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Four interior designers will be awarded the Ice Today-Aqua Paints Award 2007 for their works on interior design.
   The names of the winners will be announced during the award-giving ceremony which will be held at the Radisson Water Garden Hotel in the city on July 14.
   The award will be given for innovation, creativity and outstanding achievements in interior design in Bangladesh, said the organisers at a briefing, held at a city hotel on Thursday.
   ‘The grand prize will not be given as the jury comprising Mustafa Ameen, Nahas Ahmed Khalil and Kazi Golam Nasir did not find any design suitable for the award, said the executive editor of the monthly magazine Ice Today, Ziaul Karim.
   ‘Each winner will receive the Commendation Award valued at Tk 25,000, a crest and a Nokia set, he added.
   A total of 27 designs were submitted in ‘Residential and Non Residential’ categories. The jury short-listed the entries to eleven designs in the first phase. Then, they visited each sites and narrowed down to four designs taking three from Non Residential category.
   With a view to strengthening exercise on interior design and making it more popular The Ice Today and Aqua Paint introduced the ‘Interior Design Award 2007’, supported by the The Institute of Architects Bangladesh. The
   competition first of its kind in Bangladesh will be held biannually.
   Sajedur Seraj, Shawkat Haider Chowdhury and Syeda Samara Mortada were also present at the briefing.

Victoria and David Beckham, aka Posh and Becks, strip down in steamy photos for the August issue of W magazine. They strike a sultry pose for the cover of the issue, on newsstands July 20, but things get more seductive in a photo spread inside.
   Steven Klein’s photos show the pair in various states of undress — kissing passionately, sunning them atop a car and having an intimate moment in the bedroom.
   The 32-year-old soccer star and his wife, Posh Spice of the Spice Girls, will be seen in an NBC special, ‘Victoria Beckham: Coming to America’, to air Monday. It follows Beckham, 33, as she prepares to move from Europe to Los Angeles, where her husband will play for the Los Angeles Galaxy of Major League Soccer.

Michael Madhusudan Dutta’s 134th death anniversary passed away almost silently on June 29. The audience might think that the presentation of one of Michael’s most popular farces, ‘Bura Shaliker Ghare Ron’, at the National Theatre Hall of the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy in Segun Bagicha on Sunday was in connection with the observance of the death anniversary of the outstanding figure of Bangla literature. However, the students of Independent University, Bangladesh, staged the farce as a part of the university’s two-day programme on the occasion of the 11th convocation.
   Unfortunately, the play, which exposes the hypocrisy and immorality of the feudal rulers of the then Bengal, in particular, and the leaders of the Hindu community in general, was presented poorly.
   Both the lighting and sound system of the production was not up to the mark while the set designing was appreciable. The student-performers could not prove their skill in presenting a classic drama.
   The director of the play, Samina Lutfa, should have been more careful in directing a farce. The director should have perceived that the comic situations of a farce need greater care in presentation on stage. The histrionics in the performance reduced the weight of the classic. The undercurrent message of the play was missed due to their poor performances.
   The choreography done by Reza Shahriar, who was also responsible for costumes and props, deserved special mention.
   Among others, Monir-Uz-Zaman, Fahat Rahman Khan, Mohammad Saidur Rahman, Abu Noyem Mohammad Sharif, Marufa Akter, Promi dey, Sabbir Hussain, Anny Monika Nath, Mahmuda Sultana, Afsana Sultana, Seragis Salekin performed in the play.

To mark historic Bastille Day, the literary organisation Sampratik Sahityachinta will hold a discussion on the influence of the French Revolution in the world literature at the Sangskriti Bikash Kendra at 1/E/1 in Paribagh at 5:00pm on July 14.
   Professor Zillur Rahman Siddique will be present as chief discussant while Abul Kashem Fazlul Haque, Nurul Karim Nasim, Faqruzzaman Chowdhury, Fazlul Alam, M Latifur Rahman, Mohammad Khan Firoz, Mohammad Abdul Hye and Sazzad Qadir will be present as discussants. Poet Dilara Hafiz will chair the function while Ahmad Mazhar will conduct the event.

A book for children titled Bhuter Iskul by Shah Alam Saju has been in the market. Publication house Nirab Prakash published the book.
   Saju’s other books are Man jare chay, Brishti bheja bhalobasa, Tumi je amar kabita and Fagune dujane. Besides writing, he has been working for the daily Manab Zamin.