Anne takes on Ray

Anne Doyle is on Ray D'arcy's show right now! She sounds like a right laugh: Anne for the Late Late Show we say!

Ireland's secret royal crush?

Feature from today's Independent. 

There is a long and bloody relationship betweenIreland and the British crown, blighted in the popular imagination as it is by colonialism, the Famine, the republican War of Independence, a civil war fought over an oath to the King, and the tragedy of Northern Ireland.

But a new documentary that airs tonight on RTE 1 dares to ask if the Irish people deep down have a secret love of the British royal family. Continue here. 

Dumb and Dumber

The comedy just gets better. McCrazy and Scarah make a joint appearance on Katie Couric to try back-peddle on her disastrous interviews last week. "Gotcha journalism", "she didn't hear the question properly over the noise"  - this pair of clowns should be defeated in a landslide in November. 

The Living Room Candidate

The Museum of the Moving Image has a brilliant online repository of all the presidential commercials going back to Eisenhower v Stephenson's presidential race in 1952. 

New W trailer and poster

Trailer...

Amy rocks. Actually, make that 'raps'

Have you seen Ben Affleck's grim thriller Gone Baby, Gone? Remember Amy Ryan, who was Oscar nominated (and should have won) for her electrifying portrayal of the grubby mother from hell? Well check her out having some rapping fun with Steve Carell in the new series of the US version of The Office. That's versatility baby. 

Here and now

My review of You Are Here in today's Irish Daily Mail

You Are Here (Daytime and Night-time),

Quartiere Bloom, Dublin

Shows at 1pm, 3pm, 8pm and 10pm until October 12. See www.dublintheatrefestival.com

 Rating: 4 out of 5

Verdict: A highly original interactive experience that takes the term ‘fly on the wall’ to fascinating new heights.

 This year’s Dublin Theatre Festival is playing host to several major productions, notably Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking and Gregory Burke’s Black Watch, but few plays will be able to match Living Space Theatre Group’s You Are Here in terms of originality and sheer envelope-pushing innovation.

 For good and for bad, the modern city centre apartment is one of the most potent emblems of the Celtic Tiger boom, and here an actual apartment in the bustling Italian Quarter serves as both the setting for, and the central character of, a topical, almost philosophical piece that grants a voyeuristic look into the lives of four Dubliners, who have at one point or another all lived in or shared that same characterless pad.

 Every day during the festival, the show is presented in two 60-minute parts in the afternoon and at night, and for each one, the audience is given a colour-coded wrist band that determines which character and story they are to shadow in different rooms of the apartment: the adulterous couple (Aonghus Weber and the luminous Annemarie Gaillard), a homeless estate agent (Carl Kennedy, assaying the show’s most comical strand), and a depressed self-help writer (the wonderful Eleanor Methven). 

And shadow we most certainly do: standing viewers literally become flies on the wall, observing the action right up close, themselves becoming nosy, ghostly presences in a dwelling already haunted by the lives of its current and former occupants, an apartment where even the furniture, appliances and plants offer up character details and musings by way of voiceover and other sound effects.

Through this fragmented, open-ended, purposefully incomplete structure, playwright Ioanna Anderson, and director Tara Derrington, explore notions of home and what that word, that concept means in an age, and a city, rife with alienation and loneliness, and where rampant consumerism and ‘me-me-me’ self-involvement reign supreme.

Through random selection, this reviewer mainly followed Weber and Gaillard’s intimate story, which is told from different perspectives during the daytime and night-time shows. Naturally, I left wanting to know more about the other plots that I had to miss, but that’s just an excuse to catch another viewing, as is the opportunity each audience member is given to rifle through the apartment, snooping through its archaeology to find little clues – a sex toy, a bottle of pills, a photograph – that shed more light onto these four pawns caught up in the ultimate reality show.

 

 

 

 

 

Some good viewin'

Friday afternoon and night, I caught performances of the highly original and innovative You Are Here, one of the highlights of the Dublin Theatre Festival. See here, or tomorrow's Irish Daily Mail, for my review. 

This afternoon, I went to see I've Loved You So Long, an intense new French drama starring bilingual actress Kristin Scott Thomas - in an extraordinary performance - as Juliette, a woman released from jail after a 15 year prison sentence, and her struggle to start afresh with her life, and re-establish a relationship with her estranged younger sister (Elsa Zylberstein). Sounds grim, but it's an engaging, tense and moving film, shot through with empathy and even the odd flash of humour that really is worth seeing for Scott Thomas' Oscar-worthy performance. 

After that, I hightailed it up to the IFI for Annie Leibovitz: Life Through a Lens, the closing documentary of the Stranger than Fiction festival. Leibovitz is a fascinating woman who has had an amazing life and career, and this certainly was a welcome insight into her methods, but, seeing as it is made by her sister, it is perhaps too soft focus, and irritatingly didn't feature any captions to explain who the various contributors were: all pretty ironic, considering that it's a film about a photographer! Leibovitz deserves a more in-depth biography than this- here's hoping it will come some day. 

