June 2007

PARANOID CHATTER

I thought I would share an email that came in today. The senders name has been dropped off for obvious reasons.

S**t just hit fan with the car bombing so calling all national papers and pitching our security expert in as a spokesperson, expert etc (of the millions of things we do, we stuff like protecting companies against terrorism etc). anyway, he knows everyone at NATO, M15, can kill with his bare hands etc.

Quote of the day from him "we knew this would happen, it's just start of a new wave of attacks. They've woken up the sleeper cells".

Not sure why I speak to him - it's like Vincent Price reading you a bedtime story.

WATCH THIS SPICE

At a press conference today, it was announced that the Spice Girls will reform for a World Tour commencing this December. Everyone is super heated about just how much money this tour will generate. Simon Fuller is behind it, and one thing is certain, and that’s that he can make money even while he’s sleeping. Everything he touches seems to be a massive success. So it will be interesting to see how ticket sales fare. If early signs are good, then this tour will be one of the most successful tours to date, but just because it worked for Take That, doesn’t necessarily mean it will work for the girls. Watch this spice.

THE REAL DEAL

Sorry for the blog silence over the past few days but I’ve been deeply immersed in mud, sweat and tears at this year’s Glastonbury Festival. What a colossus it has become - physically and culturally. It’s such an amazing, stand alone event, but one which to some is probably just another summer music festival. If you’re back stage, then you could actually be at any other music festival. But there is a special spirit to Glastonbury which anyone can find if they make a little effort. Unlike the regular music biz execs and their whores who spend the entire festival in the back stage area, which is well known to be the most boring part of the whole festival. Once these people get to the hospitality tents, they’re stuck there for the duration, except that is, if they have booked some comfy B&B nearby so they can go and have a shower to wash away the proverbial grime. Isn’t Glastonbury about freedom? Freedom to be real, freedom from creature comforts, freedom from the humdrum of normal life, and freedom from trying to be cool. I noticed the entourage surrounding Kate Moss mainly because their hangers on were probably the only people not wearing Wellingtons. Needless to say, in that weather, they looked utterly ridiculous. It’s not about posing and it’s not like other music festivals; Glastonbury is totally unique and should stay that way despite its burgeoning numbers. The real posse consists of those that get there on the Wednesday and Thursday, erect their tents and then get ready to party, to experience what Glastonbury really has to offer. There’s a tremendous sense of anticipation and excitement which is genuine. For those who continue to wrestle in mud, I salute you.

THE BIG QUESTION: IS GLASTONBURY TOO BIG, AND IS IT STILL EUROPE'S MOST IMPORTANT MUSIC FESTIVAL?

By Ian Burrell 20th June 2007
Just how big is Glastonbury?

Glastonbury 2007, which begins on Friday, is expected to have an attendance of 177,500, making it the biggest since the festival started in 1970. Organisers sold 137,500 tickets in one hour and 45 minutes on 1 April. The first festival, the brain child of Michael Eavis, cost £1, offset by the offer of a drink of milk, and drew a crowd of 1,500. Security this year will be a lot more water-tight than most of the tents, with many festival-goers required to bring proof of their identity and tickets with the name of the purchaser.

http://arts.independent.co.uk/music/features/article2679118.ece

For some traditionalists, the event is growing too far from its roots. "This year will be a real test," says the publicist Mark Borkowski. "There are other interesting festivals coming up that are small and beautifully formed." He claims the phenomenal growth of the Edinburgh arts festival has over-commercialised that event and that Michael Eavis faces a similar threat. "Glastonbury is on the edge," he says.

What's the attraction of camping in the mud anyway?

Glastonbury has become the must-have ticket of the British social season, irrespective of whether you actually like music. Though country hotels and Winnebagos are an option for a few, most choose to experience the festival under canvas, meaning they might well finish the weekend soaked through and caked in West Country soil.

For some, the images of sodden festivals of the past are integral to the Glastonbury tradition. The "Year of the Mud," in 1997, made national news bulletins with pictures of festival-goers bodysurfing through brown sludge, but it didn't stop Glastonbury's attendance rising from 90,000 to 140,000 over the course of the following five years.

Heavy rain is again forecast for this weekend, yet many devotees head for Somerset regardless, believing that the magic of the location will outshine the misery of the bad weather. "It's such a great site for a festival, you actually feel as though you've escaped and got out of town," says Steve Phillips, of the music PR company Coalition. Besides, he points out, once you're on site, it's not easy to escape. "There's a Dunkirk spirit because there's nowhere else to go," he adds.

What about all the other festivals?

The success of Glastonbury has spawned a host of other outdoor music events that run from spring to autumn, with many new arrivals appearing last year when Mr Eavis decided to take a year out. The Isle of Wight, Reading/Leeds and V festivals are landmarks on the live rock calendar, with other, more arty, events such as Latitude and Wychwood in Gloucestershire, which incorporate comedy, poetry and other performance arts. British festival-goers have become increasingly willing to head further afield, to events such as Benicassim in Spain and Exit in Serbia.

Yet none of these has the heritage or the scale of Glastonbury. "It's the godfather of music festivals," according to Will Turner, the group CEO of The Hospital, a private members club in London for people in the creative industries. He says the festival acts as a catalyst for future creativity. "When you get people from the creative industries together, things tend to happen."

Paul Stokes, the group news editor of NME, which targets the youthful end of the music buying public, describes a trip to Glastonbury for younger fans as "like a badge that puts you one up on contemporaries who didn't go". Mr Stokes says that the festival is regarded as having become "more adult" than the Reading/Leeds Carling Weekend Festivals. "Glastonbury is still important, it's just that your mum and dad might come along too."

Do bands still care about playing Glastonbury?

The fact that they are almost all prepared to slash their usual fees for the privilege of appearing says it all. Mark Ellen, editor of The Word magazine, says that no other music event has the same stature. "All festivals supply a bigger-than-average crowd for any act, but Glastonbury - like no other - adds a powerful sense of context that makes anyone on stage seem to conform to the spirit of the venture," he says.

Who are the big attractions this year?

Headliners on the Pyramid Stage this year are The Arctic Monkeys, The Killers and The Who. On the Other Stage, the prestige slots fall to Bjork, Iggy and the Stooges and The Chemical Brothers. The Who's publicist, Alan Edwards, says there is no more important place for a rock band to play. "I remember going there with David Bowie and from the stage you could just see this sea of faces going into the distance and over the hills. Backstage, Charles Kennedy, the politician, turned up in his Wellington boots, holding a clutch of vinyl albums and a pen and hoping for Bowie's autograph," he says.

Hasn't it become too corporate?

The marketer Mike Mathieson, of the Cake media relations company, who will be accompanying his client, Orange, to this year's event, says Glastonbury has an altogether different relationship with its sponsors than other entertainment events. "Michael Eavis tells you that you can become involved, but that you have to enhance the festival and do something special," he says.

Mr Mathieson contrasted Glastonbury with the O2 Wireless Festival in Hyde Park. "I couldn't believe how corporate the O2 festival was," he says. But Mr Borkowski says Glastonbury has managed to maintain its ethos. "It's not a money making thing - it's the last of the spirit fests and the others all lack that," he argues.

Does any of this make the world a better place?

Well, Glastonbury is not just about music or, even just about live performance as a whole. The ethos that spreads through the event, and which has been carried forward from its very earliest days, can help to kick start a global environmental campaign.

Stuart Fowkes, of Oxfam, says that Glastonbury is the music festival which the charity values above all others. "It's the Eavis's collective passion for doing things the right way. It creates the right conditions and atmosphere in which people can unite around a cause," he says.

Money raised from the festival has been channelled into Oxfam projects fighting poverty in Kenya and improving sanitation in the developing world through Water Aid. Mr Fowkes adds: "Thanks to Glastonbury, Make Poverty History was huge before the concert even took place. We are hoping the same will happen this year with ICount, the climate change campaign, and that 100,000 people at the festival will sign the petition."

Is Glastonbury about to lose its place as the godfather of festivals?

