The Daily Tonic: All About That Third Base

This look back over the last 20 years of Popbitch was something we started doing in the weekly edition at the start of the year – planning to recap a year a week in the lead up to our 1,000th issue this August – but the whole thing ended up getting derailed by Covid.

So we’re going to start again, doing it in daily emails with brand new audio quizzes to go alongside them instead. Plus, we’ll chuck in a couple of other bits and bobs that we missed first time around too.

If you have any favourite stories or titbits you remember from the early days (either the newsletter or the messageboard) let us know and we’ll dig up whatever we’re legally allowed to: hello@popbitch.com

Celebrity virginity was a big staple of showbiz news in 2000, mainly thanks to Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake’s relationship. Britney was insistent she was saving herself for marriage. Justin was… less so.

Having done his time as a clean-cut, angel-faced Mouseketeer in the 90s, JT was trying valiantly to carve out a harder playboy image for himself at the turn of the century. So when he was once asked whether Britney really was a virgin, Justin’s charming reply?

“Shit, I dunno. I know her mouth ain’t.”

anon writes:
“After the first Big Brother wrapped, Channel 4 Books brought out the official Big Brother book. My mum worked at the parent publishing company and she took me to the launch party.

“It was at Piccadilly Waterstones and I had a great time chatting to Nasty Nick, Caroline, Nichola, Anna, etc, and particularly Andy, who I thought was quite fit. We were having a nice and quite flirtatious conversation. Then someone came up to say my mum was looking for me. Andy looked surprised, then a bit concerned, and said ‘Hang on, how old are you?’

“I was twelve. He bolted immediately.”

Marilyn Manson was the big cultural bogeyman of 2000, after a series of incidents in which his music was linked to violent and deadly outbursts from troubled teens. It was such a touchy time that even his choice of stage name upset some.

An American pressure group called Mothers For Morals condemned Marilyn, saying “We think it is disgusting that he should use his name to glorify one of the most lewd and indecent actresses of our time, Marilyn Monroe, who shamelessly encouraged mass promiscuity. Why could he not celebrate one of America’s more wholesome screen actresses? Doris Day, for instance?”

Luckily they didn’t seem to have such a problem with the “Manson” part of Marilyn Manson’s name: a tribute to arch-weirdo murderer Charles Manson.

You were no-one in 2000 if you weren’t in a rapper’s entourage, but it was a strange old life. There were plenty of highs (free food, loads of parties, access to any leftover ladies) but there were also some serious lows.

When Snoop Dogg’s bus was boarded by police just outside San Diego, unsurprisingly, they got a whiff of marijuana. After a quick search, sure enough, a 30g bag turned up. Straight away, a Snoop “associate” stood up to claim that it was his and he was duly charged with possession – letting the big Dogg go free.

P Diddy (or Puff Daddy as he was back them) went to more extreme lengths to get his men onside. He tried to bribe his chauffeur to take a firearms rap for him by offering him a diamond ring that was a present from J-Lo.

* Tony Mortimer from East 17 was a pallbearer at Reggie Kray’s funeral. The pair met in 1998 after Kray said he liked Mortimer’s music.

* Catherine Zeta Jones broke into showbusiness as a teenage Shirley Bassey impersonator. Her dad used to drive her around the working men’s clubs to perform.

* Cliff Richard sent every priest in Germany a copy of Millennium Prayer.

* Mandy Moore’s great-uncle is Ian Lavender (aka Pike from Dad’s Army).

* Before he became a huge primetime star, Dermot O’Leary used to keep a piece of paper under his pillow telling him how great he is.

* After thanking his family when accepting his Golden Globe in 2000, Phil Collins barked “Woof woof!” for his dog Jack back home. (Sadly, Jack missed the shout-out because the awards were not televised in Switzerland.)

* Freddie Prinze Jr had makeup artists to paint fake muscles on his chest for shirtless scenes in She’s All That.

The format of these audio quizzes is the same as before, except this time they’re themed by year. Each song you’ll hear in this audio round was a top ten hit in the UK in the year 2000.

You get a point for naming the artist responsible and another point for the song title. Some are still big radio hits today, some will require you to cast your mind back to the time.

[Play it here]

Crap jokes on stock images
[PunHub]

Animated visual graphic of America’s most searched Google terms every day in the last decade
[Watch on YouTube]