Kristin Cavallari, Jay Cutler expecting 2nd baby

FILE - This April 12, 2012 file photo shows Kristin Cavallari at the Conde Nast Traveler Hot List Party at The Presidential Suite of Hotel Bel-Air in Los Angeles. Cavallari and her Chicago Bears quarterback husband Jay Cutler are expecting their second baby. The 26-year-old former star of MTV’s “Laguna Beach” and “The Hills” confirmed the news Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2013, on Twitter. The couple have a 14-month-old son and were married last June in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Danny Moloshok, File)

FILE - This April 12, 2012 file photo shows Kristin Cavallari at the Conde Nast Traveler Hot List Party at The Presidential Suite of Hotel Bel-Air in Los Angeles. Cavallari and her Chicago Bears quarterback husband Jay Cutler are expecting their second baby. The 26-year-old former star of MTV’s “Laguna Beach” and “The Hills” confirmed the news Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2013, on Twitter. The couple have a 14-month-old son and were married last June in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Danny Moloshok, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — Kristin Cavallari and her Chicago Bears quarterback husband Jay Cutler are one step closer to having their own football team.

Cavallari is pregnant with their second baby. The 26-year-old former star of MTV's "Laguna Beach" and "The Hills" confirmed the news Wednesday on Twitter. She wrote: "We are so excited for Camden to be a big brother!"

Camden is the couple's 14-month-old son.

Cavallari and Cutler were married last June in Nashville, Tenn.

The family splits their time between Nashville and Chicago.

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-10-30-People-Kristin%20Cavallari/id-e79ccd56c8dc4f8a82ebdab5261bfe88
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UN: US says it doesn't, and won't, spy on UN

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Nations said Wednesday it has received assurances from the U.S. government that U.N. communications networks "are not and will not be monitored" by American intelligence agencies. But chief U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky would not comment on whether the world body had been monitored in the past, as reported recently by the German magazine Der Spiegel.

Nesirky said the United Nations had been in contact with Washington about the reports that surfaced two months ago and has received a U.S. guarantee of no current or future eavesdropping.

"Back in August when these reports first surfaced, we said we would be in touch with the relevant authorities," he said. "And I can tell you that we were indeed in touch with the U.S. authorities. I understand that the U.S. authorities have given assurance that the United Nations communications are not and will not be monitored."

Nesirky would not elaborate on whether spying had taken place and declined to answer related questions. For emphasis, he held up a piece of paper that said: "No comment."

A U.S. official told The Associated Press that "The United States is not conducting electronic surveillance targeting the United Nations headquarters in New York." The official, who was not authorized to be named, spoke on condition of anonymity.

It was not clear whether foreign U.N. missions in New York could be monitored by U.S. intelligence agencies.

Former U.S. Ambassador John Bolton, who held the post at the United Nations from 2005-2006, would not comment on "what may or may not have gone on in the past" because he's no longer in government.

"That said, it seems to me that the United Nations and everybody walking through the U.N. building are perfectly legitimate intelligence targets, and I think any decision by any president to say we are not going to eavesdrop on U.N. headquarters is a mistake," he told the AP.

"There's nothing in the U.S. Constitution that says you may not eavesdrop on the U.N.," Bolton said. "Silence and a deeply emphasized 'No comment' is how you should deal with all these intelligence questions."

Der Spiegel reported that documents it obtained from U.S. leaker Edward Snowden show the National Security Agency secretly monitored the U.N.'s internal video conferencing system by decrypting it last year.

Der Spiegel quoted an NSA document as saying that within three weeks, the number of decoded communications had increased from 12 to 458. Der Spiegel also reported that the NSA installed bugs in the European Union's office building in Washington and infiltrated the EU's computer network.

The United Nations lodged objections. U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq said in August that international treaties protect U.N. offices and all diplomatic missions from interference, spying and eavesdropping.

"The inviolability of diplomatic missions, including the United Nations, has been well-established in international law, and therefore all states are expected to act accordingly," Nesirky said Wednesday.

