Celebrities I'm adoring now

[photos and informations collected from http://www.people.com/people/celebrities/)




As a testament to her talent, Kate Winslet is a record holder: She's the youngest actress to earn five Academy Award nominations, receiving her first nod for Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility (1995) and her latest for Little Children (2007).

Winslet's heart-wrenching performance in 1997's megahit Titanic made her a household name, of course, but her voluptuous figure has continued to steal headlines: The mother of two openly detests ultra-thin stars, sued a magazine for claiming she saw a diet specialist, and spoke out against a 2003 GQ cover, where she had been digitally slimmed. But at the end of the day, it has always been about the acting: Winslet can next be seen reteaming with Titanic costar Leonardo DiCaprio for the upcoming Revolutionary Road, directed by her Oscar-winning husband Sam Mendes.



After starring as Brad Pitt's wife in Se7en, Paltrow and Pitt started an off-screen romance that thrust the comely couple into the spotlight. They became engaged, but the high-profile relationship ended in 1997 and she moved onto a two-year relationship with Ben Affleck.

Although her star-studded romances made her a star, it was Shakespeare in Love that earned her a Best Actress Oscar. After years of eclectic film choices, Paltrow entered a more selective phase in her career upon marrying Coldplay frontman Chris Martin and having their two children. In 2008, the actress jumped back into a starring role with the comic blockbuster Iron Man opposite Robert Downey Jr.




Known for his rugged good looks (PEOPLE named him Sexiest Man Alive twice), Brad Pitt got his break as the hard-bodied scam artist in Thelma and Louise. But it was his riskier roles as the volatile Tyler Durden in Fight Club and the insane Jeffrey Goines in 12 Monkeys that earned him acclaim and an Oscar nod.

Having famously romanced many high-profile actresses, Pitt married Friends star Jennifer Aniston in 2000, but their union ended in 2005 and he quickly moved on with Mr. & Mrs. Smith costar Angelina Jolie.

The couple attracted worldwide attention when Pitt adopted Jolie's two adopted children (Maddox and Zahara) and expanded their family with biological daughter Shiloh, adopted son Pax, and twins, a boy, Knox Léon, and a girl, Vivienne Marcheline.

Former Harvard student Matt Damon cemented his fame in 1998, when he won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay (Good Will Hunting) with best friend Ben Affleck. Overnight, the two boys-next-door became bonafide A-listers.

While Affleck went on to commercial blockbusters like Armageddon, Damon aligned with award-friendly directors like Steven Spielberg (Saving Private Ryan) and Anthony Minghella (The Talented Mr. Ripley). More recently, Damon has balanced dramatic work in The Departed and The Good Shepherd with popular trilogies like Ocean's Eleven and The Bourne Identity.

Though he has dated starlets like Winona Ryder and Minnie Driver, PEOPLE's Sexiest Man Alive in 2007 has kept his love life private. In 2005, he quietly married Luciana Bozan Barroso before welcoming daughter, Isabella, in 2006. In 2008, the couple will be adding a third child to their brood.

With a sweet, all-American face lit up by a megawatt smile and luscious lips, actress Jennifer Garner has catapulted onto Hollywood's A-list despite a comparatively short list of prominent roles.

After a recurring role on the WB's Felicity, Jennifer Garner got her big break as grad student-CIA agent Sidney Bristow on ABC's Alias in 2001. But, after five seasons on the show and a Golden Globe win, Garner took on the big screen: she appeared opposite Ben Affleck in the comic book caper Daredevil; buffed up for the crime fighting spin-off Elektra; and giggled in the romantic comedy 13 Going on 30. Meanwhile, she married Affleck in 2005, before having their first child, Violet.

Jennifer Aniston catapulted into stardom as spoiled-but-lovable Rachel Green on the hit TV series Friends. "The Rachel," her layered haircut during the show's second season, sparked a nationwide trend and transformed Aniston into a style icon.

In 2000, she married heartthrob Brad Pitt, but filed for divorce four and a half years later. When reports emerged of Pitt's romance with Mr. & Mrs. Smith costar Angelina Jolie, Aniston earned admiration from fans for her poise and resilience. But, she quickly rebounded with The Break-Up costar Vince Vaughn. Although the pair has since split up, Friends costar Courteney Cox Arquette still says of her real-life best friend, "It's impossible not to like this girl."

[posted by Debbie, 2007] Review: The Last Station: A Novel of Tolstoy's Final Year by Jay Parini

Parini's The Last Station is a study of the end of Russian author Leo Tolstoy's life. You don't need to be a fan of Tolstoy to enjoy it--you don't even need to have read any of his novels. This book stands on its own merits.

Told in multiple first person narratives, the book explores how the various players see themselves and each other, enabling the reader to make up their own mind about their characters and motives. Personally, I came to like Tolstoy's long-suffering wife Sofya Andreyevna the best, if only because all the other characters are ranged against her. She's depicted by them as insane, hysterical, controlling, and I don't know what else, when all she wants is to secure the royalties from Tolstoy's work to their descendants. This simple--some might say, laudable--ambition finds her ranged against her husband, their daughter Sasha, and various of Tolstoy's adherents and hangers-on. As it becomes obvious to her that she's failed, she rages in various frightening--and impotent--ways, and finds herself excluded from her husband's deathbed. The winners write the history: she drove Tolstoy from his lifetime home; she wouldn't let him die in peace. But Parini makes sure Sofya's voice is also heard.

