It looks Sony has decided to play catch up with the PlayStation 3, and offer a service that Xbox owners have been enjoying for a while now: online video distribution.

According to Dawn Chmielewski of the Los Angeles Times, Sony has been engaging in talks with Hollywood studios to negotiate online distribution of movies and television episodes. A spokesperson for Sony’s PlayStation unit, Patrick Seybold, declined to comment on the rumors except to confirm that the initiative does exist, and that there will be information released on Tuesday of this week.

Though the online video sales market pales in comparison to the DVD market ($95 million for online sales in 2007, $23.4 billion for DVD rentals and sales), it is expected to be a fast growing market with $6.4 billion in revenue by 2010. If Sony wants to make sure to get a piece of that pie, they’re going to have to act quickly, but they have a bad track record with this sort of distribution, and competition from just about every company you can think of.

Sony has already failed twice in this market with Movielink and Sony Connect, and now they will be taking on Amazon Unbox downloads to TiVos, the Xbox 360 marketplace, rumors of set top boxes from both Netflix and Blockbuster, Apple TV and assorted other means of getting video from your computer to your TV. Will the third time be the charm? Only time will tell. The PlayStation, while having a healthy performance sales wise has been locked in a battle for second place with the 360, and Nintendo’s Wii securing the top spot, the last hurdle will be if Sony even has enough units out there to make this sustainable.

It is almost humorous when you see someone grab a piece of fake fruit or pastry and attempt to take a bite. Some fake foods look and feel so real you can hardly tell them apart, until you try to sink your teeth in.

This poor kid just wants a nice afternoon snack, until he is completely fooled by this fake food display.

We just hope his mother was nice enough to give him a real snack afterwards.

American Idol mentor Mariah Carey says she can now fit into the same size jeans she wore when she was 16.

The diva told US chat show host Oprah Winfrey that she is “down to my tenth grade size” and can now fit into clothes she has not worn since high school, FemaleFirst reported.

Earlier this week, the Daily Mail revealed images of Mariah’s appearance on Oprah, where she shared her slimming secrets.

The Touch My Body singer revealed she flies personal trainer Patricia Gay from St Barts to her apartment in New York City, where they have developed a one-hour daily exercise routine.

“Working out and being on a diet has made me feel healthier, so that’s a good thing,” Mariah said, showing off a svelte figure in a red bikini.

Mariah’s music was the focus of the most recent week of competition on American Idol - with songs such as Hero and Vanishing performed by the contestants. According to MTV.com, the diva was an “awesome coach”.

The first of two episodes of American Idol - which has already aired in the US - is set to be shown this evening on ITV2.

Technorati Tags: how old is mariah carey, mariah carey, mariah carey idol, mariah carey on american idol, you tube

When you have an entertainment career on the serious upswing, a spot on one of America’s funniest TV shows, your own daytime talk show, and a beautiful and charming wife� well, what more could a guy ask for?

How about the ultimate birthday present?
Party quirks
When Wayne Brady, star of Whose Line Is It Anyway? and host of The Wayne Brady Show, turned 30 last July, his wife, Mandie, gave him the usual birthday gifts. Then, a few days later, she told him she had one more present for him. A surprise. Always one for fun, he wanted to guess what it was.Wayne: Can I play with it?
Mandie: Yeah.
Wayne: Okay, can I wear it?
Mandie: If you want to…
Wayne: Do I need to plug it in?
Mandie: No.
Wayne: So it has its own power?
Mandie: Mmm hmm.
Wayne: Will it last a long time?
Mandie: God, I hope!

Wayne remembers, “I said, ‘It can’t be a PS2 [Play Station 2], because I already have one,’ and she said, ‘Wayne, I’m pregnant. I’ve been trying to have a baby, and I was waiting for your birthday to tell you.’ And I didn’t believe her, because she at that point could have just been speaking Arabic. It was so foreign to me that she would say ‘I’m pregnant,’ because for a couple years she was the one saying ‘No, no, no.’ Even up to the last time we talked about it last year.”

“He’s always wanted kids — ever since we were married,” says Mandie. “Almost four years, he’s been wanting children. I was kind of like, ‘No, let’s wait — there’s too much going on.’ Not that there isn’t anything going on now, but we’ve stabilized and I kind of convinced myself. I knew how he felt, so it was up to me. I took a chance to see if I could do it,” she says. “It was a month before his birthday, and I thought, ‘Maybe I’ll start now.’ Sure enough, I was one month pregnant on his birthday, so it happened the first time we tried!”

“When she said she was pregnant, I was like, ‘Shut up, no, you’re not!’ And I said, ‘Mandie, stop kidding me — that is so mean — trying to kid me about something like that.’ And my sister-in-law said, ‘No, no, it’s true — Mandie’s pregnant.’ And she had water in her eyes.” Finally, he believed it. “All of the sudden, I’m crying, because it was just incredible. I ran around yelling to everyone, ‘She’s pregnant!’”

