Slumdog child star's Mumbai home burns down (AFP)

MUMBAI (AFP) – Slumdog Millionaire child star Rubina Ali said Saturday her home and the awards she won for the Oscar-winning film had been destroyed in a fire that raged through a congested Mumbai slum.

The family of 12-year-old Rubina, who played the role of young poverty-stricken Latika in Danny Boyle's movie, watched helplessly as their tin-roofed shack in the crowded slum went up in flames late Friday.

"I have lost everything, including books and precious belongings like awards, photographs, newspaper clippings and memorabilia from the success of the film," Rubina said, according to the Press Trust of India.

Rubina was just eight when she appeared in the rags-to-riches blockbuster, which won eight Oscars in 2009 and her journey from Mumbai slum to Hollywood red carpet made her famous around the world.

"We all were at home watching TV when a neighbour came to alert us about the fire. We all rushed out. We spent the entire night at the railway station," Rubina said.

"So far nobody has come to help us."

The blaze raced through the slum in the Mumbai suburb of Bandra on Friday evening, injuring at least 21 people and leaving 2,000 people homeless, a fire official said.

"We feel relieved to see that all our family members are safe. But all the good memories of my daughter's fame have been reduced to ashes. We have lost everything," Rubina's father Rafiq Ali said.

Rubina said the family was yet to move into a new apartment paid for by a trust set up by Slumdog director Boyle.

More than half of Mumbai's estimated 18 million residents live in either officially designated slums or illegal shanties.


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Guy Ritchie Expecting Third Child

GUY RITCHIE EXPECTING THIRD CHILD
Guy Ritchie is to become a father for the third time.

The "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" director - who already has biological 10-year-old son Rocco and adopted five-year-old boy David with ex-wife Madonna - and his model girlfriend Jacqui Ainsley are expecting their first child together in September and are thrilled at their impending arrival.

A source said: "They have been keen to start a family for a while now. They're absolutely made up. We expect to hear wedding bells next year."

To celebrate the news, the couple - who began dating early last year - went on a luxury holiday, where Guy, 42, was determined 29-year-old Jacqui would relax and take it easy.

The source added to the News of the World newspaper: "Jacqui was crying with joy when she found out she was pregnant. They went on holiday because Guy is determined she takes it easy. He won't let her do anything more strenuous than argue over baby names."

Guy split from Madonna - who also has 14-year-old daughter Lourdes from a previous relationship as well as adopted six-year-old girl Mercy - in 2008 after almost eight years of marriage.


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Michael Jackson 'chemically castrated' as child: doctor (AFP)

MARSEILLE (AFP) – Michael Jackson may have been more prince than king of pop, a French doctor says in a new book alleging his wide-ranging voice resulted from a childhood chemical castration to fight acne.

"When he died, I realised that he was an unusual phenomenon," Alain Branchereau, an opera buff and professor of vascular surgery at Timone University Hospital in France's Mediterranean port of Marseille, told AFP.

"I said, 'That's the voice of a castrato!'."

After discussing the voice with his colleagues, including endocrinologists, Branchereau ended up with the theory of chemical castration through the synthetic anti-male hormone drug Cyproterone.

"When he was 12, Michael Jackson had acne. We know this, he spoke about it himself as a tragedy. What I think could have happened is that his people suggested this miracle treatment," the doctor said.

Cyproterone "blocks puberty, the voice can't mature," he said, adding that he had read around 20 books on the subject, studied photographs and spoken to specialists in dermatology, voice physiology, plastic surgery, urology as well as to a former singer with a boys choir.

The drug stops bodily hair and the larynx from growing and affects the bones, leaving the body with a slight frame but a large chest.

Once the treatment is finished, the patient "keeps a child's larynx all his life in a man's body," said Branchereau.

The doctor also noted that a male voice breaks during adolescence, becoming difficult to control. "But Michael Jackson never stopped singing," he said.

"An important part of my theory is this voice's exceptional character, which covers three octaves. But I haven't found any grown men's voices that cover three octaves."

Branchereau admitted that he had not contacted Jackson's family or friends for his book, "Michael Jackson, the secret of a voice," due out on March 9.

"We will never have proof," the doctor said. "Unless his entourage says something."


