As the verdict of the six week trial of doctor Conrad Murray was carried out today, Michael Jackson’s family sighed with relief.
The personal physician, to the pop star was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and refused bail. He was lead from the court room in handcuffs and will be sentenced on November 29.
As the jury read the verdict a shout came up from the audience section of the courtroom where Jackson’s family was sitting including La Toya who cried, “Yes!” and Jackson’s mother Katherine who wiped away tears, People magazine reports.
La Toya later told CNN that he she felt Michael in the courtroom. “He was in that courtroom and that’s why victory was served,” she said.
Katherine and Joe Jackson arrive at the court room.
Dr Conrad Murray being handcuffed before being led from the court room.
It seems Kirstie Alley isn’t quite ready to hang up her dancing shoes, and we can certainly see why.
The actress, who lost 45 kilos following her stint on the US Dancing with the Stars, has kept up the sport in order to maintain her weight loss.
She recently performed at Fall Fantasy Showcase Dance Event in Brooklyn, New York where she wore a floor-length yellow gown and a black tasselled number.
Since her extreme weight loss, the 60-year-old is said to be looking for love.
“What I’m looking for is to be madly, deeply in love. For the first time in my life, I know exactly what I want in a man. I want someone who has my back, who is courageous and brave,” she told People magazine.
Now and then: Kirstie after her weight loss and before, back in 2009.
Kirstie and her partner Serge Onik hit the dance floor.
Kirstie shows off her figure while posing with Serge Onik.
The pair walk holding hands in Paris fuelling rumours they are more than just friends.
A young woman has become a YouTube hit after she took a photo of herself everyday for four-and-a-half years.
The video, which has had more than three million hits, shows her style transformation between September 2006 and May 2011.
The video shows her transformation from a young student to an elegant young woman.
The woman, who goes by the username of Madandcrazychild, has also put up all of the photos on her blog where she wrote: “My face has grown out of the front of my head since birth. There seems to be very little I can do about it.”
Watch the video of her style transformation in the video player above.
Actress Deborra-lee Furness has joined forces with the celebrity “orphan doctor” to save the world’s forgotten children. Bryce Corbett reports.
To look at Deborra-lee Furness and Dr Jane Aronson on paper, they make the most unlikely of duos.
One is an accomplished actress in her own right and the wife of Aussie Hollywood sensation, Hugh Jackman; the other a Brooklyn-born paediatrician, an international authority on childhood diseases in developing countries and the wearer of spectacular eyewear.
Yet to see them together in person and watch them interact with their adopted children is to understand the conviction that unites them — that a loving family is the most basic human right of every child on the planet.
Via her charitable Worldwide Orphans Foundation, Dr Aronson — or the “orphan doctor” as she is more commonly known — is leading an international charge to highlight the plight of orphans around the world.
Through her practice in Manhattan, she helps American couples who have adopted children from developing nations and whose new family members bring with them a legacy of exotic diseases from their country of origin.
Her most high-profile clients have been Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, who brought their adopted daughter, Zahara, directly to her from the Ethiopian orphanage in which they found her.
“I know some of the kids that were next to my daughter [in the orphanage],” an emotional Angelina told a Worldwide Orphans Foundation charity gala in New York in 2005. “Two of them passed away, with symptoms very similar to hers. I really do believe that if I didn’t get her out at that time, she wouldn’t be here.”
Deborra-lee’s children, Oscar, 11, and Ava, six, were both adopted in the US, but the actress was only moved to resort to the American system when her attempts to adopt in Australia were bogged down in red tape.
Through her work with children’s charities, Deborra-lee became passionate about the plight of orphans around the world, bringing her into contact with Dr Aronson.
“The number of orphans in the world continues to rise, while the number of inter-country adoptions in Australia goes down,” Deborra-lee says.
“In the meantime, there are children languishing in orphanages all over the world, desperate for a nurturing environment in which to grow up. People think I do this because I have two adopted children, but that’s not the case.
“I have been to Ethiopia and seen two-year-old kids walking the streets. I don’t know anyone who could walk past that and not want to do something.”
“It has become a passion for me because if I hadn’t become an actress, I would have become a lawyer,” she explains. “And I am enraged at the huge injustice of it all. You only have to look at the figures to come to the inescapable conclusion that, as a country, we are anti-adoption.”
The huge injustice that Deborra-lee talks of is best illustrated by the statistics. UNICEF estimates there are some 13 million children in the world who have lost both their parents.
In the last decade, according to figures from the federal Attorney-General’s department, which oversees inter-country adoption, Australia welcomes an average of about 330 international orphans every year.
