Man gets 26 years and 24 strokes for rape
UNDER the pretext of teaching her about sex so she would not be cheated by men in the future, an operations supervisor had sex with his girlfriend's daughter and gave her a sexually transmitted disease.
Only after the victim, then aged 14, attended sex education classes last year and found out about sex, masturbation and condoms, did she realise that what he did to her was wrong.
She told her mother and on Tuesday, the 43-year-old man was sentenced to a total of 26 years in jail and 24 strokes of the cane in the High Court.
He had pleaded guilty to raping her on four occasions. Seven other similar offences were taken into consideration by Justice Steven Chong.
The man cannot be named to protect the victim's identity.
The court heard that the bachelor was in a relationship with the girl's mother. The 37-year-old divorcee then moved into his flat with her daughter and son in 2005.
As she was afraid of the dark, she would sleep with the man and her mother. Sometime after she turned 12 in 2007, he touched her private parts as she lay between him and her mother.
When they were both alone in the flat some months later, he tried to have sex with the primary six student but stopped when she complained of pain.
She told police she did not tell anyone then because she did not know what he did was wrong. The next time in the same year, he went all the way wearing a condom.
Sabtu, 30 Oktober 2010
Rabu, 27 Oktober 2010
monk
Oct 22, 2010
Monk filmed naked girls, jailed
PHNOM PENH - A CAMBODIAN court has sentenced a former Buddhist monk to 17 years in jail for secretly filming two teenage girls as they bathed naked at a temple, a prosecutor said on Friday.Net Khai, 37, was arrested and stripped of his religious status in June for allegedly taping more than 600 women pouring sacred water over themselves and then sharing the footage via mobile phones.
Since then several women have come forward to press charges, including two who were under the age of 18 at the time of filming.
A Phnom Penh court on Thursday handed the ex-monk the jail term for producing and distributing pornography of two underage girls, prosecutor Plang Sophal told AFP.
The court also ordered Net Khai to pay 50 million riel (S$15,318) in compensation to each of the two victims.
Net Khai already received a one-year sentence last month for producing and distributing pornography in a case involving a 23-year-old victim. He is expected to face at least one further lawsuit.
Buddhist monks are revered in Cambodia, where Buddhists make up more than 90 per cent of the population. -- AFP
Sabtu, 23 Oktober 2010
tycoon
Oct 13, 2010
S'pore tycoon lost $100m
Singaporean tycoon reported to have lost $100m at the tables
By Ng Kai Ling
Gaming analysts and those in the business world said the man would have had to bet at least tens of thousands of dollars a hand. -- PHOTO: ST/DESMOND WEE
THE gaming world is abuzz with news that a Singaporean businessman lost $100 million at the two casinos in Resorts World Sentosa (RWS) and Marina Bay Sands (MBS).
Gaming analysts and those in the business world said the man would have had to bet at least tens of thousands of dollars a hand. High rollers like him usually play baccarat or blackjack.
He would also have gambled at the casinos' private rooms, where only the high rollers can play. Players and industry insiders say it is not uncommon to see wagers of $300,000 or more a hand.
Today, the free newspaper, reported yesterday that the businessman who lost $100 million is on the Forbes list of the 40 richest people in Singapore. Another tycoon, from Malaysia, is said to have lost $50 million here.
But the first to hit the headlines was Mr Henry Quek, managing director of Far Ocean Sea Products, who lost $26 million at RWS in three days in June.
While such big losses are not uncommon in the gaming world, consultants from Las Vegas and Macau were taken aback by how, in Mr Quek's case, the money was lost in a matter of days.
S'pore tycoon lost $100m
Singaporean tycoon reported to have lost $100m at the tables
By Ng Kai Ling
Gaming analysts and those in the business world said the man would have had to bet at least tens of thousands of dollars a hand. -- PHOTO: ST/DESMOND WEE
THE gaming world is abuzz with news that a Singaporean businessman lost $100 million at the two casinos in Resorts World Sentosa (RWS) and Marina Bay Sands (MBS).
