Jennifer Aniston engaged to Justin Theroux

"Justin Theroux had an amazing birthday on Friday, receiving an extraordinary gift when his girlfriend Jennifer Aniston accepted his proposal of marriage," Theroux's representative told the celebrity magazine.

Aniston's publicist Steven Huvane confirmed the engagement.

Aniston, 43, and Theroux, 41, have been dating for more than a year and appeared in the comedy "Wanderlust" in February.

No wedding date was announced.

The marriage will be the second for Aniston, one of Hollywood's favourite actresses and a frequent face in romantic comedies.

Her first union with Brad Pitt ended in divorce after five in 2005, when Pitt fell in love with actress Angelina Jolie, and Aniston's love life has been followed closely ever since by the world's celebrity media.

Aniston's previous boyfriends include singer John Mayer and actor Vince Vaughn.

Pitt and Jolie announced their engagement in April but have not publicly set a wedding date.

Sourced: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/celebritynews/9471687/Jennifer-Aniston-engaged-to-Justin-Theroux.html

London Olympics 2012: A musical farewell to the world

After 16 days of sporting heroism which made London the centre of the world, the curtain fell on the Olympics last night with a display of exuberant – at times anarchic – revelry that had but one message: "Goodbye world, we hope you had as good a time as we did. Now let's dance."

With 29 gold medals – the last arriving just hours before the grand finale in the Olympic Stadium – reflecting the glory of the best performance by a British team in 104 years, the Closing Ceremony delivered the grandest of grand hurrahs for London 2012.

From a rendition of "God Save the Queen" introduced by Timothy Spall playing Winston Churchill emerging from a miniaturised Big Ben, to Russell Brand on top of a trippy bus and Freddie Mercury's voice delivering "Bohemian Rhapsody" from beyond the grave, this was Britain showing that as well as putting on the greatest show on earth, it can party too.

Just as Danny Boyle's opening jamboree had enthralled the nation with his heady cocktail of the sublime, a skydiving monarch and Mr Bean, so artistic director Kim Gavin, a ballet dancer turned stadium tour impresario, provided a sumptuous feast of British creativity and eccentricity.

Gone was the didactic splendour of the Opening Ceremony with its giant NHS beds and Satanic Mills, Jarrow marchers and Sir Tim Berners Lee. This was all about having fun and, after putting on an unquestionably fine Games, London had reason to celebrate.

The Who, those titans of universally recognised but uniquely British pop, were due to bring the three-hour performance to a climax with a thundering rendition of "My Generation".

A week after his wife lost their daughter, Poppy, in a still birth, Take That's Gary Barlow was due to perform "Rule the World" with the band in a dramatic sequence leading to the extinguishing of the Olympic Flame.

But, reserving the right of this host nation to bamboozle the rest of the planet, there was also the downright wacky. The Reliant Robin immortalised in the classic comedy Only Fools and Horses made an explosive appearance followed by the sight of 160 Household Guards marching behind Madness while playing an instrumental version of Blur's "Parklife".

And do not even mention the multi-coloured octopus and the taxi ballet.

Gavin, speaking before the ceremony, said: "We wanted to host a celebration of all that's good about London, British people, our music and our culture. And capture the spirit that's inspired so much global creativity over the past 50 years."

Watched by dignitaries including Prince Harry, representing his grandmother, and Jacques Rogge, the President of the International Olympic Committee, the extravaganza began with a shout of "It's nine o'clock" from the capacity 80,000 crowd and Scottish R'*'B singer Emeli Sande on a purposely monochrome stage belting out her anthem to success "Read All About It" from the back of a rubbish truck.

And then it ended. Speeches from London 2012 chairman Sebastian Coe and Jacques Rogge heralded the official close of the Games as Thomas Heatherwick's copper petal cauldron was finally extinguished after 16 days of constant burning. The only thing left to do was sing away the end of the night and that honour was given to The Who accompanied by the ballerina Darcey Bussell. Goodbye world. Thanks for coming.

Sourced: http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/olympics/news/london-olympics-2012-a-musical-farewell-to-the-world-8037279.html

Ted – Film Review

Stolid, easygoing Mark Wahlberg stars as John Bennett, who as a lonely and unhappy child growing up in 1980s Massachusetts made a poignant Christmas wish on a falling star. He yearned for his teddy bear, named Teddy, to come to life … and so it did. We see the process of Teddy becoming a national sensation with TV appearances on Johnny Carson, but before you know it, they are both grown up, and Teddy has become curtly abbreviated to Ted (voiced by MacFarlane). He's a has-been, an ex-celebrity, depressed and foul-mouthed, addicted to casual and demeaning sex, smoking weed with his feckless buddy John on the couch at nine in the morning, or in the park, and complaining that he feels like one of the cast members of Diff'rent Strokes – "You know, the live ones." As for John, his adulthood has been catastrophically impaired by loyalty to his friend, the way the mental age of famous people is frozen at the age at which they became famous. He is working for a boring car-hire company, but is living with a beautiful, ambitious and very tolerant career woman, Lori (Mila Kunis), who is sick of sharing her man with a talking toy bear. Soon it will be time for John to make a big life choice. Either Ted goes – or she does.

