The Second Serve: Sex, Drugs and Tuck Shops

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“No more white girls. No more potato salad and raisins. No more white girls. No more spray tan, no more big titties no ass” – Jamie Foxx

A second serving of scandal and slander Subscribe
Email stories to us club@popbitch.com

* Demure Miriam Margolyes
* Manchester proxy wars
* PLUS: Christmas party goss extravaganza

>> [REDACTED] <<

Big Answer

Last week’s Big Question asked: Which celebrity chef once informed a junior runner working on the set of his show that his dick was so big it could “rip her gob open”?
One reader suggests it’s probably “the same one who told a guest “I’d like to give you a good fisting”, on the set of Ready Steady Cook one day”.
We couldn’t possibly comment.

Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong treated himself to a Wrexham FC match this weekend.

>> Higher Calling <<

Sex, drugs and tuck shops

After last week’s story about Katy Perry filming in Westminster Central Hall, RD writes: “It’s pretty lovely outside, but it’s a famously dry building.
“I went to see Julian Cope there back in the eighties. While it was a fine backdrop to the concert video he was filming, the liggers, acid heads and regular gig goers were slightly perturbed that the bar, as it was, consisted entirely of two nice old ladies selling squash (orange or lemon, mind you) and Twixes from a trestle table in the foyer for pennies prices.
“I really hope that bar culture has followed through to the Perry gig.”

Computer World had some interesting sponsored content last week about building an AI-powered surveillance state, by Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs. (Yikes.)

>> Bowled Over <<

Manchester proxy wars

Until the recent Man Utd protests against Ineos and the Glazers started up again, the perennial fight between different club factions spent most of the year bubbling away not around Old Trafford but in…. Barnes?!
This bucolic London suburb, chock full of celebrities like Holly Willoughby, Gary Lineker and Stanley Tucci, was the unlikely venue for pro and anti Glazer factions to face off.
And the even more unlikely epicentre for this showdown? Barnes Bowling Club.
“Step through the wooden gate of this long-established Bowling Club and time stands still”, says its promotional intro. And this has been the case for the luminaries of the old Green and Gold protest. A big group of insurgents – even Lord Jim O’Neil, whose Red Knights consortium in 2010 failed to dislodge the American parasites – have been able to meet for convivial pints to discuss how nothing they’ve done has managed to get the Glazers out.
And yet this was threatened this summer when a new member tried to sign up for the club. Like Kevin Pieterson at nearby Sunningdale, the wannabe player was blackballed.
But, much like the Green and Gold movement, this display of protest also fizzled out, as eventually the membership got rubber stamped.
The new member? The man who advised the Glazer family on their takeover nearly 20 years ago, then went to on to run Man Utd ’til 2022 – Mr Ed Woodward!

Overheard in the St Ermin hotel in London – Newly minted Spectator editor Michael Gove, telling some Americans very loudly that the “sleazy radical far right” is full of anti-Semites.

>> Unlucky <<

He was gonna cancel

Back in the early days of PinkNews, Ben Cohen was also a technology correspondent for Channel 4.
Things didn’t end well with this employment either.
Colleagues say his card was marked when he phoned in sick one day, then took himself off to a Kylie concert that night.
TV cameras were there getting voxpop reactions, and he couldn’t resist the lure of being interviewed. He was spotted on TV the next day by unimpressed bosses, and soon dropped.

Latest to jump on the Tory bitcoin shilling bandwagon? Steve Baker who has taken a role as advisor to a bitcoin fund.

>> Partyseasongate <<

A wonderful Christmastime

Don’t believe everything you read, Christmas parties are still going strong – as so is the gossip we get from them. Here’s a little round-up of what we’ve heard under the mistletoe this year.
– The rumour doing the rounds at Bauer HQ at the moment is that one radio presenter was very naughty at the Bauer Christmas Party… going home with a girl who wasn’t his girlfriend…
– A similar tale lit up the WhatsApp groups after the Spectator Parliamentarian of the Year Awards; where a prominent politico was said to have headed off into the night with someone other than their husband.
– But it’s more of a bah humbug affair over at Talk TV, where junior staff had to pay for their own drinks at a party they were contractually obliged to attend (while senior management had all their boozing covered by the company’s paid bar tab).

Spotted in Clifton, Emma Thompson spending £700 on JellyCat cuddly toys in the gift shop Pod. She returned four days later for more. (Is there a more Bristol sleb spot than that?)

>> IDNSHC <<

Get your sprouts out

Miriam Margolyes has been touring an unsurprisingly frank and candid stage show about her life.
One anecdote that is sadly not a part of the show, but that we’ve always enjoyed – Miriam once answered a question about her career arc on the set of Harry Potter by shouting “I didn’t get where I am today by sucking cock”.
(Not in front of the children, Miriam, please, was the producers’ only admonishment.)

Early signs for Sigourney Weaver’s new west end version of The Tempest aren’t great. Balcony seats holders have been moved down to the Royal Circle to fill up the seats today.

>> Popbitch Merch <<

t-shirts and the obligatory totes

Still time to get some PB merch for Xmas:
– Popbitch Logo!
– GYAC! (Give you a clue; old skool internet talk)
– IDSHC… IDNSHC! (what did (or didn’t happen) while celeb spotting at the urinals
– Gak!
Limited edition, more items (like mugs) coming v soon (like tomorrow, inshallah.)
[See and buy here]

Two PRs from Inhouse Comms were seen getting a surprisingly personal tour of the Sky newsroom by a senior editor, recently.  Presumably nothing to do with the fact Sky News has just been nominated for two of their podcast awards.

>> Name and Shame <<

Men behaving badly?

Two Big Answers to finish.
We won’t tell you the Big Question that these are the answers to (sorry) so you’ll have to guess, do some detective work and match this one up.
But suffice to say David Davis and Gordon Ramsay have both made appearances…

Nominative Determinism of the Week: NHS Senior Data Manager – Donna Patience.

>> Hmmms <<

A few quick things

The Manosphere comics making millions
[Rogan’s Heroes]
A London pub is pouring Luigi Mangione pints
[And promising to stream his trial]
Guardian having such bad press right now they’re turning to otters to get some favourable views
[Stop muscling in on our territory]
*** WhatsApp us some goss on +44 7923 619540. We’re also on Instagram and our DMs are open (@p0pb1tch)***

Thanks to:  RD, TM, SX, JB, AW, JN, RS

Old Jokes Home

Q: What’s another name for a paternity test?
A: A pop quiz.

Fancy Another?