The US processed some 11,000 inter-country adoptions last year alone — delivering orphans from countries such as China, Vietnam, Russia and Cambodia into the grateful arms of US families.
In contrast, the Australian government allowed only 269 overseas orphans into the country in the calendar year 2008-2009, despite the many thousands of childless couples and hopeful parents queuing patiently to build a family.
According to Deborra-lee, it’s a statistical imbalance of which we ought to be ashamed. “Obviously, adoption is a part of my daily experience and that motivates me,” she says.
“I can watch those World Vision ads and think, ‘That could be my son, that could be my daughter’. But I also just want every kid in the world to know what it is to be part of a family.”
The Australian Women’s Weekly and Deborra-lee Furness hosted a breakfast summit on reforming Australia’s adoption procedures in Sydney, on November 7. For further information on Worldwide Orphans, visit www.wwo.org.
Read more of this story in the November issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly.
Your say: Do you think Australia should make it easier for citizens to adopt orphans from other countries?
Prince William and Kate Middleton in Copenhagen last week.
Prince William and Kate Middleton have chosen their first family home — a lavish four-storey 20-room apartment in London’s Kensington Palace.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will spend $1.6 million renovating Apartment 1A, which has been uninhabited since Queen Elizabeth’s sister Princess Margaret died in 2002.
The royal couple are not expected to move into their new home — which comes completed with its own private walled garden and a full nursery — until 2013 when the restoration is complete.
The renovation will include redecorating, new plumbing and electrics and the removal of asbestos. It will be funded by a combination of public grants and money from the royal family’s private fortune.
William and Kate moved into the small two-bedroom Nottingham Cottage in the grounds of Kensington Palace after their April wedding.
They currently divide their time between that home and their rented house on the island of Anglesey in Wales.
They have been looking for a more permanent family home in London for months and are understood to have considered rooms in St James’s Palace and Princess Diana’s Kensington Palace Apartment 8, where William lived from his birth until 1998.
The young couple reportedly felt there would be too many memories in Diana’s apartment, but fell in love with Princess Margaret’s.
“William and Kate visited Apartment 1A and loved it,” a source told the UK’s Mail on Sunday.
“Kate particularly adored the private walled garden because she loves gardening and she just thought the house has so much potential. She also liked the fact it was so close to Kensington High Street.
“They did look around Diana’s home where William grew up, but they both felt there were too many memories there.”
But William and Kate came close to missing out on their dream home. Charity Historic Royal Palaces has been using Apartment 1A for office, storage and exhibitions since Margaret died and the queen had to personally intervene to have the property returned to the Royal Household.
“It hasn’t been an easy process, though, and there was a degree of difficulty getting the apartment back to the Royal Household so that it could be given to William and Kate,” the source said.
William and Kate’s offices will move from Clarence House to Kensington Palace next year and Prince Harry is expected to move into the couple’s current London home, Nottingham Cottage, once they take up residence in Apartment 1A.
Your say: Do you think William and Kate made the right decision choosing not to live in Princess Diana’s former home?
Prince William and Kate Middleton in Copenhagen last week.
Maybe she was just hungry, but Kate Middleton’s repeated touching of her stomach in Copenhagen last week has sparked rumours she is pregnant with her first child.
The 29-year-old Duchess of Cambridge rested a protective hand on her tiny belly no fewer than a dozen times during her Danish visit on Wednesday.
Dressed in a scarlet coat with matching belt, Kate and William joined Denmark’s Princess Mary and Prince Frederik to tour a UNICEF warehouse.
Kate couldn’t stop touching her stomach, and added further fuel to the pregnancy rumours when she refused to taste a peanut paste used to treat malnourished children in East Africa.
Mary, Frederik and William all tasted the paste, but when it was Kate’s turn, she shot a “knowing look” at her husband before politely declining.
It is recommended pregnant women avoid peanuts in case it triggers a deadly allergy in their unborn child.
A palace spokesman refused to comment on whether Kate was pregnant, but an unnamed aide confirmed that the duchess did not have an allergy to nuts or peanuts herself.
“There was no reason for her not tasting it, she does not have an allergy,” the aide told the UK’s Daily Mail.
“It was very odd,” one onlooker told the newspaper. “Kate would not stop touching her tummy — it was very noticeable. She continually patted it and held her hands against it.
