Something very unusual happened at an awards ceremony this week. There was a moment of genuine drama. At the Glamour Women of the Year evening, Sir Patrick Stewart turned on the host James Corden accusing him of discourtesy, and the two actors then verbally slugged it out.

The Morning Benders are a Californian four-piece signed to Rough Trade. In early March their second LP, 'Big Echo' (produced by Chris Taylor of Grizzly Bear), will be released. The band, in the months preceding the record, picked up some textbook music blog/viral hype with a video for their song "Excuses", one of their first songs to be heard from the album. The video, shot by San Francisco bloggers Yours Truly, is a simple live studio recording that included a cast of San Francisco's indie musicians, including John Vanderslice and members of Girls. The band and their backing ensemble of vocalists and instrumentalists combine nicely to create a lo-fi "wall of sound" effect. Watch the video at vimeo.com/8322868, while on themorningbenders.com a free mp3 of the album version of the track is available (another song, "Promises", also streams there). The song is an unashamedly romantic and something of a love letter to Phil Spector. Indeed, one of my colleagues considered it "a retro step too far" and I can see his point, but I still liked it. Maybe I'm just a sucker for such niceties.

It has been an excellent summer so far for the Smug Marrieds. Those grim representatives of connubial bliss, invented by Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones during the 1990s, will have been delighted to read the various pro-matrimony reports and surveys of recent weeks. First, Iain Duncan Smith re-affirmed the Tories' commitment to the institution of marriage, arguing that the privileges and legal protections it provides should not be extended to those who live together. Then a Swedish study, reported in the British Medical Journal, revealed that various forms of stress are likely to increase a person's vulnerability to Alzheimer's disease later in life. It was the grim long-term mental effects of divorce which were given the headline treatment.

The debauched days of the Rat Pack, the Brat Pack and other young Hollywood hedonists with their excess-all-areas lifestyles are gone, says Gill Pringle. Today's stars don't drink, do drugs, or have sex

Guess what? This week's next big thing could be the real deal

Oasis scooped up NME pop music magazine's award for best British band on Wednesday, while former US president George W. Bush was named villain of the year for a record-breaking sixth time.

But broadcasters fear US audiences may be put off by foreign domination of prestigious music awards

When Barack and Michelle Obama threw open the doors of the White House, Leonard Doyle was in the queue

Disney TV boss Anne Sweeney is ranked 15th most powerful person in the world. She talks to Esther Walker about new movie 'Camp Rock', follow-up to 'High School Musical'

When a thousand teenage girls went wild at the Royal Festival Hall in London last week for the Jonas Brothers, the obvious question was what fantasies were their yells meant to signify?

They're holy and impossibly wholesome, but when Russell Brand thought he could use America's Jonas Brothers for cheap laughs, he got it so wrong. By Esther Walker

Britney Spears swept the board at MTV's Video Music Awards today, in an appearance that was hailed as a "resurrection" of her career.

The Jonas Brothers are the latest pop exports from the House of Mouse. Let's hope they don't go the way of Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears and the rest