Freida Pinto is to become the next Bond girl.

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The 'Slumdog Millionaire' actress has signed a multi-million pound deal to play the suave spy's love interest in the 23rd James Bond movie - which is set in Afghanistan - after being approached by director Sam Mendes.

A source said: "Sam has been talking about Bond for months now and is so excited about it. The project has been in the pipeline for months and Freida was always the dream Bond girl, but initially she was nervous about accepting it. This is going to be the most ambitious 007 yet. Sam plans to reinvent the genre.

"Peter Morgan, who wrote 'The Queen', has penned the first draft of the script and it promises to be visually stunning."

Freida is currently dating her 'Slumdog Millionaire' co-star Dev Patel and he is thrilled his girlfriend was won such a high-profile role.

The source added to the Daily Mirror newspaper: "It will be a typically glamorous and raunchy role and Dev has been joking to friends he is cool with seeing Freida rolling around with 007."

Freida will star alongside Daniel Craig, who will be reprising his role as Bond once more, while US actress Olivia Wilde has been approached to play a double-crossing UN worker based in Afghanistan.

(C) BANG Media International

Being Obama’s Brother

Stephen Morrison / Corbis

George Obama sits in front of his home in a slum in Nairobi, Kenya

By George Obama | NEWSWEEK

In November 2008, I stood in a bar in Kenya watching Barack Obama give his victory speech. From the wild cheering of the crowd on TV, and his repeated appeals to them personally—"You said," "You heard," "You called"—I felt as if the people of America knew this man far better than I, even though we shared the same father. If there was a leading light in the Obama clan, he was it; and if there was a shadowed place that no one liked to talk about, then that, I guess, was me.

After a relatively privileged childhood, I crashed and burned in my teenage years. I had migrated from the plush suburbs of Nairobi, Kenya, to the wild chaos of the ghetto. I lost myself in drink and drugs and became a gun-toting gangster. In my early 20s, I spent a year in a Nairobi prison on robbery charges. My imprisonment included a starvation diet and 24/7 lockdowns in overcrowded, airless cells. But I came out a different man, resolved to turn my life around and find a different path.

Along with some fellow slum dwellers, I set up a youth group for ghetto kids. My passion was football (soccer), which is followed religiously throughout Africa. When we first established the Huruma Centre Football Club, none of our kids had so much as a pair of football boots, let alone any uniform. Some were so hungry when they turned up that they had no energy to play. At other times, the team had to trek for miles to matches because we couldn't afford any transportation. In spite of all that, our players were passionate, and we started winning. Then, as my brother's profile grew in America and around the world, the media came looking for his African relatives.

Eventually the press found me in my slum. My new notoriety was a blessing and a curse. Many people presume I have a direct line to the White House, but I don't. I've only met my big brother twice and have spoken to him just once since the election, to say congratulations. Still, because of our connection, I managed to pull in funds from philanthropists to support the work of the youth group. I raised enough money to buy the team gold and green uniforms—with their own numbers on the back. Last fall, Obama's Champs won the Nairobi Super League—a feat that, just a couple of years back, would have been unthinkable for a team from the slums. With the sponsorship I've attracted because of my last name, we can now afford to take buses all across Kenya for matches.

I still live in one of Africa's biggest slums, along with some 4.5 million others. We have little or no access to health care, no welfare, and no free schooling. The average income is less than $5 a day—and that's for those who find work as servants, taxi drivers, or garbage collectors. For the rest, there is nothing. My brother has risen to be the leader of the most powerful country in the world. In Kenya I hope to be a leader among the poorest, most powerless people on earth—the people of the ghetto.

Hope—it's an idea my brother talked about a lot. But it was only recently that I learned again what it means to feel the true spirit of that word. Here, a little goes a long way.

Obama's memoir, Homeland, was co-written with Damien Lewis.

© 2010

'Slumdog' Director Buys New Homes For Kid Stars

Slumdog Millionaire director Danny Boyle has answered an S.O.S. from two of the Oscar winning film’s young stars by buying them new homes RadarOnline.com has learned.

Both Rubina Ali, 9, and Azharuddin Ismali, 10, were reduced to tears after bulldozers flattened their shanty-like homes in Mumbai, India, to make way for a railway station.

British film-maker Boyle flew-out to India amid claims that that he had abandoned the young stars despite the fact that a trust had been set-up for them.

Boyle, 53, said: “I have seen their homes being knocked down and that upset me a great deal.

“They have never been far from my thoughts – it is only now that the trust has been able to put in place a workable plan.”

A flat has been purchased for Ismali who played young Salim, and a second home has been bought for Ali, who was Salim’s friend Latika in the movie.

Slumdog Millionaire - which cost only $14 million to make – has amassed $326 million in box office returns and scooped eight Oscars.

Despite these huge takings, both Ali and Ismali still lived in poverty with their families when they returned to India. She was paid $710 for taking part in the film while he received $2414 – both kids receive $40 per month for books and food as part of the Jai Ho trust agreement and producers also secured places for the pair at local schools.

Despite widespread criticism that the studio should have given a lot more, a spokesperson for Fox Searchlight said they were “proud” of the treatment given to the pair.

“For 30 days work they were paid three times the annual salary,” he said.

