HollywoodNews.com: Filmfestivals.com was launched in 1995. The number of festivals has grown tremendously since then, doubling almost. We know of at least 4500 (registered in filmfestivals.com directory). This site has grown to become the premier exhaustive directory and professional portal, recognized as a trusted source of information in this changing environment.

The successes in the festival scene like Tribeca and Dubai, among others, are striking examples of festivals that relied on international promotion on dedicated media like filmfestivals.com.

A strong festival brand (based on industry awareness, legitimacy, solid sponsorships, audience and media support and growing box office) provides easier access to more and better films.

International Box-Office accounts for more than half of most film career results. The festival circuit is recognized as the best opportunity for independents to gain national and international distribution, media attention and buzz with qualified audience. Filmfestivals.com websites deliver strong exposure among emerging indie filmmakers and pros.

Some festivals strictly focus on local/national filmmakers, most prefer to show to their audience film from broader horizons, including new international filmmakers, new upcoming talent…Filmfestivals.com audience is 45% US – 55% rest of the world. Filmfestsivals.com websites are the first websites that professionals check when they start focusing on the festival circuit.

About FILMFESTIVALS.COM
filmfestivals.com and fest21.com are published by M21 Entertainment, established 1995 as the leading source of information for the Film Festival Circuit. The Festival Directory is maintained on fest21.com, and featured on filmfestivals.com, it lists over 4.500 festivals, the most comprehensive worldwide by far.

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A professional standard for measuring and understanding reviews.

To read more about Movie Review Intelligence go to www.moviereviewintelligence.com

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HollywoodNews.com: The 15th Annual Hollywood Film Festival® and Hollywood Awards®, presented by Starz, announces their “2011 Call For Entries” for all of its categories and genres including features, documentaries, shorts, animation, drama, and comedy. The Hollywood Film Festival® will run from October 20 to 24 at the state-of-the-art ArcLight Cinemas, in Hollywood.

“We are very excited that we will be celebrating our 15th anniversary and continue our quest to discover embryonic filmmakers from the global creative community,” said festival founder Carlos de Abreu, ” “The Hollywood Film Festival® continues to provide a great platform in the world’s movie capital for indie filmmakers to show their passion projects before their friends, film lovers, and the industry at large.”

The Festival will be capped off by the annual prestigious Hollywood Awards Gala ceremony on October 24, which lauds both annual and career achievements of Hollywood’s emerging and established talents.

HOLLYWOOD FILM FESTIVAL, celebrating its 15th season and acknowledged as one of Hollywood’s most exciting and anticipated film events. Hailed by Daily Variety as “the ultimate networking opportunity,” and “the first mandatory stop in the awards season” by The New York Times, HFF presents filmmakers with a unique opportunity to showcase and network with the industry’s top executives and brightest stars.

In the last 8 years, HFF has seen a total of 73 Oscar nominations and 27 Oscars given to films showcased at HFF and/or to the nominees and honorees of the Hollywood Awards, HFF’s companion event. Previous years have seen Festival finalists get distribution from HBO, Miramax, IFC, 7th Art Releasing, Indican, and Starz, among others.

Based in the heart of the film industry, HFF makes it easy for attending filmmakers to connect with agents, producers, distributors, and other top industry decision makers. The Festival receives coverage, both on and offline, by media outlets from around the world in cable and network television, online, and print. HFF also provides all exhibiting filmmakers with VIP Passes, granting access to premieres and screenings at the Festival, as well as the prestigious and star-studded Hollywood Awards Gala.

UPCOMING EXTENDED FINAL DEADLINE
AUGUST 15, 2011 – EXTENDED FINAL Deadline

MISSION AND OBJECTIVE
HFF’s mission is to bridge the gap between established Hollywood and the global creative community.

MORE ABOUT THE FESTIVAL
HFF success stories include director Craig Brewer (HUSTLE AND FLOW, BLACK SNAKE MOAN, FOOTLOOSE), who was discovered by the Festival with the World Premiere of his first film, POOR AND HUNGRY; director Robert DeFranco, who sold TELLING YOU to Miramax; and director Zoe Clarke Williams, who secured a directing job for an MGM film as a result of her participation at HFF. In addition, HFF award-winning documentarian Janine Hosking sold her documentary MY KHMER HEART to HBO while Diane Estelle Vicari had her film, SUGIHARA: CONSPIRACY OF KINDNESS, picked up by 7th Art Releasing.

The Hollywood Film Festival® prefers paperless entries submitted via The International Film Festival Submission System (BrigitFest) – on the Web at Withoutabox.com.