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Robert Pattinson & Kristen Stewart's 'Twilight' Child Isn't Such a Newcomer

Robert Pattinson & Kristen Stewart's 'Twilight' Child Isn't Such a Newcomer As the daughter – fictional or not – of Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson, the glare of the spotlight will be on Mackenzie Foy when part one of the new Twilight film, Breaking Dawn, opens in November.

But Foy can handle it. She's just 10 years old, but already a seasoned professional.

Foy, who will play Renesmee, the vampire/human love child of Pattinson's Edward Cullen and Stewart's Bella Swan, already boasts an impressive résumé filled with advertising and television work.

The adorable Suri Cruise look-alike has done print ads for Mattel, Talbots, Guess and Gap, appeared in TV commercials for Burger King and BlackBerry, and guest-starred on Charmed and Hawaii Five-O.

Stewart, 20, has already given Foy her stamp of approval. She told MTV that upon seeing photos of Foy for the first time, she remarked, "That's so weird. She sort of looks like Bella, which is absolutely right."

Meanwhile, Pattinson, 24, will share an awww moment with Foy in Breaking Dawn by reportedly playing "Renesmee's Lullaby" on the piano for his onscreen daughter.

Foy's professional side was very much in evidence when she arrived in Vancouver this week for filming. As she signed autographs, PEOPLE asked her what she was looking forward to during the shoot. "Just working," she replied.

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Nicole Kidman 'Desperately' Wanted Another Child

Nicole Kidman 'Desperately' Wanted Another Child Nicole Kidman

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There are some things that come easily for Nicole Kidman – for instance her ability to tap into a character when the cameras are rolling. But when it comes to motherhood, the Oscar winner – and current best actress nominee – says there is something she has always struggled with.

The mother of four, who just welcomed baby Faith on Dec. 28 via a gestational carrier, says she has "had a roller coaster ride with fertility."

"Anyone that's been in the place of wanting another child or wanting a child knows the disappointment, the pain and the loss that you go through trying and struggling with fertility," the Rabbit Hole actress, 43, tells Australia's 60 Minutes in an interview set to air Sunday night. "Fertility is such a big thing, and it's not something I've ever run away from talking about."

It's a struggle that dates back to her marriage with Tom Cruise – whom she divorced in 2001 after adopting kids Isabella, 18, and Connor, 15. In 2007, the actress revealed she had a miscarriage before they split.

After giving birth to daughter Sunday Rose, now 2, her first child with husband Keith Urban, Kidman says the couple used a surrogate because of her fertility struggles.

"We were in a place of desperately wanting another child," she says. "This opportunity arose for us, and I couldn't get pregnant."

Now as the family settles down in their homes in Nashville and Los Angeles, Kidman says she enjoys time with all of her kids equally.

"Children are children – you'll die for your children," she says. "And when you feel that as parent – that's the unconditional love."


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Rod Stewart's eighth child is born

17 February 2011 Last updated at 18:32 GMT Rod Stewart and Penny Lancaster pictured earlier this month The couple conceived their second child after three cycles of IVF Rock star Rod Stewart has become a father for the eighth time at the age of 66 after his wife, Penny Lancaster, gave birth to a boy.

Aiden was born on Wednesday in the UK weighing 7lb 12oz.

A statement released on the couple's behalf said they were "proud and thrilled" and both mother and child were healthy.

Aiden is Stewart and Lancaster's second child, their first son is five-year-old Alastair.

The statement said: "After the long-awaited arrival of their second child, Rod and Penny are proud and thrilled to welcome Alastair's baby brother, Aiden, into the world.

"Mother and baby are healthy and blissfully happy."

The couple had problems conceiving naturally and Lancaster, 39, became pregnant on the third cycle of IVF treatment.

In a magazine interview last year, she revealed she was pregnant and discussed the difficulties they had experienced.

Recalling the moment she found out she was expecting, she told Hello! magazine: "I couldn't believe it. I burst into tears. I called Rod when I was still sobbing."

Stewart married Lancaster, his third wife, in Italy in 2007.

The couple, who have been together for a decade, discovered they were expecting again while celebrating their wedding anniversary in Portofino, Italy.

Stewart has six children from previous relationships.

He had a son and a daughter with first wife Alana Hamilton and a daughter in 1987 with model girlfriend Kelly Emberg.

Stewart's marriage to Rachel Hunter, which ended in divorce four years ago, produced two children.

The star also had a daughter, Sarah, in the early 1960s, who was adopted into another family.


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