London, October 25 (ANI): Jenson Button has been reportedly struck by the cupid and fallen madly in love with model Jessica Michibata.

Pals of the present Formula One World Drivers” Champion revealed the 29-year-old is completely smitten by the model working in Dubai.

“She’s got him. All he wants to do is be with her,” the Daily Star quoted a friend as saying.

Meanwhile, the champ was said to have celebrated his track triumph with family at a London’s posh eatery. (ANI)

London, October 25 (ANI): Sandra Bullock has been caught up in a legal battle after her husband”s former wife turned to court, claiming she is a better parent than the actress.

Former porn star Janine Lindemulder, who has starred in more than 100 X-rated movies, is seeking the custody of her five-year-old daughter Sunny with ex husband Jesse James.

TV celebrity James has responded with a pre-emptive legal strike, asking a judge to rule on whether Lindemulder, recently released from a six-month prison sentence for tax evasion, is a fit mother.

“Good cause exists for the court to conduct a review to determine if [the girl] will be safe with [Lindemulder],” Times Online quoted him as saying in in a statement to the court.

“She should be restrained from allowing the child around pornographers, drug addicts, guns and firearms, felons and other unsafe environments,” it added. (ANI)

London, Oct 25 (ANI): Rachida Dati, the former French justice minister, has for the first time spoken of the agony she feels at the constant guessing game about the identity of her baby’s father.

“It can be humiliating,” she said, referring to speculation.

“It is also hurtful to people around me,” she added.

Dati, who was severely criticized for returning to office as the justice minister of France only five days after giving birth to daughter Zohra in January, also defended her return to work, reports The Times.

“Being a minister is not like being a check-out girl or some other worker,” she said in her first interview with a foreign journalist since having her baby.

“In any case, I think that the most elemental woman’s right is the right to choose,” she added.

The 43-year-old mockingly added: “I was pregnant, it started a controversy. People didn’t know about my private life — controversy. I was carrying out reforms [as justice minister], more controversy. I wore high heels and was well dressed, controversy there too.”

On the joys of parenthood, she described the birth of her child as “the best thing in my life”.

“I have more of a time limit than if I were 20,” she said.

“It is the best thing that can happen. It gives you another definition of life. I have less obsessions. And I’m much more attentive to health these days. Because I say to myself I have a baby.

“I have friends who never wanted to have children. I don’t judge them. But I always said, even when I didn’t have children, that I thought my life would be a failure if I didn’t have any,” she added.

Various media sources have linked the identity of Zohra’s father to many international statesmen, politicians and celebrities from Jose Maria Aznar, the former prime minister of Spain, to Ali Bin Fetais al-Marri, the attorney-general of Qatar. However, they all have issued denials. (ANI)

London, Oct 25 (ANI): Neanderthals had sex with modern humans across the species barrier, claims a leading geneticist.

Using DNA retrieved from fossils, Professor Svante Paabo, director of genetics at the renowned Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, will soon publish his analysis of the entire Neanderthal genome.

Through the study, he hopes to compare it with the genomes of modern humans and chimpanzees to work out the ancestry of all three species, reports The Times.

About 40,000 years ago, modern humans arrived in Europe from Africa to find Neanderthals already living there. The two species then co-existed for 10,000-12,000 years before Neanderthals died out.

Recently Paabo told a conference at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory near New York that he’s convinced the two species had sex, however, how “productive” it was is still a question.

“What I’m really interested in is, did we have children back then and did those children contribute to our variation today?” he said.

“I’m sure that they had sex, but did it give offspring that contributed to us? We will be able to answer quite rigorously with the new [Neanderthal genome] sequence,” the expert added. (ANI)

Washington, Oct 24 (ANI): Charlize Theron auctioned off a kiss to a woman for the price of 140,000 dollars.

The South African-born actress took part in a live auction during a gala for the charity OneXOne in San Francisco, reports Usmagazine.com.

She was initially selling a 2010 trip to South Africa that included World Cup tickets, a safari and a meet-and-greet with Nelson Mandela.

