Family Entertainment Blog

Newsreader Natasha Kaplinsky has revealed how her husband persuaded her to marry him after just three dates – despite repeatedly getting her name wrong.
She married banker Justin Bower in August 2005, six months after they met on a blind date, and says romance quickly blossomed even though he kept calling her Natalie.

Natasha, the £1million-a-year new face of Five News, says she knew he was Mr Right at a very early stage in their relationship and adds: “I’ve never felt that sense of certainty about someone before.

“We met for lunch, then had a peppermint tea together one afternoon and on our next date we booked a holiday to the Maldives, where he proposed. It was all very, very quick but at the time it felt like an eternity.

Leather Look: But Natasha Kaplinsky insists her husband wears the trousers in their house
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Nice move, Natasha Kaplinsky: The unstoppable rise of TV’s most talked-about newsreader

“Looking back now, I understand why my mother wouldn’t speak to me at first and why I got a flurry of phone calls from friends asking me if I was pregnant.”

In an exclusive interview in The Mail on Sunday’s You magazine today, 35-year-old Natasha reveals how Justin wooed her with the promise of a ride in his “Black Viper” – only for her to discover it was a nickname for the jalopy he drove and not the flash sports car the name suggested.

She says: “I thought it would be a Porsche or a Ferrari and was expecting to go right off him but it was his ancient Toyota Corolla which he’d owned since he was 17. I got rid of my Audi TT and we shared it, even though it was held together with sticky tape and doubled in value when we filled the tank.

“When it finally failed its MoT I secretly had it crushed because I imagined it would make a fascinating Damien Hirst–style coffee table but it’s just a crushed car, surrounded by broken glass, with the sump sticking out.

Natasha Kaplinsky with husband Justin on their wedding day

“Justin’s thrilled, though, especially by the fact the petrol cap still opens and closes.”

Despite her reputation for being a single-minded, dominant woman, Natasha says part of her attraction to Justin is that he “wears the trousers” in their relationship.

Talking about her high-profile career and her public image, she thinks it is hard for a woman to be taken seriously in the world of TV journalism.

“Broadcasting is a macho world and any woman who has done reasonably well in the industry gets branded a hard bitch, but I’m not,” she says.

“I think I’m quite a nice person, not in a saccharine way, but I would never trample over other people to further my career.

“The frustrating thing is that blokes are never criticised in the same way. You don’t read that Dermot [Murnaghan] or George [Alagiah] or Huw [Edwards] are ruthless and ambitious – they’re just left to get on with things.”

Even though Natasha will reportedly present Five News wearing a T-shirt and jeans, her new bosses did try to swathe her in high-fashion clothes – a move away from the traditional pastel jackets viewers are used to.

She recalls: “Their stylist told me I looked far too mother-of-the-bride. So we went shopping for three days but then I spent another three days returning everything I’d bought.

“The experience was horrendous because, although he was very sweet, he took me to places I would not dream of going, such as Yves Saint Laurent, when I’m a Marks & Spencer girl at heart.

“I had these awful moments wrestling into skirts, not realising the zip went down the front, not the back, and feeling like a complete loser in terms of fashion.

“I even bought these extraordinary Jimmy Choos with wooden wedge heels because he said he’d cry if I didn’t. I took it all back and now have a drawer full of credit notes for ridiculous amounts of money from shops I’ll probably never set foot in again.”

Natasha admits she finds the glamorous persona bestowed on her after appearing on Strictly Come Dancing hard to maintain.

She says: “I have no regrets about taking part in it but I’m finding it difficult to shake off the ‘Spangles’ label I have acquired. I’m grateful for the opportunities the show gave me, and I don’t want to lose all of my sequins … but I could do with a few less

She is being touted as the saviour of BBC Three, a hip young presenter whose unique appeal to the internet generation will attract a new audience to the much-criticised digital channel.But Lily Allen’s late-night chat show might not be the huge hit Corporation chiefs are praying for.

