https://www.scmp.com/rss/16086/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com When it comes to good looks, few cities can rival Hong Kong. From a stroll along the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront to a hike to a remote beach, its charms are manifold. But how much time does it take to experience the best sights this city has to offer? Answer: about 15 minutes. Adventure tour facilitator Viator, part of TripAdvisor, has expanded its offerings in Hong Kong to include a helicopter lap of the island, among other activities. After lift-off from top of The Peninsula, in Tsim Sha Tsui,... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1983546/high-hong-kong-viator-tours-include-helicopter-lap-island?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1983546/high-hong-kong-viator-tours-include-helicopter-lap-island?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 02 Jul 2016 03:00:45 +0000 Your kale has wilted; your teacup poodle has lost its beret; your loo paper is short a ply or two … These are just some of the ordeals faced by Hongkongers today. Luckily, another of our city's particularly first-world problems is now being addressed. The Help for Your Helper course is aimed at inspiring domestic helpers to "really own the kitchen experience", says Nathan Fleck, founder of cooking school Spatu.La, which launched the course this month. Soundtrack: www.bensound.com On top of the... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/food-drink/article/1926384/help-your-helper-cook-storm-spatula-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/food-drink/article/1926384/help-your-helper-cook-storm-spatula-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 17 Mar 2016 23:45:30 +0000 NOMADIC BEGINNING I was born in Sri Lanka and my family moved to Hong Kong when I was one. My father had a business that was based here and we went back and forth, spending six months here and six months there. One of my earliest memories is riding the Star Ferry. It was back in the days when there were lots of hawkers and we'd always get egg waffles. That was my entertainment as a child. IN A CLASS OF HER OWN Mine was a typical Hong Kong expat upbringing until I hit my teen years. Due to... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1867796/nashua-gallagher-peel-street-poetry-being-true-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1867796/nashua-gallagher-peel-street-poetry-being-true-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 16 Oct 2015 04:29:48 +0000 Opening a state-of-the-art designer bowling alley, at a reported cost of HK$100 million, above a supermarket in a sleepy New Territories town might sound like the result of a drunken bet, but that is precisely what's been going down in Sai Kung. Thursday will see the grand opening of the Tikitiki Bowling Bar and, in keeping with the heights of sophistication demanded by bowlers the world over, the event will include a Miss Tikitiki Sea Goddess Bikini Pageant, the winner of which will strut away... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1865175/tikitiki-state-art-bowling-alley-opens-sai-kung?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1865175/tikitiki-state-art-bowling-alley-opens-sai-kung?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 10 Oct 2015 14:56:12 +0000 What is it? A quirky boutique hotel in the heart of Singapore's central business district, the Naumi reopened in October after a year-long renovation, despite having first opened its doors only back in 2007. The property - one of two under the brand in the Lion City, the other being the Naumi Liora - is a short walk from an MRT (Singaporean for "MTR") station and a stone's throw from the Formula One racetrack and several shopping malls. Nearer still is the iconic Raffles Hotel, just across... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1410296/hot-spots-naumi-singapore?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1410296/hot-spots-naumi-singapore?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 25 Jan 2014 15:12:14 +0000 What is it? Put the name “LVMH” in front of the words “resort in the Maldives” and it is safe to assume you’re in for something rather special. Sister property to the brand’s uberexclusive ski resort, Cheval Blanc Courchevel, in France, everything about this brand spanking new retreat is as high-end as it gets. Cheval Blanc Randheli, which opened on November 15, claims to be the only resort in the Maldives to have its own seaplane (decked out in Louis Vuitton colours, naturellement). Despite the... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1394760/hot-spots-cheval-blanc-randheli?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1394760/hot-spots-cheval-blanc-randheli?