The Queen Elizabeth

The New Queen Elizabeth – Britain’s queen named a luxury British cruise ship the Queen Elizabeth in a lavish ceremony Monday, blessing the vessel to launch it on its maiden voyage. Queen Elizabeth II had a guided tour of the Italian-built ship, which is operated by the British-US Cunard Line, before the naming ceremony in the port of Southampton in southern England. Stunning! [luxuo]

Avusa Vs Mvelaphanda Showdown Set For More Drama – The boardroom showdown between media house Avusa and one of its major shareholders Mvelaphanda has taken another twist as the acquisition of printing Universal Hirt & Carter (UHC) has received more support. Coronation Fund Managers, which manages shares in the media house on behalf of clients, will vote in favour of the R925m proposed acquisition, which could block the move by shareholder Mvelaphanda to halt the deal. [businessday]

Michelle Williams To Play Marilyn – Shooting has finally started on the film My Week With Marilyn starring Michelle Williams. Here is the first picture of Williams in costume. She’s gorgeous, but does she make a good Marilyn? Michlle Williams, by the way, was the lady engaged to Heath Ledger when he died. Follow the link and check her out as Marilyn Monroe. [jezebel]

Microsoft Announces First Windows 7 Handsets – Microsoft on Monday unveiled details on the first phones running its brand new Windows Phone 7 operating system, the software giant’s answer to Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS mobile platforms. Windows Phone 7 is a complete overhaul of Windows Mobile, which with Nokia, Blackberry and Palm had dominated smartphones before Apple and Google entered the market beginning just three years ago. [wired]

Miley Cyrus In The Dwang For ‘Oversexed’ Video – Miley Cyrus is back again causing much controversy due to her radical change of look and musical style. In her latest video “Who Owns My Heart” Miley Cyrus,the 17 year-old singer and star of “Hannah Montana” has been considered too sensual and provocative for her age. At least that’s what the American parents associations says. Decide for yourself. Video after the jump. [newsinabox]

Mini-Pompeii Found In Norway – Norwegian archaeologists have unearthed a Neolithic “mini Pompeii” at a campsite near the North Sea, they announced (somewhat aroused, I have no doubt) this week. Discovered at Hamresanden, not far from Kristiansand’s airport at Kjevik in southern Norway, the settlement has remained undisturbed for 5,500 years, buried under three feet of sand. Wild. [discovery]

George Michael Gets His – Wait For It – Freedom – George Michael wants to “start again” after being released from jail. On Monday morning, the “Freedom” singer left Highpoint Prison in Suffolk, East England, where he was in prison for driving under the influence of drugs and possession of cannabis. He thanked fans for their support during his incarceration. I bet he did. [theprovince]

The World Welcomes New Countries – The former Dutch Caribbean colonies of Curacao and St. Maarten became autonomous countries within the Kingdom of the Netherlands on Sunday in a change of constitutional status dissolving the Netherlands Antilles.The two joined Aruba, while three other islands, Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba, became autonomous special municipalities of the Netherlands in the dissolution of the 56-year-old Netherlands Antilles territory. Welcome. Welcome. [reuters]

The Downside Of Marrying For Money – Like so many of her kind, Leslie McRay came to Los Angeles for glamour and took naturally to the jet-setting lifestyle of a kept woman. She spent years as the leggy arm candy of rich and powerful men, weathering their cocaine-fueled rages, their fragile egos and cruel whims. McRay was one of the lucky ones. [dailybeast]

Inadequate, Pimpled And Single Bloggers – Andrew Marr, the BBC political presenter, has dismissed bloggers as “inadequate, pimpled and single” loners who rant about the world from the safety of their mothers’ basements. The so-called “citizen journalists” will never offer a real replacement to newspapers and television news, he told Cheltenham Literature Festival. He said: “Most citizen journalism strikes me as nothing to do with journalism at all. [telegraph]

Lady Gaga Was On The Sopranos – More troubling news from Lady Gaga’s revisionist history childhood – she was on an episode of The Sopranos when she was 15. The poor thing just couldn’t catch a break back then. I mean from going to a prestigious prep school to being cast on a legendary TV show, it’s no wonder she can fully empathize with the self-important loners who like her music. Whatever. They cast her as a female, so I guess that’s good news. [idlyitw]

Miners Expected To Be Freed By Wednesday – Rescue crews in Chile will begin at midnight Tuesday — and perhaps even earlier — to free the 33 miners trapped for more than two months nearly half a mile below ground, Chile’s mining minister said Monday. “We are hoping to initiate the rescue beginning at zero hours on Wednesday,” or 11 p.m. ET Tuesday, Laurence Golborne told reporters outside the mine. [cnn]

Unprecedented Attack On Hugh Hefner – The Washington Times has launched an anonymous attack on all things Playboy and, in particular, Hugh Hefner. Claiming that the articles in Playboy were there purely to fill the gaps, they reckon this lead to a twisted message that it is sophisticated to be corrupt. They also took a swipe at Hugh’s pajamas and that’s where I draw the line. [washingtontimes]

Twitter’s Clickthru Rate Kills Facebook – Among social networking sites, Facebook is by far the most preferred service for sharing, making up more than 78% of usage. Yet other sites are gaining: Twitter maintains 5% of referrals, and MySpace, surprisingly, comes in at second with 14.5% share. Yet Twitter has become the most effective tool for click-throughs. Twitter yielded a whopping average of 19.04 clicks, whereas Facebook only produced 2.87 clicks. Boom! [fastcompany]

Justin Bieber Wishes He Had A ‘Normal’ Life – The teen pop star is one of the most famous people on the planet but he admits it would be fantastic to be able to escape the limelight and spend some time relaxing at home with his mother Pattie in Canada. “Now that I’m here, I sometimes wish I could just go back home and chill,” he said. “But if I was at home and I wasn’t doing this, I’d wish that I was in this position.” Oh God. [showbizspy]