The Official Newscorp/UK end of season finale/Rebekah Brooks did 9/11 thread

Technically would only be a Jr if named Rupert like their pappy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suffix_(name)#Generational_titles

i hope people realise that every time people compare these deathbots to loveable plutocrat Monty Burns they are a) unnecessarily humanising them and b) wanking up a dead elm

Actually I did know that, duh. Major and Minor are elder and younger bros though rite? If there's a third, is he Minimus?

Louise Mensch (left) is the Tory MP who accused CNN talk show host Piers Morgan of admitting to phone hacking during his time as editor of the Daily Mirror in his autobiography during last week's culture committee hearings. He furiously denied this and the relevant passages of the book do not back her up.

Now Mensch – who writes chick-lit novels under her maiden name Louise Bagshawe – has been accused of relatively minor incidents of impropriety during her years working for EMI in the 1990s, and has hit back by publishing both the allegations and her own responses and denials.

A self-described investigative journalist called David Jones accused Mensch of the following:

• Taking drugs in the company of violinist Nigel Kennedy at Ronnie Scott's in Birmingham "including dancing on a dance floor, whilst drunk, with Mr Kennedy, in front of journalists".

• Writing a novel "of a sexual nature" on her EMI work computer during working hours, leading to EMI terminating her employment.

• In the resulting novel, basing a character on her line manager Roger Lewis, and making "derogatory references" to this character.

Mensch sent out the following replies:

1. Although I do not remember the specific incident, this sounds highly probable. I thoroughly enjoyed working with Nigel Kennedy, whom I remember with affection. Additionally, since I was in my twenties, I'm sure it was not the only incident of the kind; we all do idiotic things when young. I am not a very good dancer and must apologise to any and all journalists who were forced to watch me dance that night at Ronnie Scott's.

2. Writing the first few chapters of Career Girls on my EMI computer is quite correct. However, it was all done after work hours. It was also not why I was fired by EMI. "Leaving work early" and "missing the odd day at work" along with "inappropriate dress" were the reasons quoted to me.

3. Career Girls was my first novel. I used the names of many real people I knew for minor characters, such as journalists, chauffeurs, bankers, and so forth. Roger Lewis was probably amongst them, as were (off the top of my head) Therese Coffey MP, now my colleague on the Select Committee, Jeremy Quin, Damian Hinds MP, Maurice Oberstein, Rod Clayton, James Robertson, and many more. None of them have ever complained about my using their names in this way.

She adds: "Most importantly, I have not the slightest intention of being deterred from asking how far the culture of hacking and blagging extended in Fleet Street."

Mensch embarrassed herself with her accusations against Morgan at the culture committee hearings, which were not correct, and which she would not repeat outside parliament, where she has immunity from libel law. But in my opinion she has reacted straightforwardly and admirably to this attempt to drag her name into the mud via these minor allegations. The only one of any degree of seriousness is the accusation and admission of taking drugs, although since many much more senior politicians than Mensch have admitted various kinds of drug taking in recent years this is unlikely to make any waves. And the mentions of dancing, writing a novel "of a sexual nature" during work time and making derogatory references about a character based on someone she once worked with are so irrelevant they are laughable.

This is an excellent level of superfluous background detail for those of us who haven't really been following the Mensch subplot.

Well done the Guardian.

Not the Peter Sellers and Anthony Burgess biographer Roger Lewis shurely?

"i mean, something historical would have been fine, louise - but this novel is of a sexual nature"

if there was chick lit of a sexual nature i'd be reading more of it

I honestly don't think they could fit many more nudge-nudge-wink-wink phrases in there if they tried.

anybody who's been to ronnie scott's with nigel kennedy has probly suffered enough

Well done on the hypocrisy front, The Guardian, for continuing to flog Bagshawe with that "OMG, writes chick lit" snideness in the news section, while expressly spelling out exactly how sexist and demeaning that label actually is buried away in the gender section, three drill-down clicks down in the "life and style" section. Yeah, you're damn right that sticks in the throat.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jul/21/sneering-chick-lit-female-authors if I mucked up the tags on that link.

totally agree but don't a bunch of these authors play the game a fair bit?

and it's right to say that there's been some fucking horrible hornby-esque "lad lit" or "sensitive can't write for shit doe-eyed geezer" lit that targets its own set of stereotypes. sure don't get snobby about genre fiction but please nobody try and pull a "shopaholic writer is the 21st century jane austen" puhleese?

Will be interesting to see who the investigator turns out to have been working for. It's clearly going to backfire hugely, if it can be linked to any of the participants in the hacking affair directly.

