Phil Spector Murder Trial

Phil Spector's muder trial is due to start on Mondayin LA:

 

The murder trial of pioneering rock producer Phil Spector finally begins on Monday, more than four years after a B-movie actress was found shot to death at his castle-like mansion outside Los Angeles.

The trial, delayed repeatedly since Spector was indicted in 2003, will be shown on live television amid fascination with the 1960s musical genius turned recluse who once described himself as having "devils that fight inside me."

Fifty news organizations applied for a seat in the Los Angeles courtroom for the biggest celebrity trial since pop star Michael Jackson's 2005 acquittal on child molestation charges.

I really don't think he's going to get off you know, life without parole is what I expect as the sentence. Rich white guys just don't get the death sentence.

On the other hand, as we know from Michael Jackson's trial, convicting a celebrity of anything is pretty damn tough.

Talk to Michael Jackson for $3,400

Fans in Japan have been signing up to pay $3,400 to talk to Michyael Jackson:

Excited fans got the chance to meet Michael Jackson in Tokyo on Thursday -- but only those who could afford to pay 400,000 yen ($3,400) for the privilege.

Fans of the "King of Pop" screamed as he arrived by van at the venue in the Japanese capital for the event, at which he had promised to chat and take pictures with up to 300 guests, but not to sing or dance.

They were not put off by the price.

"I would pay 10 times that amount any time anywhere," said Carlo Riley, a Jackson fan and impersonator with long black hair and a black surgical mask, who danced as he waited in line.

Riley said he flew from the United States especially to meet Jackson face-to-face. "If they do it again, I'll pay it again -- easily," he added.

Since being acquitted of child molestation charges at a trial that ended in June 2005, Jackson has mostly kept a low profile, spending time in Bahrain and Ireland.

He last visited Japan, where he has a huge fan base, in May to accept a music award. Since arriving at the weekend, he has been mobbed by fans during a shopping trip and a visit to Disneyland.

In November, Jackson sang at an awards ceremony in London, his first public performance since the trial, but his efforts were panned by critics.

Jeez, I'd happily pay $3,400 never to hear a single one of his songs again. Although some of the Jackson 5 stuff was pretty good.

Liz Hurley Wedding: The Menu

As if we needed to know what was being fed to hte guests at Liz Hurley's wedding:

Actress Elizabeth Hurley is feeding her wedding guests obscure regional Indian cuisine adapted to the scarcity of the desert and rarely found in curry houses in the West.

Hurley is celebrating her wedding to Indian businessman Arun Nayar in Jodhpur, the main city of the arid Marwar region bordering India's Great Thar Desert, where people have mastered ekeing hearty meals out of a parched land.

"You have to develop a taste for it," said Kiran Arora, executive chef at Jodhpur's Taj Hari Mahal hotel, where some of Hurley's guests are staying. "They are all very simple dishes."

Most items on the menu will be unfamiliar to people used to eating tandoori fare at Western curry houses. Marwari food is traditionally vegetarian, though it has been broadened in recent times to include meat dishes.

The cuisine developed in one of the hottest corners of India, the Rajasthan province, in an age when cows were plentiful but refrigerators not yet invented, so milk and its products had to be used up quickly.

Lashings of sweet buttermilk are used instead of water, which is scarce, to make gravies and sauces in many of the dishes that will be served to Hurley's guests on Friday at the Meherangarh Fort, said Arora, whose colleagues have been planning the meals.

Dal bhati churma is perhaps the quintessential Marwari dish, in which tough, wheat dumplings are bashed into crumbs and mixed into a soup of savory lentils.

Whear dumplings and lentil soup. Oooooh, yum yum I don't think.