Entertainment

Sydney Town Hall will be transformed into a "little Sri Lanka" for three weeks next year when Belvoir takes over the city landmark with a new play.

Counting and Cracking, described as "an epic story of love and political strife, of home and exile, of parents and children", is Liverpool-based S. Shakthidharan's debut full-length play.

Eamon Flack: 'You can't get that from Netflix'. 

The epic production features 16 actors from five countries, performing in five languages.

Belvoir artistic director Eamon Flack said the world premiere, which will be accompanied by a Sri Lankan food festival, had been five years in the making.

"The big discovery in that time was that it was bigger than Belvoir St Theatre," he said. "We love the idea of taking over the civic heart of Sydney to do something about what this city is and what this country is.

"It really is an Australian story as much as it is a Sri Lankan story."

Flack was speaking as the Surry Hills theatre launched its 2019 season, which includes Every Brilliant Thing, a one-woman "uplifting" play about depression starring Kate Mulvany.

The popular show Barbara and the Camp Dogs also returns in April, while in October Paige Rattray directs Fangirls, a musical about teenage girls' obsessions with pop music.

"What we are looking for is a collective mix of surprising, unlikely, generous plays that maybe no one else would do and that might bring in to the theatre surprising new audiences," Flack said.

"Our stage is a very particular place. That dictates to some extent what we can do. We have to do works that are playful and inventive because we don't have the budgets or the wing space or the fly space to do big, epic works."

Flack says live theatre can serve an optimistic antidote to the "bizarre times" in which we live.

"It's so easy to feel miserable at the moment," he says. "It's pretty nuts out there. But theatre can very directly – like a sports game – kick the spirit alive. That doesn't mean it has to be glibly colourful. It can still be very serious. You can't get that from Netflix." 

(Sydney Morning Herald)

Shridhar Chillal, the Pune-based man, who holds the Guinness World Record for having the longest fingernails, has cut them after 66 years.

Chillal clipped his nails, which had a combined length of 909.6 cm during a nail clipping ceremony in Times Square. The 82-year-old had been growing his left hand's fingernails since 1952, when he was 14.

Chillal's longest single nail was his thumbnail, measuring 197.8 centimeters, while the measurement of his index fingernails was 164.5 cm, middle fingernails was 186.6 cm, ring fingernails was 181.6 cm and little fingernails was 179.1 cm.

He had made it to the Guinness Book of World Records in 2015 for having the 'Longest Fingernails on a Single Hand Ever'.

Shridhar's nails will now be displayed at Ripley's Believe It or Not! in Times Square in New York.

Vanessa Marquez, an actress best known for her recurring role as a nurse on the NBC drama "ER," was shot and killed by police in South Pasadena, California on Thursday, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

Police were called to the 1100 Block of Fremont Avenue in South Pasadena just before 2 p.m. local time on Thursday to perform a welfare check. Upon arrival, Marquez, 49, was having seizures and appeared to be suffering from mental issues, officials told CNN.

After about 90-minutes of trying to offer Marquez medical help, police said she armed herself with what appeared to be a handgun and police opened fire.

The weapon turned out to be a BB gun, investigators said.

Marquez played nurse Wendy Goldman on "ER" for three seasons, from 1994-97. Though her character never had major storylines, she was sometimes involved in episode subplots, some of which had a light-hearted bent.

Marquez's other credits included 1988's "Stand and Deliver" and "Seinfeld."

Source : CNN

Twenty-nine years after the brutal murder of Tamil human rights activist and feminist Rajani Thiranagama in Jaffna by an assassin allegedly deputed by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a powerful Malayalam literary work chronicling her struggle is breaking the language barrier to reach readers across the globe.

T.D. Ramakrishnan’s Malayalam work Sugandhi Enna Andal Devanayaki created a sensation when it was published three years ago. Now, HarperCollins is bringing out its English version on July 25, targeting a wider audience outside Kerala.

The novel is a powerful account of the life and times of the then head of the department of anatomy at the University of Jaffna, who broke religious and ethnic barriers to marry a social activist with Sinhala Buddhist background, and dared to become a distinct human rights activist in Sri Lanka by criticising both Sinhala chauvinism and the narrow nationalism of the LTTE as well as the alleged brutalities of the Indian Peace Keeping Force.

“Most of the fiction written in Malayalam is located in Kerala. Very rarely are narratives placed outside this space. But Mr. Ramakrishnan’s narrative spaces are never confined to the geographical terrain of Kerala. Sugandhi, though set in Sri Lanka, brings the world into its ambit. The author uses a large canvas to depict his fictional narratives and, in so doing, he often challenges cartography, implying that borders are abstract and cannot be reduced to mere lines that exist to exclude,” said Priya K. Nair, a teacher of English at St. Theresa’s College in Ernakulam, who translated the work to English.

“I felt that this novel is extremely relevant in contemporary times as it is a powerful articulation against authoritarian power structures. This novel should not be confined to the readers in Kerala, rather it is relevant to any culture that has experienced the horrors of war,” she added. She had previously translated Ramakrishnan’s works Alpha and Francis Itty Cora into English.

