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Invitations should be a reflection of your thoughts and personality. A well chosen wording for an invitation card can get the message across to the guests. Invitations are meant to be personalized messages sent to your loved ones requesting them to join you in the joyous occasion, be it your birthday or your kid’s, or your graduation day or anniversary. Internet is full of sites with plenty of designs to choose from for invitation cards for any occasion.

Birthday invitations should be planned according to the theme of the party, if there is. The design should be selected keeping in mind the sex and age of the child, kid, and adult. For an elderly person, a birthday invitation card can not be childish! Like ways, for a child a birthday invite can not be dull and lifeless. Even the wording should be chosen keeping these things in mind. You can get cool and fun wording ideas from the internet to make your card exciting and unique. The wording should be to the point and precise otherwise it can get boring. It can be funny, witty and can have the age or the name of the celebrant. You can even personalize birthday invitations by putting your child’s photo on the card. That way people will remember it for many years.

Bollywood actor Aamir Khan unveiled the magic formula of his new eight-pack abs in entertainment capital Mumbai on Sunday. Khan looks very brawny in his eagerly sought film Ghajini. Khan said his newly acquired muscular look was to conform to the strict standards laid down by the director. Khan also revealed the formula to achieve super fitness.

Known for her offbeat depictions on silver screen the Indian-born Canadian ace film director and screenwriter Deepa Mehta is upbeat about her latest creation Rang Rasiya, a movie based on the life of renowned Indian painter Raja Ravi Verma. Bollywood actor Randeep Hooda plays the painter while Nandana Sen portrays the character of Sugandha, his muse. The film also has veteran actors like Paresh Rawal, Tom Alter and Deepti Naval.

Missing in action for close to two years, rapper Eminem, 36, is making a comeback with a new album and a memoir.’I had no idea I was going to be so famous,’ he writes in his memoir titled ‘The Way I Am’, which is to be released in the US Tuesday, the Detroit Free Press reported Sunday.

‘Rap forced me to deal with people socially,’ the Oscar and Grammy winner writes in the book that traces his life from a difficult childhood to celebrity status.

‘The Way I Am’ begins with the fatal shooting in 2006 of his best friend and rapper Proof. ‘I can’t even bring myself back to the place I was when I heard what happened to Proof. I have never felt so much pain in my life … It’s a pain that has become a part of who I am.’

‘There’s a lot of raw stuff in here,’ the newspaper quoted Brian Tart, president of Dutton Books, as saying.

‘I was very impressed with the level of insight he has into fame and what it means, and trying to be a father, and trying to stay successful without selling out or losing focus on what’s important to him,’ Tart said.

Another book, this one by his estranged mother Debbie Nelson, is to be released in the US by the end of October and is titled ‘My Son Marshall, My Son Eminem’. The book was published in Europe last year, the report said.

The rapper was born Marshall Bruce Mathers III in Missouri Oct 17, 1972. His mother was just 15 at the time and his father left home when we was six months old.

A new album, ‘Relapse’, is also on the way - it will be his first album in four years - and is likely to be released by Christmas. One song, ‘I’m Having a Relapse’, is already playing on the internet, with hundreds of thousands of hits on YouTube. It begins, quite appropriately: ‘Guess who’s back?’

Hollywood singer-actress Lindsay Lohan and her DJ girlfriend Samantha Ronson have hit a rocky patch in their relationship just weeks after going public with their romance.The couple, who have been inseparable for months, are said to be drifting apart and bickering on a daily basis, reports dailymail.co.uk.

Ronson has made it clear to Lohan that she wants her to step out of the limelight amid fears the actress may have lapsed back into her old partying ways.

The comparatively low-key Ronson is also said to be feeling “smothered” by all the attention Lohan pays her and is anxious to step away from the media spotlight.

“Sam needs her space away from Lindsay and really needs to take a long look at what the future of this relationship can be. Sam’s friends have been saying for a while that Lindsay still likes men as well as women. And for Lindsay’s part, she’s still caught up in her partying ways,” a source was quoted as saying.

The source added: “Samantha doesn’t need that in her life, not now, not ever. If these two are going to be together for the long term, Lindsay is the one who’s going to have to change, calm down, and get real. Sam’s made that very clear to her.”

Jamaican reggae star Alton Ellis, known as the “Godfather of Rocksteady“, died overnight of cancer in London, a hospital spokeswoman said Saturday. He was 70 years old.

Ellis passed away peacefully at Hammersmith Hospital, the spokeswoman said.

