Giudice, who has four daughters with her husband Joe — Gia, 10, Gabriella, 7, Milania, 5, and Audriana, 2 — says that she simply doesn’t have time for negative energy in her life, including the gossip rumors about her and her Real Housewives cast mates. Instead she prefers to focus on her family and her career.

With so much going on for her right now, including juggling her career and taking time out to spend with her family, Giudice says she doesn’t even have the time to sleep. “I can sleep when my kids are gone and gown. For now, I’m up with them in the morning, I send them to school, I work out with Audriana at the gym, then I work, run errands, work some more, pick the kids up for school, make dinner help them with their homework. Joe and I get alone time once they’re in bed,” she said.

Giudice also says that she’s just now taking care of her body as her 40th birthday is just around the corner. “For the first time in my life, I joined a gym. I’m 40 this year and having kids finally caught up with me! That’s actually the theme of my third cookbook coming out next year. What’s worked for me is going to the gym first thing in the morning after my older girls go to school.”

It looks like Giudice is going to need that extra energy for the upcoming year. There’s a little birdie going around saying that she might be part of the next cast of The Celebrity Apprentice. With Guidice and possibly Victoria Gotti on the show, that would be a good show worth watching.

Photo courtesy The Brooks Group

To celebrate the big day, the stunning Australian TV star and singer decided to treat fans to a peek at her favourite memories from the last 40 years, posting photographs on the website mydaily.co.uk.

Top of the list was the adorable photo of Dannii and her partner Kris Smith huddled round their newborn baby Ethan, as they took him home from hospital, which Dannii dubbed “the moment I’ll cherish forever”.

A snap of former X Factor judge Dannii covering outspoken Simon Cowell’s mouth with her hand – “the moment that always makes me laugh” – was another highlight, as was launching fashion label Project D with best friend Tabitha Webb, which Dannii refers to as “the moment I felt most empowered”.

She also had a picture of her former protégé Matt Cardle winning The X Factor, whom she mentored on the 2010 version of the show, calling it her proudest moment.

Most women try to shy away from the fact that they’re turning 40, but Dannii seemed delighted to reach the landmark age, thanking fans on Twitter for all their birthday messages.

Stars also flooded Twitter with celebratory messages for the star, including  Dannii’s pop princess sister Kylie, who posted: “LOVERS!!!!!! My little sister @DanniiMinogue is celebrating her 40th today. Send your hip, hip, hooray!!!!! Happy Birthday Dan!!!!!”

Matt Cardle himself also took to Twitter to wish his former X Factor mentor a very happy 40th, writing: “@DanniiMinogue HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HAVE A WICKED DAY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! XXXXXXXX”

The rocker just kicked off a summer tour, during which he performs duets on stage with opener Sheryl Crow. Rock also plans to record another album after he gets off the road promoting his most recent LP, last year’s “Born Free.”

“I don’t think myself or my band has ever sounded or played better,” Rock told Rolling Stone . “I’m 40. I’m not going to be at the top of my game forever, but I am right now.”

It’s been 13 years since Kid Rock broke through with his album “Devil Without a Cause” back in 1998. The album went platinum 11 times.

“And I didn’t really anticipate it to go anywhere,” Rock told Rolling Stone. “I was doing what I needed to do. … I had a kid, no money, and all that [expletive.] I did some rap-rock stuff first, but I still did ‘Cowboy’ and ‘Only God Knows Why’ – for what I look back on as this really crazy, rounded record.

“And I’d kind of like to go back and do something with all the experience of being a better singer, better player, better songwriter, and just make this accumulation of what I do. I’m still not sure what I do, but whatever it is, I own it.”

Rock said he’s talking to Rick Rubin about producing a record for him again, which Rock hopes to release by next summer.

“With (‘Born Free’), he (Rubin) wanted to bring out the serious stuff in me, and we got it. Now I’m going to turn that frown upside down.”

In recent interviews Rock also talked about his short marriage to Pamela Anderson, several months that he called “the most fun” he’s ever had.

The rocker started dating the former Baywatch star in 2001 and were a couple (on and off) for five years. But the pair called it quits in 2006 after being married for just five months, reported the Toronto Sun .

“I don’t regret that (marrying Anderson), no. … It was a blast. …” Rock said.

Read more: http://www.myfoxaustin.com/dpps/entertainment/kid-rock-talks-about-turning-40-dpgoha-20110708-fc_14027769#ixzz1V3SiuV3n

I’m turning 40 in a week. But I have no plans … I was thinking of staying home and compulsively turning the lights on and off like Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction. What else is there to do? I don’t want to be 40 but, as my dad says, what’s the alternative? So I’ve decided to sulk. Really, this is not an elaborate public manipulation to get Steve Jobs to pity me and send me an iPad.

Well, it’s not just an elaborate manipulation, since an iPad would make me feel better. Seriously, the number 40 is sitting on my chest like a lead weight. Those of you who read my column regularly will know that I am extremely dramatic and unusually self-obsessed, even for a journalist.

