Hugh Jackman what a performer...

Hugh Jackman got a huge welcome from fans in Japan as he touched down at Narita International Airport in Chiba, less than 48-hours after hosting the Oscars. Hugh is in Tokyo to promote his movie 'Australia.' As he came out of the airport he had to share the limelight with teen heartthrob Robert Pattison, who was on the same flight.

Sexiest man alive Hugh Jackman is bringing some excitement and sexiness back to the Oscars with a musical opening that Mr. Oscar himself hasn't seen in the past 81 years. Jackmans opening act included him singing about the nominated films, Slumdog Millionaire, Milk, The Reader, The Wrestler and a surprise performance with Anne Hathaway for Frost/Nixon.

Hugh also joked about the current economic crisis and how he must contractually mention Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie at least five times throughout the show. Angie found that really funny!

It was definitely a great opening! The atmosphere was relaxed and fun as the stars that were probably nervous wrecks waiting to hear if they would be taking home an Oscar. Hugh brought Anne Hathaway on stage as they performed a fun duet. Who knew Anne had those pipes? We were surely impressed.

And whats Hollywood without some shameless promotion? Jackman managed to end his number promoting his upcoming flick Wolverine. (source)

Keep up the good work Hugh...

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Celebrity Apprentise returns March '09

Conan O’Brien referred to it as, “Celebrity Apprentice: 1988″

Trump is back with a whole new set of Celebrities... including “Baywatch” babe Brande Roderick... Figure skater Scott Hamilton... Canadian Comedian Tom Green... “Monster Garage” host Jesse James... What a lineup, this will be interesting - I hope this season breaks the downward trend, 2003-04 the network saw 28m final viewers which steadily declined over the seven seasons to only 12.1million finale viewers in the 07-08 season.

... The Season kicks off in March with lots of new & exciting tricks

NBA legend Dennis Rodman has some fun with Ivanka Trump as she realizes his height while standing next to him on the set of The Apprentice with new cast members Tom Green, comic icon Andrew Dice Clay, Jesse James (married to Sandra Bullock) and singer Bryan McKnight on the first day of filming in Times Square, New York City. The hopeful apprentices were selling cupcakes for $20 each and skateboard legend Tony Hawk showed his support to Tom Green by paying $1000 for a single cupcake with proceeds going to charity.

In other news Donald Trump's casino group is expected to file for bankruptcy, the Wall Street Journal said, less than two weeks before the new Celebrity Apprentice starts. This is among Trump's most embarrassing failures, having filmed several episodes praising the development & business; But who better to bounce back from a failure than Trump... In this economy its all about wiping the slate clean & starting anew...

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Gwyneth Paltrow is back!

Gwyneth Paltrow has come a long way, post falling ill with pneumonia over a year ago. Tuesday she was spotted at she Saks Fifth Avenue's 14th Annual "Unforgettable Evening" gala – where the Oscar winner was honored for her efforts to battle cancer through her late father Bruce Paltrow's fund – "sort of swept over me to the degree that I lost my sight for a second and I nearly collapsed." Gwyneth

But then, "I thought of my children and what it would mean to my family," she said. "I thought about the things that I still need to accomplish, and I felt the bitter clinch of this fear wrap itself around every organ in my body until the doctor walked in and told me I was fine."

On the subject of mortality, Paltrow, 36, told PEOPLE that she and husband Chris Martin haven't really planned on what sort of legacy they hope to leave for their two children, Apple, 4, and Moses, 2.

"I just sort of do the best that I can on a daily basis and I learn," she said,

In the meantime, the actress is keeping active – launching a cookbook and helping her trainer, Tracy Anderson, open a gym, Paltrow confirmed to PEOPLE at another Manhattan event – Wednesday's Cinema Society and Ferragamo-sponsored premiere of her new movie with Joaquin Phoenix, Two Lovers.

"She's opening a gym in Tribeca and I'm helping her," Paltrow said of celebrity trainer Anderson, who puts Madonna through her paces – just as Anderson does Paltrow.

"Yes, she kills me," Paltrow told PEOPLE. "She kicks my ass."