At 50 George Clooney has well and truly still got it. He is one of only three men (the other two being Brad Pitt and Johnny Depp) to be given People magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive title – once in 1997 and then 2006. More pictures of George
Arrested for drug charges in 2001…
Robert Downey Jr has worn the bad boy tag for years, with multiple arrests and even serving some jail time. But the 46 year old seems to have turned over a new leaf, happily married and sober, Downey Jr has made a string of hit films including Iron Man and Sherlock Holmes.
in 1988…
As a swashbuckling hero or a mad hatter Johnny Depp wins over the audience in every role he plays. But it is perhaps his role off screen that has the ladies enthralled. The handsome 48 year old oozes relaxed style and charm and that will win us over any day. Johnny joins George Clooney in being twice named as the Sexiest man alive by People magazine (in 2003 and 2009).
Channelling Curly Sue in 1994…
Patrick “McDreamy” Dempsey, 45, is our favourite television doctor. How could he not be with those bedroom eyes and charming smile?
In the early 2000s…
Hunky Californication star David Duchovny might play a character of questionable morals on his show but that doesn’t stop us swooning all over the 51 year old. More pictures of David
Before he became 007…
When a character walks from the ocean in a James Bond film, it is usually right to suggest that it will be James’ leading lady, but in the 2006 film Casino Royale Daniel Craig, as Bond, emerged from the water wearing swimming trunks and immediately had a swarm of female followers. Us included.
In 1988…
He might be turning 56 this year, but we think the Die Hard star is looking better each year.
What a difference a decade makes…
With a sexy accent and brooding good looks, Javier Bardem sure is getting better with age. At 42 the actor is making his name a household one; with his good looks it’s no wonder his girlfriend is fellow Spaniard, the beautiful Penélope Cruz.
Before he had made it ‘Big’, in 1991…
We’re waiting with baited breath for the next instalment of the Sex and the City franchise to see our favourite on-screen commitment-phobe Chris Noth reprise his role as Mr. Big. He has stolen Carrie Bradshaw’s heart and for that the 56 year old gets our vote!
In 1997…
Thankfully Rob has left the 80s well and truly behind him, but we sure are glad those swimming pool eyes of his are still mesmerising.
Irish actor Pierce Brosnan always has a twinkle in his eye. But that doesn’t forgive this strange Hawaiian shirt and purple linen suit ensemble.
This former James Bond certainly still looks good in a suit. It’s hard to believe Pierce is 58!
The Raining Diamonds singer looks fantastic, thanks to a year-long health and fitness campaign that has seen her slim down from a curvaceous size 14 to a very sexy size 8.
Chatting to Australia’s Next Top Model winner Alice Burdeu, Ricki-Lee Coulter cut a glamorous figure on Melbourne Cup day last week as she soaked up the atmosphere in the exclusive Emirates tent at Flemington racecourse. Dressed in a sparkling cocktail frock and arm in arm with partner Richard Harrison, the 25-year-old singer looked so comfortable hobnobbing with the model that some people mistook her for another catwalk queen.
“You’re just saying that!” she says with a laugh when Woman’s Day makes the same mistake. “But thanks!” Onlookers couldn’t believe it was the same girl who’d talked openly about being a “proud size 14” just a year before. Everyone wanted to know exactly how she’d managed to shed so much weight and reshape her body. Surely it couldn’t all be down to the efforts of her personal trainer boyfriend? “We don’t actually train together,” says Ricki-Lee, whose latest single Raining Diamonds is climbing the charts. “I’ve been doing a lot of dancing. I set myself a little challenge – I wanted to be fitter, performance-wise. I’ve been doing a lot of dance rehearsals with a choreographer for the last four or five months.
“We rehearse every day for music video stuff and all my live performances – it’s really fun.”Sounds a bit like she’s enjoying her very own Zumba lesson each day! “Yeah!” she says, laughing. “I get to perform it too, which is great. It’s all heaps of fun.” When Woman’s Day spoke to Ricki-Lee in January last year, the then-voluptuous singer was happy to stand as a poster girl for “size 14 women everywhere”. She even agreed to do a photoshoot for us in Bali, with the resulting images free of computer touch-ups. “It’s important for the women of Australia to see a real woman in the pages of a magazine,” Ricki-Lee said at the time. “This is what I really look like. I’m proud to be out there promoting size 14 beauty. It’s the average size of most women, and it’s important for people to see that and know that’s who I am too.”
