PRINCE William may have won over a legion of female fans, but his status as the teenagers’ undisputed heart-throb at St Andrews University is now under threat from the arrival of a 20-year-old American actor.
According to the Mail on Sunday, Jonathan Taylor Thomas, the star of long-running sitcom Home Improvement, is due to study at the campus this year.
Thomas has appeared in Ally McBeal and was allegedly at the centre of a spat for his affections between singers Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera.
The newspaper adds that some say Thomas and the prince look remarkably alike.
Goodbye boys
GOSSARD, the lingerie firm whose advertisements incensed feminists by inviting women to “find their G-spots”, has split with its latest advertising agency after just nine months – saying its ideas are sexist. A report carried by the Independent on Sunday said directors of the underwear giant have axed TBWA, run by Trevor Beattie, because they are tired of advertisers targeting their campaigns at men instead of women, although eight years ago Mr Beattie brought out the successful “Hello Boys” Wonderbra adverts for Playtex.
Vinyl returns
FORGET compact discs, mini-discs and MP3 player. The humble vinyl record, once thought to be heading to the dustbin of history, is staging a remarkable comeback. The Sunday Telegraph reports that they have enjoyed their best chart run for nearly a decade.
Last year, more than two million albums and eight million singles were sold – almost double the figures for five years ago – according to the British Phonographic Institute.
The increase in sales has prompted many acts, including Madonna, U2 and Kylie Minogue, to return to a format they had forgotten. Last year, more than 4,000 singles were released on vinyl – twice as many as on CD.
Bar-L Gaddafi
IT SOUNDS improbable, but Colonel Gaddafi is planning a secret visit to the Lockerbie bomber in Barlinnie Prison, Glasgow, according to the Sunday Mail. He wants to visit Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, who was jailed for life for the bombing of Pan Am 103 in 1988. “The Libyan leader has ordered his officials to begin confidential discussions with British diplomats to win approval for an astonishing trip to Scotland,” the paper reports.
The request comes after the successful visit to the jail by Nelson Mandela, but terrorism experts are warning the government that Gaddafi would use the opportunity as a propaganda coup.
Civil war spat
Black Rod may have given Tony Blair a bloody nose in a battle over arrangements for the Queen Mother’s lying-in-state, but a group of Labour MPs are looking for revenge. According to the Sunday Times, the parliamentarians want to mark the Queen’s Jubilee by screening at the Palace of Westminster the première of an epic film about the English civil war and the execution of Charles I.
The film, To Kill a King, which stars Rupert Everett as Charles I and Tim Roth as Oliver Cromwell, includes a scene of the king’s beheading. Black Rod, Lieutenant-General Sir Michael Willcocks, is expected to mount fierce resistance to the idea.
Court short?
MORE than a penny has been spent on new luxury ladies lavatories at Wimbledon, according to the Mail on Sunday. The £1 million Centre Court refurbishment included a £40,000 suite of luxury women’s lavatories exclusively for royal ladies.
“Women are firmly segregated into ‘Ladies’ and ‘Royal Ladies’. Two Royal Marines keep a close eye on the door should any lady without an HRH to her name attempt to slip through to avail herself of the marble fittings and huge displays of flowers in the Wimbledon colours of green and purple.”
The only drawback is that there were no senior female royals at the championships, meaning that the likes of Princess Michael of Kent, known as Princess Pushy, took advantage of the bespoke facilities instead.
Source: The Scotsman
Author: Edward Black