Unflattering film credit for Hartlepool

Mon, 08 Oct 2007 00:00:00 BST
A perpetually dark and rainy metropolis characterised by widespread social decay, Ridley Scott’s futuristic Los Angeles in the film Blade Runner is one of cinema’s more depressing depictions.

Harman gaffe adds to Brown woes

Sun, 07 Oct 2007 16:15:13 BST
Gordon Brown's Labour colleagues took to the airwaves today to defend his decision to back away from an early election but his credibility took another knock when his party deputy conceded that the episode could prove politically damaging.

Talking tosh on Mars and Venus

Sun, 07 Oct 2007 00:00:00 BST
So it turns out that after all the rows about the washing up, the shopping and the school run, men are not from Mars nor women from Venus. Both sexes are, rather prosaically, from Earth. And, despite anecdotal evidence to the contrary, men and women do speak the same language.

Popping the art bubble

Sun, 07 Oct 2007 00:00:00 BST
This Friday evening a couple of dollars are up for sale at Sotheby’s contemporary art auction in London. One of them, entitled Triple Dollar Sign, is a familiar image by Andy Warhol. The other piece coming under the hammer comprises 204 ice white turbo reflector caps, lamps, plastic bulb covers, daisy washers, light bulbs and a lacquered brass electronic sequencer. These bulbs are arranged in an S-shape crossed with two vertical bars.

Separating fact from fiction in the great Diana conspiracy

Sun, 07 Oct 2007 00:00:00 BST
In his many years as a judge, Lord Justice Scott Baker has played numerous distinguished roles. He served on the ground-breaking Warnock committee on the ethics of embryo science, and famously jailed a former cabinet minister, Jonathan Aitken. But his long career will now be remembered for his nominally lowly – and temporary – role as west London’s deputy coroner.

Seven days

Sun, 07 Oct 2007 00:00:00 BST
<b>Most of Europe has better healthcare than Britain</b>

What modern women want: a beta male

Sun, 07 Oct 2007 00:00:00 BST
Last week I went to dinner with an eligible doctor. As we were finishing the main course, I struck up conversation with the owner (Marco) in Italian – I speak five languages. My date nearly choked on his linguini and spent the rest of the date mute. I had committed the worst dating faux pas: I had outshone my suitor.

A meaner, leaner 21st century Sloane

Sun, 07 Oct 2007 00:00:00 BST
The Eighties changed the traditional “Sloane” upper-middle-class British culture for ever. The American author Michael Lewis, who wrote Liar’s Poker and The New New Thing, told me how he had seen the change happen first-hand while he was working in London for Salomon Brothers, the New York investment bank, in the newly deregulated City.

The day the music industry died

Sun, 07 Oct 2007 00:00:00 BST
Having waited four years for their heroes to finish another record, Radiohead fans were understandably excited last week to learn that the band’s seventh album, In Rainbows, will finally be released on Wednesday. But what really rocked the fanbase – and heightened the air of gloom enveloping the global record industry – was the news that In Rainbows could be preordered and downloaded perfectly legally for as little as 1p at Radio-head.com.

Hidden heartache of the weekend mothers

Sun, 07 Oct 2007 00:00:00 BST
Last week the troubled pop star Britney Spears lost custody of her two children. Whatever your view of Spears’s agonisingly public unravelling – appearing with no underwear, shaving her head, driving without a licence, driving with a child on her lap, charged with a hit and run accident – last Monday’s judgment awarding custody of Sean Preston, 2, and Jayden James, 1, to her bitter exhusband Kevin Federline highlights a growing trend.

_{Copyright 2007 Times Newspapers Ltd.}