Chat show couple Richard and Judy are considering bringing the curtain down on their TV partnership. Richard Madeley said he was looking at some “tantalising” solo opportunities after believing there is now little left for them to do together as broadcasters. Speaking to Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs show, he said: “I think we both…
So, an über-Cardinal in Rome feels that it’s time for a generation to detox from technology. Forget fasting for lent, the Pope’s publicist has floated a story that we all need to curb our technology obsession and digital addiction. “Thou shalt not text or play games for lent” is the missive from the Vatican. Transformational…
The government clearly does need people to focus attention away from them, writes Mark Borkowski. If they can, in some way, have a witch-hunt, not just on Fred Goodwin but other members of the banking community who are also sitting on pretty hefty pensions, that clearly helps. We all want a scapegoat. Unfortunately, scapegoats turn…
Pressure on Sir Fred Goodwin to surrender a substantial proportion of his £693,000 annual pension intensified yesterday when Labour’s deputy leader signalled that the government was prepared to change the law to recover the cash. Harriet Harman said the former Royal Bank of Scotland chief executive had received “money for nothing” when he quit the…
The celebrities he manufactures may come and go but the silver fox remains centre stage, marvels fellow PR Mark Borkowski Monday, 2 March 2009 Red top ringmaster: Max Clifford speaks to the media after the recent wedding of his client Jade Goody to Jack Tweed in Essex Put any misgivings about Jade Goody’s Barnumesque three-ring…
I heard today that Howard Zieff had died – a name I’d not really encountered before, despite the fact that he’d directed a few breezy comedies like Private Benjamin, starring Goldie Hawn – but the obituaries made me sit up and take notice. It turns out that, when he started out in advertising, he was…
Put any misgivings about Jade Goody’s Barnumesque three-ring Circus sideshow to one side for moment. Instead, focus on the silver fox who has been the undisputed ringmaster of recent events in her life; Max Clifford. He may not be attired in a garish ring suit, but Max Clifford is clearly visible as the man, centre…
A breakfast meeting with David Blaine last week was a very pleasing and revelatory experience; it’s good to sit and talk with someone who really, really gets true showmanship, spectacle, creativity, word of mouth and viral publicity and who has encountered many of the same things I’ve encountered, even the Russian circus act with a…
Where have all the rebellious heroes of British music gone? If the Brit Awards are anything to go by, there is pretty much no such animal anymore, just a parade of no-marks who are too wary of upsetting Mastercard, the sponsors, and the TV executives to do anything interesting. The fact that the inoffensive Welsh…
“Dying is an art,” wrote Sylvia Plath, in her poem Lady Lazarus, and the very public final weeks of Jade Goody are reinforcing Plath’s point remarkably well. Jade Goody has moved on from the unthinking, mouthy persona that brought her to national attention with a sudden aplomb, becoming, in her need to make a better…