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Jade Goody loses battle with cancer
I can’t believe Jade Goody is gone. The 27-year-old mother of two passed away at 3.14am in the early hours of Sunday March 22, Mother’s Day, after a six-month battle with cancer.
Jade’s publicist Max Clifford said this morning: “I think she’s going to be remembered as a young girl who has, and who will, save an awful lot of lives. She was a very, very brave. And she faced her death in the way she faced her whole life – full on, with a lot of courage.”
Since the gobby Essex girl first burst onto TV screens in Big Brother 3 back in 2002, she lived her whole life, warts and all, in the spotlight. She enjoyed amazing success with her perfume, fitness DVDs, book deals and multiple TV appearances, making Jade Britain’s first reality TV millionaire. Then there were all the times she made headlines for the wrong reasons, such as her ugly fight with Shilpa Shetty in Celebrity Big Brother in 2007.
Through it all, Jade’s priority was always her sons, Bobby and Freddie, and I’m sure when they are older they’ll look back proudly at the way their mother faced her cancer so courageously, increased awareness of the disease and provided for their future.
Leon Dropped
According to reports in The Sun, X-Factor 2007 winner Leon Jackson has been dropped from his record label following poor sales of his debut album.
It’s hardly earth-shattering news, is it?
I interviewed him last year and he was a likeable enough young chap but sorely lacking in charisma. I met Same Difference the week after and they had more star-quality, which tells you all you need to know.
At the risk of stating the obvious, there are loads of people out there with good singing voices. Go to any half-decent karaoke night anywhere in the country and the chances are you’ll find at least one punter who could hold their own against Leon.
Conversely, there are plenty of successful recording artists who couldn’t touch him in the vocal department. Without putting too fine a point on it, two of them were on the judging panel last year.
It just goes to show that winning a TV talent show is no guarantee of success if you don’t have that extra something. That’s why it’s called the X-Factor.
Natasha Richardson dies
Tributes are pouring in for British actress Natasha Richardson, who died overnight from a serious head injury sustained during a skiing accident.
Natasha came from a long line of Hollywood greats – both parents, Vanessa Redgrave and Tony Richardson, are Oscar winners; sister Joely is a successful actress, as is aunt Lynn Redgrave. The 45-year-old actress leaves her husband of 14 years, Irish actor Liam Neeson and two sons, Michael, 13, and Daniel, 12.
Natasha died following an seemingly harmless fall on a beginner’s ski slope in Quebec, Canada, on March 16. After developing a headache an hour later, she was taken to a local hospital, before being transferred to a Montreal hospital and then airlifted to New York on Tuesday.
The family released the following statement several hours after Natasha succumbed to her injuries: “Liam Neeson, his sons, and the entire family are shocked and devastated by the tragic death of their beloved Natasha. They are profoundly grateful for the support, love and prayers of everyone, and ask for privacy during this very difficult time.”
Natasha Richardson’s life
Celebrity tributes pour in for Natasha
Amy Winehouse in court
Amy Winehouse appeared in a London court on Tuesday morning, charged with assaulting a fan.
There was a marked difference in Amy’s demeanour since we last saw her in London. Sure, she was on trial for serious assault, but the singer looked like she didn’t have a care in the world, strutting her stuff in front of photographers outside Westminster Magistrates’ Court and hamming it up for onlookers. Although still very thin, Amy looked healthier than she has in years, dressed in a cute floral frock and pale pink stilettos, and with her trademark beehive back where it belongs.
Once inside (over an hour late), the singer identified herself as “Amy Jade Civil” (her married name), before pleading not guilty to punching Sherene Flash at a ball in London’s Berkeley Square last September. She was bailed and must return to court on July 23.
What The World Is Waiting For?
According to recent reports, the Stone Roses have agreed to reform for 21 dates this summer.
For people of a certain age (eg. me), this is extremely exciting but initially I was a little surprised it was considered sufficiently newsworthy to make page three of today’s Daily Mirror (albeit underneath a much bigger spread about Corrie’s Jack Duckworth finding love again).
Either Mirror staff were getting all their Manc news out of the way in one go or the Roses were a bigger cultural deal than I thought.
Don’t get me wrong, I firmly believe the Stone Roses belong in the most exulted sphere of British guitar music.
You know, the place where the Beatles and the Stones, Led Zeppelin, The Smiths, and a handful of others hang out but Oasis, for all their record sales, have only ever peered longingly into.
What surprised me is that their mooted reunion should excite mainstream media attention when they only released two albums (five years apart), didn’t have a number one with either, and have never been a household name.
I am not, as I have been accused recently, equating commercial success with quality. The Smiths, for example, never troubled the charts much. What they did do, however, was leave behind a decent-sized body of work. Few would argue they failed to live up to their potential.
The Stone Roses, on the other hand, were recently referred to by their own bass player (who now plies his trade with Primal Scream) as the George Best of music for the manner in which they threw it all away after their first sniff of success.
