Very Important Information about Education And Reference, Entertainment And Music And More

Pinks and blues, bottles, booties and babies; are the stuff we relate with babies. Baby shower invitations set the mood for the party and you can get almost anything which is cute and stylish to suit your taste. If you are creative, then you go design your won invitation cards. You can have casual hand written cards or have printed ones to invite your guests. Baby showers are usually hosted by a friend of the mother-to-be and it should be clearly stated if the gifts are not desired. Also, the note should include if this party is a “surprise” for the mother-to-be. The baby shower invitations can also have themes if the party is going to have a theme.

Birthday invitations for kids are the most fun to receive and create. You can get a wide range of themes to plan and design invitation cards. So go for a Jungle theme, Disney theme, adventures of the sea, fairytale land and many more! If you want to get the cards printed from home, then you can even download theme cards from card sites on a good photographic paper. Name, date, venue and time with the RSVP number, name and date are a must for all party invitations. The invitations for any occasions should be sent at least a week or two in advance to let people plan accordingly.

With an eclectic slate of stars — led by Mexican alternative rock group Cafe Tacuba and Colombian rocker Juanes vying for top honors — the Latin Grammys were making their Houston debut Thursday by showcasing the diversity of Latin music.Cafe Tacuba, a pioneering quartet that has been a fixture on the Mexican music scene for two decades, is up for six nominations, including album of the year for its release “Sino,” which was also nominated as best alternative album. Its single “Volver a Comenzar” was nominated as record of the year and best alternative song.

Another song “Esta Vez” is up for song of the year and rock song of the year.

Juanes, the singer-songwriter from Medellin with a passion for raising awareness of land mines and other social issues, earned five nominations, including album of the year and best pop male album for “La Vida … Es Un Ratico.” Juanes, who has already won 12 Latin Grammys, is two shy of Alejandro Sanz’s record of 14 awards. His love song “Me Enamora” is in the running for song and record of the year, as well as for best short-form video.

Gustavo Santaolalla, an Argentine musician-turned-composer whose scores for “Babel” and “Brokeback Mountain” earned him two Oscars, also received five nominations, including two apiece for record of the year and song of the year for his work as producer for Cafe Tacuba and Juanes. He is also nominated for best short-form video for his work with tango-fusion band Bajofondo.

This year’s awards also mark the rise of a new generation of female singer-songwriters, with women nominated in many of the top categories. In the best new artist category, four of the five nominees are women.

Mexican singer-songwriter Julieta Venegas, another Santaolalla protege, was up for four awards, including record and song of the year for “El Presente” from her “MTV Unplugged” CD, which was recorded in Mexico City and is also nominated for best alternative album and long-form video.

Newcomer Kany Garcia, a pop singer from Puerto Rico, also garnered four nominations, including album of the year, best female pop vocal album and best new artist for her debut CD, “Cualquier Dia.” Her single “Hoy Ya Me Voy” was nominated for best song of the year.

Also nominated in the best new artist category is Ximena Sarinana, a Mexican singer-songwriter winning raves on the alt-Latino scene.

Mexican mariachi legend Vicente Fernandez, who had criticized the awards for not recognizing Mexican regional music, is nominated for album of the year for “Para Siempre.” That category also includes African-born, Spanish-based Buika, whose music fuses soul, jazz and funk. She was nominated for “Nina de Fuego,” which features Buika’s versions of traditional flamenco, Spanish coplas and Mexican rancheras.

Several acts were up for more than one award, including Latin pop diva Gloria Estefan, who was honored with the 2008 Latin Recording Academy Person of the Year award Wednesday night. Estefan also was nominated in three categories: best traditional tropical album, best tropical song and best long-form music video.

The Latin Grammys, which are marking their ninth year, give out awards in 49 categories spanning a broad prism of musical styles — from ranchera to rock en espanol. And the show’s lineup of scheduled performers also reflects that array of genres.

One of this year’s highlights should be a joint performance by Juanes and Grammy winner John Legend. Three musical legends — Estefan, Carlos Santana and Jose Feliciano — were also set to take the stage together.

Other performers include nominees Cafe Tacuba, Venegas and Garcia; merengue queen Olga Tanon; flamenco artist Antonio Carmona; and Mexican banda singers Jenni and Lupillo Rivera.

The diversity theme is apt for Houston, where the Latin Grammys are seen as a chance to showcase the cultural riches and multicultural mix of the sprawling metropolis. With a population of 5.5 million, Houston is the country’s fourth-largest city. About 42 percent of the population is Hispanic.

Last year, the Latin Grammys were held in Las Vegas. The awards ceremony has also been held in Miami, Los Angeles and New York.

