The character lives again—just in time for the collection to hit stores—in the new branding images Gurung created for the first time with photographer Daniel Jackson, model Julia Saner, and his longtime stylist, Tiina Laakkonen. The images, debuting exclusively on Style.com, are not quite a campaign and will run online-only, but the designer doesn’t rule out print ad spots at some time in the future. “For a new company like mine, the media budget is very limited,” he explained. “The resources that are online for free—Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr—it’s extremely crucial that we use those tools. These images [will] get picked up in China, picked up in random places traditional media would never reach.”
—Matthew Schneier

Photos: Daniel Jackson / Courtesy of Prabal Gurung

Works by Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony Van Dyck and Francesco Guardi will also be included in the New York auction on January 26, which is expected to exceed $60 million.

“It is a very full, rounded sale,” said Christopher Apostle, the head of Old Master Paintings at Sotheby’s New York, referring to works ranging from early Italian to French Rococo and 17th century Dutch masterpieces.

Among the top lots and the oldest to go under the hammer in the sale is the very rare work, “The Virgin Annunciate,wholesale Ed hardy silk scarves,” a panel by the artist Simone Martini done around the early 1300s that was part of a diptych representing the Annunciation.

Apostle described the work which has a pre-sale estimate of up to $4 million as “the most elegant picture in the sale.”

Canaletto’s “Venice, a View of the Churches of the Redentore and San Giacomo, with a Moored Man-of-War, Gondolas and Barges,” is expected to be another top attraction and has not been seen on the market since 1986.

It is one of three works in the auction from the collection of Britain’s Lady Forte, whose husband founded the hotel and restaurant chain Trusthouse Forte. Expected to fetch $5 million to $7 million, the work was painted in the mid-1700s and is characteristic of Canaletto’s attention to detail.

Another painting from the Forte estate, which was done in the 18th century by Jan van Huysum called “Still Life of Roses, Tulips, Peonies in a Sculpted Stone Vase,” has a pre-sale estimate of up to $6 million.

Despite the sluggish global economy the art market has rebounded recently and Apostle expects the New York sale to generate interest from around the globe.

“There are people who are absolutely passionate about paintings,” he explained. “If you buy good Old Masters there will always be a desire for them.”

The sale will also include an early still life by Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder, “A Still Life of Flowers in a Glass Beaker Set in a Marble Niche,” which was probably painted in 1618 and was rediscovered after being lost for nearly 80 years.

Once part of the Russian Imperial Collections housed in The Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Apostle described it as “spectacular” and a work that could easily exceed its $1.5 million pre-sale estimate.

Works by Rubens, Frans Hals, Thomas de Keyser and Gerrit Dou will be also featured in Christie’s Old Masters sales on January 25-26 but the top lot is expected to be Hans Memling’s “The Virgin Nursing the Christ Child,” which could sell for as much as $8 million.

“Demand for top-quality Old Master works continues to rise among both new and experienced collectors and art dealers,” said Nicholas Hall, the joint international head of Old Master and Early British Paintings.

(Reporting by Patricia Reaney; editing by Paul Casciato)

The couple in the booming southern metropolis of Guangzhou had the children last year, but the story only came to light after media discovered a picture of the babies — four boys and four girls — taken by a photography studio.

A family-planning official added that the couple may face a big fine for breaching the one-child policy.

“Secondly, what respect to life did they show? Multiple pregnancies are super risky.”

“When I am rich enough, I will have two or three babies,” wrote “Sha Guola.”

The provincial government has set up a team to investigate the case, media added, especially as most people in China are only allowed to have one child.

After the babies were born last September and October, the couple hired eleven people, including eight baby sitters and a teacher, to take care of them, state television cited neighbors as saying.

The issue has triggered heated debate on China’s Twitter-like microblogs.

“Why did they have to hire so many people to have babies for them? Did they think they had the right to bear children just because they were rich? This was their first mistake,” Liao Xinbo, Guangdong’s deputy health chief, told CCTV.

However, some expressed a degree of sympathy and even envy.

The mother had three of the children herself, and the other five with two surrogates, though the couple had not intended to have so many.

China introduced its one-child policy in 1979 to limit births in the world’s most populous nation. It has relaxed the rules somewhat in the past few years and some couples are now allowed to have a second child.

“I don’t understand why such law-breakers can still be left alone. Because they are rich, they can have as many babies as they like? That would create chaos!” wrote “Lingning” on Sina’s Weibo.