Although few Roses fans will thank me for the comparison, I’m hoping this will turn out like Take That’s reunion. How brilliant would it be if, like Take That, they are overwhelmed by public reaction to the tour and are inspired to write new material?
How brilliant if that new material turns out to be as good as if not better than anything they came up with first time around?
You see, the thing with the Stone Roses is that no band has ever left a bigger question mark over what might have been.
The fact that we might be about to find out is why the news deserves to be in ALL the papers.
Nominated?! Us?!
There’s no need to clap. Please, stay in your seats. MSN UK has been nominated for an award – an International Digital Emmy no less!
Kirill – our 2008 sci-fi drama series – represented our first steps into narrative online video. We were impressed with the results as, it seems, were the people over at the International Academy.
Fronted by Pirates Of The Caribbean star David Schofield, Kirill is the story of a renegade scientist secluded in a filthy lab. He knows that a sinister organisation is preying on young science students. But he can’t reach them – it’s all very mysterious.
There are 8 mini-episodes here at the Kirill homepage, but there’s a lot more to it than that. What really distinguishes Kirill are the character blogs that remain integral to the story throughout. Our characters, particularly the young scientist Vivian (Vee Vimolmal), blog their experiences and communicate with each other in text as well as video. This makes the series a unique online experience that wouldn’t work in any other medium.
We’re proud of it and chuffed to bits with the recognition. Fingers are crossed for the awards on March 30. Go Kirill!
Counting Down to 24…
Tick… tick… tick… the 24 movie is happening!!
The folks over at Digital Spy took a brief diversion from the subject of Monsters vs. Aliens, which Kiefer was out promoting recently, and this is what he said when pressed about the possibility of some cinematic 24 action – sounds like a Europe-bound 24 adventure is on the cards…
“It’s something that we’ve always talked about because I think the fantastic thing about Europe, for something like 24, is that it’s very feasible to get from Prague to London in the course of a day,”
“It’s just a question of when we’re actually going to make the movie,” he said.
BTW – I was there for that Monsters v Aliens press junket. And may I just say what a thoroughly, THOROUGHLY nice chap Mr Sutherland is. If I ever thought that this was a bad idea and that 24 belongs on TV, I don’t any more. I’m with him whatever he does. Go Jack!! Sorry… go Kiefer!!
Kerry reconciles with husband
Kerry Katona appears to have reconciled with husband Mark Croft, just days after announcing she was filing for divorce. Kerry and Mark were photographed kissing and holding hands outside their local Tesco supermarket on Sunday, following a four-day split.
Last week the mother of four told an MTV camera crew she had kicked Mark out of her Warrington home, saying: “He’s been destroying my life. Mark is dead to me. I’m going to do everything possible to keep him out of my life for good. I have to."
According to the News Of The World, the split took place after Kerry called an emergency meeting with her accountant last week and was told that her bank account was almost empty. She later found out that Mark had transferred nearly £455,000 of her money into his business account, the paper reported.
Kerry Katona single again
Kerry Katona has confirmed she has split from her husband and has started divorce proceedings.
In a video shot by MTV, Kerry says down the phone to a friend: "I’ve got a lawyer involved, me and Mark are getting a divorce, we really are." She then turns to the camera and says, sobbing: "You were all ******* right… please don’t say I told you so, it’s the last thing I need." Watch the video on MTV
The mother-of-four first sparked speculation over her marriage when she changed her Facebook status to ‘single’ earlier this week. According to The Sun, she also deleted all references to her husband and added the message: “I really never thought I would have to go through this again.”
Kerry married former cabbie Mark Croft two years ago and the pair have two children together, two-year-old Heidi and 11-month-old Max. Kerry also has two daughters from her marriage to former Westlife singer Bryan McFadden.
A franchise with the decency to die…
In times like these, when the 80s’ and 90s’ every hero is being resurrected whether good or bad, it’s fantastically refreshing to encounter a brand with the guts to call it a day and admit defeat. I never thought I’d say this, but we can all learn a little from the Power Rangers.
According to the New Zealand Herald, the long-running series, which spawned two movies in ‘95 and ‘97, has finally bitten the dust.
This news comes in the same week that we hear further word of Beverley Hills Cop 4, Zoolander 2, Twilight 3 (!), Free Willy 4, Fantastic Four 3 and Mad Max 4. The world has gone sequel-crazy!
In this credit crunchy environment, every established brand is being wrung for every $ it’s worth. So it’s nice to see that Power Rangers are biting the dust. I’d love to say that this is entirely due to an ethical decision that the world has had enough Power Rangin’, but the reality is almost certainly that the barrel is dry oin this one.
One franchise calling it a day with its dignity intact is Lethal Weapon (yes, Lethal Weapon 4 WAS good!), despite calls for a last hurrah from Mel Gibson and Danny Glover. Apparently, Mel won’t wear the mullet again. Bravo, Mel!
One piece of good news on the sequels front is the announcement of Tron 2, with Jeff Bridges starring and Daft Punk on the soundtrack! I’ll have a write-up of this along with a collection of other sequels that would actually be welcome on the site tomorrow.
