WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 3 2012

THE STAR AFRICA EDITION

NEWS

Meatier but happier Lady G

EMILY SHERIDAN
LADY Gaga recently hit back at criticism that she had become meatier after putting on 11.3kg in recent months. And what better way to make light of the issue than to jump head first into a meat grinder on stage during her Born This Way Ball. Taking to the stage in Antwerp for the Belgian leg of her world tour over the weekend, the singer ended up upside down as she was lowered into a giant meat grinder. The use of the meat grinder and the meat corset she wears on stage symbolises women being treated like meat by some aspects of society . The segment is a homage to the controversial 1978 cover of Hustler magazine, on which a womans legs stuck out of a meat grinder. After singing her track Americano, Gaga told the audience: In 1970, women would no longer be treated like meat. On the cover of Hustler magazine or at the Born This Way Ball, meat is precisely how we treat them. Gaga is halfway through her Born This Way tour, which started in South Korea in April. While the meat grinder segment has been in the show since the beginning, it has added resonance following the recent spotlight on her weight. The New Yorker still has another six months on the gruelling tour, which included 112 concerts in total. Other segments of the show feature Gaga dressed as an alien and re-enacting the birth scene from her Born This Way video. It comes just after the star, who has battled bulimia and anorexia, took to social media to launch a sub-section of her site, called Body Revolution. As well as the series of halfnaked images, Gaga wrote: Today I join the BODY REVOLUTION. To Inspire Bravery . And BREED some m$therf**king COMPASSION. My mother and I created the BORN THIS WAY FOUNDATION for one reason: to inspire bravery This profile is an . extension of that dream. Be brave and celebrate with us your perceived flaws, as society tells us. May we make our flaws famous, and thus redefine the heinous. Lady Gaga recently said she was happier than ever with her body especially because , boyfriend Taylor Kinney was a huge fan of her new, fuller figure. Writing on her blog, she said: My boyfriend prefers me curvier. When I eat and am healthy and not so worried about my looks, Im happy; happier then Ive ever been. I am not going to go on a psychospree because of scrutiny This . is who I am. And I am proud at any size. Daily Mail

ENAMOURED: Beauty Mlakalaka stands at her house in Nomzamo Park, Orlando, where Ben Slow painted the mural of the Struggle icon Ruth First. PICTURE: GIYANI BALOI

A landmark mural for Struggle heroine First

British artist immortalises Joe Slovos assassinated wife
MPILETSO MOTUMI Mpiletso.Motumi@inl.co.za
HER BEAUTIFUL eyes pierce through the wall as if looking into the distance in deep thought. Her smile is thin but soft and her dark curly hair has a rich finish. Ruth First rests her face on her hands as she looks at you. Hers is the face which greets you on the wall of house number 408 in Nomzamo Park, Orlando East, Soweto. The 4m tall mural was painted by British artist Ben Slow, depicting First as she appeared in one of her favourite photos. The political activist, journalist, academic and wife of anti-apartheid activist Joe Slovo was assassinated through a letter bomb in Mozambique in 1982. This year marks the 30th anniversary of her death. Slow used pencil for the outline of the black and white portrait and then followed with water-based ink, a double brush and some spray paint. It was quite tricky to find quality pictures because there arent many available. But it was well worth it, he said. Slow started the mural on Heritage Day and finished four days later. The mural isnt likely to be on the wall for ever, though, as Slow stylises his murals in such a way that they drip for a gritty effect and change with the weather. The owner of the house where the mural was painted, Beauty Mlakalaka, said she had become an overnight tour guide as people had been asking her about it. When they first came to ask to paint the house I did not know who First was, but after they explained it to me I was more than happy to have my wall used because I loved what she stood for, she said. Mlakalaka said some tourist groups had come over the past two weekends to see the mural. The process was documented and will form part of a documentary on the anti-apartheid Struggle by London-based production company Six Oranges. Producer Shafiur Rahman said the house was the ideal location as it was a busy main road. A lot of kids play there and Ben had an audience the entire time, he said. Rahman said the idea of the images being created was to use them as breathing spaces within the documentary to allow the viewer to reflect and digest the information. We are dealing with political memory and a memory dare I say , , , which is sadly fading, he said. Slow, who is a first-time visitor to SA, said he would return to make more murals around the country . We have been talking about the project for a couple of years and when I came here I wanted to commemorate unsung heroes who deserved to be immortalised for the sacrifices they have made, he said. Slow said he had spent time researching Ruth First. Ruths daughter Gillian Slovo said it was wonderful to have the painting in Soweto because it was a community her mother cared so deeply about.

Whitneys family says no inheritance

MIKE LARKIN
She hit the headlines after she started dating her foster brother and decided to star in her own reality show. And now Bobbi Kristina Browns behaviour has come back to haunt her, as the family of her mother Whitney Houston are trying to stop her from getting her hands on her inheritance. The trustees of the estate, which includes her grandmother Cissy , have filed legal docs requesting that the payment schedule to Bobbi Kristina be changed. According to Radar, they fear the 19-year-old is under the undue influence of objectionable people. In court documents filed in Fulton County Superior Court in

Atlanta, Cissy is claiming her granddaughter is a highly visible target for those who would exert undue influence over her inheritance and/or seek to benefit from respondents resources and celebrity. Bobbi Kristina is the sole beneficiary of Whitneys estate, which holds all of the superstars remaining earnings. Daily Mail