Tabloids Category
The news as told by the UK’s tabloid press – The Sun, Daily Express, Daily Mail, Daily Mirror, Daily Star and News of the World.
Madeleine McCann: Gerry and Kate Have Had Enough
SAYS Madeleine McCann’s father Gerry: “In the first few weeks when I slipped into dark moments of despair I was finding it quite easy to emotionally switch a light back on, but I’ve been finding it increasingly difficult to do that.
“More importantly I don’t want to do that any more. I want to be able to grieve and let those emotions out.”
In “Maddie: Exhausted parents put campaign on hold,” the News of the World listens as Gerry and Kate McCann explain their next move.
Says Kate: “I find when I am alone I feel a lot of anxiety. When I’m speaking to people it takes my mind off things. I’m not thinking, ‘Where is Madeleine, how is she feeling?’ It’s a distraction and it helps, but it’s time to step back from that.”
No Parents: no News
But without the parents around, what news of Madeleine is there? The tabloid press has focused all its energies on telling us about Kate and Gerry’s pain, their heartbreak, the fears.
Instead of news of the case, we have seen Gerry and Kate on the TV and papers, appealing to us for help in finding their daughter. While the McCanns appealed for all eyes to look out for their missing daughter, all eyes were on them.
The McCanns have become the story, unwelcome fame culminating in a BBC headline that, as Mick Hume noted, delivered the Lloyd-George-knew-my-father moment, “Pope meets Madeleine’s parents”.
But now with the McCanns taking a backwards step, allowing themselves to grieve for “our Maddie”, what will the tabloid press do?
Were not the McCanns destined to be those parents of that girl who went missing, still popping up in TV shows years from now as the faces of distraught parenthood?
“We have to ask ourselves whether this is a long-term campaign,” says Gerry. “We never wanted it to be one, we want her back as soon as possible.”
So that’s it. The police will continue to look for Madeleine McCann. She is still missing. The heat and light generated by the media feeding frenzy was for nought, at best a welcome distraction to the McCanns.
Still Looking
Madeleine’s face is not everywhere. Posters of Madeleine are not in every Mediterranean resort, at every airport departure gate. Anorak has yet to see anyone wearing a yellow ribbon. Did one of the Sun’s official yellow balloons land in your garden?
We hope Madeleine McCann is found. We hope her parents’ pain ends. But we are unchanged by events. Soap opera stories shifted. Celebrities, politicians and footballers offered help and displayed how much they cared. Parents hunted paedos. Empathy was all.
But Madeleine McCann is a story, one with a single thread. And now that has been broken…
Posted: 10th, June 2007 | In: Tabloids | Comments (32)
Spice Girls Reunion: Victoria Beckham Dreams On
“IT’S been so many years since I’ve done any singing it freaked me out.”
So says Victoria Beckham, her words echoing the thoughts of a nation as she re-enters the recording studio.
Such is the onward thrust of technology that it is hoped Victoria will not sound like a pig having it testicles throttled by a half-Dutch PA.
“This mic was put in front of me and I was like ‘woah’,” says Her Poshness in the Sun. “It was surreal being back in there.”
Surreal is the word celebrities use to describe any place that isn’t a toilet cubicle in Chinawhite, the GMTV sofa or rehab.
It is not surreal that Posh is back making music. It is simply unreal.
“I always said I wasn’t going to sing again and I really didn’t expect to. But once I got going it as fun.”
Sing When You’re Wagging
Posh is true to her word. In the throbbing maw of last summer’s World Cup, German cameramen looking for welcome distraction from England’s on-field toil picked out Victoria. At no time was she seen singing, her tongue ever trapped between a grill of clenched teeth.
Although, with son Brooklyn perched on her lap, looking like a blonder Lord Charles, microphones did once pick up a rendition of “Gloes gee tik it up tha arsh” and “Glue wurld wores ind won world clup, nooo-gart, nooo-gart”. But that was all.
Now Posh is in conversation with the Sun, the paper that operates as her official diary. Not a day passes when the Sun is not capturing Posh’s best side and reminding the world that despite looks, Posh is actually phenomenally talented.
And what of these new tunes, the songs that will re-launch the Spice Girls? “The new songs are a progression of the old Spice Girls stuff – nothing radical and still poppy but a bit different.”
No easy thing to pick up the narrative to the Spices oeuvre. How do you follow such singular successes as Stop!, Goodbye and Too Much, songs that defy you to try again?
Posh isn’t saying. She’s started to talk about her new house in Los Angeles. It cost £11million. She says it’s “cosy”. And “practical”.
Sounds like a dream. Surreal ever…
Posted: 8th, June 2007 | In: Tabloids | Comment (1)
Paris Hilton Is Sick Of Her Prison Junior Suite
THE video tapes of Paris Hilton’s conjugal visits have yet to seep onto the Internet.
Paris Hilton’s list of jail demands, including an information sheet for guards on how she likes to be stripped searched, have yet to reach auction sites.
And Paris is already free. After just three days in her Hilton junior suite at the Century Regional Detention Facility, LA, Paris is back at home.
Some punishment indeed as Hilton is forced to swap her “filthy cell” for house arrest. Until her sentence is served, Paris will have to make do with her mansion, her fridge and all the trappings of extreme wealthy and privilege.
The Star says the whole thing is a “SICK JOKE”, noting that Paris was set free just three days into her 26-says sentence. News is that Paris was struck down by a “mystery rash” all over her body.
So Paris is now in the recovery position in her £10,000 mirrored bed. As the Mail says, the only thing Paris will take from her weekend mini-break in jail is an electronic ankle bracelet.
And what of her three-days jail time? The Mail says Paris checked in after 10:30pm and left before 1am two nights later. You’d expect Paris, heir to a hotel chain fortune, to remain in situ until the normal check-out time at noon.
But such was Hilton’s mental state that she had to get out. Paris is the Sun’s front-page “SUICIDE BLONDE”.
But she is on the mend. And to make her feel better, Paris has written a note to the world, saying she has “learned a great deal from this ordeal and hope that others have learned from my mistakes”.
And what odds on learning about these errors in Paris’s Prison Diary the book and Three Nights Inside Paris the DVD and X-rated webcam..?
Posted: 8th, June 2007 | In: Tabloids | Comments (13)
Sabine Mueller Puts Madeleine McCann Back On The Front Pages
MADELEINE McCann is back on the front pages. And the Sun is incensed at an “INSULT TO MADDIE MUM.”
“DESPICABLE,” says the Mirror’s front page, which has replaced yesterday’s Big Brother shock and sensation with news of Madeleine.
