Pan-Cretans in Alexandria

-
0

Members of the Pan-Cretan Union of America, who are holding their annual general meeting on a cruise from Crete, were welcomed to the Alexandria Patriarchate by the Patriarch of Alexandria and all Africa, Theodore II, who expressed his joy at their visit and briefed them on the patriarchate’s work in Africa. On his part, the president of the union, Emmanuel Velivasakis praised the patriarch’s personal career and his work, giving assurances of the union’s constant support. He also offered school equipment for the children of Africa on behalf of the members.

(voiceofgreece.com)

Jennifer Aniston to Star in “Pumas”

-
0

Jennifer Aniston is set to star in a new movie from CBS Films.  The stunner will be seen in romantic comedy “Pumas”, which will be directed by Wayne McClammy. The film’s plot centres on two 30-something women who make a habit of romancing younger men and take a French skiing vacation that challenges their romantic expectations.

Aniston will produce, along with Jon Gordon, Scott Z. Burns and Kristin Hahn. Chris Moore and Barry Littman are exec producing.

(ANI, photo by Wikipedia)

Theophanous calls it quits at next election

-
0

Theo Theophanous announced today that will retire from politics.
In a press conference held at midday the veteran State Labor MP said that he will not contest next State election, although having recently nominated for his Upper House Northern Metropolitan seat.
“After more than 20 years in public life, I have decided I will not seek preselection for another term,’’ he told reporters.
‘‘I will remain a backbencher and serve the electorate at a local level for the remainder of this term. I will not contest the next election,’’ he added.
On Friday, Mr Theophanous was officially discharged of a rape allegation in Melbourne Magistrates Court. Magistrate Peter Reardon had found little credibility in the case brought against Mr Theophanous by a woman alleging that she was raped by the Victorian MP in his Parliamentary office more than ten ago.
Mr Theophanous was charged with one count of rape on Christmas Eve last year and was forced to resign from his cabinet position.
In a short interview to Neos Kosmos English Edition last week Mr Theophanous said: “There’s no bigger test of a family than what we’ve gone through and I’m so proud of my family and of my wife and the way in which they handled themselves… the way in which they supported me through what has been a nightmare and I’m so pleased that the judge so through what was… the evidence showed a complete fabrication.”

John Stamos to co-star with Kevin Spacey in “Father of Invention”

-
0

John Stamos, soon to be on Broadway in Bye Bye Birdie, has been cast in the indie film, Father of Invention, according to a report in Variety.

Stamos will join Kevin Spacey, Virginia Madsen and Heather Graham in this project that has already begun filming in New Orleans. Stamos will play the man who has taken over Spacey’s business and eventually steals his big comeback idea.

Stamos begins performances in “Birdie” on September 10. He has also appeared on Broadway in the past in the revivals of Cabaret and Nine.

Greek PM Karamanlis Planning a Visit to the US in Fall

A. Makris
-
0
Greek PM Karamanlis Planning a Visit to the US in Fall

Source: ekathimerini.com

Negotiations between Washington and Athens regarding a possible visit by Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis to the White House have gathered pace and the trip now looks set to take place by mid-October at the latest, unless the premier decides to call snap general elections, sources told Greek newspaper Kathimerini.

Preliminary talks between the two sides have focused on a planned meeting between Karamanlis and US President Barack Obama in September. The Greek side is particularly keen to discuss the issue of the country’s passport holders joining the USA’s visa waiver program.

Athens had hoped for a deal, which would mean that Greeks would no longer require a visa to travel to America, to be completed last August but the process was halted by Washington.

However, the paperwork was prepared and signed by Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis and Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg at last month’s Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) summit on Rhodes.

The agreement is expected to be presented in Parliament in due course and Karamanlis’s visit will be intended as a follow-up during which the deal will be signed by diplomats from the two countries.

This would allow Karamanlis to return with something tangible from a visit to Washington rather than just the usual diplomatic platitudes.

However, sources underlined that a final date for the meeting may not have been set already because Karamanlis has not yet decided whether to call a snap poll in the autumn.

A pre-election visit to Washington and the signing of the visa waiver agreement would clearly be a public relations coup for Karamanlis but it is unlikely that the American side would agree to hold the meeting during the runup to a national vote in Greece.

Speculation about the elections being held in the next few months resurfaced yesterday when the government announced that it was giving the green light for a 3.5-billion-euro program to fund projects at a local level.

Greek Journalist of NY Times Named Colin Jose Media Award Recipient

A. Makris
-
0

Retired New York Times soccer writer Alex Yannis has been named to receive the Colin Jose Media Award at Induction 2009. A 36-year member of the Times staff, he covered the legendary New York Cosmos of the North American Soccer League from their first day of existence to their last, developing friendships with many of the illustrious stars that wore the Cosmos uniform, including Pele.

“I am deeply honored by this Award,” Yannis said. “One does not write for awards but to tell a story. I always hoped I did that well. The Colin Jose Media Award confirms that I did.”

The Colin Jose Media Award is presented to members of the media, broadly defined, who have exhibited a career of exceptional contributions to the coverage of soccer in the United States.

“Alex is a fitting addition to the list of illustrious media contributors that have won the Colin Jose Media Award,” Hall of Fame President Jonathan Ullman said. “We take great pride in recognizing his distinguished career and look forward to honoring him at Induction 2009.”

