Rob, Rambling - A lot of things interest me...

News International agreed to pay Clifford one million pounds in exchange for feeding the paper exclusive stories over the next several years.

Probably my favourite line from the NY Times investigation into the British newspaper News Of The World’s phone-hacking scandal.

Max Clifford is a celebrity PR who will be the link between a celebrity and a newspaper when they need to either deny or promote a story. He is notorious for giving a newspaper a particular story/angle if they promise to bury a different damaging story about one of his clients.

A common example is when a newspaper has evidence of a celeb’s drug use. Clifford then negotiates a tearful “coming out” interview with the celeb instead of an outright exposé, which could be more harmful to the celeb’s further career.

The article as a whole isn’t particularly insightful if you’ve been following the story over the last few years, but it’s a very good overview if you haven’t. It really does show how the “dark arts” employed by British newspapers don’t just tread the line between legal and illegal, but trample all over it without a care in the world.

Two words: Holy. Moly.

Christina Hendricks at the Emmys, via Go Fug Yourself.

Two words: Holy. Moly.

Christina Hendricks at the Emmys, via Go Fug Yourself.

Suffice it to say that the ‘Whitney Houston’ at Cino’s on Leather Lane is an absolutely fantastic sandwich. Serious munch.

And I’ve no idea why the menu is stuck in the early 90s, with the other specials being:

  • Robert De Niro

  • Al Pacino

  • Prince Naseem

  • Madonna

  • And a couple of others which I can’t remember.

I know she’s famous for absolutely fuck all other than releasing a video of herself fucking, but Kim Kardashian really is a good-looking woman. Yes, she’s in a ridiculous amount of make-up here, but that is also a ridiculous, ridiculous body that she possesses.

(Photo via Kardashian’s Twitter)

I know she’s famous for absolutely fuck all other than releasing a video of herself fucking, but Kim Kardashian really is a good-looking woman. Yes, she’s in a ridiculous amount of make-up here, but that is also a ridiculous, ridiculous body that she possesses.

(Photo via Kardashian’s Twitter)

Daily Mirror (EXCLUSIVE!)

Daily Mirror (EXCLUSIVE!)

Daily Star (EXCLUSIVE!)

Daily Star (EXCLUSIVE!)

The Sun

The Sun

All three tabloids splashed a big picture of Cheryl Tweedy (is she still technically Cole? I don’t keep up with this kind of thing) making a first public appearance since a bout of malaria.

Surprisingly, only two of them had the gall to label it an EXCLUSIVE…

Mind. Blown.

Well, at least we know who will play Karzai in the inevitable film version of the last decade in Afghanistan…

(Pic via TotallyLooksLike.com)

Mind. Blown.

Well, at least we know who will play Karzai in the inevitable film version of the last decade in Afghanistan…

(Pic via TotallyLooksLike.com)

I think we all need to take a second to remember the USA’s greatest World Cup moment: Diana Ross in the opening ceremony to World Cup 1994.

Not content with doing the worst ever mime-job to the music as she jogs the length of the field, she then proceeds to completely miss the goal with a penalty from about 5 yards away. The goal still explodes though, perhaps more in shock at her attempts to lip-sync than the accuracy of her strike.

As it happens, the 1994 World Cup turned out to be a really fantastic tournament. With it being in the USA, most of the matches were on during the evening British time, and the final didn’t kick off until really quite late, if memory serves, because it was in California. I still stayed up until the end of the penalty shoot-out and the pony-tailed Roberto Baggio’s infamous spoon over the bar.

This was about the time when I was really getting into football, and it was definitely the first World Cup I remember. It was followed by Euro ‘96 in England, when you couldn’t help but just be swallowed up by the drama of it all. That was also my first taste of the agonies of being an England fan, as we hadn’t qualified for USA ‘94. There have been many more disappointments since, and probably one more tomorrow!

But I look at it this way: we’ll never be as bad as Diana Ross.

kapi asked: What are your thoughts on Lady Gaga?

(I'm gonna need a long reply to this.)

You know, I don’t really listen to the radio, and I don’t have too many music channels nowadays, so by the time I hear of a pop artist or a particular song, it’s already pretty ubiquitous. This can mean it’s already reached annoyance level for most people, whereas for me it’s new.

