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Daley Temptations

 

The curse of Halliwell, a Premier League pull-out, Calvin and co for No.1?
Premier League football starts again tomorrow. Feeling unsure about who to back? Don’t panic. Cover yourself with Ladbrokes’ five-team acca insurance. Even if one team lets you down, you’ll get a free bet back.
[Check out the market here]
“We’ll be talking to Jimmy Anderson tomorrow about the naming of his end…” – Nasser Hussein, Sky Cricket
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* The curse of Halliwell strikes again!
* A Premier League pull-out!
* Charts: Calvin & co for No.1?
>> Dananagrams <<
Paul’s potty mouth
Rather naively, we’ve always assumed that Paul Danan’s infamous “MAKE SOME MOTHERFUCKING NOISE, PRESTON!” incident was a one-off. The sort of mistake a person wouldn’t make twice. Seems we were wrong.

Danan was once hired by teen magazine Bliss to compere a High School Prom night at a school in Durham – and boy, did they get their money’s worth. Because guess what he shouted into the microphone as soon as he was handed it?

“COME ON! LET’S GET THIS FUCKING PARTY STARTED, YOU FUCKERS!”

Within seconds, the headteacher had stormed the stage, demanding that Danan apologise to the room of giggling teens for his inappropriate language.

In the interests of balance, we’re told that Paul Danan was an absolute delight (and extremely professional) to work with when filming this music video.
>> Aural sex <<
Leo likes an earful
Apple’s free iPhone/iPod earbuds generally get a pretty bad rap, but they have at least one big celebrity fan. Apparently Leonardo DiCaprio likes to stuff them in his ears whenever he gets down to business with the ladies.

What with this and the success of Baby Driver, crappy headphones might just become 2017’s hottest accessory.

The reviews for the new Emoji Movie are in. A man in New Jersey was arrested for masturbating to it in the cinema last week – so it can’t be as bad as everyone feared.
>> Big Questions <<
Who’s asking what this week?
It might be the quietest month of the year for news cycles, but the tabloids aren’t slacking. They’re busy working on a sensational story involving which national treasure? It has everything: affairs, a close friend who’s a drug dealer and a semi-public bust-up with his missus about their celebrity cokehead mates (so keep your eyes peeled for clues in the coming weeks…)
Richard Hillgrove (the PR that tried to shop in a bunch of his celebrity clients when he got collared by HMRC for dodging a £100K tax bill) is going to be the star of a new Channel 4 documentary. On tax dodging.
>> Management issues <<
The curse of Halliwell
Even at the best of times, having to work for Geri Halliwell sounds like the sort of punishment that karma would only dish out to someone who’s been truly awful in a previous life – but it’s looking increasingly as if the position is genuinely cursed.

One of Geri’s former reps ended up in all manner of legal difficulty at the start of this decade after she was caught catfishing strangers on the internet. Rather boldly, she decided her best way out of trouble was to attempt to sue people for it. (Spoiler: it didn’t go very well…)

Now another of Geri’s previous reps (Phil Green) has just found himself at the heart of a very strange news story. One of Phil’s current clients is Chloe Ayling: the 20 year old model that got handcuffed, kidnapped and stuffed in a bag in Milan.

*** PREMIER LEAGUE START OF THE SEASON SPECIAL ***
>> Sterling work <<
Charity begins at home
An FA bigwig has been courting players from the current England squad, hoping to drum up a bit of support for some football charity work that he’s involved with in Cambodia at the minute.

Talking to one of the team’s best known players, he couldn’t believe his luck when the star immediately agreed to help. However, it quickly became clear that the player hadn’t really been following the conversation too closely.

“Cambodia…” the player said. “That’s that town near Oxford, right?”

That geography genius? Raheem Sterling.

Man City are the bookies’ favourites to win the league (9/5) but the most bets taken have been for Man Utd (10/3). Maybe because Jose Mourinho always wins the league in his second season?
[See the latest Outright Winner odds]
>> Striker pose <<
A picture perfect plan
A group of players from the Premier League did a sponsors trip to Senegal. At the last minute, Man City’s Bacary Sagna said that he had a particular photographer he wanted to accompany them as their portfolio was really good.

A couple of the other players looked a little suspicious when the photographer turned out to be a stunning woman, who arrived in tight clothes and high heels (a look she persevered with throughout the Muslim country) but they bit their tongues.

Until it came to the first shoot, that is, when it became extremely obvious she was barely able to distinguish one end of a camera from the other.

So someone discreetly hired a local photographer to accompany them instead (while quietly giving Sagna props for managing to so unsubtly sneak his latest fancy onto a fully-paid-for trip).

The season’s top scorer? It’s Kane (3/1) v Lukaku (4/1) in the betting. These two dominated the top score chart last year and we can’t really see any other value in the market.
[Take a look for yourself]
>> Hey Jude <<
WAG in the tale
There was always a story at Liverpool FC that whenever new players arrived at the club, captain Steven Gerrard would give them the number of a trusted local girl, Jude, so that they wouldn’t get too lonely (or into too much trouble).