Both papers focus on Germany where Kate and Gerry McCann are conducting a press conference. German reporter Sabine Mueller has a question: “How do you feel that more and more people seem to imply that you might have something to do with it?”
This is a question more loaded that George Bush at a frat house party. The question does not need to be answered. But the McCanns are on the stage and will do whatever it takes to keep Madeleine in the public eye.
Kate replies: “I don’t think that’s the case.” Gerry adds: “There’s no way Kate and I are involved.”
To the Mirror and Sun this is an outrage. Although web forums and Anorak’s own comment pages are full of opinion and some antipathy towards the McCanns, to the caring red-tops the couple are beyond reproach.
And they are back on the front pages. The “German reporter’s sick questions to McCanns” (Sun) does not warrant an answer, neither does it deserve a place on the front pages. But it is there. And perhaps the McCanns are appreciative. With no news of Madeleine, no news of the criminal case, the papers need sensation to keep the story going. And Sabine Mueller has helped out.
The Mirror says the McCanns are “appalled” at the question. But are they? They answered with dignity. They kept their cool under pressure. Their eyes are on the big picture, their sole aim: the return of their daughter Madeleine.
Might it be that the Mirror is appalled on their behalf, speaking for them, putting into words what it imagines the McCanns are feeling? It needn’t bother. The McCanns are capable and intelligent talkers. In speaking on their behalf, telling us how they feel, the Mirror displays its empathy with the suffering parents. It does not show. It tells.
Meanwhile, the Express asks Mueller what she hoped to achieve by her question. “I was aware it was a difficult question but I felt it was a question that needed to be asked…. I do not want to hurt these people. I thought when he replied Gerry McCann was very calm.”
She continues: “If they keep staging press conferences they have to expect uncomfortable questions.”
And expect journalists to try and make a name for themselves and find a new angle to story that is in danger of running out of steam.
Posted: 7th, June 2007 | In: Tabloids | Comments (45)
Madeleine McCann Suspect Robert Murat’s DNA Tests
ROBERT Murat is in hiding, says the Sun.
Of course, little has been seen of the No.1 and only suspect in the Madeleine McCann case since his name was linked with her abduction. Since the time a Mirror journalist found him creepy; since his old boss told us of Murat’s fetish for bouncy castles; since we learned of his love triangle.
Would any man or woman among us show themselves when accused of a heinous crime?
Nothing should be read into Murat’s laying low, but much will be. Just as much has been read into his unusually high profile when Madeleine McCann was the lead news story and he was acting as translator.
(There is not a single mention of Madeleine McCann in most of the papers – the Express does, however, report on the woman arrested for making bogus door-to-door collections for the fund set up to help find Madeleine, and the Sun’s story: “MADDIE COPS BOTCH SUSPECT’S DNA TEST.”)
The Sun has little time for the Portuguese police – mainly because the Portuguese police have little or no time for the Sun. And now the Sun brings us new of how the local plod has erred.
Only recently, Murat’s legal representative was telling us of his client’s hopes that DNA evidence found at the McCanns’ apartment would clear him.
Now Murat has provided the police with a second sample. Murat has been swabbed and his sample is being compared with DNA retrieved from the McCann’s holiday apartment. The results will be known in the fullness of time.
The Tabloid Crucible
And why was the second sample taken? The Sun says because Portuguese police “may have” have lost it. Or they may have not.
The Sun hears Olegario Sousa, the police spokesman, say “the first sample may not have been large enough, may have been contaminated or even LOST”.
The Sun says this is “bungle”. But there is no proof of a bungle. There is only a suggestion of a possible error. And, in any case, what criminal jury would convict Murat on the strength of one sample of his DNA?
To non Sun readers it would seem that the Portuguese police are checking their facts, endeavouring to get it right.
Meanwhile, Robert Murat’s denial is now part of the story. We don’t know if he is guilty. But we know his name. And can that be right?
Posted: 6th, June 2007 | In: Tabloids | Comments (44)
The Gift Of Time: Bishop of Reading Tells Commuters To Bake Bread
“WHY the British handed out egg timers to rush-hour commuters,” says the Mail’s headline.
We join the action on the concourse at “a busy railway station”. The exact location is not given, but the Bishop of Reading, the, is in attendance, and we imagine he does not stray far from his flock.
Bishop Stephen Cottrell is engaging passengers. He is offering them the “gift of time”. Bishop Cottrell says he can make “travelling to work an adventure”.
The Bishop has taken a moment out from his schedule of reading bits of the Bible out loud to write a book. Called “Do nothing to change your life”, the work advises:
“By learning to sit still, slow down, by discerning when to shut up and when to speak out, you learn to travel through life differently. There is new delight and purpose in the mundane and the ordinary things of life. Making tea becomes a treat. Travelling to work an adventure.”
The masses will hear the message and take time out to enjoy life’s finer things. Which are:
“Instead, by binning instant tea and coffee in favour of traditional methods that create time for reflection during their preparation, appointing a ‘happy hour’ when all televisions and radios in the house are switched off, baking bread, or simply enjoying a lengthy lie-in, the bishop’s book encourages readers to appreciate the need to create pauses in daily life – for our own, and society’s, health and wellbeing.”
The Bishop, a father of three who lives above the shop, is talking of lie-ins and journeys to the office. He is baking bread. And now he is handing out egg timers to commuters.
“Excuse me,” says the Bishop. “Can I give you a gift? It’s the gift of time.”
And it works. Moments later passengers aboard the Reading to London flyer stop moving. They gaze out the window. They muse on life. The land of Rhodes, Brunel and Cliff Richard is turned into the nation of Fotherington Thomas.
Hullo Bish. Hullo clouds. Hullo the delayed 8:55 to Penzance…
Posted: 5th, June 2007 | In: Tabloids | Comments (7)
Your Chance To Be Adopted By Angelina Jolie And Brad Pitt
ONE…two…three…
Angelina Jolie has been in Prague and we are just counting heads to see that everything is as it should be.
Angelina does love to take home a souvenir of her travels. And we are at a Catholic orphanage in the Czech capital engaged in a spot of stock taking.
As the Sun reports, Angelina Jolie and her lover Brad Pitt are to adopt another child.
A source tells us: “If everything goes smoothly, Angelina will have an Eastern European son to add to her brood.”
This is great news. Now that Jolie is looking not just to Asia and Africa but to the European Union to acquire children, we wonder how long it will before she picks up a British child?
With one Ethiopian (Zahara), a Vietnamese (Pax Thien), a Cambodian (Maddox), Namibian queen (Shiloh) and now this Czech child, the time is ripe for a British addition.
