The 40-year-old star has just listed his Californian home for a huge $4.995 million meaning images of the stunning property have been made public.

The Russian catwalk star stepped out in Madrid, Spain to launch the new Xti shoes Autumn/Winter 2012-2013 collection.

It is unsure whether Ricky was just running late for the outing, or whether he just couldn't decide what to wear but either way he didn't seem keen on being seen in his boxer shorts.

Robbie will now fill the gap and sit alongside Gary Barlow, Louis Walsh and Tulisa Contostavlos when the show starts next month.

The Dictator is Sacha Baron Cohen's funniest film. It tells the story of a North African dictator who tortures and executes his people and is building weapons of mass destruction with which he hopes to obliterate Israel.

He's known as Hollywood's Mr Nice Guy, but Will Smith lost his cool on the red carpet while in Moscow, Russia, this week.

The famous ladies attended the first London show of the tour at the O2 Arena.

The R&B superstar was seen dancing the night away at the Roxbury night club in Hollywood earlier this week.

Theatre impresario Andrew Lloyd Webber shares the secret behind his behind-closed doors 'cabaret' concert for the Queen and his rivalry with Simon Cowell.

Ever been told that you should fully discharge your battery to prolong its life? Or that jailbreaking your phone is illegal? Or that you should wait for the newest Intel processor because it's going to be "so much faster"? These are tech myths we hear all the time, and likely spread to our friends—but most are just a waste of your time (and in some cases, they can actually harm your gadgets). Here are some of the worst offenders. More »

The human body and its brain are pretty incredible. They're also fragile and dumb. Realizing this can make your life miserable, or you can look at it as an opportunity and take control. This weekend, learn a few built-in superpowers you may not have known you had. All they take is a little practice. More »

By nature, we're optimistic. We think we're better than most people at virtually everything we do. We believe we'll beat the odds of getting cancer even when we smoke a pack of cigarettes a week. This is the result of our optimism bias, and it both helps us succeed and make some of the dumbest decisions of our lives. Here's how it works, and how you can make it work for you. More »

This week we squeezed our workout routine into 20 minutes, ordered tailor-made clothing on the cheap, cured our router's constant need for a reset, and more. Here's a look back. More »

Ever found a beautiful bird dead outside your home? Chances are it smashed into your window and never recovered. For every dead bird you find, just imagine how many were snatched up by a cat or pulled into the brush by some other critter. Worldwide, window collisions kill close to a billion(!) birds every year. With spring migration currently underway in the northern hemisphere, now is as good as ever to make your home bird safe. The DIY experts at Stack Exchange tell you how. More »

I recently jailbroke my iPhone and now that it's done I'm very overwhelmed by Cydia. I've downloaded a couple apps, but I don't understand most of what I'm looking at. The descriptions and explanation in Cydia don't help much, so I'm wondering: can you help me wrap my head all this stuff? More »

Earlier this week, Google introduced Knowledge Graph, the company's new search technology that understands "things not strings" and adds rich and relevant details about your query in the sidebar of your search results. Here are five great things you can now do with a quick Google search. More »

While most of us were hurrying to turn off Twitter's new email digests, the company announced they would begin suggesting new people and brands to follow based on your Twitter activity. The trouble is, by "activity," they mean your friends, followers, and even where you go on the web once you leave Twitter. More »

Feeling indecisive? Need a little help figuring out where to eat, drink, or what music to listen to? Sure, plenty of apps and web sites can help you out, but when you really want to get to the point, nothing beats the direct approach. These helpful sites get right to the point, telling you what the f**k to do. More »

By Sell on News, a macro equities analyst. Cross posted from MacroBusiness

Imagine two ways of framing a financial trading choice. The first way is in the pseudo scientific language of finance. “An optimal trading strategy will be to go short on Greek and Spanish government bonds to exploit a high likelihood of sell off and debt restructuring which will keep portfolio returns well above inflation going forward.” Or consider the same thing expressed this way: “If we sell off Greek and Spanish government bonds it will push Greek pensioners into poverty, cause deep harm to the social fabric, lead to destabilising political unrest and threaten the stability of the world financial system.” The first way of framing the choice is treating the financial strategy as a way of dealing with a machine; the language has nothing to do with people. The second way of framing it is moral: starting with the effects on people.

By Tom Ferguson, Professor of Political Science at the University of Massachusetts, Boston and a Senior Fellow at the Roosevelt Institute. Cross posted from Alternet It’s good that the watchdog is barking, but we’d all better watch closely to see if it will bite.

Your humble blogger is taking a vacation.

By Delusional Economics, who is horrified at the state of economic commentary in Australia and is determined to cleanse the daily flow of vested interests propaganda to produce a balanced counterpoint. Cross posted from http://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2012/05/europes-problems-multiply/">MacroBusiness.