This week, I'm sooooo looking forward to seeing The Year of Magical Thinking on Thursday afternoon - I'll be sure to post  my thoughts afterwards. 

Tina as Scarah: Strike 2

Tina Fey strikes again on SNL - this time doing Palin during that excruciating Katie Couric interview. With these two SNL performances alone, I think it's fair to say that Fey has destroyed Palin's credibility, and underlined her unsuitability for major office, more than any debate with Joe Biden ever could. Go Tina!

Paul Newman, 1925-2008

A true legend passes.

Obama winner of first debate

A CNN national poll names Obama as the winner of the first debate by 51% to 38%

Taken the piss

Forgot about this. My review of Liam Neeson's dire new movie Taken from yesterday's Day and Night.

New Synecdoche, New York poster

With Charlie Kaufman writing, that cast, and a characteristically bizarre and intriguing plot, how can this fail?

Condi victim of gay rumour...

Report on GCN that US Secretary of State, Dr Condoleezza Rice, was passed over for the Republican vice presidential nomination because apparently she's gay...

Commander in cheek

Hilarious. Read here

Cover version

Stephen Coal-bare and Jon Stewart on the cover of the latest EW...

Excitement...well, for nerds anyway

Because I'm Worth It

My piece from today's Irish Examiner

Not too long ago, male grooming used to consist merely of a soap wash, a disposable razor shave and a quick haircut that cost the equivalent of a pint. But the dawning of the ‘metrosexual’ age has changed the face of the Irish male – quite literally. Now that face is more likely to be tanned, well-toned and glowing from a facial he got from one of the increasing number of male-only salons popping up around the country.

This weekend, however, male grooming moves into a new phase with the arrival of Yves Saint Laurent’s Touche Eclat for men, a bloke-friendly version of the legendary concealer that claims to cover up under-eye circles and minor skin blemishes by reflecting light away from shadowy and tired areas of the face.

Touche Eclat is big business for YSL: since its launch in 1992, one of the iconic gold pens has sold every 20 seconds worldwide. Now it’s the guys’ turn to get in on the concealing act. Earlier this month, the men’s version was launched in Britain to much fanfare by primped Big Brother 9 hunk Stuart Pilkington, known for a love of eye-shadow and painted lashes during his time in the
house.

The male Touche Eclat also comes just months after a range of ‘guy-liner’ and ‘man-scara’ products have been released into the burgeoning male grooming market, though Jean-Paul Gaultier already had his line of Le Mâle Tout Beau eye-liners for men available since 2003.

But surely even the most metrosexual of Irish men would consider wearing make-up to be one grooming step too far? A major study into Irish men’s lifestyles conducted last month by Behaviour and Attitudes Marketing Research reported that 93 per cent of male respondents said they “rarely or never” use any kind of make-up, though it’s debatable just how honest or forthright those answers are.

Be that as it may, YSL is launching the range here for a reason. A Euromonitor report last January stated that e800 million was spent last year in Ireland on men’s grooming products, an increase of e200 million since 2001.

A similar survey from Datamonitor also found that men spend an average of 3.1 hours per week looking in the mirror, compared to 2.5 hours spent by women doing the same thing. What’s more, some 40 per cent of men replied that they considered their skin “extremely or very important”.

In the world of pop culture, celebrities like Russell Brand, Jared Leto, Brandon Flowers from The Killers, Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz, and Green Day’s Billy Joe Armstrong are all fervent fans of eye make-up, and make no apologies about it either.

The phenomenon of male primping and preening has even reached the highest levels of government here. Former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern spent almost e22,000 on make-up services and cosmetics last year, which was actually down from the e25,500 he spent on foundation and concealer in 2006.

Personally, I’m a proud cleanse, tone and moisturise boy, though I’ve never went that step further into make-up territory. I have several gay and straight male friends who are no strangers to the slap, however, so this week, I decided to see what all the fuss was about.

First thing last Wednesday morning, I turned up at the YSL counter in Brown Thomas on Grafton Street, fresh faced and ready to join the ranks of ‘L’Homme Yves Saint Laurent’.

It’s certainly an enticing prospect: such a man, the press release states, is “the master of his own appearance, magnetism, and impact on the world”. He is “elegant and virile” and, furthermore, the YSL man knows that “his powers of seduction, composed of strength and sensitivity, makes him irresistible”. Why, that’s just me in a nutshell.

YSL manager Carol Palmer greets me at the counter and unveils the new range of products, packaged in manly gun metal and chrome cylinders. There’s the Radiant Touch for Men (translated from Touche Eclat: no girlie French for this men’s range), as well as the Healthy Look Moisturizer and Anti-Fatigue Treatment stick. It sounds like even Uncle Fester from The Addams Family would come away with a bright healthy glow from using such products.

