Brit PHotos

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Love Bites: Madonna's A-Rod Moves, a 'Gossip Girl' Hookup?

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Is Madonna planning to kick off 2009 by stepping into the spotlight with Alex Rodriguez? That's the word from the Chicago Sun-Times, which says the Kabbalah-loving confidants, who have recently been spotted in proximity to each other in Miami and Mexico City for her Sticky & Sweet tour, will "go public ... to some degree" at a still-to-be-determined New Year's Eve bash. "She wants to wait until an appropriate interval -- and allow enough time ... like at least a couple of months ... since the divorce became finalized," a source close to the newly ex-Mrs. Guy Ritchie informs the paper. But A-Rod may still be learning how to follow her rules. Madonna, who spent Tuesday reliving her "Evita" heyday by meeting with Argentinean President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner at the presidential palace in Buenos Aires, where parts of the movie were filmed (she also greeted activist Ingrid Betancourt, who was held hostage by guerillas for six years), was said to be less than pleased when the New York Yankees star responded "very good" when asked by reporters how it felt to be in Mexico City at the same time as the Big M. Meanwhile, the New York Post believes Madonna and A-Rod are "quietly shopping" for high-end real estate in Manhattan. Seems the frozen-faced, bulging-bicepped pop icon and the meaty slugger may be movin' on up to the East Side, where they've been "discreetly looking" at high-end properties, hoping to score one with a coveted garage for added privacy. "Madonna personally came to look at one house a couple of months ago, and Alex has been looking recently," a spy tells the paper. "We're talking about private, double-width mansions in the vicinity of $30 million to $60 million." They're also rumored to be house hunting in the Hamptons, where they reportedly enjoyed a clandestine rendezvous at Jerry Seinfeld's sprawling estate in October. Rodriguez's rep, however, denies he's looking to feather a love nest with Madonna, who has maintained that she and the baseballer are just friends.

©Retna Ltd.
Amy and Blake are spotted in Toronto last year. (©Retna Ltd.)

So, remember earlier this week when Amy Winehouse's rehabbing hubby Blake Fielder-Civil insisted he was living substance-free? He may have been exaggerating a wee bit. Just a month after being sprung from the pokey, he's reportedly heading back behind bars for another year, ostensibly for failing a drug test. But he's not going quietly. The London Sun says he broke out of his rehab facility Tuesday night and made a beeline for the bedside of his disaster zone of a missus, who's been hospitalized since last week for a reported reaction to "medication." "Blake did a runner. He turned up in [the] hospital and hell broke loose -- everyone was totally shocked," a source tells the tab. "He was asking Amy to forgive him. As he was going back inside anyway he felt he didn't have much to lose." Sighs another snitch, "If he had stayed in prison last month rather than taking the rehab option, he was set to be released at the end of this month. He's blown it." Winehouse, who supposedly hadn't seen Fielder-Civil since he was released from prison after serving nearly a year for assault and perverting justice, is rumored to be initiating divorce proceedings. In an interview last week with Britain's News of the World, Blake accepted responsibility for turning the once-promising singer into the drug-ravaged shell she's become and promised to cut her loose for her own good: "Now I have to let her go to save her life. I am not abandoning her. I am doing this out of love. ... If something bad happened to Amy now, I would kill myself without a question."

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The "Gossip Girl" co-stars hit a New York club earlier this year. (©WireImage.com)

There's nothing like having your personal belongings manhandled, sending your shoes through security and being deprived of personal space and oxygen to put you in the mood for a little lovin'. And so it was for "Gossip Girl" co-stars Ed Westwick and Jessica Szohr, who were reportedly getting frisky at the Dallas airport on Sunday night. A spy tells W that the actor, who plays nostril-flaring Machiavellian teen dandy Chuck Bass, was puckering up with the starlet, who portrays the much-maligned Vanessa, relaying to the mag that it was "definitely on the lips. Not a French kiss, but a smooch definitely. They were being very flirty when people were not paying attention." Seconds an eyewitness to the New York Post, "They were trying to be discreet by stealing kisses near the gate." The pair's coziness apparently continued once they got to their seats in -- horrors! -- coach for the flight to New York. "They were kissing in the aisles," the mole tells the paper, "but once they sat, she read her script and he drank a Heineken." If the hookup talk proves true, Westwick, who was last seen tangling tongues with Drew Barrymore, and Szohr will join castmates Blake Lively and Penn Badgley in the fishing-off-the-company-pier club.

©Retna Ltd.
Justin and Jessica speak at the Last Chance for Change rally in Las Vegas on Oct. 11. (©Retna Ltd.)

Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel enjoyed some cultural pursuits over the Thanksgiving holiday. People reports the squeezes turned up at the Elvis Presley Museum outside the crooner's hometown of Memphis, Tenn. "They had a nice, hourlong visit," says an insider. Later that afternoon, they took their dog for a walk, an outing on which the source apparently tagged along. "Justin went on the fallen leaves by the water," says the snitch, "and Jessica bent over to snap a close-up photo of him." All that Elvis memorabilia and perambulating must have helped them work up an appetite: They wound down the day by joining Timberlake's family for dinner at the local Cheesecake Corner eatery.