The competition will be fierce. And in the spirit of British fair play we invite anyone who wants to be adopted by the Jolie-Pitts to complete the following sentence in 12 words or fewer: “I want to go to America with Miss Angelina and Mr Brad because…”
The winner gets to live the American dream of burgers, chips, theme parks, therapists and obesity. Losers get to stay in the UK and live with burgers, chips, theme parks, therapists and obesity…
Posted: 5th, June 2007 | In: Tabloids | Comments (12)
Demanding A Ransom For Madeleine McCann
“WAS Madeleine snatched in a ransom plot that went wrong?”
No, not a readers’ poll in the Express (“Is hanging too good for sex offenders?”), but the Mail’s question.
And with no phone line to register a “Yes” or “No” vote, readers are required to read on and learn if Madeleine McCann was snatched in a kidnap plot that went wrong.
“A kidnapper may have taken Madeleine McCann with the intention of demanding a ransom,” says the Mail.
So it’s a “Yes”, then.
Media Intrusion
Chief Inspector Olegario Sousa tells us: “We continue to investigate the possibility that whoever took this child could have done it for money and hasn’t asked for a ransom because they’ve panicked with the headlines the case has generated.”
So the media has hindered the Madeleine McCann mystery? The media’s willingness to help is now questionable. A bit like how Robert Murat, suspect number one, made himself helpful but only succeeded in attracting attention to himself.
Of course, the answer to the Mail’s puzzler may be “No”. One key thing with the Madeleine McCann mystery is that it is a mystery. We do not know what occurred. We have few clues. Soap operas may think their scripts are similar to the case but they cannot know. The media can speculate. We can empathise.
Perhaps the newspapers could deploy their finest investigative hacks to pursue the case, to crack the code and get the scoop. Once they’ve finished watching the parents, naturally.
In “LITTLE GIRL’S KISS THAT MADE KATE BREAK DOWN,” the Mirror looks on as Kate McCann is approached by an eight-year-old Portuguese girl. She is in church. The girl plants a kiss on Kate McCann’s cheek. Kate McCann cries. The paper sees that “other Catholic churchgoers…broke down”.
Rewards Of Hope
Instead of Madeleine we get more grief. “A child’s kiss in church is too much for brave Kate,” says the Sun’s headline. The Sun publishes the McCanns’ words; the couple are, we are reminded, “both doctors”.
“As every day, every week, becomes a month, we still believe she is out there and alive and we remain positive and determined that we will find her soon.”
Who cannot share that hope? Only the criminals who seem to have taken Madeleine McCann…
So the McCanns will keep searching. As the Star says, they will sell their £500,000 home and use the funds to pay for the search for meet any ransom.
But why? There’s a £1.5million reward on the table. No need for more. Why be greedy. Take the money on offer.
But the kidnappers aren’t making any demands. There is no noise from any criminal. Although the silence is hidden beneath a barrage of noise…
Posted: 4th, June 2007 | In: Tabloids | Comments (26)
Operation Enduring Prince Harry In Afghanistan
MUCH progress in operation Enduring Prince Harry. (Pic: Beau Bo D’Or)
The Mail reports that Harry might not be adding Afghanistan to his tour of non-duty because, well, it’s dangerous.
The paper tells is readers that the intensity of fighting has increased. Yes, that’s right, with Harry no longer going to Iraq, fighting has flared in Afghanistan.
Coincidence?
Harry’s is a prized scalp in these heated lands. A truth recognised by the British Army.
The plan is for Harry to travel through the sands, his head poking from his surveillance vehicle like a Belisher Beacon. The insurgents will emerge from their holes and bunkers and be slaughtered. And the war will be won. Hurrah!
And there will be many Harrys. The Allies Ronald McDonald Army will see all troops equipped with a Harry fright wig. And when the wigs run out, the enemy will recruit Princess Beatrice, Sarah Ferguson and any other notable blue-blooded gingers to join the fray. Mick Hucknall, 1980s singer Sonia and Cilla Black are on stand-by.
But now comes the news that Harry is not going to Afghanistan. Or he might be. The enemy is in a state of confusion.
Is Harry already in Iraq? Was his removal from duty a ruse? And what is that thin orange line on the horizon?
And operation Enduring Harry moves on…
Posted: 4th, June 2007 | In: Tabloids | Comments (3)
Madeleine McCann’s Parents: How Do You Feel?
MADELEINE McCann is missing. And the News of the World is watching the parents.
Gerry and Kate McCann are back in Portugal.
“There are a number of scenarios and it’s safe to say we’ve thought about all of them,” says he.
“Of course we have considered Maddie is dead. But there is still hope. You might argue that the hope is diminishing as time goes on but there is still an investigation and that is still active.
“We will not give up until there is absolutely no hope left. We have got to believe she’s alive and out there somewhere. If you give up hope you’re basically saying she’s dead.
“But everything is pure speculation and that leads us into negative thoughts — and one thing that we don’t think about for any length of time is who might have her, and why they have her.
“The feeling is like having a bereavement or being diagnosed with cancer.”
Says Kate McCann: “We still have hope because we don’t have any news to suggest otherwise.”
But there is no news to suggest anything. All we know is that Madeleine McCann is missing. Who cannot see the McCanns appearing on the TV years from now, the parents of that girl who disappeared?
The public spectacle is what “Maddie” has become. Our Maddie. But there are some who say the parents are in some way to blame. The Anorak message boards and comment pages are full of words saying just this.
Gerry has heard. And fresh from an audience with the Pope, he is back in the confession box, relaying his most private thoughts to his confidant, the NOTW.
Says Gerry: “We have never subconsciously or consciously thought ‘It was Kate’s fault’ or ‘It was my fault‘.
“We’re a couple in this. We are responsible parents. When something terrible happens in any walk of life people look to blame people. What we need to look at is the person who took her. It’s not our fault.”
But we have no clue who took her. The police are not even certain she was taken at all. What proof?
So we will stay with watching the parents. We will study their grief. And we will listen in as the media ask them, “So Kate and Gerry McCann, parents of missing toddler Madeleine, how do you feel?”
Posted: 3rd, June 2007 | In: Tabloids | Comments (140)
Madeleine McCann: DNA, Robert Murat And Paedos
“MADELEINE: NEW DNA CLUE TO KIDNAP.”
Odd indeed that amid all the public spectacle and voyeurism there is front-page news of the criminal case.
The Express says: “Detectives believe that they have found the DNA of Madeleine McCann’s kidnapper.”
Now DNA, modern policing’s smoking gun and bloodstained overalls, has been located at the crime scene the villain can be brought to justice. And, maybe, Madeleine will be found.