So trust me, I used to like nothing better than my birthday. Over the years, I’ve thrown parties in my own honor so elaborate, they make the Super Bowl halftime show look like amateur hour. People are still shaking their heads about my 27th at that bowling alley near NYU. There are drag shows that don’t use that many feathers. So the fact that I’m willing to let this birthday go by without so much as a drink after work is a worrying sign that a nervous breakdown is looming. And I don’t have time for a mental collapse—I have a toddler.

So just when I feel like curling up on the floor with some Dulcolax and a bottle of moonshine, who should come to my rescue? That’s right, the Material Girl. I watched last week’s Glee Madonna episode twice with my mouth agape. I have no idea what happened plotwise—somebody lost their virginity, somebody else didn’t, I have to watch it again—but those production numbers rocked my world. Go ahead, roll your eyes, but “Vogue” was the first EP I ever bought on CD (before that I used tapes—OK, tapes!). And I was 21 when Madonna’s tour movie Truth or Dare came out. Already self-aggrandizing, I thought of that movie more as a career blueprint than as entertainment. At that point, my entire adult life was ahead of me and that movie made me feel like there was a place big enough in the world to hold my ambitions—that no matter how narrow our culture seemed to be on subjects of race and gender, there would be room for me to shine.

Flash-forward 20 years and I feel like the world is small and tiring. I feel old, and not just because I don’t get Twitter, but because of the whole generational divide thing. Hipsters get on my nerves and there’s no way to explain why without sounding like something out of Grumpy Old Men. And don’t even get me started on our culture’s chronic misuse of the word ironic. I miss the days when I was young and callow—narcissism is so much more flattering on the young. Back then, I thought, I’m going to be fabulous and live forever, consequences be damned. So it’s hard to accept that what I believe now—every moment is precious, life is short, and there’s no time like the present—may be true but doesn’t exactly make me feel exuberant. Hearing all that Madonna brought my youth rushing back, not the bad choices and worse men, just the ambitious, hopeful part. Somehow the show made me realize that I probably need to stop whining, get off the couch, and just be fabulous. Madonna is once again my model for how to live life.

That’s not because she’s one of the most successful performing artists of all time or an amazing businesswoman, or even because she’s the master of reinvention. But because she’s still fearless. It’s been 26 years since she writhed on the floor at the first MTV Music Awards and she’s still pushing our cultural buttons on how girls are supposed to act. So many women seem vulnerable to the judgments of others, as if they’ll blow away if somebody deems them unworthy or fat. But Madge doesn’t she give a damn what anyone thinks. She started in Detroit and now lives in a English manor with the accent to match. That’s self-confidence. Watch the video for “Four Minutes” and wait for the line “But if I die tonight at least I can say I did what I wanted to do. Tell me how ’bout you?” before you disagree. The woman is snarkproof. Is there another 51-year-old out there who can get away with naming his or her tour “Sticky and Sweet”? At an age when most women are cutting their hair short, putting away the thongs, and preparing for hot flashes, Madonna remains as culturally relevant as she was when she sang “Like a Virgin” and looks just as good in a corset. Oh, sure, people say she isn’t what she was, but what’s the alternative? You grow and change, or you die.

While lots of women are still struggling with work-life balance and deciding which dreams to defer, Madonna is still calling her own shots and adopting children. As she said in a 2008 Nightline interview: “I may be dressing like the typical bimbo, whatever, but I’m in charge. You know. I’m in charge of my fantasies. I put myself in these situations with men, you know, and … people don’t think of me as a person who’s not in charge of my career or my life, OK. And isn’t that what feminism is all about, you know, equality for men and women? And aren’t I in charge of my life, doing the things I want to do? Making my own decisions?” So in honor of Madge, I’ve decided to throw off my mourning clothes, put on my thigh-high boots and take charge of my fantasies. I might even party like a rock star next week. Oh, and Twitter is stupid and hipsters are derivative lemmings.

via: http://www.newsweek.com/id/236898

For me, my family is the most important thing and everything else comes after that.”Jennifer, whose husband is singer Marc Anthony, chose to withdraw from the spotlight because of the children.”I do have more of a personal life now. That part of my life has changed from the past. I just didnt want to be that person any more,” she said.

via J-Lo: My priorities have changed – Celebrity News & Gossip, Independent Woman – Independent.ie.

Early in his career, actor Christian Slater was often compared to Jack Nicholson, but he soon broke free of that unintended shadow and became a star in his own right.

Having acted since he was 9, he experienced sudden fame after the release of “Heathers” in 1988. But with fame came trouble and as a young man he had several run-ins with the law. Since he turned 40 last month, those are distant memories. Slater has been married and divorced, and he has two children. He stars in ABC’s new crime drama, “The Forgotten,” which airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m.

Excerpts from an interview:

Q. Does turning 40 stir up any regrets or resolutions?

A. Well, let’s see, I think it just stirs up, you know. You live long enough, you have experiences, you do the journey and hopefully by the time you get to 40 you are a little bit wiser. Obviously, it’s a reflective time. I was thinking I no longer want to be identified with what it is I do for a living, but how I behave as a man.

