|
The Only Way Is Essex has proved to be very lucrative for all those who have bagged starring roles in the popular ITV show.
Having joined the cast towards the end of series five Danni Park-Dempsey didn't really get a chance to make an impact with viewers.
So now that the cast are having some downtime new girl Danni stepped out last night in Essex in an outfit that would have made anyone think she has a leading role in the show.
New girl in town: TOWIE's Danni Park-Dempsey (centre) shows off her toned legs as she heads to Funky Mojoe
The bubbly Essex girl stunned in a very short flowing white chiffon skirt which showed off her toned legs as she headed to Funky Mojoe in South Woodford.
She teamed the skirt with a beige shirt which was unbuttoned to ensure her ample cleavage was on display as she hit up TOWIE's hotspot.
Danni completed her look with a pair of strapped metallic skyscraper heels and she accessorised with a silver crucifix necklace and several beaded bracelets.
Popular girl: The Essex beauty received a kiss from one of her friends as they made their way to the club
Excited to hit the town with her girl pals, earlier in the day the reality TV star took to her Twitter page to update her followers.
She tweeted, 'Can't wait for @FUNKYMOJOE tonight with all my girls x'
Enjoying the evening and starting to feel the effects of the alcohol, she tweeted, 'Wow I let my hair down for one night and one night only #tipsy #love x'
Showing off her assets: The 21-year-old tweeted that she had allowed herself to let her hair down for once
Last night before the 21-year-old retired to her bed she posted one more tweet which read, 'Night had the best night x'
Danni's appearance last night differed in comparison to the few times she received cameos in the Bafta award-winning show where she seemed to be plain Jane.
In the last episode of TOWIE Danni looked dressed down as she sat comforting Lucy Mecklenburgh alongside her BFF Lydia Bright when she donned a navy blue play suit.
In the shadow: Danni showed off a more demure side to her wardrobe when she featured in TOWIE
Source: www.dailymail.co.uk
Sacked Celtic coach Alan Thompson calls off divorce as he reunites with estranged wife - Daily Record
Jun 10 2012 Exclusive by Lynn McPherson and Steve Smith, Sunday Mail
Sunday Mail front page from 2011 when Alan Thompson and wife Joanne split
How the Sunday Mail broke the story last year
SACKED Celtic coach Alan Thompson has won back his estranged wife as he prepares to sue over his dismissal.
The former Hoops star has reunited with Joanne after she furiously accused him of a fling with a former Britney Spears lookalike.
We can reveal that the couple have now agreed to call off their divorce with Thompson concentrating on taking his proposed legal action against the Parkhead club.
His lawyers have already discussed the possibility of suing for unfair dismissal.
First team coach Thompson, 38, was dismissed by telephone on Sunday after refusing to meet with Parkhead boss and long-time friend Neil Lennon in his home town of Newcastle.
But speaking to the Sunday Mail yesterday, he said he “couldn’t be happier” after moving back in with his wife and three children.
He has told pals he is furious over claims that he was sacked over his lifestyle and claims that his drinking had become an issue for the club’s management.
Thompson said: “Things couldn’t be better.
“I’m off to Portugal and then Dubai and things are great.
“I’ve had the best week and I couldn’t be happier.
“I won’t be saying anything about the job and anything that is said will come from my solicitor.”
His 15-year marriage to Joanne hit the rocks in December 2010 and months later, she had divorce papers served on him at Celtic’s training complex at Lennoxtown.
At the time, it seemed likely there was no way back. But delighted Joanne told us: “We are back together. The divorce is off.
“I’m not at liberty to reveal anything about Alan’s job.”
One source said: “Alan is amazed that his lifestyle could be called into question when in fact he has been working quietly behind the scenes to get his marriage back on track.
“He and Jo have actually been quietly trying to repair things since January.”
“He enjoys going to the pub but it’s not as if he is going around causing trouble.”
Another source said: “There may have been tensions among the coaching staff at Celtic over wages and responsibilities.
“Everyone thinks of Thommo as the assistant manager but he isn’t – that’s Johan Mjallby.
“Alan had a higher profile and was a higher earner because he was already in a job with Newcastle United when Celtic hired him.
“Some people think there may have been tensions behind the scenes as a result.”
On Friday, Thompson and wife Joanne enjoyed a couple of drinks together in a pub near her new home in Ponteland, on the outskirts of Newcastle.
Blonde Joanne joined the sacked Celtic coach at the Diamond Inn – a favourite haunt of Newcastle United and Sunderland footballers.
The couple spent an hour standing at the bar with their young daughter before driving away.