A retired senior official with Southern Railway, Ramakrishnan had translated a number of Tamil literary works to Malayalam and had constantly followed the ethnic strife in Sri Lanka for several years.

“Sri Lanka’s contemporary history is the background of my novel. I have taken a different approach in the novel with historical facts as solid background for weaving fantasy,” he said when asked about the novel.

“It was Rajani’s assassination that forced me to look into the complexities of the ethnic divide in Sri Lanka. Inspired by her elder sister Nirmala, a LTTE member, Rajani also got involved with the ultra nationalist group mainly by administering care to those wounded in action,’’ he said.

“In 1983, Rajani travelled to England under a Commonwealth scholarship for postgraduate studies in anatomy at Liverpool Medical School. Even that shifting from the troubled nation to a far better living atmosphere had not deterred her from raising her voice against injustice.’’

She was sympathetic to the LTTE but she later realised the futility of armed struggle and became a critic of the Tigers’ atrocities.

“What really moved me was her return to war-torn Jaffna to rebuild the university and work there for her own people. I am not sure it was the LTTE who killed her. But it was her sincerity to the cause and boldness to say the truth that resulted in her murder and had inspired my novel,’’ says Ramakrishnan.

Source : The Hindu

US series The Big Bang Theory will air its final episode in 2019, ending one of the longest-running sitcoms in US history.

The programme's 12th and final season will premiere on 24 September and is expected to conclude in May.

Set in Pasadena, California, the series originally focused on two physicists and their aspiring actress neighbour.

The Big Bang Theory has attracted more than 18 million viewers every year since its sixth season aired in 2012.

It reportedly averaged 18.6 million viewers per episode in its 11th season, more than any other show on US television.

The production teams and CBS said in a joint statement they were "forever grateful" to the fans.

"We, along with the cast, writers and crew, are extremely appreciative of the show's success and aim to deliver a final season, and series finale, that will bring The Big Bang Theory to an epic creative close," it read.

The series has won seven Emmys from 46 nominations, including four Outstanding Lead Actor wins for Jim Parsons, who plays the socially inept character Sheldon Cooper.

Source : BBC

Twenty six years ago, the panel of judges was so unsure who should win the Man Booker in 1992 that they ended up with a tie: Michael Ondaatje and Barry Unsworth. But on Sunday evening Ondaatje edged ahead, with his bestselling novel The English Patient being named the best winner of the Booker prize of the last 50 years, in a public vote.

The Golden Booker was held this year to mark a half-century of the prize. A panel of judges read all 52 former winners of the award, with each assigned a decade from Booker’s history. The Observer’s Robert McCrum, taking on the 1970s, chose VS Naipaul’s In a Free State; poet Lemn Sissay, reading the titles from the 1980s, went for Penelope Lively’s Moon Tiger; The English Patient was novelist Kamila Shamsie’s selection from the 1990s; Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall was nominated as the best of the 2000s by broadcaster Simon Mayo, and George Saunders’ Lincoln in the Bardo topped poet Hollie McNish’s reading of the 2010s Booker winners. The five books were then put to a public vote.

Speaking at the close of the Man Booker 50 festival in the Southbank Centre, London, on Sunday, Ondaatje said he had not reread The English Patient, which moves between a nurse tending a horribly burned man in an Italian villa at the end of the second world war and a tragic love affair from his past, since 1992.

Nick Jonas and Priyanka Chopra have confirmed they are engaged after just a few months together.

The Texan singer, formerly part of the Jonas Brothers, and the Bollywood superstar held a private engagement ceremony in Mumbai on Saturday. Both wore traditional Indian clothes.

The pair's engagement has been rumoured for about three weeks but they had not confirmed it until now.

No date has yet been announced for the wedding.

The couple shared identical photos from the ceremony on their respective Instagram pages, with Jonas calling Chopra the "future Mrs Jonas".

Source : BBC

English bulldog Zsa Zsa (main picture) was awarded the title of the World's Ugliest Dog at this year's competition, held at the Sonoma-Marin Fairgrounds in Petaluma, San Francisco, on Saturday.

Zsa Zsa's owner, Megan Brainard of Anoka, Minnesota, was chosen to receive the cash prize of $1,500 (€1,285) in the competition, which has attracted significant media coverage in the past few years.

Brainard found Zsa Zsa on a pet-finding website, according to the contest bio.

The organizers of the World's Ugliest Dog competition aim to promote dog adoption.

Dogs in the competition flaunt their imperfections as they walk down a red carpet with their owners. A panel of judges evaluates the ugliness of a dog and decides the winner.

Dogs without hair, dogs with lolling tongues and dogs with other imperfections from all over the US, as well as other countries, participate in the fair. Dog owners must provide documents to prove the animals are healthy.

Last year's World's Ugliest Dog prize went to a 3-year-old, 125-pound (57-kilo) Neapolitan Mastiff named Martha. She was nearly blind from neglect when she was rescued in Sonoma County, California. It took several surgeries before she was able to see again.