During recording of the all-important first programme, more than a third of the studio audience walked out, saying they were bored and complaining it was “horrible” and “limp”.

Lovely: Lily in full bloom

Another new role for Lily… the stumpy star of a TUC cartoon
The reaction will be a heavy blow to the BBC, which has placed the singer at the heart of a major revamp of the £83million-a-year channel.
BBC Three has come under fire from many quarters as a waste of money, and even BBC veteran John Humphrys has called for it to be scrapped and the money diverted to news and current affairs.
However, in defiance of the critics, BBC Three will undergo a bold relaunch on Tuesday, including a new pink logo and a more interactive website. And the Corporation is hailing Lily Allen And Friends as the flagship programme of the first night.

So-called friends: Fans wait to see Lily Allen tape her pilot episode. The queue to leave Friday’s show was almost as busy
Yet Friday’s recording at Pinewood Studios, Buckinghamshire, does not augur well for the series – especially as the 150 audience members had been specially invited from among Miss Allen’s online “friends”.
One of the fans who walked out said: “Everyone really, really wanted it to work for Lily. She is such a lovely person but all the jokes fell flat and she seemed very nervous. It just did not work.
“I do think she’s got a nice voice but she didn’t sing at all. I think everyone was expecting she would.”

Lily after a night on the town on Friday. The singer’s still recovering after her miscarriage and split from ex-boyfriend Ed Simons
Off-camera, the 22-year-old, who was wearing a slinky red off-the-shoulder dress, admitted she was nervous of her first test as an interviewer, quizzing guests Cuba Gooding Jnr, comedian David Mitchell and the band Reverend and the Makers.
As well as her inexperience, Miss Allen had to fight technical glitches including a jammed Autocue, which left her reliant on handwritten cue cards.
One guest said: “We were all standing about, getting quite tired.

“She was halfway through her interview with David Mitchell when she seemed to forget the questions and launched into an attack on all the horrible things people had written about her on online chat forums.

Happier times - Lily was said to have been dumped by Ed less than two weeks after her miscarriage
“It was terrible. Even David Mitchell had to remind her not to criticise the very people who would be watching the show.”
Miss Allen then showed a series of internet videos showing animals having sex. Cuba Gooding Jnr summed up the mood when he told the audience: “I don’t know what’s sicker, animals having sex or you clapping.”
Another guest said: “We were all told when to clap and laugh but a lot of people, including me, were very uncomfortable. Much of the humour was very limp.”

Cheeky Lily with a glint in her eye
A pilot episode was made last month to allow producers to fix problems before broadcast – but it appears this was not enough.
The show aims to tap into Miss Allen’s popularity on social networking websites such as Facebook and MySpace, which helped launch her music career.
As well as recruiting the audience online, fans were invited to submit questions for Miss Allen to ask, and add their own profiles to the show’s website.
However, an hour into filming about 50 members of the audience had left and by the end, the studio was a little over half-full.
One BBC source said: “You have to have a brilliant wit and be a real quick thinker to handle a show like this. It’s a huge responsibility for someone so lacking in TV experience.
“It’s cruel to heap so much responsibility on one girl, especially at a time when she has had such unhappiness in her private life.”
Miss Allen recently suffered a miscarriage, and has split from boyfriend Ed Simons, of the Chemical Brothers.

British Olympic chiefs are to force athletes to sign a contract promising not to speak out about China’s appalling human rights record – or face being banned from travelling to Beijing.

The move – which raises the spectre of the order given to the England football team to give a Nazi salute in Berlin in 1938 – immediately provoked a storm of protest.

The controversial clause has been inserted into athletes’ contracts for the first time and forbids them from making any political comment about countries staging the Olympic Games.

It is contained in a 32-page document that will be presented to all those who reach the qualifying standard and are chosen for the team.

From the moment they sign up, the competitors – likely to include the Queen’s granddaughter Zara Phillips and world record holder Paula Radcliffe – will be effectively gagged from commenting on China’s politics, human rights abuses or illegal occupation of Tibet.