Suspect Evidence
DNA belonging to six people was found at the McCanns’ apartment. There are five McCanns. A Portuguese police source says: “There is a new suspect. This could be vital evidence in the search for Madeleine.”
But who is this sixth person?
The Express says it is a stranger. And they really do mean a stranger. The DNA sample does not belong to Robert Murat, suspect number one, the only suspect. A spokesman for Murat says he “welcomed” the new evidence. Tuck Price says his client is “anxiously awaiting the chance to rebuild his reputation”.
But Murat cannot go just yet. The Express says he has been warned he could still face charges over pornography found on his computer. Mud sticks. And in itself the DNA proves nothing.
So who is the sixth person? This is a vital clue. Right? A source at the Instituto Nacional de Medicina Legal laboratory in Coimbra says: “It is an important step in the investigation but the truth is that the DNA cannot be matched with any records. The evidence is very vague.”
So the police have DNA but no idea what to do with it. Indeed, the only people who could be cleared by this apparent breakthrough are Robert Murat and Russian “geek” Sergey Malinka, who has been questioned by Portuguese police.
The Express says the “best hope” is to pass it over to British police. As the Express notes, the UK has the world’s largest DNA database, “which includes the records of known paedophiles and anyone convicted of a sex crime.”
It also features the DNA of people who spit on buses. It is very thorough.
Meanwhile, the papers are focusing on the McCanns latest press conference.
Speculation And Paedos
Gerry McCann says: “We pray that she is being looked after and it is someone who wanted a little girl for their own who would look after her very well.
“We also pray that the person who has her gives her up voluntarily and drops her at a church or a safe place.”
Right they should keep the public focus on the story. And appeal for help.
But why should a journalist ask the McCanns if they think Madeleine has been kidnapped by a paedophile? Why does Getty McCann feel obliged to say: “It is a more upsetting scenario than any other. We have considered all scenarios as everyone has”?
What do we learn from that? The evidence is being gathered but the speculation remains rife. And we are watching the parents…
Posted: 2nd, June 2007 | In: Tabloids | Comments (57)
Ginger Ail: Redhead Chapmans Forced To Leave Home
“HOUNDED OUT OF THREE HOMES FOR BEING GINGER.”
Welcome to Anorak’s ginger focus group. Kevin and Barbara Chapman and their four children are stood at the centre of the circle of trust telling us how they are gingers and how so being has affected their lives.
Dad Kevin tells us: “Families seem to recognise us. Wherever we move, there will be a relation in that estate who knows who we are and then it all starts again. Eggs are thrown at us and the kids get beaten up.”
Barbara adds: “Wherever the kids go they get called ‘ginger nut’ or ‘ginger b*****d’.”
Kevin senior goes on: “It started more than three years ago, when the kids started getting bullied by lads over the colour of their hair. Since then they’ve been punched and kicked and thrown over a hedge.
“Every time they go out these gangs have got to them. The abuse we endure is disgusting. I mean, if you have ginger hair you expect people to have a bit of fun – but this is just unbelievable. I brought the kids up to be proud. There’s nothing wrong with the way they look.”
Indeed not. Gingers should be proud and walk tall. We recall notable gingers thought ages: Erasure’s Andy Bell, T-Pau’s Carol Decker, Mick Hucknall, 80s warbler Sonia, Chris Evans and Pricne Harry, leader of the ‘Ronald McDonald Army’ in Iraq.
The family talk of their windows being out in, the children’s difficulty in making friends, the “Gingers are gay” graffiti and depression.
Newcastle City Council is “discussing the situation”. Kevin has discussed changing the children’s hair colour with one of the officers. A spokesman says: “He suggested he was going to dye his hair.”
That it should some to this! For shame…
Posted: 2nd, June 2007 | In: Strange But True, Tabloids | Comments (12)
Madeleine McCann: Foreseen Is Rewarded
KATE and Gerry McCann are in Madrid. Scheduled to appear on a Spanish TV show, the parents of Madeleine McCann will appeal for help in finding their daughter.
We wish them well.
And on the Madeleine McCann mystery the Mirror has news. In “IS MADELEINE SNATCHER POSING AS A PSYCHIC?” the paper hears from Chief Inspector Olegario Sousa. He says his department has received many calls from mediums claiming to know where Madeleine is.
“That is one of the reasons we cannot discard anything. We must check them all. If it was a message from the kidnapper, we feel it will offer us enough clues to lead us to a place,” says Sousa.
And the police have acted on information received. In what the Mirror calls a “sign of their willingness to clutch at straws” the Portuguese police have journeyed to a spot in Lagos. But it was for nought.
“We can’t put the messages in the bin. If we have some information about the precise location or co-ordinates, we go and look at that place and we will check it out,” says Sousa.
And what with a £2million reward on offer and the chance to appear on the end of the pier and daytime telly as “The Mystic Who Found Madeleine McCann”, the soothsayers are being treated seriously.
While readers may wonder why mystics didn’t foresee Madeleine’s disappearance, the Sun hears from June Hughes who stayed in the McCanns apartment days before the McCanns arrived in Praia da Luz.
And June sensed danger.
June tells us of that apartment: “It seemed very isolated and we felt vulnerable. It’s one of the first things we noticed. We thought we could get broken into. The apartment seemed almost back to front. The main door is at the rear. It was strange and we felt a bit out on a limb at the end of the building.”
Vulnerable?
June goes on: “We never saw anybody hanging about the apartment. But there were a few times when we came home and our garden gate was open. We did wonder who would have done that at the time.”
Was someone planning to steal June, aged 52, or her partner?
We can’t say. There are others who know more. Or not…
Posted: 1st, June 2007 | In: Tabloids | Comments (48)
Madeleine McCann: On The Road
MADELEINE McCann is missing. And the Sun brings news on its front page.
“A butterfly gave hope to brave Kate McCann yesterday – as it landed softly on her hair before an emotional audience with the Pope.” This gives the Sun its front page headline: “BUTTERFLY OF HOPE.”
And the Sun says the red admiral butterfly landed on the yellow ribbon tied to Kate’s hair.
A sign. Not a sign that a yellow ribbon high off the ground looks, to a butterfly, not unlike a yellow flower. This is a sign of hope, that in some way this insect, Vanessa atalanta, personifies Madeleine’s spirit.
Says Kate: “It was strange, but lovely, like a symbol of hope.”
With emotions running high, chances are Kate McCann will seek out hope and solace wherever she can get it, whether in an audience with the Pope, in a TV appeal or through a butterfly.
But where is Madeleine McCann? What happened to her? It’s the mystery that the Sun has no word on. Instead readers get news of a butterfly. And hear Kate McCann tell the Pope: “We need to find Madeleine.”