The competition is now in its 30th year. 

Source : Deautche Welle

Over 11,000 people who were born in Sri Lanka have been adopted overseas.

Many of them have grown with little knowledge of the people or culture they left behind.

This film on BBC 2 (Episode 1 on16 August) follows two women - both adopted as babies - as they return to Sri Lanka to try and find their birth families. They are searching not just for their relatives, but also for a lost identity.

Thirty-eight-year-old Rebecca was adopted from Sri Lanka when she was three months old. Her adoptive parents were a Sri Lankan couple living in London. 

They brought her up as an only child and worked hard to give her every opportunity they could. She went to the best schools, had lavish birthday parties, and excelled in music and the arts. But they also kept one important fact from her - they never told her that she was adopted. For the first nine years of her life, Rebecca thought her adoptive family was her birth family. 

One evening after school, Rebecca found the adoption papers in the airing cupboard. It was devastating and broke a bond between her and her adoptive family. Since then she has been trying to find the truth about her birth and the family who brought her into the world.
The film follows Rebecca as she returns to Sri Lanka for her third search. She is accompanied by her husband Anton - who is also Sri Lankan - and their youngest daughter Shannon. Over two weeks, they investigate the government ministries, shantytowns and hospitals that might offer up some clue as to her mother's whereabouts. 

Her story is a powerful insight into the question a lot of adopted people ask, 'Can I find out who I really am, by finding my family?'
Twenty-seven-year-old Ria had a very different upbringing. 

She was adopted by a couple living in northern Scotland and had a very happy childhood. But Ria has always wondered what her life would have been if she had stayed in Sri Lanka, and what has happened to her mother? Unlike Rebecca, Ria has a lot of information about her birth mother - she even has a photo. But within the documentation is a paragraph saying her birth mother wanted no contact after the adoption.
 This has had a big impact on Ria's self-esteem and she has always felt rejected by her birth family.

As she travels to Sri Lanka to search for the first time, Ria wants to find out what really happened. 

Her journey takes her to the heart of the adoption industry, where agencies and lawyers made millions of pounds from the fees they charged adoptive parents. Corruption and extortion were rife. What Ria will discover is a truth that will change her life forever.

This series examines one of the great questions we all ask ourselves - who are we really? 

By following two brave women on the most important journey of their lives, it explores how ideas of family and roots - that so many of us take for granted - can become so confused when you have no idea who brought you into this world and why they gave you away.

Searching for Mum: airs at 9pm on Thursday August 16 on BBC 2

Game of Thrones stars Kit Harington and his new wife Rose Leslie couldn't have looked happier after tying the knot at Rayne Church in Aberdeenshire yesterday.The couple grinned from ear-to-ear as they left the church after being announced husband and wife.

Making their way outside, they were met by their guests who were lined up ready to shower them with flower petal confetti. The newly-weds got into an old Land Rover which was decorated with paper hearts and tin cans to drive to the reception at Wardhill Castle.

Kit, who plays Jon Snow in Game of Thrones, put on a very handsome display for his big day. The 31-year-old certainly dressed to impress as he wore a very suave morning suit.

Game of Thrones star Kit Harington flashed a smile as he made his way inside

It came complete with a cream waistcoat, grey pinstripe trousers and a black tail jacket.

After he entered the church, Rose Leslie arrived in her incredible wedding gown.

The actress couldn’t have looked happier as she flashed a huge smile whilst holding her father Sebastian’s hand.

Rose’s gown featured intricate lace detail and long sleeves, complete with a stunning veil.

She also clutched on to a simple bouquet of flowers for her wedding ceremony.

Game of Thrones: Kit and Rose were showered with confetti

Before they tied the knot, Game Of Thrones actress Rose's father said he was "thrilled" for his daughter. 

Speaking outside Wardhill castle, Sebastian Leslie said: "We are absolutely thrilled for Kit and Rose to be marrying today."
The local councillor added: "It's an absolutely lovely day for us."

And he said: "It's a great day for Aberdeenshire. We are using local caterers, local lighting, local flowers."

Rose, who played Ygritte in the HBO hit series, and Kit met on the set of Game of Thrones in 2012 and started dating after playing each other’s love interest on the show.

Their wedding was based at the the remote Wardhill Castle in Aberdeenshire, Scotland.

Ceremonial launch of the music video ‘Mama Donkarayayi’ (  I am Echo ), based on a song written by Asoka Handagama and composed by Chitral Somapala and sung by Indika Upamali will be held at the NFC’s - Tharangani Cinema on at 4:00 p.m. on the 1st of August, 2018.  

The song, based on two mythical characters, Narcissus and Echo from Greek-Latin mythology, is set in the contemporary society. The discussion around the song will be triggered by two speeches by Saman Wickramaarchchi and Deepthi Kumara Gunarathne.  Mama Donkarayayi is written and directed by Asoka Handagama. 

The organizers extend an open invitation to all those who are interested in experiencing this great evening.