This morning, the OpenID Foundation announced that PayPal has joined the OpenID Foundation Board, becoming the first financial institution to join the Foundation as a sustaining member. Andrew Nash, Sr. Director of Information Risk Management, has been named as the PayPal representative on the Board. PayPal’s commitment to the cause is another vote of confidence for OpenID, especially considering PayPal’s role dealing with sensitive financial data.

With eBay - via PayPal - now actively engaging in the discussion, the collection of Web juggernauts at the OpenID table grows ever more impressive. Fellow sustaining members include Google, IBM, Microsoft, VeriSign, and Yahoo!.

Granted, this could be another opportunity for us to herald a tipping point for OpenID. But at a time when solutions like OpenID, sign-on services like Facebook Connect, and all-encompassing solutions like JanRain RPX continue to gain traction, we’ll settle for noting that the concept of portable digital identities continues to gather momentum - and acceptance.

In conjunction with the PayPal announcement, the Foundation also announced the election of its officers: Brian Kissel of JanRain, Chair; Scott Kveton of Vidoop, Vice-Chair; Mike Jones of Microsoft, Secretary; Raj Mata of Yahoo!, Treasurer, and David Recordon of Six Apart, Committee Liaison. An international liaison is yet to be named.

If you’re interested in hearing more on OpenID directly from the members of the OpenID Foundation, ReadWriteWeb recently had the opportunity to sit down for an OpenID podcast with Kissel, Kveton, Chris Messina, and Recordon to discuss OpenID and its potential.

Analysts asked the question time and again after Ms. Bartz delivered Yahoo’s financial results to Wall Street for the first time since becoming chief executive earlier this month.

Time and again, Ms. Bartz said she had not yet made up her mind. If anything, Ms. Bartz suggested that breaking off the search business would not be easy and that any decision would not come soon.

“It is my job to make sure that as a company we look at anything that makes sense long term for the company and creates shareholder value,” Ms. Bartz said in a conference call with analysts on Tuesday. “So yes, everything is on the table.”

But she added: “This is not a company that needs to be pulled apart and left for the chickens.”

While Ms. Bartz delivered Yahoo’s mixed financial results, the fourth quarter was the end of Jerry Yang’s turbulent 18-month tenure as chief executive.

Yahoo swung to a loss during the quarter, as sales declined slightly because of weakness in the online display ad business. The company also recorded a number of one-time charges. But cost-cutting efforts, including sizable layoffs, helped Yahoo top analysts’ expectations for profitability. And the results were in line with forecasts Yahoo had made three months earlier.

“Delivering on profitability expectations is a real achievement in this environment,” Ms. Bartz said.

Yahoo reported a net loss of $303 million, or 22 cents a share, compared with a profit of $206 million, or 15 cents a share, a year ago. Yahoo said it incurred $108 million in charges related to severance of employees and $488 million in write-downs of some of its European assets.

After adjusting for those and other charges, Yahoo said it had a profit of $238 million, or 17 cents a share, up from 13 cents a share a year ago, and above the 12 cents a share expected by analysts.

Yahoo said that its revenue of $1.8 billion was down about 1 percent from $1.83 billion a year ago. Net revenue, which excludes commissions Yahoo pays to advertising partners, was $1.37 billion, down from $1.4 billion a year ago, and in line with analysts’ estimates.

Some investors were bracing for worse, and Yahoo’s shares rose about 5 percent in after-hours trading, after the company’s report, to $11.93. Yahoo shares closed the regular trading session at $11.34, up 17 cents.

“They didn’t bleed as much as the very bearish side feared,” said Martin Pyykkonen, an analyst with Wunderlich Securities. “I don’t think this is a quick fix and the economy is going to add headwinds to that.”

Yahoo’s results reflected the continued shift by marketers toward forms of advertising that deliver immediate and measurable results. Search advertising, which marketers use to attract customers to their sites, grew about 11 percent, while display advertising declined about 2 percent.

Those results suggest that other online publishers that rely heavily on display ads, including AOL, are likely to suffer as well.

“Yahoo’s display business is very indicative of what is going on in the display advertising business,” said Ross Sandler, an analyst with RBC Capital Markets.

Yahoo warned that it would continue to face tough times. Its outlook for the current quarter calls for revenue to fall 5 to 16 percent. The company did not provide forecasts for the full year, saying that the deepening recession made it too difficult to predict demand from advertisers.

“There is so little visibility on the long-term forecast for advertisers,” Blake Jorgensen, Yahoo’s chief financial officer, said in an interview. “We are really being cautious for the rest of the year.”

