The Second Serve // Socks, Drugs & Rock’N’Roll

No music quiz this week, as it’s PB’s summer break. Which means, sadly, no Thursday newsletter either. But we’ll be back next week.

In the meantime, today’s collection of stories has a bit of a Paris theme, to fit with the Olympics vibes.

See you soon!

Which boybander described himself as a “power bottom” while hooking up with a PB reader after his band’s gig in New York? (Sadly giving a fake cellphone number afterwards so we got no more gossip).

The boybanders in question were – in no particular order – Nick Carter, Justin Timberlake, and Lance Bass. You can guess which is which…

Long before he became a big fan of over-ear headphones for his bedroom escapades, Leonardo DiCaprio got wise to the fact that super-celebs need to invest in some kind of PPE to escape unwanted intimacy.

Back when he was promoting Gangs of New York, poor Leo was chased through Man Ray bar in Paris by a loved-up fan badgering him for a kiss.

Despite protesting that he “had a cold”, he eventually found himself giving in to the fan’s pestering.

Rockstars are known for their ridiculous riders, but none are as particular as Mark Lanegan.

In spite of his grunge reputation, Queens of the Stone Age star Lanegan once refused to enter a venue in Paris until they provided eight (8) pairs of cotton socks.

When they got him the socks Lanegan decided they were not ‘soft enough’, so staff were sent out again to get him better ones.

If there’s a more ridiculous request, we’d like to hear about it (no, really, email us).

Wonder if Novak Djokovic listened to the Andrew Tate podcast between sets in Paris?

The gold medallist had been quietly following Tate on Twitter for months – and only unfollowed him in the last few days after a tweet about it went viral.

Beta behaviour.

It’s nice to know that even Quincy Jones picked up extra freelance gigs. In his early days, living in Paris with his band and struggling to find gigs, Quincy was saved by a call for a gig in Monte Carlo.

The call in question came from Princess Grace, who wanted Q to fly over and back-up a singer she’d booked. The singer was ready to perform but had no backing band.

Q arrived in Monte Carlo with his crew to find out the singer Grace had employed was a relatively unknown bloke going by the name Frank Sinatra.

The Mail reported this weekend that Sienna Miller’s agents have been working hard behind the scenes to ‘airbrush’ her CV.

Supposedly they’re editing her previous projects to get rid of references to Sienna’s most controversial roles – and her flops.

The three movies in question were The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, An Imperfect Murder and Unfinished Business.

The first got Sienna in trouble when she referred to the film’s setting as ‘Shitsburgh’. The second had her starring alongside Alec Baldwin of later involuntary manslaughter trial fame.

And Unfinished Business? No controversy. Just a comedy with Dave Franco that was critically panned and lost $20 million. It currently has a 10% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

No wonder they’ve all been quietly removed from Sienna’s United Agents webpage.

Olympic distances measured in London landmarks
[Read on Londonist]

The New Yorker feature on RFK Jnr that spawned a thousand headlines about dumping a dead bear cub in Central Park
[Long but brilliant]

Liz Truss was at Goodwood but nobody noticed
[Awkward]

That Turkish Olympic sharpshooter already has manga fanart
[Read on Dazed]