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The Goss

Hillary kicks Bill out

Now friends who love the couple have sadly given up any hope that the marriage can be saved. 

That hope was dashed after Hillary exploded in rage over Bill's counselling of Jesse Jackson and his wife Jackie in their troubled marriage and then shockingly accused him of still lusting over Monica Lewinsky!

The blowup came as Bill prepared to begin work in New York City, the current home of Monica - who's working on an HBO documentary about her Clinton affair that's rekindled her feelings for the ex-President. 

"Hillary is once again boiling mad, this time over Bill's meddling in other people's marital affairs and a 'gut belief' he still has feelings for Monica," revealed a Washington insider. Hillary's anger reached the boiling point when she realized that Bill knew all along that Jesse's mistress was pregnant while Jesse was counselling the President. 

"Hillary exploded, confiding to friends, 'Bill's attitude toward the vows of marriage tells me that he still hasn't learned a thing '," said the insider. "And I think he still has That Woman on his mind." 

"She told Bill if he ever tries to contact Lewinsky again, 'I'll shoot you." Hillary views the fact that Bill knew all along that Jesse Jackson had fathered a love child by his former staffer Karin Stanford as yet another betrayal. And it's brought back all her repressed feelings about how he betrayed her with Monica.

Courtney strips for action

"Courtney is a one-woman calamity," says an insider. "Her craziness on the set is a constant source of disruption - and amazement. One day, in the middle of a scene, she decided she didn't feel like wearing underwear. She slid off her undies and dropped them on the floor. 

It was just weird - and very unappealing." 

Vancouver locals claim that Love has "terrorized Canadians" since she arrived to shoot the thriller, which co-stars Kevin Bacon and Charlize Theron. 

Scandals erupted the day after the 36-year-old punk princess landed in town. Love had rented a luxurious home for two months, but after staying one night, she checked into the Four Seasons Hotel and reportedly had a fight with the owner of the house. He's now suing her for $40,000. But the owner might be lucky, considering the problems the Four Seasons is having with the wacky actress. 

"Normally it takes one maid about an hour to clean, a suite, but to clean up Courtney's room, it takes three maids working together longer than that," reveals a source. "Every day, the place looks like it was hit by a cyclone-overflowing ashtrays, empty bottles, pizza boxes and clothes tossed everywhere." "Calamity" Love, who also suffered a miscarriage and was robbed of more than $100,000 in jewellery while in Vancouver, is "bitter that people aren't treating her like a star," the insider says. 

Em's mad for Mumba

Their relationship comes just weeks after Eminem split up with Destiny's Child beauty Beyonce Knowles.

Em, real name Marshall Mathers, and Samantha have been talking regularly on the phone and enjoyed a string of romantic dinner dates at LA's trendy Sunset Marquis hotel. "Yes, it's true. They have met up for dinner a couple of times. They really like each other.

"They first met at the Brit Awards in February, but Eminem had just got together with Beyonce, so nothing happened."

"But that relationship didn't last very long and it seems that Em has got a real soft spot for Sam," a source said.

The couple may have problems arranging their next date as both have heavy schedules.

Eighteen-year-old Samantha is currently filming Stephen Spielberg's remake of classic '60s movie The Time Machine, as well as cracking the US charts with hits including Gotta Tell You. She has also been lined up to star alongside Will Smith in the sequel Men In Black 2.

Eminem and 19-year-old Beyonce were an item in April. They too met for the first time at a Brit Awards ceremony, where both were performing.

Detroit-born Eminem, 28, divorced wife Kim the previous month.

After angry fights over their five-year-old daughter Hailie Jade, the couple agreed to share custody.

Under the terms of the divorce settlement, Kim also received £475,000 to buy a new home, while Eminem got to keep their Detroit house.

Diesel as New Terminator?

Folks at Diesel's One Race Productions say that contrary to a report by syndicated columnist Cindy Pearlman, Diesel is not replacing Arnold on the next Terminator film. 

"He hasn't even talked to Schwarzenegger," says the spokesman, adding that if Diesel took on any role, it would be as the film's villain, not its star. However, "I don't see it happening," the spokesman said, adding that he wasn't even sure of the status of the project.