Yes...

* The event is growing too big and too commercial, and will inevitably lose touch with the unique spirit that has been its heritage

* It will lose relevance to younger music fans who will turn their attentions to smaller, more intimate festivals

* The joys of sleeping in the open air in a wet and muddy field will start to wear thin for the increasingly moneyed crowd

No...

* The history of Glastonbury is unrivalled and brings with it a guarantee of a musical line-up that cannot be matched elsewhere

* There really is something special about the site - the hills help create an ambience that transcends any musical performance

* In his daughter Emily, the festival founder, Michael Eavis, has the perfect successor to ensure that the spirit and its standards continue

THE LATE BERNARD MANNING

Bernard Manning is dead. And somewhere in London there is a full size wax effigy of Mr Manning that I commissioned in 1992. Jonathan Margolis’ obituary in today’s Independent was staggering. I particularly liked his comment that “Bernard Manning was in a sense the last “legitimate" racist in Britain. Legitimate because the gags which caused him to be so widely reviled in recent years were fossilised relics of the working class comedy of the late 1950’s.” I staged a publicity stunt to mark the opening of Jongleurs Comedy Club and the death of traditional stand up back in 1992. The effigy of Manning in a coffin was drawn by horses on a 100 year old hearse, prepared for an unceremonious dumping in London’s Regent Canal. The coffin was accompanied by the then relatively unknown Graham Norton, disguised as Mother Theresa of Camden Lock. I never contacted Bernard Manning at the time as I wanted to wind him up about how comedians of his ilk were passé and old fashioned and his ritual funeral signified the death of traditional comedy. But Bernard was far cleverer than that! He used my stunt to get publicity for The Embassy, his club in Manchester and in the end he got as much press for The Embassy as I did for the opening of Jongleurs.

IT'S WHAT THE FANS WANT - WHAT THEY REALLY, REALLY WANT.

Fergus Sheppard, The Scotsman.

The Spice Girls, the five-member act which crusaded to pop superstardom on the theme of "girl power" in the 1990s, spawning a host of copycats along the way, was last night set for a reunion.

Rumours have been sweeping the showbiz world for weeks, fuelled by snaps of band members meeting at various up-market London restaurants.

http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=942652007

But Mel C - 'Sporty Spice' - confirmed the speculation in a radio interview. "For the first time ever, there is some truth in the rumours. We've been discussing it and it could happen."

Until now, Mel has been the only member of the hugely successful band to hold out against a reunion. However, she said: "I've always said I don't want to do it, the past is the past. It was amazing, it was magical. We could never recreate it.

"But this year people have been talking about it and some of the girls have expressed an interest in doing it. There is just so much great feeling out there and I just thought, you know what, I don't want to be the person that stops it happening or stops it being a five-piece."

The tour is likely to be a global farewell to a band which was formed on the back of a 1994 advert in the Stage newspaper which read: "R U 18-23 with the ability to sing/dance? R U streetwise, ambitious, outgoing and determined?"

The band was initially overseen by pop svengali Simon Fuller, who later went on to create the TV shows Popstars and Pop Idol. However, the girls did much to dispel accusations they were simply hype by taking control of their own affairs and ultimately chalking up record sales of 55 million from a string of hits. That chart success and the film, Spice World, meant that by 1998 the group had annual earnings of £25.5million - making them the country's most financially successful girl act.

Mel C insisted the group would not follow the example of Take That, who have eclipsed Robbie Williams with their comeback album and tour.

"If the Spice Girls were to get back together it would be for a very short space of time. It would be a final goodbye and thank you", Sporty Spice added.

The band are now understood to be planning six live shows around the world with concerts in London, Tokyo and Las Vegas to support a Greatest Hits album due out at the end of the year. Rehearsals will begin after Emma Bunton - Baby Spice - gives birth to her first baby later this year.

PR and showbiz guru Mark Borkowski said: "Everybody felt that things like this were a bit passe, but never underestimate what happened with Take That."

SIR ALAN SUGAR - YOU’RE FIRED

In boardroom terms it was a hostile takeover. Katie Hopkins, the poison-tongued “alpha female” contestant on The Apprentice, fired Sir Alan Sugar last night and walked out on the £100,000 job.

After months of acidic put-downs, Ms Hopkins, a 31-year-old brands consultant, had manoeuvred her way past 14 rivals to reach the grand final of the BBC One business search.

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/

But when Sir Alan informed her that she was one task away from winning the post, the mother-of-two promptly quit, saying that she did not want to uproot her family.

The sudden departure of the most ruthless of the series’ competitors baffled her rivals. Insiders claimed that Ms Hopkins never had any intention of taking a job with Sir Alan and instead was using the show to find fame.

She has admitted a series of affairs with married men. Pictures of her cavorting naked in a cornfield with a man from the Met Office were splashed across the tabloids this week.

Described as a “consummate actress” by Sir Alan’s lieutenants, she is now using the PR agency which looks after Robbie Williams to handle a wave of media requests. Newspapers are bidding for her story, while a television career as a “female Simon Cowell” beckons.

Media commentators said that she had turned the tables on the manipulative producers of reality television. Mark Borkowski, a leading showbusiness PR, decribed the walkout as “a brilliant move”.

He said: “It is the first time that a contestant has pulled the rug from under a programme. Punters are becoming more savvy than producers and they know that quitting a show means they control their career from outside.”

Speaking on the You’re Fired programme, Ms Hopkins denied any calculated decision to quit. She said that the potential upheaval of moving home had suddenly hit her.

Ms Hopkins had stunned Sir Alan as he was selecting two finalists in a tense boardroom scene. “You’re in the final, you’re staying,” he told her.

But Ms Hopkins wavered. “I’m making a decision without having the courtesy to speak to the people who care for my children,” she said. “It’s a risk, it’s a discourtesy to my parents.”

She had promised Sir Alan that she would move from Exeter to London. A furious Sir Alan snapped: “I haven’t got time to wait for you to make a phone call.”

The stand-off ended with Ms Hopkins deciding: “I don’t want to make a fool of you or me. I think it’s more important to get the courtesy to have my plans in place, so I’ll have to stand down.”

The final will be contested between Simon Ambrose, 27, a Cambridge graduate and internet entrepreneur from London, and Kristina Grimes, 36, a single mother and pharmaceutical manager from Ireland who lives in Harrogate, Yorkshire.

Tre Azam, 27, from Essex was fired for being too argumentative. Lohit Kalburgi was also fired. The Apprentice has attracted five million viewers since transferring from BBC Two. Ms Hopkins, who willingly took on the role of “posh bitch”, became a cult figure.

A fling with contestant Paul Callaghan was exposed in the boardroom. Asked during a “job interview” last night if she had ever lied or cheated, she replied: “Yes, to get someone else’s husband because I wanted him. I’d say that was pretty ruthless.”

A spokesman for The Apprentice said: “Katie’s forthright views made for great television even though she probably did split the nation.”

However Sir Alan had called for applicants with a higher business calibre after complaining that too many of last year’s competitors saw the show as a vehicle for a media career.

Michelle Dewberry, last year’s winner, quit her job with Sir Alan within months to launch a business consultancy. Defeated finalist Ruth Badger has a series on Sky One.

Ms Hopkins’s victims will not be sad to see her go. Naomi Lay, an advertising sales manager, was compared unfavourably by her rival with a retriever after being fired.

Ms Lay said: “It’s a real shame that someone who actually is very professional thinks it’s necessary to behave like that.” Ms Lay now hopes to have a television career.

Katie’s killer lines

“Whenever there’s an issue Kristina tries to cover her arse. It’s a shame she doesn’t do it a little better with the skirt she wears”

“Kristina is a complete snake in the grass, a pain in the arse and frankly too orange to be taken seriously”

“When your best friends are Mr Pinot and Mr Grigio you want to watch it”

“I’d like to be the one who secures Adam’s exit back to the North and his Northern chums, where I do feel he rather belongs”

WHO’S BRINGING BACK THE LOVE?