The Pope takes her hands in his. The Pope whispers something. “I know that. Yes,” replies Kate. She hands the Pope a picture of her missing daughter. The Pope blesses the image with the sign of the cross.
The Sun tells us: “The GP had been clutching Maddie’s favourite pink stuffed toy, Cuddle Cat, as the Pontiff offered words of comfort.”
Important indeed to know what Kate McCann does for a living. It saves the Pope asking “So what do you do?” as he walks among the faithful at an open air audience in St Peter’s Square.
But the Pope makes no special mention of Madeleine McCann. He addresses the crowd and, as the Mail reports, says a “special blessing for children everywhere”.
An English-speaking priest steps forward. A crowd of 35,000 people look on. He declares: “In a special way, his blessing goes to your children and your loved ones.”
This is said to one and all. But the Mail knows. As it says: “Those words must have cut deeper into the McCanns than anyone else in the square.”
How does the Mail know this? Might it be that others in the square are suffering? Others are seeking hope through the Pope? Others want a butterfly to land on them?
But this is for the “Leicestershire GP”, says the Mail. “The now familiar green and yellow ribbon in her hair fluttered softly in the breeze.”
We are watching the parents. They are doing all they can. But this is turning into the Madeleine McCann roadshow. We are experiencing the private grief made public spectacle.
We are looking at the McCanns. But how long before we grow weary of the public display? We want a happy ending. But how long until we stop caring..?
Posted: 31st, May 2007 | In: Tabloids | Comments (108)
This Is A ‘Parentally Aware Neighbourhood’ For Madeleine McCann
“PARENTS start paedophile patrols near schools and playgrounds.”
The parents in the “Parentally Aware Neighbourhood” in the Boscombe area of Bournemouth – a parish known locally as Bos Vegas on account of its sex shop and amusement arcade – are on to you.
As the Mail reports, 25 volunteers have signed up to patrol school routes and playgrounds on the look out for “potential offenders”.
Of course, that means everybody. We are all of us potential offenders. You can never be too careful. Peados are hard to spot. Sure, most have dirty overcoats, bags of sweets and cheeky smiles but many look just well, like everyone else. Some work in schools. Others are opportunistic criminals. Some even look like mum and dad.
Parentally Aware Neighbourhood
But while we wonder how long it will be before someone on a Parentally Aware Neighbourhood watch scheme turns out to be a paedophile staying one step ahead of the game, the locals are on the march, in bright yellow overalls. (So much for a yellow ribbon.)
Under the banner “paedophiles are not welcome” PAN founder Heidi Romero says: “The message to anyone interested in abusing children is: We’re here and we’re watching you – so stay away.”
Hurrah!
“With all the signs up, paedophiles are going to think twice about approaching the children in this area.”
For sure. Forget that hysteria over sex offenders on every street corner, the people of the PAN are taking direct action.
These children have no need to fear of sex attackers, monsters who will snatch them and subject them to abuse. The crime of paedophilia is hideous. But these children of PAN have no worries. These children know all about paedophiles and what they can do. Their parents know how to spot one.
Madeleine McCann
This is a breakthrough. And the police are rightly happy. “We are definitely backing the scheme. And think it is good idea,” says constable Peter Taylor, a beat officer in the PAN manor.
He goes on: “Heidi and other parents decided to set up the group in light of what happened to Madeleine McCann in Portugal.”
Hurrah!
So what did happen to Madeleine McCann in Portugal, PC Taylor? This is the officer’s big break. He’s cracked the case. And he did it while staying out in the UK. What’s his secret? Good old fashioned police sense, we’d wager. He can smell a wrong ‘un.
The Mail seems to support the move, too. As it says: “Mrs Romero’s efforts were also spurred by a report of an abduction attempt which turned out to be a false alarm.”
Did you get that? PAN was created in light of what might have happened to one child in Portugal and what didn’t happened to any child on Boscombe.
There Be Crocodiles
It brings to mind that old joke about the crocodile repellent kit for sale in Leicester. The man selling the concoction is approached by a shopper. “Does that stuff work?” he asks. “Yes,” says the seller. “Have you seen any crocodiles?”
The man thinks. And eyes the seller suspiciously…
Posted: 30th, May 2007 | In: Tabloids | Comments (16)
Broken Promises: Britney Spears Gives Full Throat To Lindsay Lohan Rehab Centre
LINDSAY Lohan has checked into Britney Spears’ rehab centre.
As the Mirror reports: “LINDSAY CHECKS IN TO BRITNEY REHAB”.
No, dear reader, Spears has not opened her own rehab centre, cashing in on the celebrity trait for seeking solace from drugs, drink and tired emotions in therapy.
Britney is no Betty Ford in a tighter thong and blonder wig.
Britney is a veteran of the rehab scene. As the Star reports, Britney has written a “moving letter” to her fans. Says she: “Recently, I was sent to a very humbling place called rehab. I truly hit rock bottom. Till this day I don’t think it was alcohol or depression. I was like a bad kid running around with ADD.”
While American parents of hyperactive children – children who like a drink and a smoke and to shave their heads and give their children location names – consider rehab, Britney talks about being in a “vulnerable place”.
Indeed. Over in the Sun Britney’s got her head in the toilet bowl in the men’s conveniences at an “exclusive LA hotel bar”. How much vulnerable a place is there?
So while Britney gives full throat to her demons, we return to the Mirror’s story of Lindsay Lohan’s latest stint in rehab. And learn that this is the same rehab centre that treated Spears.
Promises Rehabilitation centre in Malibu now welcomes through its doors another wanton starlet.
And we are sure the centre will help Lohan, just as it has so evidently aided Spears.
But we are concerned at the cost. And wonder if it is high time for Lohan, Spears and their partner in crime Paris Hilton to band together and establish their own chain of rehab centres?
What better way to wean the addicted and troubled from their vices than being locked in a compound with counsellors Lohan, Hilton and Spears? With Betty Ford on drums…
Posted: 30th, May 2007 | In: Tabloids | Comments (13)
Madeleine McCann: The Pope’s Holy See
“FOR 26 anguished days she has not spent a night away form her twins. But yesterday, as the search for little Madeleine went on, Kate McCann had to say goodbye…”
What follows is “A MOTHER’S HEARTACHE”, as the Mirror sees Kate McCann say “GOODBYE DARLINGS” to her twin children.
In the mystery of Madeleine McCann, we are back to watching the parents, looking on as “TROUBLED” Kate McCann prepares to make the journey to meet the Pope.
What follows adds nothing to the search for Madeleine McCann. Adds nothing to the debate on why or how the girl was taken. But it adds much to the public spectacle and the media narrative, which threatens to consume the McCanns.
