Former Empire Of The Sun (there's that JG Ballard connection again) child star and current scary method acting obsessive Christian Bale, and former SAS commando and current elephant shit-eating comfy hotel bed-occupying twig-whittling faux-survivalist Bear Grylls. Bale left and Bear right, as my co-pilot screamed at me over Dresden only the other day.
The inimitable Aerial Telly has a good piece on Bear's latest Discovery Channel series Man vs. Room Service, oops, I mean Man Vs. Wild. As well as a slightly more deranged piece about the latest in the Brangelina saga that fascinates us all so much. Oh, come on, yes it does.
Also in the news: plans afoot for a film based on the life story and Olympic exploits of our very own Eddie "The Eagle" Edwards. You want a nutshell-sized explanation for Britain's lack of sporting success, not just in the Olympic arena, but across the whole gamut of other sports, compared to other nations with a much smaller base of sportspeople to select from like, say, Australia? Yes, lack of facilities and investment, of course. But I also offer you this story as a crystallisation of what's wong with our attitude to sport: the idea that it's a bit vulgar to try to win anything, that you should take it on the chin and not show how gutted you are when you lose, and most of all that the frankly embarrassing exploits of some gurning simpleton whose claim to sporting fame is coming LAST in two Olympic events is in some way cause for celebration. You think this film would have been made in Australia? Don Bradman, Cathy Freeman, Jack Brabham, well, maybe, but if their system had thown up an Eddie The Eagle he would quietly have been forgotten and never spoken of again. A lesson we should learn, and pronto.
3 comments:
Of course, had he actually won anything, we'd probably have dragged up every bit of dirt about his life that we could find and splashed it all over the tabloids. With pictures.
Instead, we [and I use the term 'we' very loosely] applaud his ridiculous efforts. And some people even get them to narrate their talking books.
As for him taking it on the chin - he's got plenty to aim at. The gimp.
Seriously? In that case you'd think she might have mentioned it on the shopping page as a selling point - not that it is one, to me, but then again I wasn't going to be buying the merchandise anyway.
And I don't think those are her pants you can see on the "about" page. She's given herself a really painful-looking wedgie if they are.
Yep seriously. If you look very closely at the bottom picture, you can see a Skiing Gimboid on the rear cover.
You have been looking disturbingly closely at those pictures ...
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