Hollywood Film Festival®
433 N. Camden Drive, Suite 600
Beverly Hills, CA 90210
info@hollywoodfest.com
310-288-1882

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HollywoodNews.com: Friends with Benefits and Crazy, Stupid, Love. starlet Emma Stone won’t expose relationship details, but she does get to the blonde roots of her Spidey sense, her girl crush, and how the gay rights movement prepared her for The Help.

The Advocate’s Brandon Voss chats with Stone:

http://www.advocate.com/Arts_and_Entertainment/Film/Romancing_Emma_Stone/

Stone chats about:

Being a celebrity activist:
I’m the least eloquent person on the planet, so I don’t know that I’d be the right person to speak out on anything. But that’s what’s so wonderful about good movies and writers: I can be a part of a project that says what I wish I could say. My ultimate goal is to continue doing movies with some sort of message that can make a change, like Easy A or The Help. Because that’s what good movies do for me: They teach me and bring injustices to my attention.

Strong female and tomboy roles endearing her to gay fans:
Oh, I’m so flattered. The tomboy quality is probably coincidental just due to the fact that my voice hits male octaves most of the time. I don’t really think about it — I just respond to what I read — but I must be subconsciously drawn to women who, even if they don’t necessarily have their shit together, are secure within themselves and don’t need a man to fix them.

Her girl-crush:
Christina Hendricks. It’s a no-brainer. Everything about her does it for me. That’s my kind of woman.

Being open to a lesbian relationship:
No, I don’t have a girlfriend. But who knows? You love who you love. … In some friendships there’s so much love between two people that there’s just a fine line. Hey, I have girlfriends that I’m incredibly close to, and there’s definitely a fine line there.

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Fans can watch together and share across their social networks, as the red carpet event is streamed free at yhoo.it/transformerspremiere. Fans can get the chance to see some of their favorite celebrities, including the film’s director Michael Bay and stars Shia LaBeouf, Josh Duhamel, John Turturro, Tyrese Gibson, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Patrick Dempsey, Kevin Dunn, Julie White, Frances McDormand and Ken Jeong. After watching the live red carpet, fans can head to theaters as the movie opens exclusively in 3D at 9 p.m. on June 28th and everywhere beginning at midnight on June 29th.

Fans tuning in from different time zones around the globe will also have an opportunity to experience the event highlights throughout the following day, subsequent to the U.S. premiere on movies.yahoo.com.

To share this exclusive Transformers event with your friends, see the attached embed code or visit yhoo.it/transformerspremiere for more options.

TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON is directed by Michael Bay, written by Ehren Kruger and produced by Don Murphy & Tom DeSanto, Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Ian Bryce. The executive producers are Steven Spielberg, Michael Bay, Brian Goldner and Mark Vahradian. When a mysterious event from Earth’s past erupts into the present day it threatens to bring a war to Earth so big that the Transformers alone will not be able to save us. The movie stars Shia LaBeouf, Josh Duhamel, John Turturro, Tyrese Gibson, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Patrick Dempsey, Kevin Dunn, Julie White with John Malkovich and Frances McDormand. It will be released by Paramount Pictures worldwide on June 29th. © 2011 Paramount Pictures Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

HASBRO, TRANSFORMERS and all related characters are trademarks of Hasbro.
© 2011 Hasbro. All Rights Reserved.

For more information, go to www.TransformersMovie.com

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Kate Middleton

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Kate Middleton - Prince William Visit Witton Country Park in Darwen

Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge (born Catherine Elizabeth Middleton on 9 January 1982), popularly known as “Kate”, is the wife of Prince William, Duke of Cambridge. William is second in line to the thrones of the sixteen Commonwealth realms, and if he becomes king, she would become queen consort. Catherine grew up in Chapel Row at Bucklebury, a village near Newbury, Berkshire, England. She studied in Scotland at the University of St Andrews, where she met William in 2001. They started a romantic relationship that continued until a break-up lasting for several months in 2007. However, they continued to be friends and rekindled their relationship later that year.

Prior to the wedding, Catherine attended many high-profile royal events. Once their relationship became public, Catherine received widespread media attention and there was much speculation that she and William would eventually marry. Their engagement was announced on 16 November 2010, and they married on 29 April 2011 at Westminster Abbey.

Early life and family
Catherine was born at Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading on 9 January 1982 and christened at St Andrew’s Bradfield, Berkshire on 20 June 1982. She is the eldest of three children born to Carole Elizabeth Middleton (née Goldsmith), a former flight attendant and now part-owner of Party Pieces, a private company with an estimated worth of £30 million, and Michael Francis Middleton, who also worked as a flight attendant prior to becoming a flight dispatcher for British Airways, currently also an owner of Party Pieces. Her parents married on 21 June 1980, at the Parish Church of Dorney, Buckinghamshire, and in 1987, founded Party Pieces, a mail order company that sells party supplies and decorations. Catherine has a sister, Philippa Charlotte, known as “Pippa” (born 1983), and a brother, James Middleton (born 1987). The family has complained about press harassment of Pippa and their mother since Catherine’s engagement.

