It is still hard to believe that Paul McMullan’s Leveson testimony was for real. But it was also very revealing of a certain mindset Notwithstanding the seriousness of the Leveson inquiry, it is still hard to believe that Paul McMullan’s testimony was for real. It was so shocking, so absurd in...
Entertainment
Celebrity memoirs lose star power at the tills
Do the memoirs of a pretend celebrity, Alan Partridge, bring the curtain down on what was once a blockbuster genre? The stars are out in the window of Foyles flagship store on London’s Charing Cross Road, with Joanna Lumley and Alan Partridge twinkling beneath the ribbons and wrapping paper...
Could ex-NoW man Paul McMullan hack it in the jungle?
Thanks to the Leveson inquiry, Paul McMullan is now a celebrity, so let’s get him into the jungle Over the past decade, celebrity has tumbled down the rabbit hole. There is now simply no one in the news who cannot be repackaged for the entertainment market. Rodney King, the breakout...
Angelina Jolie: will you be dying to meet her?
I could always become an undertaker, threatens Angelina Jolie in an interview revealing her dark side Now that the United Nations has rightly identified her as the solution to many of the world’s most complex and intractable problems, it’s easy to forget that Angelina Jolie was once in the...
John Bercow’s coat of arms and the art of invention
Who might take inspiration from the Speaker’s new heraldic? The coat of arms is like an ancient form of Wikipedia entry: within it one finds a potted biography, often completely made up by the person in question. Some politicians – George Osborne, say – may be stuck with the...
John Bercow’s coat of arms and the art of invention
Who might take inspiration from the Speaker’s new heraldic? The coat of arms is like an ancient form of Wikipedia entry: within it one finds a potted biography, often completely made up by the person in question. Some politicians – George Osborne, say – may be stuck with the...
Pippa Middleton turns party planner – for the wrong decade
Our Pippa’s book on hosting a party is for the domestic goddess age, unfortunately that was 10 years ago Pippa Middleton is being paid £400,000 for a book on party planning for women. I’d love to know what a party-planning book aimed at men looks like, but they don’t...
Pippa Middleton and the survival of the preposterous publisher’s advance
Times are tough in the book trade. But some star-dusted projects can still apparently attract serious money Pippa Middleton, sister to Kate, party planner – and most recently, lucky recipient of a reported £400,000 book deal from Penguin’s commercial imprint, Michael Joseph. The title? How to Be the Perfect...
Guess who tops the 50 most influential people in the north
The ever-excellent Big Issue in the North reckons it’s George Osborne, with some mighty big players not far behind. Enliven your Monday morning by debating passionately who’s in but shouldn’t be and who isn’t but should. Here they are – your regional big hitters for 2012 according to the...
Peter Andre and Jordan’s publishing stand-off
Is Peter new magazine just an attempt to wind up Katie Price? Some cosmic malevolence has decreed it’s only breakfast telly and Jordan’s ex-husbands this week, so gird your loins for news of Peter Andre. In August, you might recall, Peter’s former wife added a magazine, Katie, to her...