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MOSCOW (Reuters) - A member of the Russian punk group Pussy Riot who went on hunger strike in jail last week after being barred from a parole hearing was hospitalised on Tuesday, the husband of another band member said.

Maria Alyokhina, 24, and two other band members were sentenced to two years in prison after they broke into Moscow's main cathedral last year to perform a profanity-laced punk song against President Vladimir Putin.

"Today the prison administration decided to put her in the hospital after being on hunger strike for a week," Pyotr Verzilov, husband of imprisoned Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, said from the prison town of Berezniki, more than 1,000km northeast of Moscow.

He said she was doing well and that she was receiving treatment alone after prison authorities had cleared out an entire wing of the prison hospital.

The prison confirmed she had been taken to hospital, with its press office being quoted by Itar Tass as saying: "Her blood pressure fell and she was given the necessary injections."

Verzilov said she had given up food and only had drunk water since the day of her parole hearing when she was denied permission to go to the courtroom and was given access only over video link. She was denied parole.

Alyokhina and her two bandmates were convicted of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred last August after a trial seen by Putin's opponents as part of a clampdown on dissent during a third term in power he began in May 2012.

The third woman jailed, Yekaterina Samutsevich, was freed last October when a judge suspended her sentence on appeal.

Western governments and entertainers including Madonna said the sentence was disproportionate but Putin, a former KGB spy who has cultivated close ties with the Russian Orthodox Church, said the state needed to protect the faithful.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - American actor Rob Lowe (pic) will portray slain U.S. President John F. Kennedy in a television movie based on a book by TV news commentator Bill O'Reilly and author Martin Dugard, the National Geographic Channel said on Tuesday.

Killing Kennedy will take the form of a "factual drama" and will premiere on National Geographic TV channel later this year to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Kennedy's assassination, the network said.

Kennedy was shot by Lee Harvey Oswald on November 22, 1963 in Dallas as the president's motorcade made its way through the Texas city.

Lowe, 49, who rose to prominence in the 1980s as an actor in such films as The Outsiders and St. Elmo's Fire, will star alongside "Mona Lisa Smile" actress Ginnifer Goodwin, who will play first lady Jacqueline Kennedy.

Gossip Girl star Michelle Trachtenberg will portray Oswald's Soviet-born wife, Marina Oswald. It will be the first Russian-speaking role for the American actress, who is fluent in the language.

The actor who will portray Oswald will be cast within the next two weeks, a network spokeswoman said.

In April, Lowe narrated the network's documentary miniseries The '80s: The Decade That Made Us.

O'Reilly and Dugard's Killing Kennedy: The End Of Camelot was published in 2012.

Making a connection: Tanya Chua and A-Yue savouring the moment during their encore together.

Despite the musical contrast, Singaporean singer Tanya Chua and Taiwanese rocker A-Yue’s double bill concert kept the fans appeased.

ONE is a sweet, singer-songwriter from Singapore with a knack for tender, melancholic ballads, and the other is a Taiwanese rock musician best known for his brand of tongue-in-cheek lyrical rock numbers.

Together, Tanya Chua (or just plain Tanya) and Chang Chen-yue (better known as A-Yue) made last Saturday’s double bill concert at Genting Highland’s Arena of Stars a memorable affair that would have satisfied not just the hardcore fans of each respective artiste, but also those who may not have been so familiar with their music.

Organised by Galaxy Music, the Tanya & A-Yue Galaxy 100 Live In Malaysia 2013 concert was a show of two halves – the first half, a relatively mellow and intimate set from the sweet and delectable Tanya, and the second half, an edgier, more upbeat set by the rocker A-Yue.

Tanya was up first, armed with an acoustic guitar for the short and sweet Yue Lai Yue Bu Dong (Don’t Know More and More), which set the mood for her mostly stripped-down set.

Dressed in a simple white shirt and pants and a pretty red hat, Tanya’s bright, yet slightly shy, demeanour and infectiously cute banter really endeared herself to the fans, and her voice was a wonderful, almost lazy drawl with just the right amount of emotion and melancholy to elevate her songs to more than just run-of-the-mill, Mando-pop balladry.

The first singalong of the night came with Tanya’s biggest hit Wu Di Dong (Bottomless Hole), which was then followed by an English song, Key To Happiness, a catchy little Jason Mraz-esque ditty. She finally closed her night with two excellent covers of Rihanna’s Umbrella and Lady Gaga’s Poker Face, and finally, the soaring Beautiful Love.

On her own, Tanya gave a wonderfully entertaining show, but it was when she started introducing her fellow concert-mate that we got a first glimpse of what might have been had the two artistes spent more time on stage together.

Singing Wo Gei De Ai (The Love I Give) together on stage for the first time, the two contrasting vocals and styles made for a fairly eclectic combination – Tanya’s bright, clear vocals harmonising uniquely with A-Yue’s gruff vocals.

Despite his subdued style of showmanship, A-Yue managed to keep the fans happy with a relatively strong set that included his biggest hits Ai Wo Bie Zhou (If you Love Me Don’t Leave), and the catchy Ai De Chu Ti Yan (First Experience Of Love).

A-Yue was at his best when he played the more upbeat and humorously tongue-in-cheek songs such as the aforementioned Ai De Chu Ti Yan, Aiyo Weiya (a song about a boy in the city who can’t find a wife) and the cheeky reggae-tinged, He Jiu (Drinking Wine).

While both artistes did well during their sets, one wished they had spent more time onstage together like they did during the encore.

During the encore, their chemistry was apparent for all to see, especially during the final song, the rocking Zi You (Freedom), which finally saw A-Yue become a lot more animated and lively. If only he had been that way throughout his set!

Still, at the end of it, it didn’t matter if you were a fan of Tanya or A-Yue, you would have enjoyed the concert anyway. I just wish it had been more of the “Tanya and A-Yue show”, instead of the “Tanya and then A-Yue show”.

Norma Bates isn’t the only mother to have pushy attitudes, leaving an everlasting effect on their children (and not in the most positive way). Here are five other mums who go just a little too far in wanting the best for their offspring.

Cersei Lannister, Game Of Thrones

Even if we can get past the fact who the father to Cersei’s son is, it’s very hard to like Joffrey. Cersei has brought up a child who is a coward, selfish, mean-spirited and just plain cruel. She also has put the idea in his head that it’s his birthright to sit on the Iron Throne. Then again, the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree, Cersei is always planning something sinister to ensure her status as a royalty. Same difference.

Bree Van De Kamp, Desperate Housewives

Although a great cook, Bree does drive her children crazy with wanting everything to be prim and proper. So much so that both the children have became psychotic, as they are unable to tell their mum all their dark secrets.