Q. You’ve already been through a lot. Do you think you might be immune to the midlife-crisis syndrome?

A. We’ll see. It would be nice to be immune to something.

Q. Were you at all reluctant to get involved in another crime drama because there are so many on TV now?

A. Sure. I mean when I read the script and saw the character I did feel emotionally connected to this guy, Alex Donovan. I like the premise of the show. I thought it was very interesting, and I do like crime-story types of shows and books. …

People love crime stories and these kinds of shows. This one is a little different in the fact that these people aren’t experts by any means. They are kind of volunteers who are doing this for their own personal reasons and to heal whatever wounds they have within themselves. They are all trying to fill a particular void they have within themselves.

Q. I’m wondering what your emotional connection to the character of Alex was when you read the script.

A. He’s a guy who has gone through something that is extraordinarily difficult. I’ve never gone through anything quite as extreme as he’s gone through.

I mean, his daughter was kidnapped at the age of 8. She’s always on his mind.

Every time he gets involved with one of the cases, he’s looking for either some answers to his own situation, or the opportunity to give closure to the other families he’s dealing with. Closure he’s been unable to find himself.

via Q&A: Christian Slater getting past his past | recordonline.com.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Christian Slater talks about The Forgotten, life at 40, and his love of TV (tvsquad.com)
• Christian Slater: ‘Having Kids Is a Phenomenal Eye-Opener’ (celebrity-babies.com)

Tyler Perry took to his website to reveal in a letter to his fans his childhood physical and sexual abuse.

Hi there.

I know I’ve been a little quiet lately but I’ve been in silent reflection, quiet meditation, and prayer. Turning 40 is such a blessing. Especially because as I child I always thought I would die before I grew up.

If life begins at 40, then I owe the little boy that I was my life. Case in point, not long ago, I was brought a film to watch to see what I thought of it. It’s called PRECIOUS, based on the novel PUSH by Sapphire. I sat at home watching this movie not knowing what to expect. After the movie was over, I sat there for a long time just thinking about what I had just witnessed. I watched all the things that Precious, a 16-year-old girl in the film, went through. I watched her mother be unusually cruel to her and I realized at that moment that a large part of my childhood had just played out before my eyes. It hit me so hard, I sat there in tears realizing that somehow, by the grace of God, I made it through. My tears were tears of joy, being thankful that I made it.

Believe me when I tell you, PRECIOUS is a powerful film. After seeing it, I had to be involved. I didn’t write it or direct it, nor am I making any money from it. Oprah and I both are giving any proceeds we would make to charity. I just wanted to get as many people to see it as I can. It gave me so much hope after watching it. For everyone who has been a Precious, male or female, this movie will make you so glad you made it through.

It took me through some raw emotions and brought me to some things and places in my life that I needed to deal with but had long forgotten. It brought back memories so strong that I can smell and taste them. Like, when I was very young, my mother decided to leave my father…she had had enough of his insanity. She loaded me and my two sisters up in an old Cadillac that he had bought for her, and drove to California. When he realized she was gone, he called the police and reported the car stolen, as it was in his name. My mother was arrested and my two sisters and I were put in the cell with her. He and my uncle drove from Louisiana to California to get us. We spent several days in jail waiting for him. He bailed her out and couldn’t wait to get her into the car. He got into the back seat with us and beat her black and blue from California to Louisiana, as me and my sisters watched  Even though I was only two or three, I know that this had to have some effect on me.

I’m tired of holding this in. I don’t know what to do with it anymore, so, I’ve decided to give some of it away…

Memories at 40: Not long ago, I was asked to speak at an engagement. I walked in and I was told that they had assigned a person to take care of me while I was there. She walked up to me, all of 5′2 ” of her, and asked if I needed anything. I looked at her and started to sweat. It took me back thirty-something years to her apartment. I couldn’t have been more than 10 years old when I went over to play with her son and Matchbox cars. She opened the door in skimpy lingerie. There was a man sitting on the couch, smoking. She told me that her son was in the bedroom. I was there playing with him about 20 minutes when I heard the man arguing with her. He said he was leaving and slammed the door. She came into the bedroom and told me that I had to go home. She told her son to take a bath and she locked him in the bathroom. I was at the front door trying to get out, when she came in and laid on the sofa and asked me if I wanted the key. I told her I had to go home as it was getting dark. She put the key inside of herself and told me to come get it, pulling me on top of her.

Memories at 40: “What the f*#K are you reading books for?! That’s bull*#*T! ”

“You F*#*ing jackass! You got book sense but you ain’t got no mothaf*#*en common sense! You ain’t sh*t and ain’t never gonna be sh*t! ” I heard this every day of my childhood. As my father would beat and belittle me, he played all kinds of mind games with me. He knew I loved cookies as a kid, most kids do. So he would buy them and put them on top of the fridge and when I would eat them he would beat me mercilessly.

