Idris Elba loves FaceTime

Idris Elba keeps in contact with his five-month-old son via FaceTime whenhe is away on movie shoots. The ‘No Good Deed’ star admits he hates beingapart from his little boy, Winston, and girlfriend Naiyana Garth when he is

filming and stays in constant contact with them via the video calling serviceto make sure he doesn’t miss any of their tot’s milestones. He said: “IFaceTime with him. When I call, he sees me and gives me a big old smile.He’s so cute.” The 42-year-old heartthrob, who also has a 12-year-olddaughter, Isan, with his ex Dormowa Sherman, tried to relax after longdays on the set of the thriller but admits it was tough because he spentso much time shooting dark scenes. He said: “I tried to have fun. I wasstaying in an apartment that had a pool table in it, so I was always invit-ing people over.” The London-born star, who plays an escaped convictholding someone hostage in the movie, insists he is nothing like his char-acter in real life and is eager to do a romantic comedy to show his fans adifferent side of him. He added to Us Weekly magazine: “I’m not thatscary in real life. I want to do a rom-com with Melissa McCarthy. I eventold her that at an award show and she said, ‘Yeah! Let’s do it!’ “

Nick Cave told Kylie Minogue to ‘sing less’ Nick Cave told Kylie Minogue to “sing less”. The Bad Seed rocker worked with the ‘Sexercize’

hitmaker in 1995 when they released their single ‘Where The Wild Roses Grow’ anddespite landing a Top 20 hit together, he was-

n’t overly keen on her singing. In Nick’s newdocumentary, ‘20,000 Days on Earth’, he tellsKylie: “Sing less and tell the story more.”In the music video for their duet, theAustralian beauty plays Eliza Daywho eventually gets beaten todeath by Nick, but the 46-year-oldpop star doesn’t hold anygrudges against her singingpartner. Reminiscing abouttheir time together, Kylie isquoted by NME Magazine assaying: “When I first workedwith Nick it was tender andgenuine. And then I saw himperform and speed-read hisbiography, and I realized thatthe person I’m watching onstage singing, ‘From Her ToEternity’ is very different tomy experience with him. OK,so he did kill me with a rock -but you know what I’m saying.”

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Aguilera upset at Stefani replacement Christina Aguilera is reportedly upset that Gwen Stefani has replaced her on ‘The Voice’ USA. The ‘Your

Body’ hitmaker is taking a break from the series after giving birth to her daughter - Summer, who she haswith fiancÈ Matthew Rutler - last month, but she is said to be concerned she won’t be asked to return to

the show next year. A source said: “Christina is extremely threatened by [her temporary replacement] Gwen.She knows that if the ratings are higher on Gwen’s season than they were on hers, the producers may have nochoice but to ask Gwen to stay on.” The insider added: “Christina’s in a world of paranoid right now.” The blondebeauty, 33, who also has son Max, five, with her ex-husband, Jordan Bratman, is also said to be concernedabout Taylor Swift’s role on the show with 24-year-old singer set to join the series as an advisor. But the sourcetold OK! magazine: “She’s ready to fight for her spot.” Up until this year, Christina has shared a rotating spot onthe judging panel with Shakira, who is also expecting her second child.

Maroon 5 stronger than ever

Adam Levine thinks Maroon 5 are stronger than ever. The 35-year-old singer admitted the band have had trouble defining their soundin the past but have grown closer again as a group after realizing their love of pop music. He told The Sun newspaper: “Maroon 5 area lot stronger than we have been in the past.”We know what we are good at and that’s pop music. There isn’t one member of Maroon

5 that doesn’t love pop music. “We are comfortable with who we are and know what we are good at. “When people say they hate pop musicand cite bands of the Sixties and Seventies as their inspiration, well The Beatles, Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin were all pop stars as theirmusic was popular. They just wore different clothes than we do today. “So Maroon 5 embrace that and are successful and we don’t think it’suncool, we just go for it.” However, the ‘Harder to Breathe’ hitmakers - who released their fifth studio album ‘V’ earlier this month - insist therecord is a nod to the “darker side of pop” and a stark contrast to their “sweet sugary” fourth offering ‘Overexposed’. Adam said: “I would say Vis on the darker side of pop. “It’s not as sugary as the last album, which was very deliberately sweet pop and fun. “This one is not as carefreeand has an edge that we’d lost on the way.” He added: “It is hard to survive as a band in the culture for that many years and not try differentthings.” The Grammy Award-winner - who appears as a coach on the US version of ‘The Voice’ with country singer Blake Shelton and newjudges Pharrell Williams and Gwen Stefani - also admitted he worried about the effect his role on the reality TV singing competition wouldhave on his credibility as an artist and described the decision to star on the show in 2011 as a “huge risk”. He explained: “I have been very for-tunate to be able to do this show as well as my music.”It was a huge risk when I first started and I didn’t expect the show to give me credibili-ty. “In fact, my biggest concern was that it would take any I had away. But it was never premeditated.”

