BRITISH MAGICIAN AND MENTALIST DERREN BROWN INVESTIGATED BY OFCOM

Britain’s leading magician and mentalist, Derren Brown, is currently being investigated by Ofcom because of a homophobic comment he made on his TV show.

The Telegraph have revealed that Ofcom received 27 complaints from offended viewers of his TV show in which he explained how he correctly predicted the lottery numbers just a few days before and made a quip about the bonus ball being for “women and gays”, he also repeated this comment on his official Twitter.

Here are the actual Tweets he made:

“Ok, gays and women. Do you or do you not pay particular attention the bonus ball? I know I do.”

“And I am including gay women in that of course. Twice as much reason to pay attention.”

“May be offending straight men and bisexuals. Apologies, do be sure to complain. X”

… and complain they did, all 27 of them!

Brown, 38, who actually came out as gay in The Independent a few years ago, has been accused of being homophobic (lol) and sexist because of the above comments. It has also been rumoured that Brown has just signed a new £2 million contract with Channel 4 after being head hunted by ITV. We wonder if Channel 4 are regretting this decision after a disastrous week for the mind bender.

Wed 9th Sept – Derren correctly predicts all 6 numbers of the national lottery. The world wide web goes crazy trying to work out how he did it. Public opinion – split screen.

Thurs 10th Sept – A plausible video surfaces showing how Derren probably predicted the numbers. The video makes it to the tabloids, the video makers, to radio.

Fri 11th Sept – Brown explains on TV how he actually predicted the numbers yet doesn’t really tell us anything at all and makes a “women and gays” joke that only Bernard Manning would be proud of. Public opinion – still split screen but now Brown is a knob for thinking the public are stupid and that only women and gays like the bonus ball. Plausible video looking more plausible. 27 offended people contact Ofcom.

Mon 14th Sept – Damage control begins as The Sun reveals that Brown predicted the numbers BEFORE Christmas but the footage of him doing so were cut from Friday’s show due to time. No such footage has (yet) been seen or released. Public still angry, now with possible cover up.

Wed 16th Sept – Derren makes the “women and gays” comment again on his Twitter.

Thurs 17th Sept – It is revealed Brown is being investigated by Ofcom for his remark. His Twitter is more quiet than usual. No comment from Brown or his publicist Greg Day yet.

I wonder if Derren is of the opinion that any publicity is good publicity, hmmm…

CONSPIRACY THEORY #1: MICHAEL JACKSON – DEAD OR ALIVE?

If like me you like conspiracy theories, then you will love this site I’ve stumbled across.

The site in question is dedicated to Michael Jackson’s death being fake and it contains theories, speculation, opinions and fact. Definitely worth a read. Some theories are a bit far out but there will be some content that does make you go “hmmm”. This site does back up it’s own argument a lot which adds to the fact that this site isn’t ran by MJ fans who just don’t want to believe it.

Go there now and have a read for yourself… michaeljacksonhoaxdeath.com

JADE GOODY – THE MUSICAL?

A musical of Jade Goody’s life is in development, a friend and business partner of the late reality TV star revealed today.

Danny Hayward said that the stage show is only in its “infant stages” but he is planning auditions to cast an actress as the late Big Brother contestant.

One of Goody’s “best men” at her wedding, Hayward told ITN On: “We’ve got [a musical] coming out in about four months’ time and it’s going to be the story of her life and we’re going to be on the search for who is going to play Jade.”

The musical is the latest of a series of projects launched following Goody’s death, at the aged 27, last month.

Diaries chronicling her battle with cervical cancer were published last week, while her former publicist Max Clifford has been in negotiations over a film of her life.

Goody went from dental nurse to the country’s most famous reality star after dividing viewer opinion on Big Brother in 2002.

She signed a perfume deal and became a magazine and tabloid favourite before becoming embroiled in a racism row after an appearance on Celebrity Big Brother in 2007.

She was diagnosed with cervical cancer last year, causing controversy by continuing to live in the public eye as she succumbed to the disease.

She married on-off boyfriend Jack Tweed shortly before she passed away at home on March 22.

Rumour of a biopic also leaves a vile stench in the air.

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Please say this isn’t so!!! What next… a sitcom? A “Family Guy” style cartoon series? She is dead, now STFU please!! But if you are on the look-out for someone to play Jade in this musical, may I suggest Martin Clunes. Fucking twins!

“CARRY ON” CREATOR & PRODUCER PETER ROGERS DIES

Peter Rogers died on April 14 aged 95. He dreamt up the Carry On comedies and went on to produce the entire Carry On oeuvre, from Carry On Sergeant (1958) to Carry on Emmanuelle (1978).

