David Beckham gets his kit off for a different kind of Football

This post really needs no introduction. Other than to say H&M are likely to have the most-watched Super Bowl ad this year in terms of female demographics. By a LONG chalk.
 

I’ll have an R, an I and a P, please Bob

Very sad news today that beloved 80′s TV hero, Bob Holness, has died at the age of 83.

He was also an accomplished actor and broadcaster, but other children of the 80′s may remember best the soft toy mascots, the flashing hexagons and the infamous ‘Can I have a P please, Bob?’ which inexplicably was still hilarious, even on the seventeenth time of watching.

And what other TV show can claim a dance routine created solely for its theme tune?

R.I.P. Bob. Enjoy the memories:

p.s. who knew he was South African?

Glee does Fashion’s Night Out

Some inspired promotion from FOX in the US emerged this week. Our favourite Gleeksters are getting their fashion on for a promotional video ahead of the 8th September – the official date for the global Fashion’s Night Out extravaganza. And just 12 days later, the new season of Glee happens to air on the American network.

The skit (above) is too short for my liking (please let there be a full-length music video aired at some point, or at least additional break bumpers with out-takes), but some of the production stills give you an idea of the fun had on set.

Lea Michele looks a-mazing (in Balmain, natch), Heather Morris rocks the currently ubiquitous star print trend and David Bowie‘s Fashion is obviously right on the money.

Glee meets Vogue. Awesome. Inspired.

Happy 30th Birthday MTV

(c) Frost Cupcake Factory/Flickr

I do love a bit of MTV. Long gone are the days where MTV was seen as Music Television – for me, it is now defined as the home of my beloved Hills and the channel that first introduced me to the fabulous Lauren Conrad, not to mention the hours (days?) spent wasted in front of endless episodes of MTV Cribs and My Super Sweet Sixteen at University.

(And then the ultimate MTV birth-child, The Hills’ Lauren Conrad does MTV Cribs:)

And these days, my MTV viewing is still going strong with Hellcats and Pretty Little Liars clogging up my Sky+ box, to the permanent chagrin of my long-suffering boyfriend.

So just a quick post today to wish the MTV folks a big happy birthday. Because believe it or not they are 30 today.

*Cupcake image from Frost Cupcake Factory on Flickr

Glee Live – the set list

(L-R) Chris Colfer, Heather Morris, Cory Monteith, Lea Michele and Mark Sellig, Glee Live 2010, California. (c) Kevin Winter/Getty Images North America)

Less than a month to go now until Glee Live lands on our shores, taking over the O2 for a week in June. Naturally, I’m going.

For those attending who wish the set list to remain a surprise until the day, look away now.

For the rest of you Gleeks, let the excitement commence:

Main set with featured performers and original artists

• Don’t Stop Believin’ (Journey)
• The Dog Days Are Over featuring Amber Riley and Jenna Ushkowitz (Florence + the Machine)
• Sing (My Chemical Romance)
• I’m a Slave 4 U featuring Heather Morris (Britney Spears)
• Fat Bottomed Girls featuring Mark Salling and Ashley Fink (Queen)
• I Want to Hold Your Hand featuring Chris Colfer (The Beatles)
• Ain’t No Way featuring Amber Riley (Aretha Franklin)
• PYT featuring Kevin McHale (Michael Jackson)
• Born This Way (Lady Gaga)
• Fireworks featuring Lea Michele (Katy Perry)
• Teenage Dream featuring the Warblers, a rival glee club including Darren Criss (Katy Perry)
• Silly Love Songs featuring the Warblers and Criss (Wings)
• Raise Your Glass featuring the Warblers and Criss (Pink)
• Happy Days Are Here Again/Get Happy featuring Michel and Colfer (Barbra Streisand & Judy Garland)
• Lucky featuring Chord Overstreet and Dianna Agron (Jason Mraz & Colbie Caillat)
• River Deep — Mountain High featuring Riley and Naya Rivera (Ike & Tina Turner)
• Don’t Rain on My Parade featuring Michele (Barbra Streisand)
• Jessie’s Girl featuring Cory Monteith (Rick Springfield)
• Valerie featuring Rivera (The Zutons/Amy Winehouse)
• Loser Like Me

Encore

• Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It) featuring Colfer (Beyoncé)
• Friday featuring the guys (Rebecca Black)
• Safety Dance featuring McHale (Men Without Hats)
• Empire State of Mind (Jay-Z & Alicia Keys)
• Somebody to Love (Queen)

*with thanks to Peter Larsen of the Orange County Register for the full deets above.

Inside Lauren Conrad’s Laguna home

So it’s no secret that LC is pretty much my current style icon, and imagine my joy at finding a sneak peak into her Laguna abode.