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 04 Jan 2014 14:30:45 +0000 SPACE: THE FIRST FRONTIER As far back as I can remember, I was interested in astronomy; always wanted a telescope and little star maps. I was interested in space flight in general, which I think can be traced back to my dad's interest. I was born just at the end of the Apollo programme, and we had pictures, I remember, on the walls, of Apollo, the landings on the moon. I always wanted to do something to do with space, even though I didn't know what the word was at the time. When I got to senior... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1206222/my-life-brian-cox?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1206222/my-life-brian-cox?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 06 Apr 2013 16:00:00 +0000 Evergreen do-gooder Sting (above) will be gracing Hong Kong with his presence next month. Born Gordon Sumner, the British eco-activist got his moniker from a black and yellow striped shirt he wore on stage early in his career (he looked like a wasp; geddit?). The philanthropic former frontman of The Police owns several luxury properties, including an Elizabethan manor house on 60 acres of southern England, a 600-acre estate in Tuscany, Italy, and a Malibu beach house bought from one Larry Hagman... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1077847/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1077847/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 10 Nov 2012 16:00:00 +0000 Rocketman Elton John will be touching down in Hong Kong for a December 4 concert at the Convention and Exhibition Centre. Born Reginald Dwight, John cherry-picked his stage name from members of his original band, although his middle name, “Hercules”, was pilfered from that of the horse in the 1960s British sitcom Steptoe and Son. While battling drug addiction, John once tried to end it all. “I tried to commit suicide one day,” he said. “I turned on the gas and left all the windows open. It was …... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1034795/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1034795/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 15 Sep 2012 16:00:00 +0000 Elvis Presley (right) fans will congregate on Saturday at the United Services Recreation Club in Jordan to mark the 35th anniversary of "The King's" death. Despite not writing any of his 600 songs, Presley was by the age of 21 one of the most famous men on Earth and, by 1973, was the biggest individual taxpayer in the United States. Few would argue that the young singer's act (described by Frank Sinatra as a "rancid-smelling aphrodisiac") caused a sea change in popular culture before waning into... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1016087/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1016087/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 18 Aug 2012 16:00:00 +0000 Didier Drogba received a rousing welcome from mainland soccer fans this month when the former Chelsea striker (below) arrived to take his place on the Shanghai Shenhua team. Top footballers are often feted as heroes but few can claim to have ended a civil war, which is what Drogba did in his native Ivory Coast. After leading the national team to the World Cup, Drogba dropped to his knees in front of a camera in the dressing room and begged his countrymen to put down their weapons. Astonishingly,... https://www.scmp.com/article/1007382/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/1007382/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 21 Jul 2012 16:00:00 +0000 Noel Gallagher, who along with his High Flying Birds will be appearing in Hong Kong next month, has been banned from playing on the mainland for his part in a Tibetan freedom concert in 1997. Gallagher (below) admits to not knowing what many of his lyrics mean and says he has no idea what he was talking about when he wrote Don't Look Back in Anger. And what is a 'wonderwall' anyway? Well, it's a wall in a weird scientist's apartment with holes that allow him to peep on his glamorous neighbour,... https://www.scmp.com/article/1006127/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/1006127/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 07 Jul 2012 16:00:00 +0000 Tony Blair was treated to a rousing welcome at the University of Hong Kong this month, as the former British prime minister (below) was giving a talk on faith and globalisation. 