Pope Of Hope
The Mirror sees Kate flash her children a “bright smile”. She gazes into “their shining eyes”. Mum and dad are going now, off to see the Pope, a man who can help them find Madeleine by, as dad Gerry McCann says, giving them a “great spiritual lift”.
Gerry McCann tells us: “Meeting the Pope is so potentially hugely important to what we are trying to achieve as a family. We never thought for one moment we would get such publicity, but it means we can get our message across.”
From the parents of a missing girl, the McCanns now carry a message.
Writing Wrongs
The Sun calls them a “deeply religious couple”, but anyone who has followed the case knows Gerry to be less then that. The theft of his daughter has increased his religious convictions. Prayer is, after all one thing he can do for himself.
The McCanns cannot rely on the police. The Sun says “bungling Portuguese cops” miscalculated the height of the man seen carrying a child on the night Madeleine disappeared. The witness said he was 5ft 7in. The police converted that into metric and came back with 5ft 10in. The Sun is appalled. But fails to say how three inches would have cracked the case, nor how such a thing was overlooked by the crack British police it watched head to Portugal weeks ago. The Mail says chief suspect Robert Murat is 5ft 8in.
Thankfully, the Pope is here to help. Sun readers learn that the Pope will include Madeleine “prominently in prayers”. Who knew there was a pecking order, a hierarchy of prayer, the Pope sandwiching in Madeleine between payers for world peace, ecumenism and an end to accusations of paedophilia in the American Roman Catholic Church?
See You Soon
Readers learn that in the next few days the McCanns plan to travel to Madrid, Berlin and Amsterdam. They are looking for their daughter. We wish them well. But what is their odyssey but a chance for the papers to see the McCanns in new locations.
“Be safe darling, Mummy will be back soon,” says the Express’ front–page caption besides a picture of Kate McCann cradling her son. “The hardest goodbye for Madeleine’s mother as she leaves her twins behind,” says the Mail, its shot of Kate with her daughter.
And we will be looking on. As the Mirror says: “Kate knows if there is any hope of bringing Madeleine home safe she must do whatever is necessary to keep the story of the disappearance in the news worldwide.” So “she has emerged into the media spotlight every say and allowed herself to be filmed and photographed to keep the abduction highlighted.”
Do you see? Kate allows herself to be stalked by the papers. And the papers tell us about Madeleine. The Mirror justifies its story. Only it’s not keeping up its end of the deal. The Mirror does not tell us about Madeleine McCann, sheds no light on the case to find her and offers no insight.
The Mirror and it rivals tell us about Kate McCann. And we all know where she is…
Posted: 30th, May 2007 | In: Tabloids | Comments (70)
The Ginger Pimpernel: Prince Harry Is Everywhere
IS that really Prince Harry on his own in a Bristol nightclub? (Pic: The Spine)
The Sun thinks so, inviting readers to observe “Harry no-mates” as he takes in the sights and smells of Bristol’s Syndicate nightspot.
An eyewitness tells us: “He didn’t leave until gone 3am. He was all alone from what I could see, apart from his three bodyguards. He was drinking a small Coke. I couldn’t tell if it was mixed with anything.
“He didn’t seem drunk compared to other photos I’ve seen of him when he’s out. In fact he was very well behaved.”
We review the evidence. We study the grainy pictures. And we begin to think. Whisper it – lest the enemy get wind – that this is not the real Harry.
Anorak’s plan to recruit a Ronald McDonald Army of Harrys is moving on apace. The Sun has played its part admirably, broadcasting pictures of ‘Harry’ – alone, sober, not sticking his hand down a girl’s top and not smoking a Cromwell Carrot. The unnamed witness plays the part of the royal observer, star-struck but kept at bay by three unnamed goons.
The Mail looks on as Harry’s unit heads to Iraq, led not by our copper-topped Spartacus but by a “stand-in junior commander”. Again the name is not supplied.
The Mail then further stirs the sands by saying how Harry could be deployed in Afghanistan.
Like a ginger pimpernel, Harry is now sought everywhere and by everyone. Will the Taliban in Afghanistan get him? Will Al-Qaeda in Iraq claim his scalp?
The plan is afoot. And on the order “Tally-ban!” the Army will to a man and woman don a ginger fright wig. The enemy will rush the ‘Harrys’, thereby showing themselves and making them easier to slaughter.
Harry will have won the day. And what’s more he will not have had to do any fighting. Or will he..?
Shock News: Not All Police Are Above the Law
WOULD it shock and amaze you to learn that 90,000 police officers have been let off speeding tickets?
As the Mail reports, just 354 of 90,480 police caught on camera speeding or jumping red lights last year were punished.
This compares with 84 per cent of “ordinary drivers” who are fined and given points on their driving licences for such offences.
A quarter of the law-breaking police vehicles had blue lights flashing, suggesting the driver was on a mission to nab villains and right wrongs.
And we learn that managers at police station have the discretion to cancel tickets if an officer can persuade them they had a good reason for speeding, “such as pursuing a suspect or trying to find a witness.”
Of course, this is all news to many motorists used to seeing police cars parked up on verges and in side streets, the occupants looking out for – get this – speeding motorists.
And it is interesting news to pedestrians, especially those who while committing the crime “Walking While Black” are stared at by police sat in slow moving vehicles.
But there are two sides to every argument. And here is a spokesman for the Police Federation to tell us: “There’s an expectation that officers should get to the scene of an incident as quickly as they can. Safety is paramount for all members of the public but sometimes officers have to break speed limits or go through red lights.
“But at the same time common sense must prevail. It doesn’t give officers carte blanche to be a danger to the public. Risks will continue to be there but all our officers are trained to have the peak level of skills and are held accountable when there is an accident.”
A Mixed Message
So why then does the Mail and Mirror talks of “fury” at this news? Is there a suspicion that the police look after their own, eradicate fines gathered in the active pursuit of picking up the dry cleaning before the shop shuts, catching the football match on the telly and driving very fast through red lights because they can.
Paul Smith, founder of the Safespeed campaign, says: “These figures will add considerably to the public suspicion that it’s ‘one rule for them and another for the rest of us.” And Road safety charity Brake adds: “Police officers shouldn’t be speeding in the first place. They should be setting an example and face the force of the law like everybody else who breaks the rules.”
But let us not be too harsh. It’s pretty amazing that 354 officers were fined. And we applaud the police’s tough approach. And we urge motorists to help the police understand the perils of driving outside the law.
Next time an officer taps on your car window and asks “Do you know how fast you were going?” help him out by retrieving your handbook from the glove compartment and introducing him to the arcane mysteries of the “speedometer”.