Catherine’s paternal family came from Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire, and her great-grandmother Olivia was a member of the Lupton family, who were active for generations in Leeds in commercial and municipal work. Her ancestors include The Rev. Thomas Davis, a Church of England hymn-writer. Carole Middleton’s maternal family, the Harrisons, were working class labourers and miners from Sunderland and County Durham.

Catherine’s parents were based in Amman, Jordan, working for British Airways from May 1984, to September 1986, where Catherine went to an English language nursery school, before returning to their home in Berkshire. After her return from Amman, Catherine was educated at St Andrew’s School near the village of Pangbourne in Berkshire, then briefly at Downe House. She continued her studies at Marlborough College, a co-educational independent boarding school in Wiltshire, followed by the University of St Andrews in Fife, Scotland where she met William. She graduated with an MA (2:1 Hons) in the History of Art.

Career
In November 2006, Catherine accepted a position as an accessory buyer with the clothing chain Jigsaw. She also worked part time until January 2011 as a catalogue photographer, webpage designer and marketing officer for her parents’ firm “Party Pieces”. In 2008, it was reported that she had quit her job at Jigsaw to become a professional photographer, intending to take private classes with photographer Mario Testino, who had taken several well-known photographs of Diana, Princess of Wales and her sons. Testino later denied that Catherine was going to be working for him.

Public image and style
Catherine is admired for her fashion sense and has been placed on numerous “best dressed” lists. She was selected by The Daily Telegraph as the “Most Promising Newcomer” in its 2006 list of style winners and losers. Tatler placed her at number 8 on its yearly listing of the top ten style icons in 2007. She was featured in People magazine’s 2007 and 2010 best-dressed lists. Catherine was named as one of Richard Blackwell’s ten “Fabulous Fashion Independents” of 2007. In June 2008, Style.com selected Catherine as its monthly beauty icon. In July 2008, Catherine was included in Vanity Fair’s international best-dressed list. In February 2011, Catherine was named the Top Fashion Buzzword of the 2011 season by the Global Language Monitor.

Relationship with Prince William
Catherine’s status as the undeclared girlfriend of William brought her widespread media coverage in Britain and abroad and she was often photographed on her daily outings. On 17 October 2005, she complained through her lawyer about harassment from the media, stating that she had done nothing significant to warrant such publicity. In February 2006, it was announced that Catherine would receive her own 24-hour security detail supplied by the Royalty Protection branch (SO14). This fuelled further speculation that she and William would soon be engaged, since she would not otherwise be entitled to this service.

No engagement was forthcoming and Catherine was not granted an allowance to fund this security. Media attention increased around the time of Catherine’s 25th birthday in January 2007, prompting warnings from both Charles and William and from Catherine’s lawyers, who threatened legal action. Two newspaper groups, News International, which publishes The Times and The Sun, and the Guardian Media Group, publishers of The Guardian, decided to refrain from publishing paparazzi photographs of her. Catherine attended at least one event as an official royal guest, William’s Passing Out Parade at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst on 15 December 2006. In December 2007, it was reported that Catherine had moved in with Prince William at Clarence House, the residence of the Prince of Wales in London. Clarence House later denied this.

On 17 May 2008, Catherine attended the wedding of William’s cousin Peter Phillips to Autumn Kelly, which the prince did not attend. On 19 July 2008, she was a guest at the wedding of Lady Rose Windsor and George Gilman. William was away on military operations in the Caribbean, serving aboard the HMS Iron Duke. In 2010, Catherine pursued an invasion of privacy claim against two agencies and photographer Niraj Tanna, who took pictures of her over Christmas 2009. Catherine obtained a public apology, £5,000 in damages, and legal costs.

Engagement and wedding
The newly married Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, on the balcony of Buckingham Palace
Prince William and Catherine Middleton became engaged in October 2010 in Kenya, East Africa, during a 10-day trip to the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy to celebrate William passing his RAF helicopter search and rescue course. Clarence House announced the engagement on 16 November 2010. The couple married in Westminster Abbey on 29 April 2011, (St. Catherine’s Day) with the day declared a bank holiday in the United Kingdom. Estimates of the global audience for the wedding range from 300 million to two billion people, whilst 24.5 million watched the event live in the United Kingdom.

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HollywoodNews.com: Rumors say that Kate Middleton has been preparing her wardrobe for her first US tour.

“Kate, 29, is enlisting the help of personal shoppers at UK retailers Selfridges and Harvey Nichols.” Kate was seen last week at Alexander McQueen’s London office, which is “fueling rumors that she is working with the brand’s designer Sarah Burton on some custom looks,” according to Grazia Daily.

