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Prince Charles lends his voice to Kiwi cartoon (Go To Top)

     Sydney: Prince Charles has reportedly lent his voice for a New Zealand cartoon TV show, after the country's prime minister persuaded him to record his voice for the show. Producers of the animated comedy series bro'Town, about five urban teenagers have drawn the prince for an episode of its new series after Charles voiced the show's signature line. According to News.com, the recording occurred when the prince and Prime Minister Helen Clark met one of the show's creators backstage after attending a play in Auckland last week during his visit to New Zealand. Oscar Kightly told the Sunday Star Times newspaper he produced a tape recorder and asked Charles to speak into it. Kightly said the prince was reluctant at first but Clark persuaded him to do it. The line spoken by Charles was "Morningside for life", a slogan that refers to the inner Auckland suburb where the show is set.

Princess Diana's museum goes broke (Go To Top)

     London: The Princess Diana exhibition at Diana's family home has reportedly suffered disastrous losses of 235,000 pounds. Falling number of visitors to Di's family home of Althorp House, which is opened to the public each year by her brother Earl Spencer, are blamed for the plunge. The museum may now be moved to Kensington Palace, Diana's former London home or to another venue associated with her, reports the Mirror. Earl Spencer turned a stable block in the grounds of Althorp, in Northants, into an exhibition celebrating his sister's life. But visitor numbers have fallen from 150,000 in the first year, 1998 - when 237,000 pounds profits were made to under 80,000 last year. "I realise Northampton is not a tourist area and I'd be open to the exhibition going to a venue such as Kensington Palace or somewhere associated with Diana. I don't want to make it inaccessible," the Earl admitted last year.

Peter Pan sequel gets a writer (Go To Top)

     London: Peter Pan's long awaited sequel will now be written by British author Geraldine McCaughrean who was picked from candidates all around the world by Great Ormond Street Hospital, copyright holders to JM Barrie's classic. According to The BBC, the working title of the new story is Captain Pan, an indication of what happened to Peter Pan as he advanced in years. The hospital has said that the book must feature the original characters, including Peter, Wendy, Tinkerbell and Captain Hook. "We were presented with lots of wonderfully imaginative entries. Geraldine had a real fight on her hands, but she won through in the end. I think JM Barrie would have liked her style - if I'm wrong, he'll be back to haunt us," David Barrie, JM Barrie's great-great-nephew who was one of the judges said.

Heartbreaks can be painful, literally (Go To Top)

     Sydney: If you are a spurned lover who has gone through rejection, a new study suggests that the hurt felt when a lover dumps us is a primitive response that has the same roots as physical pain. The researchers led by Dr Geoff MacDonald of the University of Queensland in Brisbane MacDonald reviewed physiological and psychological studies on the emotional responses to physical pain and social exclusion (the breaking of a social bond), and found there was an overlap. According to him, some of the physiological systems involved are quite primitive, which suggests our responses to social pain have a long evolutionary history. For early humans, says MacDonald, social pain signalled danger that they might be excluded from the group. And he says this is why social pain can trigger such animal responses today. "This instinct to be socially close to others would have gone back tens of millions of years. If a friend rejects you or a romantic partner rejects you, it's not like you couldn't go down the grocery store and buy food. But feeling socially connected to others is still extremely important to both physical and psychological health," he said. MacDonald says studies in rats suggest a very primitive part of the brain, the periaqueductal grey, is involved in signalling exclusion pain. When a baby rat is separated from its mother before it's two-and-a-half weeks old it will emit ultrasonic distress cries so the mother will come and get it. "These seem to be specially designed for social separation, to try and reunite the mother with the infant," he added.

James Bond no more has Q's gadgets (Go To Top)

     Melbourne: British spy James Bond's gadget man Q, who equips the suave double agent with gizmos will no longer feature in the latest Bond movie, Casino Royale. Actor John Cleese says his spy gadget guru has been written out of the script for the next and 21st 007 film. "I'm told that if there is a Q, I will be Q. But I don't believe there's a Q in the current version of the script," Cleese said. It is believed the producers are cutting back on the gimmicks the spy uses. Director Martin Campbell said last month: "Casino Royale will be a grittier, tougher and more realistic Bond movie. We'll be getting away from the huge visual effects," director Martin Campbell was quoted by the Herald Sun, as saying.

