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“Gossip is very important… from a historical point of view” – Mary Beard |
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Free newsletter every Thursday subscribe
Email stories to us hello@popbitch.com
* All the flipping lads
* Microinfluencing in the lavs
* PLUS: The power of Popbitch |
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| >> Fashionably late << |
| Not quite model behaviour |
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The V&A has just announced their plans for a Naomi Campbell retrospective. Let’s hope museum bosses haven’t planned an extravagant opening party that relies too heavily on her involvement.
Organisers of that recent Vogue World event fell into that trap. With Naomi, Christy, Linda and Cindy on the Vogue UK cover that month, the stage had been set for a triumphant show-stopping live finalé featuring the four supermodels.
Sadly, Naomi’s inability to turn up on time for rehearsals at any point meant all the grand ideas had to be scaled back in favour of… walking.
Much to the annoyance of the three who had turned up. |
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| Unexpectedly present at Ed Sheeran’s album launch on Tuesday: George Osborne. |
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| >> King v Queen << |
| Is this the real life? |
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A bit of diplomatic friction has apparently cropped up between the South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol and the Royal household regarding his visit in November. About karaoke.
When President Yoon paid a visit to the White House earlier this year, he sang American Pie at a state dinner and it was rapturously received. It sounds as though he is trying to recreate a bit of that same magic for his UK visit too – as he’s requested to do Bohemian Rhapsody for his audience with King Charles.
The request was politely turned down. But he’s insisting. |
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| Kevin Spacey is becoming a permanent fixture in the Groucho these days. He was lighting Popbitch readers’ cigs for them there last week. |
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| >> Big Questions << |
| Who’s asking what this week? |
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There’s an awful lot of backstabbing and behind-the-scenes briefing going on at GB News at the minute – but can it really be true what we’re hearing? That Dan Wootton has quietly reached out to try to establish a rapprochement with Phillip Schofield? |
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| We’ve all been stung by cheap movers. Turning up late, tossing your belongings about like bin-bags, springing hidden charges on you. Relōku does away with all that. Their pioneering tech platform offers access to a fleet of helpful, insured drivers who can relocate anything – from a single item to a full house move. No minimum charges, no hidden extras and full live-tracking so you can rest easy. [Use code SUP-BITCHES20 for an intro 20% off] |
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| >> Notorious BOG << |
| Microinfluencing in the lavs |
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Conor McGregor has been out doing some promotional appearances to drum up interest in his new stout brand. Last week, he made an appearance at Irish pub Mc & Sons in Southwark – but didn’t really make the most of the opportunity.
Conor arrived with a large security entourage and a team of promo girls in a flurry of activity, but then ended up spending ages in the toilets.
What was he doing in there? No-one really knows. His security team prevented anyone else from accessing the facilities – sternly directing bursting punters to the disabled lav instead. |
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| Simone Biles just won her 20th world championships gold with a routine set to a Eurovision song (Unicorn by Noa Kirel, which came third in May). |
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| >> Fannying about << |
| A delicate flower arrangement |
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There was a big interview in the Sunday Times this week with Es Devlin, the celebrated stage designer who has created live shows for acts like Kanye, Dua Lipa, Gary Barlow and others.
The article fawningly asked “Is there anything the polymath can’t do?” Attentive Popbitch readers will remember that, yes, there is.
Es was hired to work on Beyoncé’s Formation tour and one of her most notable contributions was a huge, inflatable lotus flower. The lotus motif was part of the tour’s aesthetic, but the giant inflatable Es had commissioned caused some big problems.
On the occasions it actually managed to inflate, it looked less like a lotus flower and more like a humungous fanny. So it was quietly dropped. |
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| Sunday’s Observer featured a classic Grauniad bloomer. The Q&A was billed as being with Happy Mondays singer Rowetta, but the answers implied the proud Mancunian was a Spurs fan who had a Norwegian wife and a 15 month old son. Turns out they’d printed Mathew Horne’s answers by mistake. |
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| >> Unhappy birthday << |
| Please, stop him now |
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Footage of Matt Hancock massacring Queen’s Don’t Stop Me Now always floats around whenever it’s Tory Party Conference. Though that particular performance is very well-known, what’s less well-known is what happened in the room directly before that.