The 1961 Vienna Convention regulates diplomatic issues and status among nations and international organizations. Among other things, it says a host country cannot search diplomatic premises or seize its documents or property. It also says the host government must permit and protect free communication between the diplomats of the mission and their home country.

However, wiretapping and eavesdropping have been used for decades, most dramatically between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

• Politics & Government
• United Nations

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/un-us-says-doesnt-wont-spy-un-173715063.html
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Awards Roundtable: 6 Top Actors' Uncensored Tales, From Worst Auditions to Leg Waxing

This story first appeared in the Nov. 8 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine.

Huddled together just before the first of this year's awards-season roundtables got underway at the historic Mack Sennett Studios in Silver Lake, the six invited actors were eager to discuss one thing: Christopher Nolan. "Is he a big guy?" one of the participants asked Matthew McConaughey, who was taking a break from shooting the director's Interstellar on the Sony lot. Queried another, "Does he talk a lot?" McConaughey, 43, demurred as he joked with his Dallas Buyers Club co-star Jared Leto, 41, who had flown in the night before from Michigan, where he performed with his band 30 Seconds to Mars. The duo joined Josh Brolin, 45, Jake Gyllenhaal, 32, Michael B. Jordan, 26, and Forest Whitaker, 52, in a candid discussion about everything from flubbed auditions to Brazilian waxing.

PHOTOS: Awards Roundtable: 6 Actors on Mistakes, Sacrifices, and Strange Auditions 

Let's start with a question about reinvention. How do you not get stale?

JARED LETO: Panic. Desperation.

JAKE GYLLENHAAL: Bills.

JOSH BROLIN: Fear -- there's always fear. You re-create yourself in every movie, don't you?

FOREST WHITAKER: There's a good fear, and there's a negative fear. There's a thing you confront when you're going into something new and you come to this sort of abyss, and then you push yourself. It makes you try different things.

MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY: You mentioned two types of fear, and the one that's good is when you're scared. You don't know what's on the other side, but you're like: "I'm gonna dive in. I know there's something there; I don't know how to define it yet. I don't know the equation, but I'm gonna come up and I'll understand it." It takes you to the cliff, and you should be scared because the cliff drops, and you don't have a net.

BROLIN: I've never had that feeling in any movie where I actually feel like I'm nailing it.

WHITAKER: You don't feel the magic of it once in a while?

BROLIN: Never ever.

LETO: I get a terminal dissatisfaction on films. If I was bad in one scene, it's impossible to let go. And it can make or break my day. If I drank, I would probably drink a lot.

Q&A: Forest Whitaker on Evading Oscar's Curse, Rediscovering the Magic on 'The Butler'

Have you ever said no to something because you're afraid?

LETO: Oh yeah. I've talked myself out of auditions a hundred times. I auditioned for [Robert] De Niro seven times, years and years ago. I remember auditioning for Terrence Malick, and the casting director upended a couch, and we were supposed to hide behind it and shoot imaginary guns! [Laughter.] In that audition, I literally stood up, took a few imaginary bullets and shoved [the casting director]. I said: "I can't do this. This is like a bad high school play," and I walked out. And then Terrence called me -- you guys I'm sure have met him; he's the most gentle and amazing guy in the world -- and he's like: "Uh, Jared? I'd love you to be in my film."

Have you ever thought of quitting?

LETO: I did for six years, almost.

BROLIN: Six years you didn't work? Wow.

GYLLENHAAL: [Smiles.] It's only appropriate as an indulgent actor to think about quitting 'cause it's such an intense job.

WHITAKER: It takes a lot from you.

LETO: I was focusing on other passions, and time kind of flew by. But it can be heartbreaking. You make these little movies -- most of the time they don't work.

BROLIN: That goes back to what we were saying about feeling like you're [not] really nailing something. I remember [1996's] Flirting With Disaster -- I did the movie and never felt like we were nailing it at all. And then I saw the movie …

GYLLENHAAL: You killed that movie!

MICHAEL B. JORDAN: Exactly. Exactly.

STORY: Matthew McConaughey: Why I Rejected a $15 Million Paycheck 

Matthew, what went into your reinvention? I think you turned down $15 million for a Magnum, P.I. movie.

