The Second Serve // Indecent Croatian Exposure

A new series of Succession means it’s time once again for Brian Cox to do a series of interviews in which he takes barely-veiled swipes at Jeremy Strong’s acting technique (“American shit”, “just do the job”) – neatly echoing their on-screen Logan/Kendall dynamic.

In real life, Cox is a much kinder, much more supportive father to his actual children. Once, when recording a voiceover for a documentary on Russian history, he brought his daughter along with him to sit in on the record. She was doing an A-Level in Russian at the time, so he ran all his lines past her.

Based on her responses, Brian insisted on changing half the script (which had been months in the making) often to the detriment of the film. This didn’t go over well with the documentary crew. In fact, things got so testy that a member of production almost came to blows with Brian arguing over one point – and it had to be broken up by the dubbing mixer.

On Thursday we asked: “Which noted Britpop shagger has been getting her lawyers to send out legal complaints to any writers she catches describing previous relationships as “brief flings”? (She wants it on record that they were “committed”.)”

The answer is Lisa Moorish. Lisa has real form when it comes to sticking her lawyers on people she feels are misrepresenting her star-studded love life. Among those who have received legal threats from her over the years are the Mail, the NME, Channel 4, Nick Frost off of Spaced and… us.

We got a letter after once referring to her as “serial singer-fucker Lisa Moorish” – an accusation we would never dream of making again. Partly because we promised her lawyers we wouldn’t. But mostly because it’s not entirely accurate. Justin from Elastica was a drummer.

A couple of weeks back, we told you to watch out for the Croatian Eurovision video as we’d been told to expect good things. Sadly, the video didn’t live up to much – but we can see why expectations were high.

Let 3 are a punk-rock band who have been going since the late 80s, famed for their provocative stunts, videos and live performances. To give you some sense of it, the band were fined for indecent exposure in 2006 for performing naked at an open-air concert in Varaždin.

Sadly, the judge didn’t buy the band’s defence that they weren’t naked because they were wearing corks. In their anuses.

As they’re outselling the rest of the Top 5 combined this week, U2 look likely to score a No.1 with their album of re-recorded (sorry, “re-imagined”) hits on Friday. Seeing as old U2 classics are the order of the day, here’s one from us…

AD writes:

“My sister and her friends were drinking in Kehoe’s bar off Grafton Street, Dublin, and were asked to move by the barman as Bono was on his way in and he liked to sit in the snug as it offered privacy. They didn’t mind and, after a few more drinks, they went over to ask Bono for a photograph. He obliged and they asked the friend he was with if he could take the photo. He agreed. Everyone was happy.

“After Bono and his friend left, the barman asked to see the picture. Then asked why, as he’d taken the photo of them with Bono, didn’t they get a photo of them with Bruce Springsteen as well?”

TOM CRUISE: The opposite story of Erin O’Connor (who had to kneel down on the red carpet in order to hear questions being asked by a short journalist), Tom Cruise’s people insist upon subtle ramps being placed under his red carpets, rising to meet the press packs so that he looks taller for interviews and photos.

CHARLIE MILLS (Made in Chelsea): One of the ways that Charlie bolstered his profile in the early years was to attend film premieres as a punter, wander up to the barriers of the red carpet, then take a selfie with the crowds of strangers behind him – captioning it for social media with something like “Just hanging out with my fans!”

RYAN SEACREST: Responsible for one of the cringiest Oscar moments in modern history when he asked Harrow’s own Dev Patel what his family “back in India” were making of his success.

Negotiations between the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers open today and it’s going to be a story worth keeping an eye on.

When the WGA went on strike in 1988, it resulted in the birth of reality TV as we now know it. Before then, no network executive was prepared to greenlight a show with no host and no script. With their backs to the wall, desperate for content in the strike of ’88 though, the network nearest to death took a last chance on a show that everyone else had turned down: Cops. It turned out to be the longest running reality show and the blueprint for reality TV for the next 30+ years – saving the fledging Fox network from destruction.

When the WGA went on strike in 2007/08, it resulted in the reversal of Donald Trump’s sacking at NBC. They had cancelled The Apprentice due to low viewer figures but, faced with a strike where they couldn’t get any new scripted comedies or dramas to fill the primetime spots, they decided to have one last throw of the dice. The Apprentice was re-branded as The Celebrity Apprentice and Trump went on to enjoy seven more years on primetime before announcing his presidential run.

What will happen if they go on strike again? Fingers crossed we never have to find out.

[Our four part series on it, from 2018, is here]

Last week saw quizzes on the themes of Cocktail Hour, Stage Names, St Patrick’s Day and the risibly tenuous -ides Of March.

This week, we’ve got five new quizzes – each a blended mix of ten odd chunks of pop songs. All you have to do is figure out which ten songs are in the mix and the ten artists who are performing them. You get a point for each title; a point for each artist. Twenty points in total.

Monday’s theme: Songs About Other Celebs (pt.II)

[Play it here]

Banshees Of Inisherin: the game
[Play it here]

There’s a new Bobby Fingers diorama out
[Michael Jackson’s Pepsi advert]

“When you license your song to a US network, you get to buy a house. When you license it to Channel 4, you get to buy one nice dinner per year”
[Bands behind TV theme tunes]

The horrors of modern penis enlargement
[Read on Insider]