Famous Kissing Couple

In the age of Facebook and Twitter, it was only a matter of time before the world learned the identities of the kissing couple from that now-iconic photo of the Vancouver riots.

About 24 hours after photos of the smooch was passed on through emails, IMs and blog posts, the Toronto Star and the CBC are reporting that the boyfriend and girlfriend in the photograph are Aussie bartender Scott Jones and Canadian college student Alex Thomas, who was injured just before the picture was taken.

The papers report that Jones and Thomas have been dating since Jones arrived in Vancouver on a "working holiday." They attended Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final, which the hometown Canucks lost 4-0 to the Boston Bruins, and then somehow found themselves between the angry rioters and charging riot police later that night in downtown Vancouver.
So how were Jones and Thomas ultimately identified as the unlikely "make love, not war" couple of Vancouver's embarrassing night of injury and destruction?

It probably won't surprise you to learn that Facebook was involved.

Though Scott's sister Hannah first identified her brother to an Australian news network, things really started taking off when Brett Jones, Scott's father, posted the following update on his Facebook profile on Friday morning from the family's home in Perth, Australia.

Brett Jones now says the couple is being besieged by media requests from outlets around the world. All, of course, are interested in knowing the circumstances that found the couple smooching as cars were burned and windows were smashed around them.

But despite some of our initial assumptions, the kiss seen 'round the world wasn't the product of a riot-fueled, uncontrollable passion. Brett Jones instead notes that Thomas was injured and his son was coming to her aid. An alternate angle taken from above shows other bystanders later attempting to help Thomas and Jones.

Combine that different angle with Brett Jones' story and it certainly dispels the rumors that the couple had intentionally staged the photo.

"They were between the riot police and the rioters, and the riot police were actually charging forward, and Alex got knocked by a [police] shield and fell to the ground," Brett Jones told CBC News. "[Scott] was comforting her and gave her a kiss to say, 'It's going to be OK,' and the photographer just took the shot at that moment."

Jones' mother Marie said she immediately knew it was her son in the picture because "he doesn't have a lot of clothes with him and he always puts on the same thing."

So where do they go from here? The good news is that Jones escaped the incident unhurt and Thomas only suffered a bruised leg. The bad news is that Jones is scheduled to leave Canada soon and head home for Australia after a trip to California. The Jones family says that Thomas plans to visit California with their son but that the couple's future after that is uncertain.


Thomas said this morning that everything happened so fast that there was just massive confusion all around. "I was trying to understand what was going on. The photo was definitely not something we expected to happen," said Thomas.

The couple is leaving in three days on a trip to California, before Scott heads back to Australia. Thomas said the response from her friends and family has been overwhelming.

"When I saw that picture I couldn't believe it and then I looked at it more and realize it's quite artistic and really something beautiful."

Chris Brown Joins Bieber & Gomez For Cinema Date

It seems the bromance between Chris Brown and Justin Bieber is continuing to go from strength-to-strength, after the pals were spotted on a cinema date together!

Breezy and Biebster, who recently shot the video for their collaboration Next 2 You, were spotted with JB's girlfriend Selena Gomez and Demi Lovato, watching a showing of Pirates of the Caribbean 4: On Stranger Tides in Sherman Oaks.
However, it seems that the Beautiful People singer, Justin and Co were not fans of Johnny Depp's latest swashbuckling adventure, with an eyewitness stating that the A-List group left before the end of the film.

An onlooker told HollywoodLife.com: "They left the movie before it ended, and were so amped up to be hanging out they kept jumping up and down."

Another source added: "They didn’t buy any concessions they just went straight to the movie at midnight. Two hours later they all walked out of the theater before the film even ended."

Midnight? We assumed that would be past Bieber's bed time! The mole also claimed that neither Brown or JB brought their bodyguards and were "fairly relaxed" as they watched the flick.

Ricci's Oscars Dress Goes to Michigan Prom

                                                                        Christina Ricci/Kayla Staskiewicz

Lots of teenage girls go all out for their prom, but few get to wear a $25,000 Versace Couture dress designed for actress Christina Ricci.