MCCONAUGHEY: I heard that number. I don't think I ever saw that in the offer.

BROLIN: Makes for a better story.

MCCONAUGHEY: Let me just throw this at you: That same script with that number really is a whole lot funnier than [when they gave it to] me.

So not quite true?

MCCONAUGHEY No, it may be true. [Smiles.]

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/thr/news/~3/6PbJIHhVFXE/matthew-mcconaughey-jake-gyllenhaal-at-651358
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Bethenny Frankel and Bryn: Candy Girls in the Big Apple

Getting in on the fun with her adorable little girl, Bethenny Frankel took Bryn around in costume in New York City on Wednesday (October 30).

The former "Real Housewife" matched her daughter in a pink dress covered in candy, complete with a curly pink wig. Making their way around the city in style, the pair were driven in a pink limousine.

On that same day, an episode of "Bethenny" aired with controversial reality star Omarosa as the guest and things got just a little heated between the two.

Amongst the arguing about each other's "brand" and what that is, the "Apprentice" contestant told the host, "It’s different for you and I. I am an African-American woman. You get to walk around and be mediocre and you still get rewarded with things." Floored by the contentious exchange, Bethenny tweeted, "When you see the interview with Omarosa today on @Bethenny you will DIE!"

Source: http://celebrity-gossip.net/bethenny-frankel/bethenny-frankel-and-bryn-candy-girls-big-apple-952620
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Iraq seeking new US aid after pushing out troops

Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, center, walks with Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., right, and Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2013, before their meeting. Earlier, the prime minister met with Vice President Joe Biden. (AP Photo/Molly Riley)

Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, center, walks with Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., right, and Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2013, before their meeting. Earlier, the prime minister met with Vice President Joe Biden. (AP Photo/Molly Riley)

Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki listens during a meeting with House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., and the committee's ranking Democrat Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2013, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Molly Riley)

Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, left, talks with House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., right, during a luncheon meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2013. (AP Photo/Molly Riley)

Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, left, is greeted by House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., center, and the committee's ranking Democrat Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2013, during a luncheon meeting. (AP Photo/Molly Riley)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Nearly two years after pushing out the U.S. military, Iraq is asking for more American weapons, training and manpower to help fight a bloody resurgence of al-Qaida that has unleashed a level of violence comparable to the darkest days of the nation's civil war.

The request will be discussed during a White House meeting Friday between Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and President Barack Obama in what Baghdad hopes will be a fresh start in a complicated relationship that has been marked by victories and frustrations for each side.

"We know we have major challenges of our own capabilities being up to the standard. They currently are not," Lukman Faily, the Iraqi ambassador to the U.S., said in an interview with The Associated Press. "We need to gear up, to deal with that threat more seriously. We need support and we need help."

He added: "We have said to the Americans we'd be more than happy to discuss all the options short of boots on the ground."

"Boots on the ground" means military forces. The U.S. withdrew all but a few hundred of its troops from Iraq in December 2011 after Baghdad refused to renew a security agreement to extend legal immunity for Americans forces that would have let more stay.

At the time, the withdrawal was hailed as a victory for the Obama administration, which campaigned on ending the Iraq war and had little appetite for pushing Baghdad into a new security agreement. But within months, violence began creeping up in the capital and across the country as Sunni Muslim insurgents lashed out at Shiites, angered by a widespread belief that Sunnis have been sidelined by the Shiite-led government, and with no U.S. troops to keep them in check.

More than 5,000 Iraqis have been killed in attacks since April, and suicide bombers launched 38 strikes in the last month alone.

Al-Maliki is expected to ask Obama for new assistance to bolster its military and fight al-Qaida. Faily said that could include everything from speeding up the delivery of U.S. aircraft, missiles, interceptors and other weapons, to improving national intelligence systems. And when asked, he did not rule out the possibility of asking the U.S. to send military special forces or additional CIA advisers to Iraq to help train and assist counterterror troops.

If the U.S. does not commit to providing the weapons or other aid quickly, "we will go elsewhere," Faily said. That means Iraq will step up diplomacy with nations like China or Russia that would be more than happy to increase their influence in Baghdad at U.S. expense.

