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When she got pregnant Kourtney Kardashian told the press, ?There have been so many times I?ll forget to take my pill and I don?t think it?s that big of a deal." But she's learned her lesson: Even Source: http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/health/are-you-risking-getting-knocked-up-2478311/
Most days I'm glad we choose to parent as partners and that I married a man who is smart and thoughtful about the way he parents. Most of the time. Other times I just want him to say, "Go ask your mother."
I'm at home full-time with our two small children as I?
Source: http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/parenting/the-curse-of-co-parenting-2478275/
Tinnitus can cause fatigue, concentration problems, irritability and depression
Tinnitus is a symptom rather than a condition, but it is not a trivial problem. An inquest heard recently how a 74-year-old man shot himself in the head after being tormented by "screaming in his ears" from tinnitus. Five days after the inquest, a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences said that tinnitus was caused by the blocking of a neurotransmitter (GABA) in the brain. This meant that a drug to boost GABA production could treat the condition.
What is it? The British Tinnitus Association (BTA) defines it as the perception of sound in the absence of any corresponding external sound. The word tinnitus comes from the Latin for ringing, and people hear noises (ringing, buzzing, whistling) in one or both ears, or in their heads. It can be acute or chronic, and tends to be more obvious when it's quiet ? trying to sleep can be impossible. If you have pulsatile tinnitus, you hear noises in time with your pulse. Some people have low-frequency tinnitus, when they think they can hear humming from fridges or road noises ? check if other people can hear the same noises; if they can it isn't tinnitus. About one in 10 people get tinnitus and it is a chronic, serious problem for about 1% of people. As well as the noises, it can cause fatigue, concentration problems, irritability and depression.
What causes it? Tinnitus is a symptom of an underlying condition, often one that has damaged the tiny hairs inside your inner ear that trigger nerve cells to transmit sound to the brain. When these delicate hairs are damaged, for example through natural hearing loss from ageing, an injury to the ear, or through blasting your ears with loud music (MP3 players are more culpable than loud concerts), the nerves transmit abnormal messages to the brain, which interprets them as sound. Other conditions can also cause tinnitus, such as otosclerosis (where the bones in the middle ear become stiff), a build-up of ear wax, middle-ear infections, a head injury and a perforated ear drum. Stress is known to make tinnitus worse but is unlikely to cause it on its own. Some medicines can cause tinnitus (anti-malaria drugs ? but you shouldn't stop taking them), so check with your doctor.
What can be done about it? See your GP to rule out any treatable causes (build-up of wax, an infection or hearing loss that needs a hearing aid). The BTA has excellent information (helpline 0800 018 0527). The good news is that for most people the condition improves as the brain learns to tune out the signals. However, this can take a few long, lonely months, so joining a local support group is often helpful.
Some people find that noises that mask the tinnitus such as TV or a ticking clock can help. White-noise generators make comforting noises such as rainfall or wave sounds, and can be plugged into pillow speakers. Sleeping tablets are not advised because they are addictive.
How can you prevent it? If you work in an industry where there are loud noise levels, your ears should be protected. Reduce the amount of time you are exposed to loud noise and take regular breaks.
What about complementary therapies? The BTA says there is no evidence that they work. Save your money and have a massage to reduce your stress levels.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/apr/26/dr-luisa-dillners-guide-tinnitus
Help her connect with her sexual side by meeting her needs, complimenting her and taking her out
I'm a 34-year-old man, married for 18 months. Early in our marriage, sex was better. My drive is high and I like variety, including anal sex, but my wife doesn't have such a high sex drive. After climaxing once she usually doesn't get excited again. Since she doesn't have much desire I've started to feel uneasy about approaching her. We love each other very much, but at this point we are different and I'm trying to adjust to having less sex. How can I make her excited about a second or third round in the same night?
A mismatch in sexual desire between partners can create sadness and tension, but this is often temporary. You haven't mentioned children, or what work your wife does either inside or outside the home, but very often lowered desire is a natural effect of childbearing or of tiredness and stress due to work, or family issues. Worrying about money, in-laws, or caring for elderly relatives can also make a woman feel that having sex is the last thing she feels like doing.
