Women Affairs

Not only did he tell tabloids she was a sex addict, but Lindsay Lohan’s ex boyfriend is now selling very private photos of the young actress. Trusting a partner with naughty photos is hard enough, but for celebrities, it could dramatically affect their public image if the photos are leaked. Lindsay Lohan is the latest celebrity to be betrayed by an ex, scandalous photos of her making their way into the hands of strangers thanks to Riley Giles (in the gallery), the guy she hooked up in rehab. “Lindsay’s definitely a nymphomaniac,” Giles told the tabloids. “She’s wild in bed. We’d have sex a couple of times in the day and then go to it through the night. “We once did it four times in a row straight. That was crazy. Lindsay was insatiable. She’d demand sex again and again. We’d go at it for hours. She’d have worn out most guys. “I couldn’t believe I was looking down at Lindsay Lohan naked. We’d barely gotten through the door when we just ripped each other’s clothes off. Lindsay is so hot....

From tattooed wild woman to humanitarian heroine - what a difference a few years has made for Angelina Jolie, who topped a Reuters poll, released yesterday, of the best celebrity humanitarians of 2007. Hollywood star Jolie commanded the greatest public respect of all celebrity public do-gooders this year due to her work as a UN goodwill ambassador and her efforts to raise awareness of suffering in Africa. But the poll by humanitarian website Reuters AlertNet found not all do-gooders fared so well, with fellow adoptive mother Madonna voted the least respected celebrity altruist of 2007, despite raising millions for orphans in Malawi. Bob Geldof also struggled for support. Madonna's image was hit by claims she used her fame and wealth to circumvent Malawian adoption rules. "People aren't stupid," said Peter Walker, director of the Feinstein International Famine Center at Tufts University. "They can really sense when it's just an endorsement and when somebody re...

Fifteen-year-old Hadjo Garbo's child-like features belie a history more tragic and life-altering than many adults four times her age will have experienced. Two years ago this petite girl, who likes to fiddle with her elaborately braided hair and once dreamed of being a housewife, was married to one of the older men in her village in the Dosso region of southwest Niger. She was just 13 years old. The marriage was consummated, and by 14 she was pregnant with her first child. But before her 15th birthday she had lost the baby - and her 42 years old husband. Hadjo's anatomy proved unready for the task of delivering a baby and after an excruciating three-day labour, the unborn foetus was cut out of her, stillborn. The horrific labour left the girl with what gynaecologists call an obstetric fistula, a tearing of the tissue that develops when blood supply to the tissues of the vagina and bladder and/or rectum is cut off during prolonged obstructed labour. The condition mostly affects ...

Staring into those big brown eyes for nine months, it is easy to see how Nicole Kidman had her heart stolen by 11-year-old Brandon Walters. Brandon is a young actor from Broome who was plucked from obscurity to play what has been described as the most pivotal role in Baz Luhrmann's epic $100 million blockbuster Australia . As filming entered its final stages at Fox Studios last week he told Luhrmann he would miss making movies. And it is no secret Kidman will miss Brandon, too. Details of his character, Nullah, are scant, but PS understands Nullah lives on the outback cattle property of Kidman's character, Lady Sarah Ashley, and becomes a central figure in the relationship between Lady Ashley and a local drover (Hugh Jackman). Lady Ashley takes a maternal role in the boy's life. Evidently Kidman and Brandon have established a relationship similar to the one on screen, with visitors to the set revealing the Oscar winner and the young actor have developed a sign language ...

It's a queer business, but showbiz circles are abuzz with rumours troubled pop star Britney Spears is planning to marry again. The groom-to-be is reported by American celebrity magazine Staras Sam Lufti. Lufti is variously described as her "personal assistant", "manager" and "close friend and confidant". The tabloid-style magazine reports that Spears recently shouted: "I'm eloping with Sam" in a tete-a-tete with her ex-husband Kevin Federline. The magazine reports a "source close to Britney' saying "Britney is completely under Sam's spell". "It's not like she hasn't eloped before. She pays for his food, his bar and restaurant tabs and his clothing," the source reportedly said. "They begged her to at least get a prenup, but she didn't seem to be listening." There is a high degree of scepticism about the claims, however, even among the tabloids. Website gaysocliates.com is claiming ...

