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The Foreign Desk

Anna Nicole’s docs were warned about “pharmaceutical suicide.” So, what about Michael Jackson’s?

Fascinating documents were unsealed in Los Angeles today revealing affidavits that have been filed in evidence against two of the doctors who treated Anna Nicole Smith in the run-up to her death.
The quacks, Khristine Eroshevich and Sandeep Kapoor, stand accused of illegally supplying Smith (reality TV star, model, and widow of octogenarian oil baron J [...]

By | The Foreign Desk | Tuesday, 22 September 2009 at 6:03 am

Revealed – Will Smith’s $70k donation to Scientology

It’s been a while since Scientology sparked much tooth-sucking in celebrity circles, so thank goodness for blogger Roger Friedman – who has just unearthed and published part of Will Smith’s latest tax return.
The actor and his wife, Jada Pinkett-Smith, pictured, turn out to have last year donated just over $70,000 to groups linked to Scientology (see [...]

By | The Foreign Desk | Sunday, 20 September 2009 at 8:59 pm

Why Twitter counts for nothing in Hollywoood

IT HAS been an article of faith in Hollywood this summer that topsy-turvy box office returns are being increasingly driven by the sudden emergence of the micro-blogging website Twitter.
This theory cites the success of “sleeper” hits like The Hangover and Inglorious Basterds, which apparently gained massive audiences thanks to an instant tidal-wave of positive coverage from users [...]

By | The Foreign Desk | Thursday, 17 September 2009 at 8:11 pm

National Enquirer claims victory in race for first photo of Jaycee Lee Dugard

There was high excitement in the press bleachers at Placerville Court in California yesterday, when Phillip Garrido was informed that Jaycee Lee Dugard will give evidence when he’s tried for abducting, raping and holding her hostage for 18 years. 
Quite aside from the potential courtroom drama it heralded, Dugard’s decision to appear on the witness stand [...]

By | The Foreign Desk | Tuesday, 15 September 2009 at 11:18 pm

“I will not read your f–king script!” – how not to get ahead in Hollywood

I can’t think of a better five-minute introduction into how not to get ahead in Hollywood than this brilliant article by screenwriter Josh Olson published today by New York’s Village Voice newspaper.
The author (above), who was BAFTA and Oscar-nominated for his 2005 film A History of Violence, uses his bully pulpit to explain - in plain English – why [...]

By | The Foreign Desk | Friday, 11 September 2009 at 6:55 am

Miss USA’s Carrie Prejean heads to court

Carrie Prejean, the Miss USA contestant whose opposition to gay marriage sparked a national controversy so preposterous that Donald Trump got involved, is off to the place every all-American hoo-hah ends up: court.
In a lawsuit seeking “undisclosed damages,” the pneumatic blonde claimed today that she was fired from her job as Miss California on the [...]

By | The Foreign Desk | Monday, 31 August 2009 at 9:55 pm

“I told the truth!” – Michael Jackson’s doctor breaks his silence

 

Two months into the real-life soap-opera surrounding Michael Jackson’s death, the pantomime villain of the piece has finally broken his silence.
Dr Conrad Murray, the 50-year-old singer’s personal physician, today released a one-minute statement on YouTube (see above) thanking his “supporters” and insisting that he’s “told the truth” about his role in the murky affair.
Murray – [...]

By | The Foreign Desk | Tuesday, 18 August 2009 at 10:49 pm

UFC 100 – Lesnar apologises, Henderson says: “je ne regrette rein!”

After the party: hangover. A fantastically vibrant UFC card was followed by a pair of distinctly defensive press conferences backstage at the Mandalay Bay last night, as the delighted Brock Lesnar and Dan Henderson discussed some of the controversial excesses of their emphatic wins.
Lesnar, a former WWE wrestler (pictured), marked his knockout of Frank Mir with a display of pantomime [...]

By | The Foreign Desk | Sunday, 12 July 2009 at 8:15 pm

UFC 100: the Bisping game plan

 

Las Vegas may be blessedly free of drunken Mancunians singing “on-ly one Ricky Hatton,” but as tonight’s compelling UFC 100 card creeps ever-closer, a definite Anglo-American divide pervades the casino floors of Sin City.In one camp, our Trans-Atlantic cousins, who have blithely written-off the chances of Britain’s leading mixed martial artist Michael Bisping in his [...]

By | The Foreign Desk | Saturday, 11 July 2009 at 11:13 pm

Allen Stanford speaks, threatens, cries

Allen Stanford, the cricket-loving financier who has done more to embarrass the England and Wales Cricket Board than anyone in whites, has been collared by ABC News outside a restaurant in Houston.
He denies the US authorities’ accusations that he has been running an $8bn pyramid scheme. So far so predictable, but you might want to judge [...]

By | The Foreign Desk | Tuesday, 7 April 2009 at 10:21 am

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