An onlooker said: “Alan is a regular at the Diamond because it’s very discreet and there are always footballers in there – they don’t get any hassle.
“He was drinking lager, then his wife and daughter arrived just before 7pm and she had a glass of wine as they chatted at the bar for an hour.
“They were just like any other couple meeting for a teatime drink on a Friday. They seemed pretty relaxed.
“Alan was obviously still very upset about being sacked from Celtic because he kept talking about it and what Celtic said publicly about what happened.” Thompson, 38, played for the Glasgow side between 2000 and 2007, scoring 37 goals for the club.
He also helped Celtic win four Scottish Premier League titles and three Scottish Cups before returning to Parkhead in 2010 as a member of Lennon’s backroom staff.
When he took the post as first team coach, Thompson moved into a plush apartment in Glasgow’s west end, while Joanne and their three children remained at the family home in Morpeth, Northumberland.
He insisted the break-up was “amicable” when he confirmed the couple were divorcing last year – but former ballet dancer Joanne said their marriage foundered due to Alan’s “mid-life crisis”.
At the time, Joanne revealed: “We were idyllically married.
“I will never discredit my marriage. He is having a midlife crisis, so he can get on with it.”
She added: “I’m going to write a book about this and I want every single other footballer’s wife in the world that’s had it done to them to stand up and applaud me.”
Thompson was then spotted out with new girlfriend and mum-of-three Kirsty McLeod, a 34-year-old former model and one-time Britney Spears lookalike.
Joanne and the children moved out of the six-bedroom Morpeth home, which has been on the market for £1.3million since 2010 and now lies empty.
Kirsty declined to comment at her home in the west end of Glasgow.
The former Celtic coach’s two-bedroom Glasgow bachelor pad was also put on the market in April at offers over £340,000 and he has moved into his wife’s new home near Newcastle.
A statement earlier released from Thompson’s solicitors Bridge Litigation after his departure from the SPL champions said he was “profoundly disappointed” but hoped the situation could be resolved “amicably.”
Source: www.dailyrecord.co.uk
Health Care Reform: Undoing Obama's Health Law Could Have Messy Ripple Effects - Huffington Post
WASHINGTON -- It sounds like a silver lining. Even if the Supreme Court overturns President Barack Obama's health care law, employers can keep offering popular coverage for the young adult children of their workers.
But here's the catch: The parents' taxes would go up.
That's only one of the messy potential ripple effects when the Supreme Court delivers its verdict on the Affordable Care Act this month. The law affects most major components of the U.S. health care system in its effort to extend coverage to millions of uninsured people.
Because the legislation is so complicated, an orderly unwinding would prove difficult if it were overturned entirely or in part.
Better Medicare prescription benefits, currently saving hundreds of dollars for older people with high drug costs, would be suspended. Ditto for preventive care with no co-payments, now available to retirees and working families alike.
Partially overturning the law could leave hospitals, insurers and other service providers on the hook for tax increases and spending cuts without the law's promise of more paying customers to offset losses.
If the law is upheld, other kinds of complications could result.
The nation is so divided that states led by Republicans are largely unprepared to carry out critical requirements such as creating insurance markets. Things may not settle down.
"At the end of the day, I don't think any of the major players in the health insurance industry or the provider community really wants to see the whole thing overturned," said Christine Ferguson, a health policy expert who was commissioner of public health in Massachusetts when Mitt Romney was governor.
"Even though this is not the most ideal solution, at least it is moving us forward, and it does infuse some money into the system for coverage," said Ferguson, now at George Washington University. As the GOP presidential candidate, Romney has pledged to wipe Obama's law off the books. But he defends his Massachusetts law that served as a prototype for Obama's.
While it's unclear how the justices will rule, oral arguments did not go well for the Obama administration. The central issue is whether the government can require individuals to have health insurance and fine them if they don't.
That mandate takes effect in 2014, at the same time that the law would prohibit insurance companies from denying coverage to people with existing health problems. Most experts say the coverage guarantee would balloon costs unless virtually all people joined the insurance pool.
Opponents say Congress overstepped its constitutional authority by issuing the insurance mandate. The administration says the requirement is permissible because it serves to regulate interstate commerce. Most people already are insured. The law provides subsidies to help uninsured middle-class households pay premiums and expands Medicaid to pick up more low-income people.
The coverage for young adults up to age 26 on a parent's health insurance is a popular provision that no one's arguing about. A report last week from the Commonwealth Fund estimated that 6.6 million young adults have taken advantage of the benefit, while a new Gallup survey showed the uninsured rate for people age 18-25 continues to decline, down to 23 percent from 28 percent when the law took effect.
