She’s been off the big screen for over a year now, but Kate Beckinsale is about to be back with a vengeance. The English beauty, 38, has four new films in the pipeline, the first of which is Underworld: Awakening. “I’ve been away for a whole year,” she told Flaunt magazine in a new interview and smouldering photo shoot to promote the film. “It’s been great. I didn’t find anything I wanted to do enough to take me away from my kid.” Her husband, director Len Wiseman, was able to convince her to slip back into the leather catsuit to reprise her role as vampire warrior Selene in the Underworld franchise. In a stunning black and white shoot, Beckinsale reclines on a lion’s head rug in a bejewelled swimsuit, and wears hotpants and a pair of knee-high boots.

She has teamed up with her husband again for the action film, but reveals to the magazine that after they’ve clocked off for the day, it is all fun and games at home. A self-confessed prankster, Kate says: “Poor Len. He puts up with a lot. That poor guy does not come home without somebody dropping off the top of a wardrobe at this head. When he goes to sleep, there was a whole period of time when I was gluing beards to his face, and moustaches, and bullet holes in his head. I love that kind of stuff. After Underworld the actress will also be seen in Contraband, opposite Mark Wahlberg, and the Total Recall remake.

— Daily Mail

Home, not so sweet home

She has a brand-new, luxurious £300,000-home — which she has hardly used. That’s because singing sensation Susan Boyle says she feels far more comfortable in the cramped council house nearby where she grew up. So the Britain’s Got Talent star plans to give ‘The Posh House’, as she calls it, away to be enjoyed by family and friends. However, before handing over the keys to the detatched five-bedroom property in Blackburn, West Lothian, she decided to open the doors for a special, one-off guided tour. And the lucky guest? The Big Issue magazine. Wearing pearls and stilettos and looking more like she was ready for a night out, Miss Boyle treated her visitors to a sneak peek. SuBo, as she is known, wore all black for the occasion but her necklace — along with a touch of red lipstick, peach blusher and dark nail polish — added a touch of glamour. She greeted her guests with a cup of tea as she welcomed them to the house, which she moved to in September last year. Posing smilingly for photographs, she sported black patent shoes with pretty bows and an immaculately coiffed hairdo. She chose a simple but elegant outfit of a knee-length black dress and black tights. Miss Boyle, who is worth more than £8 million after selling 14 million albums, said she could not bear to be away from her former neighbours at her old semi-detached home a mile away.

— Daily Mail

‘He’s crushing skulls and snapping heads off’

It seems that Batman has finally met his match in the form of British actor Tom Hardy. The 34-year-old has opened up about his highly-anticipated role as Bane in the third installment of the comic book adaptations. The film star admitted he found it hard at times when shooting physical scenes, but was keen to describe the character down to every last detail. “He’s brutal. He’s the expedient delivery of brutality,” Hardy told Empire magazine. “He’s a big dude who’s incredibly clinical, in the fact that he has a result-based and orientated fighting style. The result is clear.” The actor is definitely enthusiastic about the role and was even dismissive of the 12 certificate that the film has been given. “I’m not approaching it with a 12-certificate attitude,” he told the film magazine. If we’re going to shoot somebody, shoot the pregnant woman or the old lady first. Make sure everybody stands up and listens.” The comic book character was a child born and raised within the walls of a harsh prison in a fictional Caribbean country, Santa Prisca. Bane was transformed into a fearsome, hulking man-machine via a physique-enhancing intravenous drug called Venom and his most celebrated storyline is Knightfall, in which he snaps Batman’s spine like a dry twig. The Dark Knight Rises will be released in UK cinemas on July 20, 2012.

— Daily Mail