The show, which will take place at the Toyota Center, is scheduled to air in Spanish on Univision Network stations. Last year’s broadcast reached about 12 million viewers. This year’s broadcast is expected to be seen in more than 100 countries.

Most of the trophies will be handed out during a pre-show prior to the nationally televised program.

The Screen Actors Guild said on Sunday its board had voted to have a federal mediator brought into labor contract negotiations with Hollywood studios.The guild also said it would ask its 120,000 members to authorize a strike if the arbitration process fails. A strike authorization would require 75 percent approval of members who vote.

Talks with Hollywood studios broke off on June 30 when the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers presented the actors union with a “final” offer, hours before the old contract lapsed.

“No matter what SAG does - whether it be authorizing a strike or following a different approach - it will not change the harsh reality that currently confronts our industry,” the studio group said in a statement.

At issue is a new contract covering union performers in prime-time TV and movies. The two sides are at odds over how actors should be paid for content delivered over the Internet and whether all made-for-online productions should be subject to the union’s contract.

The studio offer essentially mirrors terms approved by several other Hollywood unions, including the settlement that ended a 14-week stroke by Hollywood screenwriters in February.

Union leaders have pressed to reopen negotiations, but the studios have refused.

“We hope mediation will help move this process forward,” Screen Actors Guild’s national president, Alan Rosenberg, said in a statement.

The studio alliance repeated on Sunday “there is simply no justification for SAG to expect a deal that is in excess of what the other Guilds negotiated in better economic times.”

The union also said four new members have been added to its national negotiating committee — two from the Hollywood division, one from the New York division and one from the regional branch division.

The last time SAG staged a strike over its main film and TV contract was in 1980, a walkout that lasted three months.

French film star Gerard Depardieu’s son Guillaume, a 37 year-old actor who rebelled against his father and led an angst-ridden, tumultuous life, has died of pneumonia, his father’s agency said on Monday.The young actor won the French version of an Oscar, a Cesar, for “best new male talent” in 1996 for his role in Pierre Salvadori’s black comedy “Les Apprentis”, but he was also famous for his turbulent private life.

“He was very sensitive. That’s what gave him that slightly James Dean-style personality. A man tortured by his youth, by the relations he had with his father,” director Jean-Pierre Mocky, with whom he filmed in 1997, told RTL radio.

Tall with fine features and long blonde hair, Guillaume Depardieu rebelled against his status as heir to one of France’s most famous acting dynasties, and suffered in the process.

He served his first prison sentence at the age of 17 and returned to jail when he was 22 for heroin trafficking. He later said he had been a male prostitute as part of a revolt against his father, whom he called a lying, money-worshipping drunk.

He badly injured his knee in a motorcycle accident in 1995, after which he caught a superbug in hospital and, after a series of unsuccessful operations, had part of one leg amputated.

“When you spend a year in hospital without seeing anything else, you are completely contaminated by physical pain, the mind is completely contaminated by physical pain. You are nothing any more. You don’t feel anything any more,” he told TF1 television in a 2003 interview.

He began his career in cinema playing his father’s character as a young man in the 1991 film “Tous les Matins du Monde” (All the Mornings of the World), and in one of his last roles was a homeless man — which he said he enjoyed because it showed that one could live free of society’s constraints.

Though he emerged from his father’s shadow in front of the camera, the relationship haunted him throughout his life.

He repeatedly criticised his father for neglecting him, and in a 2004 book he accused the world-famous actor of wasting his talent on unchallenging roles, and even of putting off his divorce for years for fear of how much it would cost him.

“I only found out that I was going to have a half-sister on the day of her birth. That tells you everything. Everything. I was always presented with faits accomplis. That was typical of how he behaved towards me,” he said in the book.

“I love him and I hate him for the same reasons. For his impotence. For his way of fleeing life, and existence, and fighting against it at the same time,” he said.

Malayalam superstar Mammootty, who is busy shooting for ‘Maya Bazaar’ here, says he has so much work that he can’t think of taking a break during this festive season.’Yes, I am on the Ramadan fast, but I just cannot afford to sit idle on this pretext. Even tomorrow (Friday), which is Thiru Onam day, the most important day for all Keralites, I am busy shooting,’ Mammootty told IANS.

The shooting of the film is taking place in his hometown, so Mammootty, who turned 55 Sunday, is able to spend time with his family.

Every year both the Malayalam superstars - Mammootty and Mohanlal - have at least one release during Onam, but this year neither of them had any new film during the festive season.

‘See, I had a release, but work on ‘Pazhassi Raja’ is not complete,’ he said.