My mother was out one night, as she loved to play bingo, and my father came ome…mad at the world. He was drunk, as he was most of the time. He got the vacuum cleaner extension cord and trapped me in a room and beat me until the skin was coming off my back. To this day, I don’t know what would make a person do something like that to a child. But thank God that in my mind, I left. I didn’t feel it anymore, just like in PRECIOUS. How this girl would leave in her mind. I learned to use my gift, as it was my imagination that let me escape  After he was done with his rant he passed out. Since my aunt lived two doors down, I ran to her. She saw me and was horrified. She loaded her 357 and went to kill him. Holding a gun to his head, her husband

came and stopped her.

Memories at 40: I got a call not long ago from a friend. He told me that a man that I knew from church when I was a kid had died and he didn’t have any insurance. His family was trying to reach out to me to see if I would pay for his funeral. I quickly said no, but I wish I would have said yes. There is something so powerful to me in burying the man that molested me. I wish I would have dug the grave myself.

Memories at 40: I was about 8 or 9 years old. I had a crush on a little girl across the street. She would come over to my house and we’d play. She was about 12 or 13. One day she stopped coming and when I asked her why, she told me that my father was touching her. I didn’t believe her, so I talked her into staying one night. We were both asleep — she was in one bed and I was in another. I opened my eyes to see my father trying to touch her and her pushing him away. I moved in my bed trying to make him think I was waking up. He looked over at me and left out of the room. Not long after that, he beat me mercilessly for something again. Another mind game set up, so I told my mother what he had done. The blood drained from her face. We left that day. We were at my Aunt’s house and he came there about 1am. Not long after that we were back at home. Nothing would compare to the random, drunken, violent beatings I would receive from then until I was 19.

Memories at 40: We would spend the summers in the country, with my father’s adoptive mother. As a kid I was always sick. I had asthma and he hated it. He hated that I wasn’t strong and virile like him. He hated that I couldn’t be in the sawdust, pollen and the raw lumber like him. He hated that I liked to read and write and draw. He hated that me and my middle sister were darker-skinned than him. He didn’t think he could make a dark baby. He just hated everything about me I guess. Anyway, I had to go to the doctor every Tuesday to get shots to control my allergies. When his mother found out she said, “Ain’t nothing wrong with that damn boy…he just got germs on him. Stop wasting all that money. ” When my mother left to visit some friends I heard what sounded like water running in a tub but it was sporadic. She came and got me out of the living room leaving my Matchbox cars on the floor. She said she was going to kill these germs on me once and for all. She gave me a bath in ammonia.

Grateful at 40: I was asked recently how I made it through all of this, (half has not even been told) and my answer to that is…I know for a fact that there is a GOD. When my father would say or do those things to me, I would hear this voice inside of me say, “That’s not true ” or, “Don’t believe that ” or, “You’re going to make it through this “. I didn’t know at the time what “it ” was, but today I surely have no doubt that “it ” was GOD. That voice always gave me comfort. It allowed me to hold on. It kept me from being strung out on drugs, from dying when I wanted to commit suicide. It kept me from being a gang banger or drug dealer. Worse than all of those things put together, it kept me from being him. It brought angels to comfort me after every foul, harsh word or every welt on my legs or back  GOD, only GOD.

To know that the little boy that I was went through all that — he went through and made it. Then me, as a man…I have to take on the responsibility of forgiving all of those people. I owe it to that little boy that I was and, more than that, I owe it to the man that I am  Think about it, as a child we have no recourse. We have nowhere to go. We have to endure it. But as adults, we have choices. I choose to forgive with all my might. Forgiveness has been my weapon of choice. It has helped to free me.

If you’re having a hard time getting over something in your life, maybe you can try forgiveness too. It’s not easy, but it does bring forth healing. I know that there are a lot of people out there with stories far worse than mine but you, too, can make it. To those of you who have, welcome to life. I celebrate you. We’re all PRECIOUS in His sight.

Tyler Perry

via Entertainment Rundown » Tyler Perry Details Childhood Abuse.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Tyler Perry Takes To Website To Discuss Childhood Abuse and Molestation (perezhilton.com)

Brett Favre held his weekly press conference Wednesday and naturally he was asked about turning 40 on Saturday.

“I was thinking coming out to practice today, ‘You know, I’m about to turn 40, I don’t need to be out here practicing today,” he said, laughing. “Of course I was out here practicing. I’m just thankful that I am still able to do it and up to this point do it at a high-level. I think that is a pretty good testament.”

Favre said he doesn’t have any special birthday plans.

“For the most part, for the past 19 years, all of the holidays, including my birthday, I’m either playing or getting ready to play,” he said. “It’s no different this week… unless Brad [Childress] is going to throw me a big party. I think it deserves something. I really do. I am going to throw that out there. Forty. [laughs]”

Favre will become only the 17th quarterback in league history to play after turning 40. Only one quarterback in NFL history has made the Pro Bowl at age 40 or older (Warren Moon in 1997). None has started a playoff game.

Favre obviously is still playing at a high level. He ranks third in the NFL in passer rating after four games.

via Favre talks about turning 40 | StarTribune.com.

