An image of John Kerry dining with Bashar al-Assad in February 2009 surfaces
John Kerry is a man who should be more careful about who he gets snapped with. As Chamberlain learnt to his peril after visiting Hitler in 1938, it is best not to consort with tyrannical leaders and it is better still not to be photographed with them. (more…)
Portland, Oregon born Cassidy is best known for his role as Zach Stevens in The O.C. He has subsequently appeared in Smallville, Hidden Palms, Argo and Scandal and is one of the main characters in Men at Work. If Cassidy weren’t an actor, he’d like to have been a novelist or professional tennis player and of how he started his career, he once commented: “Move to Los Angeles and cash in on your looks or move to New York and get real training”.
Born in 1992, this Russian youngster launched a fashion brand in 2008 and currently has around 300 stores in “a few countries”. Plastinina’s father, a dairy tycoon, once paid Paris Hilton $2 million to attend one of the “teen millionaire’s” launches but her PR strategy hasn’t been exactly great. Of her designs, the Los Angeles Times had a one word description: “Ugly” and as a result the brand filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy protection in 2009. She relaunched in 2013 with another brand named Lublu – Russian for “I love you” – in Dallas and claims that this time she’s got “more insight and [will] be more strategic and focused”. Perhaps a few more hours in the classroom are required yet.
British born, American raised, Miller rose to fame in the Fox Network series Prison Break. A Princeton graduate, the actor turned screenwriter used the pseudonym Ted Foulke to write Stoker and Uncle Charlie and came out as gay in August 2013 in a letter posted on GLAAD’s website where he declined to attend a film festival in Russia on the basis of the country’s treatment of homosexuals. In his letter he boldly stated: “I cannot in good conscience participate in a celebratory occasion hosted by a country where people like myself are being systematically denied their basic right to live and love openly”.
Anthony Marshall attempts to get out of jail
Anthony Marshall is a man who plainly refuses to give up. Finally jailed in June this year following his 2009 conviction for stealing tens of millions from his famous heiress mother, Marshall has put in a cynically planned bid to get out of jail on the basis of being too sick to serve his sentence. (more…)
The United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom was appointed in August 2013 and is a descendant of John Winthrop, an early 17th century governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Married to the heiress to the Jack Daniels whiskey empire, Barzun was a fundraiser for Obama’s 2008 campaign and head of strategic planning for Halsey Minor’s CNET. Of the “special relationship”, this Harvard graduate has stated: “This isn’t some Downton Abbey episode”. We’ll most definitely be watching.
This Italian fashion duo founded their Dolce & Gabbana brand in 1985 and variously have been an on-off couple in the time since. Sentenced to 20 months in jail each in Milan in June 2013 for tax evasion, they closed nine of their stores and papered the windows with signs declaring: “CLOSED FOR INDIGNATION”. Their estimated worth still stands at £1.3 billion each nonetheless and an appeal is pending. When asked if he’d like to dress the Obamas in 2009, Dolce replied: “We don’t do politics”. They may, now, have changed their minds.
Vladimir Lavrentiev reports on the flaws in the reporting of ‘economic growth’
The British press used to unanimously spout the story of a ‘double dip recession’ and now they are attempting to put the agenda of economic growth into the headlines. (more…)
Sara[h] Al Amoudi: a supposed ‘Saudi princess’ who has a history with the British court faces two property investors who claim she duped them into handing her £14 million worth of properties in Central London
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: “Where there’s brass, there’s muck”. (more…)