BEIJING (Reuters) A rich Chinese couple who had eight babies with the help of two surrogate mothers has been forced to move out of their villa following a public uproar, and could face a large fine for breaching strict family planning laws mandating only one child.

However, some Chinese media have suggested that the couple may not have done the procedures in China, and that the children could have been born in Hong Kong, in which case they would escape punishment in the mainland.

The couple turned to in vitro fertilization after years of trying to have children and spent nearly one million yuan ($157,800) on the procedure, state television CCTV reported this week.

Initial reports after the underground blast last week said 19 miners had been killed with dozens trapped at Sizhuang Coal Mine, in Shizong county near the city of Qujing in Yunnan province.

China’s mines are the deadliest in the world because of lax safety standards and a rush to feed demand from a robust economy.

BEIJING (Reuters) The death toll from a gas explosion in a coal mine in China’s southwestern Yunnan province has risen to 34, rescue workers said on Sunday, state news agency Xinhua reported.

Li said a 181-meter (600-foot) section of the tunnel had yet to be cleared, and he warned that a risk of large amounts of gas underground would hamper the operation.

(Reporting by Nick Edwards; Editing by Robert Birsel)

Nine miners remained trapped on Sunday morning and hundreds of rescuers were searching for them, Qujing government spokesman Li Jianjun was quoted as saying.

In a separate incident, Xinhua said seven miners had been trapped underground by flooding in a coal mine in northwest China’s Gansu Province.

The provincial production safety administration said the flooding happened in Sigeshan Tongda Coal Mine in Jingtai County. Rescuers were pumping water out of the mine.

Xinhua said the mine was operating illegally, having had its license revoked a year ago. The provincial coal safety supervision bureau ordered the mine to stop production in April.

Revenue at stores open at least a year is a key indicator of a retailer’s health because it excludes results from stores recently opened or closed.

Revenue for Staples’ North American delivery segment, which delivers office supplies and break room supplies to businesses, increased 1.8 percent to $2.6 billion. Its North American retail unit revenue was flat at $2.7 billion, with revenue at stores open at least a year down 1 percent on a slight decline in customer traffic and flat average order size.

Analysts expect 2011 earnings of $1.39 per share on revenue of $25.29 billion.

Its shares dropped 57 cents, or 3.7 percent, to $14.80 in afternoon trading.

The company’s international revenue slipped 1.9 percent to $1.3 billion or 7 percent on a local currency basis. Staples said revenue at European stores open at least a year dropped 12 percent, with sales also soft in Australia.

In addition, Staples said it now anticipates buying back about $600 million of its stock for the full year, up from its previously expectations to repurchase $300 million to $500 million of its shares.

Revenue rose 1 percent to $6.57 billion from $6.54 billion, but analysts expected higher revenue of $6.71 billion.

“We continue to be impressed by tight expense control, and favor the company’s strong free cash flow generation,” said S&P Capital IQ analyst Michael Souers. He kept his “Buy” rating on the stock. “We think Staples is attractive, trading well below out target price.”

FRAMINGHAM, Mass. Staples Inc. said Tuesday that its profit climbed 13 percent in the third quarter, helped in part by improved sales of office and break room supplies to businesses.

Still, the company has been outperforming its smaller rivals OfficeMax Inc. and Office Depot Inc., both of which reported small sales declines in the most recent quarter.

The earnings met Wall Street’s expectations, according to a survey of analysts by FactSet.

Staples expects fourth-quarter earnings of 39 cents to 43 cents per share, with flat to low single-digit sales growth.

Office suppliers have suffered during the recession and its aftermath, as consumers and small businesses continue to hold back on spending, something that is not likely to change soon, CEO Ron Sargent said.

Analysts expect earnings of 43 cents per share on revenue of $6.59 billion.

But overall revenue came in short of Wall Street expectations and the nation’s biggest office supply company cut its adjusted earnings forecast for the full year as its international performance weakened a bit.

For the full year, Staples now anticipates earnings of between $1.35 to $1.39 per share, excluding a tax refund of about $21 million in the second quarter. The retailer previously predicted adjusted earnings in a range of $1.39 to $1.45 per share. It expects a low-single digit percentage rate increase in revenue.

Staples, based in Framingham, Mass., reported net income of $326.4 million, or 47 cents per share, in the three months ended Oct. 29, up from $288.7 million, or 40 cents per share, a year ago.