It feels as if Europe has rolled the clocks back to 2011 as the effects of the ECB’s LTRO have now well and truly warn off and the markets appear to have reconnected with idea that the fundamental issues of the Eurozone have never been addressed.

By Philip Pilkington, a writer and journalist based in Dublin, Ireland. You can follow him on Twitter at @pilkingtonphil In 1936 Keynes wrote a forward to the German edition of his General Theory. Since then it has, as far as I can see, been ignored by his defenders and held up by his most virulent detractors (notably, Austrian School ideologue Henry Hazlitt).

As reporters keep digging into the "London Whale" story, the picture that emerges about the caliber of risk controls and management supervision at JP Morgan only look worse and worse.

By the Alternative Banking Working Group of Occupy Wall Street Dear Jamie Dimon: We, the Alternative Banking Working Group of Occupy Wall Street, are staging an intervention on your behalf.

New Fame Game: Leveraging Status to Invest in Hot Deals

Thanks to 'Idol', a hit single and a slew of endorsement deals, JLo earned $52 million in the last 12 months and ranks as America’s most powerful celebrity.

With all of the hoopla about the just released What to Expect When You're Expecting movie, the Jennifer Lopez and Cameron Diaz fronted ensemble film, it is easy to forget the woman who started it all. Heidi Murkoff has sold more than 40 Million books yet she has no assistant, no product spinoffs and won't accept advertising on her website. It is hard to even find a link to her books from the home page. This is hardly what we envision when we think of the woman behind the most successful book franchise in self-help history.

Mary Richardson Kennedy, estranged wife of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., took her own life, leaving behind the sour scent of senseless loss. You and I, as well as her well-heeled Bedford neighbors inconvenienced by helicopters, reporters, and notoriety, are once again reminded of the lesson tragedies like this teach: depression kills. And as I learned from a recent case of mine, it is a lesson the bean counters at United Behavioral Health desperately need to learn but probably won't.

Greece has already defaulted, if you note the March 2012 debt deal which required private creditors (95% agreed) to take a greater than 50% haircut on their debt, and by doing so trigger an umppteenth bailout of €130bn from the International Monetary Fund (aka USA), European Monetary Union (aka Germany – with its sidekick, France) and the European Central Bank (aka Bundesbank or the German Central Bank). So why is it that we are not able to stop talking about it or the European Monetary Union? When Latin and Central America defaulted in the 1980s, that region was about 10% of World GDP of that time. Yet, it didn't seem to affect capital and trade flows the same way as the Eurozone Debt Crisis seems to be worrying the world today. And kee in mind that the PIIGS nations today, Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain are fully not more than about 8% of total Global GDP, primarily because Europe and other Developed nations are a much smaller % of Global GDP with the growth of emerging markets, notably, China. Here's the twist in the tale, however, The lower quality European debtors enjoy one special advantage over their Latin American compatriots: South Europe and Ireland enjoy the “implicit guarantee” of its partners France and Germany, since their debt was not just issued in Euros, but also within the framework of the European Monetary Union.

“History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme”, attributed to Mark Twain.

I know two former presidents of a corporation that had a bigger payday than Mark Zuckenberg's Facebook this week.  They are both over 70.  Don Collins lives in HUD housing in Knoxville.  Tom Cahill lives in a "gentrified barn" on the Mendocino Coast.  I've stayed with both of them.  Tom's setting is much more beautiful, but Don has the advantage of indoor plumbing, which, trust me, I appreciate much more now that I am over 60.  Their lifestyle will not be changing, but they are probably feeling more satisfaction than the Facebook founder. 

Graham Smith is a UK-based designer whose brand reversion project is an eye opening look at major brand logos. For the project, Smith fuses or reverse brand identities.  Seen here, the effects of Twitter teaming up with Google, Ford with Ferrari, and Google with Yahoo. You can see what happens if Google met Yahoo, right of screen. The others are below. The project is a long term one with about 100 logos on Smith's Imjustcreative site so far. A couple of years ago I gave a presentation on how really clever brands are never just one thing, never represent one core emotion, but are good at capturing people in all kinds of moods. Smith's reversioning project reminds me that brands need to get over themselves, just a little.

There’s been a bit of a flap in the media this week about what House Republicans are planning to do regarding health care reform once the Supreme Court rules on Obamacare. But the back-and-forth leaves unanswered an important question: given all of the possible SCOTUS scenarios, what should Congress do to optimize the outcome for people with a stake in a functioning health-care system? Let’s examine the possibilities.

