Help Popbitch! For £4 a month you can join Club Popbitch – which not only gets you an extra Monday mailout but a whole host of other exclusive perks too. Plus, you help ensure that Popbitch stays funded through these weird times. It’s easy to sign up and support us – and just as easy to cancel whenever you want.
[Find out more here] |
|
|
|
|
“Who would ever be angry around Julie Andrews?” – Anne Hathaway |
|
|
|
|
|
Free newsletter every Thursday subscribe
Email stories to us hello@popbitch.com
* Playing pool with Cara Delevingne
* Murdoch’s late night workouts
* PLUS: Sixth form with Stormzy |
|
|
|
| >> Jumping tracks << |
| Friends in high places |
|
Government ministers have been out in force this week complaining about striking rail staff and all the disruption they’re causing other people. It’s funny, because a few weeks ago they didn’t all seem quite so bothered about such things.
When Nadine Dorries took a trip down to Cornwall earlier this month, she was on a train that fell behind schedule far enough that she was looking at missing a connection. She asked staff onboard if they could call ahead to the connecting station to get them to hold the train back for her – and was told that, no, that wouldn’t be possible.
So she took matters into in her own hands. By texting the transport secretary Grant Shapps to see if there was anything he could do to get her train held back instead. |
|
|
|
| An unfortunate clash for DJ lovers at Glastonbury this weekend. You’re going to have to choose between Calvin Harris, Fatboy Slim, Steve Davis and Dermot O’Leary. |
|
|
|
| >> Balls up << |
| Right on cue… |
|
Cara Delevingne was at Soho Farmhouse on Sunday afternoon enjoying a nice, quiet game of pool.
She’s a very relaxed player, though her passion for the game is clear. After missing a relatively easy pot at one point, she didn’t scream or shout or smack her cue about. Instead, she calmly walked round the table to the offending ball, leaned over and – pointing at it – casually called it a ‘cunt’. |
|
|
|
| Elsewhere on Sunday: Yungblud spotted tucking into a roast at The Crooked Billet in Clapton. “Very smiley and polite” apparently. |
|
|
|
| >> Big Questions << |
| Who’s asking what this week? |
|
After last week’s story about the backroom battles between Tory MPs who are bang into their coke and Tory MPs who abhor it, we heard of one guest to Westminster who claims to have enjoyed a toot in the offices of three separate MPs.
The question is: can anyone top that? (hello@popbitch.com if so…) |
|
|
|
If you like sport, you’ll love the Upshot – a Popbitch-inspired email newsletter dishing out gossip, controversy and tittle-tattle from the world of sport. Sign up for free and get a 3 minute hit of irreverent sports coverage every Friday.
[Sign up free here] |
|
|
|
| >> School daze << |
| Stormzy in sixth form |
|
As Stormzy picks up his honorary degree from the University Of Exeter this week, a reader remembers their time at school with him.
anon writes:
“I went to secondary school with Stormzy. When we moved into sixth form, the school implemented a new sanction point rule where if you received 15 points across the year at any stage you would be expelled. I can’t remember exactly what they were for (swearing, being late, etc) but Stormzy received all 15 in the first day. The only problem was that he was so smart the teachers didn’t want to lose him from the school, so they let him off.” |
|
|
|
| The NYC NFT Conference in Times Square this week had a hired Snoop Dogg impersonator circulating the floor, flanked by security. The name on his pass? “Doop Snogg”. |
|
|
|
| >> Plane jealous << |
| Who wants the posh treatment? |
|
Boy George threw a little hissy fit this week after seeing Victoria Beckham get preferential treatment in First Class on a BA flight. George got pissy when Posh was singled out to alight the plane first, with a private car collecting her on the tarmac.
He later had to eat crow when it was quietly explained to him that she had forked out an extra six grand for the privilege, but we’re surprised George didn’t know about this service. You don’t have to be an ex-Spice Girl and fashion designer to qualify for it. It’s well within reach for an 80s pop singer turned talent contest star.
One of the other celebs who does it? Sinitta. |
|
|
|
| Oddest political rumour of the week: the self-styled “Hardman of Brexit” Steve Baker plays Warhammer in his office. |
|
|
|
| >> Boney M << |
| The fittest bit |
|
It’s always sad when a couple in the public eye can’t make a marriage work, so our thoughts are with Rupert Murdoch and Jerry Hall on the news of their deeply predictable divorce.
Condolences too to Murdoch’s daughter, Prudence. Last time Rupert was single, he turned to Prue to act as something of a gym buddy – keeping him motivated with his fitness regime. The daddy-daughter pair wore matching activity trackers and synced their results to keep tabs on one another, making sure each was getting in their requisite cardio.
Eventually Prue had to turn off the share function, however, after noticing her father soon started to enjoy regular, rather vigorous bouts of activity around the 9pm mark. |
|
|
|
| Nominative Determinism Of The Week: Playing on Court 11 at Wimbledon in the qualifiers yesterday… Katie Volynets! |
|
|
|
| >> Record breakers << |
| (Down) Under investigation |
|
While the UK music industry is still waiting on its first #MeToo reckoning, Australia is about to go in for a second – with a fresh investigation into the culture of workplace bullying and sexual harassment at record labels there.
