episodes.”

Ott could not say which episodes have been pulled, but added that the station was provided a list of questionable episodes from Fox, which airs The Simpsons in the United States.


OMNI Television is not alone. Television stations in Europe have also pulled nuclear-related episodes.


Austria’s ORF network has already pulled two episodes from its rotation: “Marge Gets a Job,” which features scientists Marie and Pierre Curie turning into zombies after being exposed to radiation; and “On a Clear Day I Can’t See My Sister,” in which jokes are made about a nuclear meltdown.

The Comedy Network said in an email it has no plans to schedule either of the two episodes listed above at this time.

The Simpsons executive producer Al Jean told ew.com, he understands if some episodes of his show are pulled due to current real-life events in Japan.

“We have 480 episodes, and if there are a few that they don't want to air for awhile in light of the terrible thing going on, I completely understand that,” he said.

This isn’t the first time The Simpsons has been pulled because it made light of a real-life situation. A television station in Australia yanked an episode that was supposed to air this month because it made light of a tsunami.

Also, shortly after 9/11 an episode in which Homer goes to New York was pulled for awhile because it showed the World Trade Center.

Global TV, which also air reruns of the comedy, has not confirmed if it has pulled any episodes.

Meanwhile, English-language video of the pulled episodes are hard to come by online, but that shouldn’t stop you from finding the humour in this clip. (It might even add to it.)

Read More: Picturebugs

 

132 Pound Toddler

 

132 Pound Toddler Insatiable Hunger Weight Gain
132 Pound Toddler. Lu Hao is 132 pounds and one toddler who was born underweight, at 5.7 pounds. He is now five times the size of a normal child his age.

Doctors are now baffled by the 3-year-olds insatiable hunger and rapid weight gain. They suspect his low birthweight might have something to do with it. Lu Hao’s parents have attempted to curb their child’s diet and encourage physical activity. However, such attempts have been rebuked by the 3-year-old, who prefers to ride on his mother’s motorcycle rather than walk to kindergarten and throws temper tantrums when his parents attempt to lighten his food intake.


His father, Lu Yuncheng, said that the toddler can eat three big bowls of rice at a sitting and “cries nonstop” if denied what he wants. This hasn’t stopped his parents from seeking further information about their son’s inexplicable weight gain. According to ABC News, Hao’s parents have taken him to specialists in China. Doctors suspected the child’s weight gain might be caused by a hormone disorder, but tests revealed his hormones were normal.


For now, Lu Hao’s parents continue to monitor their son’s diet and hope that his hunger settles down. While Lu Hao is an extreme case, many parents are faced with the obstacle of protecting their children from obesity. In the U.S., childhood obesity rates continue to rise — more than tripling in the last 30 years, with an estimated 17 percent of children (ages 2 to 19) considered obese, according to the CDC.

Source:Newsoxy

Katy Perry 'ET' music video leaked on You Tube - For a brief time this weekend, a video clip of the new song from Katy Perry, 'ET' featuring Kanye West was leaked on the world wide web, and was broadcast on YouTube.

The not-yet-released film clip of the song was later removed.

Will it help Katy knock lady Gaga from the top spot on the charts?

Pop superstar Lady Gaga has managed to stay in the number one spot on Billboard's hot 100 singles chart for the sixth week in a row.
Gaga, real name Stefani Germanotta, has fought off competition from Katy Perry to spend a sixth week on top with Born This Way.


Perry's tune E.T. follows in second place, while Rihanna's track S&M, comes in third place.

Meanwhile, Brit singer Jessie J advanced from 58 to 54 with her tune Price Tag.

Source:Nationalledger

reating herself to a much deserved night of partying, Victoria Justice was among the stars on hand for Perez Hilton's Blue Ball Birthday Celebration in Hollywood, California on Saturday (March 26).

Clad in a festive blue frock, the "Victorious" cutie worked the arrivals area as she joined fellow party guests including Aubrey O’Day, Jenna Jameson, Dita Von Teese, JoJo and Debbie Gibson, to name a few.
Always communicating with her many faithful followers, Miss Justice commented on the theme appropriate music being played, as she tweeted, "Blue (Da Ba Dee)- Eiffel 65. Bringin' back some good old 90's memories... :{)"

The night on the town comes just after it was announced that Victoria has landed herself the lead role in the upcoming movie "Fun Size".


With filming to begin this spring in Minnesota, "Fun Size" tells the tale of "a sarcastic teenage girl who is forced to take her little brother trick-or-treating on Halloween, then loses him and must find him before their mother finds out," according to THR.

