"I'm a bit worried about the three wise men," says Robyn, who is here from South Africa. "Bush, Blair, and who's the one in the middle?"
That's Prince Philip.
"Oh, hasn't he aged. I love the sheep Hugh Grant's holding, though. It's so lifelike," she said.
The celebrity nativity at Madame Tussauds waxworks museum in London is dividing opinion. The people who know what's going on love it. Everyone else just looks confused.
"Do you think it's irreligious?" a young man from South Korea was asked. The thought clearly hadn't crossed his mind.
"You know, David Beckham as Joseph and Posh [Spice -- aka Victoria Beckham] as the Virgin Mary. Bit blasphemous, don't you think?" the reporter asked.
"Yes, now you've said it, I can see that it is," he said.
An immaculately dressed middle-aged couple, who stand out among the baseball caps and fleeces, were asked what they thought.
"We're Catholics from Austria," said Birgit, "and we think it's funny. In this room, it's OK. Anywhere else, it wouldn't be."
Bear in mind that this room includes Jean-Paul Gaultier in a kilt, Jerry Springer and Tom Jones and this isn't even the Chamber of Horrors.
Most of the nativity celebrities were chosen by a poll of visitors in the autumn, but the "sexy shepherds" were added by Madame Tussauds.
Hardly anyone recognizes the British TV personality Graham Norton. The man from South Korea thinks he's called Norman, and Birgit confuses him with Jack Nicholson. A crib sheet would be useful.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair is a disaster, too -- too dark and brooding. It just doesn't look like him. The clothes are brilliant, though: purple pantaloons, a brown smock and an extravagant leather hat with a feather -- exactly what he wears to visit Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
US President George W. Bush is also hopeless. Even Suzette, who is on holiday from Connecticut, doesn't recognize him.
"Oh look, Jordan," she says to her daughter when I point him out. "It's the president."
Meanwhile, the Times of London said the response from Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams's office has been limited.
"Deary, deary me," the newspaper quoted the Reverend Jonathan Jennings as saying.
Jenning told the Times that each generation had a right to re-interpret scripture but suggested the waxwork might have gone too far.
Conservative evangelicals in the Church of England were more scathing.
"Anything that invites us to laugh at what God did is something that He will take very seriously. In the Ten Commandments we are told not to make any images of God. This scene shows how wise that commandment is," Reverend Rod Thomas said.
Vatican officials told the Times said the tableau was "if not blasphemous then certainly in very poor taste."
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number