©Tom Meinelt/Jackson Lee/Splash
Balthazar and Sienna take a walk through New York on Oct. 25. (©Tom Meinelt/Jackson Lee/Splash)

Balthazar Getty had much to be thankful for over the holiday: namely, his continued tabloid relevance after reportedly reuniting with Sienna Miller, whom he was rumored to have briefly parted ways with last month (by the by, her rep denies they ever split). The two were spotted in London a few days back, and the Daily Mirror purports that the semifamous starlet has ordered the equally fame-challenged actor to do his darndest to woo her. "She's told him it's time they got back to basics and started taking things more slowly," says a source. "That means nice meals out, romantic dinner dates -- wholesome stuff that they can enjoy together." All of which, we presume, requires them to wear shirts, something they didn't bother to do when they first went public in July with a make-out session on a boat in Italy. Another alleged reconciliation provision: Getty's estranged wife, Rosetta, with whom he has four kids, is a verboten topic, although the tattoo of her name over his heart likely makes that a moot point. "Sienna and Balthazar have an unwritten rule that he is not to mention his wife by name," asserts the mole. "They are simply trying to move on with their lives as a couple and make a fresh start." But does that new beginning include trying to work together? The London Sun claims the derided duo is unwisely hoping to find a movie in which to co-star. "Her advisers are warning [her] how unpopular that would be," an insider tells the tab. "People haven't taken to them as a pair due to the way they got together. They fear people will find it a bit too sickly -- and as though they are rubbing his wife's face in it. But Sienna insists it could be movie gold and is looking for a script." Because if there's one thing Miller is known for, it's mining movie gold. Oh, wait ...

©Retna Ltd.
Kate Moss and Jamie Hince are spotted at Heathrow Airport in London on Oct. 30. (©Retna Ltd.)

Kate Moss and her rocker boyfriend Jamie Hince might want to ask Santa to bring them a pair of helmets and some gift certificates for couples counseling. The London Daily Mail claims the worse-for-wear supermodel was overheard at a recent soiree explaining that she and her beau were left with banged-up faces -- she had a cut on her cheek; he was sporting a black eye -- after getting into a tussle over where to celebrate in the birth of the baby Jesus. "We had a fight yesterday about what to do for Christmas. We had a bit of a scuffle and I was wearing a chunky ring, which caught him right in the eye," Moss is quoted as saying (see the pics here). "It's all OK now, though. We fight and we have our ups and downs -- like anyone, really."

De La Hoya's the champ of cross promotion

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LAS VEGAS - He's asking $54.95 to see him fight Manny Pacquiao on pay per view. Still, Oscar De La Hoya feels your pain.

"We know it's a tough economy," he said.

Here, then, was the Golden Boy's prescription for cost-effective pay-per-viewing: Get a twelve pack of the right beer for you and your friends. Next, get a bottle of the right tequila. Finally, to modulate your buzz, grab a can of the right energy drink.

Never mind the aggregate cost of these beverages. Disregard the potential hazard involved with imbibing alcohol and caffeine — that you may very well miss the fight's thrilling moments (and I think there will be some) while in the bathroom. The recommended drinks were among the corporate sponsors for Saturday night's fight between Pacquiao, the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, and De La Hoya, the most bankable. Apparently, each purchase corresponds to a partial rebate on the pay-per-view fee.

Buy them all, said De La Hoya, and "you're practically going to get the fight for free."

He was smiling when he said all this, grinning in that way only the Golden Boy can. And why not? De La Hoya was engaged in boxing's most venerable tradition: hustling. Don King was a hustler. Bob Arum, too. No one bats an eye. But hearing Oscar pitch so brazenly in the final press conference at the MGM Grand, I couldn't help but resent it. And I wasn't alone.

Now, at 35, near the end of his outrageously profitable fighting career, De La Hoya remains a curious case. Call him a sell-out, if you must, but then you're also obligated to acknowledge him as a savior. It's difficult to overstate how much the sport owes him. It's not too much to say he kept the fight game alive.

It was De La Hoya who enabled boxing to move beyond its relentlessly morbid fascination with Mike Tyson. It was De La Hoya who provided the juice in an age completely bereft of heavyweight excitement. What's more, his Golden Boy promotional company represents an extraordinary accomplishment. A fighter as a promoter? In the not so distant past, the notion was laughable.

And yet, I'm still not sure about Oscar. I should like him more than I do. But even after all these years, I never quite know what's real, and what's a corporate tie-in.

Consider the statue unveiled the other day at the Staples Center. Magic Johnson has a statue there. Wayne Gretzky, too. Jerry West does not. Nor does Kareem. Or Wilt. But now De La Hoya makes three. The strange part is, Oscar has fought but once in the Staples Center. It was a decision he lost to Shane Mosley back in 2000. In fact, though De La Hoya likes to be known as "the Pride of East L.A.", he's fought only twice in Los Angeles since 1994. The other occasion was his lackluster decision over Stevie Forbes last May at the Home Depot Center in Carson.

The Home Depot Center and Staples are owned and operated by the same company, AEG. As coincidence would have it, that would be the same AEG that has a stake in Golden Boy Promotions.

The basis for the big bronze figure is not rooted in sentiment. It's corporate synergy and strategy.

There's too much transparent public relations. For instance, at the press conference, Oscar's people — including the parade of Mexican champions he claimed as his supporters — wore shirts or jackets endorsing The Ring. For those who don't know, the magazine is now owned by Golden Boy.

Then there's Angelo Dundee, the Hall of Fame trainer brought in to "work with" De La Hoya. Even Dundee — who showed up at De La Hoya's camp in Big Bear just in time for the big media day last month — admitted "I didn't do any homework." What Dundee could teach Oscar at that point, under those conditions, is anyone's guess ...

I've long thought De La Hoya's finest moment was beating Ike Quartey — going on 10 years now, the night he knocked down a fearsome puncher in the final round. It had real merit, though no one seems to recall the fight. Rather, if De La Hoya's career were to end tomorrow people would recall his bout with Floyd Mayweather.

The promotion was great. Mayweather-De La Hoya is considered a watershed event in the pay-per-view industry. At 2.4 million buys, it easily set an all-time record.

But you can't measure fights merely by financials. (Hey, you don't hear anyone talk about the numbers for Ali-Frazier or Hagler-Hearns). The truth is, as a fight, Mayweather-De La Hoya sucked, lacking for both for action and drama.

I'm not arguing that Saturday night with Pacquiao will be a dog. Actually, I expect it to be pretty good, full of action. But it's not the best fight out there, either. That would be De La Hoya against Antonio Margarito or Miguel Cotto, natural 147 pounders.