'WAR CRIMINAL,' shouted activist Tom Grundy, while attempting a citizen's arrest. Blair told the crowd that he was 'used to all this by now' and he wasn't lying: he's been accused of everything from cosying up to Rupert Murdoch (he is godfather to one of the media mogul's latest litter) to accepting free holidays from... https://www.scmp.com/article/1004757/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/1004757/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 23 Jun 2012 16:00:00 +0000 Zhang Ziyi has been the subject of unwelcome and - let's face it - unlikely newspaper articles in recent weeks that suggest the Beijing-born actress (below) earned US$110 million by prostituting herself to fallen politician Bo Xilai and other high-fliers. Apple Daily ran the story despite a glaring lack of evidence, witnesses or reliable sources. Thirty-three-year-old Zhang made her name in big-budget martial-arts epics such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Hero. One incongruous entry on... https://www.scmp.com/article/1003496/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/1003496/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 09 Jun 2012 16:00:00 +0000 The Beach Boys will be gracing Hong Kong on their 50th anniversary world tour, we discovered last week. If anyone is in any doubt as to the brains behind the band (below) responsible for classics such as Good Vibrations and God Only Knows, the late Dennis Wilson (the only band member who could surf) put it in a nutshell: 'Brian Wilson is the Beach Boys. He is the band. We're his f***ing messengers. He is all of it. Period. We're nothing.' The eldest of the three Wilson brothers, Brian has... https://www.scmp.com/article/1002037/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/1002037/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 26 May 2012 16:00:00 +0000 Frank Gehry has left his expensive mark on our city's skyline with the Opus Hong Kong residential block on The Peak. The Canadian-American architect (below) became a household name with his design for a certain Spanish museum/art gallery, which, according to Vanity Fair, was a 'signal moment in the architectural culture', because it represents 'one of those rare moments when critics, academics and the general public were all completely united about something'. The building, in Basque Country, is... https://www.scmp.com/article/1000796/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/1000796/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 12 May 2012 16:00:00 +0000 The Stone Roses (below) have announced a Hong Kong date on their reunion tour 28 years after they formed. The Manchester band's eponymous 1989 debut album has been named the best British album of all time by The Observer. Frontman Ian Brown is not known for humility, once stating: 'We're the most important band in the world because we've got the best songs.' The lead singer attributed the Roses' success, and that of the 'Madchester' movement, which they are associated with, to the era's high... https://www.scmp.com/article/999496/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/999496/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 28 Apr 2012 16:00:00 +0000 Dame Edna Everage was due to give her Hong Kong possums a final farewell yesterday, before retiring from the stage after a 57-year outing. Adored by many, the dame has had her ups and downs. During a stint as agony aunt at Vanity Fair, she responded to a reader who had asked if she should learn Spanish by saying: 'Forget Spanish ... Who speaks it that you are really desperate to talk to? The help? The leaf blower?' The magazine was forced to apologise when actress Salma Hayek voiced her fury... https://www.scmp.com/article/997108/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/997108/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 31 Mar 2012 16:00:00 +0000 Vladimir Putin's recent re-election as president of Russia was met with accusations of electoral fraud at home and abroad. While the former KGB spook (below) is often demonised by Western media, under his watch, average Russian salaries rose sixfold and poverty more than halved. In 2010, a United States diplomatic cable published by WikiLeaks summed up his role as prime minister by describing the man who had succeeded him as president, Dmitry Medvedev, as playing Robin to Putin's Batman ... ... https://www.scmp.com/article/995754/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/995754/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 17 Mar 2012 16:00:00 +0000 Ninety-four years ago this week, the 'greatest medical holocaust in history' began when United States army cook Albert Gitchell reported sick one morning. By midday, his doctor had seen 107 men with the same symptoms. The Spanish influenza virus is believed to have killed more people in 24 weeks than Aids killed in as many years. As the US surgeon general observed, '... civilisation could easily disappear from the face of the Earth within a few weeks', as recounted in a history of the... https://www.scmp.com/article/994349/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/994349/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 03 Mar 2012 16:00:00 +0000 'Picasso,' says the lady sitting to my left, her head a cloud of cling film and cotton wool, as she nods at the woman standing behind me. 'Picasso,' agrees the young man on my right. They nod sagely to each other as I look at my unkempt locks, lying forlornly on the floor. The object of such high praise is Lorena Severi, and while Severi is neither Spanish nor surreal, she is an artist of exceptional talent. With a resume brimming with names such as Catherine Zeta-Jones, Cate Blanchett,... https://www.scmp.com/article/994179/balayage-lorena-severi?