David Bowie, the man who made it normal to be weird, still has the ability to shock 30 years after his heyday February 27, 2013 ON 8 January this year, David Bowie marked his 66th birthday with a surprise new single. Silently uploaded onto the internet in the middle of the night, Where Are We Now? was released with no accompanying fanfare. There was no publicity campaign and no one saw it coming. The quietness that characterised its arrival was [...]
Booker and Oscar marriage is on the rocks February 27, 2013 IN THE 90s, Oscar couldn’t get enough of Booker. The English Patient, Schindler’s List and The Remains of the Day all proved irresistible to both Booker Prize juries and voters of the Academy Awards Since then though, the marriage of literary merit and Hollywood emotion hasn’t been quite so harmonious. Stuck in development hell for [...]
An inside look at the Cheney and Rummy show February 27, 2013 MICHAEL MOORE has a lot to answer for. His success has precipitated a flurry of documentary polemics. Right wing commentator Dinesh D’Souza’s 2016: Obama’s America was a huge hit with Fox News fans (including Fox’s owner, Rupert Murdoch). Using bombastic rhetoric and questionable scholarship, it aimed to show the “roots of Obama’s rage”, creating what [...]
Match made in Heaven February 27, 2013 MICHAEL WINTERBOTTOM is Britain’s most intriguing film- maker. Averaging a movie a year, he’s made a sci-fi love story (Code 46), one the most sexually explicit mainstream films ever released (9 Songs) and a trio of increasingly loose adaptations of Thomas Hardy novels. And when Hardy doesn’t inspire, he’s got Steve Coogan. The pair have [...]
From teen movie star to high art to Disney prince: the mad world of James Franco February 27, 2013 NORMAL PEOPLE don’t have “projects”. Normal people have jobs, social lives and hobbies; things they do for a living and things they do for fun. Projects fill the twilight of illustrious careers – they’re what successful people do when they’re bored with success. James Franco is famous for his projects. Since his career took off [...]
Time to take drastic action to reboot Britain’s feeble economy February 19, 2013 So what, exactly, could the chancellor do to boost growth? He is, of course, hamstrung by two conflicting realities: the fact that the budget deficit remains huge, and may even increase this year, as well as by the realities of coalition politics. But unless he changes course, and is willing to take a major risk, [...]
Rent prompts office moves February 19, 2013 LONDON’S escalating rents are forcing two-thirds of businesses to consider moving offices, a new study seen by CityAM has found. A OnePoll survey commissioned by outsourcing specialist Capital Capture found that 63 per cent of firms in the finance, IT, legal and insurance industries have considered moving, with over half blaming property-relating costs. Nearly [...]
Investor backs Bumi as battle reaches climax February 19, 2013 BUMI yesterday inched closer towards defeating Nat Rothschild at the long-awaited boardroom battle tomorrow, as institutional share-holder Standard Life Investments spoke out in favour of the board. Standard Life Investments, which owns 2.17 per cent of the share capital of Bumi, said it would vote against co-founder Rothschild’s board proposals at the meeting. He has [...]
Einhorn could win Apple suit February 19, 2013 A US judge said yesterday that David Einhorn’s hedge fund had shown a “likelihood of success” if his legal attack against Apple goes forward, though he made no immediate ruling on whether to block next week’s shareholder vote on a proxy proposal. Einhorn wants to stop a vote on one of Apple’s shareholder proposals, which [...]
Spanish builder goes bankrupt February 19, 2013 SPANISH real estate company Reyal Urbis filed for insolvency yesterday after failing to renegotiate debt with its creditors, the latest victim of Spain’s property market crash. The move takes the property developer closer to becoming Spain’s second-largest bankruptcy after Martinsa Fadesa, which defaulted in 2008. Dozens of property companies have collapsed in Spain, where house [...]
