KANSAS CITY, Missouri ― Playboy model hopefuls from as far as Florida and Canada line the halls of a Kansas City, Mo., studio, fanning themselves, trembling in their silk robes and waiting for their moment with Jodi Vander Woude.“I promise this will be painless,” Vander Woude assures them.Vander Woude is a photographer for Playboy Enterprises. Every month, she travels across the country doing cast

Arts & Design July 4, 2011

EMERYVILLE, California (AFP) ― Pixar, a pioneer of computer animation that has made a dozen profitable feature films and become one of the most successful studios on the planet, is celebrating its 25th birthday.Born in the early 1980s as George Lucas’s computer graphics division, the company took off after it was purchased by Apple founder Steve Jobs in 1986 and christened “Pixar.”That year, the h

Film July 3, 2011

LOS ANGELES ― Tal Ronnen catered the vegan wedding for Ellen DeGeneres and wife Portia de Rossi. Casino mogul Steve Wynn tapped him to add vegan dishes to the menus at all 22 restaurants at the luxurious Wynn and Encore resorts in Vegas. Former McDonald’s executives invited him onboard to help launch a chain of healthful fast-food restaurants later this year. And when Oprah decided to try the vega

Food July 1, 2011

If the only Beaujolais you’ve ever encountered is Beaujolais Nouveau and you’ve never tasted a Beaujolais cru, then this is the wine to make you fall head over heels for the region.Unfined and unfiltered, Domaine Chignard’s Fleurie “Les Moriers” from the great 2009 vintage carries the scent of wild sweet strawberries. It’s so lush and vivid, tasting of blueberries, black cherries and plums. The vi

Food July 1, 2011

YANGON (AP) ― The military-backed government of Myanmar has deported Hollywood actress Michelle Yeoh, who stars as pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi in an upcoming movie, officials said Tuesday.The Malaysian actress arrived in the country’s main city, Yangon, on June 22 and was deported the same day because she was on a blacklist, a government official said.The official, who declined to be ide

Film June 30, 2011

The Naeroyfjord, a branch of the Sognefjord, is the narrowest and the most dramatic fjord in Europe and its landscape is included in the UNESCO'S World Heritage List. (Visitnorway.com)BERGEN ― Once in a while, you might wish you to be fully immersed in nature without a connection to the outside world. True moments between you and the great outdoors, after all, revive the strength lost in the daily

Travel June 24, 2011

AMSTERDAM (AP) ― The Van Gogh Museum said Tuesday its experts now believe one of Vincent van Gogh’s paintings previously thought to be a self-portrait actually depicts his brother, Theo.If true, it would be the only known painting of Theo, although Vincent made several sketches of his brother, who supported him financially and was his lifelong confidant and friend.“People have often thought it was

Performance June 22, 2011

WACCABUC, New York (AP) ― “Try it. Go ahead, stick your finger in!”The dollop of spicy hot-pepper paste is hard to turn down, coming as it does from the blender of Jean-Georges Vongerichten, one of the best-known chefs in the world, not to mention the owner of 31 restaurants and the man known for basically revolutionizing fine dining in New York.And we’re in his own home kitchen, yet. So the pinky

Food June 22, 2011

NEW YORK (AP) ― The resort season is not a time for fashion to take a vacation. Resort collections, which hit stores during the all-important Christmas holiday shopping season, are a growing part of designer businesses as consumers move toward styles they can wear year-round.The idea that people fully switch their closets between seasons is outdated, agrees Ken Downing, senior vice president and f

Arts & Design June 22, 2011

SACRAMENTO, California ― Let’s listen as the Moore family ― grandmother, daughter-in-law and granddaughter ― talks about their lives together in the Carmichael, California, home they share.“I enjoy my granddaughter immensely,” said Cheryll Moore, 55, an American River College teacher whose son Sean brought 10-year-old Mya Honsvick into the family picture when he married Mya’s mother, Beth.“We’ll b

Culture June 20, 2011

NEW YORK (AP) ― As a trendsetting designer and architect, David Rockwell has done it all ― from Broadway shows and a restaurant partly owned by Robert De Niro to children’s hospitals and a hip hotel near Times Square.On Friday, his latest creation will open: the permanent home of the Film Society of Lincoln Center, a $41 million world-class movie complex that is both a community center for its Man

Film June 19, 2011

NEW YORK (AP) ― It is hard to think of how Paul McCartney could have given his first solo album a bigger publicity hurdle to overcome, unless he had been arrested for some vile crime on the week of its release in April 1970.The newly ex-Beatle distributed a questionnaire that was treated by fans and the media as definitive word that the world’s most beloved rock band, true today as it was then, ha

Performance June 19, 2011