The two leaders also will discuss how Iraq can improve its fractious government, which so often is divided among sectarian or ethnic lines, to give it more confidence with a bitter and traumatized public.

The ambassador said no new security agreement would be needed to give immunity to additional U.S. advisers or trainers in Iraq — the main sticking point that led to U.S. withdrawal. And he said Iraq would pay for the additional weapons or other assistance.

A senior Obama administration official said Wednesday that U.S. officials were not planning to send U.S. trainers to Iraq and that Baghdad had not asked for them. The administration official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief reporters by name.

U.S. officials were prepared to help Iraq with an across-the-board approach that did not focus just on military or security gaps, the administration official said. The aid under consideration might include more weapons for Iraqi troops who do not have necessary equipment to battle al-Qaida insurgents, he said.

Administration officials consider the insurgency, which has rebranded itself as the Islamic State of Iraq in the Levant, a major and increasing threat both to Iraq and the U.S., the official said.

U.S. and Iraqi officials see a possible solution in trying to persuade insurgents to join forces with Iraqi troops and move away from al-Qaida, following a pattern set by so-called Awakening Councils in western Iraq that marked a turning point in the war. Faily said much of the additional aid — including weapons and training — would go toward this effort.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who opposed the U.S. troop withdrawal in 2011, said Iraq likely would not get the aid until al-Maliki, a Shiite, makes strides in making the government more inclusive to Sunnis.

"If he expects the kind of assistance that he's asking for, we need a strategy and we need to know exactly how that's going to be employed, and we need to see some changes in Iraq," McCain said Wednesday after a tense meeting on Capitol Hill with al-Maliki. "The situation is deteriorating and it's unraveling, and he's got to turn it around."

Al-Maliki's plea for aid is somewhat ironic, given that he refused to budge in 2011 on letting U.S. troops stay in Iraq with legal immunity Washington said they must have to defend themselves in the volatile country. But it was a fiercely unpopular political position in Iraq, which was unable to prosecute Blackwater Worldwide security contractors who opened fire in a Baghdad square in 2007, killing at least 13 passers-by.

James F. Jeffrey, who was the U.S. ambassador in Baghdad when the U.S. troops left, called it a "turnabout" by al-Maliki. He said Iraq desperately needs teams of U.S. advisers, trainers, intelligence and counterterror experts to beat back al-Qaida.

"We have those people," said Jeffrey, who retired from the State Department after leaving Baghdad last year. "We had plans to get them in after 2011. They can be under embassy privileges and immunities. They will cost the American people almost nothing. They will, by and large, not be in any more danger than our State Department civilians. And they could mean all the difference between losing an Iraq that 4,500 Americans gave their lives for."

Nearly 4,500 U.S. troops were killed in Iraq between the 2003 invasion and the 2011 withdrawal. More than 100,000 Iraqi were killed in that time.

___

Follow Lara Jakes on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/larajakesAP

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-10-30-US-United-States-Iraq/id-c8f6fd7992284921b5c254dd6f038b2c
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“Happy Ending, Right?”

A Stanford MBA named Roy Raymond wants to buy his wife some lingerie but he's too embarrassed to shop for it at a department store. He comes up with an idea for a high-end place that doesn't make you feel like a pervert. He gets a $40,000 bank loan, borrows another $40,000 from his in-laws, opens a store, and calls it Victoria's Secret. Makes $500,000 his first year. He starts a catalog, opens three more stores, and after five years he sells the company to Leslie Wexner and the Limited for $4 million. Happy ending, right? Except two years later, the company's worth $500 million and Roy Raymond jumps off the Golden Gate Bridge. Poor guy just wanted to buy his wife a pair of thigh-highs.

—Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake) to Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) in The Social Network (2010)

In this scene, Zuckerberg has just asked Parker why his girlfriend looks so familiar; turns out the woman on Parker’s arm is a Victoria’s Secret model. Parker, founder of Napster (and the first president of Facebook), is impressing upon young Zuckerberg that the true genius behind what he calls a “once-in-a-generation-holy-shit idea” isn’t necessarily the idea itself, but the insight, drive, and perseverance to see just how far the idea can go. There’s no better example to prove his point than the story of Raymond, Wexner, and Victoria’s Secret.

