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".

The state then paid her 19 grand not to sue. 

Amazing! It's like the crapper that laid the golden turd.

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?