Peter Bradshaw, Xan Brooks and Catherine Shoard review Ted on the Guardian Film Show Link to this video

It might be a stretch to claim that Ted is a satirical commentary on the infantilised state of western male culture, because it is not so much a satire as a cheerfully and unironically supportive celebration. Ted could, with some script tweaks, be read as some sort of M Night Shyamalan-type mystery, or a wish-fulfilment tale of males somehow finding a way to let their id cathartically speak out, loud and proud – though here again we are straying into Gibson/Beaver territory.

Shamelessly incorrect ... Mark Wahlberg and Seth MacFarlance in Ted. Photograph: Universal Pictures/Sportsphoto Ltd/Allstar

Britain's current Olympic mood – generous, wholesome and healthily upbeat – is very wrong for this film. Seth MacFarlane, the creator of TV's Family Guy, has co-written and directed a stoner fantasy comedy which is cynical and lethargic, sour and dour; it is misanthropic, crass, facetious, offensive, immature and very funny. Ted is about a grown man's relationship with a non-imaginary imaginary animal; it is quite without the sympathetic, redemptive notes of films such as Harvey or ET or the Toy Stories, movies to which it would not dare or bother to compare itself. However, compared to The Beaver starring Mel Gibson, the tale of a menopausal executive who speaks to a hand puppet, Ted is a watercolour exercise in whimsical charm

Actually, it is probably simply another example of the nostalgia to which screen comics are prone: the nostalgia for the student or ex-student days of messing around, talking about stupid TV shows and pop culture and having fun – the playful atmosphere from which their deadly serious vocation of comedy originally sprang. It is the same mood as that in Old School, or Knocked Up, or The 40-Year-Old Virgin: a man-boy world of guys who accept the future necessity of working for a living and want to escape it. A toy bear toils not, neither does it spin, and so exercises an awful fascination.

In Ted, MacFarlane includes a derogatory reference to Adam Sandler's appalling comedy Jack and Jill: and of course how could any reference to that film be anything other than derogatory? Yet there are Sandlerisms here. The poster showing John and Ted at the urinals is very like that for Sandler's foster-father comedy Big Daddy (1999), and in fact the knowing, goof-off mood is reminiscent of Judd Apatow's interesting filmFunny People, about the emotionally paralysed life of a madly successful Hollywood comedian.

This unfolds in a series of vignettes without all that much in the way of an important narrative arc, and I admit Mila Kunis's role is a pretty thankless one. But in its shamelessly incorrect way, it is very funny. I enjoyed Ted and John's bizarre exchange on the subject of white-trash names, their final falling out, and the subsequent brutal and extended fight in a hotel room. This film may well be dismissed by some with the phrase "comedy is very subjective", a phrase traditionally used by pundits to mean: "This is absolutely and objectively unfunny but I am far too wearily mature to argue about it." In my experience, comedy is subjective, but no more so than anything else. Ted has nothing much to offer in terms of subtlety and sensitivity, but there are plenty of laughs.

Sourced: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/aug/02/ted-review

Cardiff confirm Bellamy signing

The 33-year-old was officially a free agent after his contract at Liverpool had expired earlier this summer.

Bellamy, who enjoyed a loan spell with his hometown club during the 2010/11 season, will join his team-mates next week ahead of their Championship opener against Huddersfield.

"I would like to place on record my thanks to a number of key parties that have facilitated Craig's return," Bluebirds chief executive Alan Whiteley told the club's official website.

"I would also like to thank our manager for his tenacity and single mindedness in ensuring the transfer could take place - and for making my life a misery until such time as it could be completed!

"Finally to Craig, for having the confidence and courage to buy into and wanting to be a part of the club's future. Craig's return will be met with huge excitement and enthusiasm by all Cardiff City fans - and as the perfect backdrop to the start of the new season."

Sourced: http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/news/cardiff-confirm-bellamy-signing-134435069.html

Roy Hodgson leaves the England door open for John Terry

Roy Hodgson has said John Terry is still part of his England plans and only a length FA ban would change that. Photograph: Alexander Khudeteply/AFP/Getty Images

Roy Hodgson has indicated he wants to keep John Terry in his plans for the England team even if the Football Association rules that the Chelsea captain did racially abuse Anton Ferdinand.