CANNES, FRANCE, MAY 19— Love is in the air here at Cannes, and so is at least one Oscar prospect. Academy Award winner Marion Cotillard is first out of the gate this year with a riveting performance as a double amputee in Jacques Audiard’s tough, achingly beautiful drama Rust and Bone. Crippled by a freak killer whale accident in the south of France (yeah, I just wrote that), Orca trainer Cotillard mends a shattered life by finding mutual redemption in the arms of a stoic single father and amateur kickboxer (played with muscular intensity by human bicep Matthias Schoenaerts). On paper—and in lesser hands—this Riviera romance would seem preposterous. But Mr. Audiard, an alchemist of character studies, conjures up his world with expert flair, and creates a stunning, deeply felt portrait of passion and compassion between a woman aching to connect and a man hiding behind his brute strength. And the broken but gingerly resolute Ms. Cotillard is commanding in a legless role considerably sexier than Gary Sinise’s bitter Vietnam vet from Forrest Gump, aided by breathtakingly seamless digital technology that makes Lieutenant Dan look like the victim of a bad eraser attack.

But the festival’s most naked performance, emotionally and physically, goes thus far to Margarethe Tiesel, the brave star of Ulrich Seidl’s Paradise: Love. Playing a zaftig Austrian sex tourist who goes to Kenya and finds herself overwhelmed by eager ebony action, Tiesel lets that sunburned, middle-aged cellulite all hang out while surrounded by lean African gigolos groping both her flesh and her pocketbook. An obvious critique of European colonialism that quickly becomes a fascinating study of mutual exploitation and self-destructive loneliness, Paradise: Love will haunt you like a bad wet dream. (And—due to a massive amount of unsexy sexual situations that just barely stop short of hardcore—U.S. audiences should cross their fingers that an adventurous distributor will pick it up).

While not quite as graphic, Cristian Mungiu’s Beyond the Hills delivers an equally charged portrait of a lovelorn women (Cristina Flutur) victimized by a religious and civic order that literally crucifies her for raging against the machine. Her only hope is to convince her childhood friend and onetime lesbian lover (Cosmina Stratan) to give up her monastic vows so they can be together again, and somehow escape the suffocating layers of institutional control that have defined their entire lives. Winner of the Palme d’Or five years ago for his communist-era abortion drama 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days, the Romanian auteur paints an ambitious portrait of systemic repression and distrust that implicates orphanages, foster homes, police stations, hospitals, and churches. This is Cannes as its best: ambitious themes writ large in experiences that are all too human.

Three men who allegedly planned attacks on President Obama's Chicago headquarters and the mayor's residence have been arrested by Chicago police. Reuters reports anti-N.A.T.O. and Occupy Chicago-associated protesters Brian Church, Jared Chase and Brent Betterly were charged Friday with "conspiracy to commit terrorism, providing material support for terrorism, and possession of an explosive incendiary device." In a report published Saturday afternoon the Associated Press said prosecutors allege the men also planned attacks on police vehicles and substations.

Mr. Church, age 20, and Mr. Chase and Mr. Betterly--both 24--were picked up during a raid Wednesday on the South Side of Chicago. Authorities say they were planning to use Molotov cocktails during the N.A.T.O. summit, which begins Sunday.

Brent Betterly, originally from Florida, arrived in Chicago on April 27, according to a post he made on the Facebook timeline for a page dedicated to Occupy the Chicago N.A.T.O. Summit. "just arrived in chicago last night," wrote Mr. Betterly on April 28, "the people in occupy chicago have been awesome! thanks for the hospitality! this is going to be a great summit!"

Jared Chase is from Keene, New Hampshire. On May 2 Mr. Chase posted a news article about a peaceful protest of a Bank of America branch in downtown Chicago, commenting, "Thats me again lol."

Nothing on either man's Facebook indicates overt support of violent, Black Bloc-style protests.

In a statement quoted by Reuters, Occupy Chicago member Natalie Wahlberg ridiculed the charges against the men, stating that they "are utterly ridiculous." The Chicago Police Department, said Ms. Wahlberg, "doesn't know the difference between home beer-making supplies and Molotov cocktails."

More than 12 protesters have been arrested since the anti-N.A.T.O. actions began, but mostly for minor charges such as trespassing.

Mr. Betterly, Mr. Chase and Mr. Church will have bond hearings Saturday.

Head Wikileaker and house arrestee Julian Assange has been pondering a run for the Australian Senate. Before you even quirk an eyebrow at the prospect of a "Senator Assange," note that a recent survey by Australian Labor Party pollsters indicates Mr. Assange could garner nearly 25% of the vote. Agence France-Presse reports members of "the left-wing Greens party were most likely to be pro-Assange, with 39 percent saying they would vote for him."

In a sampling of 1,000 potential voters, nearly equal percentages of Labor and conservative supporters also indicated they might vote for Mr. Assange, who is currently on bail in England after being charged with "sexual molestation" in Sweden.

