The Ex Factor
He's been the linchpin of top-rating TV for a decade, but we still know little about Cowell the man. This book doesn't help much"Rosebud," croaks Charles Foster Kane with his dying breath, the mysterious utterance symbolic of what drives Orson Welles's...
Did Solange take the pee out of The Great Gatsby?
The singer claims to have made use of a copy of F Scott Fitzgerald's novel when caught short in the desertTo Texas, and another chapter in the storied evolution of the Great American Novel. "True story," tweets the singer Solange Knowles. "Out of gas. ...
Nice camel, Wayne, but what about the autobiography?
Wayne and Coleen Rooney can party with a camel, but not even that can make us forget that the footballer owes us several instalments of his much-touted multi-volume biographyTo Cheshire, last weekend, where a camel was spotted being led into the compou...
Why Demi Moore’s latest role could be her funniest yet
The news that Demi Moore is to play pioneering feminist Gloria Steinem is another hilarious example of miscastingPeople will tell you Hollywood has run out of ideas, but in the area of casting it constantly innovates. How else to greet the news that De...
Phone-hacking inquiry: the rebel army has yet to press-gang Primetime Celeb | Marina Hyde
While some testify at the Leveson inquiry, not all stars will be ready to give up their dysfunctional media relationshipsIf all the suspected celebrity victims of phone hacking were laid end to end, they'd reach from Wapping to somewhere with a more pl...
Gordon Brown, the baited bear who won’t bite back | Marina Hyde
The silence of a man who is suffering death by memoir is still much more intriguing than the speech of his successorsIs there a louder silence in politics than that of Gordon Brown, prime minister of Great Britain between 2007 and 2010? At times he is ...
Celebrities don’t read books
The pleasures of reading elude some of our biggest names – from Jamie Oliver to, erm, Davinia TaylorMindful of its responsibilities to put something back, Lost in Showbiz is toying with the idea of launching a telethon for celebrity aliteracy. Are yo...
Orwell may yet survive Elton John’s high-kicking pig chorus | Marina Hyde
Elton John's West End musical of Animal Farm could be the biggest thing for the dystopian satire since the CIAThere are headlines that force the reader to check the date. And then there is this week's "Elton John working on Animal Farm musical", which ...
Trudie and Tesco: truly a marriage made in heaven
Just what convinced Ms Styler to work with Britain's biggest supermarket?
More cultural riches, now, as Lost in Showbiz salutes the first 2010 showing for one of our most beloved characters. She is, of course, Dame Trudie Styler – actor, film producer, environmentalist, and commander of a Swat entourage...
Grant Mitchell: the novel, by Ross Kemp
Hot on the heels of Martine McCutcheon, Ross Kemp is to publish a novel, reports a delighted Marina Hyde
Sensational news. Not four months after his erstwhile screen wife Martine McCutcheon published her debut novel, The Mistress, Ross Kemp is to follow suit. It is announced that he...
Clarkson is a rebel with a cause. That cause is Jeremy | Marina Hyde