H'wood-B'wood come together at Dubai in Dec

The Dubai International Film Festival, since its inception in 2004, has seen the best of Bollywood and Hollywood come together.

From Richard Gere to Laurence Fishburne to Shah Rukh Khan - who won a DIFF Salutes trophy for his contribution to cinema - the stars' presence has always been strongly marked at the festival.

This year's festival, which will be held from December 9 to 16, will focus on Indian cinema.

Among the films screened will be Santosh Sivan's Before the Rains, Frozen, Mira Nair's AIDS Jaago and Adoor Gopalakrishnan's Naal Pennu (Four Women).

"There is a change in the way Indian films are being made today," says DIFF Chairman Abdulhamid Juma. "Very young actors and very young directors are coming, today. They want to take indian films internationally more than ever, and we want to use Dubai as a platform to do that," he added.

One of the highlights of this year's festival would be the charity dinner hosted by Sharon Stone after hours.

'Nude scenes make me feel shy'

Washington: Actress Angelina Jolie has revealed that she felt shy over her latest accomplishment in a simulated nude scene of her upcoming animated movie Beowulf.

The 32-year-old, who plays a temptress killer lizard was painted gold, but animated without clothes.

"I got a little shy. I was really surprised that I felt that exposed. I didn't expect ourselves to come out as much. I didn't expect it to feel as real, and so because of especially the type of character I play, it was kind of funny at first,” People quoted Jolie, as stating at a press conference for the film in Los Angeles.

“There are certain moments where I felt actually shy – and called home, just to explain that the fun movie that I had done that was digital animation was, in fact, a little different than [what] we expected,” she added.

Boewulf, which opens on Nov 16 is directed by Robert Zemeckis and is based on the Old English poem.

It is Jolie’s third animated movie, after Shark Tale and Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.

News By: Ibnlive

Google gets into the wireless business

When Google came on the scene 10 years ago, the PC business was pretty much figured out. Lots of companies made computers, but Microsoft monopolized the operating systems that ran on them. It was Microsoft's world, and as a software developer Google had to learn to live in it.

Not so with cell phones. There are lots of handset makers, and several companies make operating systems and other software for the devices. Google either has to play ball with those companies or control the mobile environment on its own.

Enter today's announcement of a Google operating system that will prominently feature the company's applications -- mail, maps, search and so on. And Google is going to entice handset makers by giving them the system for free. The phones probably won't have the name Google anywhere on them, and the first ones won't be available until the second half of '08.

This is a tough road for Google. People just want the best phones out there. Google's software has to be as good, if not better, than anything Microsoft, Symbian or Apple has to offer. Web searching has to be fast. Video should be seamless. Maps and directions can't be buggy.

In other words, Google has to nail this. As in better than iPhone nail this. If it can't, then don't expect handset makers to be on board. There are more issues here to consider as well:

Carriers are important. Google is doing a lot to appeal to the guys that make phones, but what about the carriers? AT&T and Verizon aren't part of the alliance of companies supporting Google's efforts. Sprint and T-Mobile are showing initial support but aren't publicly committing to the system. Why would carriers want to be a part of this?

Why would I want one? I haven't seen anything yet that would make me want a phone with Google's software on it. Google's Andy Rubin says Google's phone will have lots of Net applications, which will distinguish it from others. But you can bet that competitors are working on this as well.

What about advertising? Google makes its money from selling ads. It's giving the phone software away for free. Are the phones going to be stuffed to the gills with ads?

News By: MSN Money

Lance and Ashley, sitting in a tree...k-i-s-s-i-n-g

The new most unlikely duo is “Full House” star Ashley Olsen and seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong. The 21-year-old twin was spotted at the Rose Bar at the Gramercy Park Hotel on Monday night with the famous cyclist, reports Page Six. “They came together with a group of friends. Ashley drank red wine, sat on his lap and they were making out all night. They left together around 2 a.m.,” the source told Page Six. Story continues below ↓advertisement Access Hollywood has reached out to Lance Armstrong’s publicist and is awaiting a response. Ashley Olsen’s publicist had, “no comment.” Lance Armstrong was previously linked to fashion designer Tory Burch. Lance bought a home in New York City to be closer to her. Before that he very publically dated rocker Sheryl Crow. “He tried to make Tory happy when they were dating by buying a place here, but she couldn’t deal with him not actually living in the same city, so they broke up,” another source tells Page Six. Lance and Tory split up in October.

News By: msnbc

IT sector in for big pay cut

Mumbai: It may be the end of good times for software professionals. Fat salary hikes in the IT industry may soon be a thing of the past. That is because IT companies have realised they need to cut costs in their biggest money drainer - the salaries. The IT industry's largest employer, TCS, says that wage inflation has peaked.

“What we are experiencing this year is a stability in wages. Last year, we had a 12 per cent –15 per cent increase in wages and my own expectation is that this year the wages will increase 10 per cent –12 per cent,” said S Padmanabhan, ED and Head-HR, TCS.

That is a view seconded by Wipro, which sees wage inflation moderating at 12 per cent-13 per cent.

Infosys, however, sees wage inflation at 12 per cent –15 per cent. Salary increments offered in the first quarter this year, reflected in the margins of TCS and Satyam, in the form of an impact on their second quarter margins by 117 basis points and 450 basis points respectively.

Infosys, which offered salary hikes in April last year, saw margins in its first quarter impacted by 250 basis points. One look at the wage hikes, in the past five years, clearly show wage inflation moderating if not declining.

Industry experts say IT margins are impacted primarily by wage inflation and appreciation of the rupee. While the sting of the rupee is being countered by forex hedging, salary hikes are also being tempered. However, some job skills may continue to carry a premium.

“In certain niche market or skill set, you can have a demand, which is far more than the supply and there is a premium. In industry parlance, we call it hot skills, and those hot skills demand a premium,” said Aquil Busrai, ED-HR, IBM India.

Instead of offering a salary hike, some IT companies are sending employees to the US or Europe earlier than usual, so that their onsite salaries make up for the lower salary hikes.

News by: ibnlive