Gaming analysts and those in the business world said the man would have had to bet at least tens of thousands of dollars a hand. High rollers like him usually play baccarat or blackjack.
He would also have gambled at the casinos' private rooms, where only the high rollers can play. Players and industry insiders say it is not uncommon to see wagers of $300,000 or more a hand.
Today, the free newspaper, reported yesterday that the businessman who lost $100 million is on the Forbes list of the 40 richest people in Singapore. Another tycoon, from Malaysia, is said to have lost $50 million here.
But the first to hit the headlines was Mr Henry Quek, managing director of Far Ocean Sea Products, who lost $26 million at RWS in three days in June.
While such big losses are not uncommon in the gaming world, consultants from Las Vegas and Macau were taken aback by how, in Mr Quek's case, the money was lost in a matter of days.
Minggu, 17 Oktober 2010
low-carb diet
LOW-CARB DIET BETTER THAN LOW-FAT ONE OVER LONG TERM?
(by Tony Ryanto)
Over a long term period, low-carbohydrate diet turns out to be as effective as low-fat diet at reducing weight. Not only that, it is better for your heart, CBS News quoted an AP report dated Aug. 3, 2010 as saying.
Both diets improved cholesterol levels in a two-year study that involved intensive group counseling but those on the low-carb diet got a bigger boost in getting the so-called good cholesterol or HDL, nearly twice those on the low-fat one.
The low-carb diet scored a 23 percent increase in HDL against 12 percent in low-fat. Also, low-carb diet has performed better at weight loss over a six-month period, according to Gary Foster, director of Temple University’s Center for Obesity Research and Education, who led the federally funded study.
The low-carb boost, he added, is the kind one might get from medicines that improve HDL.
“For a diet, that’s pretty impressive,” Foster said.
The findings, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, are based on a study of 307 adults, two-thirds of them women. Participants were obese but didn’t have cholesterol problems or diabetes.
Half followed a low-carb diet modeled after the Atkins’ plan and half went on a low-calorie, low-fat one. All attended group sessions to help them change bad eating habits, get more active and stick to their diets.
Low-fat diet, promoted by Dean Ornish and Nathan Pritikin, stresses high fat intake and the ingestion of high carbohydrate meals, while the low-carb diet was pushed more prominently by the recently deceased cardiologist Robert Atkins, who died of non cardiac causes, according to About.Com.:Heart Health Center.
Atkins insists on radical avoidance of carbohydrates in favor of fat and protein.
Three papers from the Women’s Health Initiative Dietary Modification Trial, published in the Feb. 8, 2006 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, however, shows that women treated for eight years with a classic low-fat diet achieved no measurable cardiovascular benefits. This has embarrassed the low fat-diet community, and has left them endeavoring to explain these results. No matter how they put it, however, it appears that the “classic” low-fat diet doesn’t do the job it’s supposed to do.
If low fat diet is effective, then why, after 30 years of promotion and massive recruitment of American food production industries to produce low fat versions of a multiplicity of foodstuff, do Americans keep on getting fat?
The question was posed by Dr Robert Atkins and other low-carb mavens.
Answer to the above question is because carbohydrates lead to obesity and because they powerfully stimulate hunger. Consequently, poor, unsuspecting victims of the low-fat diet seek even more carbohydrate.When we consume carbo, especially those that are rapidly absorbed, such as sugar, potatoes, pasta, white rice and anything made from refined flour, we stimulate the secretion of insulin and insulin causes glucose (product of carbo digestion) to be quickly absorbed into tissues for fuel consumption.
But the extra glucose that are not immediately needed for fuel, are quickly converted to and stored as fat!
According to Dr Ekky M. Rahardja, M.S., clinical nutritionist at Royal Taruma Hospital, Jl. Daan Mogot, Jakarta, this is because insulin has a powerful capacity to store fat from glucose by activating fatty acid synthase, a fat builder enzyme.