But usually still crap.

When it comes to the genres I enjoy, then I’m absolutely always trying to hear something new, or eagerly awaiting a new album, looking out for it all the time.

With pop, it’s just not my thing. The only time I’ll hear that kind of music is in a bar or something, or on the car radio if the girlfriend is giving me a lift to the station. Even then, I usually have no idea who sings a particular song, nor their usual ouevre.

When it comes to Lady Gaga, it wasn’t really until last autumn that I really became aware of her, or realised that a couple of songs were hers. I remember being in a bar in Newcastle last year and seeing it go mental when Poker Face came on, and that was my first realisation that she was something big.

Musically, I guess I can understand the appeal. It’s fairly nonsensical, standard pop fare, ranging from the dancey stuff to the slower (yet still upbeat) ballads. It’s not really my thing, but as pop music goes it’s not bad. Better than the middle-of-the-road crap that we get from X-Factor and the like, but still pretty formulaic.

I wouldn’t say that she’s particularly turning the pop world on its head musically. Compare her stuff to Britney’s earlyish material: it’s basically the same style. I’ll grant that Gaga’s lyrics have a little more to them, but they’re still all about sex, love, relationships and fame.

Away from the music, and onto her image. It’s pretty clear that she fancies herself as a performance artist more than a music artist. And it does take a certain amount of confidence to wear some most of her outfits, so I’ll give her credit for that.

But there’s a fine line between being noticed for being outlandish, being on the bleeding edge of fashion, and just plain being ridiculous. She’s crossed it, for me.

Yes, I realise that she’s trying to make some sort of commentary on the public obsession with musicians’ looks and images, but she just looks like an idiot. I just don’t get the need to dress up loke that on a daily basis, or to go that far overboard with it all.

A coat made of Kermits? Really?

She’s canny and media-savvy in terms of milking publicity and infamy wherever she can (that video with Beyonce, for example), but too often she’s becoming what she’s in theory supposed to be satirising: she’s relying on her raunchiness and sex appeal to sell music, just like Britney, Christina, et al, before her.

Her videos are without doubt aimed to titillate as much as to entertain, as are most of her outfits and her stage shows. Take, for example, the crotch-tastic green thing she wore at the Brits. My eyes water at the memory of how tight that was downstairs, and I ain’t female.

It amuses me that so much of the media is in thrall to her, covering her every move whilst trying to say that they aren’t really obsessed with her. Gawker is particularly guilty of this.

Maybe the best thing I can say about her is that she really has made an impact on the public consciousness. I don’t listen to her music, nor the genres she operates in, and I don’t read celebrity magazines/websites, yet I still know a decent amount about her.

It’s a sign of her ubiquity, perhaps, that even people like myself are able to have an opinion about her, and in a fame-obsessed world, you have to applaud the amount of self-promotion that it’s taken for her to get to that level.

Kim Kardashian really does have an insane body. Wow.

That reminds me, I haven’t had a hot cross bun yet today.

Kim Kardashian really does have an insane body. Wow.

That reminds me, I haven’t had a hot cross bun yet today.


  
    Rumour is, the driver was mashed
    
    eatingoffthepeoplesprincess
  
  
  This is a great Tumblr, all pictures of half-eaten food on plates of Princess Di. Via b3ta (it being that time of the week).
  
  yodaniel


Conspi-ricey is one of the best posts here. And Post-homous, which is one of those rare occasions when food and pun come into perfect harmony.

Utter genius.

Rumour is, the driver was mashed

eatingoffthepeoplesprincess

This is a great Tumblr, all pictures of half-eaten food on plates of Princess Di. Via b3ta (it being that time of the week).

yodaniel

Conspi-ricey is one of the best posts here. And Post-homous, which is one of those rare occasions when food and pun come into perfect harmony.

Utter genius.


Reblogged from: yodaniel
Originally posted on: Eating off the People's Princess

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Londoner, thinking and writing far too much about far too many random things. Wannabe photo-/videographer of my life. More likely to be found propping up a bar somewhere.

I also write about football.

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