Only God Forgives is like a drug for Gosling

Ryan Gosling’s latest film, Only God Forgives, has deeply divided critics and the Canadian actor concedes that the blood-spattered crime thriller set in Bangkok’s underworld of boxing clubs and brothels may not appeal to everyone. “The film is kind of like a drug,” the former child star who appeared on The Mickey Mouse Club TV show, told reporters ahead of the film’s opening in New Zealand next Thursday.

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Kristen Bell proposes via Twitter

The Veronica Mars actress asked her partner to marry her on Wednesday to celebrate the United States Supreme Court’s overturning of the Defence of Marriage Act (DOMA). The 32-year-old’s gay and lesbian friends are now able to tie the knot, leading them to arrange their own wedding

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Toni Collette loses house stoush

Australian actress Toni Collette and her musician husband have lost a high-profile legal stoush over the failed purchase of a Sdyney house, and have to pay more than A$800,000 (NZ$957,000) in damages. In the NSW Supreme Court on Friday, Acting Justice William Windeyer found in favour of Industrie clothing label founder, Susan Kelly, and ordered Collette and her husband, David Galafassi, pay A$814,907 (NZ$975,000), plus legal costs

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Does Tracking Cars with GPS Need a Search Warrant?

The Supreme Court ended its term Monday with a high-profile ruling that violent video games are protected by the First Amendment, but a bigger technology decision could be looming. The court agreed to hear a case next term about when the government can put GPS devices on people’s cars — which could produce one of the court’s biggest privacy rulings in years

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Wal-Mart Ruling Is Major Setback for Worker Rights

The Supreme Court’s decision to throw out a sex-discrimination suit by a large group of female Wal-Mart employees may look like a mere procedural decision about the rules for class-action lawsuits. But it is in fact a much bigger deal: it significantly shifts power from workers to big employers.

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The Unending Feud: Shi’ites vs. Sunnis

There is no god but God, and Muhammad is the Messenger of God.” That confession of faith, the shahada, is professed by all Muslims, be they the 700 million Sunnis who dominate the Islamic world from Morocco to Indonesia or the 90 million Shi’ites who rule Iran and form majorities in Lebanon, Bahrain and Iraq. To the shahada, however, the Shi’ites add, “And Ali is the Friend of God.” Those additional words in praise of Ali, whom the Shi’ites passionately claim is Muhammad’s true successor, epitomize the complex and often bloody feud between Islam’s two branches.

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