The Daily Bite, May 2011

By Lizzy Wood

May sees the demise of Osama bin Laden, and George Clooney blows out his fiftieth birthday candle. MiNDFOOD reports.

30.05.11

Whereas the headlines have been full of the achievement of young Brit, George Atkinson, who last week became the youngest person to scale the highest peaks on each of the world’s seven continents, spare a thought for St Andrews student, Geordie Stewart.

Aged 21, Stewart reached the top of Mount Everest at 8am local time on 26th May, making him the youngest Briton to have reached the highest point on Earth. Two hours later, however, Atkinson reached the peak, completing his assault of the Seven Summits Challenge and, aged just 16, snatching the title away from Stewart.

Team injuries had led to the delay of Stewart’s climb, which had originally been planned for 2010.

27.05.11

If money was no object, what would you choose to eat? The finest Caviar? The rarest truffles? Nor so Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg who, with a billion dollar fortune has opted to eat only meat from animals he has slaughtered.

However, despite visiting a number of local farmers to receive lessons on killing a variety of different livestock, it seems Zuckerberg is not coming to terms with the challenge as easily as he had hoped. “This year I’ve basically become a vegetarian since the only meat I’m eating is from animals I’ve killed myself,” he is said to have written in an email to Fortune.

And it’s not the first challenge Zuckerberg has set himself. Despite running a multi-billion dollar enterprise, Zuckerberg finds time to pursue a personal challenge each year, with last year’s being to learn Chinese.

Embracing sustainable living in a way most of us can only dream of, Zuckerberg hopes this foray into foraging will help him appreciate the life that came before his meaty meals.

26.05.11

Working in an office environment through winter brings with it the risk of catching the dreaded office cold. If rumours are to be believed, however, staff at Auckland’s Sky City casino run the risk of taking home not just a bout of Flu’ this winter, but fleas as well.

Photographed with flea collars secured tightly around their ankles, staff at the casino have emerged in the media this week claiming their workplace is ‘infested’ with fleas: the New Zealand Herald going as far as to claim workers are being supplied with flea spray to use before they start work.

It may be an eye-catching headline, but office environments are in fact prone to outbreaks of biting insects, and whereas not everyone is able to work in the Googleplex, where dogs are welcomed in the office, it’s likely pet-free workplaces catch their fleas from staff bringing them in from home.

Wherever the outbreak began, one thing’s for sure: FRONTLINE is bound to have enjoyed a surge in profits this week.

25.05.11

Already emerging as something of a style icon, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge confirmed her love of ‘high-street’ brands yesterday by donning a dress by affordable fashion brand, Reiss, for her high profile meeting with the Obamas.

Catherine showed off her sun-tanned, post-honeymoon body in the figure hugging, taupe dress, which immediately sent fashion-followers into a frenzy, crashing the Reiss website as fans tried to get their hands on the Shola dress.

It seems that Reiss has become a firm favourite of Kate’s for public appearances, having selected a white dress by the same brand to wear at the announcement of her engagement to Prince William.

Michelle Obama, also renowned for her elegant dress sense, wore a dress by Barbara Tfank.

25.05.11

No one likes to admit to laughing at others’ misfortune but, if YouTube statistics are to be believed, it seems our tendency to do just that is alive and well.

Over one million people have logged on to the popular social media site so far to watch footage of Barack Obama’s car, nick named The Beast, getting stuck on a curb as it left the US embassy during the President’s state visit to Ireland.

The video has also prompted a wealth of comments, including several people suggesting witnesses reacted as if a bomb went off.

You can watch the President’s bumpy ride below.

24.05.11

Twitter may be hitting the headlines over in the UK for all the wrong reasons, but Katy Perry has been making good use of it to announce her husband’s deportation from Japan, apparently due to his criminal past.

“So… my husband just got deported from Japan,” Perry tweeted from Japan, where she is performing a concert tour. “I am so. sad. I brought him all this way to show him my favourite place.”

British actor, author and stand up comedian Russell Brand, who married Perry last year, has a long history of drug, alcohol and sex addictions, honestly documented in his autobiography, My Booky Wook. Having enjoyed several dalliances on the wrong side of the law, Brand was most recently arrested for allegedly attacking members of the paparazzi at a Los Angeles airport in 2010.

However, Perry tweeted that Brand’s deportation was actually due to criminal cases dating back over ten years.

True to form, Brand took to the online platform to quip “Planning escape from Japanese custody. It’s bloody hard to dig a tunnel with a chopstick.”

23.05.11

Since November 2009, the phrase ‘multiple infidelities’ brought only one name to mind, but it seems Arnold Schwarzenegger is doing his best to give Tiger Woods a run for his money.

Following the news that The Terminator star fathered a love child with his live-in house keeper, a number of additional women claiming to have had relationships with the ex-California governor have emerged from the woodwork. “There are more making claims, but there really are only a handful we expect will have solid proof,” the Chicago Sun-Times quotes a source from The Star as saying.

Already, Little House on the Prairie actress, Gigi Jeffers (also known as Gigi Goyette) has alleged to have conducted a fling with Schwarzenegger for a second time in 1989, during his marriage to Maria Shriver, having first been intimate with him in 1975, when ‘Arnie’ was just 16 years old.

Meanwhile, the UK’s Daily Mail has reported that the 13 year old child fathered by Arnold Schwarzenegger was unaware that he was the son of a famous actor and politician, with Baena’s ex-husband’s name appearing on the boy’s birth certificate.