I was sent a note about this blog today http://bringtheloveback.com/about/ The author seems to have made the film and makes the following statement.

Click here to view video

"I would like to know which advertisers are already bringing back the love? What I am looking for are examples of campaigns, strategies, maybe even brands or products that show that the advertiser is listening to the consumer and acting accordingly "

THE STUNTS COME ROUND AGAIN

When I originally compiled the book “Improperganda: Art of the Publicity Stunt”, my research astounded me as I realized that a lot of what I had done over the past years in PR wasn’t original. Similar things had been done before in some way, shape or form. It was a case of innocent misunderstanding because of course, back then there wasn’t an internet, so you couldn’t readily find information like you can today. So it made me smile when I read an article today in the Daily Mail which caught my attention. It was about women drivers wearing high heels to die for, literally. The article focused on how high heels and other unsuitable foot ware can be extremely dangerous when driving. The women’s car insurer, “Sheila’s Wheels” commissioned the survey which showed that around 80% of female drivers wear inappropriate shoes while driving. This came as no surprise to me as one of my consumer teams commissioned the same survey nearly two years ago for Norwich Union.

This was hot on the heels of an invitation sent yesterday to a multi media window installation at Superdrug on Kensington High Street. It comprises a female pop group “as you’ve never seen them before”, as a hologram. But I’ve seen this before in August 2005, when Virgin launched Virgin Digital and Borkowski had Richard Branson appear at the launch as a hologram.

In turn, I’m not suggesting that these people have stolen my ideas, but it’s amazing to see similar surveys and stunts in such a short space of time. There was so much coverage on the survey Borkowski commissioned for Norwich Union, that I wonder whether the media will continue to pick up on these similar ideas if they spring up with this frequency in the future.

SON OF A MULTI-MILLIONAIRE BEATS THE BOOKIES TO BECOME THE NEXT £100,000 APPRENTICE

Son of a multi-millionaire beats the bookies to become the next £100,000 Apprentice by Fergus Sheppard, Media Correspondent at The Scotsman.

He may be from a privileged background a million miles away from former street trader Sir Alan Sugar - but public schoolboy Simon Ambrose yesterday became the surprise winner of BBC1's business reality show The Apprentice.

Ambrose, 27, triumphed over rival Kristina Grimes, 36, in a finale expected to have attracted more than six million viewers.

http://news.scotsman.com/uk.cfm?id=928672007

For the final task, the two contestants were asked to come up with a striking landmark building on a £120 million London property site bought by Amstrad tycoon Sir Alan. Cambridge graduate Ambrose convinced 100 property experts with a bold design, although some critics claimed it resembled a "flaccid-looking phallic symbol".

Ambrose now wins the £100,000 job with Amstrad for which 16 contestants competed over the past 12 weeks.

The show winnerwas told by Sir Alan that he was not a good leader. But the famously abrasive Amstrad head added: "Bloody old fool that I am, I'm going to take that risk - you're hired."

The decision came as a shock to Grimes who until last night had been favourite to win.

The single mother, who has worked for the past five years as a pharmaceutical sales manager, confessed to being devastated.

"I came on this intent on getting the job with Sir Alan. My heart and soul was in this, so it's very tough. I was so confident, I really was. I don't necessarily have to agree with the decision. At the end of the day, I'm quite emotional about it."

Grimes had won plaudits not only for her coolness and efficiency, but also the fact she had built a business career despite having a child at just 17.

Some of the other Apprentice candidates were so shocked by the decision they considered walking out of the Adrian Chiles show The Apprentice - You're Fired!, which followed the main programme on BBC2.

Ambrose, whose father is a multi-millionaire businessman, said after the show: "I'm over the moon.

The line has come full circle. I started out playing with an Amstrad computer as a child - now I'm working for Sir Alan.

"He was someone I admired for my whole life. If he gives me a tea-making job to do, I'll do it."

Marketing and PR expert Mark Borkowski said to keep its appeal, The Apprentice needs to demonstrate the winner can enjoy a long-lasting career.

"The winners haven't really done anything post-series; the person who has done best out of it to date has been Ruth Badger, and she didn't even win it.

"It needs to go beyond its programme format to enliven it."

Tim Campbell, winner of the first series of The Apprentice, left Amstrad to set up his own business.

Michelle Dewberry, the 2006 winner, quit after a year heading an Amstrad company that recycled old computers, and started her own consultancy.

SIR Alan Sugar was yesterday forced into defending his trademark robust style after criticism of the way he questioned the contestant Katie Hopkins about her childcare arrangements.

Controversy arose after the Amstrad head grilled Ms Hopkins, a 32-year-old mother of two, over how prepared she would be to relocate from her Exeter home to London.

Sir Alan was seen by millions of viewers asking "how is life going to be?" if she were to move to the capital. He added: "I ain't opening an office in Exeter." In the event, Ms Hopkins made it to the next round of the show, but stood down amid concerns over uprooting her family.

The electronics and property tycoon yesterday said it would be "condescending" not to ask a mother applying for a job in London from outside the capital how she would manage.

"You go and ask 100 women in the street whether they would like me to deal with it that way, or whether they would like me to be condescending, follow all the rules in an eco-friendly green office, with six human resources managers around me," he said.

"I'll tell you what they would all say 'you are right Sir Alan, I appreciate you asking me'."

He added that the requirements of the contest and the fact that the job was in London were spelt out to the contestants before the series began.

Ms Hopkins, speaking yesterday, said a section of the episode had been edited out in which Sir Alan had described how "his wife stays at home and looks after the children properly".

Mark Conaghan, who practises employment law with Edinburgh and Glasgow firm Maxwell Maclaurin, said Sir Alan had embarked on a "risky" line of questioning. He said: "Ultimately, Sir Alan's defence is that he offered her the job in the sense that he offered a place in the next round.

"The risk you do run is that any interview candidate being asked questions like that could definitely be left with the impression that they were being asked questions aligned to their sex. That could lead to a claim for sex discrimination if they didn't get the job."

• The first episode of The Apprentice proved the finale for one of the two Scots contestants on the show. Andy Jackson, a 36-year-old car sales manager living in Kirriemuir, was one of two team leaders chosen in a task to sell coffee in Islington. After a poor result, Sir Alan told the father of three: "Nice enough fella that you are, I don't believe that you had this problem under control."

• The second Scot, 23-year-old Glaswegian Ghazal Asif, lasted until week eight. Ghazal became team leader as two teams were instructed to create a new brand of trainer with a poster and video advert. Axing the show's youngest ever contestant, Sir Alan said: "I think you're all talk and no do."

• One of the cringe-making highlights came in week ten as the six remaining contestants had the job of selling products on a TV shopping channel. Simon Ambrose embarrassed Sir Alan and a watching nation as he assembled the legs of a trampoline at crotch height and then proceeded to bounce up and down on it in a forlorn attempt to sell. Kristina Grimes fumbled with a mop before exclaiming "Jesus Christ" on air.

• Katie Hopkins' catty remarks made her a star. She suggested fellow contestant Alan Hosker, a car salesman from Lancashire, would be better off "with his northern chums" and warned him against spending time with his friends "Mr Pinot and Mr Grigio". Kristina's fake tan made her "too orange to be taken seriously". However, Hopkins dramatically stood down from the show in week 11, citing family difficulties.

‘THE FEAR OF MISSING OUT MEANS THE PRESS IS LIKE A FERAL BEAST’

Sam Coates, Political Correspondent. The Times.

Tony Blair yesterday revealed his despair of the British media, which he believes has corroded the relationship between politicians and voters and which regularly demolishes the reputations of public figures for commercial advantage.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article1923781.ece

In his last major speech as Prime Minister, 14 days before he leaves office, he said that the 24-hour news agenda could “literally overwhelm” the occupant of No 10, while the modern media prioritised sensationalism at the expense of accuracy.

He suggested that the rules governing the media may have to change because the internet was blurring the distinction between newspapers, which are self-regulating, and broadcasters, which are subject to stricter impartiality rules.