Carol starts by cleansing my face and then applying the moisturizer and anti-fatigue stick to my cheeks and T-zone. It does seem to give a bit of a subtle, fresh glow to my pale, sleep-deprived visage – it’s all about subtlety, as Carol informs me - though it should be stressed for the delusional of the male species out there (myself included) that it’s not a miracle potion that will instantly give you the complexion of Brad Pitt.

Lastly, it’s time for the money shot: tackling the dark bags under my eyes. Carol gently sweeps the Radiant Touch pen under my eye-lids, depositing a skin-coloured paste that she gently blends in. After 30 seconds of patting under my eyes, it’s time to see the results. I think my face generally looks smoother, more matted, and the dreaded Gordon Brown-esque bags are mercifully less prominent. The counter girls all seem pleased with the end result, though Nick the photographer claims he can’t really notice any change.

An hour later, the under-eye concealer appears to have settled, and the dark circles have minimised even more. I’m convinced, but whether the idea of make-up will gain popular traction here amongst pasty-faced, hard-working Irish men, or, heaven help us, become a regular sight in GAA dressing rooms around the country, is another matter.

“We haven’t had anyone asking for it, but I wouldn’t be surprised if make-up catches on here,” says Cian McDonald, one of the proprietors of the men-only salon The Grooming Rooms, on South William Street in Dublin.

“In some ways it’s just the natural progression in male grooming where guys went from using just a bar of soap to using hair products to using moisturisers and cleansers.

“Remember, 10 years ago, people would have been sceptical if you told them that men would be widely getting facials and pedicures, or even simply using moisturisers. Make-up is different, for sure, but once it’s a natural, healthy look, I think it could take off.”

Aisling McDermott, of the popular blog beaut.ie, isn’t so sure, however. “I don’t see a market for men’s make-up in Ireland,” she says.

“Daniel Craig and David Beckham wear make-up and fake tan and they look gorgeous for it. But I think it would be a lot more difficult for the average Seamus. We don’t have any role models for males wearing make-up here, unless you count Bertie or Pat Kenny’s fondness for blusher and lip gloss. Not many men could deal with the slagging.

“Having said that, nearly every guy I know in a relationship has had a sneaky go of his girlfriend’s concealer in a spotty situation.”

On that note, what does McDermott think the average Irish woman would make of it all? “Personally, I'd love to see more guys wearing make-up,” she admits. “Man-scara would be such a blessing for the white eye-lashed men of Eire, and a bit of Touche Eclat could work wonders for
some.

“That fact is though that while Irish women can be very adventurous when it comes to their own make-up, it would take a major shift in the mindset for the majority to start lusting after a man who has his own make-up bag.”

*L’Homme YSL Radiant Touch for Men (e33.50), Healthy Look Moisturiser (e38) and Anti-Fatigue Treatment (e38) are now on sale at the YSL counter in Brown Thomas and other stockists.

Dec Declutters

From today's Property Plus in the Independent

Right now, I'm slap-bang in the middle of moving apartments for the sixth time in as many years and, for the first time ever in my entire life, the actual process of finding a place to live has been the easiest part of the move. Continue here.

Dublin in New York Times

Wow, just became aware of this article on Dublin by David Amsden in the New York Times. Spooky because I'm reading Amsden's debut novel at the moment: I would have done some major stalking if I knew he was here!

Panti to support Roseanne Barr in Dublin

Yay! Congrats to the peerless Miss Pandora Panti Bliss. Just extra reason to nab tickets to this gig!

POD announce Panti to support Roseanne Barr.Ireland’s adored queen of comedy will support Roseanne on October 24th & October 26th at Tripod. Expect a spanking set and sensational style from our very own iconic drag performer.

POD Cast Comedy POD presents a brand new season of risqué, razor sharp comedy showcasing a serious line- up of debauched entertainment. The hosts of Electric Picnic are launching this eclectic comedy extravaganza across the October Bank Holiday Weekend in some of Dublin’s most stylish venues.

Headlining is Roseanne Barr making her stand- up debut in Ireland. The US Domestic Goddess opens the Weekend at Tripod on Friday Oct 24. After 9 years, 224 episodes, 1 Golden Globe award, 4 Emmys, and countless other accolades, she single-handedly re-landscaped the medium of situational comedy forever. Her creation and stark portrayal of "Roseanne Conner" made her a household name -"She’s the funniest disturber of peace that we have." (Entertainment Weekly)

Expect fresh, brash and hard- hitting material from the Edinburgh Festival as the hot tickets of 2008 prepare to storm Dublin. Be prepared for an action packed weekender showcasing brand new material at affordable prices.