There’s still plenty to investigate. To give you some idea of just how drunk with power some label bosses in Australia got:
* One boss had a policy at his label that no women were allowed to operate any sort of musical/hi-fi/PA equipment in any meeting he attended because he insisted they always fucked it up.
* One married boss had his promotions director hire a women he then got pregnant; who then got reassigned to a different department when she returned from maternity leave.
* One label boss point-blank refused to do any business with a leading lawyer because that lawyer had worn a brown suit to their meeting, instead of blue or grey.
* Perhaps the strangest of all, one label boss had a regular booth at his favourite Italian restaurant in East Sydney (Beppi’s). He would have his team call ahead of his arrival, demanding his spaghetti bolognese be cut up with scissors ahead of it being served to him. He preferred shorter strands so that he didn’t suffer any slurping/sauce related mishaps. |
|
|
|
Have an authentic taste of the Mediterranean brought direct to your door by Pasta Evangelists. They deliver the freshest artisanal pasta with all the ingredients you need to make restaurant quality dishes within minutes. Sign up today with code POPSWEET and get £10 off each of your first three orders PLUS two tiramisu with your first delivery.
[Take a look at this week’s menu] |
|
|
|
| >> Strange Times << |
| What could have happened? |
|
The mystery about how and why The Times pulled their Carrie and Boris story rumbles on. It feels like it would have had to have been a pretty fiery call to get a paper of record (whose own reporter supposedly stands by the story “100%”) to yank it. But the incident clearly hasn’t caused much in the way of bad blood between The Times and No.10.
As has been widely reported, Boris Johnson turned up to the News Corp summer party on Monday, mere hours after coming round from a general anaesthetic, to put in a bit of face time there.
However it was Guto Harri, No.10’s comms director, who was the one laying it on thickest. He was seen prancing around the party telling everyone there how much “we” love The Times. |
|
|
|
| Entertainment at the Tory Summer Ball at the V&A on Monday night: an ABBA tribute band. (As if they hadn’t had enough ABBA parties already…) |
|
|
|
| >> Tony silence << |
| Pull the other one |
|
It’s no surprise the Times’ deputy editor, Tony Gallagher, folded so quickly when pressure was placed on him to pull a story. Carriegate isn’t his first rodeo.
Gallagher was editor of the Sun when it ran that explosive front page about former Guardian CEO David Pemsel. Pemsel had been lined up to take a top job at the Premier League, but the Sun had come into possession of a bunch of leaked texts showcasing the married lothario’s cringe pick-up lines to a young employee – and published them.
Unfortunately, Gallagher hadn’t been aware that Pemsel was a big pal of Rebekah Brooks’ and that she and Pemsel had secretly been doing the spadework to negotiate a football broadcasting rights deal for the Sun’s sister-station talkSPORT for when Pemsel took up his new role.
Gallagher’s scoop naturally threw a pretty massive spanner in those works. Even though the Sun and the Times both quickly pulled their stories (blaming GDPR, rather than the gargantuan clusterfuck it had caused internally) it still wasn’t enough to salvage the situation. Pemsel lost the new job, Rebekah lost her big deal and Gallagher was forced to issue an apology. |
|
|
|
| >> Unsuitable << |
| Kate Middleton v White Power |
|
What has Kate Middleton done to upset online news aggregators? A few weeks ago we mentioned that MSN’s AI-driven site had scraped a story from an obscure French blog and republished it as: “Prince William And Kate Middleton Separate As Duchess Moves Out With Children”.
With no humans around to monitor it, the story was left up for nearly 24 hours before anyone intervened.
Kate is suffering a similar indignity after the Yahoo News aggregator republished a story it found on Town & Country magazine’s website yesterday. T&C have since changed the unfortunate original headline (one British Vogue ran with a version of too, before changing it) but no-one seems to have tipped off Yahoo News yet.
Which means they’re still proudly using the headline: “Kate Middleton Looks Business Chic in White Power Suit to Celebrate Windrush Day”
[See it before it gets taken down] |
|
|
|
Nothing brings in the summer like a cold, crisp glass of wine – and you deserve better than the plonk your local supermarket sells. Naked Wines deliver fantastic, exclusive wines direct to your door and they’re currently offering Popbitch readers £30 off their first case of wine worth £64.99. That means six great wines for just £34.99 inc. delivery.
[Grab yourself a case of Naked Wines] |
|
|
|
| Thanks to: JL, poshduckhunter, RJC, healthy_steadway, EIB, A, PD, L, JR, SW, SG, SK, BOL, HD, M, anon, deep_stoat |
|
|
|
Old Jokes Home
Q/ Did you hear the one about Oedipus and Midas?
A/ It was motherfucking gold.
Still Bored?
Curious to learn more about these SpAds you hear so much about these days? The Secret Life Of Special Advisers is a book that shines a light on a much misunderstood part of politics. An inside look at what power these shadowy figures do and don’t possess…
[Now out in paperback] |
|
|
|
|
|