The singer-songwriter was diagnosed with multiple myeloma last year. He underwent chemotherapy and returned to the stage before he collapsed during his final performance in central London in August.

Ellis, who moved to Britain in the 1970s, had a string of hits in a career spanning more than 50 years, including “I’m Still In Love”, “Dance Crasher” and “I’m Just A Guy”.

He was awarded the Order of Distinction medal by Jamaica in 1994.

His manager and agent Trish De Rosa, of Roots-Rockers Promotions, said he was a key figure in Jamaican music.

“His life was the music and the stage,” she said.

“He was getting a tremendous amount of work right up to the end — it was very difficult to get him to slow down.

“He wanted to do as much as he could and leave a strong legacy.”

She said Jamaican authorities were considering the possibility of giving Ellis a state funeral.

Laurence Cane-Honeysett, Jamaican music consultant for Trojan Records, said the label had been associated with Ellis throughout his career.

“He was a genuinely lovely man and his songs were heartfelt,” he said.

“He was a seminal figure in terms of popularising Jamaican reggae music.

“His death is a terrible loss.”

Jamaican reggae singer Delroy Williams, a friend and colleague since the 1960s, described his voice as “the sweetest in the reggae world”.

“He was very humble,” he said.

“His music is the reason for a lot of babies — that’s how sweet and warm and loving it is.

“It’s just a shame that he didn’t get the big world hit that he deserved.”

Ellis, who lived in the northwest London suburb of Northolt, is survived by his wife and more than 20 children.

Who could have imagined porcelain figurines would be luxury items and connoisseurs would collect them? Well, the Lladro brothers from Valencia, Spain - Juan, Jose and Vicente - not only imagined but also believed that their life-like porcelain figurines will make history. The brand is now ready with figurines of Mahatma Gandhi and Ganesha.

Angeles Lladro, daughter of Juan Lladro, came to the city to unveil Lladro’s latest creation to commemorate the Mahatma’s birthday. Many a names Gandhi may be the first Indian personality to be immortalised by Lladro but world over Lladro has created figurines of Abraham Lincoln, Queen Victoria and many more.

Angeles explains, “When we choose a personality, we pick a person who is known for his/her contributions and values and Gandhi is the universal symbol of peace.” But this doesn’t stop Lladro from bringing out yet another edition of their sure-shot money-spinner - the Elephant God’s (Ganesha) figurine.

This Diwali Lladro will unfurl the ‘Ganesha on Mridangam’. Angeles, however, informs that the figurine of Mahatma Gandhi at Rs 38,500 is a “sell-out”.

“Gandhi is not only in demand in India. Orders have been placed from almost all 120 countries that Lladro sells from,” informs Angeles.

Lladro family Talking about the Lladro family, Angeles, who is herself a qualified graphic designer, sculptor, painter and one of the Lladro’s Board of Directors says, “I am the first female from the family to join the business. ” Promptly we ask her, so do we see Lladro creating a figurine of Goddess Durga next year, now that she has visited Kolkata (as informed by her)? “Goddess Durga and #8230;with ten hands and #8230;sounds interesting.

I will ask my creative team to do some research.” The lady loved the sari she wore in Kolkata and bought two of them but worries who will help her drape it back in Spain.

Hollywood actor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s wife Marie Shriver has turned into a dating coach for her husband’s single actor pal Tom Arnold.Arnold has been single since splitting with his third wife Shelby Roos, and Shriver has taken the responsibility of fixing him up with her friends.

“I went into a year off, which she suggested, to work on myself. Then she set me up on a date with one of her friends,” Contactmusic quoted Arnold, as saying.

“When your friends set you up, you really know what they think of you - and evidently my friends think I’m old and fat,” he added.

Daughters of pushy mothers turn out to be more successful, according to a new study.The 30-year study claims that mothers’ expectations from their daughters, is what decides how successful the latter would be in their professional encounters.

Led by psychologist Dr Eirini Flouri, the researchers analysed information from a study of children born in 1970.

It was found that females, whose mothers had high hopes for them will feel more in control of their lives by the age of 30.

However, the study highlighted that maternal influence is only important for women and not men, reports Telegraph.

In the study, mother of ten-year-old children were asked to predict the age at which their child would leave school. This question was chosen to gauge the mother’s belief in the capabilities of her daughter.

Later Flouri compared this information with an assessment of the children’s self-confidence when they were thirty.

The results indicated that women’s self esteem had a direct connection to their mother’s belief in them, even when factors such as the children’s intellectual ability and their parents’ wealth were taken into account.

