Film Friday – Looking For Eric

Having quite an illustrious career in his native France as a cinematic star -- appearing in such foreign language classics as “Question d’Honneur”, “L’outremangeur” and “Le Deuxième Souffle” -- Eric Cantona has not really enjoyed much of a presence on the British silver screens.

It’s all about to change though as he finds himself the focus of Ken Loach’s new film “Looking For Eric” which opens on 8th June.

You can see it before everyone else for free on June 7th by visiting www.seefilmfirst.com and entering the code 759823.

Film Friday – The Hangover

After portraying himself so honestly and (semi-)sympathetically in “Tyson”, it’s nice to see that Mike Tyson isn’t being typecast when it comes to playing himself.

Taking on the role of Mike Tyson once again, this time he’s appearing in “The Hangover”, another laugh-heavy knockabout jape from the director of “Old School” which opens in cinemas on June 11th and also stars Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis and Heather Graham.

It’s a much smaller part for Iron Mike, but his performance is no less accomplished -- his air-drumming managing to rival even that of the Cadbury’s gorilla.

If you want to see “The Hangover” before anyone else (and better yet, see if for free) go to www.seefilmfirst.com and enter the code 993672.

Heart and Vole

In an attempt to find the secret to a successful long-term relationship, scientists have been studying a small creature known as the prairie vole – one of nature’s few strictly monogamous species.

The results of their experiments show that these fluffy little bundles secrete high levels of a peptide hormone known as vasopressin when they settle with a mate – a chemical which ‘rewards’ the brain for fidelity.

Interestingly, vasopressin is also secreted by humans.  It’s the same hormone that keeps you from pissing the bed in the night.

Baboon v. Badger: The Euro Vote

We asked five of this year’s Eurovision hopefuls who they thought would win in a fight between a baboon and a badger.  The results have now been counted.

Badger Fanciers:

Belgium’s Patrick Ouchène (aka Copycat)
Hungary’s Zoli Ádok

Baboon Fanciers:

Serbia’s Marko Kon
Czech Republic’s Radoslav Banga (aka gipsy.cz)
The Netherlands’ Rene Froger

Results so far:
The baboon seems to have the upper hand at the moment, but the badger is putting up a surprisingly good fight (as Andy Bell predicted it would). More results are still trickling in – we’ll keep you posted.

Cats That Look Like Hitler

I found this Hitler lookalike hiding in South America, much like other Nazi emigres….

For more Cats That Look Like Hitler

Saturday is Eurovision day

Well the day is upon us, and by the end of tonight we’ll know which sorry outpost of popular song we’ll all be shipping off to for a fortnight around this time next year. But there’s still stuff to report. Spain are in danger of disqualification for making known who all their jury votes went to, and Big Philip Kirkirov has been sacked as chairman of the Russian jury for going out to dinner with the Norwegians and publically promising votes to the Azeris. So it’s completely incorruptable this new jury system, eh!

And where the interval act for the first semi was fabulous, and for the second delightful and charming, tonight’s mid-show entertainment is just downright weird. Giant swimming pools are suspended from the roof while a bunch of bonkers dancers slide about and go mental in them – rather pleasingly splashing the VIPs in the posh seats with gallons of water while they’re at it. To the side a pair of girls run along a bit of tin foil for a bit… and that’s it! Perhaps a tad too avant garde for Eurovision palates – we wish they’d bring t.A.T.u. and the Red Army Choir back for another go! But we can guarantee that you’ll enjoy Dima Bilan’s entrance in the opener – it’s very odd, but it’s a stunner!

So who’s going to win? Well at this point we can’t image we’d be going anywhere other than Oslo, Kiev, Athens, Paris or, gulp, London next year – although we’ve still got a sneaker for the Bosnians. What is certain is that someone we never imagined will pop up from nowhere and become a proper vote sponge. Whatever happens, we suspect you’re going to like this one.

Eyes down for a full house – let the nonsense begin!

Last chance to bet:

Eurovision – The Final

Since the relaxing of various rules and guidelines in the Eurovision handbook at the turn of the century, the face of the Eurovision Song Contest has changed – almost beyond recognition.

Most notable of the many changes in the competition is probably the sheer number of countries that now participate.  This year 42 countries were entered into the semi-finals and 25 will perform in the finals on Saturday.

With so many entries it’s becoming increasingly tricky to pick out a winner but, after hours of exhaustive research, to see if we could figure out the formula for winning the Eurovision Song Contest in the 21st Century.

Everything you need to know – here:

Everything you want to know about the odds, how to bet, how to claim your 25 pound free Betfair bet:

It’s the final countdown

So now we know who’s in the final, and it got quite exciting for a brief moment last night when they left it to the very last moment to announce that Greece had qualified. There’d have been few more popular events than the fall of Sakis around these parts, and he darned nearly fell off that ludicrous giant stapler of his – we can only hope he’ll go the whole hog on Saturday.

A rather drab Croatia and Albania’s emerald gimp were the only two real surprises in the second semi-final, but the draw has thrown up some interesting clashes. At first it seemed as though the rapidly fading monkey-faced Norwegian boy had bagged a plumb draw in 20th – until the bonkers bombast of Ukraine was drawn directly after it. Will they cancel each other out, or will one overwhelm the other? Thankfully for Norway the anti-crisis girl’s stage furniture takes so long to drag on that they’ve had to crowbar in an ad break between them. But with Norway no better than evens in the betting you’d be better place putting your pence on the Ukrainians.

And despite its early appearance, France has struck lucky being surrounded by a gaggle of inferior ballads and drabbery. It’s a performance that has consistantly stopped everyone in their tracks, and if Europe’s in a grim mood tomorrow evening the old girl could well do some good business in the points stakes.

But the big winner of the running order, rather surprisingly, is our Jade. Pitched between a right pair of duffers from Finland and Romania and three from the end, it’s the song that will stick in the memory best when the punters lean over their evening tea to pick up the phone and vote. The O2 Arena next year, anyone?

Elsewhere, Dita von Teese’s miniscule appearance in the German turn seemed a little pointless, Azerbaijan are still insisting on playing that comedy ukelele, and the prematurely balding Lithuanian is thankfully keeping his hat on now. These three are almost certainly doomed, despite their unintentional comedy.

If you’re looking for betting tips though, you can still get very generous odds for the dreary-yet-mum-pleasing Danes to make the top ten, and the Russian gal’s curiously understated show looks like incredible value to bag a top four slot. But best of the lot is for the caterwauling Romanian to come dead last. The bottom slot is always filled by a song you don’t expect, and this could well be propping up the table come saturday night.

Badger V Baboon… the casting votes?

Serbia votes – BABOON

Marko Kon thinks the baboon is the clear winner. “It’s bigger, it’s faster and much more intelligent. And don’t they make shaving brushes out of badgers?” A very good point, Marko.

Belgium votes BABOON.

Belgian Elvis Patrick Ouchene favours the stripey-faced weasel. “That thing looks vicious, man. It’s got to win!”

Russia Friday

As is always the way when the host nation decides to phone in some half-arsed excuse for an entry, rumours have been circulating that Russia are deliberately sabotaging their chances of winning so they don’t have to put on the 2010 show.

Whether that’s a factor or not, Russia are forgiven for turning in this dross bit of tortured teen-pop because they’ve already provided the finest piece of entertainment this Eurovision Song Contest is likely to provide -- the semi-final collaboration between Tatu and the Red Army.

The entry:

The semi-final mid-show spectacle: