Before the major record companies snapped up Emeli Sandé she projected a girlie look with luscious, long curls.

Why is the record industry failing to nurture more urban female singing talent? Matilda Egere-Cooper blames stereotyping

Tracey Emin, John Barrowman, Dame Vera Lynn and Ronnie Corbett are just some of the big names 'lending a paw' to raise money for the Cats Protection feline welfare charity.

When the battle still rages

With some cosmetic help, ageism is alive and well at the Beeb

It doesn't look as if Jim Rogers, the investment guru who famously moved to Singapore after deciding Asia offered more opportunities than the West, plans on changing his bearish outlook for the US any time soon. "We have [Ben] Bernanke, who is running the Federal Reserve, who does not know what he is doing," he complains. "The man is taking $400bn on to the Federal Reserve balance sheets – of dicey loans, bad debt. I mean he is turning the Federal Reserve into a pawn shop." An enraged Rogers concludes: "Some day somebody has to pay for this and you know who this somebody is – my little girl, you, me." Get that man a blood pressure tablet.

Veteran newsreader Peter Sissons waded into the BBC sexism row today by claiming the corporation treats men just as badly as older women.

Equalities minister Harriet Harman accused the BBC of "wasting a lot of talent" and upsetting viewers by not valuing older female newsreaders.

He's the Punjabi-Sikh from Hounslow who speaks like Hugh Grant and gave up medicine to become an R&B sensation. But now that Jay Sean is the highest-selling British male artist in America since Elton John, can his success really eradicate racial stereotyping?

Doubtless figuring that Alesha is a more bankable prospect following her adoption as judge on Strictly Come Dancing than she was a year ago, when the original version of The Alesha Show was released, Asylum have chosen to reissue it with a handful of extra tracks to tempt the undecided.

Life's a cabaret for the dancing queen

Doubters might have predicted an early retirement for Arlene Phillips after she was ungraciously dropped as a judge on the BBC's Strictly Come Dancing. But yesterday she cemented what can only be described as an extraordinary career comeback when Sadler's Wells Theatre announced her appointment to its board of directors. The position will become effective with her first board meeting on 25 November.

The young man and the sea

She never got bored of the rings