You may recognize it from early Hills episodes – and even earlier, from the very start of Laguna Beach – plus the sad moment when Lauren’s family moved out of Laguna and her and Lo helped pack up the house.

Anyway, here it is in all its Southern Californian glory. Jealous? Moi?

*with thanks to @24hourslater for the YouTube post

Making the most of spare time

Tom Hodgkinson in today’s Style magazine in the Sunday Times raises some interesting challenges to the way we spend our spare time in the modern world. Are we making the most of it? Or are we squandering what little time we do have to ourselves, falling into the trappings of convenience?

His opening lines below and, as they did for me, may ring scarily true:

“What do you do in your spare time? Maybe you indulge your precious moments of leisure with a £5 bottle of Chilean Sauvignon blanc and a DVD box set of Mad Men or The Wire. Or do you find yourself in front of a Champions League game, or the Brits, or the latest episode of Glee, with your phone locked to Twitter in one hand, the remote control in the other? Or are you on Facebook status-updating, or discussing house prices and schools over a “kitchen supper”, or getting competitive over YouTube — who has the funniest clips? (I always feel a bit disappointed when other people don’t seem to find the clips I like as funny as I do. But anyway.) Perhaps you might go for a little eBay surfing or browsing on Net-a-porter. Later, you’ll nod off with your new Stieg Larsson book.

Yes, well, it’s the modern world, and I suppose we have to live with it. But couldn’t we be doing something more satisfying in our spare time?”

Ringing any bells? Tom offers a plethora of more worthwhile, simple pursuits that might offer more fruitful development of the mind and body, without huge expense or dramatic lifestyle change – such as learning to sing or sew, getting into the garden, learning a language or how to play an instrument, or simply drinking good wine.

I’m also reading Nicholas Carr’s The Shallows at the moment – a fascinating and worthwhile read about how the universal expansion of the internet into every facet of our daily lives is essentially re-shaping the way our brains work. We have smaller attention spans; we find it harder to get lost in lengthy pieces of text; we jump from one communication to another and depend on a constant feed of information to keep us occupied.

Perhaps we could do with putting down the mobile, switching off the TV and shutting down the inbox every now and then. Sometimes it’s tiny changes that can dramatically change our quality of life. Food for thought.

Orange BAFTA Film Awards – 2011 nominations

This morning saw the next installment of Film Award season excitement with BAFTA’s announcement of this year’s nominees for the Orange sponsored Film Awards:

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Tom Hooper‘s British indie flick The King’s Speech swept the board with a whopping 14 nominations, including Best Film, Best Director and Best Actor for Golden Globe winner Colin Firth.

Black Swan (released in the UK this Friday, SO excited) is nominated in 12 categories, followed by Inception with nine and 127 Hours and True Grit are each nominated eight times. The Social Network, favoured at this year’s Golden Globes this weekend, has six nominations.

Full nomination for this year’s ceremony – to be held at The Royal Opera House in London’s Covent Garden on Sunday 13th Febraury- below:

BEST FILM

BLACK SWAN - Mike Medavoy, Brian Oliver, Scott Franklin

INCEPTION - Emma Thomas, Christopher Nolan

THE KING’S SPEECH – Iain Canning, Emile Sherman, Gareth Unwin

THE SOCIAL NETWORK - Scott Rudin, Dana Brunetti, Michael De Luca, Céan Chaffin

TRUE GRIT – Scott Rudin, Ethan Coen, Joel Coen

OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM

127 HOURS – Danny Boyle, Simon Beaufoy, Christian Colson, John Smithson

ANOTHER YEAR – Mike Leigh, Georgina Lowe

FOUR LIONS – Chris Morris, Jesse Armstrong, Sam Bain, Mark Herbert, Derrin Schlesinger

THE KING’S SPEECH - Tom Hooper, David Seidler, Iain Canning, Emile Sherman, Gareth Unwin

MADE IN DAGENHAM – Nigel Cole, William Ivory, Elizabeth Karlsen, Stephen Woolley

OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER

THE ARBOR – Director, Producer – Clio Barnard, Tracy O’Riordan

EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP – Director, Producer – Banksy, Jaimie D’Cruz

FOUR LIONS – Director/Writer – Chris Morris

MONSTERS – Director/Writer – Gareth Edwards

SKELETONS – Director/Writer – Nick Whitfield

DIRECTOR

127 HOURS – Danny Boyle

BLACK SWAN - Darren Aronofsky

INCEPTION - Christopher Nolan

THE KING’S SPEECH – Tom Hooper

THE SOCIAL NETWORK – David Fincher

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

BLACK SWAN – Mark Heyman, Andrés Heinz, John McLaughlin

THE FIGHTER – Scott Silver, Paul Tamasy, Eric Johnson

INCEPTION - Christopher Nolan

THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT - Lisa Cholodenko, Stuart Blumberg