Kate Hudson has spoken about her ex-lover Owen Wilson for the first time. The actress, who began dating Owen last year after they met on the set of You, Me and Dupree but split in June, said she will always love Owen and hopes he is happier following his failed suicide attempt. She said: "Owen is such a lovely person, and I love him dearly. And I wish him beautiful things - health and everything that he desires in life." Kate, 28, also revealed her marriage to rocker Chris Robinson began to falter after their three-year-old son Ryder was born. The actress, who split from Chris in 2006 after six years, admitted her divorce was the most "painful" thing she has ever gone through. She told Vogue magazine: "We had Ryder, and we both sort of looked at each other and went, 'Something's off.' "The divorce was the most difficult thing I've ever done in my life. The process of discovering with somebody that you love that you don't work is so pain...

Rihanna has denied she is dating Josh Hartnett, despite recently gushing about him. The Umbrella singer has been seen partying with the handsome actor on several occasions, but insists they're just good friends. She told Allure magazine: "This is what really happened. He and my management, they have each other's contact information. I went to the New York club Pink Elephant, and he came by. All of a sudden, the next day, I'm seeing that we were kissing and hugging up each other. "You can't even go out with a friend who's a celebrity and have a good time without people making stuff up. "Well, at least he's good-looking, right?" It seems Rihanna has had a change of heart regarding her relationship with Josh. She recently said: "I would be lying if I told you we were not more than just friends. I have so fallen for him, he is lovely. He is so hot and he is really sweet to me. When we hang out it feels right - even though it's still pret...

Britney Spears 16-year-old sister Jamie Lynn is pregnant. I've heard of keeping things in the family, but this is ridiculous. In an interview with OK! magazine due out tomorrow, Jamie Lynn confirms she is pregnant. If it wasn't so tragic, it would be hilarious. A source tells TMZ that Jamie Lynn gave OK! an exclusive interview and goes on the record to state that she is indeed with child. She also names the baby's father, who she has been dating and living with for some time, as Britney's former love, Casey Aldridge. The teenager, who stars in Nickelodeon's Zoey 101 plans to keep the baby. Nickelodeon issued the following statement: "We respect Jamie Lynn's decision to take responsibility in this sensitive and personal situation. We know this is a very difficult time for her and her family, and our primary concern right now is for Jamie Lynn's well being." Bang goes another Spears sister that's destined to dream her dreams through a sea of pr...

Cormac Mac Ruairi A woman in dark robes places a prayer mat on the floor and she begins to pray to Allah. She is surrendering to her God and Allah's wishes as expressed in the holy Koran. When the camera moves closer, we see all is not as it first appears: her garments are transparent and her breasts are clearly visible. The Koran forbids all Muslims — men and women — to show themselves naked in public. And though it is probably not strictly banned, we can only imagine the quotes from the Koran written in calligraphy on her body must also breach the spirit of Islamic religious law. The depicted texts from the Koran deal with the perscribed punishments for women who "misbehave". As the film continues, we hear four tragic stories of women being forced into arranged marriages, being whipped, beaten and raped. We see images of backs marked by a whip and a woman's face reduced to a bloody pulp by her man's fists. All the time these women, we are told, are meant to surr...

Soumaya Ghannoushi It seems that Muslim women - particularly those living in western capitals- are destined to remain besieged by two debilitating discourses, which though different in appearance, are one in essence. The first of these is conservative and exclusionist, sentencing Muslim women to a life of childbearing and rearing, lived out in the narrow confines of their homes at the mercy of fathers, brothers, and husbands. Revolving around notions of sexual purity and family honour, it appeals to religion for justification and legitimization. The other is a "liberation" discourse that vows to break Muslim woman's bondage and free her of the oppressive yoke of an aggressive, patriarchal, and backward society. She is a mass of powerlessness and enslavement; the embodiment of seclusion, silence, and invisibility. Her only hope of deliverance from the cave of veiling and isolation lies in the benevolent intervention of this force of emancipation. It will save her from her ...

Helen Barlow Ever since her debut as a femme fatale in Bernardo Bertolucci's The Dreamers, a film that had red-blooded men watching an art movie for the first time in their lives, Eva Green has been immortalised on the internet as one of the sexiest, shapeliest screen stars since Greta Garbo. Yet for the 27-year-old French actor, whose actor mother was part of the French New Wave, the idea of being known for her hourglass figure was far from desirable. "I'm not going on the internet any more," she protests in her posh-sounding British accent, a hangover of perfecting her English to appear in Casino Royale. "I went on the net two years ago, and I saw some very nasty things and it's scary. People warned me that this was going to happen, but even then seeing shots of me being completely naked or just parts of me was just horrible. So much of it's taken out of context." Green is not the most forthcoming of interviewees and given her regal stature she cou...

