Voting has now begun for this year’s Shootout Audience Award! Watch all of this year’s film entries in streaming Hi-Def on 72hourfilmshootout.com, then vote and comment. In order to ensure fairness in voting, you must register on Ningin.com to create a unique user account. You will then be allowed to vote. You are allowed to vote ONCE, and ONLY ONCE. You must pick YOUR FAVORITE, and can ONLY VOTE FOR THAT ONE FILM.

David Hernandez attended the press conference for the “6th Annual Ginoong Pilipinas USA” Pageant this past Monday, June 30, 2008 in which he will also be the headline entertainer for the event. The Ginoong Pilipinas USA Pageant is a pageant that showcases the talents and charisma of male contestants with Filipino extraction. The winner will be crowned at the pageant fundraiser that will be held on Saturday, July 19, 2008 at The Bing Theatre, University of Southern California. Twenty contestants from across the United States will compete for the title “Ginoong Pilipinas USA” which translates to Mister Philippines USA. This year’s winner will receive $1,000 cash, roundtrip tickets to the Philippines and the opportunity to represent the Filipino community at various civic and cultural events.

If you ever plan to make it to the island off the coast of Massachusettes, you’ll be surprised to know, tucked away on 14 acres of land is a Japanese garden called Mytoi. It’s one of a handful of gardens protected by The Trustees of Reservations for public use and enjoyment. In 1991, Hurricane Bob left the garden a tangle of uprooted trees and shrubs. Mytoi was redesigned and restored with mixed plantings of native and exotic trees and shrubs, some rare.

Last Monday night, at the Los Angeles Film Festival, Asian American director, Patricio Ginelsa won the festival’s “72 Hour Film Competition”. This competition was a hard one as four members of The Film Independent Organization which hosts the Los Angeles Film Festival were chosen by random drawing last Wednesday, June 18th to create a short film. They were briefed on instructions for the Canon HD Cameras and then set loose on the film festival to make a short film. The short films were then screened on Monday night, June 23rd at the members party held in the Target Red Room. The short films were required to have the theme “Festival Stories” and were be shot entirely in the Westwood area.

After five categories of intense competition, a distinguished panel of judges selected the stunning 26 year old Diane Yoo representing Korea to be the Queen. Inspired by her interest in diverse cultures and deeply held belief in cross-cultural unity, Diane earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology from the prestigious Baylor University and also attended the Mayo Hill School of Modeling. She calls Houston, Texas home, where she is Vice-President of Business Development of JDDA Concessions Management at the Houston Intercontinental Airport. Read on for more information about Ms. Yoo.

This weekend we followed all girls team, Pretty Face Six Pack Abs, led by Shuo Zhang for the 5th Annual 72 Hour Film Shootout. Other team members include Kathleen Changho (producer), Andrea Bickert (actor) and Yiyu Liao (Director of photography). Kathleen, Andrea and Shou met in an acting class together. Shuo met Yiyu when she did her movie. Yiyu had cast Shuo without ever knowing her. She had seen her headshot and offered her the part because it’s so hard to find mandarin-speaking actresses. They have 72 Hours to write, direct, shoot and edit a film. The theme given? A First Goodbye.

Lots of Asian representation at the Los Angeles Film Festival. This year’s Los Angeles Film Festival kicked off it’s opening night with the World Premiere of “Wanted” starring James McAvoy and Angelina Jolie. Unfortunately, Angelina did not make it to the premiere as she readies herself for the birth of her twin babies. Event photographers anxiously awaited the arrival of the newlywed couple of Nick Cannon and Mariah Carrey. Hmm, was there a misprint in the “Tip Sheet.” Half way through the event, photogs began asking if the couple were coming. One publicist gave a quick laugh with out saying yes or no. We already knew what that meant. No Mariah. Harry Kim, Elizabeth Ai and David Choe of Dirty Hands shown above at the Film Festival. Read on for the full red carpet report.

If you are an actor, writer, director, or film fan looking to join a team, we will be making team match-ups at the event. Also, if you would like to add your Team to the Shootout, we will have Registration on-site, so it’s not too late to sign-up! As a special treat, New York hip hop sensations Koba and DJ Boo will be performing live at the launch party. Representatives from Shootout sponsors Asia Cinevision, The Museum of Chinese in America’s (MOCA) Chinatown Film Project, Deluxe, Ningin.com, and Aspire Asian Film Circle will be on hand to meet guests and share a few words about this year’s Shootout and their own projects.

Lindsay loves her Asian guys. First Steve Aoki, now Aaron Yoo. Asian American Actor Aaron Yoo has come on board for the Lindsay Lohan vehicle “Labor Pains”. Yoo will play Lindsay Lohan’s boyfriend in the film which is already in production. Nice break to see Hollywood accepting mixed race couples.

George Takei, best known for his role as Sulu on the sci-fi television series Star Trek was the first to buy a marriage license in West Hollywood, CA. Same-sex marriages are now legal in California. Yesterday was the first full day after a California Supreme Court ruled to overturn the state’s ban on same-sex marriages. Takei is planning to marry his partner of 21 years, Brad Altman, in September. Congrats!

Diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia in February 2007, Michelle underwent chemotherapy for seven months but relapsed in May 2008. She now needs to find a bone marrow match by June 21st to save her life. You could be the one to save Michelle or one of thousands of other people like her. Out of 6 million registered donors, only a small percentage are Asian, with 1% being Chinese. A patient’s best chance of finding a match is someone of the same ethnicity. Visit www.projectmichelle.com to help.

The Love Guru red carpet was actually blue..Hmm tryin to simulate an ice hockey rink probably. Well, as for our search for Asian presence on the carpet, we were blessed with the likes of Reggie Lee, controversial reality show star Tila Tequila and one of the stars of the film Manu Narayan (above with Deepak Chopra’s son, Gotham). The funny thing was that Ms. Tequila’s appearance brought hoots and hollers from the fans across the street of Hollywood Blvd as she strolled her way through the blue carpet. Weirdest thing though was her facial expression of pleasant surprise that she was getting all this attention. I guess you can say that since the new mother Jessica Alba wasn’t there. I’m sure there would’ve of been more shouts for her. Even film star Meagan Good didn’t get the rousing crowd craziness as Asian beauty Tequila.