This talented Finnish Formula One champion is not known for being the most forthcoming interviewee but is the fifth highest paid sportsman in the world with an estimated salary of around £31 million per year. When asked: “How does it feel to drive at 300 km/h?”, Räikkönen responded: “It feels normal”. Of what makes him angry, he told a reporter: “If you keep asking questions like those”. Asked why he didn’t bother to watch a ceremony where Michael Schumacher received a lifetime achievement award on live TV, Räikkönen commented: “I was having a shit”. He believes “Formula One would be a paradise without the media”.
Tag: reporter
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Kimi Räikkönen
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Wally of the Week: Tori Campbell
News presenter Tori Campbell falls for fake names hoax
A reporter who incorrectly named the crew of a plane that crashed in San Francisco as Sum Ting Wong, Wi Tu Lo, Ho Lee Fuk and Bang Ding Ow had to be our Wally of the Week. (more…)
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Alan Whicker CBE (1925 – 2013)
Where will the world be without Whicker’s World? The answer: “A hell of a lot poorer”. Born in Egypt, this “broadcasting genius” shot footage of the body of Benito Mussolini during the Second World War before beginning a career interviewing the likes of John Paul Getty, the Sultan of Brunei, ‘Papa Doc’ Duvalier and Peter Sellers. A jokey rap, delivered in his style and calld the Wikka Wrap, made the top 20 in 1981 and of an encounter with a television executive at an awards dinner once commented: “She was livid, and said, ‘You’re a fucking icon’ – which struck me as an excellent title for my next book”. -
Like father, like son
Proof that Prince Harry is Prince Charles’ son
It’s done the rounds for years. It’s a rumour that has failed to have been quashed and newspaper reporters have even tried to snatch pieces of his hair to test his DNA in their quest to prove it. This week, however, a photograph of Prince Harry convincingly proves that he’s the son of Prince Charles.
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David Patrick Columbia
This gentleman giant is the editor-in-chief of Quest magazine and the founder of the New York Social Diary. A revered social chronicler, “DPC” as he is widely known, previously collaborated with Debbie Reynolds on her autobiography and has also variously been an actor and stockbroker. He is seen at all of New York’s best events and amongst his favoured lunching spots are Michael’s and Swifty’s. Of dinner parties, DPC states: “You really never know who you will get as a dinner partner. It is a roll of the dice. I look forward to meeting different people from all walks of life — that is what makes life interesting”. -
Kathy Clugston
Belfast born Clugston is known as “The Posh Radio 4 Lady” or “The PR4L” and is BBC Radio 4’s continuity announcer. This witty lady’s voice is familiar to millions as a result of this but she’s also the female Irish voice for TomTom satellite navigation systems and the creator of the “Radio4minus1letter” Twitter based game. In her spare time, she plays the ukulele. -
A monstrous murder in Mayfair
Matthew Steeples offers offers a tribute to the late Robert Troyan
I first met the larger than life Bostonian character Robert Troyan (1950 – 2013) with his partner Anthony Feldman in the early 2000s at their impressive apartment in Mayfair. Though I did not come to know them well, I fondly recall a number of evenings that they hosted there planning an event for a charity we were all involved in named Marine Conservation and several dinner parties.
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Barbara Walters
This dynamic American television personality and author was one of the first women to work in “hard news” and is best known for having hosted the Today show, the ABC Evening News, The View and 20/20. She grew up “in awe” of the famous people her father, a Broadway producer and nightclub owner, introduced her to, has been married four times to three different men and got chicken pox after ‘kissing’ actor Frank Langella at a New Year’s Eve party in Miami in 2012. Walters has interviewed everyone from Fidel Castro to Michael Jackson, but her March 1999 feature on Monica Lewinsky, watched by a record 74 million viewers, is indeed one for the history books. When she asked her subject: “What will you tell your children when you have them?”, Lewinsky replied: “Mommy made a big mistake”. At that point, Walters ended the show by stating: “And that is the understatement of the year”. -
The Woman Who’ll Make Politicians Jealous
Jilly Cooper’s state of the nation style summary strikes chords with Matthew Steeples
Best-selling bonkbuster author Jilly Cooper might be best known for novels such as Riders and Jump! but in the 1980s and 90s she was equally lauded as “one of the Conservative Party’s most ardent supporters.”
Jilly Cooper Cooper, born in 1937, showed she still has a grip on the nation’s pulse yesterday when she declared that the Conservative Party is “full of terrible people now” to The Spectator’s “Steerpike.”
Separately, in a comment to The Telegraph’s “Mandrake,” Mrs Cooper shared her thoughts on Pippa Middleton’s first book, Celebrate:
“[It] wasn’t a good idea. I don’t blame her – I think that she was ill-advised… All I can say is that I hope the British don’t demonise her because of it. She seems a lovely girl and her sister is wonderful.”
Ever the diplomat, Jilly Cooper, in these comments, shows herself as a truly brilliant wordsmith. She has tact and decency but at the same time doesn’t hold back when it comes to honesty.
Nigel Farage should put in a call. Mrs Cooper could be just the asset UKIP needs to transform them from a “bunch of loons” to electability.
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Kay Burley
Lancastrian Sky News anchor Kay Burley is the longest serving female newsreader on British television. (more…)