Popular Elsewhere
15:23 UK time, Monday, 7 November 2011
A look at the stories ranking highly on various news sites.
A popular New York Times article hails , via online streaming stie Hulu. So how is the surprise hit described to a US audience - presumably unfamiliar with Essex stereotypes the characters play up to. Well it starts of with reporting the show has been "reviled in Britain as a pestilent example of depraved New World values and a leading indicator of the apocalypse".
The show isn't wholly alien to the US audience. That's because, the article explains, it engages in the "Theatre of Superficiality" first seen in The Hills and Jersey Shore. There is one difference though: "dropping any pretense that the action has been accidentally captured on camera". This, the New York Times concludes, makes it more real.
. But what he seems to do more than smoking is talk about smoking. In the most read Guardian story, while explaining in the interview - mostly about smoking - about why he started smoking again he inadvertently reveals a more glamorous aspect of his life. Half way through explaining to Decca Aitkenhead that he was trying to get director Bruce Robinson to give him a puff on his cigarette he let slip that the encounter happened on a plane. She must have looked confused as he explained "Well, it was a private plane. On a private plane you can smoke. It makes it an incredibly expensive habit, of course."
Filmmakers might be taking into consideration Forbes' calculations in their most popular article before they audition their actors. The magazine has worked out . Coming in at number one if Drew Barrymore. For Every $1 (62p) Barrymore is paid, her films return an average 40 cents (25p). That's quite something when you consider that the second most overpaid actor - Eddie Murphy - is attracting $2.70 (£1.68) for every $1 he is paid.
. Now, Slate's popular article says, there are 20 more. They are loosely defined as cities with over 10 million inhabitants. But the article explains that's where the clarity ends. Most arguments seem to be over whether or not they are a good thing. One the one hand they provide opportunities for poor people. But once they become richer, they start consuming more and putting more demands on the environment.