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/994179/balayage-lorena-severi?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 01 Mar 2012 16:00:00 +0000 Lady Gaga is coming to Hong Kong! Her of the meat-frock shock is scheduled to show her poker face at AsiaWorld-Expo on May 2. The 25-year-old (below) owes much of her success to her fan base of gay men, for whom she has become a formidable advocate. Describing her own orientation, Gaga stated: 'On a gay scale from 1 to 10, I'm a Judy Garland f***ing 42.' Despite her claiming to be an 'outcast', as a student the 'fame monster' was described as hard working, and proved to be so with a thesis... https://www.scmp.com/article/993001/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/993001/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 18 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0000 Kim Dotcom (below) and his Megaupload empire have been catapulted into the public's consciousness, as much for the sometime Hong Kong resident's lifestyle as for their alleged copyright infringements. In jail and facing the forfeiture of more than HK$2 billion in cash and the seizure of assets including 15 Mercedes, a Rolls-Royce Phantom and a Lamborghini, Dotcom has had the presence of mind to hire the lawyer who won a notorious sexual harassment case for client Bill Clinton ... When a... https://www.scmp.com/article/991711/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/991711/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 04 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0000 Salvador Dali's has become the latest name used to relieve cash-rich mainlanders of their spare change. An exhibition in Central has brought the surrealist's paintings to life, smothered them in precious gems and adorned them with seven-figure price tags. Dali himself was as shocking: just as New York society was starting to fall for the Spaniard (below), he and his wife arrived at a masquerade ball thrown in his honour dressed as a kidnapper and the recently kidnapped Lindbergh baby... https://www.scmp.com/article/990151/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/990151/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 14 Jan 2012 16:00:00 +0000 Christopher Hitchens' recent death silenced a booming voice of reason at the peak of the polemicist's fame (and notoriety). The hard-drinking, chain-smoking writer (below), who died of cancer aged 62, was his succinct, unpitying self to the end: 'I have been taunt- ing the Reaper into taking a free scythe in my direction and have now succumbed to something so predictable and banal that it bores even me.' The antitheist might have left us sooner had it not been for the undivided attention of Dr... https://www.scmp.com/article/988894/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/988894/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 31 Dec 2011 16:00:00 +0000 Snoop Dogg was in town recently, entertaining Hong Kong's hippest and most happening at Dragon-i. The former gangster, porn director and pimp (below) admits to being a fan of the world's longest-running soap opera, Coronation Street, and asked for a cameo role in the story of everyday British folk, but was turned down. One of his successful overseas ventures saw him become the first mainstream American artist to perform on a Bollywood soundtrack. The movie in question was Singh is Kinng, ... https://www.scmp.com/article/987397/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/987397/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 10 Dec 2011 16:00:00 +0000 Bruce Lee (below) would have celebrated his 71st birthday today had he not died at the age of 32, probably due to an allergic reaction to painkillers. The inventor of the one-inch knockout punch achieved a striking speed, from a distance of three feet and with his hands by his sides, of five-hundredths of a second. Lee also choreographed fight scenes for 1969 Dean Martin comedy The Wrecking Crew, which was the debut for martial artist Chuck Norris ... Norris is the subject of an internet ... https://www.scmp.com/article/985989/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/985989/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 26 Nov 2011 16:00:00 +0000 Coco Lee (below) gave local celebrity-watchers a stimulation overload recently with a wedding that cost a reported HK$100 million and was attended by the likes of Oprah, Beyonce and Jennifer Lopez. Lee, who made her innermost feelings public with the single I Just Wanna Marry U, has performed in support of the anti-tobacco and anti-racism lobbies, Aids education and the reuse of shopping bags. The trilingual singer also voiced the lead role in the Putonghua version of Disney's Mulan ... ... https://www.scmp.com/article/983952/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/983952/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 