Mr. Assange is essentially under house arrest while he waits to see if he'll be extradited but that hasn't stopped him from launching a TV show in addition to exploring a future in politics. His World Tomorrow airs on RT and has featured guests such as Hassan Nasrallah, the Secretary General of Hebollah and Ecuador's president, Rafael Correa.

Agence France-Presse also reports that Wikileaks, as an organization, is prepared to field a candidate against Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard in 2013.

SpaceX, the brainchild of designer and C.E.O. Elon Musk, suffered a setback early Saturday after its Dragon cargo ship, destined for the International Space Station (I.S.S.), made it all the way to "lift-off" then failed to actually lift off. The BBC reports the ship's computers indicated the Falcon rocket set to boost the Dragon into orbit indicated a problem with "chamber pressure in one of the nine Merlin engines."

Mr. Musk's firm has a contract worth a billion dollars with N.A.S.A. to ferry supplies to the space station. SpaceX is but one firm hoping to fill the void left by N.A.S.A.'s retirement of the space shuttle program. If the Dragon lifts off successfully within the next few days it will mark the first time a private company has  serviced the I.S.S.

Mr. Musk, a South African inventor who co-founded PayPal, tweeted about the failure:

Launch aborted: slightly high combustion chamber pressure on engine 5. Will adjust limits for countdown in a few days.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 19, 2012

The next launch window is Tuesday.

The Associated Press posted a slightly depressing video of the aborted launch on Youtube Saturday morning.

Makers of the other Steve Jobs flick–you know, the one starring Ashton Kutcher–must be feeling pressure to ratchet up the publicity since Aaron Sorkin has been attached to Sony’s big-screen version of the Walter Isaacson biography.

On Friday Five Star Feature Films issued a press release announcing that when principal photography begins in June on jOBS, early scenes will be filmed  “in the actual Los Altos home where Jobs grew up and in the historic garage where he and Steve Wozniak founded Apple.”
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Earlier this evening National Review blogger Katrina Trinko published a story accusing Democratic Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren of plagiarizing a passage in the book she co-wrote with her daughter, All Your Worth: The Ultimate Money Lifetime Plan. One hour and five minutes later, Ms. Trinko published a correction apologizing for the story.

“I took down my earlier post on Elizabeth Warren plagiarizing from the book Getting On the Money Track,” Ms. Trinko said. “I apologize for the error.”
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Today, political types were focused on the Facebook I.P.O, the French and diarrhea. Here’s our roundup of the day’s best Tweets from the campaign trail.
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Park Slope residents are fed up, and this time it's not about those ice cream pushers in the park.

The Brooklyn Paper, in an act of investigative derring-do,  has confirmed what residents have long suspected—a secret parking spot-saving scheme run by the doormen of pricey buildings on Prospect Park West.

The parking ring, long alleged by enraged local residents, is the real deal, the paper reports. Doormen hog parking spaces on street sweeping days, intentionally leaving unparkable half-spaces in front of and in back of cars, then shift the cars around for returning residents.

“I just use my car to hold a spot for them,” Vick Narain, a doorman at 44 Prospect Park West, told The Brooklyn Paper. “The minute there’s a space, it will be gone within five minutes; someone’s always looking for parking around here.”

Sneaky!

Mr. Narain also confessed to saving spots by standing in the road when alternate-side parking rules are enforced.

Other doormen denied involvement in the nefarious spot-saving parking ring, although they admitted to moving residents' cars on occasion.

Naturally, residents who must go it alone on the mean streets of Park Slope, without the aid of a doorman, are outraged by such tactics. Street sweeping makes parking miserable enough without unfair advantages.

“Sometimes you spend 30 or 45 minutes driving around looking for a spot,” resident Carolyn Byrd told The Paper. “It gets really contentious.”

Police say that such tactics are not illegal, but some residents have decided to take justice into their own hands, issuing homemade parking "citations" to space-wasting cars.

In true Park Slope form, the citations are two pages long.

kvelsey@observer.com

At the party he co-hosted at the Jitrois pop-up store in Soho, Peter Brant II was saying how much he liked his leather pants. “I just think their elastic leather is really fantastic,” said the fast-talking elder son of the Brant Publications magnate and art collector Peter M. Brant and the supermodel Stephanie Seymour. “It looks great on everybody! As you can see,” he said, gesturing to his black-and-silver Jitrois leather pants. The pants cost $2875. “That’s the main attraction.”

“I sometimes wear women’s pants, because I have very very tiny legs,” said Harry Brant. The younger Brant brother declared his Jitrois pants “so comfortable. The nylon looks like leather, but it feels like you’re wearing sweat pants.”
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