De La Hoya is only behaving rationally, as any businessman should. Margarito and Cotto represent considerably more danger and much less money. Pacquiao may be a great fighter, with an immense following. But only one of his 50 fights has been above 130 pounds.

You figure that the Golden Boy (both the fighter and his namesake promotional company) selected an opponent based on a finely calibrated cost-benefit analysis. It's about risk and reward. It's about profit points. It's about cross-promotion. It's like being in the beverage business.

The 10 Best Books of 2008

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FICTION

DANGEROUS LAUGHTER
Thirteen Stories
By Steven Millhauser.
Alfred A. Knopf, $24.

In his first collection in five years, a master fabulist in the tradition of Poe and Nabo­kov invents spookily plausible parallel universes in which the deepest human emotions and yearnings are transformed into their monstrous opposites. Millhauser is especially attuned to the purgatory of adolescence. In the title story, teenagers attend sinister “laugh parties”; in another, a mysteriously afflicted girl hides in the darkness of her attic bedroom. Time and again these parables revive the possibility that “under this world there is another, waiting to be born.” (Excerpt)

A MERCY
By Toni Morrison.
Alfred A. Knopf, $23.95.

The fate of a slave child abandoned by her mother animates this allusive novel — part Faulknerian puzzle, part dream-song — about orphaned women who form an eccentric household in late-17th-century America. Morrison’s farmers and rum traders, masters and slaves, indentured whites and captive Native Americans live side by side, often in violent conflict, in a lawless, ripe American Eden that is both a haven and a prison — an emerging nation whose identity is rooted equally in Old World superstitions and New World appetites and fears. (First Chapter)

NETHERLAND
By Joseph O’Neill.
Pantheon Books, $23.95.

O’Neill’s seductive ode to New York — a city that even in bad times stubbornly clings to its belief “in its salvific worth” — is narrated by a Dutch financier whose privileged Manhattan existence is upended by the events of Sept. 11, 2001. When his wife departs for London with their small son, he stays behind, finding camaraderie in the unexpectedly buoyant world of immigrant cricket players, most of them West Indians and South Asians, including an entrepreneur with Gatsby-size aspirations. (First Chapter)

2666
By Roberto Bolaño. Translated by Natasha Wimmer.
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, cloth and paper, $30.

Bolaño, the prodigious Chilean writer who died at age 50 in 2003, has posthumously risen, like a figure in one of his own splendid creations, to the summit of modern fiction. This latest work, first published in Spanish in 2004, is a mega- and meta-detective novel with strong hints of apocalyptic foreboding. It contains five separate narratives, each pursuing a different story with a cast of beguiling characters — European literary scholars, an African-American journalist and more — whose lives converge in a Mexican border town where hundreds of young women have been brutally murdered. (Excerpt)

UNACCUSTOMED EARTH
By Jhumpa Lahiri.
Alfred A. Knopf, $25.

There is much cultural news in these precisely observed studies of modern-day Bengali-Americans — many of them Ivy-league strivers ensconced in prosperous suburbs who can’t quite overcome the tug of traditions nurtured in Calcutta. With quiet artistry and tender sympathy, Lahiri creates an impressive range of vivid characters — young and old, male and female, self-knowing and self-deluding — in engrossing stories that replenish the classic themes of domestic realism: loneliness, estrangement and family discord. (Excerpt)


NONFICTION

THE DARK SIDE
The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals
By Jane Mayer.
Doubleday, $27.50.

Mayer’s meticulously reported descent into the depths of President Bush’s anti­terrorist policies peels away the layers of legal and bureaucratic maneuvering that gave us Guantánamo Bay, “extraordinary rendition,” “enhanced” interrogation methods, “black sites,” warrantless domestic surveillance and all the rest. But Mayer also describes the efforts ofunsung heroes, tucked deep inside the administration, who risked their careers in the struggle to balance the rule of law against the need to meet a threat unlike any other in the nation’s history.

THE FOREVER WAR
By Dexter Filkins.
Alfred A. Knopf, $25.

The New York Times correspondent, whose tours of duty have taken him from Afghanistan in 1998 to Iraq during the American intervention, captures a decade of armed struggle in harrowingly detailed vignettes. Whether interviewing jihadists in Kabul, accompanying marines on risky patrols in Falluja or visiting grieving families in Baghdad, Filkins makes us see, with almost hallucinogenic immediacy, the true human meaning and consequences of the “war on terror.” (First Chapter)

NOTHING TO BE FRIGHTENED OF
By Julian Barnes.
Alfred A. Knopf, $24.95.

This absorbing memoir traces Barnes’s progress from atheism (at age 20) to agnosticism (at 60) and examines the problem of religion not by rehashing the familiar quarrel between science and mystery, but rather by weighing the timeless questions of mortality and aging. Barnes distills his own experiences — and those of his parents and brother — in polished and wise sentences that recall the writing of Montaigne, Flaubert and the other French masters he includes in his discussion. (First Chapter)

THIS REPUBLIC OF SUFFERING
Death and the American Civil War
By Drew Gilpin Faust.
Alfred A. Knopf, $27.95.

In this powerful book, Faust, the president of Harvard, explores the legacy, or legacies, of the “harvest of death” sown and reaped by the Civil War. In the space of four years, 620,000 Americans died in uniform, roughly the same number as those lost in all the nation’s combined wars from the Revolution through Korea. This doesn’t include the thousands of civilians killed in epidemics, guerrilla raids and draft riots. The collective trauma created “a newly centralized nation-state,” Faust writes, but it also established “sacrifice and its memorialization as the ground on which North and South would ultimately reunite.” (First Chapter)

THE WORLD IS WHAT IT IS
The Authorized Biography of V. S. Naipaul
By Patrick French.
Alfred A. Knopf, $30.

