The Malaysian Insider :: Showbiz
The Malaysian Insider :: Showbiz |
| Bird droppings, bull testicles among pre-Oscar beauty treatments Posted: 17 Feb 2013 08:17 AM PST LOS ANGELES, Feb 17 — Hollywood stars wanting to look their best for Tinseltown's biggest night of the year are being offered beauty treatments ranging from the lavish to plain loony such as US$250,000 black diamond nail varnish and bird excrement facials. The Academy Awards on February 24 are almost as much about fashion as they are about films, with the televised red carpet arrivals and ceremony drawing an estimated audience of one billion people worldwide. It's a night when women — and men — spare no expense to out-dazzle other Oscar-goers, and ends a two-month run of awards shows to reward the top stars and films of the previous year. "It's the grand finale to the awards show season so celebrities pull out all the stops when it comes to fashion and beauty," said style expert Sam Saboura, a fashion host on the cable channel TLC. "They're willing to go to any extreme to perfect their look and make a statement on the red carpet." In the past, the ever-youthful actress Demi Moore, 50, has admitted to having leeches put on her skin to detoxify her blood. Gwyneth Paltrow once arrived at a premiere with her back covered with circular bruises from "cupping", a kind of acupuncture said to encourage blood flow and ease stress. Angelina Jolie told Vanity Fair in 2011 that her sons Maddox and Pax had pedicures in which fish "eat the dead skin off your feet" while music impresario Simon Cowell was reported to carry pocket-sized inhalable oxygen shots to maintain his looks. This year, there's a twist on the long-practised use of injectable dermal fillers to smooth facial creases and plump up the skin. Enter the Vampire FaceLift, which mixes filler with the patient's own blood. Blood and bird droppings Plastic surgeon Paul Nassif, who offers the service in his Beverly Hills office, says this process involves removing a tube of blood from the patient, isolating certain components and then mixing it with a dermal filler to inject back into the skin. "It's a one-two punch," Nassif told Reuters. "You get an immediate response from the filler, and the long-terms benefits is new collagen formation, natural volume and healthier skin."  A bottle of nail polish by Azature, containing small, full cut diamonds, shown in this handout photo released by Azature to Reuters February 17, 2013. — Reuters handout pic The droppings, which salon owner Shizuka Bernstein imports from Japan, are said to contain natural enzymes that exfoliate the skin. "There are so many drastic options to exfoliating the skin like chemical peels and microdermabrasion," Bernstein told Reuters. "But if you want a more natural approach, this will give you great results as well. Dead skin is removed, skin tone is brighter and you're left with a radiant look." When it comes to hair, Santa Monica-based The Broot, an all-natural hair treatment bar, has a secret not-on-the menu ingredient — bull testicles. Owner Samira Asemanfar said her Persian family had used them for generations, boiling testicles bought from a local butcher to extract a broth of protein and hormones that's added to treatments to strengthen and repair hair. "Clients have told us their hair felt thicker, more repaired, more fortified. One client said her hair grew faster," said Asemanfar. Beauty on loan It's no secret that designer gowns and jewels are often borrowed for the red carpet. These days, many designers have some last-minute tricks for looking taller and slimmer for the thousands of photographers and TV crews at the Oscars who transmit images around the world within minutes. Hong Kong-based shoe company iiJin has an invisible wedge inside every pair of its shoes, giving wearers an extra 5-12 cm in height depending on the style. Dresses from NUE by designer Shani Grosz all come with built-in compression fabric to make the wearer look a size smaller, reducing the need for figure-hugging, slimming under garments. Accessories can make any outfit but bling from New York company Fonderie 47 adds more than sparkle. The company melts down steel from assault rifles seized in African war zones and partners with designers to make earrings, necklaces, and watches. Fonderie 47 founder Peter Thum said the company had destroyed more than 25,000 assault rifles since 2010, with each piece of jewellery imprinted with the serial number of the gun it came from. If expense is not an issue, another way to stand out on the red carpet is to arrive with a manicured set of nails containing 267 carats of black diamonds. Los Angeles' luxury jewellery designer Azature Pogosian, who goes by the single name Azature, has created a black nail polish containing small, full cut diamonds that he said "add a three dimensional sparkle" when applied on the nail. Only one bottle exists, on sale at London's Selfridges department store for US$250,000 since last November. But Azature keeps samples for A-list celebrities, such as Britney Spears, who wore it in a fragrance advert, and Kelly Osbourne, who wore it to last year's Emmy Awards. "It makes women feel incredible," Azature told Reuters. "There is nothing wrong with making someone feel beautiful. We're not spending money on wars. We're not hurting anyone. We make a woman feel like a queen." — Reuters |
