Celebrities Category
Celebrity news & gossip from the world’s showbiz and glamour magazines (OK!, Hello, National Enquirer and more). We read them so you don’t have to, picking the best bits from the showbiz world’s maw and spitting it back at them. Expect lots of sarcasm.
Fast And The Furious Actor Paul Walker Dies In Car Crash
PAUL Walker, 40, died when the Porsche in which he was a passenger crashed into a lamp post in Santa Clarita and burst into flames.
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Posted: 1st, December 2013 | In: Celebrities | Comment (1)
Disney’s Laugh-O-Grams Films – Little Red Riding Hood (1922)
IN 1922, Walt Disney brought us the Little Red Riding Hood laugh-o-gram. This was Walt Disney’s first full-length short cartoon.
* In 1915, Disney founded the Laugh-O-Gram Studio in Kansas City, Missouri, inviting some of animation’s future greats, including Iwerks, Hugh Harman, Friz Freleng, and Rudolph Ising, to create fairy tale cartoons. This program features six of these tales: Little Red Riding Hood (aka Grandma Steps Out), Jack the Giant Killer (aka The KO Kid), Puss in Boots (aka The Cat’s Whiskers), Goldie Locks and the Three Bears (aka The Peroxide Kid), The Four Musicians of Bremen, and Newman Laugh-O-Grams. Iwerks, a Kansas City native, followed Disney to Hollywood, where he was instrumental in the creation of the Alice Comedies and the transformation of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit into Mickey Mouse.
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Cheryl Cole Wins Money For Doing No X Factor work
CELEBRITIES live in a wonderfully weird world. Look at Cheryl Cole for example, who just got a load of money for not doing any work. She’s won a payout from producers of X factor USA, after she got dropped from the show after just one episode because she’s got an accent.
It was widely rumoured and reported that she got the chop because producers thought that Americans wouldn’t be able to understand her when she spoke with her Geordie accent.
She sued production company Blue Orbit for for £1.4m for loss of earnings and now the case has now been settled out of court, with the Girls Aloud member accepting a lovely undisclosed sum.
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Posted: 29th, November 2013 | In: Celebrities, TV & Radio | Comment (1)
Whoops! Peaches Geldof Gives Her Twitter Followers Something Juicy To Read
PEACHES Geldof used her Twitter blog to name the two women linked to convicted child abuser Ian Watkins. The two mothers (aged 21 and 24) allowed Watkins, 36, to abuse their children. The court granted the children lifelong anonymity. And then Peaches tweeted their mothers’ names. Foolish.
Geldof then tweeted:
“The babies will most probably be given new identities to protect them from future abuse from other paedos… The question of wether (sic) or not to give anonymity to criminals in cases like this will go on forever. However, these women and Watkins will be gettings (sic) three meals a day, a double bed, cable TV etc – all funded by the tax payer alongside not being named apparently. It makes me sad.”
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Posted: 29th, November 2013 | In: Celebrities | Comment
Lewis Collins: The Daily Mirror Attacked Him Growing Old And Fat
THE Daily Mirror leads with a tribute to actor Lewis Collins “A True Professional”.
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Posted: 29th, November 2013 | In: Celebrities | Comments (2)
Lewis Collins Used To Be A Hairdresser: A Career In Photos
LEWIS Collins, hairdresser-turned tough-nut actor, has died. Most famous for playing police enforcer William Bodie in the cult 1970s TV series The Professionals, Lewis succumbed to a prolonged battle with cancer.
Lord Grade, who launched the programme in 1977, told the BBC:
“It worked perfectly and the chemistry between the two of them was magic,” he said on Radio 4’s World At One. [Collins] was Bodie – he was a very macho character in real life. He got us into trouble one time where he had a few days off from filming where he went parachute jumping and broke his leg which held up the filming. But what you saw on screen was the same as what you saw off the screen – he was just a big, hunky, macho character with a lovely innocence about him.”
