Padma Lakshmi beats Aishwarya Rai

Supermodels Padma Lakshmi and Lakshmi Menon have beaten Indian actresses Aishwarya Rai and Freida Pinto in a most desirable women poll conducted by a portal.According to the top 99 women poll by askmen.com, Padma Lakshmi has grabbed the 15th spot while Menon sits at the 45th position leaving behind "Slumdog Millionaire" star Pinto and former Miss World Aishwarya in 50th and 63rd positions respectively. "I am delighted that the readers of this portal have chosen to include me on their list. I am extremely flattered," the website quoted Padma as saying.Beating all of them, however, is Canadian actress Emmanuelle Chriqui, who tops the list. It also features singer Beyonce Knowles at sixth position, Spanish actress Penelope Cruz and "Tranformers" star Megan Fox at seventh and 11th spots respectively.After a six-week long voting period, six million votes decided the ranking of these beautiful women.

Glory for Avatar

Blockbuster sci-fi epic Avatar has been named best film drama at the Golden Globe awards, boosting its chances of further glory at the Oscars in March.Its director James Cameron was also honoured at the event, held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles.Sandra Bullock and Meryl Streep won the best actress prizes, with Jeff Bridges and Robert Downey Jr taking home their male equivalents.Ricky Gervais hosted the event, the first of 2010's major Hollywood awards.Presented each year by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the Globes often indicate who and what will go on to receive Academy Awards.

The Canadian film-maker previously won a Golden Globe for directing Titanic, which went on to win 11 Academy Awards in 1998.But he steered clear of the self-aggrandising language of his "king of the world" Oscar acceptance speech, heaping praise upon Bigelow, and addressing his actors in Na'vi, the language created for his blockbuster film.As Cameron accepted his prizes, it was revealed that Avatar had remained top of the US box office for a fifth week.Worldwide takings for the film now stand at $1.6 bn (£979m), setting it on course to top Titanic's $1.8 bn (£1.1bn) haul this week - which would make it the top-grossing film of all time.