The Second Serve // The Magnum Remix

Everyone was expecting Eurovision to be fractious this year but the last-minute disqualification of Netherlands’ entrant Joost Klein came as quite a shock.

Perhaps not so much to the Dutch delegation though. They probably weren’t anticipating him getting booted off the show, but they were aware Joost had been causing all sorts of difficulties backstage – with all sorts of people.

That’s why he had a bodyguard to accompany him wherever he went. Not for his protection, but to act as a babysitter to keep him out of trouble.

Michael Cohen is currently up on the stand, giving evidence in the Trump hush money trial. Cohen’s already gone to prison for his part in this story – and he cut a deal with the feds, spilling everything he knew.

Most of the focus has been on his insider knowledge of the catch-and-kill payments made to bury stories about Trump’s affairs with Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal – but that’s not the only misuse of funds that occurred under Cohen’s eye.

One of the things Trump also paid Cohen to do was hire a tech company to rig a series of online polls in Trump’s favour. Cohen did that – but he also used some of the cash to treat himself to something extra too.

Cohen commissioned the company to set up a Twitter account called @WomenForCohen – where someone was paid to tweet regularly about what a hunk Cohen was and how dreamy all the ladies found him.

A big ad has gone up in the Baby Shard to promote one of TalkTV’s new post-TV ‘digital projects’. It’s a show called “How I’d Fix” – with Becca Hutson and Ed Vaizey.

The advert that’s up in the offices is a mocked up Instagram post of the show’s announcement – boasting a whopping 6,857 likes.

But if you go and look at the actual Instagram announcement on TalkTV’s page, the true number of likes it’s garnered is… 24.

In her interview with Piers Morgan, Fiona Harvey (the woman at the centre of the Baby Reindeer firestorm) claimed she’s going to sue Netflix and Richard Gadd over her depiction in the show.

There’s been a lot of criticism about Netflix’s due diligence in this case so we’ll be interested to see what comes of it. Failure to check these sorts of things properly before a show goes out can be very costly.

We always remember an example our lawyer once gave us, about a BBC show from the mid-00s. The Lavender List was a one-off docudrama about the scandal surrounding Harold Wilson’s 1976 resignations honours. The event was so historic by the time the show came to air – and Wilson had been dead for over a decade – that the show’s makers figured they had nothing to fear from him trying to sue.

However, the story made some rather pointed accusations about Wilson’s political secretary: Marcia Williams. Who was still very much alive. And who wasted no time in hiring lawyers.

The show only aired once as the Beeb had to settle with Marcia out of court, giving her £75,000 and a promise never to air the show ever again.

In PB1182, we asked:
“Which writer-comedian has been doubling up the casting process for his latest TV show as a dating service? At least three hopefuls who auditioned for it got asked out on dates. (And none got the job.)”

The answer – which Deadline has since started picking up the thread of – is… Richard Gadd!

Further to Thursday’s story about Remy Blumenfeld: the producer behind There’s Something About Miriam, who got himself WAGatha Christie’d by Lady Diana’s brother for selling fake stories to the tabloids.

Looks like getting outed as an untrustworthy snake who’d leak any old story he heard for money hasn’t affected his employability one little bit.

While Remy’s reputation in the TV industry is mud after what happened with Miriam, he’s managed to carve out quite a nice niche for himself acting as a career coach and advisor to various executives and billionaires instead.

Who better to trust with your most sensitive personal and professional secrets?

Last week saw quizzes on the themes of Vegas Residencies, Rodney ‘Darkchild’ Jerkins, Big Beefers and more.

This week, we’re swerving themes altogether. This week it’s just random assortments. Ten snippets of songs with no real connection, all threaded together to make a two-and-a-bit-minute mix. You just have to identify all the titles and all the artists. There’s twenty points in it for you if you manage.

If not, don’t worry. The points are totally worthless.

[Play Monday’s quiz here]

Fun synthesiser game
[Play it here]

MPs are being handed out booklets on how to recognise conspiracy theories
[Read it here]

The transcripts of The People vs Donald Trump
[Get at nycourts.gov]