Your sexual wishes require high energy and stamina ? your wife may currently see this as yet another chore at the end of a tough day. Schedule sex earlier in the day, and find ways to help alleviate her tiredness or stress and you may notice a big difference in her desire (some women say it's highly arousing when men take out the rubbish!).
Help her to reconnect with her sexual side by paying attention to what pleases her sexually, giving her compliments, taking her out, and treating her like a precious lover ? even when you're not in bed.
? Pamela Stephenson Connolly is a clinical psychologist and psychotherapist who specialises in treating sexual disorders.
? Email your problem to private.lives@guardian.co.uk
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/apr/21/increasing-my-wifes-sex-drive
Jennifer Garner Jennifer Gimenez Jennifer Love Hewitt Jennifer Morrison
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Some of the finest directors have produced masterful triptychs. But do we really need a fourth Pirates of the Caribbean?
It currently seems the only three that interests Hollywood relates to dimensionality. The reverence once extended to the film trilogy is fast diminishing, and although third instalments are due for Transformers, Ong-Bak, Paranormal Activity, Alvin and the Chipmunks, Men in Black, Madagascar, Batman and Iron Man, only the first two have been announced as series finales.
Indeed, with Scre4m, Pirates of the Caribbean 4: On Stranger Tides and Spy Kids 4: All the Time in the World soon to be followed by fourth entries in the Austin Powers, Mission: Impossible, Underworld and Bourne franchises, the trilogy could soon go the way of the 2D movie, as the synergy-obsessed suits controlling the multi-media conglomerates now owning the major studios adhere to the maxim that familiarity breeds both content and profit.
Reared on the original Star Wars triptych, Lord of the Rings executive producer Mark Ordesky once opined that "the worst thing you can do is inorganically try to create a trilogy when one doesn't exist". But few of his contemporaries exhibit similar qualms in commissioning additional sequels to box office hits, with stereoscopy reducing the risk (for the moment) and increasing the possibility of runaway successes such as 3D Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy.
Since Ivor Novello silently essayed The Rat three times in the 1920s, the majority of movie trilogies have been accidental, with self-contained continuations involving recurring characters or themes predominating over single storylines. Indeed, while the Hollywood studio system concentrated on long-running series such as Andy Hardy and Charlie Chan, the trilogy became the preserve of European directors such as Pasolini, Saura, Wenders, Haneke and Von Trier. But even auteurs like Edgar Reitz couldn't resist adding a fourth (albeit fragmentary) part to his magisterial Heimat trilogy in 2006.
Yet while the makers of the Back to the Future, Evil Dead and Red Curtain trilogies knew when to stop, the third picture has frequently proved a step too far, most notably in the case of Fritz Lang's Dr Mabuse and Francis Ford Coppola's Godfather trines. Walden Media recently announced plans to reduce the seven instalments of Narnia to five, by skipping The Silver Chair and The Horse and His Boy. But such contractions are rare and the trilogy looks set to become a major victim of Hollywood's continuing bout of sequelitis.
1) The Human Condition trilogy: No Greater Love, Road to Eternity (both 1959), A Soldier's Prayer (1961)
Running nine hours and 47 minutes, Masaki Kobayashi's pacifist masterpiece follows everyman Tatsuya Nakadai's intimately epic struggle against the Japanese militarist mentality.
2) The Apu trilogy: Pather Panchali (1955), Aparajito (1957), Apu Sansar (1959)
Establishing an Indian parallel cinema alongside the Bollywood mainstream, Satyajit Ray's Bengali triptych also had an incalculable influence on film-making across the developing world.
3) Ingmar Bergman's Chamber trilogy: Through a Glass Darkly (1961), Winter Light (1963), The Silence (1963)
An excruciating record of the Swede's struggle with his faith and the
growing realisation that there's no hope of otherworldly salvation.
4) The Three Colours trilogy: Three Colours: Blue, Three Colours: White (both 1993), Three Colours: Red (1994)
Krzysztof Kieslowski's genius for ironic ambiguity is evident in this
treatise on the French revolutionary principles of liberty, fraternity and equality.