And see how grateful he is…
Posted: 29th, May 2007 | In: Tabloids | Comment (1)
Madeleine McCann, Robert Murat And PC Porn
MADELEINE McCann is missing. Still missing. And news. It is that Robert Murat used his computer for something more than looking up property prices and football results on the web.
As the Sun’s front-page headline screams: “MADDIE SUSPECT HAD KID PORN.”
Ever since Madeline went missing, child pornography and paedophilia have been the tabloids’ main line of speculation.
No meaningful debate on “every parent’s worst nightmare” has been had in the past two weeks. There have been no calls for a paedophile amnesty, a period of grace in which anyone with child porn on their PC or in their locker can contact the authorities and explain how they came by it without fear of being branded and charged. The police could then trace the material to source and catch the evil profiteers.
What we have is finger-pointing and the news that Robert Murat “visited a string of depraved sites”. And this is Murat who lives “yards” from the holiday flat where Madeleine was snatched. Or Maddie, as the Sun insists on calling her.
For those of you not yet familiar with Murat’s face, the Sun produces a shot of suspect No. 1, the only suspect. Beneath it runs the legend “web filth”.
The Mirror says: “The police haven’t told the family what is on Murat’s computer, they want to shield them..” Readers learn that Gerry McCann has been “made aware of the development” and that Kate McCann “is being completely protected from the nature of the web links”.
Until now. Until she reads the Mirror.
But what’s this? A police source tells us: “There is no direct link between what was found and Madeleine. But officers are describing it as a ‘relevant sexual history.’”
Why Murat should choose to look at such things – if indeed he did choose to and did not stumble upon them – suggests much. But if this is the sum of the evidence then are the police to search the logs of every computer in a, say, 50 mile radius of the McCanns’ holiday apartment? Will anyone found in possession of “web filth” become a suspect?
And if questions are asked, perhaps co-workers can step forward and say how they always thought such and such was a wrong ‘un.
Murat’s ex-boss Paul Titcombe calls his former employee “a huge porn fan addicted to women”. And once again we invite the police to question men who look at porn and who are obsessed by sex. It threatens to be a big job, huge even – it may even involve the police looking at some of their own – but it is vital that it is done if this mystery is to be solved.
“Paul also suspected Murat had an unhealthy interest in children,” notes the Sun. Interesting. But, sadly, the Sun does not enlarge on this. The usually loquacious Titcombe is not quoted. Examples are not cited.
And Murat remains the chief suspect – the only suspect…
Posted: 28th, May 2007 | In: Tabloids | Comments (107)
We’re All Madeleine McCann Now
“I’M selling my toys to help,” says the Express of “little Lauren Wynn”.
Pictured looking miserable by a pile of toys, blonde Lauren is raising money to help find missing Madeleine McCann.
Lauren, six, has delved into her toy box and set up a stall at Benhall Infant School in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.
Lauren is not alone. Her bothers Christopher, nine, and Calum, seven, are helping to man the stall. Other children have donated toys to the cause.
Lauren’s mum says: “Lauren asked me if she was going to be taken when we go on holiday.”
And Dawn Webb, of the school’s Parent Teacher Association, tells us: “Any parent with a child knows exactly what Madeleine’s parents are going through at the moment.”
Or not. Thankfully, Dawn, the crime of having your child stolen by a stranger is rare. Any parent does not know what it fells like.
But you can imagine. You can join in the public spectacle. And you can bring the kids…
Posted: 28th, May 2007 | In: Tabloids | Comments (11)
Madeleine McCann: Drawing Your Own Conclusions
“KATE, wearing the now-familiar yellow and green ribbons in her hair, pushed as Amelie shouted, ‘Higher, Mummy, higher. Good fun.’”
The News of the World is in playground watching children at play.
Nothing creepy about that. This is Madeleine’s McCann’s mother pushing Madeleine McCann’s sister on a swing. The NOTW is looking on in the spirit of investigative journalism.
“But behind the smiles lurks the continuing heartbreak of Madeleine’s disappearance,” says the paper.
Madeleine’s father Gerry recalls his feelings when he retuned to the UK: “As I drove into the village I was thinking, ‘There should be five of us coming home’. But this is not a time for grieving. We believe she is still alive so grief is not the appropriate emotion.”
But grief is what sells papers. Grief and anxiety. The McCanns put on a brave face. They cannot afford to give up, not with their other children to raise.
“We are absolutely determined to get her back,” says Gerry. “But it could have been worse — we could have lost the twins too. There were three children in the room. That’s the worst nightmare.”
The worst nightmare? “Every parent’s worst nightmare” is now ratcheted up a notch. Readers learn that the McCanns sleep with their children, two-year-olds Sean and Amelie, to ensure they are safe. “Madeleine’s parents clutch to twins,” says the Star. “WE SNUGGLE UP TO OUR TWINS AND MADDIE’S CUDDLE CAT ..THEY HELP US TO GET THROUGH IT,” says the People’s headline.
But behind the McCanns’ fears, commendable resolve and spirit the NOTW sees “tears welled in Gerry’s eyes”.
Such is the state of the McCanns. Such is the state of news from Portugal on the mystery of Madeleine McCann.
Brown’s Man In Beige
But help is on the way. Chancellor Gordon Brown has spoken with Madeleine’s parents. As the Observer reports, the Chancellor has asked the Foreign Office and the Home Office to bring pressure to bear on the Portuguese authorities to allow more information about the inquiry to be made public.
And here are the local police to tell us that a man, described as 35 to 40, 5ft 10ins, medium build, wearing a dark jacket, beige trousers and dark shoes, was spotted carrying a small child.
Sounds vague? Could it be Robert Murat, the prime suspect? “It isn’t me,” says Murat. “But the description is so vague that it won’t put me out of the picture.”
Perhaps Mr Murat can appeal to the Chancellor, get him to help clear his name?
But Gordon Brown is busy with the McCanns. Is it as a direct result of Brown’s involvement that we know of this man in beige? The Observer calls Clarence Mitchell, a Foreign Office spokesman for the McCann family in the Algarve. Is it thanks to Brown that we can read of this figure? “Draw your own conclusions,” says Mitchell.
So let’s speculate some more. We’ve been doing that since Madeline McCann first went missing…
Posted: 27th, May 2007 | In: Tabloids | Comments (132)
Cyber Terrorists, Putin The Boot In, Killer Wi-Fi And Toxic Kids
EVERY day of every week the Mail thinks up imaginative ways to remind you that life is cruel and you are going to experience pain and die.
And if it can’t think any up, it looks at the latest scientific research.