Prince William and Kate Middleton’s US tour begins in Los Angeles starting on July 8.

What do you think Kate will end up wearing?

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Emma Watson

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Emma Watson - Elle Style Awards 2011

Emma Charlotte Duerre Watson (born 15 April 1990) is an English actress and model who rose to prominence playing Hermione Granger, one of three starring roles in the Harry Potter film series. Watson was cast as Hermione at the age of nine, having previously acted only in school plays. From 2001 to 2010, she starred in seven Harry Potter films alongside Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint; she will return for the final instalment: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2. Watson’s work on the Harry Potter series has earned her several awards and more than $10 million. She made her modeling debut for Burberry’s Autumn/Winter campaign in 2009.

In 2007, Watson announced her involvement in two non-Harry Potter productions: the television adaptation of the novel Ballet Shoes and an animated film, The Tale of Despereaux. Ballet Shoes was broadcast on 26 December 2007 to an audience of 5.2 million, and The Tale of Despereaux, based on the novel by Kate DiCamillo, was released in 2008 and grossed over US $70 million in worldwide sales.

Early life
Emma Watson was born in Paris to Jacqueline Luesby and Chris Watson, both British lawyers. Watson has one French grandmother, and lived in Paris until the age of five. Following her parents’ divorce, she moved with her mother and younger brother to Oxfordshire. From the age of six, Watson wanted to become an actress, and for a number of years she trained at the Oxford branch of Stagecoach Theatre Arts, a part-time theatre school where she studied singing, dancing and acting. By the age of ten, she had performed in various Stagecoach productions and school plays, including Arthur: The Young Years and The Happy Prince, but she had never acted professionally before the Harry Potter series. “I had no idea of the scale of the film series,” she stated in a 2007 interview with Parade; “If I had I would have been completely overwhelmed.”

Harry Potter
In 1999, casting began for Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (released as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in the United States), the film adaptation of British author J. K. Rowling’s best-selling novel. Casting agents found Watson through her Oxford theatre teacher, and producers were impressed by her confidence. After eight auditions, producer David Heyman told Watson and fellow applicants Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint that they had been cast for the roles of the schoolfriends Hermione Granger, Harry Potter and Ron Weasley respectively. Rowling supported Watson from her first screen test.

The release of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone in 2001 was Watson’s debut screen performance. The film broke records for opening-day sales and opening-weekend takings and was the highest-grossing film of 2001. Critics praised the performances of the three leads, often singling out Watson for particular acclaim; The Daily Telegraph called her performance “admirable”, and IGN said she “stole the show”. Watson was nominated for five awards for her performance in Philosopher’s Stone, winning the Young Artist Award for Leading Young Actress.

A year later, Watson again starred as Hermione in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, the second instalment of the series. Although the film received mixed reviews, reviewers were positive about the lead actors’ performances. The Los Angeles Times said Watson and her peers had matured between films, while The Times criticised director Chris Columbus for “under-employing” Watson’s hugely popular character. Watson received an Otto Award from the German magazine Bravo for her performance.

In 2004, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was released. Watson was appreciative of the more assertive role Hermione played, calling her character “charismatic” and “a fantastic role to play”. Although critics panned Radcliffe’s performance, labelling him “wooden”, they praised Watson; The New York Times lauded her performance, saying “Luckily Mr. Radcliffe’s blandness is offset by Ms. Watson’s spiky impatience. Harry may show off his expanding wizardly skills … but Hermione … earns the loudest applause with a decidedly unmagical punch to Draco Malfoy’s deserving nose.” Although Prisoner of Azkaban remains the lowest-grossing Harry Potter film as of April 2009, Watson’s personal performance won her two Otto Awards and the Child Performance of the Year award from Total Film.

With Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005), both Watson and the Harry Potter film series reached new milestones. The film set records for a Harry Potter opening weekend, a non-May opening weekend in the US, and an opening weekend in the UK. Critics praised the increasing maturity of Watson and her teenage co-stars; the New York Times called her performance “touchingly earnest”. For Watson, much of the humour of the film sprang from the tension among the three lead characters as they matured. She said, “I loved all the arguing. … I think it’s much more realistic that they would argue and that there would be problems.” Nominated for three awards for Goblet of Fire, Watson won a bronze Otto Award. Later that year, Watson became the youngest person to appear on the cover of Teen Vogue, an appearance she reprised in August 2009. In 2006, Watson played Hermione in The Queen’s Handbag, a special mini-episode of Harry Potter in celebration of Queen Elizabeth II’s 80th birthday.

