The Liberation of Paris

The joke three week incarceration of the 'poor' 26 year old multi-millionaire heiress Paris Hilton is over. The whole affair would be best suited to an episode of her reality TV show The Simple Life.

The media frenzy surrounding her release was equally astonishing and sad. Why do we want to know so much about this vacuous bimbo who is only famous for being famous ? The coverage she gets is phenomenal, even out here in Asia. For instance, her first official post jail TV interview will be on CNN's Larry King Live show. And (sadly) it's sure to be a ratings success.

We are more celebrity obsessed than ever before. Talent is no longer a prerequisite for stardom. Paris, Jade and all the other reality TV Z-listers have proven that beyond any doubt. Andy Warhol only got the timing wrong in his famous quote about fame. It seems 15 seconds is enough...

Bangkok Blues

My beloved Manchester City are just about to be taken over by former Thai PM Thaksin Shinawatra it has been reported today. Coincidentally, I happen to be in Bangkok and it seems very odd seeing my teams colours splashed all over the Bangkok Post. But maybe I shouldn't be that surprised. After all, the Premiership is as popular in Thailand as satay.

Ask most Thais about football and they are likely to rattle off the names of at least 3 English teams they support (almost inevitably it will include Man United). I suspect if the deal does go through with the mighty Blues then we might have a 'proper' Manchester team being mentioned out here more readily (can't wait for some comments from a few Newton Heath supporters on the back of that !).

Thai television broadcasts over 500 live games a year. The cable channel Truevision screens all the Premier League games plus selected games from La Liga and the Bundesliga. But it's the EPL which is by far the most popular.

It's estimated that 14 billion baht (around 200 million quid) is bet on football each year in Thailand... despite the fact that gambling on sport is illegal over here.

Ever wondered why Chang lager sponsor Everton, despite the fact that it's distribution in the UK is relatively low ? Well, now you know.

As for City, there was some other front page news in the Bangkok Post today which may curtail my enthusiasm. Thaksin was formally indicted for corruption and most of his assets have been frozen. Ah. Well, maybe he has the 82 million pounds he has offered for the club hidden under his mattress ?

JD, straight up

Although I have worked at PHD I've never actually met Jonathan Durden. I saw him present to the troops one time a few years back. Very eloquent he was too.

Anyway, now it seems he has popped up on Big Brother. I'm fascinated and have logged on to the Channel 4 website to see how he is getting on. Pretty well so far it seems (and at least he wasn't booed by the crowd on the way in).

So, my initial reaction was 'good on yer'. Since then though, I have read some reports on the Sun website. Now I'm not so sure... 

Suffice to say there was some very personal details about his life (which I won't bother repeating here). Maybe he won't mind, I dunno. Maybe some of it wasn't altogether true (dunno that either).

So I asked myself if I would mind. And actually, I think I would. Not that I'd ever put myself up for BB in the first place (and it's even more unlikely that I'd get chosen) but I'm sure it would disturb me if that sort of information were suddenly in the public domain. Still, I guess that's the price of fame. And I'm certainly hooked on BB with JD in it (even though I'm on the other side of the world).

No Deal

Channel 5 in Singapore have recently introduced a version of Deal or No Deal. It's very flash by comparison to the UK version. Very 2.0. However, it just doesn't have the charm of the UK version.

When Noel Tidy Beard got his chance to get back on the the telly, even he must have thought that DOND was unlikely to succeed. A lost slot on C4 in the late afternoon and with all the production panache of an episode of Acorn Antiques.

But it was a real sleeper hit and gained cult status amongst students (a modern day version of Supermarket Sweep).

So the concept has proved successful and hence we have now got a highly polished version of it over here on prime time. I'm sure it will be a great success (the simple idea behind it  just works very well in creating that element of tension) but I can't help thinking that it was so much better in it's original format (with Noel in one of those lovely jumpers he always wears).

No go Logo

There seems to be a little furore about the new 2012 Olympic Games logo for London going on. It's filtered through over here too. Apparently the logo is meant to be 'bold' and 'iconic'. Well, opinion over here throws up two different options. What about 'word' and 'art' ?