Hundreds flock to meet '50 Shades of Grey' author

Miami: Young school teachers, middle-aged nurses and even the elderly flocked to a Miami book store Sunday for a chance to meet the author of the bestselling erotic romance 'Fifty Shades of Grey' in the launch of her US book tour.

British newcomer E L James drew more than 500 men and women at a morning book signing and spoke that evening to a boisterous, uninhibited crowd at the historic Biltmore Hotel. It was her second-ever book signing, yet the size of the crowd snaking through the store with mimosas and books in hand drew comparisons to the past response for writers such as Anne Rice and even politicians.

"This is a literary phenomenon," said Mitchell Kaplan, owner of Books & Books, the independent bookstore where James was signing copies. "E L struck a nerve, and her storytelling speaks to so many people."

In a few short months, James has snagged a seven-figure contract with Vintage Books, and Universal Pictures and Focus Films have purchased the rights to all three books in the trilogy about an unworldly college student who begins an unusual romantic relationship with a wealthy young businessman. The books have been called "mommy porn" for their sexual content and large, mostly female following, though men are signing up for autographs as well.

"I read it through lunch breaks and I'm giggling," said Laura Vargas, 31, an executive assistant at a large insurance company. "I'm like, 'I can't believe she just wrote that.'"

Clues to avoid getting 'unfriended' on Facebook

Washington: Want to avoid being "unfriended" by your friends on Facebook? Then, just start responding to posts on your wall, researchers say.

Researchers at Arizona State University in the US found that following some simple but unspoken rules - such as responding to messages, avoiding disrespecting people and not posting controversial pictures, can help one stay in friends' good graces always on social networking sites.

Study researcher Erin Bryant and her colleague Jennifer Marmo said many of the "rules" people live by on Facebook are designed to prevent possible awkward situations, LiveScience reported.

It may seem that maintaining a bit of discretion on Facebook is a no-brainer, but in fact, it's these sorts of unspoken rules that make the social world go round, they said.

For their study, published in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, the researchers created a focus group of 44 students, aged between 19 and 24, who averaged about 200 friends each on Facebook and spent nearly 40 minutes a day on the site.

The focus groups came up with 36 rules big and small, from "don't post anything that will hurt a friend's image" to "monitor your photos to make sure they are flattering."

Facebook adds 'life-saving' organ donor feature

New York: Facebook wants to help you share your organs. CEO Mark Zuckerberg says US and UK users will be able to enroll as organ donors via links on the world's biggest social networking site.

Facebook users who are already organ donors can add that information to their Facebook Timelines. And those, who are not organ donors, can find links to official organ donation registries and instantly enroll.

"We want to make it simple," said Zuckerberg. "You just put in the state or country that you are from, so that we can help link you to the official registries."

Zuckerberg announced the organ donor update to Facebook on "Good Morning America" Tuesday. "Facebook is really about communicating and telling stories… We think that people can really help spread awareness of organ donation and that they want to participate in this to their friends. And that can be a big part of helping solve the crisis that’s out there," Zuckerberg told ABC's Robin Roberts in an exclusive interview at the company’s headquarters.

Didn't expect families to see 'Vicky Donor': Director Shoojit Sircar

New Delhi: Shoojit Sircar's 'Vicky Donor' has struck gold with critics as well as the box office but the director says he never expected the film would be lauded so much, especially by the general audience. 'Vicky Donor' was Shoojit's first release six years after 'Yahaan' came and the filmmaker says before its release he was quite sure only college goers would turn up for a film on sperm donation.

"I never imagined that families would turn up to watch Vicky Donor. When a person hasn't had a release for six years, he cannot imagine such a success. I was very pessimistic about it. It's a quirky film, not a mainstream one. But now

youngsters are asking their parents to go and watch the film," Shoojit told PTI.

Made on a budget of about five crores, the April 20 release starring veteran actor Annu Kapoor and newcomers Ayushmann Khurana and Yami Gautam, has reportedly earned 22 crores at the box office so far.

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And the director puts the success down to the unusual subject and the honesty of the story.

"Unusual subjects attract, but cannot sustain the film. To my knowledge, what worked was the story and the honesty of the characters. Nowhere did we try to make it dramatic. The cultural clash and the progressive characters worked."

The film, set in Delhi, shows an unemployed young Punjabi who turns into a sperm donor and falls in love with a Bengali divorcee.

Box Office: 'The Avengers' scores over 'Tezz'

Mumbai: For someone who has been a crowd-puller with his comedies, it seems director Priyadarshan has got it wrong with his action film Tezz this time. Meanwhile, trade experts refer to Life Ki Toh Lag Gayi as a non-starter. However, this week's Hollywood import The Avengers not only opened with good numbers, but looks to sustain for another week as well.

Pegging the first three day's India net collections of Tezz at Rs 11.25 crore, Komal Nahta, veteran trade analyst says, "That's usually the numbers from the first day of a star film. Tezz didn't look like a thriller, it was rather laidback in its approach." Nahta predicts that the film will lose more than Rs 20 crore.

