Susan Boyle’s triumph on Britain’s Got Talent has led Elaine Paige to suggest a collaboration.
As global media phenomena go, little could surpass Boyle’s stratospheric rise to superstardom. So, what better high note to end an extraordinary week, one that has seen the 47-year-old Scottish singing spinster win plaudits from around the world, than the prospect of a duet with her heroine, Paige?
It was just before her life-changing performance on Britain’s Got Talent on April 18 that Boyle revealed her dream: to become a professional singer as successful as Paige — with whom she has sung along countless times, alone, in front of her bedroom mirror, equipped with a hairbrush for a microphone.
Now, in a message of support, Paige, the original Evita in London’s West End, has punted the idea of the pair singing together. “Ever since Susan’s appearance on Britain’s Got Talent my Radio 2 inbox has been flooded with
e-mails,” she writes on her Web site.
“It seems her performance has captured the hearts of everyone who saw it, me included ... It looks like I have competition! Perhaps we should record a duet?”
But then anything, it seems, could happen now in the incredible brave new world Boyle inhabits. As Paige puts it: “She is a role model for everyone who has a dream.”
Paige is just the latest of a string of celebrity endorsers since Boyle’s jaw-dropping performance of the Les Miserables song I Dreamed a Dream on the ITV talent show, which has so far attracted 25 million YouTube hits, and helped her do what few British A-listers can: crack the US market.
Appearances on Larry King Live, Good Morning America, NBC and CBS, and the prospect of Oprah, have fuelled demand for an album, something of which Britain’s Got Talent supremo Simon Cowell and his record label are no doubt aware.
The father of Slumdog Millionaire child actress Rubina Ali tried to sell his nine-year-old daughter for adoption in a bid to escape the Mumbai slums, a British newspaper said yesterday.
News of the World alleged that Rafiq Qureshi wanted US$400,000 for the girl, who played the young Latika in the British hit film set in India.
Slumdog Millionaire, a rags-to-riches tale of children from the slums of Mumbai, won eight Oscars in February, including the best picture Academy Award.
News of the World said its reporters posed as a wealthy family from Dubai, employing its regular “fake sheikh” sting tactic.
The weekly tabloid said an informant told them that Qureshi was touting for the highest offer, having already been approached by a Middle Eastern family.
The newspaper published pictures of the actress, her father and uncle posing with their undercover reporter, plus video clips of Qureshi and his brother-in-law during their meeting last week.
“Yes, we are considering Rubina’s future,” Qureshi was quoted as saying.
He put the reporter in touch with his brother-in-law Rajan More.
“We are interested in securing our girl’s future,” the star’s uncle was quoted as saying.
“If you wanted to adopt we could discuss this, but her parents would also expect some proper compensation in return.
“Whatever money is agreed by Rajan, I will accept.
“We can discuss everything about this deal when we meet. There’s a lot of interest in Rubina.”
Qureshi, Ali, More and some other relatives met the British reporters in a Mumbai hotel, the newspaper said.
“We need two or three months,” Qureshi allegedly said. More added: “Until then we can negotiate the amount. We’ll come to Dubai, the girl will come and go.”
“It’s 20 million rupees,” the uncle was quoted as saying.
“This discussion will not go beyond the three of us.”
Qureshi proudly carried Ali through the Mumbai slums in February after she returned from the Oscar glory of Hollywood.
Madonna took a tumble while horseback riding in the Hamptons on Saturday when her mount was startled by photographers, and she suffered “minor injuries” and bruises, a spokeswoman said.
Paparazzi had “jumped out of the bushes” to photograph her, spokeswoman Liz Rosenberg said.
It’s at least the second fall from a horse in four years for Madonna, who recently turned 50.
The singer was treated at a Southampton hospital and was released, said Rosenberg, who wouldn’t disclose more details on her condition.
Chinese-American actress Bai Ling (白靈) really thinks she is from the moon, and that her grandmother lives there. Really, truly. The actress, who stars in the action movie Crank High Voltage that opened in the US on Friday, has made the admission before, and she insists she is not crazy — just inspired.
In the March 9 edition of the Taipei Times a piece by Ninon Godefroy ran with the headine “The quiet, gentle rhythm of Taiwan.” It started with the line “Taiwan is a small, humble place. There is no Eiffel Tower, no pyramids — no singular attraction that draws the world’s attention.” I laughed out loud at that. This was out of no disrespect for the author or the piece, which made some interesting analogies and good points about how both Din Tai Fung’s and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) meticulous attention to detail and quality are not quite up to
April 21 to April 27 Hsieh Er’s (謝娥) political fortunes were rising fast after she got out of jail and joined the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) in December 1945. Not only did she hold key positions in various committees, she was elected the only woman on the Taipei City Council and headed to Nanjing in 1946 as the sole Taiwanese female representative to the National Constituent Assembly. With the support of first lady Soong May-ling (宋美齡), she started the Taipei Women’s Association and Taiwan Provincial Women’s Association, where she
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) hatched a bold plan to charge forward and seize the initiative when he held a protest in front of the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office. Though risky, because illegal, its success would help tackle at least six problems facing both himself and the KMT. What he did not see coming was Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (將萬安) tripping him up out of the gate. In spite of Chu being the most consequential and successful KMT chairman since the early 2010s — arguably saving the party from financial ruin and restoring its electoral viability —
It is one of the more remarkable facts of Taiwan history that it was never occupied or claimed by any of the numerous kingdoms of southern China — Han or otherwise — that lay just across the water from it. None of their brilliant ministers ever discovered that Taiwan was a “core interest” of the state whose annexation was “inevitable.” As Paul Kua notes in an excellent monograph laying out how the Portuguese gave Taiwan the name “Formosa,” the first Europeans to express an interest in occupying Taiwan were the Spanish. Tonio Andrade in his seminal work, How Taiwan Became Chinese,
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