Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Don’t play with your food Monday
Prince Charles chatting to his plants is so last century.
Now, if you really want to be famous and eccentric, you have to make friends with your food.
Yep, chef Heston Blumenthal admitted he’s been chatting away to his rice – because it tastes better if he compliments it.
Uh-huh.
And this isn’t just a random theory, either.
Heston has one jar of rice he showers with compliments every morning, one he insults and one he ignores.
Apparently the insulted rice tastes cheesy (you’d think it’d be bitter) and the ignored grains go rotten quicker.
But the praised rice which is full of his “positive energy” apparently is like the food fit for the gods (or, um, Ambrosia).
Yet it made me wonder: What if Heston’s food could talk back to him?
I’m pretty sure the snails in his famous snail porridge wouldn’t be rushing to return his compliments. The ingredients that get thrown in the liquid nitrogen are bound to be a bit icy. And as for his famous roast goose? Well, I imagine it would be something like this...
Talk of the ’Ton Tuesday
As self-deprecating jokes go, Pete Davidson’s is pretty accurate.
Speaking of his slimline tattooed torso, the US comic once said: “I look like a toddler went to prison.
“I look like I’m carrying a shiv but only to poke open a Capri Sun.”
I’d say, more like a pre-teen juvie with a liking for Pop Tarts... but same difference. Both make for one of the big mysteries of showbiz.
Why does every girl fall at Pete’s feet?
He first attracted column inches when engaged to pop star Ariana Grande.
(And according to Ariana, it was his, um, grande column inches which first attracted her.)
Since then dating Pete seems to be on the to-do list of every lady of the moment; from Kate Beckinsale and Andie Macdowell’s daughter Margaret Qualley to
Cindy Crawford’s supernot
model offspring Kaia Gerber. Now Punchin’* Pete, 27, is at it again, after he and Sally Dynevor’s actress daughter, Phoebe, were this week’s talk of the ’Ton (as they say on her hit Bridgerton).
Let’s hope they don’t visit her mum, aka Corrie’s Sally Webster, down the Rovers.
With the bedhopping lot in Weatherfield, he’ll have knickers dropping faster than Underworld can make them.
Wales at work Wednesday
You know it’s tough times when even Prince Harry needs a second job.
Yep, Haz had not one but two new roles to announce this week.
The first was Chief Impact Officer for mental health app Betterup. (And let’s face it, he’s made quite the impact recently.)
And the second is with think-tank Aspen Institute’s new Commission on Information Disorder.
It might sound like something out of George Orwell’s 1984, but it’s actually designed to battle fake news and misinformation, or as Harry and his new business jargon puts it: “work on a solutionoriented approach to the information disorder crisis.”
His appointment, alongside the daughter-inlaw of Rupert
‘Fox News’ Murdoch, was announced on Wednesday...
Two days after it was confirmed the Archbishop of Canterbury didn’t legally marry him and Meghan in their back garden.
And a week after the Royal Family responded to Haz and Meg’s Oprah interview by saying their own “recollections may vary”.
Aspen Institute is one of the States’ biggest non-profit organisations, so maybe Harry should remember the old adage...
Charity begins at home.
Torture Thursday
Move over the Spanish Inquisition. Stand down Tower of London guards. And take five 24’s Jack Bauer. Because if you really want a master of torture, we need look no further than the bosses at Strictly Come Dancing. Why? Because Anton Du Beke has missed out on being a judge AGAIN. A decade after being tipped to replace Alesha Dixon, original pro Anton still hasn’t been given a seat on the panel – despite a successful two-week stint last year and Bruno Tonioli bowing out again this year.
Instead, Anton has been left grinning, spinning and probably still winning (if he gets another two left-footed partner) in the new pro line-up for this year.
I suppose it could have been worse, though.
They could have handed the fourth judgeship to someone else.
After all, Piers Morgan’s on the lookout for a job.
And he certainly knows a good spin when he sees one.
Fonz memories Friday
There haven’t been many Happy Days in showbiz lately.
But that’s about to change because, thanks to Henry Winkler, Happy Days are here again. The Barry star has reprised his iconic role of The Fonz for a one-off online special, alongside other nominees of the upcoming Screen Actors’ Guild Awards. But while Winkler jumped at the chance to play the leather jacket-loving stud again, housewife and matriarch Marion Cunningham had a new face in the charity script read – that of Glenn Close.
It’s a rather odd choice. For having seen Glenn prepare her pet dish in Fatal Attraction, the thought of her serving up one Mrs C’s wholesome family meals, is a little hard to swallow. Handing the Cunningham kids a Mcdonald’s Hoppy Meal meanwhile? That I could imagine.