In the mid-1970s, Roy Raymond did indeed walk into a department store to buy his wife lingerie, only to find ugly floral-print nightgowns—made even uglier under harsh fluorescent lights—and saleswomen who made him feel like a deviant just for being there. Realizing that other male friends felt the same way, the 30-year-old saw an opportunity to create a market where none existed: A lingerie store designed to make men feel comfortable shopping there.

Raymond imagined a Victorian boudoir, replete with dark wood, oriental rugs, and silk drapery. He chose the name “Victoria” to evoke the propriety and respectability associated with the Victorian era; outwardly refined, Victoria’s “secrets” were hidden beneath. In 1977, with $80,000 of savings and loans from family, Raymond and his wife leased a space in a small shopping mall in Palo Alto, Calif., and Victoria’s Secret was born.

To understand how novel Raymond’s idea was, it helps to have a little context. In the 1950s and ’60s, underwear was all about practicality and durability. For most American women, sensual lingerie was reserved for the honeymoon trousseau or the anniversary night; Frederick’s of Hollywood was the granddaddy of the specialty lingerie retailers. When the women’s movement of the late 1960s and ’70s called for women to liberate themselves from the bondage of bras, the intimate apparel industry responded with new designs that they claimed would give women the natural look they desired without the embarrassment of a sagging bustline. But for the most part, underwear remained functional, not fun.

Victoria’s Secret changed all that, and in the Bay Area, its sales continued to boom—thanks in large part to its catalog, which reached customers across the country. Within five years, Raymond had opened three more stores in San Francisco. By 1982, the company had annual sales of more than $4 million—yet something in Raymond’s formula was not working. According to management experts Michael J. Silverstein and Neil Fiske’s book Trading Up, Victoria’s Secret was nearing bankruptcy.

Enter Leslie Wexner, the man who had ushered in the mass-market sportswear boom with a store he called The Limited. While still in his 20s, Wexner had recognized that women were forgoing dresses for separates and casual wear. So in 1963, he opened a store “limited” just to sportswear. Wexner’s foresight paid off. The Limited grew to 11 stores by 1970, and 188 by 1977, according to a Forbes profile published that year. Wexner, now 40, was worth $50 million.

Source: http://www.slate.com/articles/business/when_big_businesses_were_small/2013/10/victoria_s_secret_founding_roy_raymond_had_a_great_idea_but_les_wexner_was.html
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Lenovo hires Kutcher to design, pitch new tablet

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Computer-maker Lenovo has hired tech-savvy actor Ashton Kutcher to help design and pitch its latest line of tablets, dubbing the Hollywood star a "product engineer" who can bring his ideas along with his image.

It's the latest tech foray for the "Two and a Half Men" performer who recently starred in a biopic about innovative giant Steve Jobs and has invested venture capital in more than a dozen Silicon Valley startups.

The deal was announced Tuesday at a Lenovo live-streamed event in Los Angeles. Lenovo's first video advertisements for the new Yoga Tablet feature Kutcher acting as a product tester in his boxers, a spacesuit and aboard an airplane.

The company said Kutcher will do more than just advertise.

"This partnership goes beyond traditional bounds by deeply integrating him into our organization as a product engineer as we look at developing the next wave of products," said Lenovo spokesman David Roman.

Kutcher — who in recent years has appeared in ads for snack chips and cameras — said of Lenovo, "Entrepreneurship is part of their DNA, and I couldn't ask for a better fit."

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Lenovo, with headquarters in Beijing and in Research Triangle Park, N.C., acquired IBM's computer business in 2005 and became the world's top PC-maker ahead of HP in the third quarter. But, like other manufacturers, it has struggled with waning consumer demand for desktop and laptop models.

It's one of several Asian tech companies seeking to loosen Apple's grip on China's tablet market with less expensive Android models.

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2013-10-30-Kutcher%20Sells%20Tech/id-afca0308f2644cf8be8cedc8d5d58480
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