lizt wrote: » Had to laugh tho - When the lord mayor showed up this girl next to me nudged her friends and was like "Wudja look - it's de taoiseach!!"
brummytom wrote: » "Stephen loved Mickey... er, Mouse" - that seemed awkward
fryup wrote: » well what do you reckon was that an "in" joke amongst the boys??or did that tool shane lynch make a "cock up" (no pun intended)cause when i first heard it i put my hands to face, whilst my flatmates were rolling around the floor laughing
grangeglens wrote: » i saw this in the news of the world todayhttp://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/news/555006/stephen-gately.html?postingId=557741 i hope it was not true,
dumbblonde122 wrote: » It is time for the poor man to rest in peace with an end to all the controversy ..
Nico22 wrote: » I agree but I have a feeling it's only just begun. Didn't say it during the week but I felt there was something odd with the way Louis wasn't photographed with Boyzone - seems strange what with him being the one man who made it all possible. He did seem then to be having a little pop at a solicitor (Gerald Kean?) on Sky News as he felt that he should have been contacted with the news of Stephen's death before contacting the media (which was how Louis found out). Something is not right that's for sure. It's just not in Louis's nature (from what I've seen from him over the years) to be standing in the wings they way he was this past week.
Overature wrote: » I have never ever heard of Stephan Gately in my life!
Nico22 wrote: » Anyone else hear or read that Cheryl Cole flew to Dublin on Friday night and got a taxi to Sherrif St? She apparently stayed a few hours at the church and spoke to the family and Boyzone and then flew straight back. Mate was told this last night ..
wonderingabout wrote: » That can't be right can it? I heard she sent a message to the family on saturday morning, sending her sympathy....
Mixedup wrote: » the sunday independent reported that she flew in on friday night, paid her respects and back out again.
Clare Bear wrote: » She must have done it very quietly, fair play to her if it's true. Surprised the press didn't spot her.
fryup wrote: » did anyone read the barry egan article in the sunday indo?? was it nasty??
irish_bob wrote: » no but have you ever read a nasty article on someone in the music biz by egan , i havent and ive been buying the sindo for years
Nico22 wrote: » What did the Indo radio ad say anyway?
A Disgrace wrote: » Charlie Brooker with nice rebuke to Jan Moir
The funeral of Stephen Gately has not yet taken place. The man hasn't been buried yet. Nevertheless, Jan Moir of the Daily Mail has already managed to dance on his grave. For money. It has been 20 minutes since I've read her now-notorious column, and I'm still struggling to absorb the sheer scope of its hateful idiocy. It's like gazing through a horrid little window into an awesome universe of pure blockheaded spite. Spiralling galaxies of ignorance roll majestically against a backdrop of what looks like dark prejudice, dotted hither and thither with winking stars of snide innuendo. On the Mail website, it was headlined: "Why there was nothing 'natural' about Stephen Gately's death." Since the official postmortem clearly ascribed the singer's death to natural causes, that headline contains a fairly bold claim. Still, who am I to judge? I'm no expert when it comes to interpreting autopsy findings, unlike Moir. Presumably she's a leading expert in forensic science, paid huge sums of money to fly around the world lecturing coroners on her latest findings. Or maybe she just wants to gay-bash a dead man? Tragically, the only way to find out is to read the rest of her article. She begins by jabbering a bit about untimely celebrity deaths, especially those whose lives are "shadowed by dark appetites or fractured by private vice". Not just Heath Ledger and Michael Jackson. No: she's eagerly looking forward to other premature snuffings. "Robbie, Amy, Kate, Whitney, Britney; we all know who they are. And we are not being ghoulish to anticipate, or to be mentally braced for, their bad end: a long night, a mysterious stranger, an odd set of circumstances that herald a sudden death." Fair enough. I'm sure we all agree there's nothing "ghoulish" whatsoever about eagerly imagining the hypothetical death of someone you've marked out as a potential cadaver on account of your ill-informed presumptions about their lifestyle. All she's doing is running a detailed celebrity-death sweepstake in her head. That's not ghoulish, that's fun. For my part, I've just put a tenner on Moir choking to death on her own bile by the year 2012. See? Fun! Having casually prophesied the death of Robbie Williams and co, Moir moves on to her main point: that Gately's death strikes her as a bit fishy . . . "All the official reports point to a natural death, with no suspicious circumstances . . . But, hang on a minute. Something is terribly wrong with the way this incident has been shaped and spun into nothing more than an unfortunate mishap on a holiday weekend, like a broken teacup in the rented cottage." That's odd. I don't recall anyone equating the death with "an unfortunate mishap on a holiday weekend". I was only aware of shocked expressions of grief from those who knew or admired him, people who'd probably be moved to tears by Moir likening the tragedy to "a broken teacup in the rented cottage". But never mind that – "shaped and spun" by whom, precisely? The coroner? Incredibly, yes. Moir genuinely believes the coroner got it wrong: "Healthy and fit 33-year-old men do not just climb into their pyjamas and go to sleep on the sofa, never to wake up again. Whatever the cause of death is, it is not, by any yardstick, a natural one." At this point, I dare to challenge the renowned international forensic pathologist Jan Moir, because I personally know of two other men (one in his 20s, one in his early 30s), who died in precisely this way. According to the charity Cardiac Risk in the Young (c-r-y.org.uk), "Twelve apparently fit and healthy young people die in the UK from undiagnosed heart conditions" every single week. That's a lot of broken teacups, eh Jan? Still, if his death wasn't natural "by any yardstick", what did kill him? Moir knows: it was his lifestyle. Because Gately was, y'know . . . homosexual. Having lanced this boil, Moir lets the pus drip out all over her fingers as she continues to type: "The circumstances surrounding his death are more than a little sleazy," she declares. "Cowles and Gately took a young Bulgarian man back to their apartment. It is not disrespectful to assume that a game of canasta . . . was not what was on the cards . . . What happened afterwards is anyone's guess." Don't hold back, Jan. Have a guess. Draw us a picture. You specialise in celebrity death fantasies, after all. "His mother is still insisting that her son died from a previously undetected heart condition that has plagued the family." Yes. That poor, blinkered woman, "insisting" in the face of official medical evidence that absolutely agrees with her. Anyway, having cast aspersions over a tragic death, doubted a coroner and insulted a grieving mother, Moir's piece builds to its climax: "Another real sadness about Gately's death is that it strikes another blow to the happy-ever-after myth of civil partnerships. . . Gay activists are always calling for tolerance and understanding about same-sex relationships, arguing that they are just the same as heterosexual marriages . . . in many cases this may be true. Yet the recent death of Kevin McGee, the former husband of Little Britain star Matt Lucas, and now the dubious events of Gately's last night raise troubling questions about what happened." Way to spread the pain around, Jan. Way to link two unrelated tragedies, Jan. Way to gay-bash, Jan.