It is believed that mothers are more likely to push their daughters rather than their sons. But, daughter’s earnings showed no link to their mother’s expectations.

According to Flouri, belief in a child’s abilities is “just one aspect” of parenting.

Britney Spears’ mother has been accused of being a pushy mum and driving her career, starting when the star had her big break on Disney’s Mickey Mouse Club when she was 12 years old.

The 26-year-old is now ranked as the eighth best-selling female recording artist in the US, to the Recording Industry Association of America.

The findings of the study are published in the Journal of Educational Psychology and reported in the New Scientist.

Two years ago, the biggest question surrounding Jennifer Hudson’s career was whether she could act.

Everyone knew she could sing; after all, it was her soaring, gospel-inflected voice that made her famous during her finalist run on “American Idol” in 2004. The question was whether her considerable talent extended to acting when she was cast in the drama-filled role of Effie in the movie adaptation of the musical “Dreamgirls.”

An Oscar win for best supporting actress answered that handily, and roles in the summer blockbuster “Sex and the City” and the upcoming “The Secret Lives of Bees” have only reaffirmed her newfound gift. But as Hudson puts the focus back on her singing with her self-titled debut CD, she has to answer more questions — like whether winning an Academy Award last year has made it easier or harder for her to be seen as a singer

“Harder!” she declares with a laugh.

“The pressure is more on the music than on the film side, which is odd,” Hudson muses. “It’s like everything is expected to be big coming from me and so it’s like, ‘OK, we know this is going to be huge too.’ So it’s magnified, and a lot of attention on it and from what I hear it’s extremely anticipated — so it’s like, (sighs) ‘OK!’”

But Hudson is hardly harried about the release of “Jennifer Hudson,” out this week. She’s used to defying expectations.

“I don’t believe in limits so I wasn’t allowing myself to be limited and I wanted to show other sides of me, and to say ‘Well, if you like this side of Jennifer, let me introduce you to another side,’” says Hudson. “I used to consider my voice a tree with many branches and that’s what to me this album displays, all these different sides of me.”

Those sides were obscured during acting ascent: While she had spent most of her adult life singing, once her acting career took off, she shelved her dream of making an album while making movies.

“If I’m acting I’m acting, if I’m singing I’m singing,” says the Chicago native. “There’s no doing both, because I don’t wanna split my focus … so one had to give way for the other.”

Once she finally found time to revisit her music career, Hudson had to figure out how she wanted to reintroduce herself as a musician. While Hudson counts Whitney Houston among her chief influences, she was careful not to make a CD full of torch songs to showcase her powerful voice: “I didn’t want to be typecast as just a big ballad singer.”

While “Jennifer Hudson” does contain soaring ballads and even her devastating rendition of “And I’m Telling You I’m Not Going” from “Dreamgirls,” it also features a rap verse from Ludacris, a collaboration with T-Pain, production help from Ne-Yo and Timbaland and even a duet with fellow “American Idol” alum Fantasia.

“With her, she has such an amazing voice, you can pretty much pick any song, and she can sing it,” said Harvey Mason Jr., one of the songwriters and producers on the CD who also worked with Hudson on the “Dreamgirls” soundtrack. “It really gave us a freedom to be really creative.”

Still, Hudson doesn’t necessarily have a voice or sound that neatly fits on radio playlists. She doesn’t fit the gritty soul diva role like a Mary J. Blige or Keyshia Cole, or the glamour queen part like Beyonce, or the lithe singer type of a Rihanna or a Ciara.

Mason acknowledges Hudson’s straight-ahead singer approach may be out of sync in today’s music market.

“I’m not sure how it’s going to happen, I don’t know how radio is going to receive her, how people are going to receive her,” he says. But he adds: “It might be a great breath of fresh air. It’s going to be to her benefit that she doesn’t sound like the typical singer who’s a dancer.”

So far, the first single from the CD, the midtempo “Spotlight,” has been a solid hit for Hudson, peaking at No. 3 on Billboard’s Hot 100 R&B/Hip Hop Chart. But it was a slow rise, and it hasn’t had much crossover traction.

With no movie projects firmly in place, Hudson says music will be her main focus once again, with plans for a tour in the nearby future. But it won’t be her sole focus — she recently became engaged to David Otunga, the reality star better known as “Punk” for his stint on the VH1 show “I Love New York.”

While Hudson was sporting her gigantic engagement hardware, it’s so new she’s still getting used to her future as a married woman, quickly correcting herself though giggles as she changes from “I” to “we” when talking about her upcoming nuptials.

“We don’t have a date yet, but I guess that’s part of my future plans!”