Fight For Your Right To PR-Team

“I’ve got a long way to go before I could be considered a style icon” – Liam Payne

“I just say shit all the time without thinking” – Billie Eilish

David Beckham was spotted around Glastonbury this weekend with a brand new woman in tow. Not to replace Victoria. Nor to replace Rosie Huntington-Whiteley. This was his new PR person: Nicola Howson.

There’s talk that Derek has recently been sidelining his long-suffering sidekick Simon Oliviera (who has repped Brand Beckham for 15 years) in favour of Ms Howson. And what exactly are her credentials?

Well, she used to work for ITV. She did a stint at Freuds. But her last big celebrity client – who she defended right up until the point that even someone as skilled as her was unable to do so anymore?

Kevin Spacey…

It’s also been announced this week that Beckham Junior has just earned himself a photography internship with Rankin. We look forward to seeing how seamlessly Brooklyn slots into the working environment there.

He was recently given the gig to photograph Rocketman co-stars Taron Egerton and Jamie Bell for the cover of Man About Town magazine. Though he did a decent job, Brooklyn’s personal entourage for the shoot was bigger than that of the two actors combined.

Not only did Brooklyn have a hair stylist and a make-up team on hand throughout, he kept on changing his outfits too. Even though he was the one behind the camera.

Which radio host’s job is in jeopardy after they were heard screaming at an assistant so loudly that the sounds of the argument drifted through the studio soundproofing and down the corridor?

Since alluding to the Bip Ling/Boris Johnson story in last week’s mailout, we’ve noticed the rumour has continued to simmer along without ever properly boiling over into the mainstream. That’s probably for good reason (there’s a very decent chance the whole thing is total horseshit) but it’s curious how the story isn’t dying down completely.

It all makes for an interesting study in modern political scandal though, so we thought we’d at least do the rumour justice – by dissecting it in clinical detail.

So: did Boris Johnson really shag a fresh-faced Instagram influencer? Or is something else going on here?

[Read ‘The Bip Issue’ on Popbitch]

With Justin Bieber, Demi Lovato, Scott Borchetta and even her old-BFF Karlie Kloss all stepping up to side with Scooter Braun this week, it can look a little like Taylor Swift is all alone in the fight for her song rights. She’s not though. She’s always surrounded by plenty of people.

As you might expect, Taylor’s publicity machine is premier league. When she was in Australia to do a round of simple, positive and totally unchallenging promotional radio interviews, her team wouldn’t let the interviews happen unless there were at least four reps from her publicity team sitting in the room with her.

George Osborne and his wife Frances announced that they are filing for divorce this week. It’s sad, of course, but not entirely unexpected.

The English and Welsh courts say that if a couple doesn’t want to make a claim of adultery then they need to have been separated for a minimum of two years before they can file for divorce.

And what was Popbitch saying in July 2017, almost two years ago to the day…?

[Take a look]

Dan Wootton wrote a rather spicy editorial for the Sun this weekend in which he gave both barrels to the BBC for being “not just hypocritical” but “deplorable” by broadcasting Liam Gallagher’s Glastonbury set while completely ignoring his recent “bullying behaviour”.

We didn’t think we’d ever see Dan get on his high horse about the showbiz industry’s habit of selectively ignoring bullying behaviour whenever it suits them.

Must have given the guys in HR a good laugh…

A couple of weeks ago, we mentioned that one of Sharon Osbourne’s favoured revenge tactics was to pop a Wine Gum up her flue, let it sweat there for a bit, then send it in the post to whoever she was maddest at.

It’s been on our minds again (it barely left, tbh) because we’ve since found an interview with former Xtra Factor hosts Rylan and Matt Edmondson in which Matt explained that Simon Cowell would always have a box of Wine Gums on the go backstage at X Factor.

Did Sharon Osbourne ever spike his stash with a fanny-soaked sweetie? We’d give you even money on that bet, because after she left the show in 2013 she was heard telling friends that Cowell would have to “lick her out for three weeks” if she was ever going to consider returning.

Which she did in 2016.

So maybe she decided to take matters into her own… hands?

There’s been a lot of attention paid to Boris Johnson’s past these last few weeks. Mostly because he’s a chronically dishonest shagger who can barely show his face in public without disgracing himself in some way or another. But partly because he’s also the odds-on favourite to be our next prime minister.

It’s only fair that we take a delve into Jeremy Hunt’s past too though.

People who worked under Hunt at his company Hotcourses remember the time that they were all dragged in to a meeting to help boost productivity ahead of a big corporate deadline. They were already working 14 hour days for a meagre £14K salary. So what did dealmaker Jeremy offer them in order to secure their loyalty in such trying times?

Bonuses? Booze? A big office party?

Erm, no. They were each offered a mousemat with the slogan “I (heart) Hotcourses” printed on it.

No party in the early noughties was complete without Kate Moss and her curly-haired hairdresser pal, James Brown in attendance – but things have been a little rocky between them in the years since.

Thanks to his association with Kate, James managed to build up a big celebrity client list and start his own haircare business. Then, all of a sudden, it disappeared. His salon failed, he stopped doing celebrity hair and he wasn’t pictured again with Kate for years.

What happened? When James launched his own line of products, one of his team used a photo of Kate in the promo material without thinking to ask her. Kate’s agency promptly sued and won huge damages. Damages which gutted the business.

In all the fallout, Kate’s whole crowd turned on him, no-one hired him to do their hair anymore, so the salon went south and Brown retreated to live on a farm in Ireland.

Seems as if it’s all water under the bridge now though, as photos of Kate and James together at parties have recently started appearing on Kate’s agency Insta.

The next Popbitch Popquiz is on Tuesday (July 9th) so round up your team and book in your table
[Tickets for the Popbitch quiz]

Mambo No.5 sung by movie clips
[Watch on YouTube]

Awkwardly posing models
[Browse the gallery]

Synth pop fan? You might be interested in new London indie label NKOS’s latest release…
[Listen to ‘Little Miss Numb’]

Why are celebrity profiles such mawkish old shit nowadays?
[Read on NYPost]

Need to scroll your smartphone or iPad one-handed? (We won’t ask any questions…) Then this is the gadget for you!
[See the TechBed]

Advice on how to influence people from… Dr Vitriol?
[Read on the Guardian]

If you enjoyed that ‘blend’ mash-up we featured last week, the originator of blending got in touch with a whole playlist for Popbitch readers to enjoy
[Listen on YouTube]