Los Angeles  - Barack Obama is hoping to become the first African American president of the United States in Tuesday's election, but plenty of black actors have blazed a path for him - at least in the alternative reality of Hollywood.

Fans of the hit thriller 24 can no doubt recall the ever-cool and assuring presence of President David Palmer, who was played by Dennis Haysbert.

But probably far fewer remember that Sammy Davis Jr also played a child who becomes president in the 1933 satire Rufus Jones for President.

New York - Oscar-nominated star Joaquin Phoenix is retiring from Hollywood to concentrate on his music career, his publicist confirmed after a report on broadcaster NBC.

"This is not strange. Joaquin has been directing music videos and been involved in music for the last number of years," publicist Susan Patricola said.

A few days back, Phoenix said his last film would be Two Lovers, with Gwyneth Paltrow, which is set for a February 2009 release.

In a rare gesture, Shah Rukh Khan, SRK, has given start-to-finish dates to dear friend Karan Johar for the shooting of his forthcoming film 'My Name Is Khan'. The shooting is expected to begin early next year, and the film will be released in summer.

According to reports, King Khan has a jam-packed schedule next year, and the back-to-back dates have come as a big surprise!

On her thirty-fifth birthday on Saturday, November 1, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan has been sent warm wishes from family and friends. Big B the superstar and Aishwarya's father-in-law, has specially expressed his heart-warming wishes on the occasion.

The blue-eyed beauty is happily married to the handsome Abhishek Bachchan since early 2007. In fact, right from schooling to modeling to stardom and marriage, she has always made the right decisions and is always in the news!