5) Roberto Rossellini's War trilogy: Rome, Open City (1945), Pais� (1946), Germany, Year Zero (1947)
Laying the foundations for Italian neo-realism, this second world war trio retains its power, poignancy and deep compassion.
6) Michelangelo Antonioni's Alienation trilogy: L'Avventura (1960), La Notte (1961), L'Eclisse (1962)
Starring Monica Vitti and exploring the dehumanising effects of moder urban living, this has a stylistic and thematic unity that ranks it among the masterworks of auteur cinema.
7) The Toy Story trilogy: Toy Story (1995), Toy Story 2 (1999), Toy Story 3 (2010)
A rare example of a latterday trilogy that actually improves with each episode.
8) The Gorky trilogy: The Childhood of Maxim Gorky (1938), My Apprenticeship (1939), My Universities (1940)
Not to be confused with the equally fine Maxim trilogy, Mark Donskoi's adaptation of Maxim Gorky's autobiography expertly combines romanticism and humanism.
9) John Ford's Cavalry trilogy: Fort Apache (1948), She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), Rio Grande (1950)
Narrowly pipping Sergio Leone's Dollars trilogy, this sums up Ford's attitudes to the West and his relationship with John Wayne.
10) The Terence Davies trilogy: Children (1976), Madonna and Child (1980), Death and Transfiguration (1983)
British cinema boasts several fine trilogies by the likes of Bill Douglas and Lindsay Anderson, but Davies's is the most powerful and cinematic.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2011/apr/25/film-trilogy-top-ten
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Port Talbot
The once a decade passion play by the German town of Oberammergau may be the most famed around the world, but it's hard to believe any version can have the heart and soul of Port Talbot's one-off, multi-platform production, which played out over the Easter weekend. Co-directed by and starring the Welsh town's favourite son, Michael Sheen, this spectacle of angels on fiery bicycles, ghosts, snipers perched on the roof of the shopping centre, and shrines to lost futures was so much more than just an epic piece of street theatre.
Hewn with tenderness from the memories of locals, and largely performed by them ? with a little help from a fine band of professional Welsh actors, and interventions from local heroes such as Paul Potts and the Manic Street Preachers ? this final production in National Theatre Wales's launch season, created in collaboration with Wildworks, was like watching a town discovering its voice through a shared act of creation. Fact and fiction, myth and memory, rumour and reality, even the living and the dead stalk side by side. I'm prepared to bet that over the last three days, Port Talbot was one of the happiest places on Earth.
Beginning on Friday on Aberavon beach, Owen Sheers's story tells of a town in thrall to a sinister and heartless corporation, ICU, who puts profit before people in its quest to plunder the town's resources. But when the Company Man arrives on the beach to make an announcement and a suicide bomber makes a move, catastrophe is only averted by the intervention of a softly spoken loner with no memory. He is later revealed as the Teacher (Sheen), a local man who 40 days earlier disappeared but who has now returned. As he gathers followers around him and becomes a focus for the Resistance, the Teacher is perceived by ICU as a danger who must be removed at all costs.
The Gospel of St Mark is the template, but everything is given a neat twist. The Last Supper takes place in the Seaside Social Club, the garden of Gethsemane is a patch of housing estate grass, God the Father becomes a roofer who knows that sometimes one slate must be sacrificed to save a whole house. The hand of Wildwork's visionary Bill Mitchell is everywhere in a show that may be on a vast scale but it understands that it is not the grand narratives but the small stories of individuals that glue the theatre and community together, and it rewards its audience's patience with a gift. This production is transforming and uplifting, and Port Talbot's future starts the very second The Passion ends.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2011/apr/24/the-passion-port-talbot-review
Vortex, London
The kind of free-improvised jazz that used to drive people screaming for the exits has been celebrated in a big way around London's Dalston in recent days. Eager, mixed-generation crowds packed Cafe Oto last week for rambunctious sax and brass chorales and two-drumkit thunderings by the German sax legend Peter Br�tzmann. Two days later, at the neighbouring Vortex, came the theatrical 69-year-old Dutch percussionist Han Bennink, an old Br�tzmann sparring partner who has also worked with Sonny Rollins.