Breaking what he claimed was a major taboo in public life, he said that many people in the NHS or law and order professions had also become demoralised and unbalanced through media criticism, and that journalistic “excess” needed to be reined in.

“The fear of missing out means today’s media, more than ever before, hunts in a pack. In these modes it is like a feral beast, just tearing people and reputations to bits. But no-one dares miss out,” he said in a speech at the headquarters of the Reuters news agency.

He rejected suggestions that the media had become less trusting and more hostile because of the media management techniques employed by his Government, epitomised by the handling of intelligence in the run-up to the Iraq war.

Instead, the media had become dangerous because of its desire for stories with “impact” that would allow it to stand apart from the rest of the media. This, he said, came second to accuracy.

“It is this necessary devotion to impact that is unravelling standards, driving them down, making the diversity of the media not the strength it should be, but an impulsion towards sensation above all else.

“The audience needs to be arrested, held and their emotions engaged. Something that is interesting is less powerful than something that makes you angry or shocked.”

By contrast, he asserted that Parliament had become less important because the media no longer regularly reported what happened in the Chamber of the House of Commons, rather than because it had been side-lined by his Government.

He also defended his relationship with Rupert Murdoch, chairman of News Corporation, parent company of The Times, saying that it was necessary for a politician “in the real world”, suggesting that other media owners were no better or worse. He also suggested that commentators and pressure groups were complicit with the media. “Pundits know that, unless they are prepared to go over the top, they shoul-dn’t venture out at all.”

He added: “It is my view that the effect of this change is seriously adverse to the way public life is conducted; and that we need, at the least, a proper and considered debate about how we manage the future, in which it is in all our interests that the public is properly and accurately informed. They are the priority and they are not well served by the current state of affairs.”

Mr Blair admitted that he had paid “inordinate” attention to the media in his early years to try to turn around the “ferocious hostility” of parts of the industry towards Labour. He admitted that this may have fuelled his problems with the press later on.

He said that the media was overtly conspiratorial – an unintended consequence of the Watergate investigation that brought down President Nixon, meaning that in the media view every error must be venal rather than a misjudgment.

“Watergate was a great piece of journalism, but there is a PhD thesis all on its own to examine the consequences for journalism of standing one conspiracy up.”

He said that newspapers no longer respected the division between reporting and comment, surprising many in the audience by singling out The Independent, the left-of-centre newspaper highly critical of Mr Blair over Iraq, as a metaphor for modern journalism. “[ The Independent] started as an antidote to the idea of journalism as views not news. That was why it was called The Independent. Today it is avowedly a viewspaper not merely a newspaper.”

Suspicions that Alastair Campbell, Mr Blair’s former director of communications, helped to draft the speech were discounted last night when he denied involvement. He said that he would have urged the Prime Minister to be much tougher on journalists.

What the papers say

“ It is good that he has got into this debate because it is something that Downing Street has been concerned about for a long time. It is good that he acknowledged that new Labour has some complicity, but obviously there’s a certain amount of special pleading in the speech.

He talks about how leaders are overwhelmed by the modern media, blaming the media for that, but its an interesting question whether it is for leaders to decide how much they want to be overwhelmed. It is important that political journalists interpret what politicians say as sometimes you cannot tell exactly what they are saying and the public wouldn’t be served if they didn’t explain.

Peter Horrocks, head of BBC television news

“ In some ways I regard Blair’s attack on The Independent as something of a badge of honour . . . as a vindication of our stance on Iraq.

He was wrong, we were right, and I can understand why he has been upset by the tone and substance of our coverage.

I am completely unapologetic about our stance on the most catastrophic foreign policy mistake of our time. He seems to be suggesting greater regulation for newspapers in line with the broadcast media. How does this square with his avowed belief in a free and vibrant press? But I accept that there has been a breakdown of trust between the public and politicians, for which the press and the politicians each have to take responsibility for repairing.

Simon Kelner, editor of The Independent

“ New Labour was very happy to tango with the media until it went wrong – most spectacularly over the Iraq dossiers and Hutton. I don’t think it’s wrong for journalists to explore politicians’ motives: indeed, a proposal cannot be properly understood without a grasp of the motive that underpins it. Nor do I think that the proliferation of new media is bad for politics: quite the opposite. It may be bad for the present Government, but that’s not the same thing.

Matthew d’Ancona, Editor of The Spectator

“ In the past ten years the media agenda has been changed by the speed of the internet. The news agenda has been changed by the the net, the growth of citizen journalism and 24-hour news programmes, so now the news agenda fluctuates hour by hour. The new Labour project tried to control the agenda and sometimes the headlines were better than the stories; so the media is the first thing to blame. I think history has told us that certain people who enjoyed good PR . . . hubris inevitably sets in. There are no simple answers any more, and the media agenda demands simple answers, and postIraq and green issues are not going to be fixed by a soundbite.

Mark Borkowski, leading PR

“ While the Prime Minister bemoans the change in relationship between politicians and the press, he should recall that he has been its prime cause. It is easy to blame the press for a loss of trust in politicians; a fairer analysis would point to his own culture of spin.

Hints at the need for increased regulation of the press are deeply worrying. Politicians may not like what is sometimes written about them, but a free press is the best safeguard for accountability and against corruption and hypocrisy.

Don Foster, Liberal Democrat media spokesman

“ Blair’s analysis is not without some merit, but in his main conclusion he completely, uncharacteristically misses the point. Most of the British media performed woefully in the run-up to the Iraq war, gulping down the morsels of misinformation fed to it by Alastair Campbell and others in the Blair circle. The herd mentality that Blair criticises has more often than not led to pliant rather than overly critical journalism. Some of the more hysterical commentary that followed the Iraq War was a lame and belated attempt to make up for weaknesses beforehand.

John Kampfner, editor of the New Statesman

“ Blaming the media is the modern equivalent of shooting the messenger. But sometimes the messenger deserves a good shooting.

As a former feral animal, I have witnessed politicians getting increasingly frustrated that nothing they say gets reported straight. I would scan government reports and speeches to find the one line that shows it in its worst possible light. The root cause is that Britain has the most competitive print media in the world, and the desperate hunt for readers means we can’t afford detached aloofness.

Anthony Browne, director of Policy Exchange, former chief political correspondent of The Times

“ What Blair said about the way the media had changed merits serious consideration by press and broadcasters alike. These days the broadcasters genuinely seem to believe that viewers are more interested in what political reporters have to say.

The PM went through some of the many changes that we put in place when I was at Number 10 to try to improve things. Like he said, they didn’t really change things because in truth the deeper engagement we were seeking is not what the modern media really wants.

The question at the heart of all this is whether the public get the media they deserve? In increasing numbers, the public seem to think not. The politicians almost all think not. The media seem unable to see it.

Alastair Campbell

“ He’s sowed the seeds for a change in media regulation which is not government policy at the moment. That’s very worrying. The media, whatever its flaws, needs to be free. If we can’t be belligerent now and then, we aren’t doing our jobs. This is a man lashing out in a very uncharacteristic way. The prime minister, a man who always smiles in adversity, lashes out as he walks out the door.

Trevor Kavanagh, assistant editor and former political editor of the Sun
“ When I first started in PR it was all about promotion. Now its all about protection of my clients. It gets worse every year. I would have been applauding had Blair said it two or three years ago because that takes real courage. To say it now, when he’s leaving the ring, is less brave, but still a valid comment.

Max Clifford

“ I’d happily admit to being a feral beast. There are very few things that would amuse me as much as TB lambasting the media – the same media which he courted with an enthusiasm rarely seen in modern times. It’s bit late now Tony, I would say.

Piers Morgan, former editor of The Mirror

THE WAD COUPLE

GERRY has told Laura he thinks she could make at least £10,000 through book and magazine deals when she leaves BB. We asked publicist Mark Borkowski for his views.

He reckons Ziggy and Chanelle can rake in the loot, but he warns: “It’s still quite hard to tell as this year’s bunch seem a little quiet so far. I’m not sure if it’s got the wow factor yet – but we’ll see.”