The fifth film in the Harry Potter franchise, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, was released in 2007. A huge financial success, the film set a record worldwide opening-weekend gross of $332.7 million. Watson won the inaugural National Movie Award for Best Female Performance. As the fame of the actress and the series continued, Watson and fellow Harry Potter co-stars Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint left imprints of their hands, feet and wands in front of Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood on 9 July 2007.

Despite the success of Order of the Phoenix, the future of the Harry Potter franchise became surrounded in doubt, as all three lead actors were hesitant to sign on to continue their roles for the final two episodes. Radcliffe eventually signed for the final films on 2 March 2007, but Watson was considerably more hesitant. She explained that the decision was significant, as the films represented a further four-year commitment to the role, but eventually conceded that she “could never let [the role of] Hermione go”, signing for the role on 23 March 2007. In return for committing to the final films, Watson’s pay was doubled to £2 million per film; she concluded that “in the end, the pluses outweighed the minuses”. Principal photography for the sixth film began in late 2007, with Watson’s part being filmed from 18 December to 17 May 2008.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince premiered on 15 July 2009, having been controversially delayed from November 2008. With the lead actors now in their late teens, critics were increasingly willing to review them on the same level as the rest of the film’s all-star cast, which the Los Angeles Times described as “a comprehensive guide to contemporary UK acting”. The Washington Post felt Watson to have given “[her] most charming performance to date”, while The Daily Telegraph described the lead actors as “newly-liberated and energised, eager to give all they have to what’s left of the series”.
Watson’s filming for the final instalment of the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, began on 18 February 2009 and ended on 12 June 2010. For financial and scripting reasons, the original book has been divided into two films which were shot back to back. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 1 was released in November 2010, and the second film is scheduled for release in July 2011.

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Rihanna

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Rihanna in Concert on NBC's Today Show Summer Concert

In 2005, Rihanna released her debut studio album, Music of the Sun, which peaked in the top ten of the Billboard 200 chart and features the Billboard Hot 100 hit single “Pon de Replay.” Less than a year later, she released her second studio album, A Girl Like Me (2006), which peaked within the top five of the Billboard albums chart, and produced her first US number one single, “SOS”, as well as the top 10 singles “Unfaithful” and “Break It Off”. Rihanna’s third studio album, Good Girl Gone Bad (2007), which peaked at number two on the Billboard 200, featured five top ten hits including three US number one hit singles—”Umbrella”, “Take a Bow” and “Disturbia”—and the worldwide hit “Don’t Stop the Music”. The album was nominated for nine Grammy Awards, winning Best Rap/Sung Collaboration for “Umbrella,” which features Jay-Z. Her fourth studio album Rated R, released in November 2009, produced the hit single “Rude Boy”, which achieved the number-one spot on the Billboard Hot 100. Loud (2010), her fifth studio album, spawned the number-one hits “Only Girl (In the World)”, “What’s My Name?” and “S&M”.

Rihanna has sold more than 20 million albums and 60 million singles making her one of the best selling artists of all time. She has achieved ten number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100 since first appearing on the chart on June 11, 2005, which is the most by any artist during that time span. As of March 18, 2011, Rihanna has sold approximately 6 million album units and over 33,7 million digital singles in the US. She has sold over 10 million records in the UK. Billboard named Rihanna the Digital Songs Artist of the 2000s decade. She has received several accolades, including the 2007 World Music Awards for World’s Best-Selling Pop Female Artist and Female Entertainer of the Year, and the 2011 Brit Award for Best International Female Solo Artist. She has also amassed a total of four Grammy Awards, four American Music Awards, and eighteen Billboard Music Awards.

1988–04: Early life and career beginnings
Rihanna was born in Saint Michael, Barbados on February 20, 1988, to Monica, an accountant, and Ronald Fenty, a warehouse supervisor. Her mother, a native of Guyana, is Afro-Guyanese, and her father is of Barbadian and Irish descent. The eldest of three siblings, she has two younger brothers, Rorrey and Rajad Fenty. She began singing at around the age of seven. Her childhood was deeply affected by her father’s addiction to crack cocaine and her parents’ rocky marriage, which ended when she was fourteen years old. Rihanna attended Charles F. Broome Memorial School, a primary school in Barbados, and then the Combermere School, where she formed a musical trio with two of her classmates at the age of fifteen. In 2004 she won the Miss Combermere Beauty Pageant. She was an army cadet in a sub-military programme that trained with the military of Barbados and Shontelle was her drill sergeant.