THE KING’S SPEECH – David Seidler

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

127 HOURS – Danny Boyle, Simon Beaufoy

THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO – Rasmus Heisterberg, Nikolaj Arcel

THE SOCIAL NETWORK – Aaron Sorkin

TOY STORY 3 – Michael Arndt

TRUE GRIT – Joel Coen, Ethan Coen

FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

BIUTIFUL - Alejandro González Iñárritu, Jon Kilik, Fernando Bovaira

THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO - Søren Stærmose, Niels Arden Oplev

I AM LOVE – Luca Guadagnino, Francesco Melzi D’Eril, Marco Morabito, Massimiliano Violante

OF GODS AND MEN – Xavier Beauvois

THE SECRET IN THEIR EYES – Mariela Besuievsky, Juan José Campanella

ANIMATED FILM

DESPICABLE ME – Chris Renaud, Pierre Coffin

HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON – Chris Sanders, Dean DeBlois

TOY STORY 3 - Lee Unkrich

LEADING ACTOR

JAVIER BARDEM – Biutiful

JEFF BRIDGES - True Grit

JESSE EISENBERG – The Social Network

COLIN FIRTH - The King’s Speech

JAMES FRANCO – 127 Hours

LEADING ACTRESS

ANNETTE BENING – The Kids Are All Right

JULIANNE MOORE – The Kids Are All Right

NATALIE PORTMAN - Black Swan

NOOMI RAPACE - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

HAILEE STEINFELD – True Grit

SUPPORTING ACTOR

CHRISTIAN BALE – The Fighter

ANDREW GARFIELD – The Social Network

PETE POSTLETHWAITE – The Town

MARK RUFFALO – The Kids Are All Right

GEOFFREY RUSH – The King’s Speech

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

AMY ADAMS – The Fighter

HELENA BONHAM CARTER – The King’s Speech

BARBARA HERSHEY – Black Swan

LESLEY MANVILLE – Another Year

MIRANDA RICHARDSON – Made in Dagenham

ORIGINAL MUSIC

127 HOURS - AR Rahman

ALICE IN WONDERLAND – Danny Elfman

HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON - John Powell

INCEPTION - Hans Zimmer

THE KING’S SPEECH – Alexandre Desplat

CINEMATOGRAPHY

127 HOURS – Anthony Dod Mantle, Enrique Chediak

BLACK SWAN - Matthew Libatique

INCEPTION - Wally Pfister

THE KING’S SPEECH – Danny Cohen

TRUE GRIT – Roger Deakins

EDITING

127 HOURS – Jon Harris

BLACK SWAN - Andrew Weisblum

INCEPTION - Lee Smith

THE KING’S SPEECH - Tariq Anwar

THE SOCIAL NETWORK – Angus Wall, Kirk Baxter

PRODUCTION DESIGN

ALICE IN WONDERLAND – Robert Stromberg, Karen O’Hara

BLACK SWAN - Thérèse DePrez, Tora Peterson

INCEPTION - Guy Hendrix Dyas, Larry Dias, Doug Mowat

THE KING’S SPEECH – Eve Stewart, Judy Farr

TRUE GRIT – Jess Gonchor, Nancy Haigh

COSTUME DESIGN

ALICE IN WONDERLAND - Colleen Atwood

BLACK SWAN - Amy Westcott

THE KING’S SPEECH – Jenny Beavan

MADE IN DAGENHAM – Louise Stjernsward

TRUE GRIT - Mary Zophres

SOUND

127 HOURS – Glenn Freemantle, Ian Tapp, Richard Pryke, Steven C Laneri, Douglas Cameron

BLACK SWAN – Ken Ishii, Craig Henighan, Dominick Tavella

INCEPTION – Richard King, Lora Hirschberg, Gary A Rizzo, Ed Novick

THE KING’S SPEECH – John Midgley, Lee Walpole, Paul Hamblin

TRUE GRIT – Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff, Peter F Kurland, Douglas Axtell

SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS

ALICE IN WONDERLAND - Nominees TBC

BLACK SWAN – Dan Schrecker

HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART 1 – Tim Burke, John Richardson, Nicolas Ait’Hadi, Christian Manz

INCEPTION - Chris Corbould, Paul Franklin, Andrew Lockley, Peter Bebb

TOY STORY 3 – Nominees TBC

MAKE UP & HAIR

ALICE IN WONDERLAND - Nominees TBC

BLACK SWAN - Judy Chin, Geordie Sheffer

HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART 1 – Amanda Knight, Lisa Tomblin