During the Carry On years, Rogers continued to produce other comedies, such as the spicily titled Please Turn Over and Watch Your Stern and also produced the television series Ivanhoe, with Roger Moore, and the film version of the Sid James sitcom Bless This House.

The Carry On formula began to lose its way in the 1970s as the films became more risqué and less funny. After the lamentable Carry On Emmanuelle (1978), the series was brought to an end.

POP STAR SANDI THOM’S CAT “SHOT DEAD”

Pop star Sandi Thom was said to be “devastated” after reports that her missing cat had been shot dead.

Pop star Sandi Thom was said to be 'devastated' today after reports that her missing cat, Toots, had been shot dead Photo: PA

The musician launched a hunt for her pet Toots after it disappeared near her mother’s home in Edzell, Angus, six weeks ago.

She called in pet detectives from Animal Search UK to hunt for the cat, which features in this year’s PDSA celebrity calendar.

The detectives said they were tipped off that the animal had been shot by a local person and disposed of along the banks of the West Water in the area.

They are now trying to gather more information which may lead them to the body.

Thom, who shot to fame with the single I Wish I Was A Punk Rocker, was said to be “terribly upset” at news of her pet’s death.

Writing on her website, the singer said: “The police have confirmed it is illegal to shoot a cat. However, to enable them to make an arrest we have to find wee Tooty’s remains, or this sickening person will get away with it.”

In a statement on the same web page, a close friend, who did not give a name, said Thom is “absolutely devastated at the news of her beloved cat’s cruel and wrongful death and can’t believe that anyone could be so cold-blooded and heartless to shoot a defenceless animal”.

The statement adds: “All Sandi wishes for now is that justice be done and that, if at all possible, the whereabouts of her precious little cat’s remains be revealed so she can be taken home and laid to rest in the dignified manner she deserves – and we can name and shame the criminal.”

The cat had lived with the musician in London but moved to Thom’s mother’s home in Edzell.

After she disappeared on February 27, posters were put up around the village asking for information and urging people to call Animal Search UK if they knew anything.

Last month the singer, whose latest album The Pink And The Lily was released last May, wrote of the cat: “She means the world to me and my family.”

Tom Watkins, the former police officer who set up Animal Search UK, said he is convinced the cat is dead and added that investigations are continuing to trace the alleged killer.

“It is good information we had, it’s pretty firm evidence that Toots has been shot,” he said.

He added: “Sandi is devastated and has not really been able to think about anything apart from Toots since she found out. She is terribly upset.”

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This is just awful! I hope the bastard who did it is caught and brought to justice!!!!!

LEGEND PHIL SPECTOR CONVICTED OF MURDER

Phil Spector is likely to die in prison after the legendary music producer was convicted of murder for shooting the actor Lana Clarkson in a drunken and “sadistic” bout of Russian roulette.

Phil Spector arrives at court in Los Angeles after jurors announced they had reached a verdict in his murder trial. Photograph: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images.

The Los Angeles jury spent nearly nine days deliberating over the case in which the prosecution portrayed Spector, 68, as a misogynist with a history of pulling guns and “playing Russian roulette with the lives of women” while drunk. Prosecutors said it was only by a miracle that Clarkson, star of the cult film Barbarian Queen, was the first to die.

Spector was taken to prison to await a sentence next month of at least 18 years following his conviction for second-degree murder at his mansion six years ago.

However long he remains in prison, the trial has destroyed the reputation of one of the most influential music producers of the 60s, who pioneered the “wall of sound” with groups such as the Ronettes and went on to work closely with some of the most renowned musicians of the next two decades, from the Beatles to the Ramones.

Spector’s wife, Rachelle, sobbed as the decision was announced.

The defence contended that Clarkson, 40, killed herself because she was depressed over her failing career and financial worries. But the jury at Spector’s second trial – the first ended in deadlock – was persuaded by the prosecution’s claim that the killing was malicious and that the music producer was a “demonic maniac” who on other occasions had pointed loaded guns at five women and pulled the trigger, although the hammer hit an empty chamber every time.

“By the grace of God, five other women got the empty chamber and lived to tell,” said the prosecutor, Truc Do. “Lana just happened to be the sixth woman who got the bullet,”

Do told the court that Spector was used to tormenting women without suffering any consequences because he existed “in a world where money and fame buys you the VIP treatment.”

“Behind the VIP was a very dangerous man, a man who believed that all women … deserve a bullet in their head. In every single one of these incidents, Mr Spector demonstrates conscious disregard for human life. Her death was a death waiting to happen in his world.”