Families will be watching to see if their 20-somethings transitioning to the work world will get to keep that newfound security.
Because the benefit is a winner with consumers, experts say many employers and insurers would look for ways to keep offering it even if there's no legal requirement to do so.
But economist Paul Fronstin of the Employee Benefit Research Institute says many parents would pay higher taxes as a result because they would have to pay for the young adult's coverage with after-tax dollars. Under the health care law, that coverage now comes out of pre-tax dollars.
Fronstin says there's no way to tell exactly how much that tax increase might be, but a couple of hundred dollars a year or more is a reasonable ballpark estimate. Upper-income taxpayers would have a greater liability.
"Adult children aren't necessarily dependents for tax purposes, but an employer can allow anyone to be on a plan, just like they now allow domestic partners," said Fronstin. "If your employer said, `I'm going to let you keep this,' it would become a taxable benefit for certain people."
Advocates for the elderly are also worried about untoward ripple effects.
If the entire law is overturned, seniors with high prescription costs in Medicare's "donut hole" coverage gap could lose annual discounts averaging about $600. AARP policy director David Certner says he would hope the discounts could remain in place at least through the end of this year.
Yet that might not be possible. Lacking legal authority, Medicare would have to take away the discounts. Drugmakers, now bearing the cost, could decide they want to keep offering discounts voluntarily. But then they'd risk running afoul of other federal rules that bar medical providers from offering financial inducements to Medicare recipients.
"I don't think anyone has any idea," said Certner.
A mixed verdict from the high court would be the most confusing outcome. Some parts of the law would be struck down while others lurch ahead.
That kind of result would seem to call for Congress to step in and smooth any necessary adjustments. Yet partisan divisions on Capitol Hill are so intense that hardly anyone sees a chance that would happen this year.
Also on HuffPost:
Source: www.huffingtonpost.com
Law of the Sea Treaty may be improved, but remains deeply flawed - Human Events (blog)
One of President Ronald Reagan’s finest hours was in 1982 when he killed that year’s version of the Law of the Sea Treaty. With the apt acronym LOST, the treaty would have ceded sovereignty and taxing authority over the oceans throughout the world to the United Nations.
Now, the Law of the Sea Treaty is back, supposedly refurbished so well in a 1994 reworking of the agreement that some say Reagan now would support it. The new version is supported by President George H.W. Bush, Reagan’s vice president, and by President George W. Bush, as well as by five Republican secretaries of state: George Shultz and James A. Baker III, who served in that post under Reagan, Henry Kissinger, Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice.
“Flaws in the treaty regarding deep-seabed mining, which prevented President Ronald Reagan from supporting it, were fixed in 1994,” the five secretaries wrote in the Wall Street Journal on May 30. They added that other problems had been dealt with. Some Senate Republicans already have pledged support: Dick Lugar of Indiana, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Olympia Snowe of Maine.
But not so fast. Writing June 5 in the Los Angeles Times, former Reagan Attorney General Edwin Meese III insisted that Reagan would not sign the treaty today because it still poses “a direct threat to American sovereignty.” He added, “President Reagan so strongly opposed the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea that he didn’t just not sign the treaty. He very publicly refused to sign it. He also dismissed the State Department staff that helped negotiate it.” Tough guy.
“Reagan would not support it,” Doug Bandow told us; during the LOST debate 30 years ago he helped craft Reagan administration policy as a deputy representative to the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea, which concluded in 1982. He is now a senior fellow at the libertarian Cato Institute. Seabed mining, in fact, remains a problem in his view, even though changes have made the section “better than it was.”
These seabeds under the world’s oceans—71 percent of the world’s surface—effectively would become U.N. property and the Law of the Sea Treaty would empower a new international bureaucracy, the International Seabed Authority. Only recently was America even granted a permanent seat on the governing council. “But that doesn’t mean anything,” Bandow said, because America easily could be outvoted by 35 other council members.
The authority could tax income and redistribute proceeds from America’s and other developed countries’ production on those seabeds to Third World countries—or, as is so often the case, to Third World despots’ Swiss bank accounts. LOST’s language even says the money could be given to “peoples who have not attained full independence or other self-governing status”—that is, almost anybody.
Supporters cite certainty, China
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce supports LOST, arguing that the treaty “provides certainty in accessing resources in the Arctic and Antarctic and could ultimately enable American businesses to explore the vast natural resources contained in the seabeds in those areas.”