Prince Charles has already let it be known that he will not be going to China, even if he is invited by Games organisers.

His views on the Communist dictatorship are well known, after this newspaper revealed how he described China’s leaders as “appalling old waxworks” in a journal written after he attended the handover of Hong Kong. The Prince is also a long-time supporter of the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan leader.

Yesterday the British Olympic Association (BOA) confirmed to The Mail on Sunday that any athlete who refuses to sign the agreements will not be allowed to travel to Beijing.

Shameful picture of England squad giving Nazi salute still haunts British sport. Why, 70 years later, do we still suck up to dictators?

Should a competitor agree to the clause but then speak their mind about China, they will be put on the next plane home.

The clause, in section 4 of the contract, simply states: “[Athletes] are not to comment on any politically sensitive issues.”

It then refers competitors to Section 51 of the International Olympic Committee charter, which “provides for no kind of demonstration, or political, religious or racial propaganda in the Olympic sites, venues or other areas”.

Contention: the Queen’s granddaughter Zara Phillips stands to be among the athletes who will be forced to sign the gagging order

The BOA took the decision even though other countries – including the United States, Canada, Finland, and Australia – have pledged that their athletes would be free to speak about any issue concerning China.

To date, only New Zealand and Belgium have banned their athletes from giving political opinions while competing at the Games.

Simon Clegg, the BOA’s chief executive, said: “There are all sorts of organisations who would like athletes to use the Olympic Games as a vehicle to publicise their causes.

“I don’t believe that is in the interest of the team performance.

“As a team we are ambassadors of the country and we have to conform to an appropriate code of conduct.”

However, human rights campaigner Lord David Alton condemned the move as “making a mockery” of the right to free speech.

The controversial decision to award the Olympics to Beijing means this year’s Games have the potential to be the most politically charged since 1936.

Adolf Hitler used the Munich Games that year to glorify his Nazi regime, although his claims of Aryan superiority were undermined by black American athlete Jesse Owens winning four gold medals.

More recently, there was a mass boycott of the 1980 Games in Moscow in protest at the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

But Colin Moynihan – now BOA chairman Lord Moynihan – defied Margaret Thatcher’s calls for British athletes to stay at home and won a silver medal as cox of the men’s eight rowing team.

Former Olympic rowing champion Matthew Pinsent has already criticised the Chinese authorities over the training methods used on children, which he regarded as tantamount to abuse.

Past shame: The England team give Nazi salutes at the 1938 Berlin Olympics, a memory which critics do not want to see recalled in China
Young gymnasts told him they were repeatedly beaten during training sessions.

Mr Clegg confirmed that such criticisms would be banned under the team’s code of conduct, which will be in force from when athletes are selected in July, until the end of the Games on August 24.

Mr Clegg said: “During the period of the contract, that sort of action would be in dispute with the team-member agreement.

“There are all sorts of sanctions that I can apply. I had to send a team member home in Sydney because they breached our sponsorship agreement and that is the first time it happened.

“I have to act in the interest of the whole British team, not one individual. No athlete is above being part of the team.

“There is a requirement on team members to sign the agreement. If athletes step out of line, action will have to be taken.”

Darren Campbell, Olympic relay gold winner at the 2004 Games in Athens, said the BOA’s move would “heap extra pressure on athletes”. But he added: “We are there to represent our country in sporting terms, just as our Army do when they go off to war. It is not supposed to be about politics.”

The BOA is taking a far more stringent stance than authorities in other countries. Australian Olympic Committee president John Coates said: “What we will be saying to the athletes is that it’s best to concentrate on your competitions.

“But they’re entitled to have their opinions and express them. They’re free to speak.”

Jouko Purontakanen, secretary general of the Finnish Olympic Committee, said: “We will not be issuing instructions on the matter. The freedom of expression is a basic right that cannot be limited.

“But the starting point is that we will go to Beijing to compete, not to talk politics.”