Ricci wore the sparkling, pale gray, floor-length dress to this year's Oscars.

Kayla Staskiewicz wore it to Waterford Mott High School's prom, which was held May 13 in suburban Detroit.
Her father, Mike Staskiewicz, entered her name in a WDIV-TV contest to win a chance to wear the size 0 dress, The Oakland Press of Pontiac reported Sunday.

"He thought our daughter would look beautiful in that dress and with the size being only a zero, he knew she would have a good chance to fit into it because she is very small," said her mother, Gayle Staskiewicz.

The day before the prom, Kayla Staskiewicz stepped into the dress and found it fit perfectly.

"I was just excited and ready to go to the prom right then and there," she said.

Staskiewicz said she felt "really pretty" and her mom kept calling her Cinderella. She said she, prom date Connor Durham and their friends had a great night.

"I loved every minute of it," she said.

Royal wedding dresses designers

Shortly before the start of the royal wedding last Friday, designers and bridal boutiques planning knockoff dresses went into action when they got their first glimpse of the gown.
"The second we saw it on the screen, it was beautiful," said Omid Moradi, chief executive for Faviana, a dress-making business based in Manhattan that plans to produce its own version. "It was just very elegant and glamorous."
It was Pippa's.
He immediately called his mother, the design director of Faviana, to tell her to begin sketching the dress of the bridesmaid, Pippa Middleton, sister of the bride, Kate Middleton. "It almost looked like a bridal gown," he said.
Celebrity wedding gowns have inspired many creative copies, but executives in the bridal business say this is the first time they can recall of companies wishing to design a dress based on what a bridesmaid wore, too.
"There was really no anticipation about Pippa's dress," said Dan Rentillo, design director for David's Bridal, which will also make a version of her gown. "I can't think of one where there was such a fuss over the bridesmaid's dress."
Now, many companies across what is called the fast-fashion industry are scrambling to reproduce not one, but two gowns designed originally by Sarah Burton of Alexander McQueen, doubling the pressure to turn the couture designs into mass-market creations as soon as possible.
Ms. Burton did not seem shy about reproducing either — several fashion critics have pointed out that Pippa Middleton's dress resembled one that Cameron Diaz wore in 2010, also an Alexander McQueen.
Some of the swooning, though, was about Ms. Middleton herself, not the dress. "She wore it so well, so we said, 'We'll do that dress right away,' " said Andrew Hops, vice president for JS Collections.
The timetable for this particular part of the bridal industry is critical. Sample dresses are sewn in about 48 hours, to ensure shipments of mass-produced versions to stores within about 12 weeks. "We want to get to market. The demand is now," Mr. Moradi said. His company, Faviana, is producing versions of both of the Middleton sisters' reception and ceremony dresses.
"Before she even walked down the red carpet, we were getting calls from customers and consumers," he said. "'When can we get it?' 'I have an event next month, can I have it then?' "
Getting the dresses into stores ahead of competitors, and the summer bridal market, also requires speedy production.
"The immediacy of the world that we live in today changes our customers', and our brides', expectations on how quickly we can respond," said Brian Beitler, executive vice president for David's Bridal, which expects to have versions of the dresses in stores by August.
Faviana makes wedding, prom and evening dresses sold at places like Nordstrom and eDressMe. While customers can buy wedding gowns that look like Chelsea Clinton's or Eva Longoria's, no famous bridesmaids' dresses have been produced there, until now.
"Bridesmaids' dresses are generally ugly. Nobody wants to wear them," Mr. Moradi said.
Not this time. His mother, Shala, finished her sketches last Friday by 8 a.m., before meeting her 12-person design staff in the company's Garment District offices in Manhattan. In the workroom, they began cutting and draping muslin over mannequins, trying to mimic the shape and fall of the Middleton sisters' dresses. Next, they made paper patterns; the cap sleeve for Pippa's dress, the shaped bodice for Kate's.
By 10 a.m., Faviana employees walked through the doors of district fabric shops, buying a stretch of ivory fabric for Pippa's dress and lace for Kate's. Ms. Moradi had already collected bolts of white satin. Next, the designers cut fabric according to the paper patterns, handed the cut pieces to a team of women sitting at sewing machines at one end of the room. By midday Sunday, with few breaks for sleep and food, the Faviana group had completed initial versions of both dresses.
Three days later, in the long, light-filled workroom, a pattern maker bent over a large table, using a red wax pencil to make tiny marks on the paper pattern for Pippa's dress. He was modifying the sample. The fabric they had chosen didn't quite work. The Faviana group would sew another two or so samples of each dress this week, incorporating feedback from department store and boutique buyers, and adjusting patterns and fit for the mass-market versions.
With headless mannequins looking like a Greek chorus, mother and son argued.
"We don't know exactly what we are going to do," Ms. Moradi said, fiddling with a pile of chiffon that lay on the pattern maker's table. They were seeing if it worked better for the Pippa dress than what they had originally used. "The heavy chiffon drapes better, and the stretch fabric we used for the sample — that, for the neckline, was not perfect."
"But I think the color is a little yellow," Omid Moradi said, lifting the chiffon to the light.
His mother shook her head, saying that a lining would provide just the right shade of ivory.
After Faviana settles on the design for each dress, mannequins, then models, try it on. A specialty company fits the various pattern pieces onto a "marker," a giant piece of paper the width of a fabric bolt. "It's like a jigsaw puzzle," Omid Moradi said, meant to minimize any wasted fabric.
Next week, Faviana will send a package of patterns, trims, a sample dress and the fabric choice to its factories, and an e-mail of the marker design. A Chinese factory will produce the more complicated dress Kate Middleton wore. A factory in New York will make her sister's.
The factories will begin work on the dresses right away. Faviana has not completed its order, but typically produces 500 to 3,000 copies of a dress. It may have dresses in stores as early as late June, Mr. Moradi said. The Pippa Middleton dress will sell for $320 and Kate Middleton's for $1,800. A party version of Kate's dress, keeping a similar bodice but with a straighter drape, will sell for about $500.
David's Bridal will likely order equal numbers of both dresses, executives said. JS Collections is ordering more of the bridesmaid-inspired dress.
At Faviana, though, executives are predicting that although Pippa Middleton's dress will sell well, Kate Middleton's dress will outsell it. The bride, now known as the Duchess of Cambridge, has a trump card that even the prettiest bridesmaid doesn't.
"The Kate, the Kate for sure," Mr. Moradi said. "She's the princess!"

