Spielberg posted missing
Let’s see, now. Olympic Museum to feature China, new subway line to open by June and – oh, very interesting this – new broadband connections for 95 per cent of Chinese villages this year. Nowhere among the headlines on the Beijing 2008 Olympics website yesterday was there any mention of Steven Spielberg quitting as an artistic adviser in protest at China’s human rights record, particularly its refusal to intervene in the strife in Darfur.
But even if those being switched on to broadband wanted to discover why Spielberg has become the most high-profile dissenter in the run-up to arguably the most important event in China’s recent history, there is little chance they will be able to find out, even through the internet. The BBC website remains blacked out by nervous Chinese censors fearing any news that may disrupt the Olympics.
Chinese authorities say that they will cooperate with the 30,000 or so journalists who will descend on Beijing in August. But most of the public relations team are Chinese with almost no experience of how the Western press works. It seems odds-on that they will be shocked by the media coverage of an intensity they have never experienced.
Davies ghosting in
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Simon & Schuster announces with glee that it is paying the pretty penny to publish the autobiography of David Davies, the former FA chief executive. He should spill the beans about Sven, sex and scandal. Enough material for two books, we reckon. But what is this? We see that the former journalist, political and education correspondent with the BBC and at present member of the Football Writers’ Association is employing a ghost writer. We envisage Davies, Barbara Cartland-like, dictating to his pencil-chewing lackey from the chaise longue between sips of champagne bought from the reputed £250,000 advance.
— You chaps ought to be ashamed of yourselves. A tour company reckons that men will ditch traditional St Valentine’s Day flowers and chocolates today for tours of their favourite football clubs. It will be roses for The Insider, thank you.
Making a fast buck
Little wonder that Dwain Chambers wants to get back into athletics as fast as he can. The disgraced sprinter has been, in his own words, “broke” since incurring a two-year ban for using steroids to boost his performance. The ban came at the end of a highly-successful period in his career, in which he earned about £120,000 in prize money in a single season, not taking into account any endorsement or appearance fees.
The International Athletics Federation was insisting that Chambers pay back the money for that 2003 season but, since then, he has been unable to earn anything from sport. Getting back on the grand prix circuit with its generous prize funds, which can attract appearance money at each meeting of about £50,000, would go a long way to cutting his losses and putting some money in the bank.
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