Jano Gibson and Andrew Hornery After the loud claps of thunder and torrential rain came the screams. "Nicole! Nicole! Nicole!" yelled photographers and fans lining the red carpet at last night's Australian premiere of the fantasy adventure film The Golden Compass at the State Theatre. "It's nice to be able to show up and just say thank you to the fans, and also thank you to the country actually," said Nicole Kidman, who plays the glamorous but sinister scholar Marisa Coulter in the movie adaptation of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. Dressed in body-hugging, shiny silver pants and jacket, and holding an umbrella, Kidman signed autographs for some of the hundreds of fans who turned out in the rain with traffic closed on Market Street and Pitt Street. Kidman revealed she was drawn to playing the role after receiving a personal appeal from Pullman. "[He] wrote me an amazing letter telling me that when he was writing the novels he had me in ...

Celine Dion called it a wrap at Caesars Palace, acknowledging in her final show that pregnancy and poor early reviews almost sank her titanic five-year engagement. As adoring fans cheered, stood and clapped through last night's performance, Dion interspersed her usual numbers with emotion-filled monologues. "At one point, it was like feeling like the Titanic was about to sink again," she said. "But we believed and we went on with it. Even though the vibe was not that positive for us." While the show was still in development in 2000, Dion, 39, became pregnant and told husband-manager Rene Angelil she did not want to continue. "I had a life for the first time," the French-Canadian chanteuse said in a video before her 717th show. "I knew then that I wanted to have more success as a mother than a singer." But Angelil told her that too much money and too many people were involved. Not only would the Colosseum theatre where the show was planned cos...

Pop princess Kylie Minogue has denied reports she plans to adopt an Aboriginal child, but says she would like to have a family of her own "some day". Minogue, 39, who has successfully resumed her pop career after beating breast cancer, told Madison magazine's January edition she believed the incorrect reports of her adoption plans originated with the United Kingdom's News of the World. "There's so much noise and waffle about me and my future family," she told the magazine, which is on sale tomorrow. "But if asked if I'd like to have a family I say, yes, I would love to some day. "We'll see if and how that might happen." Minogue, who recently released her first new studio album in four years and the 10th album of her career, X, said some of the songs on it reflected her recent health battle, but mostly it was more light-hearted. "I just want to sing about the disco, which might seem flippant, but it would have been wrong to hav...

Cate Blanchett will get two shots at an award and Russell Crowe stars in a movie in line for best film when the Golden Globes are handed out next month. Blanchett has been nominated for best actress for her reprisal role as England's virgin queen in Elizabeth: The Golden Age, and is in line for a best supporting actress award for playing Bob Dylan in Todd Haynes' I'm Not There. American Gangster, co-starring Crowe, is in the running for best film and a Golden Globe best actor award for star Denzel Washington. Two movies set against different wars, Atonement and Charlie Wilson's War, dominate the nominations, with Atonement earning seven nods including best drama. Experts said the Golden Globe nominations did little to define leaders in the Oscar race. Still, there were clear winners such as drama Atonement, comedy Charlie Wilson's War and musical Sweeney Todd, and one chief loser, Into the Wild. David Poland of website Movie City News was pointed when asked what the...

A top jeweler says Dodi Fayed told him he and Diana, Princess of Wales, were getting engaged weeks before their deaths. Alberto Repossi also says American spies would have known about the imminent announcement because they were bugging Dodi's calls. Repossi, who has a shop opposite the Ritz Hotel in Paris owned by Dodi's father Mohamed Al Fayed, says Dodi made the revelation in a telephone call to discuss resizing a ring he had ordered. He says he received a call from Dodi who told him he needed this ring for the end of August because their engagement would be announced at the beginning of September. Repossi claims to have subsequently met the couple secretly in a hotel in St Tropez in the south of France to show them the ring and other jewellery which he thought the princess might be interested in. But in evidence to Diana's inquest by video link from Paris, Repossi said he could not remember which hotel it was. He says he didn't tell Scotland Yard investigators ...