05 Nov 2011 16:00:00 +0000 The Human League were due to give Kitec a taste of 1980s synth-pop nostalgia on Thursday. Before joining the group, Philip Oakey (below) was working as a hospital porter with no inclination towards a musical career. He was approached purely because he 'already looked like a pop star'. Later, Oakey's avant-garde hairstyle became a trademark of the band, famous for hits such as Don't You Want Me and Fascination. The severe fringe he adopted in 1982 was a copy of that of the 'replicant' ... https://www.scmp.com/article/981977/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/981977/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 15 Oct 2011 16:00:00 +0000 Roald Dahl has been posthumously ruffling feathers on Twitter after a trust in his name began the dubious task of raising a staggering HK$6 million just to relocate the garden shed in which he wrote most of his famous stories. The second world war flying ace (below), whose legacy includes Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Tales of the Unexpected, has sold more than 100 million books in 50 languages. The Welsh-born Dahl's Norwegian roots are reflected in his being named after Nordic... https://www.scmp.com/article/979997/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/979997/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 24 Sep 2011 16:00:00 +0000 P.G. Wodehouse (below) is back in the spotlight 36 years after his death, as newly released documents from the British archives reignite suspicions the author had had a more cosy relationship with the Nazis than he had let on. A cursory look into the saga, however, would reveal the 'scandal' to be little more than a storm brewed up in the teacups of his literary rivals, by far the most vocal being A.A. Milne, author of Winnie-the-Pooh ... The lovable character was named after a teddy... https://www.scmp.com/article/978067/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/978067/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 03 Sep 2011 16:00:00 +0000 On this day in 1994, terrorist Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, aka Carlos the Jackal (below), was captured, in Sudan, after decades on the lam. The glamorous moniker came about by chance: the Venezuelan had preferred the code name 'Johnny'. The Guardian newspaper created the jackal myth when one of its reporters was shown a stash of his possessions and spotted a copy of a book that, in fact, didn't belong to the terrorist at all: The Day of the Jackal, by Frederick Forsyth ... As an author, ... https://www.scmp.com/article/976087/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/976087/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 13 Aug 2011 16:00:00 +0000 Rupert Murdoch, it is safe to say, has had better months. The world was watching last week as the frail father of six (below) told a British parliamentary hearing he felt humbled by the response to revelations that one of his newspaper titles had run stories based on the hacking of a murdered schoolgirl's phone. He denied responsibility, instead pointing the finger at employees of his conglomerate, News Corporation ... Created in 1979 as a holding company for assets inherited from Murdoch's... https://www.scmp.com/article/974275/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/974275/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 23 Jul 2011 16:00:00 +0000 Fifty years ago yesterday, Ernest Hemingway (below) put his favourite gun to his head and pulled the trigger, thus perpetuating a family trait that saw his father, two siblings and a granddaughter take their own lives. The Nobel- and Pulitzer-winning writer spent his life taunting death: in 1944, a drunken car crash resulted in 57 stitches in his scalp and yet another divorce. He had spent the previous evening partying with photographer Robert Capa ... The Hungarian's most famous work was... https://www.scmp.com/article/972363/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/972363/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 02 Jul 2011 16:00:00 +0000 On this day 69 years ago, a girl celebrating her 13th birthday was given the autograph book she had eagerly pointed out to her father in an Amsterdam shop window a few days earlier. The book, bound with red and white checked cloth, would become the diary of Anne Frank. Three years later, Anne (below) died in a Nazi concentration camp, never knowing how profound an effect she would have on the world. 