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Posted: 29th, November 2013 | In: Celebrities | Comment
Unfortunate Timing: BBC Broadcasts ‘The First Time With Roy Harper’ Days Before His Court Date
WHEN singer Roy Harper, 72, has been charged with sexually abusing a girl from the age of 12, we thought it unfortunate that just five days earlier BBC Radio 6 Music broadcast a show about him. It’s title? The First Time With Roy Harper:
Note: Mr Harper was not required to enter a plea to any of the charges.
Posted: 28th, November 2013 | In: Celebrities, TV & Radio | Comment
Ian Watkins Not Ian H Watkins: The Internet Gets Confused
IAN Watkins, singer of Welsh rock band Lostprophets, is guilty of “depraved” child sex offences. This is him.
This is him in court:
This is him in the studio:
This is Ian H Watkins of Steps:
They are not the same person:
Still. You might laugh…
Posted: 28th, November 2013 | In: Celebrities | Comment
East Sussex Loses Gary Gritter
EAST Sussex Council have named their roads gritting lorries Grittney Spears and Usain Salt. There’s a TV show, too:
Visitors to East Sussex County Council’s will be able to watch the progress of the gritting vehicles as they travel across 950 miles of roads
All very entertaining, and notable for the lack of Other once famous souls, such as Brad Grit and, erm, Gary Gritter.
Posted: 27th, November 2013 | In: Celebrities | Comment
BBC Headline Fail: ‘Will Young To Teach Kids What Gay Really Means’
WILL Young will “show the children what ‘gay’ really means”. Ooer:
Spotter: Brendan O’Neill
Posted: 26th, November 2013 | In: Celebrities | Comment
Can The X Factor And The Sun Create A Race Storm Out Of Morose Hannah Barrett?
CAN the Sun create a RACE STORM from nothing? It can try. In “Fans were so racist Hannah shocked by X Factor abuse”, X Factor wannabe Hannah Barrett is pictured looking a tad morose.
Hannah told TV Biz: “I’ve had a lot of hate — people have been racist to me. They say they hate my music, they tell me that because I am black I can’t ever be a singer.”
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Posted: 26th, November 2013 | In: Celebrities, TV & Radio | Comment
Star Wars: The Twickenham Auditions
FACE of the Day: Chris Twamley (centre) from Reading is dressed as Obi-wan Kenobi as he joins hundreds of budding actors queuing for hours for a chance to act on the new Star Wars film as Disney hold open auditions at Twickenham Stadium in West London.
John Reed’s Automated Cat Petting Machine
THE Automated Cat Petting Machine is a real thing. No. It’s not RoboSpinster. It’s John Reed’s work for his senior thesis film at Tyler in 1987. As he says, “The Cat Petter turned out to be far more interesting than the film”. Our tip would be to rename it the BBC DJ Recruiter and call the cops on the old stroker:
Posted: 26th, November 2013 | In: Film, Technology | Comment
To-Do Lists: Why Johnny Cash, Benjamin Franklin And The Rest of Us Make Them
JOHNNY Cash made a list of “Things To Do Today”.
Do to-do lists work?
Benjamin Franklin made a list. He tried too hard, say John Tierney and psychologist Roy F. Baumeister in Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength. (Via.)
Franklin tried a divide-and-conquer approach. He drew up a list of virtues and wrote a brief goal for each one, like this one for Order: ‘Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.’
…
When, as a young journeyman printer, he tried to practice Order by drawing up a rigid daily work schedule, he kept getting interrupted by unexpected demands from his clients — and Industry required him to ignore the schedule and meet with them. If he practiced Frugality (‘Waste nothing’) by always mending his own clothes and preparing all his own meals, there’d be less time available for Industry at his job — or for side projects like flying a kite in a thunderstorm or editing the Declaration of Independence. If he promised to spend an evening with his friends but then fell behind his schedule for work, he’d have to make a choice that would violate his virtue of Resolution: ‘Perform without fail what you resolve.’
