Akshay flies to Mumbai to celebrate his birthday

Bollywood star Akshay Kumar, who turned 42 Wednesday, completed his shooting in Italy before schedule to be with his family here on his birthday."Akshay wanted to ring in his birthday with his family. He doesn`t want to miss this at any cost," said a source close to the actor who was shooting in Italy for Sajid Khan`s ‘House Full’.

"Akshay was missing them very much while shooting in Italy. Sajid understood Akshay`s feelings and saw to it that the shooting gets wrapped up in advance so that Akshay can fly down to Mumbai and celebrate his birthday with his family," the source added.

Meanwhile, his wife Twinkle has planned a quiet party for family and close friends.

While the past two years have been extremely lucky for Akshay, in 2009 he had to face setbacks in ‘Chandni Chowk To China’ and ‘8X10 Tasveer’ -- both the films were rejected by audiences. But he managed to strike back with ‘Kambakkht Ishq’.

His forthcoming films include Anthony D`Souza`s ‘Blue’, Priyadarshan`s ‘De Dana Dan’ and Vipul Shah`s ‘Action Replay’.

Simon Cowell planning lavish USD 250k party for 50th b’day

Celebrity judge Simon Cowell is planning an extravagant birthday bash for himself when he turns 50 next month.

Cowell is all set to shell out 250,000 pounds for a glamorous party to celebrate his birthday on October 7, say reports.

It is believed 400 celebrity friends of Cowell will descend at Hertfordshire`s Wrotham Park to join the celebrations.

Contactmusic quoted a source as telling the Daily Mirror: "Simon`s been planning this party for months and the guest list is phenomenal - a `Who`s Who` of the celebrity world.

"It`s going to be the highlight of the showbiz calendar. Simon`s not a massive party person, so when he says he`s going to do something, he does it in style."

Stars expected to attend the party include music maestro Sir Elton John and his partner David Furnish, actor Kevin Spacey, actress Denise Richards, supermodel Kate Moss, Aussie pop princess Kylie Minogue, his co-judges from talent shows and most of his recording artists.

The insider added: "All his recording artists have been invited. And all the judges on his shows from both sides of the Atlantic.

"He`s always incredibly composed but he`ll definitely be toasting his birthday properly. There will be champagne on tap, plus a three-course banquet.

"But he can`t get up to too much, as his mother Julie is the guest of honour."

I took to drugs because of my dad: Kelly Osbourne

Singer Kelly Osbourne, daughter of rocker Ozzy Osbourne, revealed that after seeing her father surviving in spite of drugs and alcohol addiction, she also decided to indulge.

"I think, to be honest with you, the way that I looked at it when I was really young was `well, Dad`s still alive...I can do it too` and when I look at it now, I think `my god, why did I put myself through that?`....why didn`t I just ask for help? why didn`t I just be honest with how miserable I really was?"

"But I was afraid to because when you`re 17 and the entire world is looking at you and your mum`s got cancer and my dad`s in hospital on life support, I didn`t know how to cope and didn`t know what I was doing. I did turn to drugs and it wasn`t the smartest thing at all because it destroyed my life," mirror.co.uk quoted Kelly as saying.

Kelly was speaking on a talk show to promote her new book `Fierce`. She said that it wasn`t a traditional autobiography.

"It`s not an autobiography but it has autobiographical qualities because I couldn`t tell people not to do something or to do something if I can`t say why I know not to do it. It would be really hypocritical if I did that so I made such an effort to be just as honest as I possibly could.

"It`s called `Fierce` because it`s targeted at young women and fierce can mean so many different things, it can mean something is great, something is bad, it can be scary, it can be fantastic and it sums it all up."

Clooney introduces new girlfriend Elizabeth Canalis

Oscar winning actor George Clooney has introduced his new girlfriend Elizabeth Canalis to his friends at the Venice Film Festival.A website reports that the 30-year old Canalis is Italian and a TV presenter. The two have been dating for two months now and they both seem to be in love as they walked the red carpet. Canalis wore a strapless teal floor-length gown and black peep-toe heels.

Clooney escorted her to the top of the stairs and came back to greet and sign autographs for fans and also pose for photographs. Clooney is at the festival to promote his new film "Ewan McGregor".