Girish Wankhede of a national multiplex chain adds, "The occupancy of under 35 per cent is not enough for a film from a reputed banner and with a strong cast. The promotions didn't catch on to draw in a sizeable audience either."

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On the contrary, last week's releases Vicky Donor and Hate Story fared better. Delhi-based distributor Sanjay Ghai enthuses,"The word of mouth praise for Vicky Donor is very good, and that has helped it in the second weekend. It should do a lifetime theatrical share of Rs 15-16 crore, which means an India net of about Rs 30 crore. Further, he feels that multiplexes haven't been as kind to Hate Story. Nonetheless, the Vikram Bhatt scripted film featuring Paoli Dam, Gulshan Devaiah and Nikhil Dwivedi has done well in single screens. As Indore-based distributor Aditya Choksi tells us, "Hate Story has done reasonably good business in the solo theatres."

While Nahta pegs the first three days of The Avengers at Rs 15 crore India net, Ghai predicts it will yield a theatrical share of Rs 20 crore. Wankhede attributes the superheroes flick to hype, critics' raving reviews and the ongoing summer vacation. "Monday morning and afternoon shows were strong too. So there's no doubt why it won't continue to rake in the moolah," he sums up.

Indian-origin family of four found dead in Australia

Melbourne: An Indian-origin family of four, including two children, was found dead in Melbourne on Tuesday and Australian police are treating it as a murder-suicide case.

The bodies of Nilesh Sharma, 34, his wife Pritika, 32, five-year-old Divesh and three-year-old Divya were found at their Glen Waverley home in the city's eastern outskirts.

Nilesh, an accountant, was found in a hallway, the others in their bedrooms.

The Fijian-Indian family, which moved to Australia over a decade ago, had lived in Glen Waverley for at least two years and appeared to have been a normal, happy couple, Australian news agency AAP reported.

Police say the four deaths are being treated as a murder-suicide with officers stressing that no suspects are being sought.

Richard Loitam case: 2 students booked for murder

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Bangalore: The Bangalore police have booked two students Syed Afzal Ali and Vishal Banerjee for the murder of Manipur boy Richard Loitam. However, the students will not be arrested now as the police were waiting for the forensic report.

The police said that they would take action only after the forensic report was out. But both the students have been suspended from the college and the police have asked the college to ensure the two didn't leave the hostel till the probe was over.

The police had earlier registered a case of death under suspicious circumstances. However, Richard's family had been alleging foul play since the first day.

This comes a day after the Bangalore police said that the reason for the Manipur boy's fight with his friend could have been a two-wheeler accident. The police had also said that Richard was injured after the two-wheeler accident.

RIM unveils BlackBerry 10 tools to lure developers

Orlando, Florida: Research In Motion Ltd on Tuesday offered initial software tools to developers looking to create applications for its new BlackBerry 10 platform, moving a step closer to perhaps the most crucial launch in its history later this year.

Aiming to reverse huge market-share losses to Apple Inc and Google Inc's Android, RIM is essentially starting from scratch with its next-generation BlackBerry 10 devices. The new platform will be compatible with few of the apps available for its existing smartphones, and legacy BlackBerry smartphones won't be able to run apps being created for the new platform.

RIM already is far behind Apple and Android in getting independent developers and content producers to build apps, making the BlackBerry much less attractive to consumers. RIM is looking to change that.

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"Developers building for BlackBerry 10 will be able to easily create the kind of cutting-edge apps that deliver truly engaging experiences," said Alec Saunders, RIM's head of developer relations.

To kick-start the effort, RIM this week is handing out a prototype device, known as the Alpha Dev, to developers at its BlackBerry World conference in Orlando. The handset will enable them to test how their creations perform on the new platform.

Unlike most other BlackBerry models, Alpha Dev has no physical keyboard. It looks like a smaller version of RIM's PlayBook tablet, complete with a touch-sensitive frame that a user swipes to call up a menu.

Avengers: Hulk shifts spotlight on 'Calcutta' squalor

New Delhi: In the squalor of night time Kolkata, mild mannered doctor Bruce Banner tends to the ill and tries to atone for a past that is as dark and spotted as the walls of the shanties he visits. He thinks he can control the monster that is lurking inside him but he can never be absolutely sure.

Mark Ruffalo as the Incredible Hulk is shown hiding out in what is supposedly a slum in erstwhile Calcutta in what is now seen as the season's biggest hit superhero action movie. Based on the Marvel Comics series, 'The Avengers' stars Robert Downey Jr as Iron Man, Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow, Samuel L Jackson as Nick Fury, Chris Evans as Captain America, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye and Tom Hiddleston as Loki.

The Calcutta scene was shot in New Mexico. According to the Associated Press, the film is already is a marvel at the worldwide box office. Final figures from distributor Disney on April 30 put the overseas haul for 'The Avengers' at $185.1 million since it began opening in 39 markets last week. That's nearly $7 million more than the studio had estimated on April 29.

