Two faced Janus, ruling the New Year, mourning what has been and looking forward with anticipation, may be flummoxed this year with the groundhog-day strictures and fears of the pandemic still in place. Same old, same old. But up in the celestial sphere nothing stands still as the planets cycle at varying speeds along their … Read more
Pete Duel, an American actor best known for the 1970 TV western comedy ‘Alias Smith and Jones’ was according to Quentin Tarantino one of the inspirations behind the character Rick Dalton, a washed up actor played by Di Caprio in ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’. Duel was found shot on New Year’s Eve 1971, … Read more
Ioan Gruffudd, a recognizable but not A-list actor (Hornblower, Australian TV Harrow etc), has split from his actress wife to hook up with his co-star. So far, so uninteresting. Except the Daily Mail has helpfully aired the wife’s chagrin at the split with a series of raging social media posts. All appears to be settling … Read more
Ethan Crumbley, 15, the latest in a long line of school shooters, ended four young lives and wounded another seven of his peers, some of them seriously, on November 30th in Michigan. What is unusual in his case is his parents have been arrested and charged with involuntary manslaughter. He used his father’s new 9mm … Read more
The France presidential elections due in April 2022 are hotting up with the four front runners spotlighted – Emmanuel Macron, the centrist president, centre-right Valerie Pecresse, far-right Eric Zemmour and equally far-right Marine Le Pen. What’s clear from the France chart is that there will be widespread confusion, turbulence and upset which may not all … Read more
Olaf Scholz was sworn in this morning as next German Chancellor, replacing Angela Merkel, who will be a hard act to follow. He takes on a coalition government with three parties which have never governed together before. Added to which he is facing a fourth covid wave with street protests about mandatory vaccinations for all; … Read more
Chris Cuomo has been fired by CNN for defending his brother former NY Governor Andrew Cuomo from sexual harassment allegations. It transpires he had taken a much more active role than previously thought in strategizing a response, which then triggered an allegation of “serious sexual misconduct” against him as well. Andrew Cuomo resigned last August … Read more
Actress Arlene Dahl, a 1950s screen icon whose fiery red hair, blue eyes and porcelain white skin made her a natural for the early years of Technicolor, has died. She was hardly ever seen with a hair out of place though she had a turbulent love life, including six marriages and an affair with John … Read more
The mind-numbing details about the life and death of six year Arthur Labinjo-Hughes, beaten, starved and tortured by his stepmother and father, have a ring of sickening familiarity. Both the perpetrators now face long prison sentences for murder and manslaughter respectively and social services are being hauled over the coals for their incompetence. Previous … Read more
Sir Frank William, who has just died, rose above adversity to make an extraordinary success of his Formula 1 racing team. Early on in his career after he ran out of money, he was making business calls from a public telephone box. And he came back after a catastrophic car crash in the 1980s which … Read more