Once the glucose levels drop, the insulin level likewise falls and nothing promotes hunger more than a high carbohydrate meal followed by a rapid spike and a rapid drop in insulin levels. So, within 2 to 4 hours, we suddenly crave more carbohydrate.
And the cycle keeps on repeating, again and again, i.e. storing fat, getting hungry and looking out for more carbo. While we stick to a low fat diet, we get fat and as our cholesterol levels go up, we might eventually die.
By avoiding carbo, people avoid a spike in insulin levels. And by keeping low levels of insulin, one will no longer store fat but instead burn it.
Our metabolism actually transforms, so that we primarily use our fat stores for fuel instead of ingested glucose – the fat literally melts away.
Fewer scientific studies have been conducted with low-carb diets than with low-fat ones. This is largely because of the incredible prejudice against low carb diets that has grown within the medical community over the past 30 years.
Early results from these low carb diet studies have been surprisingly positive. Not only have low carb diets been shown to be effective weight loss vehicles but the diets can actually improve cholesterol and triglyceride levels.
Serious doctors are finally starting to wonder if there’s actually something useful there.
About Com. Turns out to be in favour of low-carb diet when it says that much more data will be forthcoming within the next few years. Unfortunately, Dr Atkins’ untimely demise occurred just as his 30-year-old quest was about to bear fruit.
In spite of differences between the two diets, there are in fact a lot of similarities between them.
Both sides cannot deny it. If a person takes in more calories, whether in the form of carbohydrates or fats, he or she will gain weight.
This means that eating lots of low fat food or low carb foods will definitely make you fat.
Dr Atkins’ claim that someone on a low-carb diet does not need to count calories is not exactly correct.
Yet in many cases what he claims seems true because eating fat quenches your appetite, whereas consuming carbohydrates sharpen your appetite.
In other words, even a diet high in fat can amount to fewer calories.
Only recently, proponents of low carb diet have come to notice that certain foods, mostly vegetables and fruits, are relatively high in carbohydrates. Such foods not only supply the needed vitamins that a person on a strict no carb diet misses but also give him or her roughage that might prevent constipation and help certain types of cancer.
Also, in recent years, advocates of low fat diet have admitted that not all fats and trans-fats are all bad. Some, like omega-3 and other varieties of fats found in fish, nuts, olives and avocados, are good. That’s why low-fat dieters are recommended to take in up to 30% of the right kinds of fats.
Radical low-fat dieters put strict limits on rapidly absorbed carbohydrates that could stimulate rapid rises and falls of insulin levels.
And these rapid carbohydrates, namely bread, potatoes, rice and pasta, are likewise most abhorred by the low-carb advocates.
So if we take the middle road because we don’t want to side with either the low fat or low carb dieters, what we should do are these four:
1.Avoid simple carbohydrates that lead to rapid rises and falls of insulin levels, i.e. pasta, potatoes, rice and and products made from refined flour.
2.Eat more vegetables and fruits that supply essential vitamins and roughage without stimulating rapid rises and falls of insulin levels.
3.Eat foods that give you good fats, such as fish, nuts, olives and avocados.
4.Avoid processed foods of any type that contain trans-fats, described as the worst kind of fat for men.
Summing up and making it easy for everyone irrespective of those on low-carb or low-fat diets, Dr Rahardja said that whatever the debate, a well balanced low calorie diet, including sufficient regular daily fat burning exercise, is the best option because this will guarantee that we will not be overweight, let alone obese. In short, we should change our bad eating and other habits into one that leads to a healthy lifestyle.
(by Tony Ryanto)
Over a long term period, low-carbohydrate diet turns out to be as effective as low-fat diet at reducing weight. Not only that, it is better for your heart, CBS News quoted an AP report dated Aug. 3, 2010 as saying.