Marie Barone, Everybody Loves Raymond

Sure everybody loves Raymond Barone, but no one loves him more than his mother. Her secret weapon to getting Ray to be on her side is to cook his favourite dishes. Luckily for Ray, he married a woman who is smart enough to know a trick or two to cut down on the mollycoddling ... well, at least temporarily.

Jackie Florrick, The Good Wife

No doubt it’s thanks to his good upbringing – courtesy of the matronly Jackie Florrick – that Peter knows how to win over a crowd in his role a politician. Still, it doesn’t excuse the way she takes over from Peter’s wife Alicia, some of her duties. Worse, she is constantly meddling in her son’s personal life.

Gloria Delgado-Pritchett, Modern Family

Being supportive of your child is admirable. However, Gloria takes this just a little too far as she is unable to provide constructive criticism to her son, giving Manny a false impression of being good at everything and getting no chance to improve himself.

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Check into Bates Motel

Only Mad Men could open a new season with an episode set in sunny Hawaii and yet somehow have its lead character seem even more grim than he did in grey Manhattan.

As the critically-acclaimed show begins its sixth season, we find Don Draper (Jon Hamm) reclining on the beach with his beautiful new wife, Megan (Jessica Pare). This being Mad Men, Don is reading Dante’s Inferno.

And of course, we remember that last scene in the season five finale: Don, recently married, sitting at a bar, contemplating a beautiful woman who asks him: “Are you alone?”

The answer, which faithful viewers of the show have known all along, is yes. Don Draper is alone. Always. Even when he’s surrounded by admiring co-workers or lusty lovers. But this season seems like the one where he starts to realise it too.

With a two-hour premiere (The Doorway) that often felt like it was setting up a season-long descent into Don’s own nine circles of hell, Mad Men proceeds to show us just exactly how alone the devilishly handsome ad man is. Megan has decided to go back to work as an actress, his protégé Peggy Olson (Elizabeth Moss) is now working for their rival advertising agency, and even while sleeping with a neighbour’s wife, Don says, “I don’t want to be doing this.”

It’s a statement that is bigger than just that moment. When Don pitches an ad for a Hawaii hotel only to have the client say it appears to suggest suicide, Don may be surprised, but we aren’t. Instead, we know that this is what the show has been building up to: Don’s eventual self-destruction, whether literal or metaphorical.

Of course, the beauty of Mad Men is how, despite having a protagonist as complex as Don, the show still manages to introduce and explore a whole host of equally rich supporting characters – and while their development quite often complements happenings in Don’s life, they never feel contrived or shortchanged.

I’ve always thought of Roger Sterling (John Slattery) and Pete Campbell (Vincent Kartheiser) as different versions of the Don character – the former often seems to be Don without the darkness, while the latter is a weaker, slimier model – and so far, season six seems to be mining these parallels.

So, in the premiere, while Don struggles with issues of belonging, Roger is first shown attending therapy, and then later, losing his mother. But as Don gets progressively more closed off, Roger seems to be opening up, even having heart-to-heart conversations with his daughter and ex-wife after his mother’s funeral.

Pete, on the other hand, is almost living the worst-case scenario version of Don’s life. In the season’s next episode, Collaborators, his marriage and his affair collide after some truly reprehensible behaviour on his part. This results in his wife Trudy (the perfectly cast Alison Brie) putting him in his place in a way that you almost want to cheer for.

Peggy is struggling with her own issues of faithfulness; when a friendly conversation with her former colleague Stan (Jay R. Ferguson) alerts her to the possibility of poaching a client, her current boss Ted Chaough (Kevin Rahm) encourages her to go ahead. And on that thread, there seems to be a simmering sexual tension between her and Ted that I suspect will boil over at some point this season (though I’d take Ted over Peggy’s lacklustre boyfriend Abe any day).

Collaborators also has some of those classic Don Draper moments we love, such as when he deftly deals with boorish Jaguar distributor Herb without him even realising he’d been played. The most powerful scenes in the episode, however, were the ones involving him and his lover (and neighbour’s wife) Sylvia (Linda Cardellini). Truly, few lines can give you a glimpse into Don’s psyche like when he tells her: “You want to feel guilty, right to the point where I take your dress off.”

With the next season being touted as the show’s last, season six looks set to tear down as many of the show’s long-established structures as it can. Longtime followers will notice that the show has become progressively grimmer as seasons go by, and this season is no exception. Even the wry moments are permeated by an undercurrent of hopelessness that can sometimes make you long for the black humour of Don’s ex-wife Betty (January Jones) shooting pigeons in season one, or season three’s bloody lawnmower scene.

That said, the tone is fitting for both the characters and the era. The Swinging Sixties are coming to an end, and with that, the era of optimism in the US. The Vietnam War is already upon them, and historically, the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr isn’t very far away.

But it’s also simply that the characters’ burdens are becoming too much to bear; they’re older, more jaded, and the cracks are beginning to show. The characters’ search for their elusive happiness continues, but it is as if they are gazing at their dreams with increasingly hollow eyes.

Mad Men airs every Wednesday at midnight on FX HD (Astro Ch 726).

Norman Bates (Freddie Highmore) is cursed to never escape his mother (Vera Farmiga) in Bates Motel.

A new series pieces together the story of fictional serial killer Norman Bates during his teen years, growing up with good old mum.

IN the 1960 Alfred Hitchcock movie, Psycho, the audience discovered Norman Bates to be a not an altogether guy. Seeing him talk to his dead mother (taking on her persona, even) did not only give the film its dramatic twist and ending – not to mention goosebumps to viewers – but it also got the audience to form conjectures as to what might have made Norman that way.

Well, Bates Motel provides one possible theory.

With a contemporary setting, the loosely-defined TV prequel to Psycho introduces us to a lanky teenager named Norman (Freddie Highmore). He is moving to a seemingly idyllic town named White Pines Bay – to a particular house up on a hill – with his mother, Norma (Vera Farmiga). She has just bought a motel on sale, and plans to run it with her son. All very normal and rosy – compounded by the exchanges between Norma and Norman on the drive to their new home – it’s no different than that of any mother and her son. But we know better; The fact she gave her son a masculine version of her own name is already an indication of what seems like an unhealthy mother-son relationship.

When Highmore, 21, was offered the role, he knew playing a 17-year-old Norman would be an amazing opportunity. Like anyone who has seen the film, the English actor asked the same question – what turned Norman into a psycho? In an interview transcript with Highmore, he said the series explores nature versus nurture.

“Was Norman Bates destined to become a serial killer or is it his mother or the dodgy town that they moved to and their influence upon him? And so if it’s the latter, if it’s the fact that his upbringing has conditioned him in a certain way that means he’s more likely to end up as we know he must, then what does that say about us? If we’d had his upbringing would we be slightly different? We all go a little mad sometimes. Would we be more like him? It’s fascinating to ask these questions.”

