Nicki Minaj’s former stylist seeks $30million in wig dispute

Terrence Davidson, celebrity wig designer, files first-ever intellectual property dispute over wigs.

ATLANTA: A celebrity hair stylist has accused rapper and former American Idol judge Nicki Minaj of stealing his designs for the colorful wigs that helped boost her career, according to a federal lawsuit filed on Friday seeking $30million in compensation.

Terrence Davidson, whose celebrity clients include singers Patti LaBelle and Jennifer Hudson, began working for Minaj in 2010 and designed her wigs for high profile events worldwide, the suit filed in Atlanta said.

The rapper also wore Davidson-designed wigs in a music video for the song Super Bass, according to the lawsuit. One of Minaj’s best known wigs is called the Pink Upper Bun.

Davidson, 41, said he and Minaj’s staff discussed a joint business venture that would include selling wigs and creating a reality television show about a celebrity wig stylist.

But the performer and her representatives in 2012 “took active steps to isolate Mr Davidson and preclude him from the notoriety he deserved for his wig designs,” the lawsuit said.

Davidson stopped working for Minaj more than a year ago, and now the pop star is copying his wig designs and selling them online, he alleged.

Minaj “took a number of his popular wig designs, without his consent, and used them to start her own wig line,” said the lawsuit.

Davidson’s representatives claim it is the first-ever intellectual property dispute over wigs.

A spokesperson for Minaj could not immediately be reached for comment.

Minaj, who also is known for her extravagant stage performances, won the American Music Awards’ Favourite Rap/Hip hop Artist and Rap/Hip hop Album of the Year for Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded in 2012.

New ad, new designer, new movie — Bebo is all set to conquer B-Town

Kareena Kapoor takes on new challenges and tries on a different look while she’s at it. PHOTO: FILE

MUMBAI: Bollywood actor Kareena Kapoor was thrilled to work with an international crew, who has shot ads with the likes of Eva Mendes and Eva Longoria, as part of an ad campaign for ice cream brand Magnum.

The actor shot her ad on Sunday in Mumbai and the entire team was flown in from New York in order to ensure that the ad met international standards.

To make Kareena look her international best, young designer Tanya Ghavri — who has been working sartorial miracles on Sonam Kapoor and Ilena d’Cruz — was roped in to do her look for the ad.

Taking a break from the very stylish ad-shoot, Kareena said, “It’s amazing to work with international brands and teams. Yes, I am shooting an ad with the crew that did the ads for Eva Mendes and Eva Longoria. Their style of working is very different from our own very talented ad-makers.”

About not having her favourite designer Manish Malhotra on board, Kareena said, “Manish is family. There is no question of replacing him. I just wanted to try another stylist for this ad. We all need to work with different people, experience new strains of creativity. Or we stagnate. And for me, stagnation is death.”

Talking about her Bollywood projects, the actress who has now washed her hands of Karan Johar’s Shuddhi, is getting ready to shoot Dev Benegal’s Bombay Samurai in May.

The film also features Farhan Akhtar and they both go into intense training to look fighting fit for Benegal’s film.

Kareena will again be seen shedding kilos after her very popular weight loss for the filmTashan in 2008.

“Not size zero, God forbid! But I need to look leaner especially since my co-star is one of the most sinewy guys in our cinema,” laughs Kareena.

Affleck not scary enough for Batman: Seth Green

Actor Ben Affleck. PHOTO: AFP

LOS ANGELES: It seems Seth Green is not pleased with the idea of Ben Affleck playing Batman in Superman-Batman, a sequel to Man of Steel. He says the actor is not “scary” enough to play the Caped Crusader.

The 40-year-old insisted that Affleck going head-to-head with Superman Henry Cavill in the upcoming film will not be convincing.

According to contactmusic.com, Green said in an interview: “You’ve got to remember that at the core of that character, Batman’s a crazy person. Batman has no powers. Batman is a rich, screwed-up kid whose parents were killed in front of him, who with his money and insanity decided to become a vigilante symbol to combat darkness.”

“If this movie is meant to be the idealistic alien, humans-before-all-else Superman, and this is supposed to be the grizzled, weathered Batman who’s been living in Gotham, fighting crime himself for 10 years, you need a guy who’s older. You need a guy who’s got more weight. And you need a guy that a Henry Cavill Superman is gonna be actually scared of,” he added.

Hollywood is still a leading man’s playing field

Angelina Jolie was the top earning female actor in 2013, after taking home a pay packet of $33 million. Whereas, the highest-earning man, Robert Downey Jr made $75 million. PHOTO: FILE

Hollywood may like to boast its liberal ideals, but it is still a man’s world, shows a recent study. Not only are women dramatically under-represented, but even the most successful female stars are paid significantly less than men. Last year, of the ten biggest payments to actors per film, not one went to a woman, according to a research, reported Mail Online.

Angelina Jolie was the top-earning female actor in 2013 with $33 million, according to figures used in a report compiled by the Women’s Media Center, but her seemingly to-die-for pay-check was only just big enough to put her on par with the lowest-earning male actor, Denzel Washington.

Jolie’s pay packet of $33 million was dwarfed by the highest-earning man — Robert Downey Jr, who earned $75 million. Liam Neeson was the 10th highest-paid male star, with a pay packet of $31.5 million, allowing just enough room for Jolie to make it to the list. However, Jolie is the only one other than Denzel Washington to have won an Oscar out of all the other male counterparts.