So who’ll be quids in and who’ll be borrowing a fiver when the show ends?

http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news_detail.html?sku=1848

RICHES

Chanelle: “She can mount a two-pronged attack. By day she can be Chanelle from Big Brother.

Then by night she can try her hand as a Posh lookalike. There will be lots of magazine and newspaper deals for her – she can constantly change her style.”

Bank: £150,000-plus

Ziggy: “He’s a really good-looking guy and he’s done a bit of modelling already. You would expect the work to come flooding in for him if he carries on the way he has.

Bank: £120,000-plus

Laura: “She could do a Michelle McManus and get the cameras to follow her around as she tries to lose a lot of weight. But she’s not going to make a fortune.”

Bank: £5,000-£7,000

Lesley: “With her WI and teaching background, she will be popular. She has strong opinions and that could help her cash in. She could write a column for a middle-market newspaper and become an over-60s spokesperson.”

Bank: £80,000-plus

Charley: “She has WAG written all over her. If she gets together with a wealthy guy soon after the show then she’ll be able to cash in quickly.

Bank: £60,000

Gerry: “Gerry could do shoots for a gay lifestyle magazine and with his art background he would be a popular guest on some specialist TV shows.”

Bank: £25,000-£45,000.

RAGS

Seany: “I don’t think he’s going to set the world alight.”

Bank: £3,000

Shabnam: “She’s declared herself a bit of a faker and people won’t warm to that.”

Bank: £2,000

Emily: “After what she said, she is over. Finished.”

Bank: £0

AMY KEEPS MARRIAGE VOWS MORTAL AND SIMPLE

Tonight, Cape Times 8th June 2007

London - Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes it most certainly is not. When the singer Amy Winehouse, 23, and the "music video assistant" Blake Fielder-Civil, 25, exchanged vows in Miami, in the company of a few friends, the event was that rarest of things in the celebrity universe - spontaneous.

http://www.tonight.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=3873510&fSectionId=354&fSetId=251

There was no publicity campaign, no deal with Hello! Just a £60 (about R860) ceremony, a wedding breakfast of burger and chips and a 48-hour hotel room lock-in.

Equally endearing was the ensuing row with Winehouse's mother, Janis, who was distraught at being left out. Winehouse has now agreed to hold "a large family bash" in London, to appease her mother, although she says her taxi driver father, Mitchell, is "going to kick my head in - he's still got to pay for the proper wedding".

You would expect nothing less from Winehouse, who, despite her patent star quality and two acclaimed albums, lives her life, and especially her love life, among mortals. Indeed, over the past two years we have learnt the finer details of her shambling, booze-fuelled affairs not because of leaks from "the Winehouse camp", but because she has been easy to find.

"For a while it was ridiculous," says one music writer. "On any night, you could wander into the Hawley Arms (by Camden Lock) and she'd be in there. So, you could have a drink with her if you wanted. If she wasn't in the Hawley, she'd always be around and about - I once saw her in Nando's ordering loads of chicken."

Winehouse has not only been an easy mark for the newspapers, she has generated plenty of stories too. We know all about her old-fashioned sailor tattoos. We know about her favourite drink, Rickstasy - three parts vodka, one part Southern Comfort, one part banana liqueur, and one part Baileys. And, of course we know about her love life.

The most constant gossip staple has been Winehouse's on-off affair with the man who has now become her husband. But, aside from his association with Winehouse, little is known about Fielder-Civil, except that he will soon appear in court on a GBH charge after a landlord was injured in a brawl in an East End pub. "I used to go out clubbing with Blake," says a friend, who did not wish to be named. "He's kind of a charming bad boy. He's the sort of bloke who's got all the chat - who's got a little twinkle in his eye. He'll go out and misbehave and do who knows what, but he'd never let a woman go through a door second. He's always called a 'music video assistant', or a 'gopher' but I don't know about that. I don't know where he gets his money from."

In 2005, Winehouse had a brief relationship with the mysterious Fielder-Civil, before the pair broke up owing to the difficult fact that he already had a girlfriend. Winehouse was distraught, and is said to have written much of her award-winning Back to Black album about the break-up.

With Fielder-Civil off the scene, Winehouse drowned her sorrows, and then took up with a chef and musician called Alex Claire, with whom she enjoyed a stormy relationship until a much-publicised break-up earlier this year. Indeed, the biggest bit of publicity came when Claire was persuaded to sell his story to the News of the World, in a rattling read entitled "Bondage Crazed Amy Just Can't Beehive in Bed".

Claire's story came during a riotous few weeks of press speculation. Winehouse would be seen out with Claire one night, and Fielder-Civil the next. Sometimes, she would make time to see both her exes in the same evening. The action normally finished in some kind of drunken row, or, as on one occasion in Camden's Dublin Castle, with Winehouse selling kisses to punters for shots of tequila
.

Commitment, it seemed, was the last thing on the singer's mind. So it was somewhat out of the blue when Fielder-Civil, after an inevitable night on the tiles in April, asked Winehouse to marry him. A day later, Winehouse said yes. Cue another celebration.

Or perhaps it was not such a surprise. It was clear to anyone who spent any time around the singer that Fielder-Civil had never really left Winehouse. Indeed, despite her promises to Claire, Winehouse could not bring herself to remove the tattoo above her left breast that reads "Blake's pocket".

"It was clear that they were still together," says a friend. "There's always been a kind of Fatal Attraction element to their relationship - it's like they can't live without each other."

Now, the couple are happy as puppies. At her gig at Shepherd's Bush this week, she spent most of the evening mouthing "I love you" at her husband (who, for good measure, has a new tattoo reading "AMY" behind his ear).

She told the crowd: "I don't know if you heard, but I just got married to the best man in the world."

If it had been Britney, or Paris or Lindsay Lohan, we would all be asking for the sickbag.

But there is something deliciously unmediated about the continuing saga that is Amy Winehouse. Or perhaps she is just having her "moment". But can it last?

"There is a definite trajectory to these things," says the PR Mark Borkowski, "where someone like Amy Winehouse enjoys a honeymoon period.

"That's happening now. It's the summer, festivals are about to start, she's just got married. The question is, how long can it go on?"

Winehouse is not somebody who exists purely as a celebrity. She made her name because of her extraordinary voice, and to a certain extent, her extraordinary style.

So she does not need the publicity in the same way that someone like Paris Hilton does. But there will come a time, says Borkowski, when her liberal attitude to the media comes back to bite her.

"Like many people of her generation, she's very comfortable with all the attention," he says. "There's a sense in which that whole circle - Pete Doherty, Kate Moss et al - are anaesthetised to it.

"But there is a value to keeping yourself out of the press. Because at some point, you may wish it to stop. That's going to be difficult for Amy Winehouse.

"She and her husband have sent out signals that they don't want to be left alone, and further down the line, I wouldn't be surprised if we saw her hand in the lens of some paparazzo."

If this ugly scenario does play itself out, Winehouse can always look to one of her favourite bands, the Shangri-La's, for comfort. "I realised," said Winehouse last month, "that the Shangri-La's have pretty much got a song for every stage of a relationship.

"When you see a boy and you don't even know his name. When you start talking to him. When you start going out with him. And then when you're in love with him. And then when he chucks you and then you want to kill yourself."

Right now, Winehouse's relationship with the British public is at its third or fourth stage. And if it ever gets to the fifth, it will be hard for Winehouse - whatever, at least we can expect another great album. - The Independent

SIR ALAN SUGAR - YOU'RE FIRED

In boardroom terms it was a hostile takeover. Katie Hopkins, the poison-tongued “alpha female” contestant on The Apprentice, fired Sir Alan Sugar last night and walked out on the £100,000 job.

After months of acidic put-downs, Ms Hopkins, a 31-year-old brands consultant, had manoeuvred her way past 14 rivals to reach the grand final of the BBC One business search.

