Ferrari Ruxury Rides

Two-seat sports car: Ferrari F430 Scuderia














Starting price: $277,456
Power: 4.3-liter, 503-hp V8
2nd place : Porsche 911 Turbo
3rd place: Chevy Corvette

If you can stomach the price, this is a scary-fast, insanely competent (0 to 60 in 3.5 sec), sexy purebred that makes operatic engine sounds unlike any other. Oh yes, and former Formula 1 champion Michael Schumacher was crucial to its development.

Purists can argue about the superiority of a mid-engine V-8 Ferrari like the F430 vs. the big front-engine V-12 599 GTB, but my money goes to the playfulness of the mid-engine car. For those who prefer German, the 911 in any guise is unimpeachable, while Audi's R8 is the hottest new entrant. The Corvette, starting at $46,1000, is still the best deal around.

Axl Rose, Bruce Springsteen lend Mickey Rourke music for ‘The Wrestler’

Mickey Rourke called in a favor from old buddy Axl Rose of Guns N Roses for the soundtrack of 'The Wrestler.'





Despite his ‘years in the wilderness,’ Mickey Rourke is a pretty well-connected guy.

Throughout our conversation he is profane, very funny and casually drops in a “Francis Coppola” anecdote here, a “Sean Penn” story there.

In fact, in the course of our 15 minutes together, he also manages to throw in references to Dennis Hopper, Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, “Chris” Walken and Harvey Keitel (the last four being his fellow alumnus from legendary NYC acting school, Actors Studio).

His friends are not restricted to the movie world either. During the making of his latest movie, “The Wrestler,” the former boxer pulled in a favour from old buddy Axl Rose of seminal 80s rockers “Guns N Roses,” who lent him one of the band’s songs “Sweet Child O’ Mine” for the soundtrack of the film.

“Axl Rose is a good friend of mine and actually, when I used to box, I used to come out to “Sweet Child O’ Mine,” but on our $5.5 million budget we couldn’t afford that music so he gave it to me,” said Rourke, “So that was something really special.”

Rourke was probably pretty glad to be able to help out. Director Darren Aronofsky insisted on having Rourke in the lead in place of the bankable Nicolas Cage. Rourke’s previous bad boy antics on set meant he was almost unemployable in Hollywood for 15 years and Aronofsky’s choice caused the film’s budget to be slashed by more than $10 million.

Bruce Lee's House Museum

Kung fu legend Bruce Lee's ex-home will be turned into a museum filled with martial arts weaponry.





You would expect a dead film icon’s house would hold some kind of special cachet; that a suitably wealthy fan would want to spend silly amounts of money to inhabit the ex-home of their favorite deceased film crush. After all, someone once spent $38,000 at auction to acquire a bible owned by Marilyn Monroe.

So, it comes as a bit of a surprise that late kung fu legend Bruce Lee’s old house almost suffered the ignominious fate of becoming a “seedy love motel,” according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Luckily, in the nick of time, a philanthropic Hong Kong tycoon (see above) has swooped in with a bid to turn the roundhousing marvel’s house into a tourist attraction.

The fate of the the two-storey town house in the suburb of Kowloon hung in the balance for years, until real estate and hotel tycoon Yu Pang-lin, who owns it, decided to donate it to the city of Hong Kong. It will be turned into a museum and Lee’s study and training hall will be recreated and filled with martial arts weaponry.

Lee was the star of kung fu classics like “Fist of Fury,” “Game of Death” and “Enter the Dragon.” He died in mysterious circumstances in 1973 at the age of 32.