To make sure he covers all angles, Highmore watched the film and read the book which the film was based on (the book was inspired by the serial killer Ed Gein). Nonetheless, he admitted that he wanted to give the character in the series justice – to add layers to him especially since it’s no secret that Norman becomes a serial killer in the future.

He said: “You have to build in things from the start so that it’s believable at whatever point it is that he takes his first victim. So it has to be a level of believability to it – he can’t be a completely normal guy, but at the same time, there’s something very chillingly normal about some people who in real life perhaps have acted in the way that Norman does.”

Bates Motel creators Carlton Cuse (Lost) and Kerry Ehrin (Friday Night Lights) have also cleverly set the series in present times, giving the series flexibility not to follow resolutely on Psycho’s footsteps. At the same time, however, all the clothes, cars and furniture have a vintage quality to them, linking it to Hitchcock’s film. (So while Norma drives a classic Mercedes Benz, her son is listening to music on an iPhone – which lends the 10-episode series an interesting look.)

So what is Highmore’s take on Norman’s relationship with his mother? “It’s very intimate, isn’t it? I don’t think Norman forgets Mother’s Day. Every day is Mother’s Day at the Bates household! It’s interesting also the way that they both negatively impact the other but also can’t live without the other. They are soul partners. And then perhaps partners in crime at a certain point.

“It’s odd but it’s also certainly two-directional: you can say there’s those complexes there with Norman, but for me, that refers more to a son’s desire for his mother. Whereas in Bates Motel, it’s not just Norman desiring his mother but his mother desiring the son. And it’s not necessarily sexual, but it’s nice that it’s hinted at. I think a lot of the important things in Bates Motel are left unsaid and suggested as opposed to being explicitly there. So a lot of things in people’s interpretations are, where to draw the lines in a relationship, because it’s not obvious. But that’s what makes it exciting is that it’s not being forced upon the audience or saying this is exactly what it is and we’re going to say lines that are true.

“There’s one episode where I remember thinking everyone is lying to each other, absolutely everyone! It’s fantastic because you just don’t know who to trust and you don’t know who’s telling the truth and that’s kind of exciting to watch.”

Bates Motel premieres tonight at 10.50pm on Universal HD (HyppTV Ch 612).

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Mothers who smother

Snooki (Nicole Polizzi), Jioni LaValle and baby Lorenzo in a touching moment on Snooki & JWoww.

Gillian Anderson may still wear the same pantsuits, but her return to TV is more than welcome.

IT has been more than a decade since Gillian Anderson played the character Dana Scully on The X-Files, but many TV fans still remember her as such. Well, that may no longer be the case as Anderson stages a return to TV.

For those who’ve lost track of her career, Anderson has actually been appearing in a number of British TV series and films like Great Expectations, Moby Dick, The House Of Mirth and The Crimson Petal And The White. This year, she starred in a five-episode BBC 2 show called The Fall (with The Good Wife’s Archie Panjabi), which makes its premiere on the American subscription-based media provider Netflix today. Unfortunately, Netflix is not available here, so let’s hope one of the local or regional TV channels picks up the series soon enough.

Last week, Anderson appeared on television twice – first on the ridiculous movie Johnny English Reborn (in which she starred alongside Rowan Atkinson and Rosamund Pike, a weird combo indeed) that was shown on HBO, and on Hannibal (AXN).

In the latter, the actress plays Dr Bedelia Du Maurier, Dr Hannibal Lecter’s psychiatrist. It’s an interesting character in theory, but there needs to be a little more interaction between the two to really figure out what she’s truly like. That said, though, Du Maurier’s demeanour reminds one of Scully, except that the good doctor is a lot more cunning.

Anderson is currently working on a new programme called Crisis, scheduled for release in the third quarter of 2013. The series revolves around a national crisis that occurs when a high school, attended by the children of Washington DC’s prominent political and business figures, is ambushed and the children are taken hostage. Anderson plays the CEO of a big company whose daughter is among those kidnapped. Other stars include Lance Gross, Rachael Taylor, Michael Beach and Dermot Mulroney.

While waiting for these new TV shows to come our way, wouldn’t it be great if one of the channels runs the whole nine seasons of The X-Files? Wishful thinking? Probably.

There are a lot of other programmes on my TV wishlist, but you can safely bet that a reality-based series is not one of them. However, there are some which I find quite entertaining, like Snooki & JWoww (MTV Asia). Yes, you read it right, I watched Snooki & JWoww and survived the ordeal. In fact, I was thoroughly entertained by the antics of these ... “TV personalities”. The seemingly honest depiction of these rather comical characters, their unpretentiousness, bewildered ignorance and no-holds barred conversations – most of which are more stupid and brash than malicious – make for excellent, if silly, entertainment.

In last week’s episode, a very pregnant Snooki or Nicole Polizzi (no one, except for the rabid fan or two, calls her Snooki on the show!) is just about ready to go into labour. She and fiance Jioni LaValle do a dry run to the hospital, which turns out to be quite hilarious. Jioni misses a turn because he’s too busy talking, while Nicole pisses – literally – on the car seat (“Yeah I peed in the car but that’s normal ‘cos I’m pregnant!”).

In another scene, when Nicole really is in labour, she tells her bestfriend JWoww aka Jennifer Farley that she feels like “pooping”. “It feels like it’s one of those long swirly ones that just won’t stop” is pretty much how she describes it.

Yes, it’s a tad disgusting, but you also see a side of Nicole that you probably thought did not exist in a former hardcore party girl like her. Like how she and Jioni, and to an extent, Jennifer, are actually quite responsible as parents, fretting over the baby’s bassinet and other little things.

A snippet of the next episode – when Nicole finally gives birth after 27 hours of being in labour (yikes!) – shows her father, a scary-looking big bald man, crying and telling someone on the phone that “the baby’s here”. Awww ...

Team Scully or Team Du Maurier? Team Snooki or Team JWoww? Tweet us your TV gripes and wishes at @MyStarTwo.

For the fourth year in a row, NCIS has come out as the big winner of the 2012-2013 TV season.

Its LA spinoff, however, has been outstripped by the comedy The Big Bang Theory, the show that boasts the fastest growth.

From September 2012 to May 2013, each episode of NCIS was watched by 21.3 million viewers, on average, whether in real time, recorded or on demand. Counting real-time viewers only, this police procedural drama gained another 100,000 fans in the space of a year.

After a fifth record season, The Big Bang Theory has likewise seen another boost in its ratings. The sixth season drew 18.7 million viewers, putting the Pasadena geeks in second last season ahead of NCIS: Los Angeles (17.3 million).

Another big hit, Person Of Interest, made it to fourth place last season with its 16 million aficionados. This CBS series upped its viewership by 1.1 million in a year.