Both diets improved cholesterol levels in a two-year study that involved intensive group counseling but those on the low-carb diet got a bigger boost in getting the so-called good cholesterol or HDL, nearly twice those on the low-fat one.
The low-carb diet scored a 23 percent increase in HDL against 12 percent in low-fat. Also, low-carb diet has performed better at weight loss over a six-month period, according to Gary Foster, director of Temple University’s Center for Obesity Research and Education, who led the federally funded study.
The low-carb boost, he added, is the kind one might get from medicines that improve HDL.
“For a diet, that’s pretty impressive,” Foster said.
The findings, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, are based on a study of 307 adults, two-thirds of them women. Participants were obese but didn’t have cholesterol problems or diabetes.
Half followed a low-carb diet modeled after the Atkins’ plan and half went on a low-calorie, low-fat one. All attended group sessions to help them change bad eating habits, get more active and stick to their diets.
Low-fat diet, promoted by Dean Ornish and Nathan Pritikin, stresses high fat intake and the ingestion of high carbohydrate meals, while the low-carb diet was pushed more prominently by the recently deceased cardiologist Robert Atkins, who died of non cardiac causes, according to About.Com.:Heart Health Center.
Atkins insists on radical avoidance of carbohydrates in favor of fat and protein.
Three papers from the Women’s Health Initiative Dietary Modification Trial, published in the Feb. 8, 2006 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, however, shows that women treated for eight years with a classic low-fat diet achieved no measurable cardiovascular benefits. This has embarrassed the low fat-diet community, and has left them endeavoring to explain these results. No matter how they put it, however, it appears that the “classic” low-fat diet doesn’t do the job it’s supposed to do.
If low fat diet is effective, then why, after 30 years of promotion and massive recruitment of American food production industries to produce low fat versions of a multiplicity of foodstuff, do Americans keep on getting fat?
The question was posed by Dr Robert Atkins and other low-carb mavens.
Answer to the above question is because carbohydrates lead to obesity and because they powerfully stimulate hunger. Consequently, poor, unsuspecting victims of the low-fat diet seek even more carbohydrate.When we consume carbo, especially those that are rapidly absorbed, such as sugar, potatoes, pasta, white rice and anything made from refined flour, we stimulate the secretion of insulin and insulin causes glucose (product of carbo digestion) to be quickly absorbed into tissues for fuel consumption.
But the extra glucose that are not immediately needed for fuel, are quickly converted to and stored as fat!
According to Dr Ekky M. Rahardja, M.S., clinical nutritionist at Royal Taruma Hospital, Jl. Daan Mogot, Jakarta, this is because insulin has a powerful capacity to store fat from glucose by activating fatty acid synthase, a fat builder enzyme.
Once the glucose levels drop, the insulin level likewise falls and nothing promotes hunger more than a high carbohydrate meal followed by a rapid spike and a rapid drop in insulin levels. So, within 2 to 4 hours, we suddenly crave more carbohydrate.
And the cycle keeps on repeating, again and again, i.e. storing fat, getting hungry and looking out for more carbo. While we stick to a low fat diet, we get fat and as our cholesterol levels go up, we might eventually die.
By avoiding carbo, people avoid a spike in insulin levels. And by keeping low levels of insulin, one will no longer store fat but instead burn it.
Our metabolism actually transforms, so that we primarily use our fat stores for fuel instead of ingested glucose – the fat literally melts away.
Fewer scientific studies have been conducted with low-carb diets than with low-fat ones. This is largely because of the incredible prejudice against low carb diets that has grown within the medical community over the past 30 years.
Early results from these low carb diet studies have been surprisingly positive. Not only have low carb diets been shown to be effective weight loss vehicles but the diets can actually improve cholesterol and triglyceride levels.
Serious doctors are finally starting to wonder if there’s actually something useful there.