I'm amazed at the leniency of the fines they've received in the Christopher Jeffries case. I would have liked to see a couple of people doing jail time for that as well.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jul/29/sun-daily-mirror-guilty-contempt

Career Girls (1995)
The Movie (1996)
Tall Poppies (1997)
Venus Envy (1998)
A Kept Woman (2000)
When She Was Bad... (2001)
The Devil You Know (2003)
Monday's Child (2004)
Tuesday's Child (2005)
Sparkles (2006)
Glamour (2007)
Glitz (2008)
Passion (2009)
Desire (2010)
Destiny (2011)

In fairness looking at these titles I'm not exactly expecting Virginia Woolf here.

Monday's Child (2004)
Tuesday's Child (2005)

well?

Actually the last six were the names of her children.

Shallow writing is shallow writing whether it's "Career Girls" or "Spies and Guns Shoot Em Up" but it is completely sexist to imply, as that "chick lit" label does, that it's the gender of the writer and *perceived* consumers that inherently causes the shallow.

But whatever. This is not the thread.

It's more the fact that even despite writers IN THEIR OWN NEWSPAPER pointing out that actually, this is kind of a sexist term, they just go on sniding about it. Really fucking hate that about the Guardian. Just bury "womens concerns" like, you know, gender and sexism down there in Life and Style, under the shoes and sherbet receipes, where no one ever has to, you know, pay attention to it. Like "chick lit".

shd start a spin-off?

and y'know, consistency and no middlebrow snob bullshit in the Graun? come on

I dunno, the vast majority of novels these days are marketing primarily at women, we're talking about more than "novels by female writers marketed at women" otherwise we'd be writing off Lorrie Moore or Isabel Allende or whoever as chick-lit.

I am suddenly sad that Andy McNabb has not yet pursued a career as a Tory MP though.

no i do think there's something in the "fact?" (in my head) that no chick lit author will ever be given the critical respect that some of the guns and spys and boys own adventure authors are given by the broadsheets

including dancing on a dance floor, whilst drunk

:D

Are boys own adventure types treated more seriously when they try to enter the political sphere? Jeffrey Archer and Ken Follett would suggest that they're not, though that doesn't stop the underlying point from being valid. xp

if i was her i'd be embarrassed that my life was so squeaky clean that "dancing on a dance floor" is apparently one of the three most scandalous events in my life

A self-described investigative journalist called David Jones

haha this is great

Yeah that's true although I tend to think that most Sunday Times or Telegraph readers/cultural journalists are basically Mark Corrigan and therefore not to be trusted.

I think "dancing on a dance floor" is lacking the implied "having taken a big bag of cocaine".

"Leaving work early" and "missing the odd day at work" along with "inappropriate dress" were the reasons quoted to me.

i think this is the best bit of her responses, anyhow

^^^^^People get fired from record companies for any of these reasons? News to me, frankly...

I think she's implying these were spurious excuses given for her sacking?

Mensch and Watson are showing every sign of loving every single minute of this anyway. Can't blame them.

Sparkles (2006)
Glamour (2007)
Glitz (2008)

imagining marih carey pitching a hissy fit on the publication of each of these. "that was gonna be MY next album title"

I'm assuming the Weekday's Child series was discontinued on the advice of Will Young's lawyers.

I'm honestly interested in picking up one of those titles based on her conduct the last month.

A self-described investigative journalist called David Jones accused Mensch of ... taking drugs in the company of violinist Nigel Kennedy at Ronnie Scott's in Birmingham "including dancing on a dance floor, whilst drunk, with Mr Kennedy, in front of journalists".

That 'including....' part is very strangely worded. It makes it sound as if 'dancing on....etc, etc.... journalists' is a type of drug which she took. Even ignoring that, it makes it sound like being drunk is an example of the drugs she took. And even if it was worded correctly, accusing someone of dancing (on a dancefloor!) (while drunk!!) seems incredibly lame.

assume "drunk" was a cop-out meaning "ripped to the tits on Bolivian disco talc"

Yeah come on this is NIGEL KENNEDY we're talking about.

can't imagine how many hallucinogens you'd have to neck to find him tolerable company

Oh come on this is a TORY MP we're talking about.

i mean maybe he is a secret massive Varèse enthusiast but i'm thinking no

she's a quite hot Tory MP tbf and in these circumstances the Tory MP bit sort of adds to the hotness for some of us pervs

Maybe it was during her Labour year.

nigel kennedy a legendary caner, TRUFACT

True. Thinking this would be in The Brix Smth Years as well...

After leaving The Fall and disbanding The Adult Net, Brix... became romantically-involved with violinist Nigel Kennedy, and they collaborated on a cover of Donovan's "Hurdy Gurdy Man" which was released as a single in 1993

Boy do I wish that was on youtube.

Hmmm:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2011/07/news-corp-tells-new-york-post-to-save-documents-hacking.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/cartoon/2011/jul/30/josie-longs-alternative-universe#zoomed-picture

that raises a lot of questions about the guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/aug/02/phone-hacking-scandal-new-arrest

^ here we go again