Page-turners

Following - somemight say copying - Rick and Una's lead, here's what I'm reading at the mo:

Empire of the Fun

Empire's 500 Greatest Movies Of All Time edition is out this week, with 100 covers to choose from. Excitement!

Picture, quote and woman of the day!

Tina Fey won three Emmy awards last night for producing, writing and starring in 30 Rock. In her acceptance speech, she said: “I thank my parents for somehow raising me to have confidence that is disproportionate with my looks and abilities. Well done. That is what all parents should do."

Full list of Emmy winners here.

Belle's Kitchen

My interview with Tana Ramsay in Weekend magazine in today's Independent

Tana Ramsay can't decide what to eat. The better half of fiery, foul-mouthed culinary superstar Gordon Ramsay takes a few moments to peruse the lunchtime menu in our Dublin hotel venue before asking for recommendations. After another quick scan, she settles on a club sandwich with freshly cut chips and sparkling water.

Continue here.

Emmy predix

My Emmy predictions for Sunday night...

(view nominations here - I couldn't be arsed listing them all!)

Outstanding Drama Series: Mad Men

Lead Actor Drama: Jon Hamm, Mad Men

Lead Actress Drama: Glenn Close, Damages

Supporting Actor Drama: Michael Emerson, Lost

Supporting Actress Drama: Chandra Wilson, Grey's Anatomy

Outstanding Comedy Series: 30 Rock

Lead Actor Comedy: Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock

Lead Actress Comedy: Tina Fey, 30 Rock

Supp Actor Comedy: Neil Patrick Harris, How I Met Your Mother

Supp Actress Comedy: Kristen Chenowith, Pushing Daisies

Outstanding Mini-Series/TV movie: John Adams

Lead Actor Mini-Series: Paul Giamatti, John Adams

Lead Actress Mini-Series: Laura Linney, John Adams

Supp Actor Mini-Series: Tom Wilkinson, John Adams

Supp Actress Mini-Series: Laura Dern, Recount

Goin' back....

It's online at last! Thanks Gav and Ciara...

Gonna get me some culture

My Culture Night guide in today's Irish Daily Mail

Tonight, Irish culture vultures will be in their element as hundreds of venues in five cities around the country play host to the artistic extravaganza that is Culture Night.

For one night, museums, galleries, theatres, cathedrals, libraries, and dance and design studios throughout Dublin, Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford will provide free cultural events for members of the public to enjoy until 11pm.

Just about every taste, whim and interest is catered for by the various cultural institutions taking part, ranging from the serious and the high brow, to the purely silly in the areas of dance, music, sport and literature.

The idea behind Culture Night is to extend the opening hours of these venues to accommodate those who might not have the time or the chance to visit otherwise. The majority of tonight’s events take place between 5-11pm, and most are free and family friendly. What’s more, there will be free buses available to ferry people between different venues. In Dublin, these buses leave every 20 minutes (until 10.20pm) from designated spots that are listed at www.culturenight.ie

Culture Night has been taking place annually in Dublin since 2006, but this is the first year that other cities have joined in simultaneously. In the capital, the concept was first mooted by the Temple Bar Cultural Trust, who were inspired by the success of similar nights in other European countries.

Germany was the first country to develop the idea with the Long Night of the Museums in Berlin in 1997, followed in 2002 by Paris, where the mayor Bertrand Delanoe, oversaw the first Nuit Blanche (White Night), an all night cultural festival that takes place on the first weekend of October. Since then, the concept has spread not only here, but to Rome, Madrid, Brussells, as well as Chicago, Miami Beach and Tel Aviv.

In Ireland, Culture Night has grown in scale and ambition every year. In 2007, over 80,000 people came into Dublin city for Culture Night, and some organisations even broke their own attendance records. For instance, the Book of Kells had 5,000 visitors on the one evening, while Christchurch had 3,000.

Furthermore, research carried out by the organisers showed that 70 per cent – that’s some 50,000 people - were first time visitors to many of the cultural organisations. This year, Temple Bar Cultural Trust expects tonight’s turnout to top 100,000 visitors in Dublin alone.

So if you fancy an exhibition, a walking tour, poetry slam, a belly-dancing lesson, movie karaoke or even a giant game of Connect Four, then take a look at the Irish Daily Mail’s guide to just some of the activities to be sampled this evening in the five host cities:

Dublin:
www.culturenight.ie

Channel your inner Damien Hirst and paint your own masterpiece at ArtJam @ Culture Night in Curved Street Café, Curved Street, Temple Bar between 7-9pm. See http://www.artjam.ie/ (booking required).

Comedienne Maeve Higgins presents Do Your Own Culture! in the Peacock Theatre from 7pm. Maeve’s guests/victims include DJ Donal Dineen, RTE newsreader Bryan Dobson and colour writer Frank McNally. http://www.abbeytheatre.ie/ (booking for shows only).