The persistent questions about Ms. Bartz’s willingness to sell Yahoo’s search business made it clear that investors were likely to continue pressing her to consider more decisive measures to reverse Yahoo’s slide and prop up its depressed share price.

Analysts also asked about her willingness to merge Yahoo with the AOL Internet unit of Time Warner or to sell certain assets. Ms. Bartz declined to answer.

“There may be some investor disappointment that we will not get a quick answer on all the big strategic questions,” said Marianne Wolk, an analyst with the Susquehanna Financial Group. “I think those are all under consideration. If there is any insight at all, it is that it may not be easy to unplug parts of these businesses.”

Ms. Bartz had time for a dig at her would-be partner, Microsoft, whose chief executive, Steven A. Ballmer, has repeatedly said he would like to reach a search deal with Yahoo. She said that Yahoo, while lagging far behind Google in search, had three times as much market share as the “next player,” which is Microsoft.

That was a slight exaggeration. According to comScore, Yahoo accounted for 20.5 percent of all searches in the United States in December, while Microsoft accounted for 8.3 percent. Google leads the market with 63.5 percent of searches.

Last week, Google reported that its net revenue jumped 25 percent in the fourth quarter.

Movie: Bommalattam

Director: Bharathiraja

Music: Himesh Reshammiya

Cast: Nana Patekar, Arjun, Ragini, Kajal Agarwal

Bharathiraja is back. The fire in him still burns bright as he has come out with Bommalattam an edge-of-the-seat, intelligent and absorbing thriller. At a time when we are bombarded with mediocre stuff here is superior quality cinema. Perfect casting, superb packaging and brilliant performances by lead actors make it a must watch.

Armed with the film’s best written role as Rana, the maverick film director, Nana Patekar rocks and proves again why he is one of the best actors in Indian cinema.

Rana (Nana Patekar) is a brilliant director, who is eccentric and unpredictable. He is an award winning director who makes films which are aesthetic and has an appeal among the elite audiences. He is also a perfectionist and demands a lot from his cast and crew, though his personal life is in shambles as his nagging wife (Ranjita) is always suspicious about him.

While directing a film, Rana fires the heroine who is unprofessional. He replaces her with a new girl Trishna (Ragini), whom he discovers and finds that she is an excellent actress. But on the day when he is going to introduce her to the media before the release of the film, the car in which they were traveling fall off a cliff and explode. Rana escapes with minor injuries and Trishna dies.

The investigation is handed over to CBI led by a smart investigative officer Vivek Varma (Arjun). Vivek links two earlier murders that had happened on Rana’s sets to the accidental death of Trishna. He takes the maverick director for questioning. Vivek Varma has his own axe to grind against Rana, as his girl friend Anita (Kajal Agarwal), a fanatic fan of the director has joined him as his assistant.

The rest of the film is told in flashbacks. Is Rana behind the mysterious murders on his sets? Will Vivek be able to nab him with conclusive proof? All this unfolds in the last 30 minutes of the film as the suspense mounts, leading to a stunning and a riveting climax never seen before, which is spellbinding.

Go see the film for Nana Patekar, he lives the role of the troubled film director. He pours a lot of heartfelt emotions into the film’s more dramatic moment. The scene where director Rana acts out a romantic encounter between his wooden hero and his leading lady and his wife barging into the sets and throwing a fit and his stony silence is riveting. Nana is mesmerizing as you can feel the characters anguish and ruminations.

Arjun is icy cool and is perfect foil for Nana, and he pulls it off with his characteristic style. The new girl Ragini as Trishna is apt for the role and has come out with a very convincing performance and is the pivot around which the film revolves. Kajal Agarwal hardly has any role and is pure eye candy. Vivek’s comedy track tickles the funny bone and is superb, while Manivannan as the lecherous landlord is perfect.

Himmesh Reshammiya’s music is just ok, but the first duet could have been avoided. Two more songs are thrust into the narration which sticks out like a sore thumb. At the same time the film is exquisitely photographed and editing is crisp.

On the whole, hats off to Bharathiraja for creating a taut thriller which is a masterpiece of moods, anxieties and dread. Quite simply, unmissable.

Verdict: Very Good

Jeeva, after the super hit Thenavattu thinks that he is a mass hero in the making. Before the Sun Pictures film happened, he had been signed up with leading producer Hitesh Jabak ( Njaan Avanillai, Anjathey, Pandi) to do a film Vidthai with him

But now even before the shoot of this film to be directed by debutant Thiraivarnan started, the film has been dropped. Says Hitesh Jabak: “Jeeva is getting too big for his boots. He is throwing star tantrums, attitude and unreasonable demands like he wants Celina Jetley as his heroine and Vadivel to do comedy. It means my budget for the film which has been pegged at Rs 5 crore will go through the roof and it is not financially viable. So I have decided to drop the project with Jeeva.”