“I told him I was pregnant, and he cried,” Mandie says with a big grin. “Then he ran downstairs — my mom and my grandmother were staying with us at the time — and he hugged them and told them. And we had a contractor at the house; he hugged the contractor and told the contractor.”

Newsflash
After the initial joy and excitement, Mandie says, “We agreed that we weren’t going to say anything until after three months. We didn’t want to get anyone excited, and we didn’t want anyone to find out.”

The next day, Wayne headed up to Canada for a stage show. “I found out [about the pregnancy] on a Thursday, and Friday I was on a plane, so I never got a chance to really enjoy it,” he says. “So Friday during the show, I said, ‘Hey, I just wanted to let you guys know: My wife and I are pregnant! And I’m just telling you because I’m happy.’ The next thing I know, all the Canadian papers were running stories about her being pregnant.”

“So he told everyone,” Mandie laughs. “I couldn’t be mad at him, but I said, ‘Well, Canada knows, so I think we should call the family.’ He’s a big kid. He can’t hold that stuff in.”

Wayne says, “It was the happiest news. Ever.” After thinking a moment, he adds, “Well, second, I guess, to when she said that she’d marry me.”

Positive thoughts
After she decided to go for it, Mandie found herself in “Could I be?” limbo for the very first time. She says, “I took so many pregnancy tests because I felt weird — I felt tired and I was so hungry.” Her early home pregnancy tests were all negative, so she wanted a more definitive result. But that wasn’t so easy, because while being the wife of a celebrity has its advantages, there’s also a downside. “The nurses at my Ob/Gyn all know me and they all watch the show, and I didn’t want them to find out. I didn’t want them to know in case they saw him and said, ‘Oh I saw Mandie…’” So Mrs. Brady headed instead to a family planning clinic. “They sat me down and I had to watch these abortion videos, and why there are maybe other alternatives like adoption. And I was like, ‘No you don’t understand — I want to be pregnant!’ I had to sit there and watch and sign forms, and they were asking me questions.”

All of that, and the pregnancy test there didn’t even give her a positive result. But she persisted. “I knew something was wrong — something was kind of funky,” Mandie says. “I know my body — something was different… Sure enough, three days after his birthday, I took another home test and it said I was! That was like my ninth test. Wayne would say, ‘What are you doing in the bathroom?’ because I was constantly checking!”

The rough spots
While now, at eight and a half months, Mandie looks positively radiant, not every part of her pregnancy has been easy. The morning sickness, she says, was the worst. ‘I was thinking, ‘I’m not going to accept the fact that it’s possible that it can be like this for the whole pregnancy.’ I’d read horror stories from people about it. At two months, it was the worst — it was at its peak. I was miserable,” she sighs. “I dry heaved a lot — nothing would come up. Once in awhile, if I was lucky, I actually vomited. It was awful, and it was 24/7. There was nothing I could do about it — nothing… I did the ginger and everything. I’d just sleep to get it over with. I was counting down the days.”

And not only was there sickness: She had some major cravings. “I started eating weird things, like bacon cheeseburgers and curly fries — things that normally I wouldn’t eat, but I had to have,” Mandie says. “I love sweets, but when I had morning sickness, I couldn’t even look at them. And I wanted mangos. Mangos and lemonade and macaroni and cheese.”

At the three month mark, the sickness — and the cravings — disappeared. “It was by the book: At three months, it ended.” Wayne adds, “She got up one morning and said, ‘Oh — it’s gone!’”

“Once it was over, I was just happy,” she laughs. “I had a pinched sciatic nerve and thought, ‘That’s okay — I can deal with that. Morning sickness, no.’ I’m happy. I’m feeling good.”

As for the best parts of pregnancy, she’s happiest when she can feel — and see — the baby move. Says Mandie, “I really love that — being that close to something, especially when you know that everything’s okay. I felt the flutters at four months, but the coolest part is now, when I can feel her shift and I wonder, ‘Is that a leg, or is that her booty?’ I love that.” Wayne gets a kick out of it too. “Now we can see [the baby] through Mandie’s skin as she moves underneath. It’s like Alien.”

Ultrasounds have also helped them to bond with their daughter. “We’ve had so many ultrasounds, just because we’re excited,” Mandie says. “We’ve also done 4D, which is awesome. You can see the baby’s face… everything.”

Helping hands
What’s Wayne done to help her through this pregnancy? “The best thing he does is compliment me — tell me I still look good,” Mandie says. “That’s the best thing, I think, besides the fact that I know he’s excited about the baby. That makes me feel good.”

However, Wayne admits, “I have not been a big a help as I’ve wanted to be. Watching her go through all this stuff, and being so busy with work…” He says, “Next time — I know it’s of no consolation now — but I think I now understand the enormity of a pregnancy, and the amount of time you have to live with this thing inside of you. I really want to be of more help.”