Wannabe thespians should head to the Gaiety School of Acting in Temple Bar where there will be acting workshops for all ages, starting at 6.30pm. See http://www.gaietyschool.com/ for details.

The Dance House on Foley Street will host taster classes in ballet, flamenco and jazz, as well as classes in Ashtanga yoga, Pilates and belly-dancing! 6.30pm-9.30pm. Booking required. See http://www.danceireland.ie/ or call 01 8558800.

Artist Laura Fitzgerald will host a session in the Talbot Gallery and Studios on Talbot St from 6-10pm where she will draw people’s childhood memories as described to her. You can keep a copy too! See http://www.talbotgallery.com/ or call 01 8556599.

Poetry Ireland has a drop-in open-mic poetry and prose night running from 6 -11pm in the Unitarian Church on St. Stephen's Green, Dublin. There will be special guests, spot prizes and music. See http://www.poetryireland.ie/ or call 01 4789974.

The RTE Symphony Orchestra performs music by Tchaikovsky and the world premiere of Crane by Donnacha Dennehy at the National Concert Hall at 8pm.

GAA-fanatics can take part in special floodlit evening tours and other sporting activities at the GAA Museum in Croke Park. Booking required. See www.gaa.ie/museum

Older people can take part in an evening of dance, music, drama and photography at the Atrium, beside the Dublin City Council offices on Wood Quay.

There will also be light projections, street theatre, musicians and samba dancers around the city’s streets.

Galway:
www.galwayculturenight.com

Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop is a Galway institution, and tonight, a raft of western writers, poets and dramatists will gather for public readings from 6-11pm. Admission free. http://www.charliebyrne.com/

The Galway Dance Library is launched tonight at the City Library where Dancer-in-Residence, Tanya McRory, will present the new treasure trove of books, videos and DVDs on all forms of Irish and international dance, with a multi-media dance extravaganza to follow. Admission free, 6-9pm. http://www.galwaylibrary.ie/

There is a Mad Hatter’s Tea Party at the Bold Art Gallery from 6pm, with music, exhibitions and a clay performance by Tom Campbell. Admission free, 6-11pm. http://www.boldartgallery.com/

The country’s largest display of living marine and freshwater life is on display in the Atlantaquaria in Salthill. There will be free tours and lectures until 9pm. See http://www.nationalaquarium.ie/

St Nicholas’ Collegiate has a free concert from 6.15-8.30pm featuring the Galway Youth Orchestra, the Galway Choral Association and singer-songwriter John Faulkner.

The Town Hall theatre plays host to a documentary on the Druid Theatre Company’s acclaimed run of Synge plays. Free admission, 6-7pm. http://www.townhalltheatregalway.com/

There will also be free street performances from local artists Andrias de Staic and Little John.

Cork:
www.corkcity.ie/culturenight

The Lewis Glucksman Gallery at UCC has screenings of animated children’s films from 5-8pm, and Film Karaoke from 8-11pm, where artist Fiona Dowling will ask the audience to act out the dialogue from famous movie scenes.

John Lambert hosts a visual art exhibition at the Vanguard on French Church St, as well as a musical performance as his alter ego, Chequerboard.

There are dance classes and workshops taking place in the Firkin Crane centre, Shandon, from 5pm.

John Spillane, Camille O’Sullivan and opera singer Cara O’Sullivan host Musical Walking Tours of the city. Pre-booking is essential – call 021 4924780 or email: culturenight@corkcity.ie

The Blackrock Castle Observatory will throw open its doors to star gazers until 10pm, where guests can send an email into outer space and track its navigation, amongst other astronomical treats.

The Irish Chamber Orchestra will play at the CIT Cork School of Music on Union Quay at 8pm.
Cork Arts Centre presents a Writing for the Stage workshop from 5-7pm, an art exhibition from 7.30-9pm and theatre from 9-10pm.

Waterford
http://www.waterfordcity.ie/arts/CultureNight.htm

The Friday Night Arts Meltdown takes place at the Greyfriars' Municipal Gallery, featuring a concert by Ugly Megan and a table quiz MC’d by Krazy Konor Halpin. From 7pm (table quiz suitable for over 16s only). Call 051 849856/7.

Director Ben Barnes and architect Ken Wigham discuss the restoration of the Theatre Royal from 7pm to 9pm. To book, contact 051 874402

Lady Lane Library hosts an evening of ghost story telling led by Anne Farrell. Starting at 8.30pm. To book, call 051 849975

The Manifesto Gallery on Georges Street will have screenings of John Kingerlee in Film, alongside a solo exhibition by internationally acclaimed Kingerlee. Screenings at: at 7, 8 and 9 pm.