Read More:Celebrity-gossip

Snakes on a plane: Smugglers arrested with 40 pythons in their hand luggage
Two men were arrested trying to smuggle 40 snakes onto a plane in their hand luggage yesterday.

They were stopped after airport security officials in Jakarta found the animals when the bags were passed through security scanners

Although the reticulated pythons were sedated, officers still said the reptiles could have caused terror on the flight from Jakarta to Dubai if released - especially among any passengers who had seen Samuel L Jackson film Snakes on a Plane.

Reticulated pythons are not poisonous and kill their prey by squeezing them to death, although a few cases of them killing humans have been reported.

The arrested men, Yaqub Ebrahim and Ali Hasan, are thought to have been trying to smuggle the animals to the United Arab Emirates where they would have been sold.

The pair are said to have told officers that they had been promised a large sum of money for the snakes by the collectors in the United Arab Emirates.


Authorities across south east Asia are seeing increasing animal smuggling.

In December, police at Abu Dhabi's airport stopped a passenger who passed through an Indonesian airport carrying four snakes, two parrots and a squirrel.

Last year a Malaysian wildlife trafficker Anson Wong, nicknamed the "Lizard King" pleaded guilty to smuggling 95 endangered boa constrictors.

An Indonesian security spokesman said:' In the name of flight safety and security, no kind of animal is allowed to be brought onto an aircraft without permission and special handling.

'We usually place [the animals] in the cargo hold instead of the passenger cabin. In this case, pythons are among the animals banned.'

The suspects face up to seven years in jail if they are found guilty.

The reticulated pythons, which can grow up to 20 feet long, have been taken to the animal quarantine centre at Jakarta's Sukarno-Hatta airport.

Source:Dailymail

Just married! Reese Witherspoon weds Jim Toth in front of family and A-list friends
Reese Witherspoon exchanged vows with talent agent Jim Toth in an intimate ceremony today at her lavish $7 million estate in Ojai, California.
The Legally Blonde star, 35, who wore a custom-designed gown by Monique Lhuillier, walked down the aisle to the traditional Bridal Chorus.
Toth, 40, had earlier arrived for the traditional service with her children Ava, 11, and Deacon, 7, while the Tennessee Waltz played.
Stars including Renee Zellweger, Matthew McConaughey, Tobey Maguire, Robert Downey, Jr., Alyssa Milano, Isla Fisher and Salma Hayek were also among the 120 guests.
Witherspoon's best friend, Heather Rosenfield, served as matron of honour, and her young nieces were flower girls, according to Us Weekly.
Her parents John, a surgeon, and Betty, a Ph.D college professor, had flown in from Tennessee while Toth, who is originally from Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, also had family in attendance.
Guests mingled at a pre-wedding cocktail hour before the ceremony, which was just 20 minutes long.
Eighty white doves were released moments after the couple said 'I do'.
A large marquee was erected on the luxurious ranch, which is situated on six acres, and it was trimmed with lights and candles ahead of the occasion.
Many guests had earlier checked into the nearly by Ojai Valley Inn & Spa including the newly single Zellweger.

The Bridget Jones star, who split from Bradley Cooper last week, attended the service along with her publicist Nanci Ryder, who also represents Witherspoon and is one of the bride's closest friends.
Witherspoon had apologised in advance to neighbours for all the noise, traffic and extra congestion caused by her friends, family and media descending on their neighbourhood.
'Reese sent nice personalised letters to all the neighbours last week', a source told Radar Online.
'She informed us that she and Jim were having their wedding at her home and apologised ahead of time for all the construction and all the cargo trucks that would be coming in and out of the community'.
The source added: 'I thought it was really considerate and thoughtful of her. She was thinking of others while planning her big day. What a classy gal!'
Workers were seen putting together a large white tent at the back of the expansive Libby Ranch at her California country estate earlier this week and an aerial view captured her lavish grounds being transformed for her very special day.
The large building is surrounded by lush greenery and proved the perfect romantic setting.
She is said to have employed the services of celebrity event planner Yifat Oren to ensure her big day goes off without a hitch.
Earlier this week, the Academy Award winner managed to squeeze in some essential pampering time before her big day.
She treated herself to a few indulgent pre-wedding beauty treatments at the exclusive Kinara Day Spa in West Hollywood.

Witherspoon and Toth became engaged over the Christmas period after meeting in January last year.

He proposed with a $250,000 four-carat Ashoka diamond.

