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If rumours are to be believed, pop singer Alicia Keys has secretly got engaged to rapper boyfriend Swizz Beatz. The singer, who has just turned 29, is said to have received a seven-carat diamond ring from the hip-hop producer just before her birthday, reports dailymail.co.uk. The duo was also spotted walking along a beach in Hawaii around the date of his supposed proposal. While Keys' spokesperson denied the report, her friend said: 'They are currently in Hawaii celebrating the engagement and her birthday. She feels blessed. She is thrilled. She is with the man who has inspired so much of her music and her new album.'

Singer Wyclef Jean wants to compile footage he shot of the horror in Haiti into a hard-hitting movie so that the world will understand the earthquake relief effort. The former American hip-hop group Fugees star, fears the international media covering the catastrophe and its aftermath is turning away from the worst scenes and giving TV viewers the impression that the relief effort has been a huge success, reports contactmusic.com. The 'Gone Till November' singer is grateful for all the aid sent to his homeland, but insists Haitians have a long struggle ahead and thinks footage he and his entourage shot of dead bodies left to decay on the streets will compel Americans, in particular, to keep helping after the TV crews pack up and go home. 'You're seeing a snapshot. What I did when I went down there, I went with a cam, and what I want to do is, in the next two to three weeks, I wanna release a film through the eyes of Wyclef Jean so you understand what's going on first

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Bollywood actress Preity Zinta is in Dubai to celebrate her 35th birthday Sunday and has plans to cook Indian food for herself. 'Good afternoon guys! Chilling in Dubai for my birthday weekend! This is going to be the best year of my life,' Preity posted on her Twitter account Saturday. 'I have always wondered why Ash ( Aishwarya Rai ) & me grow older every year while all the other actresses either stay the same age or get younger? Any guesses?' she asked. On this birthday weekend, the actress is also trying to cook some Indian food. 'Ok! Its my birthday weekend so now I am going back to focusing on me...he he he! Trying to cook some Indian food 4 my Indian tummy! Ciao,' Preity posted. Preity, who has supposedly agreed to host a chat show for a TV channel, is very positive about the year 2010. '2010 is the year for new beginnings! New and adventurous projects and even sky will not be the limit! Wait and watch...you guys! Luv you al

A man with a conviction and a story to tell can hardly be ignored. Having worked on the screenplays of films like Omkara and Kaminey , Abhishek Chaubey is one of those rare talents of our industry who do things not only differently but with a sense of aesthetics. Now when he captains the ship of Ishqiya , his directorial debut, a lot is expected out of him. With a bit of anxiety and yet oodles of humility, Abhishek Chaubey spoke to Bollywood Hungama about his first film as a director being a dream come true. Can we call Ishqiya essentially a love story? Yes! It is a story of love. It's a romantic tale...A love story of criminals so it does have crime in it. Your first film as a director, did you have a game plan in mind? Yeah! All filmmakers when they get into film production have a plan in mind. I had a story that I wanted to say and I had my conviction behind me that I believed in. I felt it was an interesting film to make and I knew it would catch people's attention

This is a very strange film. Strange, not so much in terms of content (pretty weird, unless you really believe there are sleepy dusty towns in North India where boys learn to use a gun before they learn to wash their own bottoms) as, in terms of the way the three main characters are thrown against each other in combustions that suggests a brutal bonding between the libido and the landscape. To the cinematographer Mohana Krishna's credit, he creates in the suburbs of Mumbai (masquerading as Gorakhpur) a kind of sweeping lazy ambience of leisurely self indulgence where you can smell the sweat and other bodily emissions. Ishqiya is the kind of cinema which you can love or hate, but cannot be indifferent to. The dusty parched sexually and spiritually arid hinterland renders itself effectively to the character's unique dimensionality. The uncle-nephew pair of Naseruddin Shah and Arshad Warsi provides the kind of sweaty grimy male bonding that we last saw in Quentin Tarantino'

This is the one that went all the way to Oscar-land and came back empty-handed. So whose loss is it anyway? Writer-director Paresh Mokashi's tender-sweet film about the founding-father of Indian cinema Dadasaheb's Phalke's struggle to make the first feature film in this country is not short of a miracle. It alchemizes the pain hurt humiliation and compromises of a struggling artiste into something extraordinarily funny satirical and self-mocking. While retaining the inherent warmth sensitivity and dignity of the protagonist's uphill task of proving to his family friends and neighbours that Phalke is no lunatic, the film chronicles the early years in the long and chequered history of cinema in India with a crisp and curvaceous comprehensiveness. Making a life, so consumed by a new art- form interesting and compelling could not be an easy task. Mokashi's Phalke could easily have become a portrait of an obstinate and obsessive man who thought the moving images on scr