The season also shone on Elementary, the only newcomer among the top ten series in the US. The nation remained loyal, albeit with a little less widespread enthusiasm than usual, to its evergreens Two And A Half Men, Blue Bloods, Modern Family, Castle and Criminal Minds.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The action-packed sixth installment of the Fast & Furious film franchise claimed victory at the North American box office for the three-day U.S. Memorial Day weekend on Monday, and became the biggest opening film in Universal Pictures' history.

Fast & Furious 6, starring Vin Diesel and Dwayne Johnson, grossed an estimated US$120 million from Friday till Monday, making it the second-biggest film opening of the year behind Disney's Iron Man 3's US$175.3 million earlier this month.

The film also rang up an estimated US$300 million at the global box office.

Universal Pictures said Fast & Furious 6 bested its predecessor in the series, Fast Five, which previously held the title of best opening for the studio with US$83.6 million at domestic theaters.

Fast & Furious 6 also raced ahead of raunchy comedy The Hangover Part III, the third and final installment of the comedy about four men trying to piece together the events of a wild night.

Hangover, starring Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis and Ed Helms as friends unwittingly drawn back to Las Vegas, made an estimated US$51.2 million at the U.S. and Canada box office over the long weekend, keeping in line with studio projections.

The film also opened in its first three international markets over the weekend - United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand - grossing US$19 million, bringing the total in the markets where it is showing to an estimated US$70.2 million.

"Some might argue that we should have stopped at one, but we loved doing these movies and the audience has been there" for them, Todd Philips, the director of the Hangover franchise, told Reuters ahead of the film's release.

"The word 'hangover' ... is something that people share around the world. There are some comedies that are uniquely American, but hangovers exist for the world," he added.

Sci-fi action adventure sequel Star Trek Into Darkness, playing in 3D and Imax theaters, came in at No. 3 at the domestic box office with US$47 million from Friday to Monday, bringing its cumulative total to US$155.8 million since opening on May 17.

Animated family film Epic, about a secret world in which nature's inhabitants come together to fight evil forces, opened on Friday and has grossed an estimated US$42.6 million domestically over the Memorial Day weekend.

Let rip: Theatre stalwart and director Jo Kukathas drilled it into the audience that beyond the laughs, the Aiyoh ...Wat Lah?! awards hopes to affect a change in the sexist mindset among the powers that be in Malaysia.

Now in its second year, the Aiyoh ... Wat Lah?! awards honour loose-tongued, sexist public figures ... again.

THERE is an undoubted connection between politicians and children – they both say the darndest things. But a kid can always be excused, but full-grown adults? Call it foot-in-mouth disease or “slip of the tongue is no fault of the brain,” but at the end of the day, those out in the public domain should be held accountable for what they say openly.

The Aiyoh … Wat Lah?! 2013 awards has no opportunity to crack the whip on or throw the book at some of the inexcusable things being said to the rakyat where gender equality is concerned.

However, what it has done for the second year running, is poke fun at the unjust comments and their owners.

Presenter, the effervescent thespian and director Jo Kukathas, reprising her role as purple-bobbed working girl Ribena Berry, pulled out all the stops at Leonardo’s in Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur, on Sunday, which had Ambiga Sreenevasan, co-chairperson of Bersih 2.0 and human rights activist, as special guest.

Aiyoh … Wat Lah?! – an initiative by The Joint Action Group for Gender Equality (Jag), a sisterhood comprising nine organisations, including the likes of All Women’s Action Society (Awam), Sisters In Islam (SIS) and Women’s Aid Organisation (WAO) – aspires to outline sexism, stamp on misogyny and gun down homophobia, and/or transphobia, in the hope that public figures will exert a little more common sense and compassion when addressing each and every layer of society.

Kukathas had the opportunity to roll out the laughs to a packed room, adopting the now de rigeur Chinese-accented, English-speaking Malaysian, which had the audience in stitches through most of the ceremony, though there were the cautionary tales that were no laughing matter, particularly the grossly flippant way rape is viewed in our society.

She dug deep, ridiculing the idiotic remarks that have been levied at the LGBT community – who are indisputably a part of the fabric of our society – and making fun of the ignorance in the sexist behaviour of bureaucrats.

A gifted stage performer, Kukathas was always able to read her audience and seamlessly move from one award to the next, eliciting as much laughter through the seven categories honoured for the evening.

Divided to six “bad” awards and one “good” one, Foot In Mouth, Insulting Intelligence, Policy Fail, Cannot Ignore, Least Helpful To Sisterhood and Enough Already hauls up everyone who’s cared to shoot off their mouth without thinking while Right On Track celebrates the few positive changes in the country, like Dewan Rakyat’s amendment to the Standing Orders prohibiting MPs from making sexist remarks.

Incriminatingly classic comments include the Kota Baru Municipal Council’s stand on unisex hair saloons in Kelantan’s capital, which manifested itself in the quote, “A woman hairdresser fined for cutting man’s hair,” winning it the Policy Fail plaudit.

Then there was, “We must not forget who is involved in this rape allegation, even if she is an adult, in which women have a tendency to exaggerate about a sexual act,” which branded High Court judge Zamani Abdul Rahim a sexist, winning the Cannot Ignore category relatively easily.

But the one that took the cake for the audience was former Minister of Women, Family and Community Development, Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, who won the award for the Least Helpful to the Sisterhood category by saying, “It is because of the achievements of the Umno-Barisan Nasional government that ... we don’t need to be activists, we don’t need to burn our bras to get gender equality.”

While the show is steeped in humour, it is mired in the display of how regressive the thinking continues to be in many critical areas of the nation’s (re)building process.

And best of all, there was no need for the jokes to side any political divide because Aiyoh … Wat Lah?! simply calls a spade a spade. Naturally, none of the winners were present to collect their trophies.

Fundamentally though, Kukathas reminded the audience to read, and not “burn books”. After all, reading is the source of enlightenment, which is ultimately the way towards a more progressive future.

For more info, visit aiyohwatlah.tumblr.com.

Expect new and exciting material from the prolific Kanye West next month.

Kanye West, who’s grown accustomed to seeing his face on tabloid covers with his socialite partner Kim Kardashian, is gearing up for a return to centre stage in the international music scene with a new studio album, Yeezus, due out June 18. Over the past few days, rumours and conjectures have given way to some specifics divulged on TV shows and on social networks.

Three years after My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, the rapper will be putting out his latest brainchild, christened Yeezus, on June 18. His sixth studio album to date, Yeezus comprises 15 tracks and features guest artistes Daft Punk, Frank Ocean, DJ Skrillex and the American alternative hip hop collective Odd Future.

West has just divulged the album title and release date on Twitter. The CD cover has already been designed and has been previewed on Kim Kardashian’s Instagram account .