In 2003, friends introduced Rihanna and her two bandmates to record producer Evan Rogers, who was vacationing in Barbados with his wife. The group auditioned for Rogers, who said that “the minute Rihanna walked into the room, it was like the other two girls didn’t exist.” While auditioning for Rogers, Rihanna sang Destiny’s Child’s cover of “Emotion”. Over the next year, Rihanna and her mom shuttled back and forth to Rogers’ home in Stamford, Connecticut. Then, shortly after turning 16, she relocated in the United States and moved in with Rogers and his wife. Carl Sturken helped her record a four-song demo, which included the ballad “Last Time”, a cover of Whitney Houston’s hit “For the Love of You”, and what would become her first hit, “Pon de Replay”, to send to various recording companies. It took a year to record the demos, because Rihanna was going to school and would only record during summer and Christmas school breaks. Her demo made its way to Def Jam, which invited her to audition for the label’s then-president, Jay-Z, who quickly signed her.

2005–06: Music of the Sun and A Girl Like Me
After signing with Def Jam, she spent the next three months recording and completing her debut album. The album featured production from Evan Rogers, Carl Sturken, Stargate and Poke & Tone. She first collaborated with rapper Memphis Bleek on his fourth studio album 534 before her debut. She released her debut single, “Pon de Replay”, on August 22, 2005, which peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 and the UK Singles Chart. It became a global hit where it peaked within the top ten across fifteen countries. Her debut album, Music of the Sun, was released in August 2005 in the United States. The album reached number ten on the Billboard 200, selling 69,000 copies in its first week. The album sold over two million copies worldwide and received a Gold certification by the Recording Industry Association of America, denoting shipments to US retailers of over 500,000 units.

Her music was marketed within the reggae genres because of her Caribbean descent. The album received mixed reviews by music critics. Rolling Stone magazine rated it 2.5 out of 5 stars and described as lacking the replay value, ingenuity and rhythm of the single with “generic vocal hiccups and frills” of US R&B inflecting upon her “Caribbean charm”. Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine described the album as a “glut of teen R&B chanteuses ” and described her lead single “Pon de Replay” as “a dancehall-pop mixture that owes plenty of its sweat and shimmy to Beyoncé’s “Baby Boy”. A reviewer for Entertainment Weekly commented that the “dancehall/R&B debut is filled with chintzy production and maudlin arrangements that block out the Music of the Sun.” The albums second single, “If It’s Lovin’ that You Want” was less successful than “Pon de Replay”, having managed a peak position of number thirty-six in the US, and number eleven on the UK Singles Chart. In Australia, Ireland and New Zealand the single proved to be well-received reaching the top ten in those countries.

A month after the release of her debut album, she began working on her second studio album. The album contained production from record producers Evan Rogers and Carl Sturken who produced most of her debut album, Stargate, J. R. Rotem and label-mate singer-songwriter Ne-Yo. While recording the album, Rihanna served as an opening act for Gwen Stefani to promote her debut album. The lead single, “SOS”, peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming her first number-one in the United States. A Girl Like Me was released in April 2006, less than eight months after her debut. The album reached number five on the Billboard 200 selling 115,000 copies in its first week and has been certified platinum by the RIAA, having shipped over one million units. Internationally, the album peaked at number one on the Top Canadian Albums, five on the UK Albums Chart and number five on the Irish Album Chart. The critical response to the album was mixed; Rolling Stone magazine commented “Like her filler-packed debut album, this similar but superior follow-up doesn’t deliver anything else as ingenious as its lead single.” Critics described the album as a record that almost identically alternates between the sunny dancehall/dub-pop, hip-hop-infused club bangers and gushy, adult-oriented ballads.

The second single, “Unfaithful”, became a major worldwide hit, reaching the top ten in dozen countries around the world, including the United States where it reached number six on the Billboard Hot 100, as well as topping the charts in Canada, France and Switzerland. The albums third single, “We Ride” failed to reprise the success of the lead single but the fourth single, “Break It Off” featuring Sean Paul, jumped from number fifty-two to number ten eventually peaking at number nine. After the release of the album, Rihanna embarked on her first headlining tour, the Rihanna: Live in Concert Tour. She then embarked on the Rock The Block Tour and then toured with Pussycat Dolls from November 2006 to February 2007 in the United Kingdom. Rihanna also made her acting debut in a cameo role in the straight-to-DVD film Bring It On: All or Nothing, which was released on August 8, 2006.

2007–08: Good Girl Gone Bad
Rihanna performing at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre
With her third studio album, Good Girl Gone Bad (2007), Rihanna wanted to head in a new direction with the help of music producers Timbaland, will.i.am and Sean Garrett, and re-imagine her album compositions with fresh, uptempo dance tracks. She adopted a more rebellious image while recording the album, eventually dying her hair black and cutting it short. Rihanna commented, “I want to keep people dancing but still be soulful at the same time [...] You feel different every album, and [at] this stage I feel like I want to do a lot of uptempo [songs].” The album topped the charts in countries like the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, Brazil, Russia and Ireland, and it peaked at number two in the United States and Australia. Unlike previous work, the album featured a more dance-pop sound instead of the dancehall, reggae and ballad styles. The album received positive reviews by critics, becoming her most critically acclaimed album at that time compared to her previous efforts.