Every year, the Tory conference tends to land on or around Matt Hancock’s birthday (Oct 2nd). So just before Matt launched into that infamous performance, the entire room had been singing a rousing rendition of Happy Birthday to him.
At the instruction of Matt Hancock – who started the singalong himself. |
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| Emily Maitlis didn’t look up from her phone once during Toploader’s half-hour set at the Tory party conference. |
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| >> Farm-hands << |
| Hugh goes there? |
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Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall’s habit of trying to get his hands on things that don’t belong to him has been the subject of much conversation in the food world. Now it seems he’s doing it in the farming world too.
Apparently Hugh has been trying to sneak the fence posts of his farm further and further out, to try to expand the size of his property. He’s been doing it so egregiously that neighbouring farmers have not only noticed, they’ve started roping in lawyers. |
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“A bit like HIGNFY but the contributors aren’t bitter pensioners!” Not our words but just one of many stellar reviews for PAPER CUTS, the daily podcast that takes all the papers’ good bits and transforms them into daft entertainment, all in half an hour. Join host Miranda Sawyer plus razor sharp journalists and comedians as we pick apart the inky mess.
[Try PAPER CUTS on your favourite podcast app] |
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| >> Mumford & Co. << |
| Getting back to business |
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For all the fuss that was made when he left the band, it seems that culture-warring banjo plucker Winston Marshall hasn’t been cut quite so adrift from Mumford And Sons as you’d maybe think.
Documents filed with Companies House last week show that Winston Marshall remains listed as an active director of the Mumford company “Gentlemen Of The Road Presents Ltd” (along with the other three) – and he remains an active director of “Mumford & Sons Ltd” too.
One Mumford-related company he has no part in now is “ATFL Ltd”. That was a previous Mumford company that got dissolved in 2019. ATFL stood for “All The Fucking Lads”. |
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| Winston is also a director of cigar company 1573 Cigars – which has the most toe-curling corporate copy. (“1573, fateful year. The year the great leaf queen nicotiana, Lady Tobacco, first rolled out onto Albion shore.”) |
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| >> Re:Loaded << |
| Return of the Mac |
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As GB News clears house, it might be worth someone in production doing a quick inventory check. The sort of loudmouth blowhard they specialise in hiring can’t always be trusted not to take the odd souvenir on the way out.
When GB News host Martin Daubney left the editor’s chair at Loaded, he kept putting off the return of his company Mac until the IT Director had to call him up directly to request it back. In his usual ranty way, Daubney told him he had reported it lost/stolen weeks ago, which was why he couldn’t return it.
The IT Director said he found that explanation rather strange as he’d just activated the camera on said company Mac and was now looking at Daubney from the Mac’s current location – his coffee table.
The Mac was returned to IPC shortly afterwards. |
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| Curse of the Murdochs, pt.138: The day after Jerry Hall filed for divorce from Rupert, the family had a big celeb-filled wedding for Elisabeth’s daughter Charlotte. A year on, that romance has just hit the skids too. |
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| >> Acting up << |
| The power of Popbitch? |
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greenman writes:
“I saw Michael Gambon on Top Gear, shortly after Richard Harris had died and the makers of the Harry Potter franchise were looking for a replacement.
“I made up a story that he was being considered to please my little daughter, and posted it on Popbitch that he was in the running (your logs will confirm this).
“Very quickly picked up by the press and gained traction – shortly after – hey presto… and kudos points to dad. Thanks Popbitch!” |
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Catch Deborah Frances-White’s The Guilty Feminist live at Kings Place with co-host Chloe Petts, Daisy Haggard and Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah CBE. Deborah and her guests discuss their noble goals as 21st century feminists and the paradoxes and insecurities which undermine them.
[16th October, Kings Place] |
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| Thanks to: monstris, dances_with_mustelids, KS, PB, EK, RH, triflemonster, bruce_bogtrotter, mattinthehat, SK, M, SC, YNF, lucy_drawbridge, greenman, CB, A, liftthelid, MJH, L |
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Old Jokes Home
Q/ How does Satan like his pasta?
A/ Al Dante
Still Bored?
A supercut of songs stopping on the word “Stop”
[Over half an hour] |
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