Bennink's alternately abstract and sly, standards-quoting music with his trio was straighter than Br�tzmann's, but still full of surprises. On his second night, he opened with the People Band percussionist and Mike Figgis collaborator Terry Day. Their spontaneous conversation began with fast swing on brushes, was toughened with gunshot rim-hits against Day's delicate gong sounds, then veered into vaudeville, with a soft samba groove accompanying Day's rubbing of his drumkit with a balloon before Bennink took to bouncing his sticks off the snare and (mostly) catching them in flight.
After the break, the young Danish pianist Simon Toldam and Belgian clarinetist Joachim Badenhorst opened with dark chords and quivering long sounds, while Bennink drummed a hurtling accompaniment on a metal pillar at the side of the stage. Badenhorst switched to hoarse tenor-sax outbursts while Toldam played at a crouch (as much under the piano lid as on the keys); a cosily waltzing swing took over as Bennink rapped his sticks on a front-row table, followed by a purring sax and some Thelonious Monk.
By Bennink's often volcanic standards, it was an amiably mild-mannered show, but it grinned with his usual lopsided charm.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/apr/25/han-bennink-review
Blu Cantrell Bonnie Jill Laflin Bridget Moynahan Britney Spears
Hammersmith Apollo, London
It has been more than a decade since R Kelly, the self-proclaimed King of R&B, last passed through London ? time enough for his original fans to have grown up and stayed loyal despite the child-pornography charges (of which he was acquitted), which spent six years wending their way through court. The Lycra-and-bling-encrusted fans packing out the first of two UK dates have one thing in common: rose-coloured glasses that transform an average-looking 44-year-old with a small paunch into a prince among men.
"I was just too scared to get on a plane," he says, by way of explaining the 12-year gap since he last spread the love in the UK. How did he overcome his fear of flying? By realising that British women "deserve to see Kells, too". So here he is, sipping cognac and giving them what they want. "When you leave my room, you're gonna be walking bow-legged," he sings, and they howl. "If you wanna come back to my hotel, holler," he suggests, and they duly holler. You can only wonder how room service will cope.
His priapic self-belief is so complete that it turns 75 minutes of half-sung songs ? he rarely gets further than a verse and a chorus before going on to the next one ? into an absurdly entertaining set. His confidence stems from a talent that positions him as the Burt Bacharach of R&B: he is a masterly writer and producer, and works from the viewpoint that pop melodies and funk rhythms are not opposing forms. The dozen hits he revisits tonight, whether retro throwbacks such as When a Woman Loves (from his new album Love Letter) or club bangers such as Fiesta and Ignition, incorporate melody and beats in a way that will still be appreciated a decade from now, while the treacly balladry of I Believe I Can Fly is guaranteed years of extended life as an American Idol audition song.
The latter requires so much energy to belt out that Kelly has to sit down. Until this moment, his stamina has been remarkable: he is a performer who rarely stops moving, and frequently goes off on flights of a cappella improvisation, which is such a sweaty business that he peels off layers of clothes. But he is in fine voice tonight, and as scarf, jacket and sunglasses are tossed aside he does not miss a note.
Kelly is a terrible tease, and never makes good on his all-back-to-mine promise: after a churning version of Happy People, he leaves the stage without a word and the lights come on. But for a show that's all foreplay, it isn't bad.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/apr/25/r-kelly-review
China Chow Chloë Sevigny Christina Aguilera Christina Applegate
Based on real-life events in South Africa, the action-adventure slant masks the true bravery and accomplishments of combat photojournalists
The screening of The Bang Bang Club at the Tribeca film festival gave additional pause for thought, coming as it did in the same week as the deaths of photojournalists Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros in Libya.
Based on the real-life experiences of four photojournalists covering the tribal violence between Inkatha and ANC supporters in the early 90s, writer/director Steven Silver admitted the tragedy had "cast a long shadow over the film". Indeed, it's hard to watch the dramatic conclusion and not be chilled by the similarity in which Hetherington and Hondros lost their lives.