Terry will not be involved in Wednesday's friendly against Italy after Hodgson named an experimental squad notable for the return of Michael Carrick and call-ups for Jack Rodwell, Steven Caulker, Jake Livermore and Ryan Bertrand.

Hodgson was always planning to experiment and the England manager said it would need "an enormous ban" for Terry not to remain a part of future squads at the end of the FA's disciplinary hearing.

Hodgson said the same applied to Rio Ferdinand, Anton's elder brother, who has been charged with misconduct by the FA for responding to a tweet about "choc-ice" in a conversation about Ashley Cole's evidence during Terry's recent trial at Westminster magistrates' court. Ferdinand said his comment was misconstrued.

However, Ferdinand's exclusion from the latest squad all but confirms what is widely known already, namely that his international career is over while Hodgson is in charge. Terry faces a more serious offence, which he denies, arising from Chelsea's trip to QPR last October, but Hodgson does not believe a guilty verdict should rule the player out of being picked to represent his country in the future.

"John Terry has been through a charge in a court; now he has to go through the process the FA has embarked upon," Hodgson said. "The same applies to Rio. As far as I am concerned, it is a disciplinary matter, which the FA will take care of.

"As long as they don't suffer enormous bans that will keep them out of my thinking there is no reason for me to believe I can't consider them in the future. And obviously I will."

As well as Terry, Hodgson has also left out his other first-choice defenders from Euro 2012 – Cole, Joleon Lescott and Glen Johnson – and several other senior players, including Steven Gerrard and Wayne Rooney. Frank Lampard returns in midfield and Hodgson blamed a misunderstanding for Carrick's non-involvement in Euro 2012.

"Michael Carrick would have always been in our thinking. I was given to believe he didn't want to be part of the England setup. He didn't want to be considered for the Euros so I reluctantly thought if people are not available they are not available."

Carrick had, indeed, withdrawn from contention while Fabio Capello was still in charge at the beginning of the year, on the basis he was fed up of being a fringe player. Stuart Pearce, the caretaker manager, asked him to return for the February friendly against Holland but could not talk him round. David Geiss, Carrick's agent, then informed the FA this was still the case shortly before Hodgson named his Euro 2012 squad.

"He [Carrick] has had discussions with Gary [Neville] and me since and it turns out that he does want to play," Hodgson said. "This is an ideal opportunity to invite him to play for England again. There has never been any doubt that Carrick has not been in our thoughts or our wishes. It was more a case of believing he wasn't available for England and that it was a final decision."

Hodgson's squad includes five of the players who were involved in the Olympics with Great Britain. "I think it's very important to get a look at some of the younger players. But it's also important to make sure that the players who should have been with us at the Euros – John Ruddy, Frank Lampard, Gary Cahill – had a chance to come with us.

"There's a good balance in the squad. There are plenty of senior players to start the game for us but it will also be nice to see some of the younger ones. I've left [out] a lot of the players who did extremely well at the Euros – the senior players whose position is in no doubt – to give others a chance."

England squad to play Italy in Berne on 15 August

Joe Hart (Man City), Jack Butland (Birmingham), John Ruddy (Norwich); Kyle Walker (Spurs), Gary Cahill (Chelsea), Steven Caulker (Spurs), Phil Jagielka , Leighton Baines (both Everton), Ryan Bertrand (Chelsea); Jack Rodwell (Everton), Michael Carrick (Man Utd), Frank Lampard (Chelsea), Jake Livermore (Spurs), Tom Cleverley (Man Utd), James Milner, Adam Johnson (both Man City), Ashley Young (Man Utd), Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (Arsenal), Theo Walcott (Arsenal); Daniel Sturridge (Chelsea), Andy Carroll (Liverpool), Jermain Defoe (Spurs).

Sourced: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/aug/10/roy-hodgson-england-john-terry

Beckham to play 'small part' in Olympic opening ceremony

The LA Galaxy midfielder was controversially left out of Stuart Pearce's 18-man team for the Games but has now confirmed that he will continue to be involved in London.

Beckham was part of the successful bid team seven years ago and described how grateful he remains to Sebastian Coe, chairman of the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games, for giving him a part to play.

"It's amazing to see," Beckham told ITV. "To be involved in the bid team that got the Olympics to London is something I feel very proud about.

"[I will have] some kind of role in the opening ceremony which I am honored to be involved in because obviously I was involved in the start of this process seven years ago.

"For it to all come to life now, and to see the Olympic Park built and all the athletes start to arrive is exciting.

"I'm privileged to still be involved in this. I was involved seven years ago [in bringing the Games to London] and Seb [Coe] has kept me involved since then. I feel very honoured with that. 