While there are plenty of reasons to venerate the year 1969, there is one catch to having it be your birth year. And that would be that the time has now come to bid your 30s adieu and face the most dreaded of b-days, the big 4-uh-0. Up until not too long ago, turning 40 in Hollywood meant that an actress’ career was about to enter a middle age induced coma.

“There are only three ages in Hollywood: babe, district attorney, and ‘Driving Miss Daisy,’” an indicative, little wisdom pearl from Goldie Hawn‘s character in the 1996 comedy “The First Wives Club.” Fortunately, however, turning 40 in Hollywood is no longer likened to having leprosy. The aforementioned quadragenarian actresses are still among the most beautiful and most bankable stars in the industry, and they are showing plenty of staying power.

Born on September 25, 1969, Catherine Zeta-Jones, a native of South Whales, was born to parents Patricia, an Irish seamstress, and David “Dai” Jones, a Welsh candy factory owner. As a child, Catherine got her first taste of acting while performing as Tallulah in “Bugsy Malone” and in the Swansea Grand Theater’s production of “Annie.” Her interest in theater quickly developed into a full blown zest, so she decided to enroll at “The Arts Educational Schools” in Chiswick, West London.

Carter Smith/ELLE

When we were first introduced to Gwen Stefani she was a young, aspiring star. She was a single woman, and had all the time, ambition, talent and style she needed to take the music scene by storm. Nearly 15 years after No Doubt’s breakthrough album, Gwen is now a household name, pulling double duty as a wife and mom of two while managing a stratospheric music career and mega-successful clothing, accessories and fragrance brands, L.A.M.B. and Harajuku Lovers. A hot, trendy, musical mom with a fashion empire? One might say Gwen has it all.

Now that Ms. Stefani has reunited with her old bandmates, she reflects on her long career journey and making the huge transformation from young, single rocker, to full-time married mom in the latest issue of ELLE. And from the looks of it, running a household while maintaining a career as a superstar hasn’t been easy.

On being a mom: “It’s one thing when you have an infant, but when you have this two-or three-year-old going, ‘Mommy, what’s the deal?’ it’s harder. Kingston’s whole thing is, ‘I need, I need.’ He is insane right now. We’re just hoping for the best and that he’s not going to turn out to be a freak, but we’ll see.”

ELLE

On how her priorities changed from band to family: “I wasn’t even married. Now I’m a wife and a mother of two. It’s a really different role. I always referred to No Doubt as a marriage, because that’s what it’s like to be together for so long and go through what we’ve been through. I can’t really have that relationship with them anymore. My priorities are always going to be my husband and my family now. That’s a huge, huge thing.”

On turning 40 and potentially losing her touch: “I just feel very in between at the moment. Like in my cocoon waiting to blossom into whatever’s going to be. But like, I’m screwed right now, okay? I’m so screwed. I might never be able to write another song. Who knows? I did try. So here we are, going on tour without a new record.”

On joining No Doubt amid a mostly male ska/punk scene: “Whenever I went on stage there was the automatic assumption that I couldn’t get the audience going because I was a girl. I just ignored that, like, ‘Yeah, I’m going to be all made up, and I’m going to destroy you.’”

On leaving No Doubt: “Everybody’s making it like there’s all this new tension, you know, like I stepped away from the band and now they’re jealous of me, and look, maybe there is a little bit of that.”

On being a celebrity: “Obviously, I’m not anything more than I am. I’m just, like, totally normal. The fact that any of this has happened, that we’re sitting here at the Beverly Hills Hotel just gets me going, like, What?”

For more on Gwen Stefani’s life as a rocker mom, head over to ELLE.com

BY Patrick Huguenin

Brown/Getty

Jennifer Aniston celebrates her 40th birthday on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, one of the most scrutinized women in Hollywood faces the most scrutinized of Hollywood birthdays. Jennifer Aniston turns the big 4-0.

But when it comes to the actor made internationally famous by “Friends,” whose easy onscreen relatability is matched by her guarded public persona, true feelings about the milestone are hard to divine.

She has discussed turning 40 for the past year, sticking to blithe declarations that she has never felt better. (A nude GQ ­cover seemed designed to prove it.)

Here and there, though, cracks in her interviews revealed reactions to one of the most humiliating breakups in all of stardom — when she split from hubby Brad Pitt after he took up with Angelina Jolie on the set of “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” in 2005. The tabloid catastrophe left Aniston serially single while the Jolie-Pitts trot the globe with an ever-expanding family.

But as a rule, Aniston is stoically ­smiley. In an interview with Ellen DeGeneres last week, Aniston admitted that the sight of one of her long gray hairs “brought me to tears slightly,” but then it was back to the usual ­sunny subjects: fitness, her best friend Courteney Cox Arquette, flimsy allusions to her current romance with John Mayer.

To assume that the star is not where she would have wanted to be by 40 is foolish. At the very least, it ignores the scale of her success — 10 seasons on one of the most famous TV shows in history. Worse, it ascribes to her an outmoded schedule on which she must have kids and “settle down” before she begins a process of aging that, for any celeb besides Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep, seems shrouded in dread.

