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Imogen Clements
:For Real Women, Scarred and Stitched, Consider Rucquoi's Take Over Rankin's
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Dean Midas Maynard
:Britain's Got Talent 2013 Show Six Review
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Anne Morrison
:Bafta: Nurturing Young Creative Talent Vital to Future of TV
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B.J. Epstein
:Whatcha Waiting For: Eurovision and Gay Rights
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Paul Drury
:From Brighouse to Cannes, 'Le Tour De Tan'
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If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
So here we are: I'm going to be flying the flag for the United Kingdom at the 58th Eurovision Song Contest this year in Malmo, Sweden. And what's more - I am completely honoured to do it! I have to be honest, I wasn't sure at first - but then it suddenly dawned on me that this is an incredible thing. It's an amazing opportunity to represent your country for doing something you love. In actual fact my husband Robert had represented the UK in the Olympic Games at judo in 1972. So we are two halves of a couple who have both done something for their country. Now that can't be bad!
I am so proud of The Ricky Gervais Show. Not just because of how well it turned out or how successful it was, or the awards, or even how much fun I had producing it. I'm proudest of the fact that it was just another experiment that got out of hand - The Ricky Gervais Show Series Three was released on DVD this week. To celebrate this final chapter I thought I'd tell the lovely readers of The Huffington Post the story of how we got here...
How daring, really, is Angelina Jolie's decision to write about her recent operation? Is she really rebelling against celebrity culture or conforming to it? I think it's the latter
Angelina Jolie's personal account of being told she has a fault in her BRCA1 gene and decision to have a double mastectomy to reduce the risk of her developing breast cancer has struck a chord with many individuals and families.
I would argue that too many businesses are reluctant to take the risk on a young person without any experience. Turned on its head, that small risk could actually be a life-changing opportunity to set a young person on course for a truly bright future. So, I think every business needs to consider whether they are doing enough to support young people in their communities to first gain work experience, and then to move into employment. We cannot expect schools or parents alone to support a young person into work. In my view, businesses are a vital part of the equation.
Sadly, there are millions of humans who want to see rhinos dead. Most of them are in the Far East. Humans who think the horn of the white or black rhino can be ground down and ingested to improve their sex lives, cure cancer or ward off evil spirits. Humans who are prepared to pay heavily-armed poachers to shoot and maim these animals, hack off their horn and ship it half way around the world to China. It's the new drug trade in Africa, a multi-million dollar industry that commands $65,000 a kilo for rhino horn. An average rhino horn is about 5kg. It's not hard to do the maths.
I was giving a lift to one of the greatest Bollywood legends of all time, Indian cinema's legendary heartthrob, the man we called our Gregory Peck. Dev Anand needed a lift to his hotel and I was the only one who could easily and quickly get my car our of the rammed, snow filled car park, (damn why hadn't I worn my nice sari?)
If two of a nation's biggest cultural icons are face-changing aliens it should be considered more than a coincidence. Born in the public imagination within six years of each other David Bowie and Doctor Who have taken strangely similar journeys.
I've just hit 40. People use words like 'hit' when talking about this age (you 'turn' 21 or 30). Personally I'm rather enjoying it. Bits of me are aching, but it's ok. In the days leading up to my 40th I got tweets from people saying 'hey, it's just a number' and I noticed all of these were sent by people whose avatar wasn't their own face. I do seem to have a lot more ointments and lotions now. I wish Black and Decker or De-Walt did them for men so my bathroom would look a bit more manly.
It upsets me when I hear statistics about how many young people are out of work - almost a million 16 to 25 year olds if you didn't know. And it's not just moral outrage. Yes, the figure is staggering and unacceptable. But what really bothers me is a nagging feeling that the longer this huge number is tossed around, the more normal it will seem - like part of the landscape.
Taking the bins out or feeding the cats is just a mundane duty to most of us, but we all know some people who do these everyday chores and receive wide recognition and rapturous applause. These people are Facebook Famous. They're the winners of the most competitive popularity contest on earth and every aspect of their life is so damn fantastic that it needs to be shared with their legions of adoring friends. But how the hell do these cocky little upstarts do it and how can you achieve similar glorification from your online acquaintances?
For four years JLS followed a formulaic schedule of a lead single release every summer, followed by a less radio friendly ballad in the final quarter of the year, allowing their follow-up conveyor belt 12-track album to be released just in time for Christmas upon the peak of its momentum.
It's hard to answer why flicking through a giant book that is essentially 'what amount of paper people who are shinier than you have' is so wildly addictive. You can lose a good few hours furiously looking up how much Victoria added to the Beckham pile through her fashion business this year (£30m), or exclaiming with surprise that the latest woman to marry Paul McCartney is independently wealthy (£150m to be exact, who knew?).
If you're currently tempted to grow your hair longer to hide your shedding, a better plan might be to attempt to thicken your locks back up by blocking the cause of male pattern hair loss (the most common type by far) DHT.
The problem with The Voice is that it's full of double standards and contradictions, shifting notably from what the shows principles were initially laid out to stand for.
As an artist you go through different stages of your career, one that requires you to be on the road and under the limelight. The other one where you hide yourself for many months whilst you write music and prepare the new material that describes where you are, both musically and artistically.