Keira Knightley needs brandy before sex scenes (Go To Top)

     London: Pirates of the Caribbean beauty Keira Knightley has revealed that she had to take the support of alcohol to calm her nerves before filming her first steamy scene. Knightley said that her co-star Adrien Brody gave her brandy and vodka before stripping for thriller The Jacket. "It helped but doing these scenes feels completely unreal," the actress was quoted by the Sun as saying. "You get on with someone and all of a sudden you're naked and away at it," she added.

Angelina Jolie can browbeat politicians (Go To Top)

     London: Angelina Jolie says she is confident enough to talk to politicians, when it comes to discussing refugee issues - because she knows her mind well. The star was in Washington DC last week, urging top politicians and lawmakers to support refugee charity groups. She says she neither gets intimidated by politicians nor she feels patronised by them because it is the cause that fills her with the confidence required. "I realised a few years ago that if you care emotionally and if you are genuinely invested then you can get through this stuff, because you mean it and you don't get lost in the, 'God, am I smart enough? Am I appropriate enough?' Trip after trip, it has been easier because I've found that people do respond to compassion", Femalefirst quoted the actress as saying. "And since I've travelled a lot, I can say, 'Look, I don't know all the policies about these kids but I can tell you I met five of them and this is who they are and this is what they said and this is why this makes sense.'I can say, 'I saw these kids and they're not OK... They were terrified and this is one small section of what's going on.' I didn't go to college and I'm not really smart about things, but I can look at numbers and understand that it's not smart to not invest in these people" , she added.

There's more from the Shrek stable (Go To Top)

     London: Even though filming for the animated movie 'Shrek 3' has not even started as yet, filmmakers at Dreamworks have already hired screenplay writer Tim Sullivan to pen a script for the fourth film in the series. According to femalefirst, Sullivan, a former lawyer, has written a number of scripts and screenplays in his native Britain, including Richard E Grant's romantic comedy 'Jack and Sarah'. Meanwhile, it has been reported that the 'Shrek' stars, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz, Mike Myers and Antonio Banderas, will also return in the third sequel, which is set to hit theatres in 2007.

Tattoos may be harmful for health (Go To Top)

     Washington: Next time you put a tattoo on your skin, just think twice before doing so, as a new study has revealed that adverse side effects of tattoos are associated with both their application and removal. Chemistry students at Northern Arizona University looked at the chemical composition of a variety of tattoo inks to better understand their potential health risks and suggested that chemicals in tattoo inks need closer scrutiny. "Tattoos are no longer limited to the rough and rowdy. With the growing popularity of tattoos among young people, it is vital that we develop a better understanding of this form of self expression," said Haley Finley-Jones, an undergraduate chemistry student and lead author of the study. Tattoo artists frequently mix inks to achieve the desired color, so the researchers the researchers studied 17 inks from five different manufacturers. They selected their samples and tested different brands of black, as well as red, blue, yellow and white ink. "At this point in the study, we have determined that the inks do in fact vary in composition from manufacturer to manufacturer and from color to color," said another researcher Leslie Wagner. According to the researchers, there have been a variety of claims that tattoo inks cause adverse effects in people, including allergic reactions to ink components, a burning sensation during the course of MRIs, and the migration of inks to different tissues in the body, such as the lungs. There are other problems with unknown compositions of tattoo inks. For example, surgery to remove tattoos is becoming more widespread, and not knowing the composition makes the procedure more difficult, researchers said.

Angelina Jolie denies sleeping with Brad Pitt (Go To Top)

     New York: Angelina Jolie has claimed that she has never slept with Brad Pitt, as she has enough lovers and doesn't need to sleep with a married man. "Brad is a married man. I wouldn't sleep with a married man. I have enough lovers. I don't need Brad," the New York Post quoted her as saying to OK! magazine. Earlier Jolie had admitted that she finds women incredibly sexy and had slept with a number of them.