Friday, September 7, 2007
Touching Tribute To Pavarotti In Today’s Crikey Mail Out!
1:48PM Jess McGuire | Seventeen thousand thumbs up, followed by a gentle self-harming session whilst listening to Dashboard Confessional, to Crikey.com.au for the stunningly and wonderfully emo tribute to recently deceased opera star Luciano Pavarotti that opens today’s newsletter.
Luciano Pavarotti is dead. Why does this resonate? Because the life of Pavarotti is an allegory for our time, our decadent decline made flesh.
Here was a man blessed by talent, art and beauty who was consumed by vanity and the dumb blandishments of vapid celebrity. A man gifted with an abundant natural resource – a larynx touched by God he thought – a creature of incalculable, classical, learned beauty that ended up stuffing itself with lard and singing duets with Bono.
This is our age on legs: cancer laden, caked in hair dye, fake tan and kohl, still sort of singing. Then dead. RIP.
“Then dead. RIP.”
BRILLIANT. More » 
Sarah Girls Aloud Swears She’s Not A “Pisshead” Anymore, We Feel Strangely Wistful For The Good Old Days
11:18AM Clem Bastow | Girls Aloud’s party girl Sarah Harding has told Bizarre that her wild-boozing days are over, confessing to our girl Victoria Newton that she doesn’t want to be known as “a slapper or a pisshead”.
Harding also tries to blame some of her less flattering paparazzi photos (i.e. looking WAAAAAASTED) on the effects of being “hosed down”* by snappers.
She says: “I can’t say I’m not a binge drinker. I do go out and drink and get photographed but I’m not always as wasted as people think. Sometimes I’m blinking because of all the camera flashes going off.”
Jeez, Girls Aloud can’t let all their drunken, toilet-attendent-slapping, dodgy-bloke-choosing antics slip away from them; it’s rare to find a pop outfit these days who can combine entertaining off-duty antics with really good music!
* “hosing down” is not just a Ghostbusters reference, it’s also pap-speak for the act of stunning and confusing a celeb with rapid and repeated camera flashes. They’re a civilised bunch, aren’t they?
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Kanye Stalks The Boog Despite Her Clearly Not Having Ass Like Serena/Trina/Jennifer Lopez, Nor Four Kids
11:02AM Clem Bastow | God Kanye West was on the prowl at this week’s GQ Men of The Year Awards party, setting his sights on fellow attendee, Our Natalie “Boog”* Imbruglia (pictured here striking an, er, striking pose on the red carpet at the event).
West apparently was unaware Boog is married to Our Daniel Johns, sending an aide to her side with the following message:
Nats was treated to the line: “Kanye thinks you’re beautiful and he doesn’t take no for an answer.”
Putting aside the fact that we’d love to not give Kanye no for an answer (we shure write good, read good too), we were surprised to read that Boog did hand over her number, though presumably for artistic reasons.
Perhaps Kanye can do an Adam Levine/John Mayer on Boog and put a little Kanye gilding on her decidedly AOR credentials?
* “Boog” is her childhood nickname; she revealed this back in the day in an interview with Dolly that clearly made an impression on us.
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Amy Winehouse Watch: Get Well Wishes From Lily, We Remember The Music, Maaaan…
10:53AM Clem Bastow | With Winegums laying low after her Mercury Awards walk-out, peer and sometime rival Lily Allen has taken this opportunity to keep Winegums Watch afloat by sending the embattled soul singer some words of support.
The pair have been chart rivals, but at Tuesday night’s GQ Men of the Year Awards Lily said: “My heart goes out to her. I feel for her so much with everything that’s happened and I really hope she’s OK.”
Lily, 22, who presented a Best Band gong to the Kaiser Chiefs, added: “You don’t need drugs to be creative. No one needs them.”
Well, she would say that, since all she indulges in are a few snifters and a couple of jazz fags.
Meanwhile, we thought it best to remind you all that despite what Winegums Watch may suggest, we here are first and foremost fans of Miss Winehouse’s formidable musical talent, which was thankfully in full effect at the Mercury Awards. In a little end-of-the-week treat, check out Amy’s stunning performance of Love Is A Losing Game after the jump. More » 
The Mid-Morning Wrap Up
10:33AM Anna King | While you were sleeping: Welcome to The Club, Owen. Republicans learn from Bush presidency, enlists professional actor as new candidate in their bid to legitimise taking innocent lives, gay-bashing etc. Just when we’re thinking it’s
Dieter Brummer In Trouble, And We Don’t Mean With Alf Or Fisher
10:31AM Clem Bastow | Ex-Home & Away star and Dolly Prince Of TV hottie Dieter Brummer has re-emerged in a rather unsavoury manner, copping a charge for a mid-range drink-driving escapade on August 4th (he blew 0.125 – good work, champ!).
