Paper Monitor
A service highlighting the riches of the daily press.
OK, journalists are not much beloved of the general public. They are seen as devious, manipulative skivers by many of the people who read their papers.
But sometimes you just have to take your hat off to their dedication, and drink a toast to the single-mindedness directed towards producing tomorrow's chip paper.
Today's award winner is Sun man Nick Francis. He goes to great lengths for , the flamboyant fashion reporter played by Sacha Baron Cohen.
So the Sun man gets his hair bleached, his eyebrows waxed, and his body hair dyed. But you're thinking "hey, that's not so bad". But then he only goes and gets his eyebrow pierced. Actually pierced.
It certainly beats the custom at one local newspaper of sending cub reporters out in women's clothes for a day. Although it does fall short of the reporter who once got a tattoo of Tweety Pie for a story.
More journalistic integrity can be found in all of the papers today. Knowing their readers love Dan Brown, you'd be forgiven for assuming they might think twice about panning the movie adaptation of Angels and Demons.
Think again.
Starting with the Daily Mirror's : "What we didn't expect was a follow-up this awful... Compared to Angels & Demons, The Da Vinci Code was Lawrence of Arabia and Citizen Kane rolled into one."
The but still predicts "an audience laughing when no jokes are intended".
In the Daily Mail, under the delicious headline , Christopher Tookey applies an exquisitely sharp hatchet. "Everyone gabbles the barmy, characterless and woefully inaccurate exposition."
The Independent . "It's a murky, dispiriting festival of pedantry."
The Times ran . "This graceless and overwrought piece of storytelling will probably earn a Pope's ransom at the box office, despite its many flaws."
The Daily Telegraph also takes . "Unintentionally, these antics take on the tone and rhythm of one of the Pink Panther films."
The Guardian dubs it .
It's a different story over at the Express group. The Daily Express gives a and the Daily Star gives the film a whopping .
Paper Monitor smells a conspiracy.