As for that big romantic holiday this weekend, the actress said, "My husband will be on tour in Australia. So, I'll be with my kids for Valentine's Day." (source)

(Gwyneth Paltrow was seen arriving to the 'Two Lovers' New York screening for a short while before leaving at The Sunshine Cinemas in Manhattan.)


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Pro Snowboarders take to the streets in NYC!

They are referred to as the "bridge-and-tunnel crowd" by New York City residents. Those who flock to New York City on the weekends from nearby places, like New Jersey. Well, on Thursday night, it was a bridge-and-tunnel New Jersey native, Shayne Pospisil, who took New York City's $50,000 top prize at the first Red Bull SnowScrapers. "Having all of my friends and family here is amazing. It's a dream come true," said Pospisil. An overflow crowd of 50,000 braved seriously cold temperatures to witness a snowboard event held in the city, won by an athlete from the non-mountains of New Jersey. (Source)

RedBull remains Strong- amid a global financial crisis, energy drinks company Red Bull remains in good financial health. The Austrian company revealed this week it sold more cans of the drink in 2008 than ever before and is planning to expand into more new markets this year. (source)

Red Bull sales rose 13.2 per cent around the world, to just over four billion cans last year. The fastest growing market for Red Bull is Asia, where sales last year rose 79 per cent. "These drinks are not made for sports, but you would never know that to look at the marketing," said Mary Claire O'Brien of the School of Medicine at Wake Forest University in North Carolina, who has studied the effects of mass consumption of energy drinks in recent years. Of particular concern, she said, is the increase in children drinking them. Generally, most energy drinks have about twice the caffeine as a can of cola... (source)

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The return of Armstrong!

It was only a matter of time till this natural born athlete returned to cycling- this time he's doing it for Livestrong...

Picture on Feb 3rd, Santa Rosa, CA; Lance Armstrong, in yellow and black and Astana teammate Levi Leipheimer head up King Ridge Road near Cazadero on a training ride. The ride was in preparation for the nine-stage Tour of California, which begins Feb. 14 in Sacramento

Cycling Web site Velonews.com is reporting Armstrong will come out of retirement in '09 to race in five international road races, including the Tour of California and the Tour de Georgia in the U.S., as well as the Tour de France and two other European races.

According to the article, Armstrong would compete for the Astana team, which would reunite him with team manager Johan Bruyneel, his manager for all seven Tour de France wins.

Armstrong, who turned 37 on Sept. 18, '08 retired July 24, 2005, but has been competing in mountain bike racing in recent months and has completed three marathons in under three hours since taking up road running in 2006. (Source)

USA Cycling chief operating officer Sean Petty said that should Armstrong wish to return to racing, “it would be one of the most exciting things to happen to American racing since he won his seventh Tour. Depending on his plan, if that is what he wanted to do, it would be tremendously exciting and would generate a tremendous amount of attention on the sport, and on what he’s doing. People would be very interested to see how he would do in a comeback.” (source)

(Lance Armstrong waves to the crowd before the Tour Down Under cycling event in Adelaide January 18, 2009.)
And we all love a comeback, right!

Lance's old bike is up for sale- The bike is currently on display in Adelaide, Australia, and is being auctioned through ebay with bids ending on 31st January 09 at 16:36:18 AEDST. All the funds raised from the bicycle's sale will be donated to Livestrong, the foundation Armstrong setup and the reason he has quoted for his return to racing.

In December 2008, Armstrong announced that his girlfriend, Anna Hansen, was pregnant with his child. Although it was believed that Armstrong was unable to father children, this child was conceived naturally. The baby is due in June 2009 (Source)

Only $500,000 OBAMA Says!

(Wednesday Feb 4th, 2009) President Barack Obama set to clamp a half million dollar ceiling on pay for executives of stricken finance firms which take taxpayer bailouts, in a new bid to tame Wall Street excess.

