Cranford to return for Christmas special & other: June 2008

Friday 27 June 2008

Jon Mark and David Anthony Clark

Artist: Jon Mark and David Anthony Clark

   Genre(s):
Folk

Discography:

The Leaving Of Ireland

Year:
Tracks: 12

Jennifer Aniston And John Mayer Double Date

Thursday 19 June 2008

Actor apologises for calling soldiers 'wimps'

Actor Rupert Everett has apologised for calling British soldiers "wimps" and suggesting they joined the army to torture prisoners.

The 49-year-old yesterday issued a lengthy statement apologising "without reserve" to the "many in this country, and hundreds and thousands of others across the world who have lost their brothers and sisters,
their fathers and mothers to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and all the countless others," Britain's Telegraph newspaper reported today.

The apology came after he said during an interview to promote his new film The Victorian Sex Explorer - in which he plays the renowned explorer Sir Richard Burton: "In Burton's day they were itching to get into the fray.

"Now it is the opposite. They are always whining about the dangers of being killed. Oh my God, they are such wimps now!

"The whole point of being in the Army is wanting to get killed, wanting to test yourself to the limits," he said in the interview published in The Sunday Telegraph.

"Now you have to fly 15,000ft above the war zone to avoid getting hit. I don't think there is any point in having wars if that's how you're going to behave. It's pathetic. All this whining!

"The whole point of being in the Army is going to war and getting yourself blown up. That and p***ing on prisoners. Yet we all get shocked by Abu Ghraib."

In his apology, he explained he made his remarks to compare war now to war in Victorian times, saying: "I compared his longing to get into battle to the way we engage in war today. Then death was glorious.
Today it is what it really is. Each and every death is a terrible tragic loss."

He said the point he was making was that while in Burton's day war was portrayed as "romantic or exciting", it actually "creates terrible suffering everywhere, and today we go into it with our eyes open,"
The Telegraph report said.

See Also

Saturday 14 June 2008

Ed McMahon fighting foreclosure on his Beverly Hills home

LOS ANGELES - Ed McMahon, who for decades appeared as Johnny Carson's sidekick on "The Tonight Show," is fighting to avoid foreclosure on his multimillion-dollar Beverly Hills home, according to published reports.

The former "Star Search" host was $644,000 behind on payments on $4.8 million in mortgage loans when a unit of Countrywide Financial Corp. filed a default notice Feb. 28 with the Los Angeles County Recorder's Office, The Wall Street Journal first reported late Tuesday.

McMahon, 85, has been unable to work as a pitchman for various products since he broke his neck 18 months ago, said his spokesman, Howard Bragman.

"There are plenty of people affected by the weak economy, bad housing market or bad health," Bragman said.

McMahon has been in "very fruitful discussions" with the lender to resolve the situation, Bragman said. But it's unclear whether McMahon and his wife, Pamela, will remain in the home.

A spokesman for Countrywide declined comment to the Los Angeles Times.

The six-bedroom, five-bath house is in a hilltop gated community overlooking Mulholland Drive called The Summit and is listed for sale at $6.25 million. It has been on the market two years, according to real estate agent Alex Davis, who has the listing.

The house is near that of pop star Britney Spears, which doesn't always work in its favour.

"When we were trying to sell the house one time, there were about 100 paparazzi there," Davis said.