Silver uses the backdrop of the conflict in South Africa to explore the relationships between the four men and the subjects they shoot. Frustratingly, though, while the film poses pertinent questions about when to put the camera down, it shies away from delving deeper into these moral dilemmas and the emotional strain faced by combat photographers. Instead we're introduced to a testosterone-fuelled world in which dodging bullets is just another way of getting kicks before the partying starts.
Much of this is down to the film's crisis of identity, attempting to mix in a more mainstream, action-adventure feel while sustaining the gravitas demanded by its subject matter. It falters on both accounts and, by focusing on the power of photography, the film feels more like a series of snapshots than a coherent narrative of a pivotal moment in South Africa's history.
Ryan Phillippe as Greg Marinovich and Taylor Kitsch as Kevin Carter are both charismatic leads ? but rather than complement each other, their stories compete. Kitsch's performance as the gifted but self-destructive Carter is by far the most compelling, yet seems peripheral in an ensemble setup that never really allows room to scratch beneath the characters' surface machismo. There is undoubtedly a story here worth telling ? made all the more poignant by the fact one of the Bang Bang Club members, Jo�o Silva, lost both his legs last year on assignment in Afghanistan. It's just a shame the accomplished cinematography isn't matched by a script that lets the true bravery and accomplishments of combat photojournalists shine through, as they deserve.
? The Bang Bang Club was screened at the Tribeca film festival on 21 April.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/apr/25/bang-bang-club-review
Post your advice below. The best responses will be published in G2 next Friday
My boyfriend and I have been dating for a few months and we get on really well. The only thing is he won't sleep with me. I knew he was a virgin when we got together but I thought by now he would trust me enough. However he is adamant that sexual intercourse (of any kind) is not what he wants. He is 25 and does a huge amount of sport and adrenaline-pumping activities. I think this is how he has dealt with his sexual frustration in the past and it seems he doesn't need anything else. Does this mean he will never want to have sex? Because if this is the case I don't think I will be able to stay in this relationship. What should I do?
? If you would like to respond to this week's problem, please post your comment below.
When leaving a message on this page, please be sensitive to the fact that you are responding to a real person in the grip of a real-life dilemma, who wrote to Private Lives asking for help, and may well view your comments here. Please consider especially how your words or the tone of your message could be perceived by someone in this situation, and be aware that comments which appear to be disruptive or disrespectful to the individual concerned will not appear.
? If you would like fellow readers to respond to a dilemma of yours, send us an outline of the situation of around 150 words. For advice from Pamela Stephenson Connolly on sexual matters, send us a brief description of your concerns.
? All correspondence should reach us by Wednesday morning. Email: private.lives@guardian.co.uk (please don't send attachments)
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/apr/22/boyfriend-refuses-to-have-sex
Jennifer Aniston Jennifer Gareis Jennifer Garner Jennifer Gimenez
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The Tate is rightly under fire for its neglect of the northern artist, who committed himself to interpreting an almost vanished world
Although LS Lowry is one of the most popular British painters, his idiosyncratic outlook has never fitted into the mainstream story of modern art. Reproductions of his work abound. But he is far less easy to encounter in galleries ? apart, of course, from the Lowry centre at Salford Quays. Hence the resentment voiced in ITV1's provocative Easter Day programme. Narrated by Sir Ian McKellen, it rightly dismisses the accusation that Lowry was nothing more than an ignorant, unskilled amateur.
The truth is that Lowry did train in Manchester and Salford colleges during the early 20th century. He may have cultivated a "primitive" style, but it was a sophisticated decision made by an artist who could easily have adopted a more conventional manner. The "matchstick men" in many of Lowry's canvases convey the vision of a defiant and stubborn loner, who avoided contact with the art world and worked in a nine-to-five office job for nearly half a century.
Most of his pictures were painted at night, illuminated solely by an electric light bulb. The artist had no interest in pursuing a more photo-realist path. The isolation which haunts the people in his work reflects Lowry's own sense of being an outsider.
