Pop Buzz UK

David Beckham is currently in Australia, and training at the Olympic Stadium ahead of a friendly against Sydney FC tomorrow.

He and his L.A. Galaxy team mates today had their first training session in front of new manager Rudd Gullit, although the crowd watching the training session was a lot less than the 80,000 expected to attend the full match tomorrow.

Beckham has suffered from multiple injury woes while he’s been at L.A. galaxy, joining with an ankle injury, and seeing his first season with the team plagued by flare ups, meaning he only managed to appear 5 times for his new US soccer team.

Beckham had a kick around with local football stars n a pontoon close to the Sydney Opera House and Bridge, where he kicked footballs, rugby balls and played a bit of Australian rules football too.

He didn’t seem to show any signs of having injury troubles, although earlier in training he did seem concerned about his left ankle. Gullit was convinced Beckham would be playing all 90 minutes of the match though, and is relishing the chance to see all of his players in action for the first time.

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Michael Parkinson has been simultaneously interviewing the biggest celebrities, and delighting audiences around the world for over 30 years now, but every career has to come to an end, and Parkinson is no exception.

Earlier this year he announced, via his Radio 2 show, that he would be making this latest ITV1 series of his chat show, the last ever. So to commemorate the occasion there will be three specials to end his reign as the king of chat show hosts.

The second of the specials, to be shown on ITV1 on December 15th is the big one, as it comprises Michael Parkinson’s wish list of guests. He hand picked every person who would appear, a mixture from his many years, and people he looked up to, enjoyed interviewing, and counted as personal friends.

While filming the show, he is reported to have had to fight back tears, no surprise seeing as this seems to be Parky’s final bow in broadcasting, with him also quitting his radio show to write an autobiography and do some travelling.

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The Nintendo Wii has been an incredible success so far, selling in huge quantities, and surprising gamers, pundits and games developers alike.

The problem (not a bad one for Nintendo) is that demand continues to outstrip supply, meaning there are millions of disappointed kids and adults alike around the world who are unable to get hold of a console.

In the UK, the situation has been terrible, with Wiis in short or no supply ever since they were released last year. There was a short period during the summer when you could maybe have got one by bribing a shop to put you at the front of the waiting list, but otherwise, no chance.

This problem looks set to continue to in the run up to Christmas and beyond, with shops already displaying ‘Sold Out’ signs.

Nothing has demonstrated the demand better than the news that HMV’s flagship store in Oxford Street, London, sold out of their latest delivery in just 34 minutes.

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I’ve already written quite extensively on Pop Buzz UK about this series of The X Factor, and my view that its becoming more of a pantomime than a singing talent show.

We’ve already had Louis Walsh’ supposed firing and then being welcomed back in to the fold, and then Sharon Osbourne’s dramatic announcement that she’d be quitting the show, before being back on the show the following week. The judges truly are ruining this year’s series, by making it more about them than the contestants.

And now it has got worse, with more in the same vein. On Saturday evening, we saw Alisha Bennett get eliminated from the show after all the contestants sang disco type songs. Alisha herself sang ‘Young Hearts Run Free’, a performance which caused an argument between Simon Cowell and Sharon Osbourne over the inclusion of rollerskaters in to the performance.

Basically Simon hated the skaters, and thought they were crap, and insisted Sharon should have removed them from the show. Sharon countered that it was his show, not hers, and that she is just merely a paid hand with no jurisdiction over decisions like that.

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British supermodel Sophie Anderton has been exposed by a British newspaper as a high class prostitute and coke dealer. The News of the World set up a rendezvous with the former ‘I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here‘ reality television star, where she offered to spend the night with one of it’s reporters for £10,000, and also tried to sell them cocaine.

30 year old Anderton came to the public’s attention as a lingerie model for Gossard, and more recently, as a contestant on 2004’s I’m A Celebrity. She has since made a habit of appearing on reality TV shows, having been on ‘Celebrity Love Island’, ‘Fear Factor’, and ‘Cirque De Celebrite’.

This isn’t the first time she has been featured in the tabloid press, with multiple appearances, normally for the wrong reasons. She actually admitted to spending the night as a high class hooker once, but it seems she may now be making a habit of it.

She is also a well known cocaine addict, but as thought to have kicked the habit before entering the jungle on I’m A Celebrity last year. Clearly, from what she told the News of the World, and from the pictures they secured, she is back doing it.

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Almost two weeks ago, lanky funnyman Iain Lee left his job as a talk show host on LBC Radio, and I wrote a long post telling the story of his time there, and imploring someone to employ him sooner of later. Well, I’m delighted to tell you all that someone has, with Virgin radio giving him a show on a Sunday night.

From January 6th 2008, Iain will be hosting his own 10pm-1am show on Virgin. This is the same timeslot in which Iain used to host his Triple M straight to air experimental programme, although we don’t yet know what format the new show will take.

It also puts Iain in direct competition with former LBC colleague and friend Clive Bull, who took over the timeslot when new LBC owners Global radio decided that Iain’s face didn’t fit any more.

Iain and Clive have an interesting relationship in that Iain used to ring Clive’s show under different pseudonyms well before taking the job working alongside him.