The most surprising word in this biography is “authorized.” Naipaul, the greatest of all postcolonial authors, cooperated fully with French, opening up a huge cache of private letters and diaries and supplementing the revelations they disclosed with remarkably candid interviews. It was a brave, and wise, decision. French, a first-rate biographer, has a novelist’s command of story and character, and he patiently connects his subject’s brilliant oeuvre with the disturbing facts of an unruly life. (First Chapter)
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America Ferrera

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Full Biography

From All Movie Guide: Few aspiring actresses could ever hope to experience the early career success of Ugly Betty starlet America Ferrera. In the scant four years after earning a Sundance Jury Award, an Independent Spirit Award nomination, and a Young Artist Award nomination for her role as a first-generation Mexican-American girl teetering on the cusp of womanhood for Real Women Have Curves, the hardworking actress rose quickly through the ranks to become one of television's brightest young stars.

A Los Angeles native and the youngest of six siblings born to Honduran parents, Ferrera was raised by her mother in Woodland Hills, CA. Though at first hesitant to pursue a career on camera, the natural-born actress and high school valedictorian displayed an instinctive talent on the stage that seemed to signal she had found her true calling. It was during this time that Ferrera began working as a waitress to fund her classes and pay for headshots, and shortly thereafter she made her screen debut as a cheerleader in the Disney Channel feature Gotta Kick It Up! (2002). Later, while attending summer theater camp at Northwestern University, Ferrera taped an audition for Real Women Have Curves; after six auditions, she was ecstatic to learn that she had been cast as first-generation American Ana Garcia. It was the perfect role for the emerging actress, as she too was among the first of her family to be born in America.

In the following two years, Ferrera appeared in a number of film and television projects while studying International Relations and Theater at the University of Southern California, with high-profile roles in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and Lords of Dogtown helping to form a solid foundation for an enduring career. Roles in the addiction drama 3:52 and the working-class drama Steel City were quick to follow, and in 2006 Ferrera became a small-screen sensation with her role as an unattractive secretary working for a popular fashion magazine in ABC's Ugly Betty.

An Americanized remake of the popular Columbian comedy drama Yo Soy Betty, la Fea, Ugly Betty was produced by screen star Salma Hayek and became an immediate hit with viewers. When the Golden Globes were handed out in early 2007, young star Ferrera was visibly thrilled to be bestowed with a Best Actress award for her work on the series. She also won a the Screen Actors Guild Award for Female Actor in a Comedy Series shortly thereafter. That same year, Ferrera would expand her resumé to include the role of producer for the dramatic crime thriller Towards Darkness -- in which she also starred as a girl who shares a sensitive relationship with a young kidnapping victim. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
Education
Institution - El Camino Real High School
Location - Woodland Hills, CA
Institution - Northwestern University
Location - Chicago, IL
Year range - 2002
Institution - University of Southern California
Location - Los Angeles, CA
Major - international relations, theater
Year range - 2003
Institution - George Ellery Hale Middle School
Location - Woodland Hills, CA

Lindsay Lohan

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Full Biography

From All Movie Guide: Child actress Lindsay Lohan was already an experienced performer when she made her feature debut in the 1998 remake of The Parent Trap. Born in New York City, Lohan began modeling at age three. After appearing in numerous TV commercials, Lohan moved to series TV with a role on the soap operaAnother World from 1996 to 1997. Cast as The Parent Trap's scheming twin sisters after a six month search for just the right girl, Lohan succeeded in filling Hayley Mills' shoes, winning over audiences with her pert charm as both the Californian Hallie and the British-raised Annie. She subsequently starred in the Disney TV film Life-Size (2000). Subsequently cast in actress Bette Midler's short-lived sitcom Bette, Lohan took a turn as a teenage gossip columnist (Get a Clue[2002]) before turning up in yet another remake of a Disney classic, Freaky Friday (2003). Stepping into the shoes formerly filled by Jodie Foster, Lohan and co-star Jamie Lee Curtis brought a winning, new chemistry to the film that made it a sleeper summer hit.

Lohan kicked off 2004 with her first big starring vehicle, the comedy Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen. Met with mixed reviews and modest box-office receipts, the film didn't cross over from the teen audience the way Friday did. Only a mere two months later, Lohan proved she could carry a film. The Tina Fey-penned Mean Girls debuted at number one, recouping its budget and then some in its first week of release. The spotlight on the then-16-year-old Lohan changed almost overnight, as she quickly became a tabloid fixture: speculation on her body, her nightclubbing, her string of high-profile boyfriends, her incarcerated father, and her feuds with a variety of other young female celebrities became inescapable. Perhaps predictably, 2004 also saw Lohan branch out into the world of pop music with the album Speak; the supposedly confessional -- and similarly undistinguished -- A Little More Personal followed in 2005.

All of the hullabaloo seemed to have little effect on her work, as she starred in Herbie: Fully Loaded for Disney -- suffering a bout of "exhaustion" on set -- before graduating to more adult fare with Robert Altman's A Prairie Home Companion. Playing a morose poetess, the young actress ably held her own against Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin when the film opened in 2006; around that time, her first shot at a "grown-up" romantic comedy, Just My Luck, opened to little notice from the public or critics.

