 |  | | China Myths Debunked |
 WE all know the facts: In
1949 when the Communist
Party took over, China had
been mired in civil wars
and dismembered by foreign
aggressions; its people had suffered
widespread famine; average lifeexpectancy
was a mere 41 years.
Today, it is the second largest economy
in the world, a great power with global
influence, and its people live in
increasing prosperity; average life
expectancy has reached 74 years.
But the assessment has to go deeper
than that, for reasons none other than
the apparent discomfort, if not outright
disapproval, Western political
and intellectual elites feel toward the
Communist Party´s leadership. Five
misconceptions dominate... |
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| |  | | THE CAMERON
COLLAPSE |
| PETER Oborne, writing in
the conservative Daily
Telegraph, recently suggested
that the
Conservative British Prime
Minister, David Cameron, was not
merely in a mess, he "is in a sewer."
That seems about right. Cameron
lost it over Rupert Murdoch. He
showed staggering lack of judgment
in hiring Andy Coulson, the former
News of the World editor, as his first
director of communications at
Downing Street, a hubristic decision
made against the best advice and
apparently with a dual aim: to show
he was not an old Etonian "toff" and
to get favourable treatment from the
37 percent of the British print media
owned by Murdoch.
He then spent a fair chunk of time
during his first year in office in 26
meetings with various News Corp
honchos, including Rebekah
Brooks, who was... |
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 | Action girl Hayley Atwell
wants to be Wonder Woman
PLEASE God, no
more red lipstick!´
Hayley Atwell drops
her head into her
hands in mock despair.
When she looks up
again, the beautiful
mouth that is the
source of so much
frustration has
split her face into
a dimply grin.
It is easy to see
why it...
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| | Pakistani actors in Hollywood |  "THERE´S a curiosity about Islam
and a curiosity about who
Muslims are — and a lot of the
fear that we´re seeing comes from
only hearing one story or these
constant negative stories," said Hollywood liaison
Deana Nassar. "Most of the time it´s innocent
oversight, and they´re very happy to get our take
on what they´re doing, to get our feedback."
Aspiring writers were recently invited to attend a
Screenwriting Workshop for Film and Television
"to really give Muslims an avenue to tell our stories."
The good news is that Hollywood now seems to
be an attainable goal, as demonstrated by the following
success stories:
The dramatic actor: Faran Haroon... |
| | Lisa Kudrow dishes out
some Web Therapy |  FORMER Friends star
Lisa Kudrow is back
on television this coming
Tuesday in
Showtime´s new
series, Web Therapy, — the first
time a show created for the
Internet has moved to a 30-
minute comedy on television.
Kudrow, who won an Emmy
and two Screen Actors Guild
awards for her portrayal of
ditsy masseuse Phoebe
Buffay on Friends, plays Dr
Fiona Wallice in this new
program. Wallice is a selfinvolved
online therapist
who attempts to solve her
patient´s issues in threeminute
Web sessions.
Reuters spoke to Kudrow
about the show she helped
create in 2008, her own
skills as a therapist, and
her interest in evolutionary
biology.
Q: In Web Therapy you
play a... |
| | Sonam and Shahid love
and hate each other |  SHAHID Kapoor is flying high…literally. After all,
he is playing an Indian Army pilot in his father
Pankaj Kapur´s directorial debut film Mausam.
The actor chats up Sreya Basu after releasing the
first look of the film in Mumbai.
What is Mausam all about?
Mausam is about seasons of love. It is about the different
emotions and situations that the two principal characters
–Harinder Singh (me) and Aayat (Sonam Kapoor)-
undergo…what seasons of love they go is the
theme of the film.
Is it true that you did not take up
any new project till shooting for
Mausam was over?
Yes. It was wonderful that I could go
through the entire process. Dad had
written this film... |
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