Archive for the ‘Celebrities’ Category
Fatherhood²: Are Celebrity Parenting Awards an Insult to Regular Parents?
In what has become a highlight of absolutely nobody’s year, the announcement of the shortlist for “Celebrity Mum of the Year” was made today – and this year’s shortlist is another cracker. Amongst the names on the Foxybingo-sponsored list – a list apparently made up of “the most inspiring celebrity mums” – are perpetual favourites Katie Price, Victoria Beckham, Colleen Rooney and Amanda Holden.
Nobody knows quite what goes on behind the doors at the “Celebrity Mum of the Year” awards judging – the process is one of the industry’s most closely guarded secrets. But the following is a small sample of the tasks the celebrity mums are rumoured to be asked to complete:
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Fatherhood²: Danny Wallace is a Dad (Interview)
Robert does some light reading
A best-selling author; A TV producer, TV presenter and potential TV actor; Cult (sorry, collective) leader and founder of the micro-nation ‘Lovely’; Video game character and prolific player; Magazine columnist and advice disher-outer; Radio DJ and podcaster; Photo-blogger and word-based tweeter; Quiz master; Hollywood supremo; Future time-traveller; Internationally-acknowledge ‘Yes Man’; Notable wearer of glasses and cardigans; Giver-outer of random acts of kindness; Campaigner for monkey-rights; Mastermind contestant; Charity supporter; Website owner and generally all-round nice guy. Oh, and husband too.
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Fatherhood²: Five Fantastic (Famous) Fathers I Follow
As it’s Father’s Day, I thought it might be nice to show a little love to some of my favourite fathers – famous faces you’ll know, and a few you might not. All of them are dads though, and people who I love to follow online (in a Twitter sense, rather than a stalkerish way!) so I thought I’d tell you why I love them and a little bit about them.
I should also add that it’s my ambition to persuade at LEAST one of these dads to write a post for this blog before the end of the year – something I’m working on at the moment, slowly but surely. Keep ‘em peeled for more news on that!
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Fatherhood²: The Ultimate Father Quiz
Robert at just 2 days old - the ride begins!
Once I figure out how to do it in a slightly more flashy way (so that it actually works out your score, for a start!) I’ll update it in a better format, but for now it’s pretty basic – just click on the drop-down below each question to see the answer…
Here goes…
Turn your mobiles off, and no looking at anyone else’s answers! ;)
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Fatherhood²: The Beginnings of a Masterpiece?
Today I finally started work on something I should have begun several weeks ago. I also reconstructed the Cot which had been gathering dust in the garage, in preparation for Baby #2′s imminent arrival. But that was nothing compared to my most important task – one which I’ve never undertaken before, and could make or break my reputation as a father.
Yes, today I set to work on Robert’s Cbeebies Birthday Card. I know, I know – I really should have sent it by now – but I’m hoping I should be able to sneak it in just before the deadline this Friday. For those of you unfamiliar with the Cbeebies “Birthday Time” system, the excellent presenters on Cbeebies read out and show home-made birthday cards to children on a daily basis.
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Making Peace with Famous Folk on Twitter
A rare non-fatherhood post for me tonight – I guess it’s more social media related, but not really good enough to go on any of my work-related blogs. So I thought I’d share it here…
Last year, I wrote a post on the Tamar blog about celebrities on Twitter, which still gets views on a daily basis even 9 months later, thanks in part to a very nice tweet from the man who inspired it – online visionary and entrepreneur (and part-time award-winning film director) Kevin Smith.
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My 12 best celebrity sightings [Photos]
Despite being the sort of person that gets a little bit excited about seeing celebrities, I’m usually far too slow to get my camera out of my pocket and snap a picture. Chiswick, where I work, is a virtual mecca for celebrities – recent sightings include Ant and Dec, Kirsty Gallagher, Richard Herring, Clare Balding, Louis Theroux, Adrian Chiles and that mad one who licked milk out of George Galloway’s hands in Celebrity Big Brother. But none of these were caught on camera – not by me anyway. So I thought I’d showcase a few of the celebrities that I HAVE managed to snap a picture of – not in a stalkery way I hasten to add, mostly just random happenstance! Here’s 10 of the best (!?)
Probably the oldest and definitely the most high-profile of these photos – Reece Witherspoon, shooting Vanity Fair in Bath. This picture was actually used in several magazines, and better still, I was paid to take it! One of the many benefits of working for a movie-magazine publisher, as I used to.
This one is a sad-but-funny favourite – partly because it actually proves I was there! Sarah Beeny was on the same train as we were, on the way to a client meeting. I was happy to just remain quietly excited by this, but my colleagues Robin and Jeremy forced me to go up and say hello, threatening that if I didn’t they would stand up and shout “My friend is really excited that he’s seen you!” at her. So I introduced myself (to a very pregnant Beeny) and had a chat about baby stuff, since my wife Sara was pregnant at the time. I even made my ‘Beeny Babies’ gag. Win!
TV presenter and all-round lovely Twitter celebrity Jenni Falconer. This was taken at the Prince’s Trust event in the Odeon, Leicester Square. I was too chicken to go over and say hello, despite having a valid reason to do so at the time. I was also too chicken to speak to her at another Prince’s Trust event we went to, so perhaps I’m just a big girl’s blouse.
Taken at the same event, this is Chris Evans and his beautiful wife Natasha, entering the Odeon. Probably the most tenuous of all these photos, but also one of my favourite alternative-angles, ha ha.
Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich were the brains behind Finding Nemo – and many other Pixar classics. I had the pleasure of sort-of meeting them during an interview (or group interview) I was invited too in my old job. Despite louder and ruder journalists meaning I didn’t actually get to ask much, both signed a magazine for me at the end and were very polite and friendly.
Three-for-the-price-of-one – Alias stars David Anders, Melissa George and Bradley Cooper, seen here at a very nerdy Alias convention in London. I’m not a big convention fan, but Melissa invited me down to spend the day since it was in London and she wasn’t in town for long. Anders and Cooper were both lovely, and Melissa forced me to eat most of her lunch and as well as my own, not realising that Sara and I had snuck-out for a Big Mac half an hour earlier. D’oh!
This is a blurry one, but I think that encapsulates her character quite well – journalist and Twitter-funny-lady Caitlin Moran, standing outside 10 Downing Street after the ‘Downing Tweet’ Christmas party I went to.
Another Downing Street photo – this time of TV’s Kirstie Allsopp, who was also at the event and who I was also too chicken to talk to. She seemed very nice though!
The last Downing Street one – singer Beverley Knight. There were actually loads of celebrities at this party, but Downing Street security take everyone’s camera before they go in, so the only snaps I managed to get were either outside afterwards, or – like this one – from the official selection that they took. Unlike most of these pictures though, I did actually chat to Beverley – just before she burst in to song. It was rather surreal, but she was lovely – she even gave me a hug and called me ‘big man’ at the end. Random!
Another celebrity that I managed to ‘snap’ at a Prince’s Trust event – Alesha Dixon, in the basement of the River Island shop in central London. She wasn’t posing for me, sadly, but for their proper photographers, ha ha.
Pixie Lott, at the very same event, perched on a sofa. She stayed for about ten minutes, presumably before dashing off to another exciting party. I also dashed off soon after, to catch the last train home. Oh, the glamour! :D
Brett Anderson of ‘Suede’ fame. I guess this one doesn’t really count as ‘random’, since we were at the after-show party of their ICA gigs back in 2003. Shortly after this photo was taken, Brett stood on my foot. FACT!
So there we have it – yes, I really am a saddo, but what can you do?