The creative teams behind street art group Spraoi reveal the secrets of their costumes and props at The Studios in Carrickpherish from 7-9pm. Call 051 841808

There are free guided tours of Christ Church Cathedral from 6pm, as well as Annie Brophy’s exhibition, Wedding Bells.

There are free tours of Waterford Museum of Treasures at the Granary until 10pm, plus the opening of Gerard Squires’ exhibition. To book, contact 051 304500

Limerick:
www.limerickcity.ie

Limerick City Library hosts giant games of snakes and ladders, Jenga and Connect Four, along with juggling, face painting and puppet shows in both the Granary and Watch House Cross branches from 5pm.

Brian Hodkinson, the assistant curator of Limerick City Museum, leads a free walk of the city walls from 5pm, taking in King John’s Castle and stretching around English and Irish towns. Starts at the King John’s Visitor Centre. Phone 061 417826

There is a choreographed performance by Michael Klien at the new base of the Daghda Dance Company in the former Church of St John of the Cross from 6-8pm.

A solo exhibition by Sean Molony is launched at the Hunt Museum at 7pm, and there will also be tours of the museum’s some 2,000 works of art.

Actor Mike Finn hosts an art bingo night at Limerick City Gallery of Art from 8pm, which also hosts Michael McLoughlin’s exhibition, I Only Come Here Cos It’s Free! and a new exhibit by Turner Prize-winner Simon Starling.

Conradh na Gaeilge on Thomas Street is open until 10pm for bilingual dances, music and storytelling.

It's not so hard being a film cricket

My movie reviews in today's Day and Night magazine in the Independent

Linha de Passe

Then She Found Me

The Wave (Die Welle)

Unrelated

Obama leading McCrazy

Obama-Biden back up on the daily Gallup poll, leading McCrazy-Scarah by 48%-44%...

Meanwhile, Salon has a brilliant dissection of the disgraceful lies peddled by McCrazy during this campaign...

First look of the Frost/Nixon poster

Stake Shed Palin

Find out what your name would be if you were a child of Scarah Palin. Hilarious.

Carr crash television

Good lord. Squirm as you watch Pat Kenny interview Jimmy Carr on last Friday's Late Late Show. Skip to 13 mins in. Painful. 800,000 bucks a year folks.

Scarah brought to book

Huffington Post has the book that Scarah Palin reportedly wanted to have banned from libraries while she was Mayor of Wasilla. Just look and see what the book's about. This woman's advance just gets scarier and more depressing with every passing day

Put a gloss on life

My feature from today's Sunday Tribune magazine...

Are you living your best life? Do you feel like you should be a teensy bit happier? Does your appearance and style reflect the real you? Can you honestly look in the mirror and say, ‘Hey hot stuff, I think you’re really swell’?

If you’ve pondered any of those questions of late, then fret not you lowly, flawed mortal, for you can rest assured that there are dozens of gurus, books and magazines out there that can help you to pimp your life and give you the souped-up spiritual and mental existence you feel you so thoroughly deserve.

Continue here.

All others Palin comparison to Tina Fey

Tina Fey and Amy Poehler as Scarah Palin and Hillary Clinton on last night's Saturday Night Live. Watch it now before they take it down! "I can see Russia from my house!"

Actress of the Year, without a Doubt

How scary is Meryl in this trailer? This, and Mamma Mia in the one year. Ledgebag.

A View to a Kill

Pitbulls with lipstick indeed. John McSame gets roasted by Barbara Walters - what a pro - and the gals on The View.

Watch him defend the McCain/Palin ticket - or as I like to call it, McCain and UnAble - Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

The Fashion Police

Cover feature from today's Weekend magazine in the Irish Independent

Mixing and matching is the key to making fashion work. The same rule applies to pairing new co-hosts for a television show. Get it right, and the results can be spectacular, memorable, a work of art even. But get it wrong, and that mismatch will have the critics howling faster than you can say "prêt-a-porter".

Continue here.

Born gay

New analysis of the nature vs nurture issue from Salon.com

What's in a title?

Very intrigued about this new movie. Alan Ball? Aaron Eckhart and Toni Collette? That provovative title? I'm there.

Sedaris

I shall be at the Westin later tonight to marvel at this highlarious man. Excitement.

Palin is lipstick, McCain's policies are the pig

Obama - remember him? - clarifies his contentious, but accurate, "lipstick on a pig" remarks

Meanwhile, ABC investigates whether Scarah Palin did actually try to ban books while Mayor of Wasilla...

Lastly, Jon Stewart destroys the blowhards at the Republican National Convention in this brilliant Daily Show clip...

Seven years

9/11 anniversary.

And a good analysis of the global aftermath from Salon.com...

10 Things I Hate About You

Some facts we've all learned about ScarahPalin. Read here.

Personal favourite is No 8 on the list. I'm saved!

Boo-urns!

New Facebook becomes mandatory. read here

Only a matter of time...