It is the first marriage for Toth but the second time down the aisle for Witherspoon, who was married to the father of her children, Ryan Phillippe, 36, for eight years.

She also dated Brokeback Mountain star Jake Gyllenhaal, 30, however they split in 2009.

Source:Dailymail

A lawsuit against CBS and Tony Award Productions claims that producers are to blame for rocker Bret Michaels' 2009 on-stage injury because they failed to tell him how to exit the stage safely.
The suit, filed Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court, states that Michaels specifically asked producers if they had any instructions about where he should or should not stand during any portion of his performance. They told him he should simply exit from the stage rear after he was done, according to the documents.
During the opening number on telecast, Michaels suffered a fractured nose and split lip after he was hit by a large sign descending from the ceiling following Poison's performance of "Nothin' But a Good Time" with the "Rock of Ages" cast.
The suit states that Michaels was never told the scenery piece would be descending or given "any warning of the existence of the dangers it presented."
Six months after the accident, Michaels suffered a near fatal subarachnoid hemorrhage -- bleeding beneath the thin tissue covering the brain -- "at the hands of the Tony Awards," the lawsuit claims.
"Through his sheer will to live, Michaels was able to survive this trauma," the suit reads.

Michaels alleges producers have "failed and refused" to remedy the situation and even blamed him for the accident, claiming he "missed his mark."
He is seeking unspecified damages.

Source:Reuters

Abercrombie & Fitch Sparks Outcry With Padded Bikini Tops for 8-Year-Olds
Swimsuit season is looming, and stores are galore with itty bitty bikinis.

But shockingly, one of America’s largest clothing retail chains, Abercrombie & Fitch, is marketing padded bikini tops to girls as young as eight.

Included in the current spring line for Abercrombie Kids (a division of the fashion company specifically dedicated to 8-14 year olds) is the “Ashley” Push-Up Triangle – a triangular-shaped bikini top which comes complete with thick padding for breast enhancement.

Moms and child development experts are aghast over the garment and the damage it could potentially do to young girls in making them feel inadequate with their pre-adolsecent bodies.

“This is appalling! If a parent buys a padded bikini for an eight year old, children's services should be called! The sexualization of teens is bad enough and now this trend is trickling down to our babies,” parenting expert Dr. Janet Rose told FOX411’s Pop Tarts column. “If we continue to try to make our children value 'sexy' I shudder to think what damage we are doing to their future self-concepts and adult values. In the long run, I fear we are creating girls who will suffer from low self-esteem and all the issues that go along with that.”

A rep for Abercrombie & Fitch was not immediately available for comment.

Los Angeles-based psychologist, Dr. Nancy Irwin, said wearing a chest-boosting bikini top at such a young age can pave the way for sexual promiscuity.

“Wearing a padded bra at that age when unnecessary is encouraging sexual precociousness, a dangerous muscle to flex for the girl as well as for peers and predators,” she explained.

Human Behavior expert Patrick Wanis PhD concurred that the padded tops are both disturbing and dangerous.

“Are we sexualizing young girls to get the attention of men or to encourage women to use their daughters to compensate for their own lack of sexual appeal by living vicariously through their daughter?" Wanis asked. "Is this the extreme extension of the beauty-pageant mother who now seeks to make up for what she can never be?”

Other experts say the onus is on parents, not the fashion industry, over what young children wear.

“It doesn't matter much, these days, as to what the comments are surrounding what the fashion industry has decided our teeny-bopper sex tantalizers should adorn themselves in. I'm slapping the blame on moms for not seeing any further than their own breast implants when it comes to purchasing push-uppers for girls that don't, as yet, actually have any breasts,” said Shirlee Smith, CEO/Founder of “Talk About Parenting With Shirlee Smith.” “Who is paying for this sexy- kiddie marketing? Mom in the short run, sex object girls in the long run.”

Source:Foxnews

Star Trek’s Leonard Nimoy Turns 80, False Ear To Be Auctioned
Happy Birthday Leonard Nimoy!

The veteran actor – who played Spock in the legendary Star Trek TV series – turned 80 on Saturday.

He celebrates the landmark birthday days after co-star William Shatner also hit 80.

Tweeting ahead of his birthday, Nimoy wrote: “I told my Dad I’m going to be an actor,” he said. “He said I’d be palling with gypsies and vagabonds. They’ll all be at my party this weekend.”

He also received birthday wishes from NASA and his other Star Trek co-star George Takei.

“Earlier this week it was @WilliamShatner’s birthday,” NASA wrote in a tweet. “Let’s give the bridge equal billing and wish happy birthday to @TheRealNimoy LLAP!”