Cox's bazar is an attractive place

Cox's Bazar is a town, a fishing port and district headquarters in Bangladesh. It is known for its wide sandy beach which is the world's longest natural sandy sea beach.It is an unbroken 125 km sandy sea beach with a gentle slope. It is located 150 km south of Chittagong. Cox’s Bazar is also known by the name "Panowa", the literal translation of which means "yellow flower". Its other old name was "Palongkee". The modern Cox's Bazar derives its name from Captain Cox (died 1799), an officer serving in British India. In the 18th century, an officer of British East India Company, Captain Hiram Cox was appointed as the Superintendent of Palongkee outpost after Warren Hastings became the Governor of Bengal. Captain Cox was specially mobilised to deal with a century long conflict between Arakan refugees and local Rakhains. The Captain was a compassionate soul and the plight of the people touched his heart. He embarked upon the mammoth task of rehabilitating refugees in the area, and made significant progress. A premature death took Captain Cox in 1799 before he could finish his work. But the work he had done earned him a place in the hearts of the locals and to commemorate his role in rehabilitation work a market was established and named after him as Cox's Bazaar ("Cox's Market"). Although Cox's Bazar is one of the most visited tourist destinations in Bangladesh, it has yet to become a major international tourist destination, due to lack of publicity.

Some pictures of Cox'sbazar

Video of Cox'bazar