Boyle and fellow producer Christian Colson donated a further $745,000 to a charity that aims to improve the living conditions of the street children of Mumbai, while Slumdog star Anil Kapoor – who played the game show host – donated his entire salary from the movie to help Mumbai's impoverished youth. (Photo: Fame Pictures)

"Slumdog Millionaire" Kids Walk In Fashion Show (PHOTOS)

Two of the "Slumdog Millionaire" child actors walked the catwalk during Delhi's Fashion Week on Thursday. Rubina Ali and Mohammed Azharuddin Ismail, the two children who have garnered a lot of media attention as they both still live in the slums of Mumbai, walked in the Ashima-Leena show wearing traditional outfits.

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"Slumdog Millionaire" Kids Go To Disneyland

The day after "Slumdog Millionaire" dominated the Oscars, the child actors from the film took a trip to Disneyland. For some of the children, like Rubina Ali (young Latika), the trip to Los Angeles was the first time she has left Mumbai or been on a plane.

See photos of the Oscars red carpet andbackstage, both sets of which the children are in, and an interview with Ryan Seacrest the children did on the red carpet.

Pictured above are Ayush Mahesh Khedekar (Young Jamal), Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail Sheikh (Young Salim), Rubina Ali Rafiq Qureshi (Young Latika), Tanvi Ganesh Lonkar (Middle Latika), Ashutosh Lobo Gajiwala (Middle Salim), Tanay Hemant Chheda (Middle Jamal) and Madhur Mittal (older Salim) he is 20.

Freida Pinto Teams Up With Woody Allen

By Katey Rich:
Freida Pinto may have only had to stand around and look pretty in Slumdog Millionaire, but she's taking that questionable talent to the bank. She's now signed on for her post-Slumdog role, playing the ingenue in Woody Allen's untitled new project, which shoots in London this spring.

She's signing on along with Naomi Watts, according to Variety, and they'll both be joining Anthony Hopkins and Josh Brolin in the film. As usual with Woody Allen, we have no idea what the movie is about yet. But you have to wonder if Scarlett Johansson is pissed having been replaced by Pinto, the next next big thing to get her start with Allen.

Mumbai slum hails Millionaire stars

By Prachi Pinglay BBC News, Mumbai

Friends of child actors Rubina Ali and Azharuddin Ismail celebrate in Mumbai

"Jai ho!" (Victory!) was the refrain in the congested by-lanes of Garibnagar, the colony where Slumdog Millionaire child actors Rubina Ali and Azharuddin Ismail live.

Neighbours and relatives in the colony, which runs parallel to railway tracks in a western suburb of Mumbai (Bombay), had been wide awake and buzzing from 0400 local time (2330 GMT Sunday) for the Oscar awards ceremony.

Munni Qureshi, Rubina's mother, said she was waiting for her daughter to return from Los Angeles. "I will go to the airport with a band of musicians and greet her. We are so happy for the children."

Farha and Dilshaad, her neighbours, had not eaten since last night - part of a fast in hope of success at the Academy Awards.

"We decided we'd eat only after all the awards are announced. Now we will celebrate and have breakfast. We prayed that Rubina would get success," beamed Dilshaad as she welcomed reporters into her house.

Rubina's friends have learned to dance to numbers like Jai Ho (AR Rahman's Oscar-winning song) and Ringa Ringa, and were happy to repeat their moves for the cameras.

"I can also dance, Rubina is my friend," repeated Muskaan.

Good and lucky

In a tiny 3m by 3m (10-foot by 10-foot) room belonging to her uncle, a large flat TV screen is the only reminder of the recent success tasted by Rubina's family.

Rubina's parents' house is at the end of the lane, where people stream in and out to congratulate them.

We feel happy that two little children who live such difficult lives in Garibnagar have been given such an honour Muzammil, colony dweller

Mohsin, her cousin, watches the grainy screen intently and looks downward as every nomination with a kissing scene is shown. The women animatedly discuss new clothes for Azhar and Rubina.

Pervez Ahmed, who took Rubina and Azhar to the auditions of Slumdog Millionaire, said the children were very good as well as lucky.

"I have been taking children from these areas for shooting for nearly 20 years and have even worked for big commercial films but this is extraordinary. Even some of the biggest stars have not been able to go to the Oscars."

People went about their morning chores, washing and cleaning outside their hutments, but most still had their televisions tuned to the Oscars. Neighbours insisted the children should pursue their success and continue to act.

The colony in Mumbai was up very early for the Oscar ceremony

There were conversations about the story of the film (many are yet to watch it), the actual meaning of the word Slumdog (there have been some protests in India that the term is derogatory) and the possibility of improving their lives.

And the media had amassed to hear the tales.

Reporters were everywhere where any details of the children and their families could be taken down.

Some residents complained about the chaotic scenes as journalists ran from house to house, and the odd scuffle ensued.

But still the celebrations continued, as the noise of the rush hour, of trains passing by and of traffic snarls cranked up.

Muzammil, one youngster who works in a nearby textile unit, mused on the rags-to-riches tale.

"Even if all of us worked for 20 years we would not be able to achieve this. We feel happy that two little children who live such difficult lives in Garibnagar have been given such an honour.

"That is why so many people stopped work today - to watch our stars on TV."

Slumdog Millionaire: Mumbai's real slumdogs [PICS]

Following the success of Slumdog Millionaire, set in the squalid underbelly of Mumbai, Nigel Richardson reports on a growing phenomenon: the slum tour.

read more | digg story