THE KING’S SPEECH – Frances Hannon

MADE IN DAGENHAM – Lizzie Yianni Georgiou

SHORT ANIMATION

THE EAGLEMAN STAG – Michael Please

MATTER FISHER – David Prosser

THURSDAY – Matthias Hoegg

SHORT FILM

CONNECT - Samuel Abrahams, Beau Gordon

LIN - Piers Thompson, Simon Hessel

RITE - Michael Pearce, Ross McKenzie, Paul Welch

TURNING - Karni Arieli, Saul Freed, Alison Sterling, Kat Armour-Brown

UNTIL THE RIVER RUNS RED – Paul Wright, Poss Kondeatis

ORANGE WEDNESDAYS RISING STAR AWARD:

GEMMA ARTERTON

ANDREW GARFIELD

TOM HARDY

AARON JOHNSON

EMMA STONE

In search of the greatest sports marketing moment

(c) NFL / Getty Images

It’s not often that I will post about work-related content here, but the latest debate raging over on Synergy’s blog is actually pretty thought-provoking (well, for those in the sports industry at least).

Any sports fans out there remember when Twenty20 was first ‘invented’? Or when Nike burst onto the scene helping Michael Jordan hit his jump shot? Or even, for the veteran fans amongst you, when NFL was first broadcast on our TV screens?

Well, whatever you think the biggest moment was, Synergy wants to hear about it. We’ve started a bit of a debate going by naming an initial top 12 (below), but we’re a friendly, modest bunch and open to suggestions of things we’ve missed. Have a look at the below, and let us know what you think by commenting on the original blog post here.

And eventually we’ll put up a poll and get to the official #1. But only with your help. So what’s it to be? Let us know…

1. 1960 – a promising American golfer called Arnold Palmer shook hands over a representation deal with his friend and Yale law grad, Mark McCormack. This handshake was the start of IMG and birth of modern sports marketing.
2. 1968 – After the NFL and AFL merged in 1966 the first two championship games between the two winners were called, snappily, the NFL-AFL World Championship. KC Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt then came up with the term Super Bowl for the game after seeing his grandson playing with a Super Ball, (a densely elasticated ball) and a global phenomenon was born.
3. 1976 – already prevalent abroad, Kettering Town became the first British football club to have a sponsor on its shirt – the deal may only have lasted four games but it changed the rules in the UK. The forward thinking brand? Kettering Tyres.
4. 1978 – Horst Dassler and Patrick Nally created a sponsorship model for world events starting with The FIFA World Cup that other rights holders have followed ever since.
5. 1978 – Bernie Ecclestone became chief executive of the Formula One Constructors Association (FOCA) which culminated in Ecclestone securing the right for FOCA to negotiate television contracts turning F1 into the global financial phenomenon it is today.
6. 1979 – Jack Nicklaus argues successfully for the inclusion of European (rather than just British) players in the Ryder Cup. This turned a struggling, one-sided tournament into what is today probably the most significant global event in golf.
7. 1981 – the first major PPV boxing match between Sugar Ray Leonard and Thomas Hearns was screened by Viacom Cablevision, the event sold over 50% of its subscribers for the fight and a new form of sports viewing was born.
8. 1984 – Nike, a struggling sports shoe company, signed rookie Michael Jordan and created the first shoe named after a player – The Air Jordan.
9. 1985 – Michael Payne restructured the IOC Marketing Programme creating TOPs – the building block of the most lucrative sponsorship format in the world.
10. 1992 – The English First Division clubs resigned en-masse from the Football League and formed the Premier League which is now the most watched and most lucrative football league in the world with the format copied across the globe.
11. 1995 – The first ever Extreme Games (later changed to X Games) was held with the backing of ESPN – it catapulted fringe sports into the mainstream, bringing with it vast corporate investment.
12. 2003 – The ECB introduced the world to Twenty20 Cricket via the Twenty20 Cup between counties, the mould breaking game has gone on to be adopted across the globe with IPL changing the financial face of the sport.

Gossip Girl is back! Oh la la! OMD!

OMD? Oh mon Dieu!

Gossip Girl returns to our screens this week on ITV2, and as those regular readers of this blog will know, I’m a bit of a fan of the show.

The fashions, the drama, the love/hate relationships… it’s all just so addictive. And this fourth season opens in Paris, with the girls living the high life during summer break and regular audiences on tenterhooks awaiting Chuck’s recovery from the shock last frame of the previous season.

Have a peep at the trailer below and set those Sky+ boxes: Wednesday, 9pm, ITV2.