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/tv_and_radio/article1896213.ece

But when Sir Alan informed her that she was one task away from winning the post, the mother-of-two promptly quit, saying that she did not want to uproot her family.

The sudden departure of the most ruthless of the series’ competitors baffled her rivals. Insiders claimed that Ms Hopkins never had any intention of taking a job with Sir Alan and instead was using the show to find fame.

She has admitted a series of affairs with married men. Pictures of her cavorting naked in a cornfield with a man from the Met Office were splashed across the tabloids this week.

Described as a “consummate actress” by Sir Alan’s lieutenants, she is now using the PR agency which looks after Robbie Williams to handle a wave of media requests. Newspapers are bidding for her story, while a television career as a “female Simon Cowell” beckons.

Media commentators said that she had turned the tables on the manipulative producers of reality television. Mark Borkowski, a leading showbusiness PR, decribed the walkout as “a brilliant move”.

He said: “It is the first time that a contestant has pulled the rug from under a programme. Punters are becoming more savvy than producers and they know that quitting a show means they control their career from outside.”

Speaking on the You’re Fired programme, Ms Hopkins denied any calculated decision to quit. She said that the potential upheaval of moving home had suddenly hit her.

Ms Hopkins had stunned Sir Alan as he was selecting two finalists in a tense boardroom scene. “You’re in the final, you’re staying,” he told her.

But Ms Hopkins wavered. “I’m making a decision without having the courtesy to speak to the people who care for my children,” she said. “It’s a risk, it’s a discourtesy to my parents.”

She had promised Sir Alan that she would move from Exeter to London. A furious Sir Alan snapped: “I haven’t got time to wait for you to make a phone call.”

The stand-off ended with Ms Hopkins deciding: “I don’t want to make a fool of you or me. I think it’s more important to get the courtesy to have my plans in place, so I’ll have to stand down.”

The final will be contested between Simon Ambrose, 27, a Cambridge graduate and internet entrepreneur from London, and Kristina Grimes, 36, a single mother and pharmaceutical manager from Ireland who lives in Harrogate, Yorkshire.

Tre Azam, 27, from Essex was fired for being too argumentative. Lohit Kalburgi was also fired. The Apprentice has attracted five million viewers since transferring from BBC Two. Ms Hopkins, who willingly took on the role of “posh bitch”, became a cult figure.

A fling with contestant Paul Callaghan was exposed in the boardroom. Asked during a “job interview” last night if she had ever lied or cheated, she replied: “Yes, to get someone else’s husband because I wanted him. I’d say that was pretty ruthless.”

A spokesman for The Apprentice said: “Katie’s forthright views made for great television even though she probably did split the nation.”

However Sir Alan had called for applicants with a higher business calibre after complaining that too many of last year’s competitors saw the show as a vehicle for a media career.

Michelle Dewberry, last year’s winner, quit her job with Sir Alan within months to launch a business consultancy. Defeated finalist Ruth Badger has a series on Sky One.

Ms Hopkins’s victims will not be sad to see her go. Naomi Lay, an advertising sales manager, was compared unfavourably by her rival with a retriever after being fired.

Ms Lay said: “It’s a real shame that someone who actually is very professional thinks it’s necessary to behave like that.” Ms Lay now hopes to have a television career.

Katie’s killer lines

“Whenever there’s an issue Kristina tries to cover her arse. It’s a shame she doesn’t do it a little better with the skirt she wears”

“Kristina is a complete snake in the grass, a pain in the arse and frankly too orange to be taken seriously”

“When your best friends are Mr Pinot and Mr Grigio you want to watch it”

“I’d like to be the one who secures Adam’s exit back to the North and his Northern chums, where I do feel he rather belongs”

RACIST IN THE HOUSE

For all of you who didn’t know why Emily was removed from the Big Brother house early this morning, here is a transcript of the offending conversation. It’s interesting how quickly Channel 4 is reacting to try to manage the fire storm. In the light of what happened to Shilpa Shetty, I’m sure Channel 4 has learnt lessons from Celebrity Big Brother, or, after being schooled by a team of consultants, has learnt about news management. In the house, the kids knew exactly how to react to inflame the comment even more, to try to generate fame and further their own careers. Some were asking Big Brother in the diary room what their chances were of getting a deal if they were thrown out in the first week! This really is a group of women who are desperate to harvest fame. Isn’t there something more exciting out there?

This is a provisional transcript of the conversation between Emily, Charley and Nicky that led to Emily's departure from the house. The incident will be aired as part of the Big Brother highlights show on Channel 4 at 10pm tonight (Thursday 7th June).

Emily: (referring to Charley dancing/pushing her hips forward) You pushing it out you n'igger.
Nicky: (shocked laughter) Em, I can't believe you said that.
Charley: You are in trouble.
Emily: Don't make a big thing out of it then. I was joking.
Charley: I know you were… but that's some serious s'hit, sorry.
Emily: Why?
Charley: Oh my god. I'm not even saying it.
Nicky: Just don't talk about it anymore.
Emily: I was joking
Charley: Do you know how many viewers would watch that?
Nicky: Okay, don't make a big deal out of it.
Charley: Fancy you saying that. I can't believe you said that.
Emily: Somebody has already used that word in this house.
Charley: No way. (Pause) Yeah, me. I'm a n'igger.

Nicky laughs.

Charley: I am one. Fancy you saying it. I know maybe you see it in a rap song. Maybe you and your friends sit there saying it.
Emily: I'm friendly with plenty of black people.
Nicky: And you call them n'iggers?
Emily: Yeah and they call me n'iggers. They call me wiggers as well.
Nicky: I'm quite shocked.
Charley: I'm f'ucking in shock.
Emily: It's not a big deal though is it?
Charley: Not for us it ain't. F'uck me.

THOUSANDS SIGN UP AS ORGAN DONORS

Over 50,000 people have downloaded an organ donor registration form since Friday night’s hoax tv broadcast in which three people competed for a dying woman’s kidney.

Some 1.2 million people watched the broadcast on public channel BNN, which had been condemned by politicians, doctors and commentators around the globe.

http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2007/06/thousands_of_donors_after_tv_h.php

The woman was revealed at the end of the show to be an actress and the patients were all in on the plot.

Newspapers and websites on Monday were largely positive about the hoax, designed to promote organ donation.

Education minister Ronald Plasterk said it was ‘a fantastic stunt’, and prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende said he was relieved. He had feared the show would damage the Netherlands’ reputation. But health minister Ab Klink still thought the show ‘unfitting’.

Balkenende may still be proved right in his first reaction. Of the more than 100 journalists who covered the show, half came from outside the country, and many of them are angry at being fooled.

A Spanish reporter called the show ‘a bad way of calling attention to the problem’, and several German newspaper sites said it was ‘a bad joke’.

However, there was also appreciation. PR guru Mark Borkowski said in the Guardian that the show was ‘a clever publicity stunt’.

A MODERN LOVE STORY: WHEN AMY WED BLAKE

Fairy-tale romances used to involve blushing brides and charming princes. Today's ideal is messier but, as Amy Winehouse and Blake Fielder-Civil have shown, still potent. The Independent , 02 June 2007

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes it most certainly is not. When the singer Amy Winehouse, 23, and the "music video assistant" Blake Fielder-Civil, 25, exchanged vows in Miami, in the company of a few friends, the event was that rarest of things in the celebrity universe - spontaneous. There was no publicity campaign, no deal with Hello! Just a £60 ceremony, a wedding breakfast of burger and chips and a 48-hour hotel room lock-in.

http://arts.independent.co.uk/music/features/article2606422.ece

Equally endearing was the ensuing row with Winehouse's mother, Janis, who was distraught at being left out. Winehouse has now agreed to hold "a large family bash" in London, to appease her mother, although she says her taxi driver father, Mitchell, is "going to kick my head in - he's still got to pay for the proper wedding".

You would expect nothing less from Winehouse, who, despite her patent star quality and two acclaimed albums, lives her life, and especially her love life, among mortals. Indeed, over the past two years we have learnt the finer details of her shambling, booze-fuelled affairs not because of leaks from "the Winehouse camp", but because she has been easy to find.