“Arrow” will be an hour-long drama based on DC Comics’ “Green Arrow,” and promises a “modern retelling” of the comic-book legend. Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim and Andrew Kreisberg will write and executive-produce, via Berlanti Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television.

“The Carries Diaries,” meanwhile, is based on Candace Bushnell’s novel and imagines a young Carrie Bradshaw coming of age in the 1980s, “asking her first questions about love, sex, friendship and family while exploring the worlds of high school and Manhattan.”

Amy Harris is on board to write and executive-produce.

“Beauty and the Beast,” meanwhile, is loosely based on the CBS series starring Ron Perlman and Linda Hamilton, will deliver “a modern day romantic love story with a procedural twist.” Jennifer Levin (”Without a Trace,” “Felicity”) and Sherri Cooper (”Brothers and Sisters”) will write and executive-produce.

The pilot will be produced by CBS Television Studios.

(Editing by Chris Michaud)

The tireless actress’s big day on Jan. 17 seems to be exciting others more than her. NBC is airing a birthday special for White the day before and has picked up a “Candid Camera”-like prank show featuring senior citizens called “Betty White’s Off Their Rockers.”

“I didn’t accomplish anything,” White said Friday. “It just came up on me. I’m blessed with good health.”

NBC has not yet put “Off Their Rockers,” which White would host, on the schedule. White said she’s on hand to make sure producers don’t make any of the humor mean-spirited. In most of the cases, young people are the butt of the show’s jokes.

“It’s the reverse psychology of the `poor old seniors,’” White said. “We’ve got a sense of humor, too, warped as it may be.”

They’ll tweet what they had for breakfast, post behind-the-scenes photos on Tumblr and use Facebook to cultivate “friends” around the world. Tech-savvy fashion followers are eating it up, gaining entry to a world that is so often behind velvet ropes.

“I realized there was an audience interested in what I had to say, not just the images from my work,” said model Coco Rocha, who alternates personal posts and lighthearted tidbits with a more businesslike platform to highlight brands and magazines she’s shooting for as well as her favorite social and charitable causes.

At age 23, Rocha is no longer the new girl in town, but her fan base of more than 200,000 Twitter followers and 66,000 Facebook friends (plus Tumbler, Google Plus and Instagram accounts and blog readers) gives her “longevity,” she said. “Because I have a voice and I’m sticking to having that voice, I feel like I have extended my career.”

Name recognition increases a model’s value, said Sean Patterson, president of the Wilhelmina agency. Models who become celebrities, online or otherwise, might even help reverse the trend of movie and pop stars with “relatable” personal stories taking the A-list advertising jobs and magazine covers that used to go to models.

With the day of the supermodel over, models have become more “interchangeable and disposable,” Patterson said. But social media may change that by letting models define themselves: “With fan sites, blogs and Facebook, all of a sudden you can follow a model and know who she is.”

Models with online followings can also create extra buzz for brands they represent. “I imagine, for example, that Victoria’s Secret likes that Doutzen (Kroes) has so many Twitter followers and that she tells them, `Watch the Victoria’s Secret show I’m in at 9 p.m.,” Patterson said.

In addition, social media lets models show the interesting lives they lead off the runway, and it’s a way for chatty, likable personalities to shine. That could tip the balance of who makes it big and who doesn’t, said Michael Flutie,Cheap Ed hardy bags, of the E! show “Scouted.”

“If you have 10 beautiful girls, all diamonds in the rough to be the next Christy Turlington or Cindy Crawford, you have to narrow it down somehow and you’re going to narrow it down to the four who can communicate really well digitally,” he said.

Flutie, a veteran agent and manager, added that being photogenic is no longer the only requirement: “If you can’t walk and talk, you can’t really be a successful ambassador of a brand. You have to be able to communicate.”

Models should also know how to Google. There’s no excuse for a model with thousands of cyber followers to not know the name of a company’s CEO when she shows up to shoot its catalog, Flutie said.

In the 1990s, Turlington, Crawford and their pals like Linda Evangelista, Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell were household names, but they didn’t get to create their own personas the way Rocha or Kroes do today. The public got to know those supermodels in gossip columns and paparazzi photos; this newer generation posts notes about their yoga poses.

“I started out doing all this as a fun thing by myself,” said Kroes. “My big thing was how I could give back and how I could tell people I was involved in charity, but then I figured out how it all fits together: I realized I could build my own profile.”

