Looks like Owen Wilson's bid to top himself was precipitated by a drug problem. And that problem has been linked to his friendship with Pommy funny bloke Steve Coogan.

I spent several years doing standup comedy back in the 90s. It seemed that almost anyone who was successful in that scene was either a dipso or a smackhead -- or both.

I've never gone down that road. I used to say to my friends that that was why I never hit the A-list. Was joking at the time, but in retrospect I think that observation wasn't far off the mark. I do think that addiction problems are an advantage in that, er, "profession", because they add a bit of wildness to a comic's image and complement the "tortured artist" and "tearful clown" stereotypes. And the tabloids love 'em for obvious reasons.

That said, comics are generally the smartest of all the arty types. For smart people they sure do some bloody stupid things.

I've written before about the numerous "paid to post" sites now springing up all over the internet. I have signed up to a couple of them, and have written one paid post so far on another blog.

One of the newer ones is Bloggerwave, which, unlike most others, is based in Europe. While the other companies have a variable pricing range it appears from the opportunities I've seen that Bloggerwave has a standard price per post. This makes it seem more egalitarian than the others, and therefore a good opportunity for the writers of "younger" blogs, which may not be pulling in huge traffic just yet. I encourage them to have a look at this site.

This post sponsored by Bloggerwave.

Owen Wilson is young, rich, talented, famous and a chick magnet.  And he just tried to top himself. 

Hollywood is a weird, gruesome place, that's for sure.

I linked to a page with blog directories earlier.  Just found another good list of free directories.  I think it's more for websites, but I'd say could probably whop your blogs on these sites as well. 

And re submission:  There are heaps of mass submission sites out there.  But experts reckon that it's better to submit your blogs and websites yourself, by hand.

Anyway, here's the list.

Here's a story to really bamboozle the fluffy wuffies:  Darren Hayes, formerly of Savage Garden, is a loudly, proudly gay bloke with a hubbie.  So, a real icon for the fluffs. 

But now, he's just been arrested for allegedly racially abusing some waiter in a restaurant in London.

How will the poor little poppets reconcile it?  They'll probably say that the police who arrested him are all homophobic, or something ...

Other bloggers might be interested in submitting their sites to various blog directories.  Here's a good list, with details about their page rank. 

When I first started blogging a few years ago, there were only a few of these directories.  Now there are squillions!

So Fifi Box, bubbly blonde celeb, has put a few noses out of joint with some silly undies ad. Seems the humour in it wasn't PC enough.

Haven't seen the ad in question yet. But it does seem to be another case of people taking offence at something very benign.

I can think of far more serious chick-related issues going on in the west -- honour killing for instance. But these hardly rate a mention.

Much easier to sledge some blonde.  (Which you'd think was un-PC.  Not any more, it seems.) 

Hard to believe that Elvis Presley carked it all those years ago.  I remember hearing about it when I was a little tacker (13 years old) living in the West Oz town of Bunbury.  Can actually remember the exact moment I heard it on the radio.  Was driving down a road south of Bunbury at the time. 

Shows just what a huge impression the guy made, when even a whippersnapper from Oz felt the gravitas of his death. 

I have posted recently on making money from your blog.  Adsense is the most popular method, it seems.  Though there can be a problem with some blog hosts because they are not already set up to enable Adsense. 

But more and more of them are.  There's Blogger, of course.  There are more and more others like Plogzilla, Soulcast and BlogText.  These look good, because as well as having it all set up and ready to go, they rotate posts on the main page, which seem to get a helluva lot of hits.  So, you're getting the advantage of their marketing efforts as well as your own.   

I may well start a new blog or two at one or more of these sites.

Here's an interesting paradox: It seems the less walking you do the more environmentally friendly you are .

So, all those hefty leftie couch potatoes like Michael Moore are actually lending their weight to Gaia's cause. Maybe that's the reason behind all the sitting around doing nothing and not mere laziness as was previously thought.