About Com. Turns out to be in favour of low-carb diet when it says that much more data will be forthcoming within the next few years. Unfortunately, Dr Atkins’ untimely demise occurred just as his 30-year-old quest was about to bear fruit.
In spite of differences between the two diets, there are in fact a lot of similarities between them.
Both sides cannot deny it. If a person takes in more calories, whether in the form of carbohydrates or fats, he or she will gain weight.
This means that eating lots of low fat food or low carb foods will definitely make you fat.
Dr Atkins’ claim that someone on a low-carb diet does not need to count calories is not exactly correct.
Yet in many cases what he claims seems true because eating fat quenches your appetite, whereas consuming carbohydrates sharpen your appetite.
In other words, even a diet high in fat can amount to fewer calories.
Only recently, proponents of low carb diet have come to notice that certain foods, mostly vegetables and fruits, are relatively high in carbohydrates. Such foods not only supply the needed vitamins that a person on a strict no carb diet misses but also give him or her roughage that might prevent constipation and help certain types of cancer.
Also, in recent years, advocates of low fat diet have admitted that not all fats and trans-fats are all bad. Some, like omega-3 and other varieties of fats found in fish, nuts, olives and avocados, are good. That’s why low-fat dieters are recommended to take in up to 30% of the right kinds of fats.
Radical low-fat dieters put strict limits on rapidly absorbed carbohydrates that could stimulate rapid rises and falls of insulin levels.
And these rapid carbohydrates, namely bread, potatoes, rice and pasta, are likewise most abhorred by the low-carb advocates.
So if we take the middle road because we don’t want to side with either the low fat or low carb dieters, what we should do are these four:
1.Avoid simple carbohydrates that lead to rapid rises and falls of insulin levels, i.e. pasta, potatoes, rice and and products made from refined flour.
2.Eat more vegetables and fruits that supply essential vitamins and roughage without stimulating rapid rises and falls of insulin levels.
3.Eat foods that give you good fats, such as fish, nuts, olives and avocados.
4.Avoid processed foods of any type that contain trans-fats, described as the worst kind of fat for men.
Summing up and making it easy for everyone irrespective of those on low-carb or low-fat diets, Dr Rahardja said that whatever the debate, a well balanced low calorie diet, including sufficient regular daily fat burning exercise, is the best option because this will guarantee that we will not be overweight, let alone obese. In short, we should change our bad eating and other habits into one that leads to a healthy lifestyle.
jumlah cerai semu di china naik drastis
Banyak suami isteri di China cerai semu untuk beli property
15 Okt. 2010
China Daily/Asia News Network
Shanghai, China- Banyak pasangan suami isteri melakukan cerai semu untuk dapat membeli property di Shanghai, karena peraturan baru hanya mengizinkan keluarga membali satu apartemen baru.
Peraturan baru pemerintah kota Shanghai tg 7 Okt mengizinkan suami isteri hanya membeli satu rumah tinggal baru mulai 7 Okt. 2010. Yang kedapatan melanggar tak diizinkan mendaftarkan kepemilikan rumah. Tapi sejumlah pasangan dikabarkan telah membuat surat cerai palsu agar mereka dapat membeli beberapa apartemen baru.
Koran Shanghai Morning Post secara acak mengatakan lima perusahaan surat cerai palsu semuanya mengaku jumlah pasangan yang hendak melakukan cerai semu meningkat akhir-akhir ini.
Sebuah sumber tak bernama di salah satu perusahaan mengungkapkan bahwa surat cerai semu umumnya dapat diperoleh dengan 300 yuan ($ 45). Jika pasangan ingin dua sertifikat, ongkos dipangkas menjadi 500 yuan.
Kecuali nomor seri fiktif, umumnya sertifikat kelihatan asli.
Media setempat memberitakan jumlah pasangan cerai palsu meningkat setelah pemerintah kota memperketat peraturan dalam usaha menghindari spekulasi dalam usaha penjualan rumah tinggal.