Cindy Shiner Preliminary findings of a new study by the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and Columbia University may have given relief workers the evidence they say they need to focus greater attention on the problem of sexual violence in Liberia. Violence against women and girls, they say, has potentially far-reaching consequences on education, health and development in Liberia as it struggles to recover from 14 years of civil war. "One of the biggest or more common excuses that we hear [from governments and donors] when we try to bring up the issue of violence against women and girls is 'Show us the numbers if you say this is such a big problem,'" said Heidi Lehmann, senior technical advisor on gender-based violence for the IRC. Now, she said, the agency has the figures to back up what it has known through its work in Liberia for several years. The study, which surveyed 600 women and girls in eastern Nimba and central Montserrado counties, revealed communities r...

Nicole Kidman has taken another step up the celebrity ladder with the unveiling of her very own wax work at Madame Tussauds. Draped in a glamorous floor-length red gown, Kidman's wax work has taken its place at the world-famous museum alongside models of fellow Hollywood A-list celebrities including Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. Despite her long career as an actress, it is the first time the museum has created a Kidman wax work. Designers spent about three months creating the figure, unveiled overnight in London, based on thousands of photographs of the Australian actress. "Nicole is wearing a stunning floor-length red dress which really emphasises her flawless beauty and grace, idolised by so many women around the world," Madame Tussauds spokesman Ben Lovett said. "There's no mistaking that she is a hugely popular global celebrity and we are delighted to be unveiling her." Kidman's latest film, The Golden Compass, opens in Australia on December 26. On l...

Hollywood star Brad Pitt has told American television he wants more children with his partner Angelina Jolie. "We're just getting started," he said in an interview on CNN's Larry King Live that aired last night in the US. The 43-year-old star of such movies as Babel and Ocean's Eleven described Jolie as "a fantastic mother" to their four children - Maddox, six; Pax, four; Zahara, two; and Shiloh, one, adding that while parenthood is "the hardest job in the world", "it is everything" to him. Pitt said in the interview that acting was becoming less important to him and that he would like to spend his time on other pursuits. "It's become less and less a focus as I get older," he said. "I think it's really more of a younger man, younger woman's game." He said he didn't intend to give up acting - "I'd like to drop in if I'm still invited every few years or so" - but added, "It take...

Victoria Beckham goes to bed naked. And she's got a very good reason - her husband. "You don't sleep with David Beckham," the 33-year-old Posh Spice tells Elle magazine in its January issue, on newsstands on Tuesday. "I'm going to be naked if I'm getting in bed with him every night!" The Beckhams and their three young sons moved to Los Angeles this summer when her soccer-superstar husband signed to play with the Los Angeles Galaxy. "I'm very proud to be British, but here it's a lot more relaxed," she says. "It's the happiest as a family that we've ever been. I just love America." She is now on tour with the newly reunited Spice Girls. "I wanted my children to see that Mummy was a pop star," she says. "It was the last opportunity for them to stand in a crowd full of people screaming for the Spice Girls." Beckham says she was never a "natural". "It became very obvious from the start...

A Kylie Minogue fan has outed herself as the spy who dobbed in a Wellington strip club using Minogue's image to the pop star's management team. Melanie Wise, 29, said she took a photograph of a promotional poster, featuring Minogue in a saturated white T-shirt four years before the star had a partial mastectomy, in the window of Santa Fe Dreamgirls strip club in February. Her husband said Miss Wise went "apoplectic" when they saw the poster, immediately recognising the sultry shot as a promotional image from 2001's Fever album. Miss Wise, a devout Minogue fan since the 1980s, sent the photograph to record company executives acting for the star in Auckland. "It was just so offensive to me," she said, acknowledging she was protective of the star who battled breast cancer throughout 2005 and 2006. "It was just so obvious and so blatant." It took nine months, but this week Santa Fe Dreamgirls owner Garth Rosson received a letter from Minogue's ...

One of Ireland's leading models has died days after collapsing at a party, sparking claims the country is in the grip of a growing drug crisis. Police have confirmed they are investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of model and celebrity Katy French, 24, who failed to emerge from a coma after falling ill at a friend's house party at the weekend. Ms French's collapse led to widespread claims she had been taking cocaine at the party. Despite huge media interest this week in Ms French's condition, family, friends and health officials refused to discuss the cause of her sudden illness. The model had admitted in media interviews to taking cocaine in the past but had since given up the drug and had warned others of its dangers. Irish police confirmed officers were making preliminary inquiries into the circumstances around Ms French's illness. In a statement. Ms French's family said: "We have been overwhelmed by the letters, blessings, gifts and pray...