Undaunted, Lohan set to work on another grande-dame comedy, Georgia Rule, in which she played a wayward, risk-taking teenage girl who is hauled off to live with her stern grandmother (Jane Fonda) for the summer. Perhaps fittingly, Lohan's own tardy behavior on the Georgia Rule set prompted a very public memo from the film's backers, who claimed her late-night partying was endangering the shoot; a short stay in rehab followed in early 2007. For all the publicity generated by Lohan's wild-child routine, Georgia Rule tanked when it opened in May of that year, although many critics preferred Lohan's performance over those of her histrionic co-stars Jane Fonda and Felicity Huffman. The actress' R-rated summer blitz continued with the thriller I Know Who Killed Me, just as her work in the widely panned Mark David Chapman biopic Chapter 27 made the festival rounds. This trifecta of flops was complemented by an increasingly erratic public image, as she found herself involved in two DUI arrests within two months' time that same summer. Both prompted stays in rehab, as well as mammoth media attention. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide

All Day Long I Dream About Sex

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Reuters Showbiz Week - October 17th, 2008

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Max Payne synopsis

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The movie starts with Max Payne (Mark Wahlberg) struggling to surface in a frosted river while also narrating. The film then cuts to one week earlier, showing Max working as a clerk in the cold-case unit and his obsession with finding the fleeing killer who brutally murdered his wife, Michelle, and newborn daughter. Max then attends a party run by his snitch, Trevor Duncan, where he meets Natasha Sax (Olga Kurylenko) and her sister, Mona (Mila Kunis). Natasha and Max go back to his place where she demonstrates her desire to have sex and even offers to act as Max's deceased wife. An upset Max asks Natasha to leave and while she is walking in a alleyway and talking to her drug dealer on the phone, she is hunted, attacked and killed by a mysterious flying entity.

The next day, Max goes with his former partner Alex Balder (Donal Logue) to investigate her murder. Alex then reveals Max's wallet was found at the crime scene and that he is the prime suspect. Back in his office, Alex discovers that a tattoo of wings found on Natasha's arm is similar to the one on the arm of one of Michelle's murderers, killed at the crime scene. He tries to call Max to reveal his finding, but in vain as he's answered by his voice mail. Max receives his message and rushes to his apartment, only to find Alex dead. Suddenly, he is attacked and thrown around until he blacks out. Max wakes up in hospital beside his mentor B.B. Hensley (Beau Bridges). Max goes to Alex's house to offer his condolences but is forced to leave by his wife Christa Balder (Nelly Furtado), stating that Max has always pushed away everyone who ever cared about him. Later, Max again meets Mona Sax, who believes he killed Natasha, but Max convinces her that they are both looking for someone else. After storming into Alex's precinct and searching through his partner's investigation files, Max learns that a man named Owen Greene was the last person Natasha called before her death.

The scene shifts to crime boss Jack Lupino (Amaury Nolasco) who has become unstable and increasingly berserk due to addiction to the drug Valkyr. He gives the drug to another wing-tattoed junkie and shortly afterwards kills him. Max and Mona find Owen Greene's apartment but hear him screaming. Owen has also become unstable and hallucinated due to Valkyr and backs away from Max and Mona towards the edge of the apartment. He is then pulled by a demonic creature on wings and falls to his death. Max and Mona go to see a tattooist who did Natasha's tattoos; when asked about the winged tattoo, he tells that it is the wing of a Valkyrie, the Norse mythological deity that carried to Heaven only those that died violently in combat. Max then arrives at Aesir Pharmaceuticals headquarters, Michelle's former workplace, to talk with her former supervisor, Jason Colvin (Chris O'Donnell). After brutally beating him up and even holding him at gun point, Colvin reveals everything. He explains that Michelle was working on a big military-related project with Aesir's CEO, Nicole Horne (Kate Burton) concerning the development of a stamina-enhancing drug for soldiers. Colvin also reveals that the drug only worked in 1% of the test subjects and the remaining suffered severe traumatic hallucinations about demonic creatures. Colvin tells Max that everything he wants to know is inside an envelope Colvin has been carrying around. Max and Colvin attempt to escape but a S.W.A.T team arrives, after being alerted by Colvin's secretary. Colvin is purposely shot dead but Max manages to escape with the envelope, amidst a shooting spree, not before a brief encounter with Jim Bravura (Chris "Ludacris" Bridges), an internal affairs agent.

Mona later finds Max in a abandoned warehouse, watching the video inside Colvin's package. It is revealed that Aesir Pharmaceuticals was the company manufacturing Valkyr for the military. It was a drug created for the purpose of enhancing a soldier's ability in combat and to control their fears. It is also revealed that, before becoming unstable and a rampage killer, Jack Lupino was a former sergeant who volunteered for Valkyr testing; in the video interview, Lupino stated that "he felt invincible" and "suffered no side effects". Mona tells Max that Lupino's lair is at Ragna Rock. Subsequently, Max goes there and successfully kills all of Lupino's henchmen with ease. Max then encounters Lupino, who attempts to force the drug into Max's body. Before he can, he is shot dead by B.B.. While leaving Ragna Rock with B.B., Max is knocked unconscious by B.B.'s assistant. Max is then showed walking handcuffed between B.B. and his assistant, who confesses he is the lead manufacturer of Valkyr and the runaway killer that Max has been searching for. B.B. and his partner then attempt to eliminate Max. Making him look like an drug-addicted suicidal by slipping two vials of the Valkyr drug in his jacket pocket, and then attempting to drown him in a freezing river. Max sinks to the bottom as we saw in the opening scene of the movie, but only the thought of his wife and daughter give him the strength to struggle and he barely makes it out alive. In order to combat freezing to death, he ingests the two vials of Valkyr that B.B. had earlier put in his jacket. The effects are felt immediately as he revives his strength and anger and hallucinates with the demonic winged creatures as seen by Valkyr-consuming subjects, which are revealed to be the mythological Valkyries.

A strengthened and berserk Max then rushes to Aesir Pharmaceuticals to kill B.B., but amidst all the shooting and due to his increasing hallucinations, Max is almost killed by one of B.B.'s security team members, before Mona arrives, saves Max and offers to hold the rest off until he reaches his former mentor. B.B. has arranged a helicopter to evacute him while his assistant tries to blow up the rooftop access with explosives. Mona fatally wounds the assistant, but he still manages to blow up the floor he is on. Max catches up with B.B. and, despite being shot twice, he shoots B.B. dead. Max then slumps near the edge of the building and the dark, snowy, cloudy city sky is now clearing up and the sun appears shining on Max's face. He then experiences a flashback of himself, his wife and daughter and the film ends with Michelle saying "Not yet, Max."

