The latest photo album of Japanese pop diva Ayumi Hamasaki [ CRI Online]

Actress Mischa Barton attends the Diesel Ginza Flagship Store Opening Party at Conrad Tokyo on April 21, 2008 in Tokyo, Japan. The fragship store in Japanese central shopping district Ginza will open on April 23.

Actress Nicole Kidman poses for photographers during a news conference for the film “The Golden Compass” in Tokyo February 20, 2008. The film opens in Japan March 1.

Gwen Stefani could be forced to cancel her Malaysian show after a Muslim group branded her “indecent” and “obscene”.

The singer, who is currently on the road with her ‘Sweet Escape‘ tour, is due to perform in Kuala Lumpur next month but the National Union of Malaysian Muslim Students want the concert scrapped because Gwen’s image offends Islamic beliefs.

Mohamad Hilmi Ramli said: “Her video clips promoting the event are too obscene. We want the organizers to cancel the concert, failing which we will ask the authorities to intervene.”

Ramli also slammed Malaysian mobile phone company Maxis Communications for promoting Gwen’s concert and exposing young Malaysians to “moral decay”.

He fumed: “Maxis has been staging a series of foreign acts to make a profit and to expose our young generation to things such as moral decay.”

Gwen’s Kuala Lumpur show is due to take place at the Stadium Putra on August 21.

The ‘Hollaback Girl’ singer will also perform in Australia, Japan, Singapore, Thailand, China and Hawaii before taking her tour to Europe.

Kanye West claims only white people use the word “bling“.

The ‘Gold Digger‘ rapper insists the slang term is now passé and using it makes people look old fashioned.

Kanye told Complex magazine: “Only white people and older black people say ‘bling’ now. If a white person uses slang too early, then that makes them look like a wigger. But if black people use slang too late, then it makes them look like a wigger.”

Kanye celebrated his 30th birthday at New York’s Tenjune nightclub in June, where he was presented with a huge cake incorrectly emblazoned with the name “Kayne”.

Other guests who helped celebrate the hip-hop star’s landmark birthday included Mariah Carey, Rihanna, Ashlee Simpson and her boyfriend Pete Wentz.

As the celebrations began, Kanye said: “I’m in my 20s as we speak right now, but at midnight, I’ll be 30. I’m already 30 in Japan and London and everywhere else.”

Gisele Bundchen has entered Brazil’s growing debate over anorexia, saying families are to blame - not the fashion industry.

The 26-year-old model was in Brazil for the annual Fashion Rio, a weeklong showcase for some of the country’s top designers.

Anorexia became a hot issue in Brazil after the deaths of four young women last month, including 21-year-old model Ana Carolina Reston.

Splashed across the front pages of newspapers nationwide, the subject has held morbid fascination for Brazilians, and was even the theme of a popular TV soap opera. It also sparked a debate within Brazil’s fashion industry.

Other countries, too, have begun to address what they see as the dangerous link between high fashion glamour and an unhealthy image of women. In September, Madrid’s Fashion week banned underweight models. Italy’s designers followed suit in December, requiring models to submit proof that they do no suffer from an eating disorder.

Bundchen, who left home for a three-month modeling job in Japan when she was 14, said family support was key to her. (AP)

Hong Kong-based actress and martial artist Maggie Quigley said Friday that her hands were badly cut while filming car stunt scenes for the coming film “Die Hard 4.0.”

The latest installment in the “Die Hard” series, titled “Live Free or Die Hard” in the United States, revolves around a planned cyber-terror attack on the United States.

In the film, Bruce Willis teams up with Justin Long, who plays a computer hacker, to thwart the evil Mai, played by Quigley.

Audiences will get to see Quigley beat Willis up.

The movie opens in Japan on June 23. It opens in the United States and elsewhere on June 27.

Quigley made her name in the Hong Kong film industry before moving on to Hollywood projects such as the recent action flick “Mission: Impossible III,” the comedy “Rush Hour 2″ and Jackie Chan’s “Around the World in 80 Days.”

The actress grew up in Hawaii, the daughter of a Polish-Irish American father and a Vietnamese mother.

Bjork performs at Live 8 Japan at Makuhari Messe in Makuhari, east of Tokyo, in this July 2, 2005 file photo. Her last album featured only the sound of human voices, but with her latest release ‘Volta,’ Bjork seems to have entered her ‘Tusk’ phase.[Photo: Toru Hanai/Reuters]

Japanese pop queen Ayumi Hamasaki upset locals in a Hong Kong fishing village when she made a surprise visit for a seafood meal with 22 aggressive bodyguards and flunkies, witnesses said.

Hamasaki, known as “Ayu” to her fans and the biggest-selling solo pop star in Japan, was cocooned by her entourage who prevented locals from getting near her table or fans from taking photographs.

She popped over to Sok Kwu Wan village on Lamma Island, about two miles (three kilometres) from downtown Hong Kong, on Sunday after she had completed a series of sold-out concerts at the city’s Coliseum arena.

Contributors to local website forums complained that the diminutive singer, whose unusually large round eyes and fair hair are believed to have sparked a fad for eye-lid cosmetic surgery among Japanese girls, had upset locals.

“The most famous J-pop star of all time was having a post concert bite accompanied by no less than 12 bodyguards and another 10 strong entourage,” wrote one anonymous subscriber to Lamma.com.hk, the blog for island residents.

“(I) didn’t have a phone to photo with and the table next to me was prevented from taking pictures anyway,” the writer added.

A spokesman for the Rainbow Restaurant, where Hamasaki ate, confirmed the singer had dined at the eatery but wouldn’t comment on her entourage’s behaviour.

“She had lots of bodyguards with her,” he said. “She came over on her own chartered boat.”

According to her website, Hamasaki has had 27 number one hits in Japan, more than any other solo artist.

Leafy Lamma Island’s seafood restaurants regularly attract celebrities. Most recently action star Jackie Chan and Philippine President Gloria Arroyo were spotted eating there. Lamma native “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” star Chow Yun-fat also makes regular return trips.