The prolific recording artiste, whose new album is one of the most eagerly awaited music releases of the year, has displayed marked prowess in seizing public attention using a whole armada of communication tools, particularly by posting information on several different social networks. This past weekend he made a splash with live performances of two titles, New Slave and Black Skinhead, on US TV show Saturday Night Live. From Friday to Sunday, the clip to his single New Slave was projected onto the facades of 66 buildings in ten major cities around the world, including New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Toronto, London, Berlin and Paris. – AFP Relaxnews

Go green: Although he has a penchant for flamboyant outfits, Cee Lo Green insists that his style is not ‘overproduced’.

Cee Lo Green is set to release a new album, Girl Power, which pays homage to women.

Soul-pop singer Cee Lo Green loves the ladies and makes no secret about it. In fact, his upcoming album will be titled Girl Power.

“Women are our greatest muse,” the five-time Grammy winner says in a telephone interview from Florida.

“They are an enchanted intangibility that encourages all art, you know. And so Girl Power is a homage to women and their power of influence, an appreciation.”

He is best known for the catchy single Forget You from 2010, the uncensored version of which is called F*** You which made him an Internet star; the mainstream traditional media would play only the version without expletive.

But that kind of social media success means his fanbase has expanded to include many who do not know the extent of his work.

“A lot of people don’t know that my career dates back 18 years prior,” he says referring to his early years with Atlanta rap group Goodie Mob, whom he was active with from 1991 to 1999.

Goodie Mob is back together and set to release a new album this year.

The 38-year-old Green says: “We reunited after a 10-year hiatus and we are almost finished with a new album entitled Age Against The Machine.”

He sure is prolific. Besides the upcoming Girl Power, which will be his fifth solo effort, he has also released two commercially successful albums as one-half of soul-pop act Gnarls Barkley, his collaboration with eclectic producer Danger Mouse.

His various music projects, which include collaborations with veteran guitarist Santana, have won him multiple accolades including Grammy, Brit, Billboard Music and Soul Train Music awards.

Green is also familiar to television viewers as a judge/mentor for the first three seasons of popular reality television singing show The Voice in the United States.

He took a break from the show’s current season to work on his own projects but is expected to return to the series next season.

The Voice, he explains, is different from all the other reality singing programmes on television because it is “a show with its priority in the right order”.

Green and the other judges on the show, which include music stars such as country singer Blake Shelton, choose whom to mentor based on their voice alone.

“When you hear someone’s voice being used purposefully, you want to partner with him, you want to push him forward, because it can really be something promising to share with all mankind,” he says.

“I mean, music can affect mankind in the largest way possible, so to aid and abet that is gratifying, it’s very rewarding.”

Viewers of The Voice know that Green regularly wears outlandish wigs, loud-coloured clothes and gaudy Liberace-worthy spectacles to perform.

As outrageously flamboyant as he is, Green insists that he does not “overproduce” his style.

“Sometimes it’s just what I have available. I don’t have these large stores of so many wild and wonderful things.

“I’m inspired by what’s been done and also what hasn’t been done and of course, my aspiration has always been to be original and it’s just like, I’m not shy.”

Green, who performed at the Social Star Awards in Singapore last week, is a champion of social media and uses tools like Twitter to reach out to his fanbase.

“It’s definitely a way to mass promote and have an intimate relationship with the audience and have personalised accounts of your thoughts and activities. It’s a way to show your consistency, your commitment.”

And instead of checking out what other celebrities have to say on their accounts, the singer, who has a 13-year-old son from a former marriage, prefers to tune in to what people are saying on the ground.

“I just think that everyday people sometimes have the most profound, pointed things to say, when artistes like myself and people in my position have to be politically correct all the time.

“So, to hear real people speak and talk in the raw, unfiltered opinion, it’s very inspiring to me.” – The Straits Times, Singapore/Asia News Network

CANNES, France: What films will we be watching in the near future, and how will we be watching them?

Here's a snapshot of trends that emerged in the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, a weathervane of the movie industry:

- TV, NOT CINEMA: Hollywood's grip on big movies is being broken by TV, to which big-time directors, actors and money are migrating.

Dark, offbeat critical and commercial successes like "The Wire," "Mad Men," "The Sopranos" and "Game of Thrones" show what happens when bold programming and video-on-demand (VOD) come together.

At Cannes, there was no greater symbol of the change than "Behind the Candelabra," a biopic that has Michael Douglas as the flouncing entertainer Liberace.

"Too gay" for Hollywood, the movie was financed by HBO - which means it cannot even be considered for an Oscar if it premieres to the public on television.

"TV is really taking control of a conversation that used to be the exclusive domain of movies," said director Steven Soderbergh. "(...) I think it's a second golden age of TV that's happening in the States now."

Richard LaGravenese said creative types found TV refreshingly experimental compared to Hollywood studio films.

"TV is where a writer can write his novel. You can have episodes that are purely character-driven (...) that are just about nuance and about shades of the human condition that you can't do in film any more."

- GREY IS GOLD: Expect more and more films that cater to ageing Baby Boomers, the biggest and wealthiest population bulge in history. Robert Redford made a screen comeback with "All is Lost," about a retired-but-virile yachtsman caught in a storm.

Senior-friendly projects that were announced or touted at Cannes include "Life Itself," a marriage comedy starring Morgan Freeman, 75, and Diane Keaton, 67; "And So It Goes," with Douglas, 68, who is introduced to the granddaughter he never knew he had; and "Look of Love," where Annette Bening, 55, falls for a man (Ed Harris, 62), who happens to look like her dead husband.

"You really need elements that appeal to the older audiences," The Hollywood Reporter quoted Mimi Steinbauer, an executive with Radiant Films International, as saying.

"These actors have fans in those demographics. That is very important."

- LOOKING TO ASIA: Asian markets and money, as well as Asian content, are exerting a widening influence. China is at the forefront.

"China is coming on strong not just as a market place for international motion pictures, but coming on strong as a creative force," Hollywood legend Steven Spielberg told a press conference.

Big-budget US-Chinese co-productions such as "Kung Fu Panda 3" are sometimes shot with a Chinese location and storyline.

In the case of "Iron Man 3," producers included two Chinese characters for a version released only in China: a character named Dr. Wu, played by Wang Xueqi, and a woman close to him, performed by actress Fan Bingbing.

Some co-productions are being voluntarily submitted to Beijing's censors in the early stage of the creative process to avoid rejection further down the line, according to the industry press.

Asian-made movies can make it big in Europe and the United States provided they move out of a narrow cultural range and address universal themes, say some.

"I find film from India can be sold in Latin America, in Europe, in parts of the world we never thought of before because human emotion and drama are the same everywhere," said US-based film producer and distributor Raaj Rahhi.

- DOCUMENTARIES: They are the biggest growth area of films, driven by interests in content ranging from social and environment issues to history, sports and music.

