Even if he's not acting in it, if you look at the credits he makes the cupcakes or something." Law had indeed been involved in six films released during the previous year, with leading roles in four of them. And Sean Penn chastised Rock, insisting Law was one of Hollywood's finest actors. Which may be true, but in his leading roles (think Alfie, Sleuth, The Holiday) Law has hardly shone. Nor have the films where he received top billing performed as hoped at the box office. ( Read more... )
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Cowell, the extravagantly conceited impresario at the heart of both Britain's Got Talent and The X Factor, is now the highest-paid man on US prime-time television, thanks to his leadership of the American Idol franchise, which earned him £45m in the last year alone. Top Gear, starring the spectacularly self-satisfied Clarkson, is broadcast in 100 countries to a combined audience of 350 million, not to mention being the world's most illegally downloaded programme.

After ( Read more... )
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The air kiss

If you must indulge in a tête-à-tête, keep your mouth closed and those lips well away from the danger zone. Make cheek contact at your peril, or, to keep risks of contamination to a minimum, experiment with the "air kiss" favoured by luvvies. Synchronised "Mwahing" is optional but be wary of spittle emissions. Finally, establish a one-cheek-or-two rule before you go in and commit the ultimate and potentially flu-inducing faux-pas ? ( Read more... )
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After all it was Gupta, a 39-year-old TV reporter who practices neurosurgery in Atlanta (and was named, in 2003, by People magazine as "one of the sexiest men alive"), who effectively neutered Michael Moore in a Larry King Live debate about his attack-documentary Sicko, which criticised the American health-care system.

Not that Americans take the post of Surgeon General, the top federal spokesman on matters of public health, that seriously; certainly not since Reagan's ( Read more... )
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The mere fact of Richards singing standards such as "Sweet Dreams" and "I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now" has led some excitable listeners to conclude that the Stones' creative mainspring is planning an album of old favourites, along the lines of Rod Stewart's Great American Songbook series. But these are clearly not serious recordings, nor even demos for planned recordings, just the sounds of an off-duty star relaxing in his hotel room, cracking open a bottle of Jack, firing ( Read more... )
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The Shoreditch Nerd look – or Geek Chic, as the glossies have dubbed it ? has been around for a while now, with style mavens Helena Christensen and Chloë Sevigny donning the NHS-style frames in homage to the original Hoxton hipsters. Alexa Chung and Peaches Geldof quickly followed suit, and a trend was born, one that young Lourdes then picked up on.

As well she might. For all her tender years, Lourdes is no newcomer to the fashion and celeb circuit; she even appeared ( Read more... )
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Can you imagine the outcry? But Nabokov was an author like no other. Trilingual, synaesthetic (he saw the letter M as pink) and addicted to games, he was a compendium of eccentricities. His main obsession, outside writing, was butterflies: he chased them all over America, and was curator of lepidoptery at Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology in the 1940s. He was also a chess obsessive, who composed scores of chess problems and wrote a novel about a chess master, The Luzhin ( Read more... )
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SimplicITy looks like a standard PC, with a traditional keyboard and mouse. But instead of the potentially bewildering array of windows, folders and widgets that crowd the desktops of the average operating system, SimplicITy's home screen has a handful of buttons leading to e-mail, the internet, chat, documents and your profile. A "go back to square one" icon takes you back to, well, square one.

The new set up was launched yesterday by Discount-age.co.uk, a money-saving ( Read more... )
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The Boots sales assistant looks fearful; maybe it's because I'm sweating. "I must have this," I repeat, now in a threatening whisper. She says they don't stock them and suggests I look through the Boots product catalogue, which I do. The hamsters aren't there (apparently I've been dealt a red herring by gogohamsters.org.uk, which says Boots stock them, though no one there seems to know about them).

So I dash down to Argos, and locate the Go Go Hamsters in their catalogue. Chuckling to myself ( Read more... )
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President William Howard Taft, who was inaugurated in 1909, was the first to occupy the Oval Office, and, finding its Philippine mahajua wood flooring a tad cold, covered it with olive-green shag pile. Since then, successive presidents, keen to make their mark, have reserved the right to commission a bespoke rug.

