The Lowdown: Things You Never Knew About Michael Jackson
October 29, 2009 by Danielle Jacoby
Filed under - Home, Features, The Lowdown
Whether you loved him or hated him, Michael Jackson was the King of Pop.
Sure, he was a bit odd. But thanks to MJ, we have classics like Thriller, Billy Jean, Beat It and Bad.
Ultimately selling 750m albums worldwide, with 13 Grammy Awards to his name, Michael Jackson was one of the most commercially successful and influential entertainers of all time.
Four months after his death, This is It has premiered (check out our inspired 5 Most Shameless Movie Cash Ins Ever).
The much-anticipated documentary features rehearsal footage of the London O2 Arena comeback concert which never happened.
So whether you are a die hard fan or merely a pop culture patron, OTB brings you things you may not know about Michael Jackson. Read More…
Marc French Interview: Ugly Modelling Agency Boss
October 29, 2009 by Leonie Mercedes
Filed under - Home, Features
Hiring dwarves for a porno, fat people to test bed springs or 78-year-olds with scrotal piercings… it’s just another day on the job for Marc French, who runs the London-based alternative modelling agency Ugly.
Ugly supplies “character” models for all of the above, as well as for major fashion campaigns and magazine shoots, with clients including Dazed and Confused, Calvin Klein and Vogue.
Britain’s Ugliest Models – a documentary series following the everyday ins and outs of the agency – starts this week on Five, so we caught up with the man who makes it all happen. An ex-model himself, he shares with us his views on SuBo, celebrating diversity and whether a Britain’s Next Top Ugly Model reality show may be on the cards… Read More…
Misfits Trailer
It’s fair to say that when it comes to troubled whippersnappers, Channel 4 knows good drama.
Skins, As If, Hollyoaks may have blazed the teenage trail until now, but we caught sight of an intriguing, darkly funny and excellently acted new show at E4’s Autumn Launch.
And now we have the shiny shiny trailer to share with you lovely people too.
In short, it follows a group of ASBO-licious yoofs as they go about their community service. And then they get struck my lightning. Which grants them superpowers.
Bonkers, maybe, but when it looks this good, who’s complaining?
Sold? Low Low Cheese’s Extreme Mouse Trap
October 28, 2009 by Danielle Jacoby
Filed under - Home, Features, Sold?
Food and mice? Gasp.
Fallon has launched its first campaign for the Kerry Foods-owned cheese brand Low Low. The commercial features a squealing white rodent boldly bypassing a minefield of traps. Like a little furry Indiana Jones, the mouse spirals through the air in matrix fashion, all for the plate of advertised cheese-on-toast.
This is not a live animal we are talking about. Thanks to CGI, the pest is as precious as Mickey Mouse, except that he does not speak or sing and dance. The little guy merely squeaks. And that is all it takes for us to become enraptured by his quest.
As for what he is after–”the ultimate cheese,” we forget the product the moment our dear protagonist leaps into the picture. The voice-over for “cheese made from semi-skinned milk with a third less fat than cheddar” is muted by a sensational rodent. But just because I secretly wanted the little guy to get snapped by a trap in the end does not mean I did not thoroughly enjoy Fallon’s action-packed advert.
Danielle Jacoby
Soap Awards Of The Week – 26 Oct 2009
October 26, 2009 by Sean Marland
Filed under - Home, Features
Soap writers are a sadistic bunch. Usually they spend their time screwing over innocent/stupid/gormless people, but every once in a while they dish out hot steamy plates of justice to a thoroughly reprehensible character.
This week’s financial demise of Rosie Webster definitely fits this profile. When Michelle dragged this tramp down the street by her hair, we thought that some sort of comeuppance had been levied against the harlot, but those all-powerful writers were only just getting started.
How we laughed when Luke took all of Rosie’s lovely money and ran – ironically enough she was trying to invest the cash in knickers! Read More…
Skycar Interview: Neil Laughton
Ex-marine Neil Laughton is no stranger to danger.
Indeed, as a man who has climbed the highest mountain on every continent, he has laughed in death’s boney face on several occasions.
But none of the various challenges that he had previously taken on could prepare him for this expedition. What use is it being an experienced pilot when you’re flying a bloody car?
Following his trip to Africa in the soon-to-be-famous ‘skycar’ he chatted to OTB about hanging around with Bear Grylls, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and most importantly, how long we will have to wait to get our hands on a aero-buggy. Read More…
The Lowdown: Things You Never Knew About Heath Ledger
October 13, 2009 by OntheBox
Filed under - Home, Features, The Lowdown
Heath Ledger’s tragic death last year of an accidental overdose rocked the film world.
One of its rising stars, acclaimed for his work on Brokeback Mountain, The Dark Knight (for which he won a posthumous Oscar for Best Supporting Actor), he was working on Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (review here) when he met his untimely death.
Imaginarium is out on the 16th of October with Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell stepping in to fill the gaps that Ledger’s death left in the filming. So, in memory of Heath Ledger, here are 10 things you might not have known about the multi-talented star. Read More…
Modern Family Trailer
On October 15, brand new comedy sitcom MODERN FAMILY will find its home on Sky1 HD and Sky1. From the Emmy® award-winning writers of Frasier, the mockumentary style series centres around three very different American family units who are being followed by a film crew. It quickly becomes apparent that they are anything but the husband + wife + 2.4 children.
The pilot episode has already garnered considerable critical acclaim in the US: USA Today called it “smart, funny and well-cast”, Variety named it “one of the best comedy pilots in a long time” and Time Magazine found it “the funniest new family comedy of the year…very, very funny”. Plus, it has already attracted a big name guest star in the shape of Edward Norton, who will play a band bassist in an episode later in the year.
Modern Family starts on October 15th at 8pm on Sky One and continues every Thursday hereafter.
Sold?: Emmerdale – False Advertising On The Farm
In a list of ironic TV names, Charity Dingle would have to rank very close to the top.
This woman has spent more time gold-digging than Heather Mills, and would struggle to tell the difference between a copy of the Big Issue and the Emmerdale Examiner.
She isn’t the most unsuitably named person on television though, that honour has to go to her sister – Chastity.
But that’s quite enough of the Dingle family’s penchant for ridiculous titles. Read More…
The Lowdown: Things You Never Knew About Robert Carlyle
October 7, 2009 by OntheBox
Filed under - Home, Features, The Lowdown
Robert Carlyle is landing back on our screens this week as maths extraordinaire, Dr Nicholas Rush, in Sky1’s brand new series, Stargate Universe.
Amazingly, we have to wait until nearly half-way through the second episode for him to start lecturing the other cast members on the trials of a childhood in working-class Glasgow.
However when he’s not waxing lyrical about the ship-yard, he is doing some good acting and adds a nice British flavour to a very slick American sci-fi.
So we decided to grant him the honour of an OTB lowdown. The timing was perfect. Read More…