Paresh Rawal has said goodbye to comedies, at least for now. You see him creating laughter in film after film, the most recent being De Dana Dan . But Paresh is in no mood to laugh anymore. His family life in recent months has been grim(to put it mildly). Plus the quality of comedies being offered is no more a laughing matter for Paresh. "One often ends up doing films for friends or because one needs to work within the given limitations. But enough is enough now," sighs Paresh who lost his brother-in-law in November. "It all happened so suddenly, we didn't know what hit us." Paresh would rather not spend his working hours creating mirth of no worth. It is no coincidence that his next two releases do not subscribe to the funny stuff. The mightily talented Paresh who was getting a tad tired of constantly doing comedy has now returned to villainy in Ram Gopal Varma's Rann twenty years after he switched to doing comic roles. And frankly, Paresh is relieved.

Sonam Kapoor 'hates love stories' but she definitely loves New Zealand. Shooting for Dharma Productions next venture I Hate Luv Stories brought Sonam to Queenstown where she was greeted in the typical Maori tradition called Hongi that involves pressing of noses together thus sharing the breath of life. She managed to enjoy her stay longer in the country as she arrived earlier than the crew to do an exclusive photoshoot with the lifestyle magazine L'Officiel. Talking about her love for the country, Sonam said, "Queenstown is one of the most beautiful places I have visited. The landscape is spectacular and very diverse. We drive short distances and the dramatic scenery changes from steep mountains and lakes to green fields and river canyons. The people are extremely warm and friendly. And I love the food!" I Hate Luv Stories features Imran Khan opposite Sonam and is directed by Puneet Malhotra. The film is due for release on May 2010.

While the movie My Name Is Khan is still a few days away from release, the SRK-Kajol starrer is already making news though not for all the right reasons. Shah Rukh Khan, who is always vocal about his opinions on social and cultural issues, is being asked to apologise for things that he said out of his own will. He went on to say that Pakistani cricketers need to be part of the IPL 3, but such a comment from a world renowned celebrity was unacceptable to Shiv Sainiks. They expressed their discontent over the actor's comments saying Shah Rukh has insulted the 26/11 martyrs. Taking a cue, the Shiv Sena workers went on a rampage and tore down posters of SRK's film My Name Is Khan in the suburbs of Mumbai today. A similar incident occurred at a multiplex in Thane yesterday. Sena has asked the multiplex managers to not screen My Name Is Khan or any SRK film, till further notice. While SRK is yet to make an apology, one thing is certain that the controversy surrounding this issu

There is no denying the fact that the Shah Rukh Khan- Kajol pair has a huge fan following not just in India but even overseas. SRK and Kajol, who are all set to once again re-unite onscreen after 9 long years in Karan Johar's magnum-opus My Name Is Khan , have been invited by NASDAQ, the world's biggest stock exchange, to ring their opening bell in New York on Monday, February 1. SRK and Kajol will thus become the first Indian actors to open the market, an honour usually reserved for CEOs of major corporations. This prestigious event will be broadcast live on many television networks across the globe. With over 3,700 companies listed, the NASDAQ has more trading volume than any other stock market in the world. With their upcoming film My Name Is Khan releasing on February 12, their presence in the US of A at this grand event is sure to create hysteria among their NRI fans. Shot mainly across the United States of America, My Name Is Khan will have an extensive worldwide relea

By now it's well known to one and all that Shraddha Kapoor (daughter of Shakti Kapoor) will be making her debut in the Amitabh Bachchan- Madhavan starrer Teen Patti . But if you think that the release of the film will decide her fate in Bollywood, then you couldn't be further from the truth, because she has already been signed up for Sanjay Leela Bhansali's production My Friend Pinto opposite Prateik Babbar. From what we heard, Bhansali and debutante director Raghav Dar were looking to cast a fresh new face and several girls were screen tested but it was finally Shraddha who with all her freshness bagged the plum role. With two new yet talented actors in its cast and a veteran filmmaker backing this project, My Friend Pinto surely looks like one promising film.

Genelia D'Souza has finally joined the bandwagon of Bollywood ladies in endorsing fairness creams. She is already the face of Virgin mobiles, but now has gone on to sign a fairness cream brand. The bubbly actress, who stole everyone's heart with her performance in Jaane Tu...Ya Jaane Na , is now endorsing Garnier's new product, 'Garnier Light' which is a skin lightening lotion. The fairness cream market already has a host of Bollywood beauties endorsing various brands. While Deepika Padukone is the brand ambassador of Johnson and Johnson's new fairness cream 'Neutrogena Fine Fairness', Sonam Kapoor is the face of 'L'Oreal White Perfect'. Even Katrina Kaif is the face of Olay skin whitening cream. Now with this endorsement, Genelia too seems has joined the race to decide, 'Who's the fairest of them all?'