15 Okt. 2010
China Daily/Asia News Network
Shanghai, China- Banyak pasangan suami isteri melakukan cerai semu untuk dapat membeli property di Shanghai, karena peraturan baru hanya mengizinkan keluarga membali satu apartemen baru.
Peraturan baru pemerintah kota Shanghai tg 7 Okt mengizinkan suami isteri hanya membeli satu rumah tinggal baru mulai 7 Okt. 2010. Yang kedapatan melanggar tak diizinkan mendaftarkan kepemilikan rumah. Tapi sejumlah pasangan dikabarkan telah membuat surat cerai palsu agar mereka dapat membeli beberapa apartemen baru.
Koran Shanghai Morning Post secara acak mengatakan lima perusahaan surat cerai palsu semuanya mengaku jumlah pasangan yang hendak melakukan cerai semu meningkat akhir-akhir ini.
Sebuah sumber tak bernama di salah satu perusahaan mengungkapkan bahwa surat cerai semu umumnya dapat diperoleh dengan 300 yuan ($ 45). Jika pasangan ingin dua sertifikat, ongkos dipangkas menjadi 500 yuan.
Kecuali nomor seri fiktif, umumnya sertifikat kelihatan asli.
Media setempat memberitakan jumlah pasangan cerai palsu meningkat setelah pemerintah kota memperketat peraturan dalam usaha menghindari spekulasi dalam usaha penjualan rumah tinggal.
laurie
HUGH LAURIE IS HIGHEST PAID ACTOR IN US DRAMA SERIES
(by Tony Ryanto)
Born on 11 June, 1959, Briton James Hugh Calum Laurie, stars as Dr. Gregory House, protagonist of the world’s most-watched Fox produced TV medical drama series House.
Starting August 2010, TV Guide magazine named Laurie the highest paid actor for US drama series with a USD 480,000 per episode pay, taking over from Kiefer Sutherland, son of actor Donald Sutherland, whose drama series 24 ended earlier this year.
House pilot director Bryan Singer was looking for an actor with a perfect American accent to play the lead character and Laurie was the man of his choice. But at the time, he didn’t have any idea that Laurie is English, not American.
House is entering its 7th season in Sept. 2010 after its first airing in 2004. Laurie has meanwhile garnered two Golden Globe awards and several Emmy nominations.
What makes the series the number one medical drama globally?
The magnet is Gregory House, who is not as handsome as George Clooney in the drama series ER (Emergency Room). Neither is he as good looking and amiable as Richard Chamberlain in the series Dr. Kildare.
House is bearded, mustachioed. He limps because one dead leg muscle had been surgically removed. As a result, he suffers sporadic fits of pain and is consequently addicted to Vicodin, a pain killer.
At all times, House is sullen, irritated, grumpy, lonely and cantankerous but all these qualities cannot compare with his genius as a master diagnostician and a communicable disease specialist.
A lot of patients considered not to be able to survive recovered miraculously and surprisingly because of House’s accurate diagnosis that normally baffled other physicians. Understandably, a lot of hospital employees have to tolerate a torrent of verbal abuse.
And this is the supreme power that has enabled House to survive and retained its top position throughout six seasons.
Dr James Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard) and Dr Lisa Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein), the director of the hospital House is employed, are the closest to the grumpy diagnostician.
There is a difference though. While pure friendship is the thing that binds House and Wilson, love-hate relationship is responsible for the proximity between House and Cuddy. AXN channel audiences could see that the bearded doctor is in love with his superior, while Cuddy herself is seen to be wavering, not being able to reciprocate his feelings.
The first episode of House’s seventh season in September 2010 is a surprisingly a real eye opener. At a time when House is desperate and was about to return to Vicodin, Cuddy unexpectedly enters his room.
Why desperate? Because he has just lost a patient, a woman whose amputation he recommended did not survive. Worse, because the woman he loves, Cuddy, told House in a season 6 episode she had just got engaged to Lucas.