"At the time I said it felt a bit strange to be involved in an Olympic bid team, because I'd never performed in the Olympics or been an Olympian. So to be asked to be part of that bid team, I was very honoured.

"Seb's an amazing man who's done amazing things leading up to these Olympics, and who continues to do amazing things. So for him to keep me involved, I feel privileged."

Beckham, now 37, has won more England caps than any other outfield player and captained his country between 2000 and 2006.


Sourced: http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/4433/2012-olympics/2012/07/24/3262986/beckham-to-play-small-part-in-olympic-opening-ceremony

iPhone 5 expected to launch in September with new connector

Apple's next iPhone, already being dubbed the iPhone 5, is expected to launch in mid-September, with a new "nano-sim" system to enable the device, the Guardian has learned.

Sources also say that the device will introduce a new 19-pin power and control connector on its base, dumping the 30-pin connector first introduced with the third-generation iPod in April 2003.

The new phone is also expected to include 4G mobile broadbandcapability, but only offer compatibility with networks in the US. 4G networks in Europe and the rest of the world transmit on different frequencies and so are incompatible with US systems.

Apple will be the first major manufacturer to use the nano-sim card. Some operators began ordering the chip cards in substantial numbers even while Apple, Nokia and BlackBerry-maker RIM were still wrangling over the fine details in spring this year.

The nano-sim design is 40% smaller even than the micro-sim used insmartphones such as the iPhone 4S, Samsung Galaxy S3 and Nokia Lumia range introduced in the past 12 months, and was only agreed by the European standards body ETSI on 1 June.

Mobile phone companies anticipate a mid-September launch for the iPhone 5, and expect demand to be extremely high as present owners of iPhone 3G and 3GS look to upgrade, and those who have not yet bought a smartphone consider a shift from an older featurephone.

The Taiwanese electronics news site Digitimes has quoted industry sources saying that Pegatron, a contract manufacturer, has begun making the new iPhone at its factory in Shanghai. It also says that Pegatron is making new versions of the iPad for a third-quarter shipment date.

Another source in China, quoted by the French site App4Phone, suggests that Apple will release the next iPhone on Friday 21 September.

If correct, that would be the day on which the phone goes on sale, because manufacturers want to release new handsets to consumers at the beginning of the weekend.

Last year, Apple chief executive Tim Cook unveiled the iPhone 4S on Tuesday 4 October, and the phone went on sale on Friday 14 October.

If the 21 September release date is correct, that would imply a public unveiling by Apple on Tuesday 11 September this year.

Dumping the 30-pin connector for a new design could hobble the multi-billion-dollar business for iPhone, iPod and iPad accessories, which relied on the now likely-to-be-outmoded proprietary socket to connectthe Apple equipment to the power supply or other devices.

Apple will be keen to begin selling a new iPhone as soon as possible. Last year expectations were high that, as from 2007 to 2010, it would announce the new model in June and start selling it soon afterwards.

But instead the iPhone 4S launch did not come until October, leading to a dramatic dip in iPhone sales in the July-September quarter.

Though sales of the 4S and the rest of the iPhone range was very high, Cook said at Apple's earnings announcement that month that the company knew there was great anticipation in June and July and that speculation hit extreme highs by September 2011.

Consumers held off buying Apple phones that month in anticipation of the new model.

Accessory makers will be holding their breath to find out more about the new design.

The website iMore, which was the first to report in February that the next iPhone would remodel its connector, said on Tuesday night that Apple would offer an adapter to enable 19-pin devices to link to older 30-pin connectors and accessories.

But that will still leave accessory makers in a quandary about whether to focus on the newer connector, in the expectation that more devices will use those in the future, or to stick with the old one – which fits more than half a billion iPods, iPhone and iPads.

The accessory business is highly competitive, yet offers retailers a better margin than selling Apple devices alone.

Retail margins on the items are typically around 40%, compared to about 10% on iPods or iPads. Some manufacturers will almost certainly make adapters to let older iOS 30-pin devices connect to the new 19-pin systems.

Speculation is already building, with a survey carried out by ChangeWave Research reporting unprecedented demand for the next iPhone: a poll of 4,042 American consumers found 14% "very likely" to buy one, and 17% "somewhat likely" to.

The iPhone commands a substantial share of the US market, helped by subsidies from US carriers.

UK operators, too, expect to see heavy demand for the new phone, whose release would also bring a new version of Apple's iOS which dispenses with Google for its mapping system.

O2, which originally signed up many iPhone users in the UK, could lose out as the new phone is expected to be available through every carrier, leading to a more competitive market than previously for owners looking to upgrade.

Apple said it did not comment on rumours and speculation.

Sourced: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/jul/24/iphone-5-launch-expected-september?newsfeed=true