Looking at Ricki-Lee now, you’d never recognise the curvaceous teen who shot to fame as a finalist on the second series of Australian Idol in 2004. At the time, people couldn’t help but hold her aloft as a role model for “normal” girls. However, as Ricki-Lee admits, the feedback wasn’t always positive. “I’ve experienced criticism about my body, and for being a size 14 woman in the spotlight,” she said. “That just feels like another symptom of how unhealthy body perception can be.” Ricki-Lee insisted she was happy with her size and would shun weight-loss endorsements. “I come from a family of tall, curvy women,” she said. “I developed in my body and my shape far earlier, so from a young age I accepted it. I embraced it and saw it as an advantage.”
Read more aboutRicki-Lee’s weightloss journey in this week’s Woman’s Day, on sale November 7, 2011.
Behind the bright smile, the beauty queen turned TV star has had her troubles, as Shari Nementzik finds out.
On the surface, The Celebrity Apprentice star Jesinta Campbell appears to have it all – beauty, brains and fame. But only a few years ago the former Miss Universe contestant was the target of school bullies. The sporty stunner went through high school and her turbulent teenage years feeling isolated and alone. Fortunately, Jesinta, 20, had her biggest fan – her mother, Valerie, 46 – by her side and they beat the bullies together.
Following an ideal time at primary school on Queensland’s Gold Coast, things turned sour. “A girl from my primary school moved to the same high school as me, and she had started a rumour before I even got there and told everyone not to be my friend,” Jesinta says. “So of course when everyone was pairing up for the first day of high school, no-one wanted to pair up with me or be my buddy.”
She was lucky to have her mum to confide in. “We cried together at times,” Valerie admits. “When she was upset, I would say, ‘Darling, you are not a victim. Focus on the goodness in that person and see that. They are just behaving badly, that’s all. Focus on where you want to go in life and that will get you through. This is an opportunity to grow.”
Eventually, Jesinta changed schools to escape the bullying at the hands of her peers. “Mum used to tell me that people’s opinions of you don’t define you,” she says. “It is how you choose to react to them and how you behave as a person that defines you and what people will remember you for.” Her mum’s words of wisdom have also helped Jesinta deal with drama in the boardroom on the hit series The Celebrity Apprentice.
The Celebrity Apprentice airs weeknights at 7pm on Channel Nine.
Read more about how Jesinta and her mum beat the bullies in this week’s Woman’s Day, on sale November 7, 2011.
When Jo Fincham went on The Farmer Wants A Wife, she found a husband – the father of her baby – and peace of mind.
If ever there was evidence that life can take a 180-degree turn from darkness into the light, it is in Jo Fincham’s face as she cradles her newborn daughter Darcy. Jo, 33, is a picture of contentment. It’s a far cry from where she was several years ago, when she suffered from depression and a debilitating eating disorder. That was before Rob Hodges, her devoted husband of 18 months – the man Australian TV viewers watched fall in love with the pretty Melbourne newspaper photographer in the second season of the Nine Network’s hit series, The Farmer Wants A Wife.
“I’ve had a tough time in the past and I could never imagine myself being a mum,” Jo says, gazing down at Darcy, contentedly feeding in her arms. “I mean, I couldn’t even look after myself, let alone a child. “Now it feels like the most natural, relaxed thing in the world. I loved being pregnant and I love being a mother more than I can say. I am just so happy and blessed.” Jo credits meeting Rob and falling in love with his life in the country with lifting her out of her self-destructive patterns in the city. “I believe I’ve overcome all that,” she says as she traces Darcy’s tiny nose with her finger.
“The farm has been the best thing for me, physically and mentally. I believe moving out of my old environment in Melbourne was the best thing for me. Back there I was going out a lot and drinking too much. I think there are a lot of people in this world who shouldn’t drink alcohol and I am probably one of them. I rarely touch it now. I just don’t need it, I’m too happy.“Melbourne is where I grew up and lived most of my life but this feels like where I belong,” she adds. “It’s definitely where my heart is.” Listening proudly, Rob, 46, is over the moon with how easily Jo settled into life on his beef and sheep farm in Mount Gambier, SA.
“It is such a great environment to live in, and we have such a great, supportive network of friends that I think Jo has moved forward from where she was,” he says. “It’s [depression] something that’s always there in the background and we have to manage it. I think taking Jo out of the environment where that unhappiness occurred has really helped.”Ask Rob if he is delighted with little Darcy and his face lights up. “She’s absolutely gooorgeous,” he says, touching his little girl gently. “My wife’s gorgeous, they’re all gorgeous. We’ve got a magnificent life we’re living and everything has fallen into place. I couldn’t be happier.”
Read more about Farmer Rob and his wife Jo in this week’s Woman’s Day, on sale November 7, 2011.
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