Less than two years ago she was, as the Los Angeles Times rather indelicately put it, “just another 47-year-old Scottish virgin,” an eccentric whose biggest audience to date had been the congregation of her parish church.
Fast forward 19 months and Susan Boyle has been watched at least 400 million times on YouTube, appeared on Oprah and is being compared to the Beatles. Unlike numerous over-hyped musicians over the years, Boyle has never claimed to want to be as big as Paul McCartney and co — she fancied herself as the new Elaine Page. But she has managed it anyway, by having a No. 1 album in the US and UK simultaneously twice in less than a year. Only the Monkees and the Beatles have managed the same feat, in 1967 and 1969 respectively. Boyle is the first ever woman to do it, her record company, Sony, said. Her album The Gift reached No. 1 in the UK on Nov. 14 and took the top spot in the US last Wednesday.
It comes after her debut album I Dreamed a Dream achieved the same success following its release last year.
While Boyle sizzles, another singer known for a lack of fashion sense and unkempt hair probably isn’t as comfortable with the heat surrounding him recently.
A fire at a San Francisco Bay area warehouse where Neil Young stored memorabilia started in a vintage car the singer had converted into a hybrid vehicle in a much publicized project to promote fuel efficiency, authorities said.
Belmont-San Carlos Fire Marshal Jim Palisi told the San Mateo County Times on Nov. 15 that the Nov. 9 fire began in Young’s 1959 Lincoln Continental convertible and spread to the warehouse.
Fire crews were able to save about 70 percent of the 930m2 building’s contents, including other vintage cars, guitars and framed photos belonging to Young.
The blaze caused an estimated US$850,000 in damage to Young’s possessions and damaged his car, dubbed the LincVolt. The building suffered another US$250,000 in damage, Palisi said. No one was injured.
Young had converted the car to run on batteries and a biodiesel-powered generator as part of a project to create the world’s most efficient full-size vehicle.
In a statement that was released on Nov. 16, Young blamed the fire on human error.
“The wall charging system was not completely tested and had never been left unattended. A mistake was made. It was not the fault of the car,” he said.
Speaking of mistakes, actor Wesley Snipes was ordered on Friday to start serving a three-year prison sentence for failing to file income tax returns by a federal judge who rejected the Hollywood star’s bid for a new trial.
“The defendant Snipes had a fair trial ... The time has come for the judgment to be enforced,” US District Judge Terrell Hodges said in his ruling.
Revoking bail for the 48-year-old star of the Blade trilogy, the judge ordered him to report to prison as directed by the US Marshals Service or Bureau of Prisons.
It was not clear when or where Snipes would begin serving his time behind bars, however.
Snipes had already lost his appeal of the prison sentence stemming from his 2008 conviction in Hodges’ Ocala, Florida, court on three counts of “willful failure to file tax returns” for 1999 through 2001.
At his sentencing, prosecutors said Snipes, a resident of Windermere, Florida, had earned more than US$38 million since 1999 but had filed no tax returns or paid any taxes through October 2006.
Some people just can’t get a break. Reports on Thursday said French NBA star Tony Parker only flirted with another woman in text messages and nothing more — and still his wife, Desperate Housewives star Eva Longoria, filed for divorce.
The 35-year-old decided to divorce Parker after discovering the text exchanges with the wife of one of his former San Antonio Spurs teammates, Brent Barry, People magazine and the TMZ Web site said.
“They knew each other, sent each other messages,” a source close to Parker told People referring to Erin Barry, adding: “It was flirtatious, but he never did anything with her.”
Court papers filed at Los Angeles Superior Court showed that Longoria cited “irreconcilable differences” for the split.
But a television presenter who is a close friend of the actress said Longoria told her she had found hundreds of texts on his cellphone from Erin Barry.
People magazine reported that Barry and his wife were among the closest friends of Longoria and Parker, even after Barry left the San Antonio Spurs in 2008, having been there since 2004.
The Barrys attended their friend’s July 2007 wedding outside Paris, quoting Parker as saying shortly after the ceremony: “We’re like family.”
If it’s not the doghouse, it’s the jailhouse. Rapper DMX was arrested in Phoenix for investigation of violating probation by using illicit substances, authorities said.
Court documents released on Friday allege the 39-year-old performer used cocaine and OxyContin, failed to submit to drug testing, and drove on a suspended license.
DMX, whose real name is Earl Simmons, was arrested on Thursday by Maricopa County probation officers and was being held without bond in the county jail.
Simmons was placed on probation last year after convictions for attempted aggravated assault for throwing a food tray at a jail guard, and theft for trying to using a fake name to avoid paying a US$7,500 hospital bill.
He has completed probation for felony convictions last year for cruelty to animals and two drug counts.
There is no politician today more colorful than Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator Hsu Chiao-hsin (徐巧芯). The recall vote against her on July 26 will test the limits of her unique style, making it one of the most fascinating to watch. Taiwan has a long history of larger-than-life, controversial and theatrical politicians. As far back as 1988, lawmaker Chu Kao-cheng (朱高正) was the first to brawl and — legend has it — was the first to use the most foul Taiwanese Hokkien curse on the floor of the legislature. Current Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmaker Wang Shih-chien (王世堅) has become famous
Crop damage from Typhoon Danas “had covered 9,822 hectares of farmland, more than 1.5 percent of Taiwan’s arable land, with an average loss rate of 30 percent, equivalent to 2,977 hectares of total crop failure,” this paper reported on Thursday last week. Costs were expected to exceed NT$1 billion. The disaster triggered clashes in the legislature last week between members of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and China-aligned lawmakers from the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). DPP caucus chief executive Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) argued that opposition lawmakers should take responsibility for slashing the Ministry of Agriculture’s (MOA)
July 14 to July 20 When Lin Tzu-tzeng (林資曾) arrived in Sansia (三峽) in 1830, he found the local conditions ideal for indigo dyeing. Settlers had already planted indigo across the nearby hills, the area’s water was clean and low in minerals and the river offered direct transport to the bustling port of Bangka (艋舺, modern-day Wanhua District in Taipei). Lin hailed from Anxi (安溪) in Fujian Province, which was known for its dyeing traditions. He was well-versed in the craft, and became wealthy after opening the first dyeing workshop in town. Today, the sign for the Lin Mao Hsing (林茂興) Dye
Asked to define sex, most people will say it means penetration and anything else is just “foreplay,” says Kate Moyle, a psychosexual and relationship therapist, and author of The Science of Sex. “This pedestals intercourse as ‘real sex’ and other sexual acts as something done before penetration rather than as deserving credit in their own right,” she says. Lesbian, bisexual and gay people tend to have a broader definition. Sex education historically revolved around reproduction (therefore penetration), which is just one of hundreds of reasons people have sex. If you think of penetration as the sex you “should” be having, you might
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