It's a given that Obama's mandate for change will extend to his carpet and in the unlikely event he finds himself short of inspiration, there is plenty to guide him in the White ( Read more... )
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Brenda and Robert Vale are professors of architecture at Victoria University, New Zealand, who specialise in sustainability and they claim the carbon pawprint of a pet dog (roughly the size of an alsatian), is twice that of a 4.6-litre Toyota Land Cruiser driven 10,000 kilometres a year. Writing in Time to Eat the Dog, the pair use all sorts of calculations to compare the ecological impact of pets with common vehicles or household appliances. Instead of looking at the volume ( Read more... )
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Enter Harrods’ new portrait studio, which aims to put a classy spin on the makeover. ?This is the first of its kind,? says the salon?s CEO George Hammer. Dubbed ?Lights, Camera, Beauty?, its new package recreates a photoshoot, as you pick a designer dress and jewellery, (I reached for the what I thought was the one avant-garde dress on the rail only to find it was the hairdressing cape) sip champagne while your hair and make-up is done and ?reportage? pics are taken, then ( Read more... )
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"Tracy Anderson is my saviour," Madonna said earlier this year. She was recommended after sculpting famous friend Gwyneth Paltrow to perfection, but word is Anderson brought too much "personal baggage" with her. Roughly translated, this means she was too self-interested to subdue her own career prospects in the face of Madonna and the Divine Right of Celebs. It's a scenario often faced by the star makers and famous faces of the tabloids and gossip mags: losing your best ( Read more... )
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One does not, as a rule, take issue with cage fighters, but does he really think so? Surely cross-dressing has, in recent times, emerged from its cupboard to stand blinking in the mainstream. Hasn't it almost ceased to be taboo, let alone a matter of shame?

He seems to have given up on his womenswear wardrobe lately, but Eddie Izzard's appearance on the comedy circuit, making jokes about Daleks while wearing sequinned skirts, did a lot to "normalise" transvestism, ( Read more... )
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Those of us who grew up in the decade of flares, a thousand crises and a failing Labour party are unlikely to be racing to return to its interior decorating trends (though it seems it could be too late on the party political front). But according to B&Q, there's a generation out there simply clamouring for coloured ceramics. Whatever next? Will we visit our twenty- and thirtysomething friends to find them worrying over the Daily Express in a pine rocking chair, heating up ( Read more... )
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The subject of US TV drama's big critical and commercial hits used to be police, political or legal procedurals: Hill Street Blues, The West Wing and LA Law each harvested four Best Drama Emmys in their time. Winning comedies were once based around families (Everybody Loves Raymond, The Cosby Show) or friendship groups (Friends, Cheers).

Now, however, the media is as much a part of life as crime, the family or the local bar, and as such warrants its own televisual genre: ( Read more... )
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There's little chance that Adams, a 35-year-old music teacher from Brighton, would have heard these "gingerphobic" terms bandied about at Roodharigendag (redhead day) in the Dutch city of Breda. The two-day event, which took place last weekend, is a gathering for people with natural red hair. The event, which started in 2005, was the brainchild of Bart Rouwenhorst, a 38-year-old Dutch scientist and a part-time artist who, to start with, wanted to paint 15 red-headed models. ( Read more... )
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The sorry tale of Mr Wardle's famishment has triggered predictable accusations of irresponsibility and exploitation. What was Channel 4 thinking of, etc, etc? But what if it had provided discreet back-up – a log cabin equipped with first aid kit, perhaps, or a fridge full of M&S ready meals ? just in case things got hairy? Or just a little uncomfortable? Then of course we would have had a cheating row on our hands. You may recall the faking-it fuss when Bear Grylls was ( Read more... )
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Instead, this past few weeks, she's been grinning for photographers, charming interviewers, and even apologising in public for her private indiscretions. Hit & Run, for one, welcomes this rehabilitation.

You'd think the celebrity most despised by the paparazzi would be due some kudos from everyone else. Last year, Miller successfully sued pap agency Big Pictures for harassment, making legal history in the process. But when she was revealed to be in a relationship with ( Read more... )
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A foray into the subject reveals that the answer is as well hidden from the public as the aforementioned throbbing members. Before women start brandishing placards, railing against government censorship and fighting for their right to see erect members whenever they damn well please, it seems that this is nothing to do with Whitehall. According to the Home Office, the only legislation magazine publishers are bound by is the Obscene Publications Act of 1959, which forbids them ( Read more... )
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