However, she raised the stakes after bidding stalled at 37,000 dollars, far less than the 280,000 dollars Jeremy Piven had just raised.

She told attendees: “For f*** sake! You can do better. There is no way I am leaving here with Jeremy Piven getting a higher bid. I”ve got t**** for God”s sake.”

To sweeten the deal, she offered up a seven-second kiss for 130,000 dollars to a male bidder, but a woman in the audience quickly bettered the deal with a 140,000 dollars bid.

The 34-year-old actress is in a long-term relationship with actor Stuart Townsend, 36.

“My boyfriend is not here tonight,” she joked during the auction. (ANI)

Washington, October 24 (ANI): Mira Nair has spoken about the trouble she and her team had to go through when the aircraft used in her 2009 biopic Amelia was hi-jacked en-route to the South African film shoot.

The acclaimed director revealed she was bent on using one of the actual Lockheed Elektras the famous aviator Amelia Earhart flew.

But little did the filmmaker know what she would be going through to get the plane from the south of France to the location in Cape Town.

“We located this Elektra in the south of France from this wonderful family called the Shabers, who agreed to fly it to us across the entire continent of Africa,” Contactmusic quoted Nair as saying.

“The Elektra runs on Aveo gas, which is not a gasoline you get now and it was almost like flying it in Amelia”s time. You have to keep landing for extra fuel.

“At one time they radioed down to a country – I won”t mention the name – and asked if they had fuel and they said, ”No,” and then said, ”Oh, yes we do.”

“TheElektra landed there and the family was surrounded by 15 soldiers and taken hostage for one and a half days. They demanded 13,000 dollars and we had to fly in 13,000 dollars.

“They called the French embassy in that country and the French embassy called the producers and we wired the money. We were literally hijacked and the plane arrived 24 hours before the scenes had to be shot. It had to be polished and, oh my God, it was a big saga,” she added. (ANI)

Aishwarya rated as the most bankable Bollywood star in Hollywood

Even as Aishwarya Rai’s ‘Pink Panther 2’ faced harsh criticisms from the media and critics, the film gave a true international stepping to the Bachchan Bahu. There are a lot of promising international projects in her kitty at present, first with actress and chat-show hostess Tyra Banks, then a project with Will Smith who has been craving to cast Ash right from the time he offered her Hitch and the recent 7 Pounds and also the long-pending project Chaos with Meryl Streep, are just to name a few.

And now, the Forbes magazine has just voted Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan the most bankable star from Bollywood in Hollywood. With this Ash races ahead of Bollywood biggies like Aamir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Hrithik Roshan and Irrfan Khan as the Forbes’ “Most Valuable Actors”.

Ask the lady to comment on this recently acquired international acknowledgement and this was what she reacted from Kolkata, “Wow! Me the most bankable Bollywood star in Hollywood? Thank you! I must confess that any acknowledgement of hard work makes me feel content. In all humility I want to thank all those who feel I’m bankable.”

The world is rejoicing for Jai Ho maestro A.R Rahman, but not many are aware of the fact that A.R Rahman had a close shave with death just two days before the Oscar ceremony.

Rahman recalls, I really don’t know what happened. Two days before the Oscars we were rehearsing at one of the theatres for the Oscars, the Jay Leno Show and the Oprah Winfrey Show when a massive chandelier, covering portion of the ceiling crashed to the spot just a split -second after I moved away.”

“ If I hadn’t moved way I’d have become history after making history in no time at all.The chandelier crashed exactly at the spot I was standing in just seconds before. It left me shaken but not terrified. I guess it was God’s warning not to take any of the good things that are happening to me too seriously.”

“I think the love and prayers of all those who love me saved me. As I walked from the left side of the stage to the right I could feel a heavy drop from the air, like water rushing down from a height of 30 to 40 feet. So with the good came the rude reminder of how quickly it can all be snatched away.”

Phew!! Well we wish a very long healthy life for you Rahman!!