For the final prosecution statement, deputy district attorney Alan Jackson repeated a theme he had struck in the first trial, taking jurors back to the night of Clarkson’s death and asking them to imagine what they might have said to her before she got in Spector’s car.

“You are all thinking the same thing,” Jackson said. “You’d say, ‘Lana, whatever you do, don’t go.'”

In his closing statement, Spector’s lawyer, Doron Weinberg, attempted to dispel the notion of the “demonic maniac”, focusing on the forensic evidence which he said demonstrated that Clarkson had been holding the gun. Weinberg even showed jurors the gun that killed Clarkson, pointing it toward his own head as he argued that the blood stains on the handle proved it had been in her hands when it was fired.

“Phil Spector’s DNA was nowhere on that gun,” Weinberg said. “Every single fact says this is a self-inflicted gunshot wound. How do you ignore it? How do you say this could have been a homicide?”

Wienberg also attacked the testimony of Spector’s chauffeur, who alleged that the producer came out of his house and said, “I think I killed somebody.”

The driver, Weinberg said, was tired and hungry, his English was not great and there a fountain was running next to the car. “How do you know [what he said] wasn’t ‘Call somebody’?”

Spector, who did not take the witness stand in either trial, sat with his hands shaking, looking down at the table before him.

Clarkson’s mother, Donna, is expected to press ahead with a wrongful death suit against Spector, whose fortune was once estimated in the tens of millions of dollars but has been greatly depleted by the cost of his two murder trials.

FAKE LASHES ARE IN!

Those who believed times had moved on from the days of women batting their eyelashes are in for a shock. New figures suggest that false eyelashes are the surprise beauty trend of 2009.

Sales of false eyelashes at Tesco are up 90% on last year, while Selfridges beauty hall reports a 30% increase. Capitalising on the trend, the pop group Girls Aloud this week launched their own range. Meanwhile, salons are noticing a surge in interest in semi-permanent eyelash extensions.

The twin ascendancies of airbrushing and cosmetic surgery have resulted in false lashes becoming the norm for many women in the public eye. Michelle Obama was photographed wearing false lashes during her visit to London last week. “I haven’t been on a shoot in the past five years where a make-up artist hasn’t used false lashes, even if it’s just a few,” reports Sian Parry, photography director of Marie Claire.

Parallel to growing sales of false eyelashes is a new trend for semi-permanent eyelash extensions, in which false lashes are glued to natural lashes. “We’ve had nail extensions, then hair extensions – lash extensions are just the next step,” says make-up artist Charlotte Tilbury.

Mark Tyldesley, health and beauty director of Tesco, identifies Girls Aloud singer Cheryl Cole as a catalyst for the trend. “August last year, when her profile on X Factor started to rise, is exactly when the trend really took off.” Nicola Moulton, beauty and health director of Vogue, also pinpoints last summer, but points to other singers – Amy Winehouse, Duffy and Katie Perry – all of whom have an on-stage look that borrows from the 1960s aesthetic of the Supremes and Dusty Springfield.

“In a recession, we perhaps have a more primal attitude to how we look”, suggests Lisa Oxenham, acting beauty and style director of Marie Claire.

PETA: PET SHOP BOYS CHANGE YOUR NAME!

In what could be the strangest request in pop history, animal rights group Peta has asked the Pet Shop Boys to consider changing their name to the Rescue Shelter Boys.

The organisation, whose full name is People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, said the change would encourage people to give homes to unwanted cats and dogs from shelters rather than buying especially-bred animals from pet shops.

Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe, who named themselves the Pet Shop Boys more than 20 years ago, declined the request but delighted Peta by posting the organisation’s concerns on their website.

The group, who found fame in the Eighties with West End Girls and It’s A Sin, reproduced Peta’s written request in full, noting that the issues raised were “worth thinking about”.

The organisation’s special project’s manager Yvonne Taylor wrote: “We have a request that might at first seem bizarre, but we hope that after considering the following facts you will understand why we are asking this of you: will you please consider changing your name from the Pet Shop Boys to the Rescue Shelter Boys.

Taylor goes on to allege that breeders who supply pet shops are “profit hungry” and keep animals in “cramped, filthy conditions”

The letter closes: “By agreeing to change your name to the Rescue Shelter Boys, you would help raise awareness about the cruelty involved in the pet trade and encourage your millions of fans to consider giving a home to an abandoned or unwanted animal from an animal shelter. So what do you say?”

While their request was turned down, Peta remain fans of the Pet Shop Boys. On its own website today, the organisation said it was pleased the band had drawn attention to their cause and would be putting West End Girls on their iPods to celebrate.