Liane Mullin, co-founder of Modelinia.com, an online industry hub, notes that models have a lot of credibility when it comes to posts about “fashion, beauty, fitness, nutrition and food. That’s what they’re experts in. If they recommend a mascara, they’ve had it put on them 10,000 times, and I’ve never worn that much mascara myself, then I trust her opinion.”

Hearing about their everyday lives is icing on the cake, she said. “When you see who their friends are, who they are getting congratulations from, who is sending birthday wishes, it’s the popular group that you’re watching from the sidelines that you always wanted to be a part of.”

Models also tend to be very active online once they start. “They’re traveling all over the world, sometimes with people they don’t know, and they’re lonely at times. Social media keeps them company and connected,” Mullins said.

Model Heide Lindgren wasn’t sure about social media at first. She worried about alienating friends and family, fans or potential employers. But when she wanted to promote a pet cause, Models4Water, which supports clean drinking water efforts, doing it online was the best way. It put her in touch with people in the renewable energy industry, pet lovers and fashion fans. From there, she was hooked.

“You can make yourself into more than a model this way. … It introduces me to a new audience, and it might be more people seeing my posts than something that’s in Vogue,” Lindgren said.

She mentions products occasionally, but not as paid endorsements. She’s not sure pitchwoman is the online personality she wants: “I want it to be 100 percent real.”

Kroes said she’s still trying to strike the right balance in presenting herself as new wife and mother, celebrity and do-gooder. Sometimes, she slips and sends something personal, not thinking about the thousands of people who might be reading her post. “Sometimes it’s scary. I can tweet and 160,000 can see what I’m doing or cooking at home. I forget that because I’m just doing it on my phone, but I’m always trying to reach people in a positive way so I don’t think it’s a bad thing.”

Rocha is posting more than ever, but she’s vowing to self-censor a little after tweeting last month from the U.S. premiere of “Iron Lady” that she was excited to see Glenn Close. The movie stars Meryl Streep.

“People tweeted back right away: `dumb model,’ but it was A LOT of people,” she said. “When I started, models were booked only for their cheekbones. Now I think I get bookings because people will say they respect me, or we stand for the same things, or they think what I have to say is interesting. It’s better to hear that than just, `You have gorgeous cheekbone structure.’”

___

Online:

https://www.facebook.com/HeideLindgrenPage

https://twitter.com/(hash)!/Doutzen

https://twitter.com/(hash)!/cocorocha

EMI, which brought the world such acts as the Beatles and Coldplay and is now being sold by Citigroup Inc, filed its complaint against Grooveshark’s parent, Escape Media Group Inc, on Wednesday in a New York state court.

The filing came less than a month after three other major record companies - Vivendi SA’s UniversalMusic Group, Sony Corp and Warner Music Group - filed a federal copyright lawsuit accusing Grooveshark of pirating thousands of songs.

Grooveshark spokeswoman Kristin Harris said in an email: “This is a contract dispute that we expect to resolve.”

The lawsuit was reported earlier by The New York Times.

In its complaint, EMI said Grooveshark has acknowledged in writing or orally owing royalties, but has neither paid anything nor provided any accounting statements.

EMI said Grooveshark has “continued to exploit” its works while ignoring repeated demands for an accounting and payment.

The complaint refers to alleged written and oral estimates by Grooveshark that it owes at least $150,000, but EMI said it believes the actual sum “greatly exceeds” such estimates.

Grooveshark calls itself “the world’s largest on-demand and music discovery service,” with 30 million monthly active users, more than 15 million songs, and 14 billion streams a year.

It said its policy is to honor copyright holders’ “takedown” requests that comply with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and other applicable intellectual property laws.

In November, Universal agreed at auction to buy EMI’s recorded music division for $1.9 billion, while Sony won the bidding for EMI’s music publishing operations for $2.2 billion. Both purchases require regulatory approval.

Last May, operators of once popular but now defunct file-sharing service LimeWire, agreed to pay record companies $105 million to end a federal copyright infringement trial.

Grooveshark has offices in Gainesville,Inflatable Jumpers, Florida.

The cases are EMI Entertainment World Inc v. Escape Media Group Inc, New York State Supreme Court, New York County, No. 650013/2012; and UMG Recording Inc et al v. Escape Media Group Inc et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 11-08407.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; editing by Bernard Orr and Andre Grenon)