That was the way things worked until she ended up marrying one of the players, Djibril Cisse, and settled down in Cheshire. The couple have since divorced – but now?

Last year at Man Utd, Henrikh Mkhitaryan was living at the Lowry Hotel and was often seen eating dinner on his own, reading quietly. This summer though, he’s been a lot more social – photographed out and about with the familiar face of… Jude Cisse.

Is the Liverpool/Man Utd rivalry finally thawing? If they’re sharing contacts like this, it must be.

Relegation Information: Huddersfield are the odds-on favourites to go down. Also-promoted Brighton are just behind, along with a Michael Keane-less Burnley. If you fancy taking a longer-odds punt, we can see Crystal Palace and Stoke having a potentially difficult one too…
[See the latest odds here]
>> Bands of brothers <<
How to sign a star, pt.2
We’ve spoken before about how some of the big football management agencies have a tactic of finding well-paying jobs for their clients’ dads in order to get them signed onto their books.

Now it looks like they’re widening the net.

Doyen Global recently approached Harry Hickford, the childhood friend, current housemate, and sort-of adoptive brother of Dele Alli.

The move has all the hallmarks of a poaching attempt. We just wonder if Dele’s current agent knows that Dele’s considered fair game in the business…

*** END OF PREMIER LEAGUE PULL-OUT ***
>> Double rainbow <<
Another pot of black gold
Last week’s story about Tom Ford being called into his son’s primary school after he turned in a rather gothic rainbow artwork rang a distant bell for one of our readers – as they remember a similar thing happening to their brother in the early 70s.

Having been asked to draw the rainbow, the teacher was a little concerned when the young boy handed in a completely colourless crescent of blacks and greys.

They called his mum in for a chat to see if she’d noticed anything unusual about the boy that might explain his worrying artistic expression, but the explanation turned out to be a simple one.

The boy was a huge fan of the kids show Rainbow, so knew the shape very well – but they only had a black and white TV set in the house.

Nominative Determinism Of The Week: one of the people handling PR communciations for Greggs… Wendy Baker!
>> Daley temptations <<
Some mothers do ‘ave ’em
halfmanhalfninja writes:
“I was doing some work to the tower block on the corner of Ladbroke Grove and Westbourne a few years ago, when an old girl in a shellsuit of many colours invited me and my workmate in for a cup of tea. We were led into her front room which was a shrine to Daley Thompson – photos, medals, trophies and an appalling portrait of him.

“She gave us our tea, and sat looking at the portrait repeatedly, dying for us to ask about it. My mate speaks up first, asking “Is that Lenny Henry?” She just about held on to her gobful of PG and hissed ‘No, it’s not fucking Lenny Henry! It’s MY SON, DALEY THOMPSON’.

“She eventually calmed down once we’d said how proud she must be. And then she invited us to remove our shirts if we wanted to. Y’know, if we were hot. It would be OK, who’s gonna know? Lads, it’s fine – get your shirts off, it’s boiling in here.

“It was February. The week after, we heard she’d tried dragging a scaffolder in through the kitchen window.”

Ever been seduced by a celebrity’s relative? hello@popbitch.com

Everybody needs somewhere to live, something to do and someone to love. Help a rough sleeper find these things by supporting the Connection at St Martins this summer.
[See more at The Connection]
>> Hmmms <<
Cocks, balls, flamingoes
RIP Glen Campbell. We couldn’t think of a better tribute than Lauren Harries’ homemade music video for By The Time I Get To Phoenix, so that’s what you’re stuck with.
[Watch on YouTube]

The Nations Of The World song sung by a supercut of 168 movies
[Watch on YouTube]

30 years of John Peel’s Festive 50s on one huge playlist
[Listen on Spotify]

Waste five minutes trying to draw a cock and balls on this 3D imaging site for kids
[Play on Noni Noni]

If you want to get a headstart drawing cock and balls all over the AR version of your city, get to it
[See on Mirage]

The Busy Life Of Bob The Flamingo
[See on Audubon]

Local news of the week
[Read on The Courier]

The next Popbitch Popquiz is on September 5th at Smiths of Smithfield. Gossip, trivia, dancing and dirtiness. Get yourself along to it.
[Book your tickets now]

Thanks to: SJ, PR, AB, celtiagirl, JB, halfmanhalfninja, IH, dom_kaos, PM, R, ME
Old Jokes Home:
Q/ Why do seagulls live by the sea?
A/ Because if they lived by the bay, they’d be bagelsStill Bored?
This week’s Media Masters podcast features a chat with Darcy Antonellis, the CEO of Vubiquity, about the future of the entertainment business and why she thinks virtual reality will transform our lives.
[Listen/Download on Media Focus]

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