The actor also demanded a hike in his remuneration and some changes in the script as he wanted to have a larger-than-life image in the film. As per sources Jeeva has paid back Rs 25 Lakhs that he had got as advance from the producer who is now looking out for a new hero to replace him.

Jiah Khan, who thinks in English, got into trouble when she was asked to deliver lengthy emotional Urdu dialogues for Ghajini in sync sound, but says that her co-star Aamir Khan bailed her out.

“I must admit it was a bit of a problem. Aamir and the director got me an Urdu dialogue coach, Athar Nawaz who guided me. And each time I’d be stuck with a line Aamir helped me out,” Jiah said.

 ”My mom, who lives in London, flew down during the shooting. She speaks Urdu fluently. She ran through the dialogues with me over and over again. I think I’ve done my lines very well. To have my lines dubbed would have taken away from my performance. I think I managed my lines well,” she added.

Other than speaking Hindi, Jiah, who debuted with Ram Gopal Varma’s Nishabd, has also learned Bollywood style dancing.

“Like the Urdu-Hindi, I’ve mastered the dancing to a large extent,” she said.

Jiah has also shot a song titled Lattoo in Ghajini with choreographer Gita Kapoor. Ad filmmaker Ravi Udyawar has directed it.

“I realised how hard it is to do a sizzling song. The song is a very Jennifer Lopez kind of number. It’s very stylish and chic. In a week’s time, it goes on air. That should answer the question why I’m not seen in the publicity,” she said.

Dynamic director Puri Jaganath and Rebel Star Prabhas are going to teamup again for another flick which woudl start shooting during next year that would be produced under the banner of Aditya Group and Puri joint venture.  This project would start once Puri completes flick with his brother.

Bangalore: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) have retained out-of-form Rahul Dravid in Grade-A in the latest Players Contracts released for the period October one, 2008 to September 30, 2009.

As many as nine players, including Yuvraj Singh and Gautam Gambhir, find themselves in the top bracket. Others in Grade-A are Sachin Tendulkar, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Zaheer Khan, V V S Laxman, Harbhajan Singh and Virender Sehwag, a BCCI release said on Monday.

Following are the names released by BCCI.

GRADE ‘A’-Rs 60.0 Lakhs:

Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, M S Dhoni, Zaheer Khan, V V S Laxman, Harbhajan Singh, Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh.

GRADE ‘B’-Rs 40.0 Lakhs:

R P Singh, Munaf Patel, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, Ishant Sharma, S Badrinath, Irfan Pathan.

GRADE ‘C’ -Rs 25.0 Lakhs

Piyush Chawla, Wasim Jaffer, Yusuf Pathan, Praveen Kumar, Pragyan Ojha, Amit Mishra, S Sreesanth

GRADE ‘D’-Rs 15.0 Lakhs

Dinesh Karthik, Robin Uthappa, Parthiv Patel, Manpreet Gony, Cheteshwar Pujara, Md. Kaif, Virat Kohli, Ashoke Kumar Dinda, Wriddhiman Saha, Chetanya Nanda, M Vijay, R Ashwin, Shikar Dhiwan, Sudeep Tyagi.

Mumbai, Dec 12 (IANS) Size zero is out for actress Kareena Kapoor. In her next release, ‘Kambakht Ishq’, she plays a surgeon who moonlights as a supermodel and for it she has put on extra pounds.

‘I weigh 54 kg now, which for a girl of my height is quite fine. People used to wonder what ’size zero’ is and I’d joke, ‘Just look at me’. I don’t want that any more. I want to look like a normal healthy girl. My forthcoming releases required me to get back to a fuller shape,’ said Kareena, who sported size zero in ‘Tashan’ and ‘Golmaal Returns’.

‘In ‘Kambakht Ishq’, my character flies to Italy to become a supermodel to support herself financially. I didn’t want to play the character looking like an international model because she’s basically in another profession. So she can’t really have the figure of Victoria Beckham, can she? I had to look more filled up,’ she told IANS.

In ‘Mr & Mrs Khanna’ too, Kareena is sporting the same look.

‘Again, for my next release ‘Mr & Mrs Khanna’ with Salman Khan, I play a wife. So I wanted to look more filled up. Not that wives can’t be curvaceous. The one I played in ‘Golmaal Returns’ certainly was,’ she said.