“I don’t like to plan for anything,” Aniston has said. “I’ve never been a woman who dreamed about getting married and having children and having that house in Connecticut.”

While she has worked steadily since the “Friends” finale in 2004, the breakout role that distinguishes Aniston from her girl-next-door character, Rachel, has yet to materialize.

Her movie career, Vogue once wrote, promised to “breathe new life into the romantic comedy,” but it is a different kind of comic — the Tina Feys and Judd Apatows — who are credited with administering rom-com CPR. In fact, the only awards Aniston has won since “Friends” have been Teen and People’s Choice.

Nevertheless — or perhaps precisely because she has not rocketed to Angelina-level Academy accolades — Aniston remains one of the most recognizable and talked-about celebrities in the world.

On “Friends,” she wasn’t neurotic like Monica or kooky like Phoebe, and her relative ordinariness made her the heroine of the show. Just so, the fact that Aniston isn’t an ethereal do-gooder, that she seems to have trouble with this whole dating thing, and that she still has to work to be taken seriously as an actress, make her all the more important to her fans.

It may be true that, for Aniston, 40 isn’t the point where a string of superlatives and relationship successes add up to pop perfection — why should they?

Every time Aniston tells an interviewer she has never felt better in her life, the current of another message rises to the surface: She isn’t finished yet.

Telegraph UK: 28/05/2008

As Kylie Minogue hits the landmark birthday, Jasper Gerard offers some sage advice. ’Kylie!” exclaimed a tabloid newspaper in wonder yesterday. “STILL fabulous at 40.” Well, what did they expect, as the much-loved, heroic chanteuse hits that milestone birthday today? Blue rinse, dentures and a wicker shopping basket? And just look at the others who have turned, or will turn, 40 in 2008: Daniel Craig, Lisa Marie Presley, Céline Dion, Patricia Arquette, Will Smith and Lucy Liu, a Charlie’s Angel celebrated for tight leather hot pants that she’s unlikely to be packing away any time soon.

In fact, none of the aforementioned is an obvious candidate for middle age as we once knew it. Not so long ago, 40-year-olds were thought to be in the grave, or making impressive strides towards it.

An unmarried woman like Kylie Minogue would not have been viewed as a glamourpuss “just spinning around” but as a spinster more likely to be Zimmering around in a rather sad fashion.

Not any more. Now there are entire industries devoted to reversing Newton’s law of gravity and the pursuit of eternal youth: thanks to diet, dentistry and exercise – and, for those less blessed than Kylie, cosmetic surgery – we can now look as peachy at 40 and beyond as we did at 30.

We’re not short of role models, either, in the baby boomers (Bill Clinton, Lulu, Sir Richard Branson, Grace Jones, Harrison Ford) who are trailblazing their way to their bus passes while continuing to flaunt youthful looks, fit bodies and fulfilling sex lives.

However, while it all helps, it doesn’t entirely ease the pain of reaching your 40th birthday – and I speak from recent experience. It remains the entry point to a club that none of us really wants to join: middle age.

It was a cruel moment when I awoke and found that a thief had come in the night for the last remnant of my youth, leaving a chilling calling card: “Happy 40th!” I tried to ignore the “loved ones” who were insisting on a party.

Instead, I was hit, very powerfully, by the thought that now is the time: that while I wasn’t yet approaching the finishing line, I was certainly no longer limbering up and waiting for the starting pistol.

Despite the relentless pressures of youth culture and our reluctance to embrace maturity, I would argue that turning 40 does demand a subtle change in demeanour. My generation has explored youth to its limit and is still tempted to do a Dorian Gray, in the manner of Madonna (50 this year) or Sir Mick Jagger (65 in July).

But trying so very hard to appear youthful merely highlights how mouldy one is underneath: Madge’s hands are bonier than those of Ena Sharples, while Jagger’s hipster jeans are bordering on the obscene.

It doesn’t have to be like this. No one looks at a suave Bryan Ferry (62) or David Bowie (61) and thinks: “My God, you look decrepit.” Still less Annie Lennox (53) or Chrissie Hynde (57).

They don’t construct absurd stage sets, do the splits, or simulate some after-the-watershed activity with a backing singer. They have adapted to age with dignity and grace, without compromising their talent or their capacity for enjoying themselves.

So no matter how good she looks – and it’s a million times better than she did with a frizzy perm and dungarees on Neighbours – I’d urge Kylie to follow suit.

Although her successful fight against breast cancer has made her a national treasure here and in her native Australia, there are worrying signs that she may try to fight the inevitable. Off-stage, she is a sublime vision of sexy elegance in Chanel; but on it, in her current KYLIEX2008 tour, there is still a hint of the showgirl that, if it continues, might begin to pall.

While her derrière continues to delight, as the sun goes down on her youth might not her hemlines also head a little lower? We adore Dame Judi Dench, too, but we don’t want to be seduced by her.

And while Madame Tussaud’s boasts a Kylie waxwork, heaven forbid that the waxwork ever gets to be more mobile than her. My wife gave me a personal trainer for my 40th, but after injuring my back weeding, I’ve spent more time with my osteopath.