The album yielded eight hit singles – all singles reaching the top twenty on the Billboard Hot 100 – including the worldwide number-one hit “Umbrella,” featuring Jay-Z. In addition to reaching number one in various countries, “Umbrella” was the number-one single in the United Kingdom for ten consecutive weeks, making it the longest-running number-one single since Wet Wet Wet’s single “Love Is All Around” spent fifteen weeks at the top in 1994. The song is listed number three on the 100 Best Songs of 2007 published by Rolling Stone magazine. Her other singles, “Shut Up and Drive”, “Don’t Stop The Music” and “Hate That I Love You” were able to mirror the success of “Umbrella,” with “Don’t Stop the Music” reaching number three on the Billboard Hot 100 while peaking at number one in various countries. With the re-issue of her third album, titled Good Girl Gone Bad: Reloaded, which was released in June 2008. Rihanna released the first singles from the re-release “Take a Bow” – which became a worldwide number-one hit – the duet with Maroon 5, “If I Never See Your Face Again,” and the other US number-one hit “Disturbia.” “Disturbia” reached to number four before reaching number one, as her previous single, “Take a Bow”, was at number two, making Rihanna the seventh female singer to have two songs in the top five. Meanwhile, Rihanna was featured on rapper T.I.’s “Live Your Life,” which peaked at number-one on the Billboard Hot 100, giving Rihanna her fifth number-one single on the Hot 100 thus far (“SOS,” “Umbrella,” “Take a Bow” and “Disturbia,” as well as T.I.’s “Live Your Life”). This made Rihanna one of the two female solo artists with the most number-one singles of the decade, with the other being Beyoncé Knowles. It has shipped over two million units in the United States, receiving a two-times-platinum certification from the RIAA; this gave Rihanna her best-selling album to date.

Rihanna was nominated in four categories at the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards, winning Monster Single of the Year and Video of the Year. At the 2008 Grammy Awards, Rihanna earned her first Grammy Award for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration, in addition to receiving five other nominations, including Record of the Year, Best Dance Recording, Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group and Best R&B Song. In support of the album, she kicked off her second headlining tour The Good Girl Gone Bad Tour on September 12, 2007, with several shows across the United States, Canada and Europe[56] and then embarked on the Glow in the Dark Tour with Kanye West, Lupe Fiasco, and N.E.R.D on April 16, 2008. Rihanna won Favorite Pop/Rock Female Artist and Favorite Soul/R&B Female Artist at the 2008 American Music Awards. In December 2008, Margeaux Watson of Entertainment Weekly wrote an article entitled “Rihanna: Diva of the year” which he referred to her breakout success of 2008.

2009–10: Domestic violence case, Rated R
Rihanna on the AMA red carpet in 2009
On February 8, 2009, Rihanna’s scheduled performance at the 2009 Grammy Awards was cancelled. Reports later surfaced regarding an alleged altercation with then-boyfriend, singer Chris Brown, who was arrested on suspicion of making criminal threats. On March 5, 2009, Brown was charged with assault and making criminal threats. Due to a leaked photograph from the Los Angeles Police Department obtained by TMZ.com—which revealed Rihanna had sustained visible injuries—an organization known as STOParazzi has proposed a law called “Rihanna’s Law,” which, if enacted, would “deter employees of law enforcement agencies from releasing photos or information that exploits crime victims.” Gil Kaufman of VH1 reported “[t]he nonstop coverage of the Rihanna/Brown case has brought up a number of issues regarding the privacy of alleged victims of domestic violence, including the decision by almost all major news outlets to divulge the identity of the victim—which is not typically done in domestic-violence cases” and the controversial distribution of the leaked photograph. Rihanna was subpoenaed to testify during a preliminary hearing in L.A. on June 22, 2009. “The DA told me Rihanna will be subpoenaed. I will accept on her behalf,” Rihanna’s attorney, Donald Etra told Us Weekly. On June 22, 2009, Brown pled guilty to the felony assault. In exchange for his plea Brown received five years probation and was ordered to stay fifty yards away from Rihanna, unless at public events, which then will be reduced to ten yards.