The mother of newly divorced French President Nicolas Sarkozy has advised him to enjoy his pick of available women — but not to marry any of them. Speaking to a celebrity magazine, Andree Sarkozy, 82, said that her son should enjoy freedom in his personal life. She said: "You know, in his job he will be spoilt for choice. But I hope that no one will get married again. I've had enough of brides." Mr Sarkozy announced his divorce from his second wife, Cecilia, in October, just six months after he was elected. Since then he has been linked with a number of glamorous women, most recently television presenter Laurence Ferrari. "Daudou", as Mr Sarkozy calls his mother, raised him and his two brothers after her husband walked out. Of her former daughter-in-law, Mrs Sarkozy said: "We had a good relationship without being close. She is cold but she doesn't do it on purpose and she has always been nice to me." Mrs Sarkozy also said that she was not close to ...

Nicole Richie didn't believe the news when she found out she was pregnant. She told US TV show Access Hollywood: "I didn't believe it. I was in shock. I took about 5 different tests!" The Simple Life star is due to give birth to her first child with fiance Joel Madden on New Year's Eve, but she isn't planning on slowing down until the very last minute. "I remember walking into the office and telling my managers, 'I think at around five or six months I'm probably going to be really tired and I'm not going to want to do a lot.' But I've been totally fine. I've been up and at them every single day and I've been ready to go. "You just have to listen to what your body tells you. But so far I've been great. I haven't slowed down yet!" Richie revealed she and Madden are waiting until the birth to find out the sex of their baby. The 26-year-old mother-to-be also explained her reasons behind setting up the Richie Madde...

Christine Sams Kylie Minogue will definitely bring her new concert tour to Australia, says a source close to the singer. Minogue, who announced some of her European tour dates during the week, will include Australian dates on the roster. When asked whether Minogue would be playing concerts here too, the well-placed insider answered with an emphatic "yes". It will be good news for Minogue fans, who were left in doubt about Minogue's touring intentions after reports surfaced from Britain that the singer had initially cancelled tour plans because of continuing health concerns. Her management responded by saying it couldn't cancel a tour it hadn't announced (fair enough). The first official details of Minogue's touring plans were revealed last week. The KylieX 2008 tour will begin in Paris on May 6 and will take in European cities including Prague, Berlin and Budapest, before finishing in Britain throughout July. The singer will perform songs from her new album X,...

There are three things guaranteed to sell a story in the world of celebrity gossip: birth, death and incarceration. This year's hot list of limelight hogs queued up to face arrest ( Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, Nicole Richie, Amy Winehouse), get knocked up or adopt ( Brangelina, Cate Blanchett) encounter the Grim Reaper (Anna Nicole Smith) or bounce back from a close brush ( Kylie Minogue). One thing that rarely sets tongues wagging are high achievers - with the exception of Blanchett, who reprised her queenly role in Elizabeth: The Golden Age and is now on the throne of the Sydney Theatre Company, and Big Brother reject Krystal Forscutt, now queen of the lads' mags. Any media studies textbook will tell you that tragedy sells, says University of Sydney media and communications lecturer Marc Brennan. "Additionally, it is often when tragedies impact on celebrities that they are perceived as being all the more human - more like us," he says. Measuring the...

Shelly Horton At 14 years of age, Skye Bortoli is already a seasoned anti-whaling campaigner. So much so she's writing a book about her life to inspire other young 'uns to take up the cause. In May, Skye headed a delegation of three Australian schoolgirls who flew to Alaska to speak at the International Whaling Commission. They even won an audience with IWC chairman William Hogarth. "It's a diary scrapbook format aimed at eight- to 13-year-olds," she says. "It's not just about whales - the book will also look at her life. "Mum raised me as a single parent. My father is Aboriginal - I still haven't met him but there's just some things you don't need in life. "Mum and I are really close. I've had to get through a few illnesses but it's all made me who I am today. And I love being the person I am today." She says going whale watching made her realise she needed to come to terms with her heritage. "I've met Aborigin...