People
Madoff victim Penney scorned for sob stories
After risking her life savings by investing everything with the disgraced financier Bernard Madoff, Alexandra Penney (picture courtesy of the Daily
Beast), a New York author, journalist and self-proclaimed painter, appears to be risking her dignity on both sides of the Atlantic. In a blog for the online Daily Beast... [continued]
People: Madoff placed under house arrest 
People: Madoff arrest – ‘no innocent explanation’
Philip Delves Broughton: anyone insanely rich is under suspicion
Alexander Cockburn: One big Ponzi scheme
Thompson joins talk radio opposition
As Barack Obama prepares to take over in Washington, conservative America is preparing its opposition. Step forward Fred Thompson (pictured), Rudy
Giuliani and Mike Huckabee, all former candidates for the 2008 Republican nomination, and all now heading towards jobs discussing and dismantling the Democrats on talk
radio. After eight years... [continued]
American Transition: latest news and comment
Holly Branson saves Virgin passenger
Passengers aboard Virgin flights to and from Antigua are quite used to having the airline's owner, Sir Richard Branson, leaping up and down for some publicity stunt or other. But
when his daughter Holly Branson left her seat on Saturday it was not a PR gimmick but... [continued]
Branson's record attempt in jeopardy
Lisa ‘fuming’ after Tom Chambers wins Strictly Come Dancing
The BBC's sequins and salsa show Strictly Come Dancing finally reached its climax on Saturday amid complaints that problems with phone lines prevented many viewers voting, and that actor
Tom Chambers and his professional partner Camilla Dallerup should never have been allowed to progress to the final week and waltz... [continued]
Fury at Sergeant's decision to quit
Smith’s cheerleader revealed as husband
A man who has been writing letters to his local paper in defence of belaguered Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has been unmasked as her husband. Smith, who took over the Home Office in
Gordon Brown's first cabinet reshuffle in June 2007, has taken a battering recently over publishing disputed knife... [continued]
The Mole: Jacqui Smith's rift with Foreign Office
Crowe ‘wants to throw Ridley Scott off film’
Hollywood insiders see the end of a beautiful relationship between the Oscar-winning actor Russell Crowe and director Ridley Scott, as rumours fly that Crowe
wants the director to be fired from their forthcoming collaboration. Scott turned Crowe into a major star by casting him in Gladiator, a role... [continued]
People: Will John Travolta play Bill Clinton?
Warner threatens to pull stars like Clapton from YouTube
Anyone used to logging on to YouTube to watch Eric Clapton (pictured) thumping out Cocaine, or Madonna contorting her 50-year-old frame in a top
hat and tails on her latest Sticky and Sweet tour, are soon to be disappointed. A legal row between Google and Warner music means that the... [continued]
People: Madonna denies giving Guy £50m
In brief: Hallelujah scores Xmas No1 and 2
The Leonard Cohen song Hallelujah, first released in 1984, is number one and number two in the Christmas week Top Ten. The version by The X Factor winner
Alexandra Burke (pictured) took top spot on Sunday night, and a 1994 version by the Californian singer Jeff Buckley, who died in... [continued]
People: Black slates Wolff’s 'grating' Murdoch bio
People: Leonard Cohen makes it big from X Factor
People: demo planned against Ross and BBC
People: Max Hastings defends ‘posh’ Ed Stourton
In pictures: Hoy, Adlington and other sports personalities
Woodward puts £5m villa up for rent
Labour MP Shaun Woodward (pictured) is not a poor man - as well as a string of properties round the world, he and his Sainsbury's heiress wife Camilla keep a private butler - but he has had to put his newest home onto the rental market. The Ulster... [continued]