Foo Fighters’ city-inspired album Foo Fighters new album took inspiration from each city they recorded in. The band’s bassist,

Nate Mendel, has revealed that the group’s new record, ‘Sonic Highways’, was influenced bythe eight different US-based studios they worked in, including California, Washington and

New Orleans, all of which played a part in inspiring them to create a different sound. Nate said:“That was the idea. We wrote the bulk of the songs back in Los Angeles, so it was more a matter ofexperiencing each place, learning about the studio and then bringing in guest musicians. “InSeattle we had Ben Gibbard from Death Cab For Cutie; in the desert outside Los Angeles it was JoeWalsh from the Eagles for a classic southern California feel - and sure enough, suddenly our songhas layers of ‘Hotel California’ in it. That’s where the local character came from.” Nate - who is in thegroup with Dave Grohl, Taylor Hawkins, Chris Shiflett, Pat Smear and keyboardist Rami Jaffee - alsoadmitted lead singer Dave took inspiration from several real-life experiences the group had in thevarious cities. He added to NME magazine: “Dave took a creative leap on this one and decided toincorporate into his lyrics things that actually happened in the cities, and conversations that hehad with the various musicians.”So ‘I Am A River’ was inspired by the fact that under one of the stu-dios we found there was an actual physical river.”

Daniel Craig set for Star Wars role

Daniel Craig is set for a secret cameo appearance in‘Star Wars Episode VII’. The ‘Skyfall’ star is a big fanof the science fiction saga, and he has reportedly

filmed a mystery rolein the upcoming sev-enth installment ofthe franchise - but hisface will be kept hid-den. An insider toldThe Sun on Sundaynewspaper: “Danielasked for some sort ofsecret cameo role -and was happy tohave his name left offthe posters. “Fans willlove trying to workout which covered upcharacter is him.” The‘James Bond’ star -who will reprise hisrole as the fictionalBritish spy in the as-yet-untitled ‘Bond 24’ - is said to havebegged ‘Star Wars’ director JJ Abrams for the small partdue to his love for the series. Meanwhile, ‘The Avengers’star Mark Ruffalo recently joked he begged ‘Star WarsEpisode VIII’ boss Rian Johnson for a part in the eighthinstallment. He recently said: “My email to Rian after allthese years was, ‘Rian, congratulations on everythingyou’ve been doing. And by the way, if there’s a part in ‘StarWars’, please, anything, please consider considering me tojoin you.”

Dakota Fanning hated‘precocious’ tag

Dakota Fanning hated being called “precocious” when she was a child actress. The 20-year-old starlet has admitted that she really disliked being labeled by film criticswhen she growing up in the spotlight. Dakota - who has starred in over 35 movies

and TV shows since she was seven years old -revealed she has always been matureand hated being accused of actingolder than her years. She explained:“I have this whole thing with thatword ‘precocious’. I guess it’s not anegative, but when I was younger,especially, I was labeled that, and Iwas just being who I was! Do youknow what I mean? Like, ‘Oh you’reso mature,’ when I’m just being nor-mal.” The ‘Night Moves’ actress alsorevealed that she won’t be gettinga Twitter account because shewants to keep her life a “mystery”.The 20-year-old starlet added toLucky magazine: “It’s a hole I reallydon’t want to dive into. I don’t wantto know all these things aboutpeople. It’s like the mystery of lifehas been removed!” —BangShowbiz

Susan Sarandon’s granddaughter pride

Susan Sarandon says watching her daughter give birth to her grand-daughter made her more pride than anything she has achieved inher acting career. The 67-year-old star helped Eva Amurri Martino,

who is married to NBC sports analyst Kyle Martino, deliver her first child,Marlowe, into the world at her home in Los Angeles

last month, and admits the experience was over-whelming. The ‘Tammy’ actress said: “I have

loved working, playing and travelling with mydaughter - but nothing prepared me forwatching her birth Marlowe. She was a war-rior, and I’m so proud to be her mother andto be a part of that beautiful new child.” Evarevealed her famous mother hopped on aplane to LA from New York City, as soon as

she told her she thought she was going intolabor 11 days early. She said: “I let her know

that I wasn’t sure if this was it, but I just had afeeling. She hopped on a plane and got there as

soon as possible.” The 29-year-old actress is still adjustingto the new addition to her family. She told PEOPLE magazine:“Motherhood is such a learning curve. Each day is a new day, and it takes awhile to get used to it.” But she added: “I would do anything for her. I reallywanted my life to be about something bigger than just us, and now it is.”