LOST supporters, such as a May 9 editorial in the Christian Science Monitor, also contend that it would help temper Chinese claims to large portions of the South China Sea and other areas. China is one of 162 countries that have signed the treaty. “I am utterly baffled by how they think the Chinese will behave better under the treaty,” Bandow said. “China already said LOST doesn’t apply to the South China Sea. In a real crisis, it won’t matter. These are issues of great power politics.”
Currently, American sea interests are protected by the U.S. Navy, by far the most powerful naval force on earth. Critical shipping lanes such as the Strait of Hormuz or the Strait of Malacca are more likely to be kept open by the U.S. Navy, not by treaty.
Finally, as Human Events’ Hope Hodge reports on page 12, Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) proposes a “Madisonian” approach that would retain valuable navigation rights for businesses and the U.S. Navy, but allow Congress to dispense with other provisions that encroached on American autonomy. But, the treaty can’t be split into “good treaty” and “bad treaty.”
Senate 1994 rejection
The treaty was signed by President Bill Clinton in 1994, but he couldn’t muster the two-thirds approval needed in the Senate to make it a binding treaty, and the Senate has not voted on it since. Hearings were held May 23 this year by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, chaired by Sen. John Kerry, (D-Mass.) He said more hearings are forthcoming. But a vote wouldn’t happen until after the presidential election. At that point, even if Republicans take back control of the Senate, the treaty could be approved by the lame-duck Democratic majority joined by renegade Republicans. So, it’s possible a treaty signed by a Democratic president back in 1994 could be approved by a Democratic Senate repudiated by voters in November.
In short, the Law of the Sea Treaty is still LOST, even if improved. It is not the best path, the only path and certainly not a guaranteed path toward America’s energy self-reliance. In fact, relinquishing even a limited measure of U.S. sovereignty to a worldwide organization could precipitate mischief we can’t begin to imagine.
Source: www.humanevents.com
Essex and Suffolk links to international coaches - East Anglian Daily Times
Head coach Ian Pont with the trophy after leading Dhaka Gladiators to victory in the inaugural Bangladesh Premier League
By Nick Garnham
Sunday, June 10, 2012
9:00 AM
THE appointment of former Suffolk cricketer Richard Pybus as coach of Bangladesh has re-affirmed the rich seam of coaching talent with Suffolk and Essex links.
Former Sudbury and Halstead pace bowler Pybus, 47, who has been living and coaching in South Africa for several years now, worked with Pakistan at two World Cups.
He was appointed coach of Pakistan in 1999 but sacked just a month into the job after losing three Tests in Australia, and returning to work in South Africa, where he has led Border and Titans to ten championship finals, winning six of them and twice doing the double.
Pybus, who turned to coaching after his playing career was cut short by injury, has now taken on the challenge of coaching Bangladesh on a two-year contract.
Below is a list of cricketers with Suffolk and Essex links who have made their mark in recent years in the coaching world at international level.
Stuart Law: Pybus replaces the former Essex batsman as coach of Bangladesh. Law stood down less than a year into his two-year contract for family reasons. The Australian was a popular player at Chelmsford between 1996 and 2001 before a falling out saw him move to Lancashire.
Andy Flower: The former Zimbabwe wicket-keeper and batsman played for Essex from 2002 until 2006, before being assistant coach of the England team in 2007. Following the departure of Peter Moores in 2009, Flower became the full-time England team director.
Graham Gooch: The former Essex and England captain took over as head coach of Essex from 2001 until 2005. He remained as the county’s batting coach and in 2009 he was appointed as England’s ‘temporary’ batting coach, which subsequently became a permanent role. He stepped down as Essex’s batting coach after he was appointed full-time to the England role earlier this year.
Keith Fletcher: The ex-Essex and England captain was England team manager from 1993-1995. He subsequently returned to Essex as first-team coach before stepping down in 2001.
Alan Butcher: The former Surrey and Glamorgan batsman was coach of Essex in 1993 and later coached Surrey from 2005 until 2008. Butcher, who won one Test cap for England, was appointed coach of Zimbabwe in 2011 and has overseen their return to Test cricket.
Grant Flower: Following his retirement from Test cricket in 2004, Grant followed his brother Andy to Essex, where he played for six seasons, combining playing with being batting coach in 2010 before retiring to take up the role as Zimbabwe’s batting coach. He made a surprise, but brief return to the national side, before retiring in January last year to concentrate on his role as batting coach.
Ian Pont: The ex-Essex fast bowler was named as Bangladesh bowling coach in September 2010, but decided not to extend his contract beyond the World Cup early last year when they had a chance to qualify for the quarter-finals after beating England. In March this year he was head coach of the Dhaka Gladiators side that won the inaugural Bangladesh Premier League.
