Business Diary: A McDonald to lead McDonald's

Congrats (we think) to Steve Easterbrook. The boss of McDonald's UK and president of Northern Europe has been promoted to "global chief brand officer" (whatever that is). But Diary could not help but notice the deliciously convenient surname of his successor: step forward Jill McDonald, who moves up from her job as the chief marketing officer at McDonald's UK. Ms McDonald (no relation to founders Dick and Mac McDonald) has been at the fast food giant since 2006, and will be hoping it's more than just her surname that attracts attention over the coming months.

E -Trade inspires wrath of Lohan

Diary sees that favourite tabloid trainwreck Lindsay Lohan is suing the financial company E-Trade. The actress is apparently claiming that a boyfriend-stealing, "milkaholic" baby in E-Trade's latest commercial was modelled upon her (well it is called Lindsay). She wants $100m for her "pain and suffering", according to the New York Post, and has filed a lawsuit in Nassau County Supreme Court over the ad that debuted during the Super Bowl this year. If no one linked it to La Lohan then, they sure will now.

Googling a bad Google idea

A press release arrives from SEO, which describes itself as a "UK-based independent specialist search and social marketing agency". Apparently it has discovered that Google is trialling a "streaming" search engine which updates results as you type. Diary checked out (on Google) and found it had created quite a buzz in tech geek land. It rather strikes us, though, as bringing predictive text to the internet, which is anything but a happy development. Back to the drawing board please Google.

Dancing on Sir Stuart's grave

Clever people, eh. They sometimes say really, really silly things, and there was a real humdinger on the BBC's News 24 channel. Its commentator on Sir Stuart Rose's 10 years at Marks & Spencer suggested that he should, erm, have the term "survivor" engraved upon his tombstone. Oops.

businessdiary@independent.co.uk