McKellen becomes openly angry in the documentary when he focuses on the Tate, claiming that "it is a shame verging on the iniquitous that foreign visitors to London shouldn't have access to the painter English people like more than most others". He even suggests that the Tate should sell its collection of 23 Lowrys ? a bizarre proposal, which might well mean that the collection ends up in some wealthy collector's mansion, invisible to anyone except his dinner guests, family and staff. Selling off the nation's assets is a foolish idea, and it must never be implemented.
At the moment, Tate Britain does undoubtedly suffer from an acute space shortage. Too much of its outstandingly rich collection of 20th-century art is unable to find permanent display space, and this problem will only be alleviated when its galleries are extended two years from now. But in the meantime, Tate Britain's curators are eminently capable of mounting a thematic display devoted to Lowry's work. It would be fascinating to compare his images with paintings, photographs and even films of northern scenes by other artists from that period.
At one point in the programme, Noel Gallagher of Oasis voices his Mancunian suspicion that the 23 Lowrys are invisible because "they're not considered Tateworthy. Or is it just because he is a northerner?" People who live outside London often feel uneasy about the overwhelming power of metropolitan culture in this country. So the Tate has much to gain from countering this sense of discomfort, and attending more closely to the life flourishing in places far removed from our capital city.
Not that Lowry's paintings present a vision which tallies with our experience of northern life today. Born in 1887, he concentrated on the urban scene familiar to him during his childhood and adolescence. In Lowry's work, many of the buildings ? both industrial and domestic ? have long since disappeared. But their replacement does not invalidate his art. On the contrary: we can now see Lowry even more clearly, as a lifelong obsessive who committed himself to interpreting an almost vanished world.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/apr/24/ls-lowry-the-tate
Jennifer Gareis Jennifer Garner Jennifer Gimenez Jennifer Love Hewitt
| Aries (March 21 - April 19) Sure, you can always get things done on your own. But? |
Source: http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/parenting/astrology-com-daily-momscopes-monday-april-25-2011-2477427/
The Wizards Of Waverly Place | Game Of Thrones | Spartacus: Gods Of The Arena | Arena: Produced By George Martin | The Suspicions Of Mr Whicher | Derren Brown: Miracles For Sale
There are tins of baked beans less canned than the laughter on Wizards . . . but in a way, that simply adds to this show's retro 1970s family comedy feel. If you're late to this, then you are due a recap: the Wizards are a group of supremely undangerous magicians, who, as season four begins, are lately escaped from a government facility ? but without their powers, they're a little helpless. As they return home, slapstick family entertainment is our lot, albeit with slyly subversive anti-authoritarian gags. John Robinson
After last week's brisk getting-to-know-you episode, tonight's takes off like a rocket. Bran's push from the turret has put the castle into disarray, with some more concerned about the outcome than others. Ned grudgingly accepts King Robert's request to be his "Hand", Jon Snow travels to the wall and meets his fellow Night Guards, and The Imp tags along and sees potential in Ned's bastard son. Daenerys starts to adapt to her role as Dothraki royalty and those unbearably cute direwolf pups have grown into something more fearsome and useful. This is cracking and complex entertainment, so don't miss it. Phelim O'Neill
Tonight's finale, The Bitter End, may not have as provocative a title as season one's brilliant denouement, Kill Them All, but it matches it in every department, even surpassing it in some. This mini-series has all been about Batiatus's and Lucretia's descent into hell, and now they're fully paid-up residents of the underworld, it's time for bloody reckoning to those who have slighted them. It's also time for the grand opening of the new arena. Who shall emerge victorious? It's not as cut and dried as you'd think. PO'N
The cliches about George Martin (the "fifth Beatle") are happily absent from this gentle film, in which persons from Macca to Michael Palin drop by to coax the producer's life story from him. Martin was producing comedy records at Parlophone when he offered an hour of studio time to Brian Epstein for a group called The Beatles ? and so began a great deal of important and imaginative work, not always well paid. Martin's 1963 diary offers a sobering look at his schedule. "Gerry And The Pacemakers . . . Billy J Kramer . . . Cilla . . ." says his wife, as she runs her finger down one page. "Busy day." JR