Yannis will be honored during the Induction Ceremony at 11:00 on Sunday August 2nd.

source: soccer.convio.net

Greek students receive Premier’s VCE Award

-
0

Three Greek Australian students are amongst the 305 top-performing VCE students to achieve a Premier’s VCE award.
Christine Demiris, Effie Markesinis, and Miltiadis Paikopoulis, were recognised for achieving a study score of 46 or higher in their VCE subjects last year.
Premier John Brumby presented students with their awards on Tuesday at the Melbourne Convention Centre.
Paikopoulis, who was awarded a Top All-Round VCE High Achiever award achieved a perfect ENTER score of 99.95 last year.
The 2008 DUX of Xavier College received study scores of 50 in English, 48 in Classical Greek, 47 in Latin, 45 in Specialist Mathematics and First Class Honours in University Mathematics.
Christine Demiris, who attended MacRobertson Girl’s High school was awarded for her academic excellence in Literature, whilst Effie Markesinis, from Balwyn High school received an award for LOTE-Greek. Markesinis was the only student to receive a perfect score of 50 in Greek.
“I could not achieve what I did without my teacher, Mrs Kane’s (nee Krilis) ongoing guidance, help and belief in me,” she said.
source: neos kosmos

Special tax measures for expatriates

-
0

Expatriates owning a primary residence up to 200 square meters or with a value of 300 thousand euros will not be required to pay the special real estate property tax, ETAK, according to an announcement by deputy economy minister, Antonis Bezas during a meeting with the treasurer of the Council for Hellenes Abroad, Mr. Dimitriou. The two men also discussed other tax related matters concerning expatriate Greeks.

The Callback: Something Scarier than an Audition

Kristen Ross
-
0

There’s only one thing in the world scarier than an audition. It’s the callback. Upon first learning you’re one of the chosen few it’s hard not to feel like a member of some sort of elitist cult, or the first kid picked off the field by the most popular boy in school who wants you for his softball team. Reason being is that it immediately differentiates you from the “others”.

The others are of course those poor, sad dopes who didn’t get a callback; who tortured themselves by learning their lines, sitting for hours in traffic to get to the audition, smiling politely at the casting director, and wasting a perfectly good head shot and resume only to return home to sit by the phone for the next 24 hours, hoping it will ring with the news “you have a callback!” Today that’s not me, though. Nope. Today I’m kicking it with my callback posse.

Once over the initial elation that comes as a result of feeling like I’m in a league far superior to those other actresses, a deep dark fear of bombing the callback crept in. Why? Because now I want it even more. The one bad thing about getting this close to a role is that you begin to envision yourself playing it; as if you’ve already won the role. You imagine everything – from the first read-through all the way down to winning your Oscar. It’s like writing a script without first buying the rights to the story but I can’t help it; I’m consumed by monsters and horror movies and glass-shattering screams. How will I look when I die on screen? Will I be wearing something stylish?

Horror isn’t exactly a genre I’m comfortable with. This makes me even more nervous. When I tell my TV boyfriend I think that huge smear of red on the kitchen floor isn’t spilled Cabernet or my foiled attempt at a lipstick art installation, how do I react? I mean, if this were real life I would run screaming from the house faster than you could say one, two, three. My boyfriend would be left eating the dust storm made by my high heels in the dirt. I know myself pretty well and will freely admit that if I saw a three-foot long blood stain in my own home I wouldn’t be any hero. Sorry, but even grandma’s on her own under these circumstances – survival of the fittest and what not.

It’s something that’s always bothered me about horror movies – how stupid everyone in them seem to be. They do things like see chainsaws hanging from the barn rafters dripping with blood and then call on their brother Joe or their “pa” to come and take a look. “Gee, Pa. What by golly do you think it is?” The man will scratch his head and take a step even closer to inspect it, bringing himself within inches of sudden death and then everyone’s surprised when a man in a red leotard and leather BDSM mask jumps out with a whale hook. I mean really, they couldn’t have been that surprised by the body nylon; all real psychos have one.

I know, I know, this is acting. That means I have to muster up the courage to be whatever they want me to be. As long as no-one’s ripping my shirt off and I’m not running through the woods in my Wonder Bra from the nut in the body stocking I’m resolved to do my best at the callback.

I’m going to look in the mirror before I leave today and tell myself, “I’m different than the others.” I’ll go over my lines once again, sit in traffic, smile at the casting director, hand them a glossy head-shot and then scream my little heart out until they’re satisfied. Then I’ll go home and spend the next 24 hours looking at the phone and wondering when they’re going to call to tell me, “You’ve booked the job!”

Galifianakis to co-star with Downey Jr. in “Due Date”

-
0

Funnyman Zach Galifianakis will co-star with Robert Downey Jr. for the new comedy Due Date, directed by The Hangover’s Todd Phillips. Both men did a fabulous job in recent comedies (Tropic Thunder and The Hangover respectively).

The story follows a father-to-be (Robert Downey Jr.) racing across the country to witness the birth of his child. Galifianakis will play a travel companion. The film is expected to go into production later in the year with a 2010 release date in mind.

Galifianakis was born in Wilkesboro, North Carolina. His mother, Mary Frances, ran a community center for the arts, and his father, Harry Galifianakis, was an oil heating vendor who immigrated from Greece at the age of three. Galifianakis was raised in his father’s Greek Orthodox faith, but now says he “isn’t sure” on the subject of religion.

His fathers family comes from the island of Crete and Zack has passed manh summers there as a teenager. He attended North Carolina State University, although he did not graduate.

(with information from Wikipedia)

1...7,5907,5917,592...7,629Page 7,591 of 7,629