"For a while it was ridiculous," says one music writer. "On any night, you could wander into the Hawley Arms [by Camden Lock] and she'd be in there. So, you could have a drink with her if you wanted. If she wasn't in the Hawley, she'd always be around and about - I once saw her in Nando's ordering loads of chicken."

Winehouse has not only been an easy mark for the newspapers, she has generated plenty of stories too. We know all about her old-fashioned sailor tattoos. We know about her favourite drink, Rickstasy - three parts vodka, one part Southern Comfort, one part banana liqueur, and one part Baileys. And, of course we know about her love life.

The most constant gossip staple has been Winehouse's on-off affair with the man who has now become her husband. But, aside from his association with Winehouse, little is known about Fielder-Civil, except that he will soon appear in court on a GBH charge after a landlord was injured in a brawl in an East End pub.

"I used to go out clubbing with Blake," says a friend, who did not wish to be named. "He's kind of a charming bad boy. He's the sort of bloke who's got all the chat - who's got a little twinkle in his eye. He'll go out and misbehave and do who knows what, but he'd never let a woman go through a door second. He's always called a 'music video assistant', or a 'gopher' but I don't know about that. I don't know where he gets his money from."

In 2005, Winehouse had a brief relationship with the mysterious Fielder-Civil, before the pair broke up owing to the difficult fact that he already had a girlfriend. Winehouse was distraught, and is said to have written much of her award-winning Back to Black album about the break-up.

With Fielder-Civil off the scene, Winehouse drowned her sorrows, and then took up with a chef and musician called Alex Claire, with whom she enjoyed a stormy relationship until a much-publicised break-up earlier this year. Indeed, the biggest bit of publicity came when Claire was persuaded to sell his story to the News of the World, in a rattling read entitled "Bondage Crazed Amy Just Can't Beehive in Bed".

Claire's story came during a riotous few weeks of press speculation. Winehouse would be seen out with Claire one night, and Fielder-Civil the next. Sometimes, she would make time to see both her exes in the same evening. The action normally finished in some kind of drunken row, or, as on one occasion in Camden's Dublin Castle, with Winehouse selling kisses to punters for shots of tequila.

Claire claimed his relationship with the singer was fiery, and the break-up unbearable. "It's like she cut out my heart, bit a chunk out of it, threw it on the floor and stomped all over it," said the chef. "She's scared to be happy. I hope she finds happiness one day. She needs looking after but I'm glad that's not my responsibility any more."

Commitment, it seemed, was the last thing on the singer's mind. So it was somewhat out of the blue when Fielder-Civil, after an inevitable night on the tiles in April, asked Winehouse to marry him. A day later, Winehouse said yes. Cue another celebration.

Or perhaps it was not such a surprise. It was clear to anyone who spent any time around the singer that Fielder-Civil had never really left Winehouse. Indeed, despite her promises to Claire, Winehouse could not bring herself to remove the tattoo above her left breast that reads "Blake's pocket". It was not the only way in which Fielder-Civil stayed close to her heart.

"I saw Amy when she was on The Sharon Osbourne Show back in October 2006," says a friend of the singer. "She had Blake with her. All the time she was talking about 'her boyfriend' - Alex - but was sitting on Blake's lap and snogging him. She was saying, 'read me out those text messages I sent you - the filthy ones.' It was all pretty gross.

"It was clear that they were still together," continues the friend. "There's always been a kind of Fatal Attraction element to their relationship - it's like they can't live without each other."

Now, the couple are happy as puppies. At her gig at Shepherd's Bush this week, she spent most of the evening mouthing "I love you" at her husband (who, for good measure, has a new tattoo reading 'AMY' behind his ear). She told the crowd: "I don't know if you heard, but I just got married to the best man in the world."

If it had been Britney, or Paris or Lindsay Lohan, we would all be asking for the sickbag. But there is something deliciously unmediated about the continuing saga that is Amy Winehouse. Or perhaps she is just having her "moment". Elton John says he worships at her feet. Lily Allen wishes she were more like her. Even Jo Brand is a self-confessed fan. But can it last?

"There is a definite trajectory to these things," says the PR Mark Borkowski, "where someone like Amy Winehouse enjoys a honeymoon period. That's happening now. It's the summer, festivals are about to start, she's just got married. The question is, how long can it go on?"

Winehouse is not somebody who exists purely as a celebrity. She made her name because of her extraordinary voice, and to a certain extent, her extraordinary style. So she does not need the publicity in the same way that someone like Paris Hilton does. But there will come a time, says Borkowski, when her liberal attitude to the media comes back to bite her.

"Like many people of her generation, she's very comfortable with all the attention," he says. "There's a sense in which that whole circle - Pete Doherty, Kate Moss et al - are anaesthetised to it. But there is a value to keeping yourself out of the press. Because at some point, you may wish it to stop. That's going to be difficult for Amy Winehouse. She and her husband have sent out signals that they don't want to be left alone, and further down the line, I wouldn't be surprised if we saw her hand in the lens of some paparazzo."

If this ugly scenario does play itself out, Winehouse can always look to one of her favourite bands, the Shangri-La's, for comfort. "I realised," said Winehouse last month, "that the Shangri-La's have pretty much got a song for every stage of a relationship. When you see a boy and you don't even know his name. When you start talking to him. When you start going out with him. And then when you're in love with him. And then when he fucking chucks you and then you want to kill yourself."

Right now, Winehouse's relationship with the British public is at its third or fourth stage. And if it ever gets to the fifth, it will be hard for Winehouse - whatever, at least we can expect another great album.

TV KIDNEY DONOR SHOW REVEALED AS HOAX TO PROVOKE DEBATE ON ORGAN SHORTAGES.

TV kidney donor show revealed as hoax to provoke debate on organ shortages
Programme's terminally ill patient was an actor. Dutch stunt praised by media commentators. The Guardian Saturday June 2, 2007
It was decried as the show that would break the reality TV format's back. The makers of the Dutch De Grote Donorshow (The Big Donor Show) promised a one-off programme in which a terminally ill woman would chose which of three contestants would receive her kidneys when she died.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2093871,00.html

But last night the show, which sparked worldwide controversy, was revealed to be a hoax staged by Endemol Netherlands and the public broadcaster BNN to raise awareness about organ donation in the Netherlands.

"If the Big Donor Show had been real, it would indeed have been shocking but facts illustrate that the reality is far more so," said Paul Romer, managing director of Endemol Netherlands.
"In staging this programme our goal has been to promote a debate about this crisis in the Netherlands. We have succeeded in spades."

The hoax was announced at the end of last night's show, which showed the "donor", identified only as Lisa, 37, "selecting" the recipient of her kidney based on their history, profile and conversations with their families and friends.

Lisa, 37, was revealed as an actor by the programme makers, but the three patients involved were genuine cases who were fully aware of the stunt and supported the programme's aims.

Laurens Drillich, chairman of BNN, said: "Obviously a staged programme of this kind can only ever be a one-off but organ donorship is a subject that BNN is dedicated to."

BNN said to it wanted to focus on the plight of kidney sufferers as a tribute to its founder, Bart de Graaff, who died of kidney failure five years ago in spite of several transplants.

Endemol is no stranger to controversy; it was forced by Ofcom to air a lengthy apology before this week's launch of Big Brother 8 because of the racism row involving Bollywood actor Shilpa Shetty in the celebrity edition earlier this year.

The news of the hoax was met with disbelief and not a little admiration among media commentators.

PR guru Mark Borkowski, head of Borkowski PR, said: "If there are various charities and health organisations linked up to this hoax then it is indeed a very clever publicity stunt.

"Endemol needs to generate some positive publicity for itself because they have been experiencing a backlash and perhaps this is an attempt to do that."

Mr Romer added: "The impact of this has gone far wider than we imagined. This is an issue that goes beyond Dutch borders and across Europe. The message we want to send is that people need to take action now and fill in a donor card."