Mr Whicher was Jonathan Whicher, Scotland Yard detective. This superior adaptation of Kate Summerscale's book depicts his most famous, if not his most triumphant, case: the 1860 murder of three-year-old Saville Kent at Road Hill House in Wiltshire. It's not a traditional whodunnit: the murder has been a staple of literature and song for 150 years, and the identity of the perpetrator is well known. But the story is well carried by a terrific cast, headed by Paddy Considine as Inspector Whicher, and Peter Capaldi as the victim's unpleasant father. Andrew Mueller
Is this the most audacious Derren stunt yet? Tonight, Brown turns
an ordinary scuba diving instructor into faith-healer "Pastor James Collins". The blind will see, the deaf will hear ? and the gullible might even have the scales raked from their eyes. As Brown repeatedly stresses, this is not an attack on religion, but a riposte to the "systematic exploitation of the vulnerable" in God's name by some very dodgy and greedy people. Ali Catterall
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2011/apr/25/game-of-thrones-watch-this
Christina Aguilera Christina Applegate Christina DaRe Christina Milian
What sets a royal expert apart from you, me, and a particularly backward gatepost? The answer lies in the expectation
Today's edition of Know Your Pundits showcases the Mail on Sunday's royal correspondent Katie Nicholl, who was only recently telling the Wall Street Journal that the jockeying amongst Britain's royal experts has got "very bitchy and competitive". She had, she explained, probably put a lot of noses out of joint. "I'm the girl with the book out," she sympathised. "I'm the girl with the big TV deal." The glamma of it! And so to Katie's most recent dispatch, which goes big on the fact that "William's uncle, Charles Spencer ? will have no formal role" in the wedding service ? though he "had been expected to deliver an address". Had been expected by whom, you might wonder? Meth addicts? People without access to media since 1986? No, it would seem this eventuality had been expected by certain "royal experts". So if you seek an answer to that timeworn question ? what sets a royal expert apart from you, me, and a particularly backward gatepost? ? then look no further than that declaration that Charles Spencer "had been expected to deliver an address". It's not so much the amusing belief that Friday's ultra-traditional wedding service allows for "an address" by personages other than the archbishop of Canterbury. Rather, it's the ability of the "royal expert" to imply that at high-level meetings of the wedding planning unit, a significant faction of courtiers were saying "Yes, we MUST give Earl Spencer another run-out ? it really wouldn't be an abbey event without him bringing his special brand of public speaking to it." Of course, it's somewhat disappointing that no royal expert has yet stated that Mohamed Al Fayed "had been expected do a reading", but with any luck that oversight will be remedied in the coming days.
Incidentally, would media organisations please reconsider the seemliness of booking ex-King Constantine of Greece to discourse on the wedding? It is bad enough being subjected to the sterling work of psychologists/astrologers/Australian punsters on the matter, but there is something desperately infra dig about a man who would be king farting out anecdotes about William being "a hell of a nice guy" in return for a spot on breakfast telly. His Ex-jesty is implored to have a word with himself at once.
To those of you who have written asking whether this column was joking when it mentioned that Fearne Cotton would be part of the BBC's TV presenting team on the big day, I am delighted to say it wasn't. Have you not seen the trailers? From the tenor of your emails, I sense that you will be even more thrilled at news that Vernon Kay ? the missing link between the Beeb and the vegetable kingdom ? will be anchoring the coverage of the occasion on Radio 1. This seems profoundly appropriate for our times. You might recall that when the list of Tony Blair's Chequers dinner guests was reluctantly revealed, Vernon's name was there for all to see. Being prime minister is rather like being able to play the fantasy dinner party game for real, so the fact that Tony Blair could have rifled through a near-limitless Rolodex of fascinating public figures, yet plumped for Vernon Kay, speaks volumes about his character (were further volumes in any way required). That Vernon should once again find himself at our nation's high table says more about Where We Are At than any number of dystopian social treatises, and we can only await the Boltonian Zelig's next state appearance with infinite resignation.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/lostinshowbiz/2011/apr/24/lost-in-royal-wedding-showbiz