'One voice speaks for six million - the voice not of a sage or a poet but of an ordinary... https://www.scmp.com/article/970319/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/970319/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 11 Jun 2011 16:00:00 +0000 Today is the 198th anniversary of Richard Wagner's birth. The German composer (below) is a controversial figure, due, in part, to rumours that those condemned to die in Nazi death camps were accompanied on the walk to the gas chamber by his music - Hitler's favourite. A festival honouring Wagner, which he started, has thrived and tickets for the Bayreuth Festspiele are famously hard to come by. In 1961, Wagner's grandson, who was in charge of the event, caused outrage when he booked the... https://www.scmp.com/article/968388/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/968388/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 21 May 2011 16:00:00 +0000 Arnold Schwarzenegger, freed from his duties as governor of California, has been threatening to return to the big screen. The Austrian Oak (above), who was a self-made millionaire before Hollywood embraced him, didn't let his fortune go to his head: 'Money doesn't make you happy. I now have US$50 million, but I was just as happy when I had US$48 million.' Schwarzenegger said the 'toughest thing' about being governor was 'dealing with someone's life', explaining his decision to deny clemency to... https://www.scmp.com/article/967126/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/967126/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 07 May 2011 16:00:00 +0000 Thirty years ago today, Ronnie Biggs was found floating in a broken-down yacht off the coast of Barbados, after a botched kidnap attempt. The Briton (above), who had a minor role in the 1963 Great Train Robbery, spent 36 years on the lam before returning home, and to prison, in 2001. A film about the crime, Buster, was released in 1988 and starred Phil Collins ... The power-ballad pioneer and Genesis drummer, whose solo work includes In The Air Tonight and Mama, enjoyed enormous commercial... https://www.scmp.com/article/965934/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/965934/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 23 Apr 2011 16:00:00 +0000 Jeremy Clarkson (above) has been making headlines again as Britain's less 'newsy' newspapers insist he's been carrying out extra-curricular marital duties. As a presenter of television's Top Gear, which is enjoyed by fans in more than 100 countries, he frequently makes comments that a certain type of viewer loves to be outraged about. Clarkson often invokes well-known personalities, for good or bad, in his car critiques: the Audi R8 was tied to Keira Knightley; the Audi RS4, Adolf Hitler; the ... https://www.scmp.com/article/964648/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/964648/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 09 Apr 2011 16:00:00 +0000 Banksy (above, maybe) has been the target of art thieves, who have been removing entire sections of wall in Los Angeles adorned with the graffiti artist's stencils. When his work began to fetch high prices, the anonymous artist said on his website: 'I can't believe you morons actually buy this s***.' One of his pieces of art has 'I learnt a valuable lesson from this woman. Moisturise every day' written over an image of deeply wrinkled Mother Teresa ... The Albanian nun, who believed it was... https://www.scmp.com/article/964003/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/964003/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 02 Apr 2011 16:00:00 +0000 Millionaire Jim Thompson (above) vanished from Malaysia's Cameron Highlands 44 years ago this week. The former spy lifted thousands of Thailand's poor from poverty when he revived the country's silk industry. Despite many theories about his disappearance - among them that he provided the main course at a cannibal feast and that a tribal princess had imprisoned him as a love slave - none has satisfactorily solved the mystery. In a desperate bid to find him, his family flew in celebrity psychic... https://www.scmp.com/article/741414/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/741414/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 19 Mar 2011 16:00:00 +0000 Not a lot of people know this, but tomorrow is Michael Caine's 78th birthday. The Cockney ex-soldier (above) had a rocky start to his career but his perseverance paid off. In the 1970s, when the tax rate for British high earners hit 83 per cent, he fled to the United States. Caine has been nominated for an Academy Award in every decade from the 1960s to the 2000s. The only other actor to have achieved that is Jack Nicholson ... Nicholson was 37 years old when a reporter from Time... https://www.scmp.com/article/740734/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/740734/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 12 Mar 2011 16:00:00 +0000 Syd Barrett's love letters to a childhood sweetheart will soon be put on show in London. The Pink Floyd bad boy (above), who died in 2006, had three productive years with the ground-breaking band, during which time his unique talent blossomed along with his erratic, drug-addled behaviour. Barrett became an enigma in the music world when he wilfully dropped off the radar and moved back into his mother's house, where