"People today want more than escapism," said Martijn te Pas, in charge of programming at Amsterdam's International Documentary Film Festival.

Driving the trend are cheap digital technology for content makers, niche markets for non-fiction programming ranging and the Internet as a form of distribution.

"If you own a Mac and a camcorder, you can make a documentary, basically," said Tyler Konney of Taylor & Dodge, which is marketing "After Porn Ends," about actors who struggle to resume normal life after a career in pornographic films.

Another push for documentaries and low-budget fiction is crowd-sourcing, where Internet sites such as Kickstarter bring small investors and creators together.

"Kickstarter is something that harnesses people for a project which has great ideas but no money," said Toby Rose, a British writer seeking 10,000 pounds ($15,100) for a movie idea, "Fashion Victim: The Musical."

- PIRACY: Do you illegally download movies? In the near future, you could run a bigger risk of being pursued by the dogs of law.

Lacking a technical fix against piracy, studios are turning more and more to cyber-detectives to sniff out the Internet addresses of illegal downloaders.

Lawyers then subpoena the Internet Service Provider (ISP) to identify the abuser. The attorneys send a threatening letter, usually with a settlement offer.

"In Germany, there has been a reduction in (copyright) infringements by 80 to 90 percent over the last three years," said Patrick Achache of Guardaley, a German-based tech company which has been hired to trace illegal downloading.

In the biggest case, Voltage Pictures, which produced "The Hurt Locker," attacked 25,000 people deemed to have illegally downloaded the hit movie from BitTorrent and peer-to-peer networks. The settlement offer was usually between $1,000 and $2,000; many cases, though, have been thrown out or contested. - AFP

CANNES, France: A sexually graphic lesbian love story, "Blue is the Warmest Colour" by French-Tunisian director Abdellatif Kechiche, clinched the top prize Sunday at the Cannes Film Festival in a pivotal year for gay rights.

Jury president Hollywood director Steven Spielberg said the tender coming-of-age tale about a 15-year-old French girl's first love, an older woman, had been a unanimous choice.

In an unusual step, Spielberg awarded the prize to Kechiche as well as the film's two stars, Adele Exarchopoulos and Lea Seydoux, who joined him on stage to calls of "bravo" from the ceremony's audience.

Tunis-born Kechiche, 52, dedicated the prize from the world's top cinema showcase to the youth of France, and the revolutionaries of the Arab Spring.

"They also have this aspiration to live free, to express themselves freely and to love in full freedom," he said, adding later that he hoped the film would also be distributed in socially conservative Tunisia.

Spielberg said the international jury including fellow Oscar winners Ang Lee, Nicole Kidman and Christoph Waltz had had no qualms about the explicit sex on screen, praising the film team's "courage", and predicted a wide art-house run.

"For me, the film is a great love story and the fact that it is a great love story made all of us feel like we were privileged, not embarrassed, to be flies on the wall - privileged to have been invited to see this story of deep love and deep heartbreak evolve from the beginning, in a wonderful way where time stood still," he told reporters.

"We were absolutely spellbound by the brilliance of the performances of those amazing young actresses and all the cast, and especially by the way the director observed his players, the way he just let the characters breathe. We just all found it was a profound love story."

The prize came on the day of a major demonstration in Paris against a new law making France the 14th country worldwide to legalise same-sex marriage.

Asked whether the film had a political message, the 19-year-old Exarchopoulos said it was first and foremost about love.

"If it becomes an ode to tolerance, that would be even more gratifying," she added.

The runner-up award, the Grand Prix, went to Joel and Ethan Coen's "Inside Llewyn Davis" starring Carey Mulligan, Justin Timberlake and newcomer Oscar Isaac in the title role of a luckless folk singer in 1960s New York.

The Coens' film "Barton Fink" won Cannes in 1991 and the brothers last entered the running in 2007 with "No Country for Old Men".

Mexico's Amat Escalante claimed best director for the ultra-violent "Heli" about his country's blood-drenched drug wars.

French actress Berenice Bejo took home best actress honours as a harried Parisian mother in Iranian Oscar winner Asghar Farhadi's patchwork family drama "The Past".

Bejo, 36, made her name in the hit French silent movie "The Artist".

One of the stars of Hollywood's 1970s golden age, 76-year-old Bruce Dern, took the best actor prize for his performance as an alcoholic father in Alexander Payne's recession-era road movie "Nebraska".

China's Jia Zhangke won the best screenplay award for "A Touch of Sin", which offered a shocking look at rampant corruption and exploitation in his country.

And an emotional Japanese drama about young boys switched at birth, Hirokazu Koreeda's "Like Father, Like Son", bagged the third-place jury prize.

Adapted from a graphic novel of the same name, "Blue" emerged as an instant favourite during the 12-day festival on France's Cote d'Azur.

"You realise the film has won your heart without ever really asking for it, and you leave the cinema utterly lovesick," said London's Daily Telegraph critic Robbie Collin.

But in a dissenting critique, New York Times critic Manohla Dargis questioned the director's motives in including lengthy scenes of hardcore sex.

"The movie feels far more about Mr Kechiche's desires than anything else," she said.

Kechiche won the Cesar, the French Oscar, for the 2003 drama "Games of Love and Chance" set among teenagers in the housing projects on Paris' outskirts, and again for 2007's "The Secret of the Grain", also released under the English title "Couscous".

In a year in which gay themes resonated on and off screen, Steven Soderbergh's made-for-TV biopic of celebrity pianist Liberace and his long-time lover, "Behind the Candelabra", also drew praise at Cannes for its stars Michael Douglas and Matt Damon.

Boy, oh boy: Having grown up with two brothers, Michelle Borth doesn’t find it difficult working in a testosteronecharged environment.

Michelle Borth feels right at home starring alongside the male-driven cast of Hawaii Five-0.

ACTRESS Michelle Borth has very few female friends.

The gorgeous brunette revealed during a phone interview from Hawaii to Star2 that she has always gotten along better with men, owing to the fact that she grew up with two brothers. So when her recurring role in the remake of the 1960s police procedural drama, Hawaii Five-0, was promoted to a regular on season three, Borth was more than ready for a tussle with the boys (namely Alex O’Loughlin, Scott Caan, Daniel Dae Kim and Masi Oka).

“There are a lot of dirty jokes,” the 34-year-old actress says of the atmosphere on set, before adding playfully, “which I love.”

She shares that the testosterone-charged environment (“We have a crew of over 100 Hawaiian men on set that walk around with no shirts on”) is a respite from the usual drama that ensues in a female-led or even mixed-sex cast.

“Being on other sets in Los Angeles, there can be a lot of cattiness with actors. There’s none of that here,” she says.

Borth joins the elite crime-fighting task force, Five-0, as Lieutenant Catherine Rollins in her capacity as a US Navy Lieutenant. Those familiar with the original Hawaii Five-0 may notice that her addition to the cast is a rather unorthodox move for the show, as all the major roles were played by men back then.