This year, the Malayalam box office reports are not so satisfactory. Of 38 films that were released, only three movies are doing good business - Mammootty’s ‘Annal Thumpi’, Mohanlal’s ‘Madhampi’ and Jayaram’s ‘Veruthe Oru Bharya’.

Australian actress Nicole Kidman was named the most overpaid celebrity in Hollywood in the second annual list of least bankable stars by U.S. magazine Forbes, taking the top slot from fellow Australian Russell Crowe.Kidman’s film were estimated to only earn $1 for every dollar the Oscar-winning actress was paid compared with $8 a year ago.

“The Invasion”, a remake of the 1956 classic “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”, even lost $2.68 for every dollar earned by Kidman who was reportedly paid $17 million for her role.

“Despite winning an Oscar for her performance in 2002’s “The Hours”, Kidman has become the most overpaid celebrity in Hollywood,” said Forbes, adding that her latest, highly-anticipated movie “Australia” could give her a boost.

Second in the list came Jennifer Garner, whose movies including “The Kingdom” and “Catch and Release” have underperformed at the box office. Her movies were calculated to earn $3.60 for every $1 she was paid.

Kidman’s ex-husband, Tom Cruise, came third in the list with a $4 return for every dollar he was paid, mostly because of the failure of last year’s movie “Lions for Lambs”. For every dollar the star earned the film returned only $1.88.

Forbes said the ranking was compiled by looking at a star’s past three movies and dividing their total earnings by the films’ gross income to get the actor’s payback figure.

Making up the top 10 of overpaid Hollywood celebrities were Cameron Diaz, Jim Carrey, Nicolas Cage, Drew Barrymore, Will Ferrell and Cate Blanchett.

The actor whose bankability improved most over the past year was Russell Crowe, who was ranked the most overpaid celebrity last year when Kidman was in second place.

Last year, Forbes estimated the movie “Cinderella Man” earned $5 for every dollar that Crowe was paid.

But this year, he was the 18th best earner on a previously issued list of which actors were worth their paychecks, with a return of $6.88 for every dollar he earned.

This bump was attributed to last year’s movie “American Gangster” with Denzel Washington, for which Crowe returned a healthy $10.80 for every dollar he was paid.

Troubled British singer Amy Winehouse was so drunk after a performance that she was smuggled out of a hotel wrapped in a duvet.

The 24-year-old singer was drinking till 5 am and had to be carried out on the shoulder of a minder after she was kicked out of the hotel, it was reported. Her whole entourage was banned from entering the Wellington Hotel for destroying her room and for shouting at the staff and guests.

They caused 5,000 pounds worth of damage, burning furniture with cigarette butts and covering carpets with alcohol.

A source said: “Amy was a total mess. She couldn’t manage to walk to the car so they had to wrap her in a duvet.”

A U.S. judge has thrown out a copyright infringement case against Veoh Networks Inc, an Internet video start-up with high-profile Hollywood backers, ruling that video-sharing companies are not solely responsible for policing piracy that may take place on their sites.

The California court dismissed a copyright infringement suit by adult entertainment company Io Group Inc against Veoh and granted summary judgment to the defendants. The complaint argued Veoh had not done enough to stop site users of its site from uploading unauthorized clips of ten Io adult sex films.

Judge Howard Lloyd of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California found that Veoh worked actively to protect copyright owners and so qualified for “safe harbor” protections of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

“The DMCA was intended to facilitate the growth of electronic commerce, not squelch it,” the judge said in siding with Veoh.

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) limits liability for Internet service providers that act quickly to block access to pirated online materials, once the copyright holder notifies a Web site of specific acts of infringement.

The ruling draws a line between Napster, the music-sharing service that enabled a wave of music piracy early this decade, and the new crop of video sharing services that take steps to protect against piracy of copyrighted materials.

Io had argued that Veoh should be required to prescreen videos to prevent copyright infringement. “The court finds no reasonable juror could conclude that a comprehensive review of every file would be feasible,” the judge wrote.

The court rejected a technical argument used in many Internet copyright cases in which Io claimed Veoh infringed its copyrights by automatically converting user-submitted videos into easy-to-watch Flash videos, a process called transcoding.

But Lloyd stressed that he does not intend his decision to open the flood gates of Internet video piracy.

“The decision rendered here is confined to the particular combination of facts in this case and is not intended to push the bounds of the safe harbor so wide that less than scrupulous service providers may claim its protection,” Lloyd wrote.

Among other issues with Io’s lawsuit, the judge noted that Io had filed a lawsuit against Veoh instead of first providing the video company with notification of infringement.

Veoh had decided to bar all adult sexual content from its site and taken down the infringing Io videos before the suit was filed, Lloyd noted.