There is a post credit scene, where Max Payne meets up with Mona Sax at a bar. There is no dialogue between Mona and Max, Mona just gives Max a newspaper article that has Aesir's CEO, Nicole Horne on it with the headline "Aesir stock soars" (or something like that). Max and Mona give each other a look of pleasure knowing who is going to be next.

Kim Kardashian Picture 4

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Kim Kardashian Picture 3

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Kim Kardashian Picture 2

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Kim Kardashian Picture 1

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Palin's future causes Republican rift

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(CNN) -- Election Day is still days away, but Republicans are already caught up in a heated debate about Sarah Palin's future role in the party should the GOP ticket fail to win the White House.

Gov. Sarah Palin speaks at Shippensburg University in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday.

In one corner are some conservatives who believe the Alaska governor has been a detriment to John McCain's presidential bid and threatens to lead the party astray for the foreseeable future.

Another faction says Palin's core-conservative beliefs, demonstrated political acumen, and compelling frontier biography position her to reshape the face of a party now viewed by many voters as out of touch.

It's a debate, somewhat ugly at times, that is beginning to play out in public view as Republicans brace themselves for the possibility of losing the White House and a significant number of seats in Congress come Election Day. And that may leave the party in shambles with drastically reduced influence in Washington. iReport.com: Share your thoughts on Palin

Should that happen, political observers say, the party will face its biggest identity crisis in more than a generation, and Palin may well be caught squarely in the middle of it.

"A civil war that is simmering will break out into the open if McCain loses, and the party will have to decide what they want to be in the post-Reagan world," said Gloria Borger, a senior political analyst for CNN. Watch whether Palin is making a power play »

Palin, whose campaign rally crowds have been noticeably larger than McCain's, will certainly have legitimacy to run for president in four years should she want to. Some McCain operatives, claiming Palin repeatedly veers off script and often disregards the campaign's advice, already believe she is more interested in positioning herself for the future than helping the party win this year.

"She is such a compelling figure, and she has helped, without a doubt, with the Republican base," CNN Chief National Correspondent John King said. "But she's also hurting with key constituencies, like suburban women and independents, and there's a big question that, if McCain loses, does she try to emerge as the leader of the party heading into the 2012 cycle?"

Should Palin ultimately decide to launch her own presidential bid, she will face a massive headwind from an influential group of conservatives who believe the Alaska governor represents the very reasons why the Republican Party finds itself in retreat.

"She is a person of great ambition, but the question remains: What is the purpose of the ambition? She wants to rise, but what for? It's unclear whether she is Bushian or Reaganite. She doesn't think aloud. She just ... says things," conservative columnist Peggy Noonan wrote in a recent Wall Street Journal column.

It's an argument that has been echoed by a string of conservatives -- including David Brooks, George Will, Kathleen Parker, and David Frum -- who believe Palin exhibits a poisonous anti-intellectual instinct of the party that threatens to ultimately destroy its foundations.

"Reagan had an immense faith in the power of ideas. But there has been a counter, more populist tradition, which is not only to scorn liberal ideas but to scorn ideas entirely. And I'm afraid that Sarah Palin has those prejudices," said Brooks, a conservative columnist for the New York Times.

Frum, a former speechwriter for President Bush who has written that Palin is woefully inexperienced to be president, told CNN the Alaska governor's chances might be slim in a general election matchup.

"She will face the classic problem of being a strong candidate for the nomination, but not such an appealing candidate across party lines," he said. "She has a very intense following among core Republicans, but at the same time, non-core Republicans have reached a very negative verdict."

Frum also pointed to recent polling that suggests Palin's unfavorable ratings have sharply risen in the last two months, and predicted it will be extremely difficult for her to combat a perception among many voters that she is a lightweight, ill equipped for the burdens of the presidency.

"This is a moment where people have formed impressions, they have been watching her closely and paying a lot of attention," he said. "Even if she spends the next two and a half years delivering worthy speeches at the Council on Foreign Relations, the cumulative work that she will do will be seen by fewer people than probably watched the Katie Couric interview or the Charlie Gibson interview, or the debate with Joe Biden."

But even as one corner of the party predicts dire consequences if Palin becomes the Republican standard-bearer, another is strongly behind her.

"I hope and expect that she stays involved nationally, and she can play pretty much whatever role she wants to. She's got momentum now, and I'd be surprised if she didn't play a leadership role in the party," Richard Viguerie, a prominent cultural conservative and chairman of conservativehq.com, told CNN.

Viguerie, as well as many other cultural conservatives, point to Palin's core beliefs on key issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage and say she represents a fresh face, from a different region of the country, who has the potential to reshape the conservative movement.

"Palin, as best I can describe it, exudes a kind of middle-class magnetism. It's subdued but nonetheless very powerful," Weekly Standard editor Fred Barnes recently wrote. "Whether they know it or not, Republicans have a huge stake in Palin. If, after the election, they let her slip into political obscurity, they'll be making a tragic mistake."

Conservatives across the party are slated to meet in Virginia in the days after the election to discuss the future of the party and Palin's role is expected to be a topic of conversation.

"Palin will certainly be a discussion point," a conservative who will attend the meeting said. "While the Washington establishment and some of the New York academics may not like her, a lot of the country and the conservative movement's base does."

Factors out of Palin's control could ultimately control her fate.

The political landscape in 2012 may look markedly different than it does now, depending on the success of a President Obama should the Illinois senator win. Unforeseen developments in the economy and the war in Iraq will also likely have an effect on whether Palin rises to the forefront of her party in the next election cycle.

But one thing is clear: If Palin wants to mount a serious bid for her party's nomination in 2012, she has a lot of groundwork to do.

She has yet to form relationships with many key conservative groups at the local level, whose support would be instrumental in ultimately capturing the Republican presidential nomination. She knows few party chairman in the key early primary states where the race will likely be decided.