This is the first hire by Virgin Radio programme director, David Lloyd, who was a big fan and supporter of Iain Lee when he was at LBC. He left his role as LBC managing director around two months ago to join Virgin, and has now seemingly decided to take Iain with him.

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Amy Winehouse had a bit of a difficult day yesterday. First of all she went to visit her husband Blake Fielder-Civil in Pentonville prison, where he is currently remanded in custody awaiting trial on charges of perverting the course of justice.

I wrote the full story up on Brit Music Scene, but in a nutshell, he is accused of allegedly trying to fix a trial in which he was accused of assaulting a pub landlord.

While visiting hubby, also a drug addict like Amy herself, The Sun claim she had her famous beehive haircut searched for drugs. Now this could be bullshit, but it made me giggle none the less, so I thought I’d run with it. I’ve never thought of Amy’s beehive being useful for storing things in, but thinking about it, it’s the perfect place!

I can just imagine her having her own pharmacy stored up there, and if she actually combed it, a whole barrage of drug paraphernalia would tumble out on to the ground.

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The Dr Who world moves at quite a fast pace, and I’m not even talking about when the good doctor is in his tardis travelling through time and space. So here for your pleasure is another round up of the latest Dr Who news!

David Tennant has revealed the secret of the cult show’s massive success, telling The Daily Record:

“The Doctor is unlike any other long-established character, in that you can bring your own ideas and personality to the part. In a way, you have to reset the Doctor to zero every week.”

That’s true, and as the Doctor changes, it becomes a new show each time, keeping it fresh for viewers and actors alike. That’s why I’m hopeful that the show has enough life left in it to keep going for years to come.

Talking to The Stage, Tennant also singled out Russell T Davies, the main man behind the relaunch of the show, saying:

“The standard of the writing and of the stories is extremely high. I might tweak the odd line here or there, but I’d never dream of pointing out to the writers, in that hackneyed phrase, that my character wouldn’t say this or do that. Russell [T Davies] is the best, so why play around with the best?”

High praise indeed, and again he’s correct. The Russell T Davies scripts are always of the highest quality, and the direction he’s taken the show in over the last few years has never failed to impress.

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The new series of ‘I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here’ kicks off tonight, and the line up has now been confirmed. Ten celebrities are going to be heading in to the Australian jungle and facing two weeks of pure hell, with torrential rain, camp beds, snakes and creepy crawlies.

They will also have to face the notoriously cruel Bushtucker Trials, which producers are promising will be given a higher budget and therefore be even more humiliating than normal.

The ten celebrities to sign up to the reality show are:

• Gemma Atkinson: Former Hollyoaks actress.
• Malcolm McLaren: Sex Pistols former manager.
• Rodney Marsh: Sky Sports Football pundit.
• Cerys Matthews: Former Catatonia singer.
• Janice Dickinson: 1970s supermodel.
• John Burton Race: Celebrity chef.
• Marc Bannerman: Ex Eastenders actor.
• Lynne Franks: PR guru.
• Jason ‘J’ Brown: Ex Five boy band member.
• Anna Ryder Richardson: Changing Rooms designer.

Last year’s edition of the show saw Matt Willis, ex Busted band member, walk away as the winner, but it was David Gest’s transformation from freak show to fan favourite which kept people hooked.

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The Spice Girls comeback is going very well so far, with almost all venues on their huge world tour, which I detailed here on Pop Buzz UK when it was announced at the end of June, sold out already. But they’re not getting it all their own way by any means.

The girls have recorded a new song, their comeback single, which is called ‘Headlines: Friendship Never Ends’ which is being released as part of the ‘Children In Need’ charity fund-raising event for the BBC.

It’s received mixed reviews so far, with most agreeing it isn’t exactly up to par on the girls older material, which love them or loathe them, was always ultra catchy pop. This song is more like take it or leave it pap. I reviewed it on Brit Music Scene… and was quite cutting about the video.

Now the Radio 1 playlist team have also put the boot in, deciding that the song is only good enough to be categorized as C List. This means that the song will only receive one play per day on the national BBC station.

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Robbie Williams, already one of the best paid British singers, has added another £32 million to his vast fortune, due last year’s recent world tour.

Mr Williams has been in the news a lot recently, first for upsetting American television viewers with his jokes about anal sex and drugs, and then by calling Courtney Love fugly. But this time, he’s being written about for the stupendous amount of cash he earned from last year’s massive world tour.

Williams performed 44 gigs in 14 countries over a nine month period, earning a cool £32,200,163. The profits from last year almost equalled the total he earned from the last four years.

An industry insider told The Mirror:

“People often say that Robbie is on the way out, especially after his last album Rudebox was panned by the critics. But this just proves that he’s still got what it takes to earn big money.”

But what is the true cost of performing like a monkey on stage every night for months at a time without a break? Money is obviously great, but the extensive touring and the pressures of fame have lead to Robbie suffering from a whole range of problems.

From a downward spiral in to depression, and long spells in rehab for drink and drugs abuse, it hasn’t exactly been a fun time for the former Take That singer.