In a recent interview, producer Jeremy Latchman said he and director Joss Whedon wanted a hideout for physicist Bruce Banner, the alter ego of the green monster Hulk, and initially thought of a leper colony. But they ended up shooting the sequence in a New Mexico slum.

What is it that draws Hollywood to Indian poverty? Filmmakers such as Ryan Murphy (Eat Pray Love), John Madden (The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel), Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire) and Roland Joffé (City of Joy) have been both felicitated and criticized for showing India as a spiritual destination and selling its poverty to ill informed Western audiences.

Despite its negative portrayal in films, India remains an emerging market for foreign studios looking to distribute their films to its billion plus target audience. According to a report in the Business Standard, Avengers, distributed by UTV Motion Pictures hit 800 Indian screens. It was also dubbed in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu - even wider than Avatar, till now the biggest Hollywood blockbuster here.

A wave of big budget Hollywood films is slated to hit the Indian screens this summer. Sony Pictures' Amazing Spider Man, that has Irrfan playing a role, is expected to see an even wider release in India with 1,000 prints, according to the BS report.

Then there are Men in Black 3, Madagascar 3, Dark Knight Rises, Ice Age:

Continental Drift, Rock of Ages and GI Joe 2 lined up throughout the busy summer. The film's other India connect is the theme song 'Hello Andheron' by the band Agnee.

 

Did Albert Einstein starve his wife of sex?

London: Prof Albert Einstein, who laid down major fundamentals in physics, may have starved his wife of sex by demanding her to obey a cruel list of rules, a new book has claimed.

According to the book, titled 'Einstein: His Life and Universe', the scientist barred his wife Mileva Maric from sitting with him or going out together - and even ordered her saying, "Stop talking to me if I request it".

And, Einstein, famous for his theory of general relativity, made clear that sex was a no-no: "You will not expect intimacy from me," 'The Sun' reported.

The cruel list of rules, revealed in the book, insisted his wife tidied his study, did his laundry regularly and gave him "three meals regularly".

They were his conditions for them staying together for the sake of sons Hans and Eduard as their 11-year marriage foundered in 1914.

But, within months his fed-up Serbian missus, 39, fled Berlin, Germany, with the kids for Zurich, Switzerland, and had a breakdown. They divorced in 1919.

Einstein, famed for his E=MC2 theory, later wed cousin Elsa and died in 1955, aged 76.

100 channels for Rs 100, TRAI lays down rules for digital cable

New Delhi: Television viewers will soon get to choose a minimum of hundred Free to Air (FTA) channels at a maximum retail price of Rs 100, as per new tariff rules for Cable TV announced by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Monday.

According to the regulatory framework for Digitalised Cable TV brought out by TRAI to safeguard consumers' interests, cable operators will have to mandatorily offer a Basic Service Tier (BST) to viewers throughout the country.

The Basic Service Tier would consist of 100 Free to Air channels including 18 mandatory Doordarshan channels plus the Lok Sabha channel.

The TRAI tariff order lays down that apart from the mandatory channels in the BST, cable operators and Multi System Operators (MSOs) will have to provide customers a minimum of five channels of different genres.

The genres which TRAI has named are General Entertainment Channels(GEC) in English, GEC- Hindi, GEC - Regional, Music, News, Movies, Sports, Kids Infotainment, lifestyle.

"The BST shall be mandatorily offered by the cable operator. However it will be optional for the consumer to subscribe," TRAI said in its tariff order.

IPL 5: RCB hope to claw back against Punjab

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Dropped to the fifth position from third in the points table, Royal Challengers Bangalore would look to return to winning ways against Kings XI Punjab to brighten up their play-off chances in the fifth edition of the Indian Premier League. Despite being a stronger team on paper, RCB have not won a game since April 23, and with IPL coming to the business end of the season, both the teams very well know that they can't afford a loss here if they want to qualify in the top four.

Dhoni refutes retirement claims

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Chennai: India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni Tuesday rubbished talks about his retirement plans in 2013, saying his comments made during the Australian tour were "blown out of proportion" and there was still time for him to take a call. "That was blown out of proportion," he told reporters here referring to his comments made during India's tour of Australia in January this year. Dhoni had then said that he may retire from Test cricket if he is to play in the 2015 cricket World Cup. "If I have to see through the 2015 [World Cup], I would have to retire from one of the formats," Dhoni had said then.

I'm a sportsman, not a politician: Sachin

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Pune: In his first media interaction after being nominated for the Rajya Sabha (RS) by the President of India, Sachin Tendulkar said while he will like to make a contribution as a Member of Parliament, he remains primarily a sportsman and not a politician.

"It's a bouncer, but I'm aware of my responsibilities. It's a great honour for me, [though] I'm not a politician but a sportsman. I will like to contribute in whatever way I can," Tendulkar said about his RS nomination, which has been made under the quota of eminent citizens of India.