As far as Mandie’s concerned, he’s doing his part this time around. “He still loves me and still wants us to have a relationship that’s not just about the baby. He’s so good about that. There are times when I feel sad, and don’t feel sexy or attractive… I am a dancer, so I’ve always been really conscious of my body. It’s hard to submit to nature, I guess, so I go through periods when it’s depressing,” she says. “The hardest thing for me is picture taking. I used to do print [modeling] work before. It’s different to accept your body when you’re so used to looking a certain way… I’m glad I’m going to get nice pregnancy pictures [with this interview], because I’ve been avoiding that.”

The joy of baby
These last few weeks as her pregnancy comes to an end, one of Mandie’s favorite things to do is to daydream about what the baby will be like. So what is she most looking forward to? “Seeing the baby — but more than that, seeing Wayne with the baby,” she says. “I need a picture of the baby with Wayne as soon as we have her. Moreso than [a photo] even with me — I want to see him with her, because I’ve had the chance to be close and to feel the baby… I want to see him to be a father for the first time.” She smiles, “Kind of makes your eyes water even thinking about it, doesn’t it?”

As for Wayne, he’s excited about finally being a daddy. “‘Excited’ isn’t the word. It seems like the experience makes everything fall into place. I’ve always liked to work, and I’ve always been very driven, but knowing that I have this other person coming that I have to take care of for a goodly chunk of her life kind of makes my focus change, and it makes something else more important.”

Most of all, he says, he wants to wrap his arms around his little baby daughter. “I’m really looking forward to lying down and having her on my chest — holding her. I’ve been having dreams about just holding her,” he says. “I don’t think I’ve quite wanted anything this much in my life.”

Technorati Tags: mandie brady, wayne brady

LOS ANGELES — Last Thursday, about a year too late, I read the “2008 Delegate Selection Rules for the Democratic National Convention.” Not a fun read, I must add, which may be the reason Sen. Hillary Clinton, or her people, and most of the press, did not read or understand its 25 dense pages.

Sen. Barack Obama, or his people, obviously studied the thing, and that is the reason he will probably be his party’s nominee for president of the United States.

The document, adopted by the Democratic National Committee on Aug. 19, 2006, is filled with the kind of fairness rhetoric the party has been spouting for at least 40 years. Samples:

“State Democratic Parties shall ensure that district lines used in the delegate selection process are not gerrymandered to discriminate against African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, Asian/Pacific Americans or women.”

“Each state affirmative action program shall include outreach provisions to encourage the participation and representation of persons of low and moderate income, and a specific plan to help defray expenses of those delegates otherwise unable to participate in the national convention.”

That’s nice. More important is the fine print:

“Seventy-five percent (75%) of each state’s base delegation shall be elected at the congressional district level or smaller …

“Delegates shall be allocated in a fashion that fairly reflects the expressed presidential preference or uncommitted status of the primary voters or, if there is no binding primary, the convention and/or caucus participants.”

In other words, using terms of political art, the Democrats have rejected “winner-take-all” elections in favor of “proportional representation.” The best example of that is what happened in Texas: Clinton won 50.9 percent of the overall vote to 47.4 percent for Obama. But because of the way the votes were divided by counties, Obama won 99 delegates to 94 for Clinton.

Understanding the rule, the Obama campaign campaigned everywhere, in primary elections and caucuses in even the smallest states. Two weeks before the Delaware election, polls showed Clinton ahead by 10 percent or more. Obama campaigned there, Clinton did not, and he won the state by 2 percentage points. More important, he won nine delegates to her six.

The same thing happened in small state after state, which is why Obama is ahead in the delegate count. If states still had winner-take-all primaries, Clinton, who won more votes in California, New York and Texas, would have easily won the nomination. But again, she had not read the rules and Obama had.

There was a myth at the center of the Clinton campaign, the idea that she and her husband, the former president, had a nationwide organization ready to knock on every door in America. Not so. The Clintons had many friends, but no organization. Bill and Hillary were always top-down, media candidates. Obama’s manager, David Axelrod, a former Chicago Tribune reporter, did build a national knock-on-any-door campaign, an old-fashioned Chicago-style campaign — and it worked.

It is hard not to feel sorry for Hillary Clinton. She expected her campaign to be a walkover, and there she was like a deer in the headlights when the Obama Express came roaring down the tracks. She was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

This is not a new thing in presidential politics. In my experience, the new guys, new managers, usually win. And Axelrod was the new guy, as Karl Rove was the new guy in 2000, and before him there was James Carville and George Stephanopoulos, Lee Atwater, Hamilton Jordan and Jody Powell.

The new guys win because they have to learn the rules from scratch. The old guys play by old rules, run the same old campaigns that worked before — and it is often too late for them when they realize the game has changed. Poor Hillary and her strategist Mark Penn just didn’t get it

Technorati Tags: america, barack obama, clinton, hillary clionton, obama, united states, USA