Ginger: nuts?

For what it's worth, my Billie-Evans theory: this is a beard-type scam. She is gay and he is, er, ugly and even paid-for gurls wd not touch him with YOURS. The beard solves this tricky PR prob, tho frankly I believe BP will be happier when she comes out and admits what everyone else knows... that GE is really really ugly.

I think this episode is the definitive End of Lad Culture, however, and proof of why that "movement" deserves its discrediting.

The moment Matthew Bannister allowed him to patronise and sneer at the entire population of Inverness, it was all over (non- coincidentally, I stopped listening to his show at that point, and never returned).

But smug irritating rubbish is marginally more interesting than whatever else the other channels had on, hence my having seen (nb not watched) almost every single show I was home for, because there was *nothing* else on. Of course the whole world only bothered watching the last 15 minutes when the BBC put the Simpsons up against it (one of their only good moves of at least the last 5 years, though given their rampant incompetence otherwise, I'm filing this under random coincidence rather than any kind of broadcasting skill). Is Chris Evans entire post-Toothbrush career based around being not quite as boring as whatever else was on? Discuss.

(Can this be extended to other ginger people? eg Haliwell as the only vaguely interesting Spice Girl?)

Laddism has always been, and always will be, *around*, and there are always a certain number of people like that, but I'd agree with Greg that that era when it was *marketed* and was something a lot of people in the middle ground aspired to has definitively finished (I'm sure, if this forum had existed then, we'd have said the same thing when Oasis's last effort bombed). It'll go back to being just *there*, bubbling under, as ever ...

Er, who's this thread about again? I'm insane, aren't I?

I was thinking it was slang for "sexy".

Evans is at his best when trying something new. He is at his worst when complacent and bored (cf the appalling Inverness thing). At the moment he is suggesting he is going to try and make Bille the biggest thing since Madonna. Good luck to him - its a challenge. I used to really like him on GLR back in the early nineties.

I think he was rather late on the lad culture boat to be fair.

The following will probably go down in ILE/ILM history as prime fodder for pseud's corner, but I think it's worth an airing and hey, it's a kind of ambition of mine. A few years ago, I'd moved to Shepherd's Bush (temporarily; I must stress I LOATHE West London as place to live and am now back in the (east) central bit) and The Artist Elsewhere Known As Momus arrived one sunny afternoon to nose around my new flat and gloat that HE still lived in Clerkenwell. After divebombing all the charity shops, we shuffled up the road to the closest poncey bar, which was Pharmacy, at the time a big celebrity hidey-hole. Still, we didn't expect to see, across the almost-empty room at another table, Evans, Paul Gascoigne, fucking Five Bellies and other assorted 'mates' beginning the pub crawl that turned into the kebab run splashed all over the Sun, etc., the real beginning of end for Christopher. Yes, it was a slow news day: Drunk Man Buys Kebab, Not At Work Next Day is a one in three statistic rather than headline fodder here in old Blighty. Nick was mortified to see Tabloid Culture at close range, but then suddenly sat up like the prize swot with the right answer in class. "I've noticed," he intoned, "that THOSE people sitting at THAT table are wildly famous here, whereas people at THIS table are wildly famous absolutely everywhere else." Mwahahaha...

Anyway, imagine you are the girl half of London is calling Chazbaps. Here are your choices: hedonistic multi-millionaire with nuclear hair and lots of toys to SHARE or dumb guys in boy bands with limited earning potential and a communal brain cell. Hmmm, difficult...

I find myself quite unable to point my gaydar in CE's direction, esp. when he's near Five Bellies. I know that's wrong and prejudiced of me — but there you are. The Straights Can Have Him, Whoever He Does.

Anyway, Rod Stewart joined them later on at that drinks session and I Have Heard Stories...

PF: Chazbaps is a nickname stemming from an alleged incident involving Class A's (that's the chaz part) snorted off a certain teen pop star's breasts (hence 'baps', which is Britspeak for big, soft, bun-like rolls for sandwiches and one of the millions of terms coined by British men to describe the mammary gland), the piece of gossip which was the making of the Popbitch message board.

Hmm, whenever I see Billie Piper I really do imagine an alternate reality where big hair and a big baby also feature, because she's on some pebbledashed, owner-occupied Swindon housing estate.

Either way, much shouting in the local Tesco.

Don't see where Rod comes in. I like Rod.

Interesting thing for the Sinker, should he be scanning for Buffy tat (I sympathise): just discovered my friend is Giles' niece, and even better, she's a record company press person with reasonable roster, so you may have actually spoken to her!

I don't get this.

??? this thread