Although similarities are being drawn with Tiger Woods, however, it’s already looking like Maria Shriver will profit from the scandal slightly more than Erin Nodegren, with reports estimating Schwarzenegger’s divorce settlement to be between $200-$400 million. 

20.05.11

Following today’s news that online retailer Amazon.com is now selling more digital books than paper copies, it comes as little surprise that Playboy has taken the decision to move one step further into the digital age.

With content built up over more than 57 years, readers can now log in to online subscription service iPlayboy.com — which has been optimised for the iPad — to access over 130,000 pages of pictures, interviews and centrefolds. From June, the site will also include a video offering, entitled the Playboy Commission, which promises to feature content recommended by a group of “celebrated individuals from art, design, fashion, media and technology”.

Playboy Enterprises joins a long list of media houses, including Conde Nast, Hearst and Bonnier, to have reached an agreement with Apple to sell titles through their subscription service, which provides Apple with 30 per cent from purchases, and ownership of customer data. No doubt Apple’s data on males aged 20 plus is about to sky rocket.

Lizzy Wood

19.05.11

Since the shocking revelation that Arnold Schwarzenegger not only fathered a love child, but also kept the fact a secret from his wife, Maria Shriver, for over ten years, international media have been rushing to identify both the mistress and the son.

Identified by a number of sources as Mildred Baena, who worked as a house keeper for the Schwarzenegger family for over 20 years, TMZ.com have claimed Baena gave birth to the Terminator’s son in October 1997, just one week after Shriver delivered Christopher, the couple’s fourth child.

Despite Schwarzenegger’s public request for privacy for all of those involved in the scandal, Shriver chose to make her first public appearance since the news broke at the side of Oprah Winfrey, at a farewell show for the talk show host.

In what can only be presumed to be a direct attack at her husband, Shriver told Oprah “You’ve given me love, support, wisdom, and most of all truth.”

Even Jay Leno has been impressed by the level of secrecy employed by the “Fornicator” in covering up his love child for so long. “I had no idea he was that good an actor,” Leno quipped.

Lizzy Wood

06.05.11

How does two-time People’s Sexiest Man Alive celebrate his 50th birthday? Well, according to Kirsti Alley and Jackie Collins, actor and director George Clooney chose to celebrate his in the company of close friends and girlfriend  Elisabetta Canalis, at Mr Chow, a Beverley Hills eatery.

Although presumably hoping for some privacy, Collins and Alley were both in the restaurant on Thursday night – the day before Clooney’s birthday – and took to Twitter to reveal George’s location. According to the LA Times, Jackie Collins typed “Fun dinner at CHOWS with Kathy Griffin. Spotted George Clooney and beautiful gf Elizabetta. Also Kirsti Alley looking major svelte.” Alley was slightly more considerate, tweeting “Jeez… I’m having dinner and I swear this is the most star studded restaurant I’ve ever been in!!… Impressive!!!”

For those not invited to the birthday bash, Los Angeles restaurant Locanda del Lago created a celebratory cocktail in honour of the former ER heart throb. Made with No. 209 Gin, Oro Blanco grapefruit, blood orange, Aperol and St. Germain Elderflower liqueur, ‘The Clooney’ is no doubt the perfect drink to fill your glass with as we raise them in a toast: ‘Happy Birthday George’. 

Lizzy Wood

05.05.11

What do Kim Kardashian, Paris Hilton, Pamela Anderson and Rob Lowe all have in common? Aside from the fact they’re all aspiring actors (some further along the food chain than others), they’ve all been indecently exposed in sex tapes.

And whereas Kim and Paris may regret their actions (‘m not sure that Pamela cares one way or the other), Rob is decidedly grateful for the turn of events that led to the exposure of his raunchy threesome back in 1988.

Having recently released his memoir Stories I Only Tell My Friends: An Autobiography, Rob said in an interview that it “was one of the best things that ever happened to me.”

The scandal, which involved one girl who was just 16 years old at the time, landed Rob in rehab, where he was treated for addictions to both sex and alcohol. Indeed, sobriety doesn’t seem to be doing Rob any misfortunes at all – not only has his career blossomed in recent years, anyone who’s seen him on the cover of Vanity Fair can see that, at 47, Rob is looking better than ever.

Lizzy Wood

04.05.11

Whilst the reaction of the general public has been divided over the assasination of al-Qaeda leader and all round baddy Osama bin Laden, it seems one man was more relieved than most to hear of his demise.

Having read that, in Afghanistan, Taliban leaders would execute men for shaving their beards, Gary Weddle made the decision in September 2001 not to shave his own until bin Laden was either captured or killed. Weddle, who lives in East Wenatchee, Washington, wanted to honour the lives lost in the September attacks on New York and Washington, telling Reuters “I didn’t want to forget. I wasn’t going to forget.”

But after 3,454 days, this week Gary was finally able to tend to his facial hair. On hearing of bin Laden’s demise, Gary reportedly first snipped at his beard with scissors, before shaving it off with a razor.

Gary’s wife, Donita, is understandably “full of smiles”, according to Weddle. Presumably because she no longer has to get up close and personal with a decade’s worth of growth. I can’t help thinking that also on the list of those celebrating may be Gillette, having added a new customer to their list, thanks of course to Barack Obama.

Lizzy Wood

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