Franklin wrote his list in 1726, at the age of 20. It’s more of a set of rules than a list. (Source: The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin; Image: Benjamin Franklin, via.)
TEMPERANCE. Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.
SILENCE. Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.
ORDER. Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.
RESOLUTION. Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.
FRUGALITY. Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e., waste nothing.
INDUSTRY. Lose no time; be always employ’d in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.
SINCERITY. Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and, if you speak, speak accordingly.
JUSTICE. Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty.
MODERATION. Avoid extreams; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.
CLEANLINESS. Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, cloaths, or habitation.
TRANQUILLITY. Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.
CHASTITY. Rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dulness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another’s peace or reputation.
HUMILITY. Imitate Jesus and Socrates.
Woody Guthrie made lists:
“Wake Up And Fight”
Jonathan Swift made this list in 1699:
Not to marry a young Woman.
Not to keep young Company unless they reely desire it.
Not to be peevish or morose, or suspicious.
Not to scorn present Ways, or Wits, or Fashions, or Men, or War, &c.
Not to be fond of Children, or let them come near me hardly.
Not to tell the same story over and over to the same People.
Not to be covetous.
Not to neglect decency, or cleenlyness, for fear of falling into Nastyness.
Not to be over severe with young People, but give Allowances for their youthfull follyes and weaknesses.
Not to be influenced by, or give ear to knavish tatling servants, or others.
Not to be too free of advise, nor trouble any but those that desire it.
To desire some good Friends to inform me wch of these Resolutions I break, or neglect, and wherein; and reform accordingly.
Not to talk much, nor of my self.
Not to boast of my former beauty, or strength, or favor with Ladyes, &c.
Not to hearken to Flatteryes, nor conceive I can be beloved by a young woman, et eos qui hereditatem captant, odisse ac vitare.
Not to be positive or opiniative.
Not to sett up for observing all these Rules; for fear I should observe none.
Ever hear of the Zeigarnik Effect? Wikipedia tells us:
The Zeigarnik Effect is the tendency to experience intrusive thoughts about an objective that was once pursued and left incomplete (Baumeister & Bushman, 2008, pg. 122). The automatic system signals the conscious mind, which may be focused on new goals, that a previous activity was left incomplete. It seems to be human nature to finish what we start and, if it is not finished, we experience dissonance.
A study done by Greist-Bousquet and Schiffman (1992) provided evidence for the Zeigarnik Effect. In this paper, the authors stated that there is a tendency or “need” to complete a task once it has been initiated and the lack of closure that stems from an unfinished task promotes some continued task related cognitive effort. The cognitive effort that comes with these intrusive thoughts of the unfinished task is terminated only once the person returns to complete the task.
Tierney and Baumeister address that anew:
[It] turns out that the Zeigarnik effect is not, as was assumed for decades, a reminder that continues unabated until the task gets done. The persistence of distracting thoughts is not an indication that the unconscious is working to finish the task. Nor is it the unconscious nagging the conscious mind to finish the task right away. Instead, the unconscious is asking the conscious mind to make a plan. The unconscious mind apparently can’t do this on its own, so it nags the conscious mind to make a plan with specifics like time, place, and opportunity. Once the plan is formed, the unconscious can stop nagging the conscious mind with reminders.”
Spotter: Explore
Posted: 24th, November 2013 | In: Flashback, Key Posts, Music, Politicians | Comment
Delia Derbyshire: The Woman Who Gave Voice To The Ghost In The Machine
FLASHBACK to Delia Derbyshire (5 May 1937 – 3 July 2001).
Delia Derbyshire is the mathematics and music scholar most famous for creating the whirling intro to Dr Who. She was working at the BBC’s Radiophonic Workshop in 1963 when she was given Ron Grainer’s score.
