2005 Archives You'll see in the archives section above that 2005 is missing. That's some glitch that will hopefully rectify itself eventually. But in the meantime if you want to find my posts from this period they are below:
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Model Charlotte Dawson and a gardener are having a stoush, resulting in some bad publicity for her. Seems the gardener convinced her ex that she'd propositioned him before their relationship was over.
Hmm. A beautiful woman makes a pass at a gardener working in the grounds of the house she's living in. Sounds like the plot of a porno film!
It's a pretty tacky situation. But I also wonder how this thing hit the media in the first place. If Dawson herself spilled the beans, then she must be desparate for publicity.
JD fortune, who was fronting the revamped INXS, has been booted from the band and is now living in his car.
Hopefully he'll get his act together again and create a new, original identity for himself.
I could never understand why they even tried to keep the band alive all these years. Michael Hutchence made that band. He was its heart and soul. When he died, it died too.
The remaining band members just kept it on life support to keep the money flowing, I reckon.
Many people find Ozzy Osbourne a hoot. But I find the poor fellow depressing. He's clearly done permanent damage to his mind and body with drugs and alcohol.
Seems a very cruel thing to do to them. The poor little buggers are sure to get teased as a result.
And kids of the famous have it rough anyway on account of their parents' enormous presence in the media. They must feel so insignificant and overshadowed!
Take the case of Peaches Geldof. Famous father, and mother (who died of an overdose). And she was given a stupid name.
Gotta feel sorry for Nicole Kidman. She lives in such a strange world. She's always seeking approval from people whom she'll never meet. And when she doesn't get it she's deeply hurt.
Just a note to returning readers, if there are any of them: While I haven't posted often lately, I'll always try and return to write something here from time to time.
My comparative slackness has mainly been due to the fact I've been so busy with other, mostly online, stuff. Have been flat out learning about SEO, internet marketing and affiliate programs. I am using this knowledge to promote various programs and products, such as guides on how to make money from eBay, etc.
All that effort is finally bearing fruit, thankfully.
So OJ Simpson is finally gonna end up in the slammer. Seems that karma actually works after all.
The former sports star and celebrity's fall also has a kind of geometrical irony. That is, he clearly knew that killing Nicole Brown was a criminal act, yet he got away with it. He seems not to have known that kidnapping and armed robbery were morally wrong, yet justice has been served in this case.
Hmmm. So, the thought he would betray his wife with another woman is seen as extremely damaging to his reputation. Yet the fact that he routinely abuses his staff in the most vicious way isn't damaging at all. Actually, it's a big part of the reason for his celebrity.
They really take freedom of speech seriously in the USA, sometimes to a ludicrous extent.
Take the case of Dawn Herb of Scranton: She was fined for cursing at her busted brasco. But she got a very sharp lawyer who successfully argued that her rant at the lav was "protected free speech".
So Russell Brand has quit his gig as a result of that notorious phone call.
Amazing that it even made it to air. But the most bizarre aspect about it was that what Ross and Brand said was partially true: as Andrew Sachs' granddaughter confirmed, Brand had slept with her.
Whether this makes the prank more or less offensive, I'm not quite sure ...
Money has been at the root of squillions of marriage breakdowns. But the problem is usually the lack of money.
Seems that it's excess can contribute to a divorce as well. See, Guy Ritchie was offended when wife Madonna asked him to return several million bucks she'd offered him to make a doco, which he had stopped working on because of their discord.
(Just an observation, but isn't the photo accompanying that article amazing? Madonna looks kind of aristocratic. But she really is showing her age, don't you think?)
Gotta feel sorry for Bindi Irwin. Not only did she lose her father Steve young. But he still overshadows her in her chosen career.
She shows no signs of buckling under this emotional weight, but I suspect the damage will accumulate and manifest itself at some stage down the track.
If people think that having a hugely famous parent can't cause major problems for offspring, they should consider the case of Guillaume Depardieu. Son of beefy French star Gerard, he struggled to forge his own identity all his life. Poor bastard had a series of personal and health problems and recently carked it at only 37.
I doubt that Bindi Irwin will suffer so badly, but she's still been saddled with way more than her fair share of emotional baggage.
Feminists often complain that media pundits rarely treat women politicians men's equals; that they often make petty and unreasonable criticisms of their behaviour and appearance.
This is occasionally true. Usually it is not.
However, it definitely applies to the way the media has treated Sarah Palin. Ironically it is feminists who are getting stuck into her most savagely.
Men and women in the media seem to find it extra hard to deal with Palin. It's her unapologetic femininity that rattles them the most.
Take that wink in the debate, for instance. Would a bloke have copped such condemnation over something so benign?
Looks like Lilly Allen is trying to usurp Amy Winehouse as Britain's most consistently trashed celeb. She made a spectacle of herself at a recent awards night, abusing Sir Elton John.
You gotta hand it to Elton, but. He wasn't lost for words when she swore at him.
"I could still snort you under the table," he shot back.
So David Duchovny is being treated for sex addiction. Maybe he's been taking a "method" approach to his role as a horny writer in Californication. If so, the cure could be a curse because he might not be able to do the gig after he kicks his, er, habit.
The diagnosis implies that he's been playing around. But the guy is married to Tea Leoni! With a babe like that as a wife, why would you wanna look anywhere else?
Been hearing and reading heaps about how dang brilliant Heath ledger is in The Dark Knight. But being the cynic I am, I couldn't help think that this was mainly because he bought the farm soon after filming it, so people want to be nice, or are (subconciously) trying to create a kind of James Dean myth about him.
But it sounds like he really was great in his final performance. Lots of glowing reviews out there just like this one.
And just re this particular review: The critic says that "even Eric Roberts" is brilliant, as if he's usually crap.
But he's always brilliant -- particularly when he's playing psychos, which is often. He's one of the most underrated actors in Hollywood, I reckon. He just never quite made it to the A-list, that's all.
I've seen a few quick promos of Gordon Ramsey swearing his head off. But I'd never actually watched the guy for any length of time until last night, when I saw about ten minutes of this show.
Gawd, what an eye opener! I don't care how good a chef he is supposed to be. He's just an egocentric pratt as far as I'm concerned.
From what I saw he spent more time abusing people in particularly infantile and vicious ways than he did actually cookin'! I'd say he missed his true calling. He should have joined the army and become one of those hard-as-nails head kickers who break in new recruits.
Says heaps about the meeja that such an obnoxious wanker can become so famous and admired.