But in this remake, Borth is one of two females to be part of the main cast. The burly detective Kono Kalakanua, previously portrayed by Gilbert “Zulu” Kauhi, is now a sultry surfer and sniper played by Grace Park. Borth is happy to see this increase in female presence on the show.

“There are more and more stronger female parts that are being developed, as there are more writers and directors who are women. I think it’s important to show strong women on TV and in film to set an example for young girls watching that you can be tough and smart at the same time,” she shares.

And tough and smart is just the way to describe Borth’s character. Besides using her position as an intelligence officer with the US Navy to feed information to the team, Rollins always puts up a tough fight to take down the bad guys. Borth, who also starred as Major Rebecca Gordon on Combat Hospital, is proud to say she does most of her own stunts.

“I do all the stunt work. But just because I can do them doesn’t mean that it looks that great. So, I have a stunt double. The editors usually use the stunts that look better on-screen and mix them up. But from what I’ve been seeing, I can tell that around 85% is me,” she reveals, adding that she underwent intense martial arts and firearms training before shooting began.

It’s a good thing the actress picked up some moves on the show as she’ll be needing it to protect herself from the envious female fans of Lieutenant Commander Steve McGarrett (O’Loughlin). Yes, Borth’s character also happens to be the hunky leading man’s love interest. The two were in an on-again-off-again long distance relationship in the first two seasons, but with Rollins stationed on the island for good now, perhaps they will finally go steady.

“I enjoy playing my character a lot because it serves as a vehicle for a storyline for McGarrett. With her around, you get a different vibe from McGarrett who’s usually the tough guy. You see smiles on his face that you didn’t see before; you see him vulnerable, laughing and giddy,” she says.

However, Borth opines that with Rollins coming on board full-time, their relationship might be at risk of going sour.

“Long distance relationships are always like a honeymoon. You don’t see that person for months at a time and then you see them in one weekend, it’s a honeymoon. That’s kind of what season one and two were about. In my opinion, with Rollins moving in, it’s only going to make things difficult. To have to put up with each other all the time while working in a high-pressure situation makes things complicated.

“But you never know, hopefully it ends with them walking down the aisle,” she adds.

■ Hawaii Five-0 airs every Monday at 10pm on AXN (Astro Ch 701/HD Ch 721).

All for one: Kudsia Kahar (third from right) launches the 13th GCMA with representatives from six other radio stations.

988 plays host to an awards show promoting the development of Chinese music.

THE Star Radio Group’s Chinese radio station 988 is set to host the 13th Global Chinese Music Awards (GCMA) on October 5 at Putra Stadium, Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur.

GCMA was established in 2000 with seven of Asia’s radio stations taking turns to host the awards show. The seven radio stations are (from China) Beijing Music Radio, Shanghai Dong Gan 101, and Music FM Radio Guang Dong; (Taiwan) Taipei Pop Radio; (Hong Kong) RTHK; (Singapore) YES 933 as well as (Malaysia) 988.

The main objective of GCMA is to promote the development of Chinese music and acknowledge the outstanding contributors in the music industry.

“Play. Music. Hard. is the theme for the 13th Global Chinese Music Awards. The theme represents our acknowledgement to the artistes’ perseverance, on their will in standing strong against obstacles in pursuit of creating good music. It is not easy working in the music industry,” said deputy group chief broadcasting officer of Star Radio Group Kudsia Kahar.

“Artistes face the lack of financial support, public recognition, the shift to the age of digital commerce, piracy, etc. By hosting this award, we are doing our bit to show our support to the musicians out there.”

Ticket are affordably priced at RM50, RM100, RM150, RM200, RM250 and RM300 and will be available July onwards. There will be discounts for early birds, students, and senior citizens.

■ Download the 988 app or stream online at 988.com.my. 988 is a subsidiary of Star Radio Group.

Suria FM Truck brings music to the masses.

FOR one month only, Suria FM will unleash to the streets its first ever Suria FM Truck.

Spotting the faces of its celebrated DJs – Halim Othman, Adibah Noor, Reza Mohamed, Seri, Linda Onn, Bob Ringgo & DJ Lin – on its exterior, the truck will roam the Klang Valley until June 9 and even promises to illuminate itself at night, staying true to Suria’s tagline, “Menceriakan Duniamu”.

Come rain or shine, the Suria FM Truck, boasting as the first of its kind for any Malaysian radio station, will broadcast the channel live, entertaining passers-by along its routes.

So, why are they doing this? To use an industry jargon, this is a brand engagement exercise.

“The Suria FM Truck is a continuous effort to promote Suria FM to everyone.

“It exposes Suria FM as well as the announcers to the public. Then, Suria FM will be on top of their mind,” shared the channel’s programme manager Adiwati Zainuddin.

■ Suria FM is a subsidiary of Star Radio Group

COPENHAGEN: Exuberant Copenhageners braved the chill Sunday to celebrate Eurovision Song Contest winner Emmelie de Forest in Denmark's iconic Tivoli Gardens amusement park.

The Danish press lavished praise on the 20-year-old after she comfortably won the glitzy competition early Sunday in Sweden's third-largest city, Malmoe.

Scores of fans greeted the star on her return and watched her perform at Tivoli, one of Copenhagen's main tourist attractions, local media said, after Denmark became the fourth Nordic country to win the competition in eight years.

The event was broadcast live.

The Danish singer - who performed her winning entry barefoot against a flaming backdrop - took the crown from last year's Swedish winner Loreen after gaining 281 points from viewers and jurors.

Her rhythmic pop tune "Only Teardrops" had been heavily favoured by bookmakers before Saturday night's live broadcast of the contest, which is watched by an 125 million people every year.

"Denmark's darling was the big favourite and she met all expectations," public broadcaster DR wrote on its website.

Malmoe is connected to Copenhagen by the eight-kilometre (five-mile) Oeresund bridge, and many Danes had crossed the water to support their candidate.

"Europe adores Emmelie," tabloid Ekstrabladet wrote on its website, describing her win as "an absolute triumph".

Broadsheet Politiken chimed in too, noting that "Only Teardrops" was "the best song in Europe".

Media also pointed out that among Nordic countries only Iceland gave her the maximum 12 points, which implies that her song was popular with viewers and jurors across Europe.

Eurovision results are widely considered to be heavily influenced by neighbour countries' votes, as evidenced in Saturday night's contest when Cyprus and Greece gave each other 12 points.

DR boss Maria Roerbye Roenn, whose company will be footing the bill for next year's event - under Eurovision tradition, the winning country becomes next year's host - described the win as "fantastic".

"A big task awaits us now that we are arranging next year's (competition). And all possibilities are open. The first step will be to find a host city and to see what our ambitions are," she said.