| Romanian cinema triumphs again with top Berlin award Posted: 17 Feb 2013 12:33 AM PST BERLIN, Feb 17 — Romania claimed another major scalp on the European film festival circuit this weekend when "Child's Pose" won the Golden Bear in Berlin, underlining the country's emergence as a powerhouse of hard-hitting cinema in the post-Communist era. The film, directed by Calin Peter Netzer, tells the story of Cornelia, an obsessive mother who uses every trick in the book to prevent her son from going to jail after he kills a boy in a car accident. It is the latest in a long list of critical hits that have enjoyed startling success at festivals such as Berlin and Cannes in recent years, bringing Romania's cinema to a wider audience. Some of Romania's top directors, who have enjoyed the artistic freedom that flourished after the death of Communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu in 1989, dismiss talk of a cinematic "new wave", saying it lumps together very different styles and stories. But ever since Cristi Puiu's "The Death of Mr. Lazarescu" hit Cannes in 2005, and two years later his compatriot Cristian Mungiu won the coveted Palme d'Or there for the harrowing abortion drama "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days", Romanian cinema has been firmly on the map. "It is an acknowledgement, I think, that Romanian cinema is still producing good quality cinema and has been for a few years and it is a good endowment that it is still like this," Netzer told Reuters after receiving the Golden Bear for best film. Unflinching storytelling While each film differs, there is a common thread of unflinching storytelling and compelling human drama often laid out against the backdrop of a cold and uncaring society.  Director Calin Peter Netzer and producer Ada Solomon with the Golden Bear award for their "Pozitia Copilului" (Child's Pose). — Reuters pic "I think basically this is about a relationship, a kind of pathological relationship between mother and son," he told reporters in Berlin after the closing ceremony late on Saturday. "The rest — the corruption, the framework, the context — all of that is on a separate level and is really only a backdrop." Victory in Berlin is likely to give the movie a major boost in terms of distribution in Romania and beyond, although some critics wondered whether the alienating figures of both mother and son might limit its appeal. "There's an instant bond the audience has with the two young women in '4 Months...' which we are deliberately not supposed to have in 'Child's Pose'," said Jay Weissberg, critic at trade publication Variety. "The mother is a monstrous figure and her son is even worse." However he, like many others, was impressed by Luminita Gheorghiu's portrayal of Cornelia, one of several standout performances in Berlin-nominated films by mature actresses making the most of the kind of parts rarely written in Hollywood. Paulina Garcia was the popular winner of the best actress Silver Bear for her turn in Chilean film "Gloria", in which she plays a 58-year-old divorcee who sets out to live life to the full despite her setbacks. "We all face crossroads in our lives where we can retreat into ourselves or we can hit the dance floor," said "Gloria" director Sebastian Lelio of his character. The biggest surprise at the Berlin awards ceremony was the best actor prize going to Nazif Mujic, a Bosnian Roma who had never acted before and had to be talked into playing himself in a drama based on his real-life ordeal. "An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker", made for just €30,000 (RM123,470), tells the story of how Bosnian hospitals refused to operate on his wife after she miscarried because she was not insured, despite the fact that her life was in danger. Best director went to US filmmaker David Gordon Green for his quirky road movie "Prince Avalanche", and Iranian entry "Closed Curtain" picked up the best script prize for directors Kamboziya Partovi and Jafar Panahi. Panahi made the movie in secret in defiance of a 20-year ban on filmmaking, and was not allowed to travel to Berlin to collect his award. "Tradition and culture remain, politicians come and go," Partovi told reporters after receiving the honour. — Reuters |
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