The House-Cuddy footage, dubbed Huddy, is said to depict love between the two.
Some people claim the Huddy footage is extremely risky because if it fails to satisfy audiences, the hot series could crumble in no time.
But if fans are pleased, it means that House has obtained extra power and come-hither appeal, because like some commentators said, the magnet that draws viewers is becoming monotonous. Even the most interesting, if repeated time and again, might turn to be boring.
Admittedly, Dr House is a brilliant diagnostician. But his ability to cure patients and his being grumpy to all, are not without limits.
So the producers risk to expose the consummation of tender feelings between the protagonists to keep the series strong as ever.
In retrospect, audiences could easily trace the feelings of affection between the leads in the series The Nanny, Who’s The Boss and The X-Files.
Tony Danza as Tony Micelli and Judith Light as Angela Bower are always warm in Who’s The Boss, shown from 1984 to 1992.
Fran Drescher as Fran Fine and Charles Shaughnessy as Maxwell Sheffield love each other in The Nanny, televised from 1993 to 1999.
And so are the characters played by David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson in Fox’s The X-Files (1993-2002).
But none of the couples have been shown with such force, and torridness as in the Huddy sequence.
In 2004, Laurie left his wife and three children in England. The time he spent alone in the US was admittedly not an easy and comfortable one.
“I wouldn’t say that doing the series has made my marriage easier. Better? I don’t know about that either,” Mail On Line dated Sat. Aug. 28, 2010 quoted him as saying to Parade magazine earlier this year.
Indonesians could see Laurie in the “Stuart Little” films. He plays a loving and adorable father.
Now who could have predicted that Laurie could gain fame and riches in the US?
In terms of rating, it’s amazing that House could beat powerful drama series, such as the CIS franchise series Crime Scene Investigation (Las Vegas, Nevada), CSI Miami, CSI NY and Law and Order.
But according to the same TV Guide magazine, Laurie has still a long way to catch up with Charlie Sheen, son of actor Martin Sheen, who earns USD 1.2 million per episode in the comedy series Two and a Half Men.
The series, aired on Sept. 22, 2003, might enter its 12th season in 2011, as contained in a multi-year broadcast agreement between CBS Entertainment and Warner Bros. Television.
-------------
(by Tony Ryanto)
Born on 11 June, 1959, Briton James Hugh Calum Laurie, stars as Dr. Gregory House, protagonist of the world’s most-watched Fox produced TV medical drama series House.
Starting August 2010, TV Guide magazine named Laurie the highest paid actor for US drama series with a USD 480,000 per episode pay, taking over from Kiefer Sutherland, son of actor Donald Sutherland, whose drama series 24 ended earlier this year.
House pilot director Bryan Singer was looking for an actor with a perfect American accent to play the lead character and Laurie was the man of his choice. But at the time, he didn’t have any idea that Laurie is English, not American.
House is entering its 7th season in Sept. 2010 after its first airing in 2004. Laurie has meanwhile garnered two Golden Globe awards and several Emmy nominations.
What makes the series the number one medical drama globally?
The magnet is Gregory House, who is not as handsome as George Clooney in the drama series ER (Emergency Room). Neither is he as good looking and amiable as Richard Chamberlain in the series Dr. Kildare.
House is bearded, mustachioed. He limps because one dead leg muscle had been surgically removed. As a result, he suffers sporadic fits of pain and is consequently addicted to Vicodin, a pain killer.
At all times, House is sullen, irritated, grumpy, lonely and cantankerous but all these qualities cannot compare with his genius as a master diagnostician and a communicable disease specialist.
A lot of patients considered not to be able to survive recovered miraculously and surprisingly because of House’s accurate diagnosis that normally baffled other physicians. Understandably, a lot of hospital employees have to tolerate a torrent of verbal abuse.
And this is the supreme power that has enabled House to survive and retained its top position throughout six seasons.