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Iain Lee has been one of my favourite radio presenters for the past 2 years, ever since my brother told me I should check out his show on LBC Radio. So I was gutted to find out yesterday that he had quit LBC, and won’t be on the radio for at least a few months.

When I started listening to Mr Lee, he had an afternoon show on the station, and had a lot of freedom to experiment with the talk format, which he continually did very successfully. Most of the show would consist of a free form approach with the odd topic thrown in here and there. Although this sometimes lead to a lack of callers or the odd off show, most of the time it lead to very funny callers and classic shows which I could listen to time and again.

There was also the beauty of Triple M, a half hour segment on the weekday show, and a full show on a Sunday night, which saw Iain take calls straight to air. Even with the 7 second delay, some gems could be heard, and it was often the best part of the show.

At the end of last year, Iain was moved to an evening slot of 7pm until 10pm, for reasons which I still can’t understand, but which were explained at the time as to reach the niche audience better. Unfortunately, most of us (although not me) are doing other things between those times: watching crappy soaps like Eastenders and Coronation Street; eating dinner; putting their kids to bed, and so some callers disappeared never to ring again.

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Pete Doherty has had a video clip of him injecting heroin into a vein in his right arm published by a British tabloid newspaper. As sick as that is, it’s made even worse by the fact that he;s spent the last week claiming to be completely drug free after attending the court ordered rehabilitation sessions.

Yesterday, two stories about the Babyshambles, and former Libertines front man appeared at virtually the same time. The first was an interview which Pete had given to NME, in which he claimed to be “in mourning” for drugs. He said:

“It’s hard work. I think I miss it [drugs] a bit. After years of entrenched drug abuse, you have a mourning period. I know it’s a bit sad, but I’m in mourning. I’m in mourning for an armful.”

“”It’s quite a lengthy probation requirement and drug-testing order. It might have been better to do a couple of months and have it done with, to be honest. But that’s a bit defeatist - it’s pessimistic.

“I don’t want to go to jail, I’ve had enough of all that. But the chances of me not getting arrested once in the next 18 months are quite slim really - the way the Old Bill are.”

That’s quite sad to be in mourning for drugs isn’t it, although there was me at least thinking good on you for sticking with it, and just focussing on your music. And then The Sun newspaper published a video on their website, with stills in the newspaper itself, showing Doherty allegedly injecting a needle full of heroin in to his arm. What an idiot.

The footage was supposedly shot at his home on Friday, after he arrived back from the MTV EMAs. At the awards ceremony everyone was surprised at how genuinely nice Pete was, though now the reasoning becomes clear, he was probably chilled knowing he was a day away from getting a fix.

After the video was published, fans of Doherty slammed message boards and forums on the web claiming that the footage was old, and that he was still free of drugs. But they have been roundly shut up by Pete admitting it was him, and it was shot on Friday.

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I’ve made no secret of the fact I’m not a big Jeremy Kyle fan, as I find him one of the most obnoxious people on television. I’ll stand by my appraisal of him as Jerry Springer without the humour or class.

For those outside of the UK, or not a member of the underclass, Jeremy Kyle has a chat show, come agony aunt type programme, which wholly exists to grab the dregs of society off the streets and place them on our televisions for everyone to laugh at. Here’s a spoof clip on YouTube which should help you realise what the show is like.

Jeremy’s role in all this is as the ringmaster and master of ceremonies who conducts his prey as they admit to being a druggie, or of cheating on their partner, or if Jeremy had his way, of being the worst human being ever to have lived on Earth. He pretends he cares, but you can see in his eyes he’s just in it to provide some cheap entertainment for the masses and give himself a nice pay packet.

So I’m overjoyed this fine Monday morning to learn that his ex wife Kirsty Rowley has spoken to a Sunday newspaper and dished all the dirt on him. And it turns out our friendly Jezza is no angel himself, and is actually a “hypocritical liar”.

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The Sunday tabloids have brought another round of the Paul McCartney versus Heather Mills to the attention of the public.

After Heather Mills McCartney (oh how she must hate us still calling her that) went on television to berate McCartney over his behaviour in the divorce settlement row, he is reportedly fighting back by seeking full custody of their Beatrice.

According to the News of the World Paul has already contacted lawyers and instructed them to apply for full custody. He fears Heather is poisoning Bea’s mind against him and his family, especially his fashion designer daughter Stella.

A friend told the News of the World:

“Paul’s main concern is Bea’s safety and well-being. Going for full custody is a last resort but he’s really scared for his child. He doesn’t feel he’s got a choice now.

“And if Heather’s life is at risk, then so is Bea’s. Paul feels he just can’t take the risk any more and wants to know that his daughter is safe and well—and that means being with him.”

“Paul did plead with Heather to consider Bea before she went on these TV shows, but she ignored him. Now he’s deeply concerned their daughter is growing more aware of the public war between them.”

Paul is said to believe that Heather now needs professional help for her obviously perilous mental state. And Heather demonstrated further proof that she may indeed be finding the strain too much when she appeared on yet another television show, and again made claims against the McCartney clan.

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