Here is a selection of things that will kill you and yours from last week’s paper of doom…
MONDAY
The classroom ‘cancer risk’ of wi-fi internet –
Will wireless technology fry young minds before young minds can be fried by online gaming, porn and ready-made exam answers?
The curse of the killer heels –
Study shows single women under 34 and living in the north most at risk of falling over in high heels. Or, if drunk, enough, falling over in flip-flops, brogues, wellies, skis…
A wife sliding into madness. Fear of exposure over his secret gay affairs. And the drugs death that tore Alan Bates in two –
Donald Spoto celebrates an actor’s life
TUESDAY
His wife talked to trees and starved herself to death. His gay affairs ended in tears. But as the final part of our touching series revels, Alan Bates could not resist a last great romance – More celebration from Mr Spoto
This reporter went to work undercover at Britain’s top supermarket chains. What she found will change the way you shop –
Maggots in the bins; falsified sell-by dates; vegetables with mud on…
IS YOU FAMILY TOXIC? –
YES! Yes! Yes!
Health fear over new airport scanners –
I went to Marbella and all I got was radiation sickness
STEROID: THE NEW TEEN DRUG. They’ve long been used by fanatical body-builders. But today thousands of ordinary teenage boys are abusing steroid – risking brain damage, heart disease and infertility, so how you spot the danger signs? –
His neck is wider than his head and middle-aged women think he looks “well fit”?
The Numbers:
2% – the number of people who have psoriasis in the UK
110 – the number of people a day in the UK whose sight begins to fail
MILLIONS FACE HOLIDAY CHAOS –
With hundreds of hacks not at work, use this headline
WEDNESDAY
BACK TO THE COLD WAR. Murder on our streets. Blackmail over oil supplies. Cyber-terrorism. Putin’s Russia poses a grave threat to our way of life –
Come over here, buy up all our mansions…
Judges on the point of revolt –
Can a sixty-something-year-old man in a Crimplene wig revolt?
THURSDAY
Yes, there is a lot to complain about, but God, Britain’s still a glorious place to live –
Sandy Mitchell salutes the flag
FRIDAY
SHUT UP! I wanted to scream. But the woman on her mobile didn’t know she was being anti-social –
Can you get Tom Utley’s column on a podcast?
Out-of-hours tragedy. ‘Serious flaws’ in the system left mother dying despite talking to EIGHT doctors in four days
ATTACK OF THE CYBER TERRORISTS. Angry mobs in the street. Stock market in meltdown. The country running out of cash. No, not a sci-fi film but the nightmare reality of Britain under cyber attack –
Lock up your PCs!
Posted: 26th, May 2007 | In: Tabloids | Comments (2)
11th Hour: Leonardo DiCaprio On Mother Nature’s Human Rights
LEONARDO Di Caprio writes for the Sun.
In “This is our planet’s 11th hour,” Leonardo tells us how the sky is falling in.
Every age wants to believe it is at the fulcrum of history, and it our generation’s lot to talk about not being pioneers of invention and industry but planet killers. Or saviours.
So here’s Leonrdo DiCaprio to tell us about his interest in nature, first sparked by a documentary about rainforests. It was a “private passion”, he tells us. “Then, finally, I decided to become more active and outspoken about these issues, because ultimately nature has very few rights itself.”
Human Rights for Mother Nature
Did you get that? Mother Nature needs someone to champion her human rights. Mother Nature, the spiritual embodiment of the phenomenon of all life needs someone to speak out on her behalf. Sure, she has hurricanes, tidal waves, earthquakes and control of the weather, but does she have a Teen Choice Award? We think not.
So here’s Leonardo to stick up for Mother Nature and tell us about his solar panels and living his life in a “green manner”.
And how you can hear his words on a new film. Called 11th Hour, the show focuses minds on the perils of global warming.
Made with recycled plotlines and produced on a DVD you can plant and watch grow into a tree, the 11th Hour will cause cinema goers to sit up and wonder when DiCaprio is going to shoot some Earth murderer in the face, or drown.
Leo talks with Stephen Hawking and Mikhail Gorbachev. Says Leo: “When you hear them you know that you have to do something, because this issue is bigger than all of us.”
So what can we do? “Ultimately it’s about driving our governments and our corporations to infuse ecology into every day livings standards.”
But what if we think Mother Nature is not a powerless submissive? What if we think Mother Nature will out, despite mankind?
DiCaprio says he is a “concerned citizen”. He is “not an expert on the issue”. But “people want this to happen”. And: “Every country in the world should be aware of this movement.”
So while a Hollywood multi-millionaire jet about the world promoting his new green movie, and the people of Bolivia and Mauritania join the movement, we get on message.
“Around 90 to 95 per cent of the scientific community is in agreement on the cause of global warming,” says Leo. “So this film was about giving them a format in which they can tell the truth.”
The truth? Which is..? Well, you’ll just have to buy a ticket to see the show if you want to know what that is…
Madeleine McCann: Do You See The Light?
MADELEINE McCann is missing. Madeleine McCann is still missing.
But the papers have largely moved on. The Star leads with Liverpool and a reality TV singer in a bikini; the Mail and Mirror leads with Ibrahim Adam, Cerie Bullivant and Lamine Adam, three terror suspects on the run.
But above the picture of grief-wracked Liverpool football captain Steven Gerrard, the Sun remembers Madeleine. What news of the girl from the paper that cared enough to rename the missing girl “MADDIE”?
There is no news. But there is a picture of Madeleine’s mother. She’s in Fatima, the “world-famous holy shrine of miracles”.
“MUM IN PAINFUL VIGIL AT HOLY SITE,” says the Sun. “One kiss…1,000 payers.” And we are back to watching the parents. They share a “tender moment”. Mum carries a “yellow rose for Maddie”. “Silent pray,” says a caption beneath a picture of the parents at payer, “…they ask for daughter’s return.”
This is “tearful Kate McCann”. Her pain is evident. “Madeleine’s mum prays for a miracle,” says the Express, the only other paper to feature Madeleine McCann on its front page.
And it has news. Michaela Walczuch, the “German girlfriend” to prime suspect Robert Murat is being questioned by police. Her husband, one other point in what the Express calls a “bizarre love triangle” is also in interview.
They are questioned about their whereabouts on the night of Madeleine’s disappearance. Police want to know of their dealings with Murat. And then they are free to go and told they are no longer suspects.
Back in the Church. And the Express senses a development: “After Mass a streak of light shone through a stained glass window as the McCanns spent half and hour in private prayer at the chapel of Our Lady of Sorrows.”
And finally the police have a lead…
Posted: 24th, May 2007 | In: Tabloids | Comments (62)
