19 Year Old YouTube Star Troye Sivan Could Be the Better Bieber

Troye Sivan. I never heard of him before this past Wednesday. My twin 14 year old nieces told me about him. He’s a huge star on YouTube, where the kids are all going for their music. Today his EP, which won’t be released until August 15th, is number 1 on the iTunes album chart. Are you kidding? I am not.

Sivan could be the next Justin Bieber. Let’s just pray he’s not, in so many ways. He has a hit song called “The Fault in Our Stars.” He wrote, produced and released it in 2013, inspired by John Green’s novel. It’s not on the movie’s soundtrack. That CD produced no breakout single. You wonder why Sivan’s song wasn’t on it. We’ll find out.

He’s a new breed of kid. Last year he released a YouTube video to his millions of fans– he’s HUGE in Australia and South Africa, his two homes– announcing he is gay. The kids don’t care. It’s 2014. If a pop star had said that in 1974, everyone would have fainted. Now, what the heck! I like this generation, but I don’t know what to call them. Generation ZZ?

Anyway, here’s Troye. I’m surprised Scooter Braun hasn’t adopted him yet. But he’s managed in America by Group III, and he’s signed to Universal Music.

Oscar Race Changes: DiCaprio, Blanchett in “Carol” Rise as “Steve Jobs,” “Truth” Collapse

The Oscar race is in motion. And like a city marathon, some runners are dropping out unexpectedly.

Both “Steve Jobs” and “Truth” were thought to be Oscar players this year. Michael Fassbender as Jobs and Cate Blanchett as Mary Mapes, respectively, seemed to be hot on the Oscar trail. They received great reviews. Alas, audiences have rejected these films. They are each more or less DOA no matter how much media (including me) loved them.

Fassbender will still go on to a nomination, I think. But Blanchett will now transfer her loyalties to Todd Haynes’s “Carol.” The failure of “Truth” boosts “Carol,” ironically. Still, I hope Robert Redford gets a nod in Best Supporting Actor for playing Dan Rather. But if history is a lesson, Redford– who didn’t help himself much with “All is Lost”– will probably not do much this time either.

James Bond: “Spectre” Smashes World Records, Daniel Craig Will Return, Writing’s on the Wall

So no one liked Sam Smith’s theme song. But everyone likes Sam Mendes’s movie. “James Bond– Spectre” is an international hit, already breaking records everywhere before its US opening this weekend.

So don’t worry– Daniel Craig will be back for one more. Mendes will probably, too. All they needed to see were the numbers. And they’re huge.

Here’s the info suppliede by the company:
In total in the six released territories, the film has taken in $80.4 million, including $67.7 million from SPRI territories and $12.7 million from territories in which MGM is distributing.

In the UK, the film has opened to an estimated £41.7 million ($63.8 million USD) in its first seven days of release, securing new records for the biggest opening of all time in UK box office history.

SPECTRE took the opening record from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban which was also released on a Monday to £23.882 million. SPECTRE also achieved a new record for the highest seven-day gross in UK box office history, overtaking the last James Bond film, SKYFALL.

SPECTRE, the 24th James Bond adventure, continues the longest running and most successful film franchise in cinema history. The film opened in 647 cinemas and on 2,500 screens, making it the widest release of all time in the UK and Ireland.

Mum arrested after 'trying to kill three young children with ant poison'

Arrested: Paw Eh, 31, is charged with attempted murder

A woman has been arrested on suspicion of trying to kill her three children by feeding them ant poison, police said.

Paw Eh, 31, is charged with the attempted capital murder of her two sons, aged four and seven, and 12-year-old daughter.

The girl told police in Dallas, Texas, that she watched her mother watched mix a tablespoon of poison powder with water and force the youngest boy to eat it, according to an arrest report.

Mum's touching wedding photograph tribute to son who died of leukaemia just months earlier

Still with us: The hauntingly beautiful image of Lake with his family

A mother was left heartbroken when her young son died just months before her wedding day.

But Anna Bozman Thompson made sure son Lake was a part of her big day.

The youngster lost his battle with leukaemia in May, just weeks before his ninth birthday, the Daily News reported .

When Thompson tied the knot last month, she enlisted the help of friend andphotographer Brandy Angel to pay a special tribute to her little boy.

• Angel created special edits of the couple's wedding pictures to include a faint vision of Lake, so he appears almost ghostlike happily posing with the family.

More than 200 masked bikers stage ‘Mad Max’ rideout through London streets

A huge convoy of more than 200 high-powered motorbikes and quad bikes tore through London streets in scenes likened to Mad Max Fury Road.

The eight-mile ‘Halloween Rideout’ saw riders run red lights, set off fireworks and even mount pavements, according to witnesses.

One Twitter user said, ‘Just had a Mad Max scene going on down my street, hundreds of bikes and quad bikes going down the road (and the wrong side).’

The world just got closer to a 'hypersonic space plane' that will transform 'the economics of space'

Reaction Engines, one of the brightest prospects in European space plane technology, has big news Monday morning. 

BAE Systems, the globetrotting defence and aeronautics giant, just bought 20% of the firm, and it's making a major investment in Reaction Engines' most promising ideas.

The idea is an unpiloted and reusable hypersonic space plane. It's called Sabre. Here's how Reaction Engines describes it: