Never believe red carpet smiles and cuddles. It now transpires that Colin Firth and his Italian wife Livia were separated during several togetherness-outings onto the paparazzi-walk last year. All of which has emerged since she reported an Italian journalist whom she was having an affair with during their spousal time apart for … Read more
Martin Selmayr, Juncker’s chief of staff, in what is being described as Machiavellian machinations – parachutage in French – has been dropped at speed into the top civil servant job in the European Commission. He is said to be too junior, without the normal experience for such a job and it adds another … Read more
A bygone era of gifted amateur athletes died with Roger Bannister this week. The first man to break the four-minute mile in 1954, while working as a junior doctor and only training part-time, it shot him to instant celebrity. He gave up competitive running a few months later and became an acclaimed neurologist. … Read more
Rick Scott, Governor of Florida, was headlined as reversing his long-held support for the NRA in saying under-21s should be barred from owning guns after the Stoneman Douglas shooting. Though he still voted against any restrictions on assault weapons and is deemed not to have given up much. He can’t stand for Governor … Read more
The Brexit chaos is causing major alarm in Northern Ireland with talk of the Good Friday Agreement being threatened. That was the power-sharing deal struck on 10 April 1998 which saw an end to hostilities. The DUP was the only party to oppose it. No definitive or constructive ideas have been forthcoming … Read more
There are a dizzying number of disagreements spewing out of the Oval office, so for clarity sake I’ll skip some of the astro-detail. Jared Kushner has had his security clearance downgraded, preventing him seeing top level intelligence, because of concerns that foreign countries were in a position to take advantage of his complex … Read more
Max Mosley, the privacy campaigner, has been pushing for tighter press regulation since details of a sado-masochistic party he attended were published in Murdoch’s News of the World and is pushing for data protection laws which would allow personal history to be removed from archives. He’s now discovering that pitting yourself against … Read more
The ‘eloquent, purposeful, and clear-eyed’ response from the pupils of Stoneman Douglas School to the killing of 17 of their friends has evoked admiration (mainly). The reaction does seem different with this mass shooting, as if teenagers have had enough. An insightful piece in Slate (URL below) notes some of their tactics: *Give … Read more
English actress Emma Chambers, best known for playing oddball roles in Nottinghill and The Vicar of Dibley, has died aged 53 from natural causes. She suffered from asthma and serious allergies. Born 11 March 1964, she was a Sun, Mercury, Mars in Pisces trine filmic Neptune; with her Mars in a high-tension opposition … Read more
Sridevi, the Bollywood superstar has died suddenly aged 54. She appeared in almost 300 films over five decades and was considered one of the few Indian female stars capable of box office success without the support of a male hero. Born 13 August 1963 in Madras at 5,30am (unverified), she started acting aged … Read more