Dr James Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard) and Dr Lisa Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein), the director of the hospital House is employed, are the closest to the grumpy diagnostician.
There is a difference though. While pure friendship is the thing that binds House and Wilson, love-hate relationship is responsible for the proximity between House and Cuddy. AXN channel audiences could see that the bearded doctor is in love with his superior, while Cuddy herself is seen to be wavering, not being able to reciprocate his feelings.
The first episode of House’s seventh season in September 2010 is a surprisingly a real eye opener. At a time when House is desperate and was about to return to Vicodin, Cuddy unexpectedly enters his room.
Why desperate? Because he has just lost a patient, a woman whose amputation he recommended did not survive. Worse, because the woman he loves, Cuddy, told House in a season 6 episode she had just got engaged to Lucas.
The House-Cuddy footage, dubbed Huddy, is said to depict love between the two.
Some people claim the Huddy footage is extremely risky because if it fails to satisfy audiences, the hot series could crumble in no time.
But if fans are pleased, it means that House has obtained extra power and come-hither appeal, because like some commentators said, the magnet that draws viewers is becoming monotonous. Even the most interesting, if repeated time and again, might turn to be boring.
Admittedly, Dr House is a brilliant diagnostician. But his ability to cure patients and his being grumpy to all, are not without limits.
So the producers risk to expose the consummation of tender feelings between the protagonists to keep the series strong as ever.
In retrospect, audiences could easily trace the feelings of affection between the leads in the series The Nanny, Who’s The Boss and The X-Files.
Tony Danza as Tony Micelli and Judith Light as Angela Bower are always warm in Who’s The Boss, shown from 1984 to 1992.
Fran Drescher as Fran Fine and Charles Shaughnessy as Maxwell Sheffield love each other in The Nanny, televised from 1993 to 1999.
And so are the characters played by David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson in Fox’s The X-Files (1993-2002).
But none of the couples have been shown with such force, and torridness as in the Huddy sequence.
In 2004, Laurie left his wife and three children in England. The time he spent alone in the US was admittedly not an easy and comfortable one.
“I wouldn’t say that doing the series has made my marriage easier. Better? I don’t know about that either,” Mail On Line dated Sat. Aug. 28, 2010 quoted him as saying to Parade magazine earlier this year.
Indonesians could see Laurie in the “Stuart Little” films. He plays a loving and adorable father.
Now who could have predicted that Laurie could gain fame and riches in the US?
In terms of rating, it’s amazing that House could beat powerful drama series, such as the CIS franchise series Crime Scene Investigation (Las Vegas, Nevada), CSI Miami, CSI NY and Law and Order.
But according to the same TV Guide magazine, Laurie has still a long way to catch up with Charlie Sheen, son of actor Martin Sheen, who earns USD 1.2 million per episode in the comedy series Two and a Half Men.
The series, aired on Sept. 22, 2003, might enter its 12th season in 2011, as contained in a multi-year broadcast agreement between CBS Entertainment and Warner Bros. Television.
-------------
Sabtu, 16 Oktober 2010
hidung baru untuk wanita afghan
HIDUNG BARU UNTUK WANITA AFGHAN
15 Okt. 2010
AFP
Los Angeles – Seorang wanita muda Afghan yang menjadi cover mingguan Time dengan wajah dimutilasi kini tampil dengan hidung prostetik.
Bibi Ayesha kehilangan hidung dan kedua telinga disiksa sang suami di bagian Afghanistan yang dikuasai Taliban. Dalam usia 18 tahun, ia tiba di California beberapa bulan lalu untuk rekonstruksi medis.
Wanita muda ini tampil di cover Time edisi 9 Agustus 2010 dengan judul “What Happens if we leave Afghanistan?” (Apa yang terjadi jika kita tinggalkan Afghanistan?” - judul tersbut menimbulkan spekulasi apakah dia dieksploitasi untuk tujuan politik.
Langganan:
Postingan (Atom)