Gotta love this, courtesy of GCN. Proof that Scarah Palin and her clan truly have, er, penetrated popular culture

Slumming it

Really looking forward to seeing this new movie from Danny Boyle. It starsDev Patel (Skins) and got rave reviews at the Toronto Film Festival. AwardsDaily has even installed it on its likely contenders for next year's Oscars

Why smiles can be better than Prozac

From today's Independent...

There seems to be a pill available to treat every condition these days, but when it comes to tackling depression and stress, the solutions could be simply to smile more, go dancing, throw out that copy of Heat magazine, and develop an appetite for kippers and seaweed. Continue here.

The boys are back in town

Look what's back on tonight in the US at long last! Can't wait to download tomorrow!

Golden oldies tell all

Feature of mine from today's Independent...

Christmas is coming early this year for gossip-hungry film aficionados everywhere, as a slew of screen legends are lining up to dish the dirt on their long and often scandalous lives at the height of Hollywood’s glamorous golden era.

Tony Curtis, Sean Connery and Robert Wagner are just some of the ageing stars who have penned tell-all books that promise to settle old scores and cash in on whatever sexual skeletons they have in their closets. And those skeletons are sure to be plentiful – after all, the average age of all the authors is 76.

Excerpts from some of the memoirs have arrived in a week when sexy sixtysomething actress Helen Mirren caused a storm of controversy by confessing to a men’s magazine how she loved doing cocaine in her 20s, and by airing her controversial opinions on, and experiences of, date rape.

True to Hollywood form, sexual confessions and indiscretions prove to be the hook in most of these veterans’ tales too. Screen legend Tony Curtis’ memoirs, American Prince, deliver the most bang for the readers’ buck in this regard. The 80-year-old former hellraiser and womaniser, who claims to have slept with over 1,000 women, revisits his five marriages (one of which was to Psycho star Janet Leigh), as well as his early sexual relationship with his future Some Like It Hot co-star Marilyn Monroe.

Curtis confesses that his affair with Monroe was “a messy business” and that she could never reach orgasm during sex. Later in the book, the star admits to using cocaine in the 1980s saying: “One of the big reasons I started using coke was that I was told it was great for sex. It didn’t make me superhuman in the longevity department, but it certainly did make my sexual experiences more intense.” Curtis was to lose a son to drug overdose in 1994.

Elsewhere, Hart to Hart star Robert Wagner uses his new book to shed light on one of Hollywood’s most enduring mysteries: the death of his wife, Natalie Wood. In Pieces of My Heart, the 78-year-old writes about the night of November 28, 1981 when Wagner, Wood and her Brainstorm co-star (and rumoured lover) Christopher Walken boarded the couple’s yacht, Splendor, for a late evening sail.

Soon after midnight, the dead body of West Side Story beauty Wood, then aged 43, was found floating in the Pacific Ocean. His view on what exactly happened that night has never been publicly stated by Wagner (or Walken for that matter) – until now.

In his new tell-all, Wagner admits that he had a huge row with Walken over Wood’s future career and that he broke a bottle of wine out of rage. This prompted his wife to go below deck, which is where he last saw Wood alive. According to Wagner’s account, Wood must have heard a dinghy banging loosely against the side of the boat, went to fix it, slipped and hit her head, and rolled into the water unconscious.

Other titbits of note in Wagner’s book include his rather ungallant discussion of his doomed love affair with femme fatale Barbara Stanwyck (he was 22, she was 45), and comparing being on a date with Elizabeth Taylor to “sticking an eggbeater in your brain”.

Meanwhile, former James Bond, Sean Connery, is exercising his licence to thrill with dramatic new memoirs this autumn. In Being a Scot, the 78-year-old sex symbol talks about his affair with Hollywood bombshell Lana Turner while filming Another Time, Another Place (1957) in England, and how this incurred the wrath of her mobster lover, Johnny Stompanato.

The crime lord was so enraged by news of the couple’s dalliances that he flew to England to confront Connery on set, but not before phoning Turner threatening to kill, or at the very least, disfigure her. But when Stompanato turned up at the studio, brandishing a gun at Connery, the Great Scot laid him out with a punch, and he was deported by Scotland Yard. Turner, however, wasn’t finished with Stomapanto - not by a long shot (see panel).

There are also bean-spilling books on the way from Dynasty star Diahann Carroll (covering her adulterous affair with Sidney Poitier), Christopher Plummer (who casts a caustic eye over the making of The Sound of Music, or “S&M” as he calls it), and The Man from UNCLE star Robert Vaughn (75), who recounts how he and Steve McQueen used to cruise the Sunset Strip, picking up girls.

The end products themselves are sure to be a mixed bag, but the message from this publishing blitz is clear: these Hollywood old-timers may be in the final acts of their lives, but that doesn’t mean they are exiting the stage without one last dramatic flourish and a hearty round of applause. They really don’t make ‘em like the used to.