he remained for the rest of his life. Barrett's legacy can be seen as well as... https://www.scmp.com/article/740014/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/740014/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 05 Mar 2011 16:00:00 +0000 Piers Morgan (above) has presided over a 75 per cent drop in ratings for the American chat show he took over from Larry King. The spectacular nosedive was achieved in just two weeks, with one instalment attracting fewer viewers than a documentary about a supermarket on another channel. Before the first show aired, the Briton placed lifetime bans on certain celebrities, one of whom - who he described as being 'too boring for TV' - was Madonna ... Despite being raised a Catholic before... https://www.scmp.com/article/739299/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/739299/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 26 Feb 2011 16:00:00 +0000 John Paul Getty III's tragic life ended recently, 30 years after he was confined to a wheelchair, following a stroke brought on by drug abuse. The oil heir first came to public attention with his 1973 kidnapping and mutilation, and the reluctance of his billionaire grandfather to pay the ransom. His disappearance came at a bad time for his father, John Paul Getty Jnr, who was mourning the heroin-overdose death of his second wife, Talitha Pol ... The actress (above, with her husband), who was... https://www.scmp.com/article/738637/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/738637/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 19 Feb 2011 16:00:00 +0000 Andrew Lloyd Webber (above) has been taking advantage of the Hong Kong government's inspired decision to abolish wine duty by auctioning part of his vast collection of vintages here, having run out of cupboard space in his stately piles. It's not the first time the British composer has put his treasured possessions under the hammer. Last year, he made headlines with the US$52 million sale of the Portrait of Angel Fernandez de Soto, by Pablo Picasso ... At the Spanish artist's birth, the... https://www.scmp.com/article/737122/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/737122/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 29 Jan 2011 16:00:00 +0000 Tomorrow marks the 25th anniversary of the Thetan that inhabited the body of L. Ron Hubbard - the father of Scientology - abandoning its Earthly home to head off to the between-lives 'landing station' on Venus. It wasn't the first time it had jumped its human ship - in 1966, Hubbard (above), a pulp-science-fiction writer under investigation in Britain, South Africa, New Zealand and elsewhere, relocated to Rhodesia and claimed to be the reincarnation of Cecil Rhodes, founder of diamond... https://www.scmp.com/article/736487/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/736487/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 22 Jan 2011 16:00:00 +0000 David Furnish (above), the sophisticated yang to Elton John's flamboyant yin, has become a 'mother', according to an American registrar's documents. The former advertising executive has been credited with saving the career of his ageing pop-star partner and the 17-year relationship has seen the Canadian mould the one-time cocaine-addled alcoholic into A-list royalty - and, now, a parent. The only non-family guest at the couple's wedding was, along with her then husband, Sam Taylor-Wood... https://www.scmp.com/article/735807/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/735807/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 15 Jan 2011 16:00:00 +0000 Kate Middleton (above) has, if the British tabloid press is to be believed, left every man, woman and child giddy with excitement over her upcoming nuptials to 15th cousin (or 12th cousin removed, depending on which lineage you follow) Prince William. With so much style credo riding on her choice of wedding dress, there has been a lot of talk - and gambling - on which designer she'll plump for. Bookmaker Paddy Power has closed the betting at 3-to-1 on Bruce Oldfield ... Raised by children's... https://www.scmp.com/article/734568/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/734568/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 01 Jan 2011 16:00:00 +0000 Johnny Depp (above) wowed a London school recently by striding into an assembly dressed as his Pirates of the Caribbean character, Captain Jack Sparrow, in response to a letter from a nine-year-old pupil asking for help in pulling off 'a mutiny'. Depp has been known to fulfil unusual requests of him. He paid for and organised the firing from a cannon of the ashes of a good friend, Hunter S. Thompson ... Thompson fathered a style of writing known as 'gonzo journalism', in which he would place... https://www.scmp.com/article/727800/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/727800/six-degrees?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 16 Oct 2010 16:00:00 +0000