Political gestures have been made at previous Olympics, most famously in Mexico City in 1968 when black American 200m champion Tommie Smith and bronze medallist John Carlos raised their fists in a black power salute.

Both were suspended from the US Olympic team and barred from the Olympic village.

Forty years on, British athletes face similar sanctions if they highlight the abuse of human rights in China.

Last night Edward McMillan-Scott, Conservative MEP and the European Parliament vice-president, predicted a public outcry over the BOA’s move.

He said: “Foreign Secretary David Miliband is off to China soon. But before he gets on the plane, he and the rest of the Government should tell the BOA to take this clause out of the agreement.”

Potentially the contract means that a British athlete who witnesses someone being mistreated on the way to a stadium is forbidden from even speaking to their colleagues about it.

Competitors emailing home or writing blogs will also have to exercise self-censorship – or face having their Olympic dreams ruined.

Lord Alton said: “It is extraordinary to bar athletes from expressing an opinion about China’s human-rights record. About the only justification for participating in the Beijing Games is that it offers an opportunity to encourage more awareness about human rights.

“Imposing compulsory vows of silence is an affront to our athletes, and in China it will be viewed as acquiescence.

“Each year 8,000 executions take place in China, political and religious opinion is repressed, journalists are jailed and the internet and overseas broadcasts are heavily censored.

“For our athletes to be told that they may not make any comment makes a mockery of our own country’s belief in free speech.”

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Hollywood writers on Saturday gave resounding support to a tentative agreement with studios that could end a strike that has crippled the entertainment industry. However, it appeared the approval process might briefly delay their return to work.
 
About 3,500 writers packed the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles to hear from union leaders about the proposed deal that was finalized just hours before meetings were held on both coasts by the Writers Guild of America.

A person familiar with the guild’s plan, who requested anonymity because of a media blackout, said the WGA board would meet Sunday and decide on whether to authorize a quick, two-day vote of its members to determine if a strike order should be lifted.

Giving writers a 48-hour window to vote on lifting the strike order would help alleviate concerns that the agreement was being pushed too rapidly by the guild’s board.

If guild members support lifting the strike order, they could return to work as early as Wednesday.

“The feeling in the room was really positive,” said screenwriter Mike Galvin, adding that no one at the Los Angeles gathering said the deal “was crummy.”

Compensation for projects delivered via digital media was the central issue in the 3-month-old walkout, which idled thousands of workers, disrupted the TV season and moviemaking and took the shine off Hollywood’s awards season.

“I believe it is a good deal. I am going to be recommending this deal to our membership,” Michael Winship, president of the Writers Guild of America, East, told reporters before the New York meeting at a Times Square hotel.

Winship said afterward that he was encouraged by the membership’s response.

“We had a very lively discussion. I’m happy with what happened. … At the moment, I feel strongly it (the proposed deal) has a strong chance of going through,” he said.

Writers leaving the two-hour-plus New York meeting characterized the reaction as generally positive and said there was cautious optimism that the end of the strike — the guild’s first in 20 years — could be near.

Carmen Culver, a film and TV writer, lauded the guild “for hanging tough.”

“It’s a great day for the labor movement. We have suffered a lot of privation in order to achieve what we’ve achieved,” Culver said.

Michael Moore, the Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker (”Bowling for Columbine”) and a nominee this year for his health-care film “Sicko,” attended the New York meeting.

“It’s a historic moment for labor in this country,” Moore told The Associated Press.

Winship cautioned that it was not a “done deal” until the contract is ratified by members who need to be polled by mail in a process that usually takes two weeks.

An outline of the three-year deal was reached in recent talks between media executives and the guild, with lawyers then drafting the contract language that was concluded Friday.

According to the guild’s summary, the deal provides union jurisdiction over projects created for the Internet based on certain guidelines, sets compensation for streamed, ad-supported programs and increases residuals for downloaded movies and TV programs.

The writers deal is similar to one reached last month by the Directors Guild of America, including a provision that compensation for ad-supported streaming doesn’t kick in until after a window of between 17 to 24 days deemed “promotional” by the studios.