These proposals are said to include the following provisions:

• A $500,000 cash cap on annual compensation for senior executives
• Requiring top executives at financial institutions to hold stock for several years before they cash out
• Requiring nonbinding "say on pay" resolutions giving shareholders more say on compensation

With Secretary of Treasury Timothy F. Geithner, Obama had this to say... " The economic crisis we face is unlike any we've seen in our lifetime. It's a crisis of falling confidence and rising debt. Of widely distributed risk and narrowly concentrated reward. A crisis written in the fine print of sub-prime mortgages, on the ledger lines of once-mighty financial institutions, and on the pink slips that have upended lives and cost the economy 2.6 million jobs last year alone"

"We know that even if we do everything we should, this crisis was years in the making, and it will take more than weeks or months to turn things around." (see full statement)

I'm not convinced that a pay cap is really that big a deal- just a political move to "quiet the peanut gallery". (source) - talk about disincentive for executives (remember this only applies to banks receiving aid;

"Money is what motivates people to come to Wall Street. It's not a public service job, nor should it pay like one." Oppenheimer's Meredith Whitney.

It's like the outrage over the auto executives taking private jets to their congressional hearings in Washington late last year. The cost of the ride was less than what the companies lose in just one minute of one day, as former White House economic adviser Lawrence Lindsey pointed out to Jon Stewart earlier this week on the Daily Show. And yet it seemed to be all any of the legislators could think about. (source)

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How big is the UFC really!

(St-Pierre vs. Penn 2 at MGM Las Vegas Jan 30th 2009)

So the UFC aka "Ultimate Fighting Championship" is a U.S.-based mixed martial arts (MMA) organization, currently recognized as the largest MMA promotion in the world. The UFC is owned and operated by Zuffa, LLC, headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada.

In January 2001, the Fertittas bought the UFC for $2 million and created Zuffa, LLC as the parent entity controlling the UFC. The UFC broke the pay-per-view industry's all-time records for a single year of business, generating over $222,766,000 in revenue during 2006, surpassing WWE and boxing. (although no source was found for this if you tally up the pay-per-view numbers its close). One must assume that that number have at least maintained as the sport continues to hold good pay-per-view numbers into 09. (source)

So lets take this weekends past Saturday fight; Top fighter (Picture left) Georges St. Pierre (Good old Canadian Boy) earned a reported $400K of the $1.1 million payroll. Challenger B.J Penn, earned $125K and was badly beaten by GSP to earn it. (source)

When I think of UFC, I think Tito Ortiz, who's last fight was on May 24th 2008, a decision loss to Lyoto Machida- but Tito has moved on to better things, Jenna Jameson for starters (who is now pregnant with twins) and he has recently joining Affliction Entertainment being apart of the broadcast team for the upcoming Affliction: Day of Reckoning event.

Here is a recent picture of Tito outside the NASDAQ (Jan 20th 2009) where he opened the markets with Tom Atencio, VP of Affliction Entertainment, and Fedor Vladimirovich Emelianenko, heavyweight mixed martial artist and current World Alliance of Mixed Martial Arts heavyweight champion.

So ya, I would say this UFC and MMA has grown into a major business & will continue to be a much talked about, event driven sport-

The Boss is Back - Super Bowl XLIII

After releasing "Working on a Dream" earlier this month, the world has been beaming with Springsteen fever & its just great. Bruce Springsteen even took home a Golden Globe for his theme song from the Mickey Rourke movie, The Wrestler.

Springsteen got in a couple verses of the title track off his new album, but just as the crowd was getting warmed up to the cut's gospel groove it was straight into "Glory Days". When you have 12 minutes, better keep them wanting more... Springsteen had some hard hits to cram in. He hit the stage, playfully demanding, “I want you to put your chicken fingers down and turn the television all the way up". “Is there anybody alive out there?” he shouted, pushing the pedal closer to the floor with “Born To Run,” and raised the roof higher...

...The halftime show rakes in the viewers -- last year's Super Bowl was watched by a record 97.5 million people, according to Nielsen Media Research. Springsteen has to be feeling good- according to Billboard, Springsteen tallied the second-highest grossing tour of 2008, bringing in a total gross of more than $204 million. The Boss is back...(source)

“Boss time” was over and game time resumed (and damn, what a game), the set was:

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“Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out”
“Born To Run”
“Working on a Dream”
“Glory Days”


SUPER BOWL XLIII Steelers 27, Cardinals 23
(Brett Keisel recovers a fumble to seal Super Bowl XLIII)

(Steve Breaston Catches Pass)