"Congratulations, Emmelie... We are pleased to welcome next year's Eurovision Song Contest in Denmark," said Prime Minister Helle Thorning Schmidt on his Facebook page after the final results were known.

Several countries, including Portugal and Poland, had opted out of this year's contest amid tightened budgets at Europe's national broadcasters.

And on social networks a number of critics wondered about the costs for financially stricken Denmark of hosting a sumptuous affair like the Eurovision competition.

This year Sweden had budgeted 125 million kronor (14.5 million euros, $18.7 million) for the glamorous event, 50 times less than Azerbaijan last year.

Denmark has not given any figures for next year's contest but for DR head Roenn the spectacle will above all be "a unique opportunity to show Europe who we are and what we have to offer".

"We can afford such a show... Sweden cut the budget but what it came up with was really pleasant" to watch, she told the Jyllands-Posten newspaper.

During the winner's press conference, Jan Ola Sand, executive supervisor of the Eurovision Song Contest, said there were "several different places" where Denmark could organise next year's event, hinting that there could be more cost-efficient alternatives than pricey Copenhagen.

Lina Holm Nielsen, a journalist at Danish conservative daily Berlingske, speculated that organising the Eurovision could come at the cost of other public service programming.

"Dear Denmark, say hello to three years of reruns of the 'Midsomer Murders'" and reality show "Bonderoeven"(The Country Bumpkin), she joked on Twitter as Saturday's voting results were announced.

In recent years the Danish broadcaster has scored several international television drama hits with crime series "The Killing", political drama "Borgen" and murder mystery "The Bridge", a co-production with Sweden's SVT.

It is the third time Denmark has clinched the top spot in the Eurovision Song Contest, the last being in 2000 with the Olsen Brothers' "Fly on the Wings of Love".

Other Danish musical exports include Aqua, best known for their nineties hit "Barbie Girl", dance duo Infernal and pop band Alphabeat.

The past decade has also seen a host of Scandinavian songwriters and producers working with some of the biggest names in the international music industry. In Denmark, songwriter and record producer Peter Biker has collaborated with US stars Pitbull, Chris Brown and Usher, among others. - AFP

CANNES, France: A documentary on relatives wiped out in the Khmer Rouge's tyrannical grip on Cambodia in the 1970s earned Cambodian-French director Rithy Panh a major prize at the Cannes Film Festival on Saturday.

Entitled "L'Image Manquante" - "The Missing Picture" in English - the 95-minute work earned the top award in the festival's "Un Certain Regard" category, which showcases films by emerging directors.

Panh, 49, has been previously singled out for praise for other documentaries on Cambodia's slaughter: "S-21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine" (2003) and "Duch, Master of the Forges of Hell" (2012).

"L'Image Manquante" - based on a memoir by Panh called "The Elimination" - mixes archive footage of the ultra-left fanaticism of the Khmer Rouge with hand-carved, painted figurines to represent his lost relatives.

In a review, The Hollywood Reporter praised it as "a deliberately distanced but often harrowing vision of a living hell."

"What I give you today is neither the picture nor the search for a unique image, but the picture of a quest," Panh said in notes to accompany the film.

The documentary coincides with the trial of the Khmer Rouge's two most senior surviving leaders at a UN court in Phnom Penh for crimes against humanity, genocide and other atrocities.

Another defendant, co-founder Ieng Sary, died in March aged 87, stoking fears that the regime's ageing leaders may not survive to hear verdicts on their alleged part in the atrocities.

Led by "Brother Number One" Pol Pot, who died in 1998, the Khmer Rouge emptied cities and abolished money and schools in a bid to create an agrarian paradise.

Up to two million people were executed or died from starvation, overwork or torture.

The court has so far achieved just one conviction, sentencing former prison chief Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Duch, to life in jail for overseeing the deaths of about 15,000 people.

The jury prize in the "Un Certain Regard" category went to "Omar," an enthusiastically-received fictional tale of love and betrayal in the Israeli-occupied territories, directed by Hany Abu-Assad.

Abu-Assad shot to prominence in 2006 with "Paradise Now," about two would-be suicide bombers. The 12-day festival closes on Sunday with the awarding of the coveted Palme d'Or in the main competition, gathering 20 movies. -AFP

Stand clear: Dave Franco can cut a banana in half by throwing a card at it. Yes, he’s that good!

BESIDES the surname, somewhat similar features, the way they talk (and laugh) and being in the same profession, Dave Franco apparently doesn’t have much in common with his older brother, James Franco.

In a telephone interview with the 27-year-old, the California native says: “If you meet the two of us, I mean, you’d understand how different we really are. We couldn’t be more different.”

Perhaps due to this, the two of them are drawn to different roles and projects. Franco’s recent ventures saw him playing a scumbag highschooler in 21 Jump Street and a not-so-understanding boyfriend in Warm Bodies. His latest role – and the reason for this telephone call from New Orleans, Louisiana – has him working on the film Now You See Me, alongside Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Mark Ruffalo and Isla Fisher.

In it he plays Jack Wilder, the youngest member of The Four Horsemen, a group of top magicians who not only perform dazzling magic tricks on stage, but also rob from the rich (in style) and give to the working class folk. At the same time, these four people are hiding an even bigger secret.

Although Franco dabbled in magic when he was younger – “I grew up with two brothers who taught me card tricks” – he got the chance to really get into the craft thanks to the film’s magic consultant, David Kwong.

“I learned a couple of things from David Kwong. He taught me how to throw playing cards and I got so good at it that I can now cut a banana in half by throwing a card at it. That’s probably the most impressive thing that I’ve learned. He also taught me how to solve a Rubik’s Cube in under five seconds, which is pretty cool. He taught me a few sleight of hand tricks as well. I hold up an empty hand and I do like a snap on the wrist and then I have a deck of cards that appear in my hand. Yea, little things like that.”

Learning is something Franco tries to do with each film he makes. He reveals that his ultimate goal is to become a director, so he wants to be around filmmakers he admires to see how they work and pick up useful tips from them. Actually, he has already directed a few internet videos for the Funny Or Die website, on top of starring in them as well. (Do check them out as they are hi-la-rious.)

One of the earliest skits on this site (Acting With James Franco, directed by Andrew J. Cohen) has the young Franco act out a scene from Rebel Without A Cause with his big brother mentoring him to a laugh-inducing result.

So will he ever collaborate with James on a film? “Yea, at some point. As much as I love and respect my brother, I have been trying to distance myself a little bit work-wise because people do draw comparisons. I love him to death but I don’t want to be referred to as James Franco’s little brother for the rest of my life. But, that being said, I would love to work with him down the line, if it ever gets to a point where I gain enough credibility and people allow me to stand on my own two feet. Then I would love to collaborate with him on something.” – Mumtaj Begum