According to UK Transplant more than 400 people die every year because they cannot find a kidney donor.

Noel Davies, a spokesman for the charity, said: "There is a desperate shortage of donated organs. Any informed debate on this subject is to be welcomed. But donation and transplantation is a serious topic and we encourage campaigners to present it in a responsible and sensitive manner."

ESSEX MAN, THIS IS YOUR BIGGEST CHALLENGE

PROFILE: Andy Coulson: David Cameron believes he has pulled off another dazzling coup in appointing Andy Coulson, the street-smart former editor of the News of the World, as the Tories’ director of communications. Sceptics wonder if it is a stunt that will backfire like Cameron’s bicycle.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article1875732.ece

Labour’s new puritans lost no time in drawing parallels between Coulson, who resigned over the royal phone-tapping scandal, and the black arts of Alastair Campbell, the Mirror’s former political editor who became Tony Blair’s press secretary. It was typical, they proclaimed without irony, of the Tories’ “preference for spin over substance”.

As if to underline the point that Gordon Brown will have no truck with “heir to Blair” news management, Labour chose the same day to name Michael Ellam, a career civil servant at the Treasury, as Brown’s new communications director.

Coulson is set for a rollercoaster ride. Popular with journalists, the 39-year-old represents the antithesis of Cameron’s Old Etonian circle, having worked his way up from an evening newspaper in Basildon, the spiritual home of Essex Man, where he was brought up in a council house. An avid Spurs fan, he is a “doting father” who drives his two children to school from their home in Forest Hill, south London, where he lives with his wife Eloise.

Piers Morgan, a close friend and a predecessor in the News of the World editor’s chair, last week proclaimed him “one of the best journalists I have ever worked with”, characterising him as “calm, focused, determined, charming and hates losing”. Coulson's Essex accent was misleading, Morgan added. “He’s much smarter than the Old Etonians he’s about to work with.”

“Andy is hugely competitive in work and sport,” said a former News of the World colleague, who recalled that last year Coulson challenged 30 senior colleagues to complete the Three Peaks - scaling the highest mountains in Scotland, England and Wales (Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowdon) in 24 hours. So keen was Coulson to bag them in the allotted time that he abandoned some of his team to scale Snowdon by “a new, dangerous route”. He plans to climb Mont Blanc before he starts his new job on July 9. (Tory detractors can only cross their fingers.)

Similarly, he challenged the News of the World’s female PR manager to teach him to play golf well enough to beat the paper’s executive editor and reigning champion. The reward would be a new golf bag.

For two years Coulson took dozens of lessons from her, often in rain and snow, until he was able to beat his rival on the 18th hole.

According to friends, Coulson is “a consummate networker” who counts Simon Cowell, Sir Philip Green and the boxing promoter Frank Warren among his mates. He is “obsessed” with Frank Sinatra and is apt to break into one of the old crooner’s songs after a few drinks. In short, he is another invigorating jolt of electro-convulsive therapy to the Tory party’s frumpish tendency.

It seems that Cameron, aware of weaknesses in his communications strategy that allowed such debacles as the Tory muddle over grammar schools last week, was desperate to appoint a senior figure to his media team.

Westminster rumours say he courted Trevor Kavanagh, former political editor of The Sun, who declined the £400,000 job. There is speculation that the Tory leader wanted a conduit to the bestselling tabloid papers in the News International stable (ultimate owner of The Sunday Times), The Sun and the News of the World. The Sun is edited by Coulson’s good friend Rebekah Wade.

To Coulson’s PR pal Mark Borkowski, the timing of the appointment is “absolutely perfect” for the Tory party. “They’re on the back foot and need all the publicity they can get. Gordon Brown’s succession is passing without the expected bloodbath and he’s surprised a lot of people. So this is a fantastic PR stunt.”

Despite Tory denials that there would be a return to Labour-style spin, Cameron may expect Coulson to take the gloves off. The Conservative leader has been on the receiving end of them several times.

During Cameron’s leadership campaign in 2005, the News of the World ran a front-page photo purporting to show his close friend George Osborne and a prostitute with cocaine, which the shadow chancellor denounced as “completely untrue” and part of a “smear campaign”. Last year the paper exposed the affair of another Cameron chum, his higher education spokesman, Boris Johnson, with Anna Fazackerley, a 29-year-old journalist.

Coulson is not an uncritical supporter. At a high-powered lunch for editors with the Tories, he emphasised his criticism of some windy waffle by a young ‘Cameroon’ about health service reforms by banging his head on the table.

But does Coulson, a former showbiz reporter with no experience of the Westminster hothouse, bring political nous to his new job? Could he have averted last week’s grammar school fiasco?

His old boss, Kelvin MacKenzie, former editor of The Sun, said last week he did not think Coulson was “a massively political type of person”. Borkowski, while hymning his talents as “a fantastic journalist”, wondered how he would cope in a room full of Tory suits. Yet as editor Coulson appointed a series of Tories to be lead commentator in his paper, including William Hague.

His job description — making day-to-day contact with editors and senior commentators while dealing with long-term strategy — has surprised Westminster hacks. “Is he what the Tories really need?” asked one lobby journalist. “What they haven’t managed to find is someone who can brief in the lobby, as Campbell did.”

Coulson’s recruitment incurs another risk that goes back to his resignation as editor. He took “ultimate responsibility” after Clive Goodman, his royal correspondent, was sentenced to four months in jail for hacking into messages on royal phones. The Press Complaints Commission found no evidence that Coulson was aware of the illegal activities. But Goodman is suing the newspaper for unfair dismissal. This could require Coulson to testify at a tribunal.

Yet Coulson acquired a thick skin in his ascent from Beauchamps comprehensive in Wickford via the Basildon Evening Echo to young reporter on The Sun’s Bizarre showbiz page, which in the 1990s become a nursery for future editors, including Morgan, Martin Dunn and Nick Ferrari.

By one account, he had a lucky escape when MacKenzie ordered his news editor, Tom Petrie, to sack “all those people on Bizarre”. After the deed was done, MacKenzie had second thoughts: “Hang on. You haven’t sacked a bloke called Andy Coulson, have you? Get him back.” Mischievously, Coulson once fed a bum steer to a rival that Paula Yates was having a rib removed for cosmetic reasons.

While showbusiness is sometimes dismissed as the “fluffy” side of journalism, it is a staple diet for the tabloids. Coulson’s scoops included persuading Stephen Gately of the pop group Boyzone to reveal that he was gay.

A contemporary on The Sun recalled: “He was a fantastic operator, very talented. You could tell he was going places.”

He spent a year in News International’s dotcom division, despite initially confessing ignorance of the internet, before moving to the News of the World as Wade’s deputy. He interviewed Tony Blair before the 2001 election and had the cheek to ask the prime minister whether he and Cherie had joined the “mile-high club”.

When Wade went to The Sun, he was handed the top job at the age of 34. The scoops during his tenure included David Blunkett’s affair with Kimberly Quinn, Sven-Goran Eriksson’s relationship with Faria Alam and Rebecca Loos’s kiss-and-tell sensation about David Beckham.

“I’ve got nothing to be ashamed of, and this goes for everyone on the News of the World, in what we do,” he said after it was named newspaper of the year in 2005 and the Beckham story was chosen as scoop of the year. “The readers are the judges, that’s the most important thing. And I think we should be proud of what we do.”

But the royal phone-tapping scandal seemed to invoke the “three strikes and you’re out” rule for tabloid editors. Goodman’s arrest came days after the paper unexpectedly lost a high-profile libel case against Tommy Sheridan, the Scottish socialist politician. The previous month, the paper’s methods came under public scrutiny when its star reporter Mazher Mahmood, the “fake sheikh”, was cross-examined. Three men he had accused of plotting to make a “dirty bomb” were acquitted.

Coulson has now landed a job that must be a tabloid journalist’s dream: at the heart of the Tory command structure where he can pick up all the gossip. It will be a test of his deepest instincts to refrain from passing it on to his old mates.