People
McCall Smith defends Minghella
Alexander McCall Smith (pictured) has leapt to the defence of the late film director Anthony Minghella, calling the critics who panned his
final work, a TV adaptation of McCall Smith's best-selling book The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency, "perverse". Although the programme, set in Botswana, received some... [continued]
People: Anthony Minghella dies at 54 
Was John McCain whipped by gays?
There is little that is not known about the five years John McCain spent as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. Not so. The website Queerty – slogan: free of an agenda, except that gay one – have seized on overlooked personal account the Republican nominee gave... [continued]
Comedian Jon Stewart hailed as the serious face of US current affairs
Jon Stewart (pictured with John Travolta), host of The Daily Show, the send-up of the more moronic sort of American cable news stations, appears to have
achieved something his bona fide counterparts consistently fail to achieve – credibility. This week the New York Times asked whether Stewart had... [continued]
Biden, Bayh and Kaine top list as VP gossip mill goes into overdrive
Rushdie rounds on his publishers
Salman Rushdie has waded into the row over The Jewel of Medina, the romantic novel about the prophet Muhammad’s child bride Aisha written by an American journalist,
Sherry Jones. The novel was dropped by the Booker Prize-winning author's publishers Random House after Islamic scholars warned that it “could incite acts... [continued]
Coppers locked Rushdie in a cupboard
Orlando Bloom to make a star of Rory
Rory Stewart, the 35-year-old British author who is sometimes billed as a modern-day Lawrence of Arabia, is to have a Hollywood film made about his life. The man
behind the movie is Orlando Bloom (pictured), who has already cast himself in the Stewart role, and who got... [continued]
Reviews: Rory Stewart's Occupational Hazards
In brief: Lauren Booth breaks blockade
Tony Blair’s sister-in-law, Lauren Booth (pictured), looks set to cause him maximum embarrassment this week (in his role as MidEast peace envoy) when she
joins a group of protestors trying to break Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip by sailing into the Palestinian territory. Some 46 campaigners,... [continued]
Tarantino upsets Germans with Brad Pitt Nazi film
Bono leaks U2’s new album
Sarah Ayton hoping her boyfriend won’t equal her gold medal success
Before the Olympics began, two of the athletes in the British team, boyfriend and girlfriend Sarah Ayton and Nick Dempsey, made a deal. Whoever did best in
Beijing would get to choose their marital name when they married. At the moment Ayton, one of the three-woman crew... [continued]
Beijing Olympics 2008: the sport and the drama in words and pictures
Lady Thatcher’s fave singer dies
Margaret Thatcher will no doubt shed a tear when she reads the obituaries page in the Daily Telegraph. For Lita Roza (pictured), who sang the 1953 novelty hit How Much is That Doggie in the Window?, has died at the age of 82. The former Tory Prime... [continued]