Don Topley: The former Essex bowler, who is now a cricket coach at the Royal Hospital School at Holbrook, just outside Ipswich, coached Zimbabwe between 1990 and 1992, famously leading the minnows to victory over England, captained by Gooch, by nine runs at the 1992 World Cup in Australia.
Source: www.eadt.co.uk
LAW 'N HISTORY: Old whiskey and young women - Patriot Ledger
He was the original Tasmanian devil; a charming rogue as dashing and devilish off the screen as he was on it. At a fit and muscular 6-foot-2 and 180 pounds, the seemingly permanently bronzed hulk, complete with a cleft chin and dimples, looked every bit the movie star that he was. Perhaps unknowingly being far more insightful than he intended, he described his life as, “I like my whiskey old and my women young.” Little did he know he was describing his downfall.
Errol Flynn was born on June 20, 1909 in Australia. Tasmania to be exact. After a somewhat turbulent school career which found him in trouble for fighting and having sex with the daughter of a school official, he left for a succession of jobs before finding his true calling- acting. His first role, a minor one filmed in New Guinea, was in 1933. Two years later he married the French actress Lili Damita, who bore him one son. The lore of Hollywood beckoned and soon he was in America.
His big break came when Warner Brothers, searching for a film to ride in the wake of MGM’s popular Mutiny on the Bounty, cast him in the lead of Captain Blood. The movie was a major hit. Soon he starred in a movie that would forever define him, The Adventures of Robin Hood, in which he again played the debonair swashbuckler.
As busy as he was working, and despite being married, his nightlife was never-ending. He partied and he drank, not necessarily in that order. Many of his female cohorts, whom he often met in the fast lane of show business, were attractive and young. It thus came as little surprise, to the Hollywood crowd at least, that in 1942, the year of his divorce, he was charged with two counts of statutory rape, of having sexual relations, at different times, with two 16-year-olds, Betty Hansen, an aspiring actress, Peggy Satterlee, a nightclub dancer.
The trial, which ran for nearly a month in early 1943, was itself like a Flynn movie, complete with his multitude of adoring fans mobbing the court scene. Starring in the role of his primary defender was Jerry Geisler, the high powered attorney to the stars. The jury was packed with women who, Geisler hoped, would be drawn to the charismatic defendant, who sat quietly as the two young girls detailed the lurid details from the witness stand.
The pretty, and innocently attired, Betty Hanson took the stand first and detailed how she had dinner with Errol at the home of one of his friends. Of how she drank some foul-tasting drink which sickened her. Errol took her upstairs where they had sex.
Satterfield, similarly, told the enraptured jurors that Flynn took advantage of her on his yacht. Indicative of their relationship, Flynn had nicknamed her “J.B.” (for jail bait). On successive evenings, they shared nights of unwelcomed bliss on the gentle ocean.
On cross, Geisler had a field day with both witnesses, which at some points had spectators either laughing or shaking their heads in disbelief. The witnesses confused their stories and readily admitted to sordid pasts.
Although he probably didn’t need to, Flynn took the stand and casually testified that he never had sexual relations with the two young ladies. After deliberating for thirteen hours, the jury entered a packed and tense courtroom and rendered its verdict.
In a scene worthy of a Hollywood drama, bedlam broke out. The crowd cheered wildly as the defendant spontaneously leapt to his feet, a broad smile stretching his handsome face. Flashbulbs popped. Female admirers rushed to touch the star. The judge rendered the final review when he told the jury, which had just presided over a lengthy trial involving the alleged ravaging of two young females, “I have enjoyed the case, and I think you have.”
While similar scandals had wrecked careers in the past, this one had the opposite effect. Errol’s popularity soared. Indeed, indicative of his devil may care persona, a term was coined which found popularity throughout the world, “In like Flynn.”
As always, Flynn remained in character. During the down time of his trial, the bad boy spent much of his time wooing eighteen year old Nora Eddington, who worked in a nearby food stand. When she became pregnant, they wed. They had two children before divorcing in 1949.
Epilogue
A year later he wed for the third time. Despite being married, he, as always, took up with another female, this one an aspiring actress, Beverly Aadland. Calling her by her nickname, he sighed, “Here I go again Woodsey.” She was 15.
This romance however would not end like the others. His lifetime of drinking and carousing took its ultimate revenge. His good looks, like his career and health, faded. He died in 1959, having recently just turned 50.
Jamie Wells assisted in the preliminary research of this article. Marc Kantrowitz, who is writing longer versions of his columns for a future book, can be reached at rmarckantrowitz@comcast.net.
Source: www.patriotledger.com
No comments:
Post a Comment