Wrote Takei: “Happy 80th birthday to my friend Leonard Nimoy. @TheRealNimoy, LLAP.”

Meanwhile, Trekkies have the chance to fork out for one of Spock’s iconic pointy ears.

A false ear worn by Nimoy in the first Star Trek feature film is going up for auction.

The fake latex ear, which has been kept preserved by its owner for more than 30 years, is being auctioned in Los Angeles next month by Premiere Props.

An auction spokesperson said: “This ear was kept by the prop master from the film.

“It was carefully wrapped up which is important because silicone latex can deteriorate.

“Spock’s ears are an iconic part of Star Trek and fans across the world would love to own it – we’ve already had lots of bids.”

Read More:Ohthescandal

The time has come to an end for talk show queen Oprah Winfrey. After announcing in 2009 that she would no longer tape her highly-acclaimed talk show, the time is nearing for the last episode, which will air on May 25th, 2011. The show will continue to replay reruns of the show until September 9, 2011.
Oprah’s show began as AM Chicago before being picked up nationally on September 8, 1986. In those more than 24 years since the first Oprah Show aired, the talk show goddess has taped more than 5,000 episodes of the show, and earned herself the highest of honors and respect from people across the nation. She’s also the richest woman in the world if that helps describe the fame she has earned.
Oprah announced on Larry King Live she would not be renewing her contract when it came to an end this year. Winfrey does have plans in the works for a new talk show for her own network: OWN.

Source: Ecanadanow

James Dean molestation kept secret by Taylor
During making of 'Giant,' actor confessed that he was abused by minister as a child
It was a Hollywood secret Elizabeth Taylor took with her to the grave — well, almost.

When the late actress spoke to journalist Kevin Sessums back in 1997, she had one big-time revelation that had to wait until after she was gone.
The shocker concerned James Dean, her friend and handsome co-star in the classic film "Giant," which was released in 1956. Dean died a year earlier at age 24 in a car crash, and received a posthumous Oscar nomination for his performance in the movie.
"I loved Jimmy," Taylor told Sessums, writing in a Daily Beast item. (Taylor passed away in L.A. at age 79 of congestive heart failure, and was buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, Calif., Thursday.)
"I'm going to tell you something, but it's off the record until I die. OK?"
In the chat 14 years ago, Taylor revealed: "When Jimmy was 11 and his mother passed away, he began to be molested by his minister. I think that haunted him the rest of his life. In fact, I know it did. We talked about it a lot. During 'Giant' we'd stay up nights and talk and talk, and that was one of the things he confessed to me."




Sessums points out that Taylor never published her own tell-all memoir about her life or her famous friends.

"I would have to give up today," she said in the 1997 chat. "And dive into yesterday. You can't predict tomorrow. And my life has had so many startling tomorrows that I don't think they've stopped."

Source:Msnbc

Katie Couric's days with CBS News may be drawing to a close, according to the LA Times.

Those familiar with the situation have said that Couric, the current anchor of the “CBS Evening News,” is contemplating a move into daytime television.

The Times reports that there has been widespread speculation, since the very beginning of Couric's tenure with the Evening News, that she was never entirely comfortable with the format.

Couric was signed to a 5 year contract, which expires in June of 2011, after a number of years with NBC's popular morning show, “Today.” In recent years, evening network news has declined in viewership across the spectrum of broadcasters.

The daytime television market will experience a void with the exit of The Oprah Winfrey Show later in the year. TV personalities such as Anderson Cooper have begun to vie for the chance to fill that void with new shows starting in the fall. Couric's hypothetical daytime show would not likely debut until the fall of 2012, according to the Times report.

Source: Thirdage

Actress Kate Winslet will author a book of celebrity self-portrait photos by Ben Stiller, Jude Law, Meryl Streep and others to support the treatment of autism, Simon & Schuster said Thursday.

Winslet organized the collection of self-portrait photos for the book, "The Golden Hat," after becoming inspired by an HBO documentary she narrated called "A Mother's Courage: Talking Back to Autism" that aired last year.

The film shows Keli Ericsdottir, an Icelandic boy who suffered from severe nonverbal autism, eventually being able to communicate. He now composes poems, including one describing a magical hat that enables an autistic boy to communicate.


The book, which will be released this year, derives its name from Ericsdottir's poem and tells the story of Winslet's relationship with the Ericsdottir family as well as Keli Ericsdottir's poetry and writings.

Read More:Latimes