‘Brookie Error

Not only have Harvey Weinstein’s actions bankrupted the company they once shared, they have robbed Bob Weinstein of something far more valuable: his good name.

Back in 2000, when Bob took a shine to the Miramax receptionist, he didn’t make a move by inviting her up to his suite at 2am. Nor did he ask her for a massage while in his bathrobe. He didn’t even masturbate into the pot plant by her desk.

Instead, Bob very diligently went to the head of HR to ask them what the most appropriate way of asking her out would be. And when they started dating seriously, it was suggested that his girlfriend (soon to be wife) Annie should maybe get a job outside Miramax to avoid any difficulties or complications – which she duly did.

The perfect modern workplace love affair? Yes. Apart from the fact that their marriage ended in an acrimonious divorce in 2012 (with Annie getting a restraining order against Bob, and Bob staging an intervention regarding Annie’s drinking). Definitely.

The new reboot of The Generation Game got good ratings for the BBC this Easter weekend, but it got some of the worse critical reviews imaginable too. (“I probably have seen a worse television programme than The Generation Game but I have to be honest, nothing immediately springs to mind” – Bruce Dessau)

There’s another episode of this pilot series still to endure, but things could have been worse. Four episodes were actually made but BBC insiders say that the other two were so bad that they got canned.

Staff at which London TV production company are surprised that one huge transatlantic star hasn’t yet been caught up in the #MeToo campaign? Women who worked on the TV series they produced with him tell horror tales of his relentlessly aggressive workplace flirting.

In among all the gruesome Danniella Westbrook stories this week – about her being penniless, needing to be questioned by police, having to drink 12 pints of milk a day to keep her face from caving in - was the news that she’s become homeless.

It’s sad, but Danniella hasn’t been making it easy on herself. At one place she lived recently she caused a huge disturbance on the street, repeatedly reversing and ramming her car into a SmartCar that was parked outside her house, screaming with the windows down “YOU’RE IN MY FUCKING SPACE! YOU’RE IN MY FUCKING SPACE!”

She did it so many times that she eventually bumped the SmartCar up off the road, across the width of the pavement and into her own flowerbeds, where it was left for days.

Who had the gall to park outside her house? Her boyfriend at the time. Whose name was actually the one on the lease. And was letting her stay with him.

After all the negative reviews that his series, Collateral, got you could understand why David Hare might want to hide himself away from the public glare at the minute. Luckily, he’s got some company.

As one of the earliest casualties of the #MeToo movement, theatre director Max Stafford Clark hasn’t been overstretched with work offers of recent, so has been indulging in his other great passion: model trains. He keeps a huge track in his London house - and has been inviting David Hare over to play with him.

The fashion industry is often depicted as being a nest of petty, egotistical, emotionally immature vipers – but that’s pretty unfair. It’s much worse than that.

At Diane Von Furstenburg’s offices in New York many of the staff go days without their boss deigning to speak to them because Diane declines to address anyone who hasn’t turned up for work wearing DVF. Instead she just shoots dirty looks at them until they choose something from her own collections for the workplace.

As his soul passes on for its final judgement, where now for the famed paedo/poof confuser, Eric Bristow?

We can only hazard a guess but a few years back, after the curtain had come down on ‘A Night With Eric Bristow’ at the Stevenage Arts and Leisure Centre, fans were queuing up for autographs. Bristow, in his usual charming manner, told a group of these fans to “fuck off” as they were “dawdling”.

The reason they were dawdling? They were trying to let a man in a wheelchair go up first. When they explained themselves to Bristow, Bristow said he was having none of it and stormed off in a huff.

GK writes:
“Re, your story about Jimmy Tarbuck: he actually he did a good job at Ken Dodd’s funeral and the warmth and sincerity were, I’m sure, genuine. He saves all that warmth for other showbiz friends and is always wheeled out when a Scouser (say, Cilla Black) or any aged comic dies.

“It makes me grit my teeth as, when I interviewed him as a young journalist, he was a complete cunt.”

There’s a new media mogul in town. Not only is Sir Bernard Gray now the chairman of New Scientist and the magazines just bought up from Time Inc (like NME and Wallpaper*), he has now started sniffing around Dennis Publishing.

At first glance you might think an ex-Ministry of Defence official would make for an unlikely magazine guru, but Sir Bernie knows his onions.

In fact, as one of the 100 or so people to still have a privacy injunction in force in England and Wales, he’s got a better understanding than most of how to keep control of what stories make it into the media. What does his injunction protect? Legally, we aren’t allowed to tell you – and we’d potentially risk prison if we ever tried to write about it.

What a perfect person to champion the interests of a free press!

[See the case on Bailii]

Musicology after Blurred Lines
[Read on Rolling Stone]

Local news of the week
[Read on Eastern Daily Press]

Dane Bowers is back, and making a cameo in new BBC series Wannabe. Playing Dane Bowers.
[Watch at iPlayer]

“World’s Most Flexible Man Exposed As A Paedophile”
[See on Metro]

The best way ever to get banned from a hotel chain
[Read on The Times Colonist]

A man goes into the doctor with a lettuce sticking out of his arse
“That looks nasty”, says the doctor
“Well”, says the man “that’s just the tip of the iceberg”

Still Bored?
Want to absolutely fucking terrify yourself? Here’s a new interactive nuclear bomb blast simulator
[Play around on Outrider]