Russia stands on the brink of momentous change, but this novel, like Tolstoy's own work, is more about the personal than the political. Tolstoy may despise the luxury in which he lives, but he's unable to break away from it. He may wish to make the grand gesture of leaving his work to the nation, but he does it in secret, fearing a confrontation with his wife. What we see is a man who's lionised by everyone around him--except Sofya--but who is too weak to live up to their perception of him. Yet his feet of clay go unobserved. He's already an icon, no longer a man. All that's left to him, therefore, is to die.

Parini writes well, and does a good job of distinguishing the various narrators--Sofya, Tolstoy himself, their daughter Sasha, Tolstoy's new secretary Bulgakov, his doctor Makovitsky, and the scary Chertkov, the leader of Tolstoy's fan club. The most likeable character is Bulgakov, whose love affair troubles him only a little in the light of one of the leading tenets of Tolstoyism: celibacy. He's more worried about the mission Chertkov has given him: to spy on Tolstoy and report back. Like Tolstoy himself, his solution is to obfuscate. He begins a tentative friendship with Sofya, but soon adopts the majority view of her.

Interspersed in the narrative are some of the author's original poems. If it is ironic that I found myself skipping them just like I skipped Tolstoy's reflections on the nature of history in War and Peace, I'm not convinced that the irony was intentional. On the whole, I didn't feel that the poems belonged--they broke up the narrative and disturbed the fictive dream.

That reservation notwithstanding, this is a highly readable novel which gives an insight into the nature of illustriousness--and its price.

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James McAvoy was casted as Tolystoy's new secretary Valentin Bulgakov, torn between loyalty to Tolstoy, pity for Sofya, and his newly developing love for Masha (another follower of Tolstoy).

Such a strong couple

I am such a strong person. I could't sleep last night until 7 am this morning, and got up at 10 am, got some breadfast, planning to go to school for my exp. results, and then go shopping which I have to for the living. It's my probably 4th time that I can't sleep until next morning. And the reason is that I started a fight with Eric with no fresh mistakes from him. Just old things irritated me and they can make me uncontrolled any time I recalled them. Eric and I ran this fight through internet, through our webcams and microphones. How strong these two persons are!!! Life is difficult. Happiness always is short lived. And these two people just fighted through internet with no reason worth to tell!

"Academy" Awards !

I don't buy Academy Awards, especially for those of recent couple of years. You just can't tell who'll win, which is normal, which is disappointing actually. Among nominees, always the one that you think most impossible wins. I say impossible, I mean the one least eligible. I also don't buy nominees. You have the one gorgeous, you have the one you don't know what made him/her nominated either? So many gorgeous actors/actresses show their greatest dignity celebrating winners which is touching and admirable, which makes Academy Awards still a good show to be expected. Take these:

Best actor in leading role at 79th Academy, Forest Whitaker, a good actor I can tell, but I just thought him as a supporting role when I watched the movie. He is good, but not best, neither greater than another actor in the movie, James Mcavoy, a leading role too, and not even a nomination for him, nor better than other nominees at 79th.

Best actress nominee in leading role at 80th Academy, Keira Knightley. Her act was just not bad. The only reason she was nominated should be that she was acting in a wonderful movie. It is the movie that bought the votes, and she was the beneficiary. And meanwhile, the leading actor in the movie didn't deserve a nomination, again, James Mcavoy, actor from Scotland. And most people watched the movied were just moved by the acting of his, brilliant, talented performance.

I say these not because I am a fan of James. If you enjoyed the movies you feel the same.

Here are pictures from 79th Academy. James's celebrating his co-star's winning, supporting with tears.

don't miss any contact with your baby

Bryssa is on her lastday in Shanghai now, but she's not got a chance yet meeting her mommy through internet during her three-days visiting. They both missed every appointment blaming such-and-such reasons. Bryssa utters 'mama..' to the photo in the minitor of the computer and the mommy just missed the schedule everytime due to the time difference of two countries and the blamed biologi-clock of her. The litter cutie has a lovely and unchangeable timetable of play & rest. No one want a even least confusion to that. So, please, the trouble-causer, the mommy, adjust your shedule, and wait for your baby from this time on, don't miss any contact with her again.

don't let youself down

All of a sudden, you will be beaten by a fact you just recalled, that you reacted as a fool once, even in front of someone no need to care about. Then the worse coming, not the fact that was important, but WAS the hopeless fool thing you were keep doing. You never stop giving yourself reflection, thinking and hope. But barriers are there, everywhere...... You can't help on your own. Perhalps it's still an excuse what just make you dumped. Time will change nothing unless you enrich it with... what?.... tries?... struggles?

Love this library

Can you believe it? I found novel version of 'Atonement', by Ian McEwan, and biography-style writing of 'Becoming Jane Austen', from University Library. I just love this university. I began reading right after I borrowed them. All feelings about reading old-style, neat-pages book sweep me off. I just enjoy the feelings, forgetting who I am, what I am doing and what I must to do next. Movies, novels, and peace are what I want now in myfelf life.