Writers would get a maximum $1,200 flat fee for streamed programs in the deal’s first two years and then get a percentage of a distributor’s gross in year three — the last point an improvement on the directors deal, which remains at the flat payment rate.

“Much has been achieved, and while this agreement is neither perfect nor perhaps all that we deserve for the countless hours of hard work and sacrifice, our strike has been a success,” guild leaders Winship and Patric Verrone, head of the Writers Guild of America, West, said in an e-mailed message to members.

Together, the guilds represent 12,000 writers, with about 10,000 of those involved in the strike that began Nov. 5 and has cost the Los Angeles area economy alone an estimated $1 billion or more. Studios are represented by Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.

One observer said the guild gained ground in the deal but not as much as it wanted.

“It’s a mixed deal but far better than the writers would have been able to get three months ago. The strike was a qualified success,” said Jonathan Handel, an entertainment attorney with the TroyGould firm and a former associate counsel for the writers guild.

The walkout “paved the way for the directors to get a better deal than they would otherwise have gotten. That in turn became the foundation for further improvements the writers achieved,” Handel said.

___

Associated Press writers Verena Dobnik and Clare Trapasso in New York contributed to this report. Raquel Maria Dillon in Los Angeles also contributed to this report

HOUSTON - NASA scrambled to rearrange the flight plan for the 10 astronauts aboard the linked shuttle and space station Sunday after their main job — installing the Columbus lab — was delayed a day because of a crew medical problem.
 
German astronaut Hans Schlegel was pulled off the first spacewalk of the mission shortly after he arrived at the international space station Saturday aboard Atlantis.

NASA would not say why Schlegel was being replaced. Managers bumped the spacewalk and Columbus’ hookup to the space station to Monday.

“I will just say it’s not going to impact any of the objectives of this mission,” said John Shannon, chairman of the mission management team. “It will cause us to rearrange a few activities.”

Shannon refused to elaborate, citing medical privacy, but noted that it was not a life-threatening condition. When asked by another reporter if it was contagious, he said: “You guys can fish all day, but I won’t bite.”

Schlegel, 56, a two-time space flier, did not appear to be sick when he floated inside the space station and took part in a safety briefing, but seemed quiet. He was seen on camera for only several minutes.

Schlegel was supposed to venture outside with American Rex Walheim on the first two of three planned spacewalks. His status on the second spacewalk, on Wednesday, was still uncertain.

The Columbus lab should have been unloaded from Atlantis and attached to the space station on Sunday, with two spacewalkers outside to help. Mission Control informed the astronauts that the installation would not take place until Monday just a few hours after the shuttle and the station joined up.

NASA said Schlegel’s shuttle crewmate, American Stanley Love, would take his place. Love trained for the work as a backup, just in case, and already was assigned to the mission’s third spacewalk, along with Walheim.

It was a rare and unsettling change in plans for NASA, which typically prepares for every aspect of a shuttle mission — particularly spacewalks — for months and even years.

The delay in installing Columbus and carrying out the first spacewalk caused NASA to add a 12th day to the mission. Yet another day could be added; NASA had hoped to spend an extra day at the space station to help set up Columbus. Atlantis will remain at the orbiting complex until at least next weekend.

NASA, meanwhile, was analyzing a small tear in one of Atlantis’ thermal blankets.

The tear is along a seam, and is in one of the many blankets covering Atlantis’ right orbital maneuvering system pod, back near the tail. It occurred during Thursday’s launch and was discovered Friday, flight director Mike Sarafin said.

Engineers were trying to ascertain whether the tear posed a hazard for re-entry at flight’s end. The exact size of the peeled-up section was unknown, but it appeared to be smaller and less worrisome than one that required spacewalking repairs aboard Atlantis last June.

“It’s probably not that big of an issue, but we’re off looking at it,” Sarafin said.

NASA is particularly attentive to the shuttle’s thermal shielding, ever since Columbia was destroyed during re-entry in 2003