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I have a request for Peta – stop wasting your time making such stupid requests like this and concentrate on your cause… like not putting down 95% of rehomable animals [source] like you currently do. As much as I like what Peta (apparently) stand for, I don’t like their blatent hypocricy.

CCF (Center for Consumer Freedom) Research Director David Martosko said: “Since killing pets is A-OK with PETA, why should anyone listen to their demands about eating meat, using lab rats for medical research, or taking children to the circus?”… does that also include telling pop bands to change their name? lol

PARKINSON: JADE WAS “IGNORANT, PUERILE AND NO DIANA”

Sir Michael Parkinson has launched an extraordinary attack on Jade Goody, calling her ‘ignorant and puerile’.

Just days after the reality show star’s funeral, for which thousands of well-wishers lined the streets, Parky, 74, has spoken out to say she represented ‘all that is paltry and wretched about Britain today’.

Writing in the Radio Times, he said Goody, 27, who died of cancer, should not have a ‘martyr’ status and was instead a poor role model who was exploited by the media.

‘Jade Goody has her own place in the history of television and, while it’s significant, it’s nothing to be proud of,’ the veteran TV host said.

‘Her death is as sad as the death of any young person, but it’s not the passing of a martyr or a saint, or, God help us, Princess Di.

‘When we clear the media smokescreen, what we’re left with is a woman who came to represent all that’s paltry and wretched about Britain today.

‘She was brought up on a sink estate, as a child came to know both drugs and crime, was barely educated, ignorant and puerile.’

His words are bound to come under fire from Goody’s legions of fans, who dubbed her the ‘Essex princess’.

Goody died last month after losing her very public battle with cervical cancer. Her funeral at the weekend saw thousands take to the streets to pay their respects.

The 27-year-old had first come into the public eye in 2002 on Big Brother and went on to make millions before she was struck down by the disease.

She made the decision to live out her final days in the full glare of the media to raise as much money for her two young sons and possible.

Although her very public death was derided by some, it was also credited with prompting a huge rise in the number of women going for cervical smears.

Max Clifford, Goody’s publicist, said today that he was ‘surprised and disappointed’ by Sir Michael’s comments.

‘What Michael forgets to mention is that Jade already has saved, and will save in the future, countless lives of young women through her public battle with cervical cancer,’ he said.

Meanwhile, it has been revealed that Goody’s husband, Jack Tweed, has expressed his wish to be buried next to her when he dies.

Goody’s family bought a double plot so he can one day join her.

Tweed, who is currently on bail awaiting sentencing for assault, married Jade in February to fulfil one of his girlfriend’s dying wishes.

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For Gods sake! Yes, it’s sad that Jade died but it’s no sadder than any other person dying of cancer or dying at all for that matter. Jade has done good by raising awareness of cervical cancer and has probably saved many lives BUT that is all she has done. The way the public and media have reacted to her illness has been way OTT, maybe people forget that before she got cancer she was widely thought of as a racist, bullying bitch and was one point hated more than Bin Laden, not many people liked her at all. It’s amazing what a terminal illness can do. In my opinion, Parkinson’s comment’s were not an attack on Jade Goody, they were FACT! If people see them as some kind of attack then that says a lot about Jade herself as what he says was what Jade was.

CHERYL COLE “UNHAPPY” WITH FIGURE

Cheryl Cole has revealed she’s unhappy with her body and battles to maintain her image with ‘silly’ diets and exercise regimes.

The Girls Aloud star admits she has to ‘watch’ her weight after shrinking down to a size 6, since joining the band back in 2002.

‘I’m not happy with my body,’ says Cole.

She then admits her famous looks don’t come easy, telling NOW magazine: ‘I have to watch my weight and put myself through it, trying silly diets or doing stupid gym workouts.’

It’s not the first time the 5ft 3 beauty has stuck it to her own image, previously complaining she can’t bear the sight of her own lushes legs.

Then the 26-year-old said: ‘I’m terrible. I don’t like my legs. I haven’t got much of them for a start.

‘It’s just the thing that I don’t like so if I was dressing myself I’d probably cover them up.’

Cheryl’s body confession comes as British music legends the Pet Shop Boys warned Girls Aloud from ever splitting up.

Lead singer Neil Tennant, who worked on the girls track Loving Kind, said: ‘I can’t help but feel Cheryl will have the most successful solo career because she’s just really famous.

‘I would rather none of them went down that road. There are lessons to be learned from Gary Barlow’s solo career.’

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Is this the kind of thing that makes you angry because there is nothing wrong with her and she is still not happy or do you sympathise with her?