ON THIS DAY
FROM THE ARCHIVE FEBRUARY 23, 1995
TOM CRUISE finally has the son he has longed for. The actor and wife Nicole Kidman brought home a baby brother for their three-year-old adopted daughter Isabella Jane last week. Connor Anthony was born on February 6. Details about his natural parents were not released.
FEBRUARY 23, 2008
GRAVEL-THROATED Ronnie Drew inspired a generation of Irish singers – and last night, they paid him back in spades. The stars turned out for cancer-hit Drew on a Late Late Show special tribute. U2, Andrea Corr, The Dubliners, Damien Dempsey, Kíla and Sinéad O’Connor performed the specially composed Ballad Of Ronnie Drew, as a tribute to the singer at the beginning of the show. After the performance, Ronnie told Pat Kenny: ‘I am speechless for the first time in my life. I am so honoured and so gratified and I don’t really think I deserve it, but I’ll take it anyway! Ever since this song has been written, my voice is getting stronger and my hair is growing back.’ All profits from the single will go to the Irish Cancer Society.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
KRISTIN DAVIS, 59. The US actress, right, made her name as ‘Park Avenue Pollyanna’ Charlotte, in TV series Sex And The City, a role she reprised for spin-off And Just Like That. She was asked to audition for lead role Carrie, but said: ‘I was like, “I can’t pull that off, I’m not that girl.’ KELLY MACDONALD, 48. The actress from Glasgow made her film debut in 1996’s Trainspotting, after answering an advert. She said: ‘I was a nervous wreck, and hid in the toilets when I wasn’t filming.’ She went on to star in Gosford Park and the last series of the BBC’s Line of Duty. Macdonald, who has two sons with her former partner, Dougie Payne, the bassist in Travis, was the voice of Princess Merida in Disney’s Brave.
BORN ON THIS DAY
TOM WESSELMANN (1931-2004). The US pop artist painted ‘curiously erotic naked women’ – which he called the Great American Nudes – and consumer products of the 1960s. He was the only leading American pop artist not to receive a New York retrospective exhibition. STEVE PRIEST (1948-2020). The English bass guitarist, right, found fame with glam rock band Sweet, who sold 50 million records in the 1970s. He was also known for his thick stage makeup, which David Bowie once suggested he tone down. ‘He just didn’t get it. It isn’t supposed to be subtle.’
ON FEBRUARY 23…
IN 2002, the Bee Gees perform for the final time at a ball in Miami, Florida, before the death of Maurice Gibb the following year. IN 2003, Daniel Day-Lewis wins a Best Actor Oscar for his role in Gangs Of New York.
WORD WIZARDRY GUESS THE DEFINITION Pessomancy (coined 1727)
A) Divination by picking a passage of poetry at random. B) Divination using fingernails. C) Divination by tossed pebbles.Answer below. PHRASE EXPLAINED As the actress said to the bishop: a reply to a perfectly innocent remark, in order to create a sexual double entendre; it was a popular RAF phrase from the 1940s though it may have derived from music halls with comedians linking the two professionals in their stories.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
Fiction is the only way to redeem the formlessness of life.
Martin Amis, English novelist (1949-2023)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHY did Henry VIII have so many wives? He liked to chop and change. Guess The Definition answer: C.