Just as Lucy Liu should go easy on the karate kicks and Daniel Craig might do well to wear his trunks a little baggier in forthcoming Bond films, so Kylie might slow the disco beats. Explore the ballad, look lovelorn – it’s a good excuse for soft lighting.

Forty is too late for excuses; nothing can make up for time and opportunities lost. We must acknowledge that the illusion of eternal youth that sustained us through our thirties was, well, an illusion. But we can also embrace the gains of being 40.

There are some, honest. Confidence, for example: who among us would welcome back teenage insecurities? Or even a teenage complexion? And who’s to say that the years of our greatest hits don’t lie ahead?

Nixon also revealed to Good Morning America today that she was diagnosed with breast cancer two years ago and explained that she didn’t want to make it public then so paparazzi wouldn’t follow her to the hospital.

On turning 40: “Turning 40 was a very real thing for me. I felt it in a way that I didn’t when I turned 30 or 35. Forty was a peak: I could look forward and I could look back. I had to start thinking, the decisions I make count, and what are the thing I want to do? [Singing was something] I was definitely afraid of. It’s incredibly revealing and intense. Part of it was that my mother is a wonderful singer, and she encouraged me as an actress, but with the singing?-not so much.”

Posted by Beauty Match on April 5, 2008

Cuba Gooding Jr., American actor (January 2)
John Singleton, American film director (January 6)
LL Cool J, American rapper and actor (January 14)
Chad Lowe, American actor (January 15)
Mary Lou Retton, American gymnast (January 24)
Sarah McLachlan, Canadian singer (January 28)
Edward Burns, American actor (January 29)
Lisa Marie Presley, American singer (February 1)
Gary Coleman, American actor (February
Molly Ringwald, American actress (February 18)
Jeri Ryan, American actress (February 22)
Daniel Craig, British actor (March 2)
Mark McGrath, American musician (March 15)
Kenny Chesney, American musician (March 26)
Lucy Lawless, New Zealand actress and singer (March 29)
Céline Dion, Canadian singer (March 30)
Patricia Arquette, American actress (April
Anthony Michael Hall, American actor (April 14)
Ashley Judd, American actress (April 19)
Tony Hawk, American skateboarder (May 12)
Kylie Minogue, Australian singer (May 28)
Jorja Fox, American actress (July 7)
Gillian Anderson, American actress (August 9)
Eric Bana, Australian actor (August 9)
Debra Messing, American actress (August 15)
Rachael Ray, American television chef (August 25)
Will Smith, American rapper and actor (September 25)
James Caviezel, American actor (September 26)
Naomi Watts, English-born actress (September 28)
Jane Krakowski, American actress (October 11)
Hugh Jackman, Australian actor (October 12)
Shaggy, Jamaican singer (October 22)
Vanilla Ice, American rapper (October 31)
Parker Posey, American actress (November
Sammy Sosa, Major League Baseball player (November 12)
Owen Wilson, American actor (November 18)
Jill Hennessy, Canadian actress (November 25)
Lucy Liu, American actress (December 2)
Margaret Cho, Korean-American comedian (December 5)
Rachel Griffiths, Australian actress (December 18)

List compiled by Andi of List-O-Rama

Lonely Kylie Minogue wasn’t looking forward to waking up this morning.

The unlucky-in-love singer said in an interview published today: “I’m ignoring Valentine’s Day.”

Although sources have linked Kylie to her ex-lover Olivier Martinez again in the last few weeks, it seems the singer is shunning all things romantic as she spends this Valentine’s with her female friends.

Kylie says she’s ignoring Valentine’s Day and will be spending the evening with her friends

Kylie has made no secret of the fact she’s desperate to find the love of her life, settle down and have a family. She has been quoted as saying: “That’s still something I would love to happen.”

But she said: “I honestly don’t have a feeling one way or the other if I will ever walk town the aisle.”

So today of all days can’t be easy for the singer.

She revealed: “I’m boycotting it all, what’s the point because I’ve nobody special in my life at the moment. I will be celebrating with my girlfriend instead because it’s her birthday…so not your traditional Valentine’s Day.”

And it’s not just this Hallmark day that makes her want to reach for the Kleenex. The former Neighbours star, who scooped Woman of the Year at the Elle Style Awards earlier this week, is turning 40 on 28 May but she’d rather think of anything else right now.

She added: “I’m not looking forward to my 40th but I guess I have to get excited about it. I’m a rubbish party planner so normally I don’t bother, but I guess I have to this time round, I’ll just get my pal William [Baker] to help.”

Kylie also confessed: “I don’t want a huge party, I just want a few friends round. I mean turning 40 isn’t really something to celebrate is it? I’d rather ignore it.”

http://www.1monique.com/

But it’s not the differences in life experiences that the happily married Messing wishes to distance herself from; it’s her character’s age.

“Molly is a really funny, smart artistic woman who is a loyal friend and an honest person. Oh, by the way, she’s older,” Messing, 39, says.