* She used concrete sources and sine- and square-wave oscillators, tuning the results, filtering and treating, cutting so that the joins were seamless, combining sound on individual tape recorders, re-recording the results, and repeating the process, over and over again.
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Posted: 24th, November 2013 | In: Flashback, Key Posts, Music, TV & Radio | Comment
Two British Actors Reenact A YouTube Comment Fight Between Justin Bieber Fangirls
TWO British actors reenact a YouTube comment fight between Justin Bieber fangirls:
By: Dead Parrot.
Spotters: reddit, Laughing Squid
Posted: 23rd, November 2013 | In: Celebrities | Comment
Ajay Devgan Versus Jean Claude Van Damme
YOU’VE seen the Volvo advert with Jean Claude Van Damme doing the splits. But have you seen Bollywood actor Ajay Devgan in Phool Aur Kaante?
Posted: 23rd, November 2013 | In: Celebrities, Film | Comments (2)
I’m A Celebrity Shocker: Matthew Wright And His Pet Insects
THE Sun has an I’m Celebrity Scoop:
Wright and wrongs – Matthew’s ‘faking bug fears’, say pals
Says celebrity arachnid Incey Wincey Spider: “Matthew Wright’s a lying toe-rag. I climbed up the water pipe and shared a bath with him. Never heard him complain then? Nor when we shared a sink at the Slough Holiday Inn.”
Jiminy Cricket was equally scathing: “What a crock. We used to hang out all the time. Now he’s a big shot he doesn’t want to remember the little guys. Where’s your conscience, Matt. Where?”
Posted: 23rd, November 2013 | In: Celebrities | Comment
Grandstanding For Haiyan: The Beckhams Sell Their Clothes
THE Beckham – that’s David and Victoria – have given lots of their old clothes to be sold off to help the victims of Typhoon Haiyan that hit the Philippines with huge loss of life.
Good for them. So what if it’s grandstanding. So long as it helps the victims, all to the good.
Some people have put the kit up for resale on eBay. And good for them, too. Actually wearing a Beckham cast-off is a bit creepy.
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Posted: 22nd, November 2013 | In: Celebrities, Fashion, Reviews | Comment
Flashback: When Maggie Philbin And Keith Chegwin Had Brown Sauce
FLASHBACK uncovers a few great photos of Keith Chegwin and Maggie Philbin, who were, once upon a time, stars of BBC tea-time and morning telly.
4/9/1982 WHEN CHILDRENS TV SHOW, SWAP SHOP PRESENTERS, KEITH CHEGWIN, WED MAGGIE PHILBIN, AT THE PARISH CHURCH IN THE VILLAGE OF LITTLE STRETTON, NEAR OADBY, LEICSTERSHIRE, * THE WHOLE VILLAGE TURNED OUT TO WISH THEM WELL. THE SEVEN-YEAR-OLD BRIDAL ATTENDANT IS THE BRIDE’S SISTER NICKY.
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Posted: 22nd, November 2013 | In: Celebrities, Flashback | Comment
Gary Barlow Finds Twitter Q&A Session Rather Taxing
SINCE Take That hung up their microphones after their last tour, Gary Barlow has kept himself busy by starring on TV as an X Factor judge. He’s also recorded a new album that sounds like Mumford & Sons, which caused hipster folk bands to create a giant pyre of fiddles and ukuleles.
So, to promote the new LP, he took to Twitter for a Q&A. A chance for Barlow to hear from his fans, right? Well, sadly for Gary, he found that most questions focused on one thing – tax avoidance.
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Posted: 22nd, November 2013 | In: Celebrities | Comment
James Arthur Cancels All Engagements Thanks To ‘Exhaustion’, Which No-one Believes
HAHAHAHA! Yeah, right!
That’s the general consensus which met the statement that James Arthur is cancelling all his engagements after being diagnosed with acute exhaustion.
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Posted: 22nd, November 2013 | In: Celebrities, Reviews | Comment