Rihanna made an appearance as the central character in Kanye West’s music video “Paranoid”. She also collaborated with Jay-Z and West on “Run This Town” which peaked at number two on Billboard Hot 100 as well as reaching the top ten in ten other countries. The song won the Grammy Award for Best Rap Song and Best Rap/Sung Collaboration, bringing her total to three Grammys. Her fourth studio album, Rated R, was released in November 2009. Rolling Stone was favorable of the album commenting that “Rihanna has transformed her sound and made one of the best pop records of the year”. The album debuted at number four on the Billboard 200 and has been certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for shipment of one million copies. Its first three singles: “Russian Roulette”, “Hard” and “Rude Boy” peaked within the top ten on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Rude Boy” reaching number-one. The song also topped the charts in Australia, while reaching number two in the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, New Zealand and Switzerland. In January 2010, Rihanna won two Barbados Music Awards for “Song of the Decade” with “Umbrella” and “Entertainer of the Decade”. She was named “International Female Artist of the Year” at the 2010 NRJ Music Awards. Two other singles were released from Rated R, which included “Rockstar 101″ and the final single from the album, “Te Amo”. To further promote the album, she embarked on her worldwide tour, the Last Girl on Earth Tour.

2010-11 : Loud
Rihanna on her Loud Tour
During the summer, Rihanna collaborated with rapper Eminem on “Love the Way You Lie”, which reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100, as well as other countries including Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway and Sweden. The song became Rihanna’s seventh number one hit single on the Hot 100 of her career, making her the female artist with the fifth-most number ones in the chart’s history. In August 2010, a wax figure of Rihanna was unveiled in Madame Tussauds in Washington D.C. Rihanna was asked by Kanye West in or around August 2010 to contribute to “All of the Lights”, the fifth track from West’s fifth studio album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. In an interview with MTV News, Rihanna stated that she “loved” the song, which also features several other artists, including but not limited to Alicia Keys, John Legend, Fergie and Elton John. On October 19, 2010, Rihanna released a self-titled book, and is currently working on Peter Berg’s film, Battleship, scheduled for release in 2012. On October 20, 2010, Rihanna announced that she was parting ways with manager Marc Jordan and will henceforth be managed by Jay-Z’s Roc Nation Management. She is also starting her own company, Rihanna Entertainment, in which she will “merge all of her businesses including music, film, fragrance, fashion and book ventures”.

Rihanna released her fifth studio album, Loud, on November 16, 2010. The album debuted at number three on the Billboard 200, selling 207,000 copies in its first week, becoming the fifth top-ten album of Rihanna’s career in the US, with her best week of sales. Its lead single, “Only Girl (In the World)”, was digitally released in the United States in September 2010. After many weeks, the song reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100. “Only Girl (In the World)” also reached number one in more than ten countries including Australia, Canada, and the UK. Later the song won a Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording at the 53rd Grammy Awards. The album’s second single, “What’s My Name?”, featuring rapper Drake, also reached number one in the United States and on the official UK singles chart, giving Rihanna the record of being the first female solo artist to have five number one singles in the United Kingdom in consecutive years. Although it was the second single from Loud, it reached the top spot before the first single, “Only Girl (In the World)” making it the first time in Hot 100 history that an album’s debut single reached number one after the second single.

In April 2011, Rihanna earned another milestone when “S&M”, her third international single from Loud, featuring Britney Spears reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming her tenth number one hit on the chart. By doing so she became the youngest artist in the chart’s 52-year history to achieve ten number-one singles. The album’s fifth US single was “Man Down” and it has peaked at forty on US Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs Chart. In May 2011, “California King Bed” was released as the fourth international single from the album. It has peaked at number eight on the UK Singles Chart[99] and eighty on Billboard Hot 100.

2011–present: Loud Tour and re-release
Rihanna will embark on her fourth concert tour, the Loud Tour, later this year, in support of the album. In May 2011, Kevin Rudolf The Cash Money singer-producer reveals that Rihanna has asked him to pen songs for her sixth album. He told Rap-Up “I’m writing some stuff for Rihanna right now, I hear she’s back at it.” On June 17, 2011, Ryan Seacrest spoke with her team and made the announcement on KIIS FM radio show. “We can confirm that Rihanna is currently working on material and will release a brand new album this fall”. Rihanna later clarified Seacrest’s comments on her Twitter page that she was recording additional songs to add to a re-release of Loud.

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HollywoodNews.com: David Fincher’s highly anticipated film adaptation of ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ won’t be released until December 21st, but a scandalous poster has already been made public.

According to EntertainmentWeekly.com, the “…poster for the film features a nude Rooney Mara as hacker/goth demi-goddess Lisbeth Salander…” Mara is best known for playing Jesse Eisenberg’s girlfriend in Fincher’s 2010 film ‘The Social Network’.

Co-star Daniel Craig, who will portray journalist Mikael Blomkvist in the film, is shown wrapping his arms around Mara in the “possibly bootlegged” poster. Another version of the poster has the release date somewhat covering up the R-rated parts. The uncensored NSFW version is available to view below.

What do you think of her jewelry?

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