The film was put on hold prior to the pending writers and actors' strikes. Intermedia Films, which is producing the third film, after James Cameron and his Lightstorm Entertainment production company bowed out of the sequel, was not available for comment on the film's status. 

Last month, Entertainment Weekly reported that director Jonathan Mostow, who inherited the project after Cameron and John McTiernan passed, is interested in having Diesel play an update on the villainous liquid-metal Terminator of the second film in the sci-fi series. Earlier, Schwarzenegger had announced that his new on-screen nemesis would be female, leading to reports that X-Men's Famke Janssen had landed the job of kicking the Austrian Oak's butt. 

While U-571 director Mostow's name is still attached to the project, Janssen, who is playing a sci-fi villain in Men in Black 2, now appears to be out.

Meanwhile, man of the moment Diesel is deciding on his next picture, which could be the sequel to the modest 2000 hit Pitch Blackor, the urban spy thriller Triple X, which would reteam him with Furious director Rob Cohen. The lead in Triple X is described in the trades as a "James Bond-like hero with the personality of a rock star-chick magnet like Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst." 

Diesel is obviously looking for his own franchise, however, telling Pearlman, "I see [my character in Pitch Black], Riddick, as the Conan of the future or as an Indiana Jones."

As good as Hollywood

I watch fascinated as a giant space ship glides to- wards a distant star field. A few minutes later, a Tyrannosaurus Rex appears. Then a shoal of dolphins accompany a mini submarine looking so natural that it reminds me of the underwater expeditions of Costeau. Switch now to three fighter jets whizzing past the screen, only to be blasted to bits by bursts of enemy fire. 

No, I am not in Hollywood, but here in Sri Lanka and the young computer animator at the controls not yet 16, is Thilanka Perera, a Year 11 student of Royal College, Colombo. What he just showed me are movie clips that he has created on the computer. 

"I was hooked to the computer even before I sat for my Year 5 scholarship examination. I was fortunate that my parents never sent me for tuition. So I had plenty of time to sit down at my father's computer. After seeing some of the drawings that I created on the PC, a friend of my father installed a programme which was capable of creating and animating three dimensional images. It was a DOS based programme called 3D Studio and not being an official copy, no manuals were available. Despite these handicaps, I pursued a trial and error course to create some images - mainly rockets, planets, asteroids etc.," Thilanka explained. 

In 1998 he received a bonanza when his father was making plans to make a video feature based on 'Into the comet', a story by Sir Arthur C. Clarke. " Realising that to create the visuals required for the feature would cost millions he, my mother and a few friends, established a digital video production house so that the visuals could be created in-house. He got down all the hardware and software necessary to capture video images to computer and record back to tape after digitally manipulating them. The software included 3D Studio Max, a much improved new version which was used to create visual effects for films like Lost in Space, Deep Rising etc. Naturally all this software was backed up with voluminous manuals which needed patient study. It did not take me long to familiarise myself with the software due to my experience with the older version," said Thilanka. 

Thilanka's idea was to create life-like images as seen on many foreign video productions. And all his hard work was rewarded when his father entrusted him with all the computer imagery required for "Into the Comet", after seeing his test renderings. 

Although computer imagery is not a novelty in Sri Lanka, photo realistic imagery (images so real, that they look as if they have been photographed) and animation is a rarity or virtually non-existent. Even when production houses employ 3D graphics in advertising, photo realistic imagery is never attempted due to its complexity. Creating organic creatures is the most demanding task. The animator has to learn in depth about how the creatures behave in different postures-saunter, trot, pounce etc. How the muscles and bones of beasts function, their skin texture etc. It is after a deep study of these aspects that you will be able to make the end result natural and life like.

This young wizard has been the brains behind all the computer imagery for"Into the Comet" on which work is now in progress. This feature film based on a story by the renowned science fiction writer Sir Arthur C. Clarke, is handled by an entirely local crew. 

Thilanka tells me that he has never compromised on quality. "My father was very particular and I had to re-do most shots to satisfy him." 

Their reward was a fitting comment from none other person than Sir Arthur, who said that the imagery created for this feature film is as good as anything he had seen in Hollywood. Thilanka will be sitting his O/L examination this year and not surprisingly, is keen on following a career in the computer field. 

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