“Molly is older than Debra, let’s make that very clear. And thinner. And prettier. And taller.”

In real life, Messing has been married to screenwriter Daniel Zelman since 2000. The couple have a child, Roman, who was born four years ago when Messing was playing Grace Adler in the hit comedy Will & Grace.

Will & Grace made Messing and the rest of the cast — Eric McCormack, Megan Mullally and Sean Hayes — household names during its eight-year run. But stardom didn’t guarantee roles post-Will & Grace for any of its four stars.

Before landing the starring role in The Starter Wife, Messing lamented that finding work had been difficult after being in a mega-hit sitcom.

The red-haired actor, who has often been described as the new Lucille Ball because of her impeccable comic timing, told reporters that for every 100 scripts there are only two roles; one earmarked for Cameron Diaz, the other for Julia Roberts.

That was, of course, until she read the script for The Starter Wife.

“I read this six-part epic and kept wanting to read more and more,” she says.

“It didn’t lose me and it excited me. It made me laugh, it moved me and it surprised me.

“I have never played a part like this before, not even remotely.

“You see her going through such big life challenges such as divorce — especially being 40 and in LA.”

Turning 40 herself this year, Messing says she understands how difficult it must be for a woman to have to re-evaluate their role in life in youth-obsessed Hollywood.

She says the prospect of playing a character whose life is in total upheaval was also part of what attracted her to it in the first place.

Best known for playing disorganised and neurotic characters such as Stacey in Ned and Stacey and more recently interior designer Grace in Will & Grace, Messing says playing Molly offers an exciting new acting challenge.

“I think Starter Wife is really about rebirth,” she says.

“To find herself 40 and starting over, it’s a challenge because everyone wants to date the 25-year-old model and I think Molly approaches it with a great sense of humour and without fear.

“When you meet her, Molly is a very organised and efficient supportive wife. Then there is the tidal wave of the divorce and she is shaken up, as one would be, in having to figure out what this means and how she got to where she is and what she wants to be and what sort of person does she want to become.

“All of these questions are provocative and rattling. She struggles and has a great sense of humour throughout.”

The Starter Wife was intended to be a six-part mini-series filmed on the Gold Coast, but has proven so popular that a second 10-part series has been given the green light for 2008, a prospect that excites Messing.

“It’s heaven working with all of the talent that’s on this project,” she says. “It’s always about the team of people that you get to work with. From the top with the writers to Jon Avnet, the director, to Judy Davis, Joe Mantegna and Miranda Otto, the quality of artists on this project is consistent and stellar.”

She said: ‘I didn’t have any problems. If they asked me to play 30, I would do so without thinking. If anything, I just wanted to look like. She is open about having plastic surgery and so I was trying to do things with my face to make it appear as if I was 50, but had had some work done.

‘I wore tapes under my wig and tried to pull my face in different ways. It was challenging – one of those rare times where you go, ‘My face is just too tight already’.’

She added: ‘Turning 40 was great. I guess I feel relieved because everybody anticipates it so much for you that now we can all just relax – it’s done. I had a lovely party with all my kids and we had a great time. Getting older is nice. You are released from certain concepts as you age.’

On life and turning 40: “‘Watch out, you might not have a career in your 20s’, so you scoot along and have some dark, down years. Suddenly, you get a career back and it’s ‘Watch out, in your 30s it’s going to be over.’ And God forbid you have a child. I remember telling an agent I was going to have a baby, and he said, ‘Oh, that’s great for you, but don’t even think about the business.’ Just so blatant! No one’s brought up the 40 thing with me lately, but I’m sure the prognosis is going to be doom and gloom. But no decade has been disastrous, and I’ve gotten away with murder anyway.”

Brolin currently stars in film drama “No Country for Old Men” from writers/directors Joel and Ethan Coen. The movie debuted in major cities two weeks ago and begins a nationwide run on Wednesday with hopes of vying for Oscars.

The son of James Brolin — a television actor and husband of Barbra Streisand — Josh turns 40 in February.

Raised outside Hollywood on a California ranch, the younger Brolin has built a varied career on his own, and this fall is commanding attention in dramas “In the Valley of Elah” and “American Gangster.”

If “No Country” climbs box office charts and does compete for awards as expected in Hollywood, its success will be in no small part due to Brolin’s performance as an aging Texas cowboy with one shot to get rich by stealing a drug dealer’s money.

Brolin told Reuters that with age comes maturity and with that, greater insight and depth to the roles he plays, as well as to his own writing and directing when he is not acting.

“It’s exciting for me,” he said. “I’m not excited for my bones exactly, but I am excited for my brain and my emotions.

“Plus, you get to where you don’t mind being embarrassed or humiliated on set to find an emotion or do justice to a role. It’s a lot less self-conscious, which is freeing.”

Initially in “No Country,” which is based on the book by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Cormac McCarthy, audiences are led to believe Brolin’s character, Llewelyn Moss, is either greatly lucky or incredibly dumb when he stumbles onto a crime scene and takes a suitcase full of cash.