In winning second place to mobile phone salesman turned opera singer Paul Potts at the Britain's Got Talent show in 2007, she was well on her way to stardom. She was so good that Simon Cowell even signed her on to his record label.
Such was the attention for the gap-toothed six-year-old girl who won over the UK with her pitch-perfect rendition of Over The Rainbow, that for the first few weeks after the competition, her parents had to hire a bodyguard to look after her when she went out in public.
| [The New York Times] |
According to The Associated Press, his agent, John S. Kelly, said Mr. Nielsen died at a hospital near his home in Fort Lauderdale where he was being treated for pneumonia.
Mr. Nielsen, a tall man with a matinee-idol profile, was often cast as an earnest hero at the beginning of his film career, in the 1950s.
The 20-year-old was beaten by rival Jennifer Grey, a cancer survivor, and partner Derek Hough, who had consistently topped the judges' leader-board throughout the season.
Shedding tears of joy, she said: 'It's such a sweet thing at the end of such a tricky tumultuous journey and it was worth every second of it It was the chance of a lifetime and I'm so grateful that I didn't miss it.'
Asked what she would miss most about the show, Grey replied simply: 'Dancing.'
The pair's win has made Derek Hough the first and only three-time champion of Dancing With The Stars, after previously winning the competition with Nicole Scherzinger earlier this year and with Brooke Burke in 2008.
Sarah Palin's daughter came in third place behind runner-up, Disney star Kyle Massey, 19.
The US show, hosted by racing/stunt driver Tanner Foust, Speed Channel reporter Rutledge Wood and comedian/actor Adam Ferrera, took a harsh beating on Twitter with tweets like ‘Top Gear US verdict: FAIL. Too scripted, no chemistry, not remotely funny, lacks flow.’ [sic]
[ChucksGlee] In a telephone conversation with one of her godfathers, Charice confirmed her return as Sunshine Corazon on GLEE's sixth episode of season two titled "Never Been Kissed." In the said conversation, Charice also denied she will be singing a Celine Dion song for this upcoming episode.
After a two episode hiatus, Puck is also going to be back from 'juvy' on this episode.
First it was Rocky, then it was Rambo and more recently Indiana Jones, and now Tom Cruise is following the eighties remake craze by filming a Top Gun sequel.
Twenty two years after Maverick sang his way into the heart of his instructor Charlie with 'You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling', the fighter pilot will take to the skies again.
Movie bosses are keen to resurrect the mega-successful 1986 movie, which launched Tom onto Hollywood's A-list and earned $350million worldwide.
Cruise, 46, is in talks with studio bosses to reprise his role as Lt. Pete 'Maverick' Mitchell in a long-awaited follow-up.
An insider tells The Sun: 'The idea is Maverick is at the Top Gun school as an instructor - and this time it is he who has to deal with a cocky new female pilot.'
The original Top Gun starred Cruise as an cocky aspiring pilot who falls in love with his beautiful instructor, Charlie Blackwood, played by Kelly McGillis.
The actor's film career has been remarkably less successful in recent years after previously dominating the highest box offices receipts since the 1980s.
His last big hit was War Of The Worlds in 2005 - which was released around the same time he started dating his now third wife Katie Holmes.
Mission: Impossible III in 2006 performed below industry expectations, taking less money than the first film in 1996, which was a huge worldwide success.
His last film, Lions For Lambs, which opened last November, failed to make an impact at the box office and was critically mauled.
If Cruise agrees to reprise his role, Top Gun 2 would be a surefire box office hit.
Nolan was most eager to talk about the fact that Warner Bros. had agreed with his argument that the film should resist the current 3-D craze and instead use high-definition approaches and IMAX cameras to strike out on a different cinematic path than the stereoscopic technology that, for better or worse, has become the dominant conversation in the blockbuster sector.
Check back here later in the morning for a more in-depth look at that decision and the Nolan ambitions and reasons behind it.
As for the title, it shows the writer-director’s intention to keep his Bruce Wayne trilogy tightly stitched together. “We’ll use many of the same characters as we have all along, and we’ll be introducing some new ones,” Nolan said cryptically. I had an odd thought: What if Nolan somehow brings back Harvey Dent? The only reason I even mention it is because, back during post-production on the second film, Nolan told me that the title “The Dark Knight” was just as much about Dent and his fall from the status of shining-knight civic crusader. Dent was plainly dead at the end of the last film, though, and Nolan has been intent on keeping his Gotham City film firmly rooted in a gritty gangland realism– this isn’t a franchise that has veered off into the supernatural or even much super-science.
Nolan plays things close to the vest — he’s one of the few filmmakers of his generation who actually does wear a vest — and he chuckled when I tried to get a few more details out of him. “Oh, you know me, I don’t talk.” He began our conversation by comparing it with a visit to the dentist’s office. Well, if so, he’s a patient who never opens wide. I asked if he could imagine a time when Warner Bros. would let a filmmaker shoot a Batman script where the villain isn’t one of the signature creations from the comic books. “Ah, Geoff Boucher, master of the leading question,” he said with a chuckle.
That’s when he did agree, however, to eliminate a villain candidate, namely Edward Nigma, the green-suited Riddler, who many people (myself included) assumed was the next natural choice. That character could be taken in a lot of directions — think of Kevin Spacey’s character in “Seven” as a compass point for one of those dark paths — but Nolan and his team are going a different way. As with “Dark Knight,” the new film has a script written by Nolan and his brother, Jonah, and it’s based on a story by the director and David Goyer. Earlier, I got Nolan to take Mr. Freeze off the list and, yes, this is like pulling teeth but don’t think for a minute that I mind. Nolan makes sublime films, and any secrets he wants to keep in place are done so to protect the final product. As for me, I’m hoping now for Hugo Strange who, come to think of it, looks a bit like a dentist…
The 24-year-old singer was personally handpicked by Pacquiao to sing "Lupang Hinirang" after he heard her perform in an Investor's night in Sarangani. Zyrene Parsad vows that she will give the song justice. "I'm going to sing it in 55 seconds. I'm going to sing it right, not on my own interpretation, because I respect the composer of the song." she said.