The ubiquitous Channing Tatum trailed RDJ last year with $60 million, while Hugh Jackman was next with $55 million, followed by Mark Wahlberg, with $51 million. Dwayne Johnson secured the sixth place on the list making about $46 million, which came as no surprise, as his box office was bigger than Downey’s last year — he was ahead of Leonardo DiCaprio, Adam Sandler, Tom Cruise, Denzel Washington and Liam Neeson.

As for the ladies who also made what can still be considered a very good 2013, Jennifer Lawrence was second to Jolie with $26 million. Kristen Stewart ($21.5 million), Jennifer Aniston ($20 million) and Emma Stone ($16 million) rounded out the top five, reported E! Online.

The cast of the Fantastic Four reboot revealed

It appears the Fantastic Four reboot has finally found its four. PHOTO: FILE

The cast of the highly anticipated reboot of the Fantastic Four film franchise has been announced! According to The Guardian, the film is expected to star Kate Mara (House of Cards’ Zoe Barnes) as the Invisible Woman, Michael B. Jordan (The Wire’s Wallace) as the Human Torch, Miles Teller (Divergent) as Mr. Fantastic, and Jamie Bell (Jumper) as the Thing.

While none of the names are quite as high profile as the actors we’ve seen in other upcoming superhero flicks, Mara is still a particularly high-profile, coming off of House of Cards, where she alternately plays both partner and foil to Kevin Spacey’s manipulative Frank Underwood. Jordan too is coming off of an acclaimed film, Fruitvale Station, for which he has received a number of best-acting-award nominations. Variety reports that both Mara and Jordan have final deals in place for their roles. Deals for Teller and Bell are reportedly still in the works.

The director Josh Trank is set to direct Fantastic Four as his sophomore offering. His first sci-fi film, Chronicle (2012), also starring Jordan, was an inventive found-footage take on the superhero movie. He recently went on Twitter to debunk a purported synopsis of the film that was circulating online, later telling a blog that, “The only truth in that plot description is that there are four characters named Reed, Ben, Sue and Johnny”, referring to the characters’ human names in the comic book.

The Fantastic Four reboot will be a contemporary take on the comic book and will focus on the characters as young men and women. The Fantastic Four will hit theatres on June 19, 2015.

Saudi executes 10th convict this year

The kingdom beheaded 78 people in 2013. PHOTO: FILE

RIYADH: A Saudi citizen convicted of murder was beheaded on Sunday, the interior ministry announced, bringing the number of executions in the kingdom this year to 10.

Salem al-Jahdali beat fellow tribesman Abdullah al-Jahdali to death following a dispute, the ministry said in a statement published by the official SPA news agency.

The execution took place in the holy western city of Mecca.

The kingdom beheaded 78 people in 2013, according to an AFP count.

Last year, the UN High Commission for Human Rights denounced a “sharp increase in the use of capital punishment” since 2011 in Saudi Arabia.

According to figures from Amnesty International, the number of executions in the country rose from 27 in 2010, of whom five were foreigners, to 82 in 2011, including 28 foreigners.

In 2012, the number of executions slipped slightly to 79 people, among them 27 foreigners.

Rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking are all punishable by death under Saudi Arabia’s strict law.

If you are a jihadi, the place to be is Syria, says Vali Nasr

Rebel fighters sit on top of a tank as they head to the front line of battles against Syrian pro-government forces, near the city of Hama, on February 18, 2014. PHOTO: AFP

“Iran is the only country in the Middle East to have survived the overhaul of the Arab Spring… the rest of the power centres have collapsed. Iran [now] stands the most stable of them all,” author Vali Nasr said on Saturday. He was speaking at a session titled Fault Lines Across the Middle East.

Nasr said despite the many sanctions, Iran was still capable of fighting a war. “Even the US government had decided to end its policy of isolating Iran. The country is much more powerful in the region today than was expected,” he said. The Shia-Sunni divide is the real game changer in the region, said Nasr. Shias are suppressed in Saudi Arabia and cannot publicly observe mourning or open up religious schools, he said.

“If you are a jihadi, the place to be is Syria…that is where all the money is at the moment,” he said.

Discussing Pakistan’s dependence on the Arab world, Nasr said many Pakistanis worked in Arab states. Responding to a question on whether Pakistan’s pro-Saudi stance on the situation in Syria would lead to a reaction from Iran, Nasr said, Saudi Arabia and the US wanted Assad removed because they believed he was the problem. “Iran and Russia on the other hand, believe the real problem in the region is extremism,” he said. The reason why Afghanistan has survived over the last four to five years is because Pakistan and Iran were not terribly engaged in the country.

Nasr said, “There can be no stability in Afghanistan after the US pullout unless Iran and Pakistan work towards it.”

He said Pakistan should have supported Iran on the Syrian issue…it is in Pakistan’s national interest because Iran is a rising power in the region. “Pakistan should stop depending too much on Saudi Arabia and improve its ties with India through free trade,” said Nasr.

He said the Muslim world had become “more Muslim today” than it was in Jinnah’s time.  “If you want to live according to the Shariah, who’s Shariah do you want to follow? Saudi Arabia doesn’t accept Shia law as legitimate Islamic law.” Nasr said the US did not believe any longer that the Arab world was so important that it should intervene there.