Unfortunately for Dieter, however, the saddest part about this story is not the opportunity to remind him just how well former on-screen love Melissa George’s career is doing, but rather this rather pathetic little closer to the news item:
Three months before his drink driving charge, Brummer’s mother told a Sydney-based radio station he was currently working as a window cleaner.
We’re sure that after that admission she’d have been receiving a steady stream of boxes of Roses chocolates from Dieter.
Good on ya, mum! More » 
Kylie Changes Hair Again; APEC Summit Informed, Regular Programming Interrupted
10:28AM Clem Bastow | It seems the British press just can’t get enough of Kylie Minogue’s hairdressing choices, with another report on her follicular follies – this time, it seems she’s gone for… a retro updo!
Please read on while we mop our brows with a cold flannel and try to find our neutral space.
Kylie was sporting a new hairstyle putting her a-head of her celebrity opponents at a charity bowling tournament.
The singer’s new look had an echo of Sixties sex kitten Brigitte Bardot.
Heart-stopping news there, from the same quality publication that brought this story to our attention. We’re just glad that we’ve managed to stay in the fast-paced loop that is the world of hairstyling for one more week. More » YouTube Clip Of The Day
10:16AM Jess McGuire | Once again, our friend Born Dancin’ has managed to uncover yet another nugget of interweb insanity on YouTube which has pleased us beyond belief.
Says Senor Dancin’ –
The first 11 seconds are some of the most gripping drama in TV history. Because it’s from Japan, I watched it with no idea what the hell was going on – it features a giant green kids character having some kind of seizure and his shaggy brown friend going apeshit and demanding medics or something. All along there’s this ultra-amazing soundtrack that just screams URGENCY, and Brown’s eyes flipping around on springs only add to the frantic performance.
Then we have about 1/4 second of a little toy bucket and spade from the WTF section of the local Toyworld and we move to an extended live dance concert featuring Epileptic Green and Furry Poo.
It’s not Citizen Kane – it’s not even The Magnificent Ambersons – but it is two people dressed in vaguely humiliating outfits doing some passable breakdancing.
And maybe that’s all I want out of life.
Touche, Born Dancin’.
And now? The amazing clip. Three thumbs up for the excellent use of Earth, Wind and Fire.
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Feel Good Story Of The Day: Baby Girl Born With Elvis-Style Ginger Hair
9:49AM Jess McGuire | If this isn’t the cutest, most amazing thing you’ve ever seen (today) then we’ll buy a hat, and then we’ll eat that hat, so certain are we of young Katie-Lee Webster’s universal appeal.
Says the Daily Mail –
At only ten weeks old she already has the flowing locks of a child several times her age. Her mother, Stephanie Pleasance, said: “Most people when they see a baby say ‘Isn’t she cute?’. When people see her, they say “Look at her hair!’.”
Katie-Lee’s father, Danny Webster, added: “No one we’ve met has ever seen anything like it – we’re forever being stopped in the street and asked, ‘Is that a wig?’.”
It is no wig, friends. It is nature’s wee ginger miracle.
More » Much To Our Exaggerated Relief, It Appears Greg And Laura Norman Have Agreed On A Divorce Settlement
8:45AM Jess McGuire | We’re sure we’re not the only ones who have been quite literally on the edge of our seat watching the increasingly nasty divorce proceedings of Greg and Laura Norman. “Won’t they just stop the fighting and part amicably, in a scenario that is financial pleasing to both parties?” we would plead aloud to no one in particular, “After all, don’t their 25 years of love and marriage deserve a dignified end?”
Good news, then!
Greg Norman’s bitter $US500 million ($610 million) divorce battle appears to be approaching a peaceful end.
The champion Australian golfer and his soon to be ex-wife of 25 years, Laura, came face-to-face today in a Florida court, with both sides agreeing to allow a judge to enter a final judgment settling most aspects of their divorce, Florida’s Palm Beach Post newspaper’s website reported.
The terms of the settlement are confidential.
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