“We are very happy that the judge in this case recognized our compliance with the DMCA and our efforts to respect copyrights,” Veoh spokesman Gaude Lydia Paez said.

The Io-Veoh case featured similar arguments to those used in two high-profile cases against Google Inc unit YouTube, the world’s most popular video sharing site.

Viacom Inc filed a $1 billion lawsuit in 2007 against YouTube calling it a site for “massive intentional copyright infringement” that had enabled hundreds of thousands of Viacom video clips to be pirated. A second suit filed against YouTube by English soccer’s Premier League and more than a dozen sports, entertainment and media plaintiffs is running in parallel in a New York federal court.

YouTube Chief Counsel Zahavah Levine hailed the Veoh ruling in a statement, saying that: “It is great to see the court confirm that the DMCA protects services like YouTube that follow the law and respect copyrights.”

Veoh ranked last week as the 17th most visited U.S. multimedia entertainment site according to Web measurement firm Hitwise Inc. Financial backers include former Walt Disney Co Chief Executive Michael Eisner, former Viacom and MTV Networks CEO Tom Freston, former Viacom Entertainment Group CEO Jonathan Dolgen and investment bank Goldman Sachs.

As Tom Cruise writes the next chapter in his career, he’s developing an interest in comic-book movies.

With filmmaker Sam Raimi, the actor is setting up “Sleeper” as a feature project at Warner Bros. Cruise is loosely attached to star in the adaptation of the DC Comics/Wildstorm comic, which Raimi would produce with his Star Road Entertainment partner Josh Donen.

Written by Ed Brubaker with art by Sean Phillips, “Sleeper,” which ran from 2003 through 2005, centers on an operative whose fusion with an alien artifact makes him impervious to pain. An intelligence agency places him undercover in a villainous organization and falls for Miss Misery, a member of the group.

Although he remains a co-owner of United Artists — from which his longtime producing partner, Paula Wagner, resigned last week — Cruise is not tied exclusively to that company.

His next acting job will be in the Spyglass thriller “Tourist,” as if to counter the more cerebral roles he played in the UA boxoffice failure “Lions for Lambs” and the upcoming UA World War II period drama “Valkyrie,” in which he plays the anti-Nazi Claus van Stauffenberg.

“Sleeper” is the third project that Cruise has become associated with over the past two weeks — all three separate from his commitments at UA. In addition to “Tourist,” the actor has expressed interest in the Working Title/Universal comedy “Food Fight.”

Also apart from UA, the actor picked up good notices last week for his uncharacteristic turn as a bald film mogul in the DreamWorks-Paramount comedy “Tropic Thunder.”

Even if Cruise opts not to do “Sleeper,” his interest in the project is propelling it, despite the challenge of complicated rights issues that must be sorted out.

“Sleeper” is a spin-off book from Wildstorm flagship title “WildC.A.T.s” and features characters from another spin-off book, “Gen 13.”

Both books had been set up at different film companies around town, and some of those deals were made before DC bought the imprint in 1999.

Warners, now involved in a legal wrangle with Fox over the rights to the superhero movie “Watchmen,” appears determined to cross all the t’s and dot all the i’s in its contracts for “Sleeper.”

The project is being eyed not only as a starring vehicle for Cruise but also as a possible franchise for the studio.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Britney Spears says her sixth album will be out within nine months as the U.S. pop star seeks to rebound from troubling behavior and hospital stints for psychiatric evaluations.

In an interview with OK! magazine released on Wednesday, the 26-year-old says she has written more for the new album than her previous five studio albums, and describes it as having an “urban” feel.

“I’m writing every day, right here at the piano,” said Spears, one of the world’s most successful pop stars of the early 2000s. Her last album, “Blackout,” debuted at No. 2 on Billboard 200 last November, but quickly slid down the chart.

Spears has given few interviews in recent years as her life spiraled out of control and she lost custody of her two sons.

Over the past 18 months she has been involved in an ugly divorce from Kevin Federline, entered rehab treatment several times, and exhibited erratic behavior like shaving her head and attacking a photographer’s car with an umbrella.

But in the past six months, her father Jamie Spears has taken over management of her affairs and she was also mentioned as a possible Emmy award nominee for guest appearances on U.S. TV series “How I Met Your Mother.”

When asked by OK! if she would like to do more acting, Spears said: “I’d love to, if I can find the right movie.”

“Actually, I have a part that just came up. We’re just trying to work it out with my schedule, with the children,” she said.

A court recently extended Jamie Spears control over his daughter’s affairs, which he shares with Los Angeles attorney Andrew Wallet, until the end of 2008.