"She needs to get out there and get to know conservative leaders at the national, state, and local level," Viguerie said. "She needs to introduce herself in a way she hasn't had the opportunity to do so far."

And should McCain lose next Tuesday, the Alaska governor will have little time to take a breath.

"She would have to start the day after the election if she wants to run for president -- there is no period where the election isn't going on," Frum said.

Kim Kardashian Celebrates 28th Birthday – in a Hospital Gown

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Here's one gown you won't see Kim Kardashian wearing on the red carpet.

The reality star donned hospital-wear to celebrate her 28th birthday Tuesday at an Alabama medical center, where boyfriend Reggie Bush was recovering from surgery after injuring his knee.

"I was supposed to be in London right now with Reggie but we had to cancel our trip," she writes on her blog. "In [Sunday's] game against the [North] Carolina Panthers, Reggie injured his left knee and needed surgery."

Though she says the New Orleans Saints running back was "pretty bummed," she, on the other hand, remains positive: "As long as he is okay, I will have the best birthday ever!!!!"

"When I saw him limp off the field," she says, "my heart dropped!" But, " He is recovering great and will be back on the field soon!"

Sarah Palin: My Wedding Hope for Bristol

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Now that Gov. Sarah Palin's daughter has celebrated her 18th birthday, the GOP vice-presidential candidate says she's hoping Bristol and fiancé Levi Johnston – who are expecting a baby in December – will tie the knot well before the date next summer the young couple had been eyeing.

"Hopefully before that," Sarah Palin tells PEOPLE in an Oct. 15 interview for the issue on newsstands this Friday. "Bristol turns 18 in a few days [Oct. 18]. That's what we wanted her to wait for: 18, and a decision on her own about how she's going to go forward, her and Levi, at this point."

Taking a break between campaign speeches in New Hampshire, Palin and her husband, Todd, both 44, spoke about Bristol, Tina Fey and sex ed. They also responded to PEOPLE readers' questions about politics, life with five kids – ages 6 months to 19 years – and what's next for the Alaska governor, win or lose:

Do you two ever look at each other and just go, This is insane?
Sarah Palin: I haven't had time to yet. (She clicks her tongue twice and pats Todd on the knee.)

With the kids traveling, how do they keep up with school?
SP: They've been going back and forth and bringing schoolwork with them. Yeah. It's workin'. With our help and Grandma's and Grandpa's help.

Your crowds are adoring but the criticism is sometimes tough. Todd, Elizabeth in Nashville asks, Is it hard not to stick up for Sarah?
TODD PALIN: When you get into this business, it's expected. I do [feel protective] but it's just entertainment.
SP: They take their shots; that's some people's entertainment.

We've seen her as the Supermom and Power Chick, if you'll pardon the expression. You've seen her softer side.
TP: When she's working for me out there in my fishing boat, she's pretty vulnerable. It's my element.
SP: He's the boss out there on the boat while we commercial fish. Yeah. That's a different story then.

Michael Jackson: Album's 25th Anniversary Event a Real Thriller

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The mega-hit album Thriller shattered records – and now it's going for one more.

To get an early start celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Michael Jackson video (which debuted on MTV in December 1983), Jackson fans and impersonators will gather at Madame Tussauds wax museum in New York on Thursday to try to break the Guinness Book record of most people doing a simultaneous "Thriller" dance.

Jackson, himself, won't make an appearance, but in a statement to PEOPLE he gives the Halloween eve event his stamp of approval: "I always thought Halloween and 'Thriller' fit each other like a glove."

Jennifer Aniston: Another Day in Paradise

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On what was yet another day spent in paradise, Jennifer Aniston was spotted back on the beach in Los Cabos, Mexico on Sunday afternoon (September 28).

Sporting a skimpy two-piece bikini, the former “Friends” actress enjoyed guacamole and seafood by the beach - later on making friends with a puppy French Bulldog.

As previously reported by Gossip Girls, Jen has also reportedly been in contact with ex-beau John Mayer over the past few weeks - with the duo now reportedly enjoying daily chats.

“John was pleasantly surprised to hear from her. He says they’ve been in contact pretty much every day since and he’s really looking forward to seeing her again soon,” an insider told press.

Lindsay Lohan and Sam Ronson: Beach Bliss

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Continuing along on their week of beach fun, Lindsay Lohan and Samantha Ronson were spotted out soaking up the sun in Los Cabos, Mexico on Wednesday (October 1).

For the third straight day, the “Georgia Rule” actress and her British DJ girlfriend splashed about in the water in between sessions lounging on beach recliners by the waterside.

“This is the first healthy relationship Lindsay has ever had,” a pal of Miss Lohan told OK! magazine. “Both Lindsay and Samantha have total mutual respect and love for each other. All the nonsense Lindsay’s had in past relationships – the crazy fights, cheating and general immaturity – is totally absent. This is the real thing.”

And while LiLo just confirmed her “more than friends” arrangement with Miss Ronson during a September 21st interview, OK!’s insider tells, “Samantha and Lindsay have been ‘out’ to friends for a few months now.”

Call it the Rocky Mountain road to the White House.

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A new state poll suggests that Sen. Barack Obama has doubled his lead over John McCain in Colorado.

In a CNN/Time/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Wednesday, 53 percent of likely voters questioned say Obama is their choice for president, with 45 percent backing Sen. John McCain. That 8 point lead for Obama is double the 4-point advantage he held in a similar poll two weeks ago.

"Older voters in Colorado have started to break Obama's way," CNN Polling Director Keating Holland said. "Two weeks ago he was losing the over-50 crowd by a couple of points. Now he has a 5-point edge among them."

The new numbers in Colorado, along with similar findings from other new polls in the state, are factors in CNN's move of Colorado from a toss-up state to an Obama on CNN's new electoral college map.

CNN is also changing Indiana from leaning McCain to toss-up.

