Diary: P Diddy is acting the part
Thursday 27 May 2010
Latest in Diary
Related articles
On Facebook
From the blogs
Disclosure: We’d never even been to a club when we made our first single
For most of us, reaching eighteen years of age opens up a new world for exploration, spontaneity and...
Sepp Blatter: Penalty shoot-outs must remain, they’re football’s great leveller
As England supporters, we should scorn at any such deciding factor within football. On so many occas...
Why do some men consider the street as a female meat market?
Pronouncements on sexual inequality in the UK are normally met with an eye roll by my generation. As...
Political corruption reflects the widening chasm between the political class and the electorate
The corruption and hypocrisy which has come to characterise politics and politicians, and in particu...
In "acting" news, Diddy, known to your parents as Puff Daddy, to you and me as P Diddy, and to his acting agent as Sean Combs, has appeared as a guest on US television's
Inside The Actors' Studio. The show is an opportunity for actors to discuss their craft without fear of being asked any question more awkward than "What's your motivation?" Greats such as Pacino, De Niro and Jennifer Lopez come here to bask in the adoration of earnest, beard-wearing interviewer James Lipton before an audience of his acting students. The Actor's Studio is the New York drama school known as the home of method acting, and Diddy assured Lipton that he had improvised all of his scenes in the new comedy film
Get Him to the Greek – which also stars his fellow renaissance man Russell Brand. "I've always been fascinated with the art of storytelling," Diddy told the rapt assembly of aspiring part-time waiters. The 40-year-old Combs' acting CV is somewhat thinner than his musical one, but does include two whole episodes of
CSI: Miami.
***
Novelist Tibor Fischer is rather less famous for his novels than for his excoriating review of Martin Amis's 2003 book Yellow Dog, which he described as "like your favourite uncle being caught in a school playground, masturbating". Fischer found space to take a side-swipe at Amis's great friend Christopher Hitchens in that piece, and has now grasped a new opportunity to debunk Hitch at length, reviewing the journalist's memoir for the latest issue of Standpoint magazine. Hitch-22, Fischer writes, is "far too long and meandering" with "vast expanses of what J D Salinger so pithily termed the 'David Copperfield crap'". He yawns at tales of drinking with Amis and Ian McEwan, disputes Hitch's classical references, and questions his knowledge of bullfighting. "The great boon of being a media gadfly," Fischer suggests, in what may be a self-reflexive moment, "[is] you have all the joy of condemnation, without any of the tiresome business of responsibility." Trashing the great literary figures of our age? It's a living. Rushdie – you're next.
***
It's a feud every bit as literary as Fischer vs the Amis gang. You might think Piers Morgan and Jeremy Clarkson were mature enough to have buried the hatchet by now. The pair's long-running beef reached its peak with a now-notorious punch-up at the British Press Awards in 2004. Both have since been busy breaking America with their particular brand of British charm. But stone me if Piers isn't to be found stirring the pot again, this time with a puff quote for his one-time fellow hack Wensley Clarkson's new motoring-themed memoir, Car Trouble. "Wensley Clarkson," Morgan claims on its front cover, "is Jeremy Clarkson with brains."
***
Sarah Teather, Michael Gove's Liberal Democrat deputy at the Department of Education, criticised academies during the last parliament. Now they're a flagship policy for the Coalition. A call to the Department's press office seems in order. How, I ask, does Ms Teather feel about the hypothetical possibility that she'll have to defend academies in the Commons, should Mr Gove be indisposed? "Hang on," says a spokesman. "Sorry, you've faded... Hello? The phone's cutting out. I'll try and..." The phone cuts out. Wow. Have I hit a nerve? Sadly not. He's just transferring me to another line. "The academies policy is the settled decision of the Government," he says. "As far as academies are concerned, they're both singing from the same hymn sheet." Give me a break, I'm new here.
***
The website w4mp.org finds jobs for aspiring political aides, but is running rather low on Westminster roles in the current climate. Still, there's a position going as a diary-keeper and speech-writer for a "Former World Statesman" from a Commonwealth country. "Some travel will be involved," apparently. Sounds like a sweet gig, so my glamorous assistant High Street Barbie puts in a call to the agency responsible for the offer, to enquire as to the identity of said statesman. Are we talking developed world or developing? Northern hemisphere or southern? The flustered girl on the other end won't divulge anything. How can we apply for it if we don't know who it's for? "It's not Tony Blair," she admits. "It would be a lot more exciting if it was." We'd guessed that much already: the salary is £20k, far less exciting than what Mr Blair could offer his staff nowadays.
- 1 Mark Zuckerberg saved $111m by selling Facebook shares before stock slumped
- 2 Brazil rocked by abortion for 9-year-old rape victim
- 3 Schoolboy spiked brownies with cannabis in cookery class
- 4 News in pictures
- 5 Lawyers told Hunt to stay out of Sky deal
- 6 Spain races to bail out bank as debt fears stalk Europe
- 7 Catcalls, whistles, groping: the everyday picture of sexual harassment in London
- 8 Actress Keira Knightley to marry rocker
- 9 Hollande visits the French troops he's taking home
- 10 Cameron aide’s cosy chats with News Corp
- 1 Mark Zuckerberg saved $111m by selling Facebook shares before stock slumped
- 2 Brazil rocked by abortion for 9-year-old rape victim
- 3 Schoolboy spiked brownies with cannabis in cookery class
- 4 Police letter reveals St Paul’s cathedral involvement in Occupy eviction
- 5 Fat? Really? Olympic hope laughs off official’s jibe – but others aren’t amused
- 6 'Hello mum, this is going to be hard for you to read ...'
- 7 African monkey meat that could be behind the next HIV
- 8 Cameron aide’s cosy chats with News Corp
- 9 Coke reveals its secret: It may need to carry a cancer warning
- 10 French in uproar over oral sex anti-smoking posters
Experience the Heineken Hub
Get free wi-fi and exclusive i content while you enjoy a tasty pint of Heineken at participating pubs.
Can you imagine a career in teaching?
Be inspired to teach - let real teachers show you how rewarding the job can be.
Playing a game-changing role during the Games
Cisco is providing the solutions for London 2012's complex IT needs.
Enter the latest Independent competitions
Win anything from gadgets to five-star holidays on our competitions and offers page.
Business videos from commercial thought leaders
Watch the best in the business world give their insights into the world of business.
Career Services
Day In a Page
Ridley Scott: The most macho man in movies?
Gallic gourmets put France back on culinary map
The outsider: Margaret Howell
For men only: A pilgrimage to Mount Athos
Feeding a hungry world – or meddling with laws of nature?



Comments