Hollywood history is littered with scorching, lurid and bitchy tell-all exposes that rocked the movie world to its core. Here are ten of the most famous examples:

*Mommie Dearest:

Christina Crawford lifted the lid on her allegedly horrific life with her adopted mother, actress Joan Crawford, in perhaps the most notorious Hollywood expose of them all. In the book, which was re-issued with new allegations earlier this year to mark the 30th anniversary of its publication, Christina claims the screen legend was a tyrannical, alcoholic control freak who subjected her two adopted children to years of physical and mental abuse, with Crawford even attacking her for using wire hangers in her closet. The 1981 movie version, starring Faye Dunaway, is a modern camp classic.

*You’ll Never Make Love in This Town Again:
This 1996 roaster, written by prostitutes Robin, Liza, Linda and Tiffany, is seen as the definitive tell-all about the sexual shenanigans of Hollywood’s elite. Among the stars the girls named as clients were Warren Beatty, Jack Nicholson, Dennis Hopper, Gary Busey, Timothy Hutton, James Caan, and Charlie Sheen. A 2006 sequel included accounts of romps with a before-he-was-famous Brad Pitt and even ‘Governator’ Arnold Schwarzenegger.

*High Concept: Don Simpson and the Culture of Hollywood Excess:
Simpson was the producer of such high-octane, leave-your-brain-at-the-door movies as Top Gun and Beverly Hills Cop, who also had a $60,000 a month drug habit and a history of sexual shenanigans that were bizarre even by Tinsel Town standards. Following Simpson’s death from an overdose in 1996, Charles Fleming’s book revealed Simpson’s predilection for videotaped S&M sessions with hookers (as well as snuff films, apparently) and his obsession with plastic surgery, even going so far as to allegedly have collagen injections to his penis.

*Hollywood Animal:
Basic Instinct screenwriter Joe Eszterhas’ explosive memoir chronicled the dark, seamy side of movie production, interspersed with his own various sexcapades with Hollywood actresses. There are potshots at Sylvester Stallone for trying to take credit for one of his scripts, and at director Paul Verhoevan for ruining his notorious movie Showgirls by sleeping with its star, Elizabeth Berkley.

*Postcards from the Edge:
Star Wars actress Carrie Fisher’s Hollywood mantra is: “Good anecdote, bad reality”. In this semi-autobiographical 1987 novel, Fisher used the character of Suzanne Vale to relay her own “bad realities” of drug abuse, rehab and her relationship with an egotistical showbiz parent (Fisher’s folks are Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds). Meryl Streep and Shirley MacLaine played daughter and mother in the film version.

*The Private Diary of My Life With Lana:
Screen siren Lana Turner was most famous for her tumultuous private life, marrying eight times (twice to the same man) and becoming embroiled in a notorious murder case when her 14-year-old daughter Cheryl Crane apparently stabbed and murdered Turner’s mobster lover Johnny Stompanato. Eric Root, Turner’s personal hairdresser, later revealed in this book that Turner told him she killed Stompanato and pinned it on her daughter.

*The Man Who Heard Voices:
The Sixth Sense director M.Night Shyamalan saw his career tank due to his ferocious rows with Disney over his 2006 turkey Lady in The Water. Shyamalan co-operated with writer Michael Bamberger to create a first hand account of the director’s vicious falling out with the studio that had backed all his movies. It’s full of cringe-inducing detail: after one Disney executive told Shyamalan that the film made no sense (a valid criticism), the director burst into tears and split with the studio on the spot.

*Send Yourself Roses: Thoughts on my Life, Loves and Leading Roles:
Husky-voiced Kathleen Turner was one of the biggest stars of the 1980s, and in this recent memoir, she recounted her experiences of working alongside various leading men. Turner slammed Burt Reynolds as a “very rude man” and revealed that her Peggy Sue Got Married co-star Nicolas Cage was twice arrested for drink driving. Cage filed a lawsuit against her, and Turner publicly apologised.

*From Mother and Daughter to Friends: A Memoir
Nancy Dow made a major boo-boo in 1999 when she penned a book about the tumultuous childhood of her famous daughter, Jennifer Aniston. The Friends star’s relationship with her mum was already strained – apparently Dow used to mock Aniston’s appearance before she got a nose job. After this book, Aniston disowned her mother and didn’t invite her to her wedding to Brad Pitt. The two only reconciled after Aniston’s marriage broke down.

*Foster Child
Jodie Foster’s brother Buddy went into excruciating detail about their childhood in the 1997 tell-all Foster Child. In the book, Buddy claimed his Oscar winning sister was bisexual and that her name was chosen as a tribute to their mother’s lesbian lover. Foster disowned her brother, slamming the book as a “cheap cry for attention and money”. They haven’t spoken since.

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