A new CNN Poll of Polls in Indiana suggests McCain holds a 2-point lead over Obama in a state that hasn't voted Democrat in a presidential election since 1964. The poll of polls is an average of the latest state

With the switch of Colorado (9 electoral votes) and Indiana (11 electoral votes), CNN now estimates that if the election were held today Obama would win states with 286 electoral votes and McCain states with 163, with 89 electoral votes still up for grabs. Two-hundred and seventy electoral votes are needed to clinch the presidency.

The estimated 286 electoral votes for Obama is a jump from 274 in CNN's most recent electoral college map.

Washington state is also being moved from leaning Obama to safe for Obama, but that move doesn't change the electoral count.

The CNN Electoral College map is an estimate of what could occur if the election were held today. State polls, voting trends, campaign visits and advertising, are among the factors used in deciding the electoral college map.

Colorado is one of three western states that voted for George W. Bush four years ago. The others are Nevada and New Mexico. Democrats have been making major gains across the west at the state level the past two election cycles and the party held its nominating convention in Denver, Colorado, this summer, as part of a strategy to win the West in the race for the White House.

CNN senior political analyst Bill Schneider said Obama's widening lead in Colorado is being "propelled by an amazing 15-point Democratic lead in Colorado's fast-growing suburbs. The nation's economy has faltered, and so has Republican support, for nearly 30 years the cornerstone of the Reagan coalition."

The poll also suggests Obama is holding onto a strong lead in Virginia, with 53 percent of those questioned backing Obama and 44 percent supporting McCain. That 9-point lead is down from a 10-point lead Obama held in our last poll conducted in Virginia last week. No Democrat has won Virginia in a presidential contest since Lyndon Johnson carried the state in 1964.

Both McCain and Obama, campaigning in Florida Wednesday, are fighting hard to win the state's 27 electoral votes. The poll indicates Obama holds a small 4-point edge, 51 percent to 47 percent. Bush carried Florida by 5 points as he won re-election as president in 2004.

Bush also won Georgia by 17 points over Sen. John Kerry, the Democratic presidential nominee, in that election. But the poll suggests McCain holds a much smaller lead over Obama this time around. Fifty-two percent of likely Georgia voters are backing McCain, with 47 percent supporting Obama. That 5-point lead for McCain is down from an 8-point lead McCain held in our last poll, conducted two weeks ago.

The poll indicates another state Bush carried in 2004, Missouri, is basically a dead heat. McCain holds a 2-point lead in the poll, 50 percent to 48 percent, well within in the survey's sampling error of 3.5 percentage points.

The poll was also expanded to include the major third party candidates, Independent Ralph Nader, Libertarian candidate Bob Barr, and Green Party candidate Cynthia McKinney. None of them are polling over 4 percent in any of the states CNN polled and none of them seem to be a factor in the outcome of the results in those five states other than Missouri, where Nader's 4 percent showing could have an impact.

But will he hurt either McCain or Obama?

"In most of the states we have polled in, the margin between Obama and McCain is the same in the two-way match-up as it is when we include the minor-party candidates," Holland said. "That indicates that Barr, Nader and McKinney together may be drawing equally from both the Democratic and Republican candidates." The CNN/Time/Opinion Research Corporation poll was conducted Thursday through Tuesday, with 774 likely voters in Colorado, 747 likely voters in Florida, 690 likely voters in Georgia, 825 likely voter in Missouri, and 721 likely voters in Virginia questioned by telephone.

Patrick Swayze Calls Cancer Fight 'A Battle Zone'

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Almost eight months after revealing he has pancreatic cancer, Patrick Swayze says acting has helped keep his spirits up.

"How do you nurture a positive attitude when all the statistics say you’re a dead man?" Swayze, who stars in the upcoming A&E series The Beast, asked in an interview with the New York Times. "You go to work."

Swayze, 56, began filming the drama series in Chicago this summer. "I do find myself, at the end of the day, riding home sort of catching myself with a smile on my face," he said. "I'm proud of what I'm doing."

Though he is healthy enough to work, the actor (who credits his wife, Lisa Niemi, as a main support) admitted cancer has changed him. "It’s a battle zone I go through," he said. "Chemo, no matter how you cut it, is hell on wheels."

After losing weight battling his disease, he has regained 20 pounds with the help of "muscle-building shakes" and working 12-hour days, reports the Times.

Swayze says his health crisis has inspired him to think about what he can do in the future. "I've made a pretty decent mark so far – nothing to scoff at," he said. "But it does make you think: Wait a minute. There’s more I want to do. Lots more. Get on with it."

Alessandra Ambrosio

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Alessandra Ambrosio

Working hard to shed those post-pregnancy pounds, Alessandra Ambrosio paid a visit to the gym to tighten and sculpt her figure on Wednesday afternoon (October 29).

The supermodel mommy, who welcomed daughter Anja Louise into the world in August, is getting in shape for the upcoming Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show.

According to press reports, the “holiday infused lingerie runway show will be taped at Fontainebleau Miami Beach and broadcast on Wednesday, December 3 at 10:00 - 11:00 P.M ET/PT on CBS.”

It was also just recently announced that Usher will be the lone musical guest to perform at “big show this year, which will also feature “red-carpet interviews, model profiles, and a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the world’s most celebrated fashion show.”

Miley on Britney and Lindsay

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After hearing what was surely a first-time question about how she feels about being compared to Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan, Miley Cyrus showed she's pretty savvy when it comes to dealing with the media.

"I think they are both really talented and, I don't know about around here, but at the Video Music Awards and everything, Britney Spears has been taking all the awards home and has really had quite a comeback," the tween sensation told reporters in Germany while on tour for her new album, Breakout.

Being careful to keep the praise limited to their activities onstage and onscreen, the Hannah Montana star went on to heap on the praise a little thicker.

"So, I just think that they are super successful, and hopefully when I am compared to them, it's them [...] career-wise because they have all been super successful and had amazing careers and they are both really talented."

Only time shall tell, Miley, especially with that 20-year-old boytoy of yours!