I Seems we've rubbed our Canadian friends up the wrong way. At their Edinburgh's Corn Exchange show, the Barenaked Ladies launched into a rant about The List: “They said we were irritating,‘ declared the jocular Canadian rockers. ‘They're probably right.‘ Our mildly scathing comment didn't stop them going down a storm anyway.

I Whitney Houston is to play the lead femme in the next

Bond movie. Pierce Brosnan's last. Having lost her acting cherry in

The Bodyguard. she will have no trouble going head

to head (or bed to

bed) with Pierce.

In Bond

I Meanwhile everybody's favourite Scottish scuzzy guitar popsters ldlevvild have been booked to play the David Letterman Show. which will undoubtedly make them more popular than God in America.

I Ang Lee, Wong Kar-Wai. and Guy Ritchie are among the major international filmmakers contributing to The Hire. a series of web films being produced by David ‘Fight Club’ Fincher. Motor giant BMW is stumping up the cash for this next step in product placement. See what it gets for its money next month at bmwfilmscom

I In the spirit of The List's new comic review section (see page 106). Insider brings news that Stan Lee. guru of US publishing giant Marvel Comics is to put his own storytelling spin on rival company DC's greatest superheroes (Superman, Batman. etc) in Just Imagine Stan Lee Creating. Meanwhile. Scottish comic writer Mark Miller is to re-imagine Marvel superheroes beginning with a black Captain America.

I Remaining in the comics sphere: UK success stOry 2000A!) is currently serialising a Judge Dredd stOry set in the Scottish Highlands. “Bodies Of Evidence'. by Orkney artist Cam Kennedy and Dundee-trained writer John Wagner. cleverly satirises holiday television shows. reality TV and that blemish on Scottish histOry. the Clearances.

I Reality TV continues to spread like the plague. America has caught the Popstars manufacturing bug with Making The Band. which has already churned out boys and is about to do girls. Superny timed. then. is

6 THE LIST 12~26 Apr 2001

THE INSIDER Who’s getting up to what

Series 7: The Pretenders. a violent, satirical film coming our way soon. In it contestants must murder each other to win the top prize. Bring back Nasty Nick.

I Staying tuned. if you thought Naked Jung/e. Channel 5's nudist game show with Keith Chegwin was . . . urgh, you may want to avoid Scottish Television's Party Animals. Billed as a ‘saucy sexathelon of erotic behaviour’. the show encourages contestants to get pished before participating in games with names like Boobjobs. Lip Service and Spit Or Swallow. Airs 4 June.

I Harry Potter And The Plagiarism Nightmare . . . is not the title of the fifth schoolboy wizard adventure. It refers to hotly- denied claims by one Nancy Stouffer that author J.K. Rowling nicked names from her books. published in the 803. One of Stouffer‘s titles is The Legend Of Rah And The Muggles. and Muggles as we all know is Rowling-ease for humans. A

,. YOU 0iNNAE UNDERSTAND: {' ll 5 MY BOY! HE‘S GETTlNG AWAY! i YE VE cor TAE LET ME GO.‘ l‘LL

NEVER SEE HlM AGAlN.‘

In Scotland

court case is in session in America. but it's Rowling's publishing giant Scholastic Books and Time Warner (which owns the film rights) who have pre- empted Stouffer with litigation action.

I Finally there wasn't a riot at Edinburgh's Dominion cinema on 1 April when a full house audience was duped into paying for tickets to see Grave Robbers.- The Movie as part of an elaborate April Fool's joke. Turns out there's no such film and Ewan McGregor does not star in it. However. there is a book of the same name written by Robin Mitchell. who was on hand to sign copies.

YOU'LL BE SEEING THE INSIDE OF A CUBE lF YOU DON'T WlSE UP.’

THE QUOTES

‘They adore me. Absolutely adore me.’

is this how Body Shop staff really feel Or has founder Ali/{(3 Rodd/ck been inhaling One essential Oil too many?

‘As Oscar Wilde put it, I was often in the gutter looking up at the stars.’

Before she was life/sh-bashing,

Anne Robinson was honing

her drinking skills.

‘I looked like ET my head was so big.’

Christina Ri'cci on the downSide of dieting.

‘I try to respond to questions, but if it’s not information I feel like giving out, then I will not answer.’

Robert De Niro lays down the

law for interwewers.

‘I loved that he made “Thank You” into this weird psycho song}

Dido gets (kind of) Sincere

about Eminem's sampling of

her track on ‘Stan '.

‘It isn’t pollution that’s harming the environment. It’s the impurities in our air and water that are doing it.’

So that's why George W. Bush is ducking out of the Kyoto agreement.

‘I don’t think I need therapy; I’m frightened of those people. And more than that, I don’t want to know what lies beneath.’

Hugh Grant decides not

to explore his subconscious.

‘The problem with women is that their genitals are in the inside.’

Geri Hall/well susses out

the difference between the sexes.

‘I don’t go on the internet much - not to look at myself anyway.’ Britney Spears shields herself from discovering her virtual self.

Christina Ricci