In his pre-election speech to the Labour Party – which in reality was just a series of lists – the British PM threw the biggest bone of all to the Liberal Democrats, says Simon Heffer. It was the act of a desperate man.
Ouch!
Dan Brown’s worst 20 sentences
To mark the release of Dan Brown’s latest, The Lost Symbol, Tom Chivers plucks the worst phrases from his oeuvre.
British women: the original fashion victims
Women in Britain dress like frumps, says Linda Grant. A decade of noteworthy changes in fashion will do little but alter the colours they wear: from beige, grey and stone to navy and white. Aaargh.
Property the biggest loser in worst ever earnings year
2008-09 was the most dire reporting season in living memory, says Stephen Mayne. And the big Australian property players — not banks — led the losses with $17.24 billion of net losses after tax.
Jumping Jupiter! Planet gets hit
Something the size of Earth has smashed into Jupiter, leaving a black hole in its atmosphere. It was an amateur Australian astronomer who spotted the scar.
Alain de Bott to critic: “I will hate you till the day I die”
Celebrity schadenfreude involving an author, and a philosopher at that, elevates it far above the midden material of a Britney or TomKat or Christian Bale fracas, writes WH Chong.
“A horrible experience of unbearable length”: Transformers reviewed
“If you want to save yourself the ticket price, go into the kitchen, cue up a male choir singing the music of hell…” writes the film critic of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.
Sydney: ordinary, dubious and crawling with merchant bankers
Hot on the heels of Louis Nowra’s Sydney bashing in The Weekend Oz, Richard Ackland throws a new punch: “Sydney makes Dallas look like Paris.”
Gordon Ramsay passes his use-by date
Somewhere along the line, we grew weary of a 42-year-old man displaying the F-word brashness of a posturing teenager and the bullying insults dressed up as banter, says Judith Woods
US papers post worst-ever quarterly results
The Newspaper Association of America’s first quarter results show sales are down an unprecedented 29.4%.
The supine, shameless, slobbering White House press corps
Stalin himself couldn’t have wished for a more slobbering press corps than that at the White House, argues James Lewis.
Christian Bale ruinsTerminator Salvation
There were warning signs that actor Christian Bale was taking Terminator Salvation a wee bit seriously. And it’s exactly what’s wrong with the movie.
Angels & Demons: like National Treasure goes to the Vatican
Another Robert Langdon movie and another bad hair day for Tom Hanks. Stay away from Angels & Demons, writes Luke Buckmaster.
The second before they are eaten alive
It’s a kill or be killed world, and these photos of animals — caught in the moment before another animal eats them — realise it better than most.
Deficit estimate now tops $1.84 trillion… for the US
You call Australia’s estimated $58b shortfall a deficit? That’s not a deficit. This is a deficit.
Joe the Plumber quits the Republican Party
Today word broke that Mr. Plumber is leaving the Republican Party — which you can tell is in deep trouble when they can’t hold on to either moderates or right-wing bigots.
Judi Dench to critic: “you’re an absolute shit”
Dame Judi Dench hit back at one of Fleet Street’s best known theatre critics, Charles Spencer of the Daily Telegraph, after he labelled her turn as the Marquis de Sade’s Mother-in-Law a “bore”.
More men getting the chop
The recession is apparently causing an upswing in vasectomies. Erm.
Germaine Greer tackles Margaret Thatcher
To mark the 30th anniversary of Thatcher’s election Germaine Greer embarks on a signature personality assassination.
Big eggs = cruelty to hens
Not only should you be buying free range eggs. Apparently you should also worry about the size (for hen’s sake).
American Ballet’s Swan Lake is stuffed
The American Ballet Theatre’s Swan Lake at the Coliseum is a thumping disappointment, a lovingly prepared soufflé that almost completely fails to rise.
