celebs – Page 16 – Rob Mansfield: Content-ment

JK Rowling ‘close to suicide’

Harry Potter author JK Rowling has admitted she came close to committing suicide when she was struggling as a single mum in the days before the ‘boy wizard’ became a household name.

Now, obviously this story has been used to highlight how difficult life can be for single mums and that you should never give up hope, because things do get better.

What I find interesting about this is that JK has admitted this. She’s reputedly someone who shies away from the spotlight and rarely gives interviews, so it’s all the more of a surprise that she’d confess to something as ‘big’ as suicide.

The admission dovetails neatly with Mental Health Week and is a stark reminder that anyone can suffer from this sort of condition, no matter how rich or famous.

I know ‘mental health’ is still a dirty word to some people and to admit that you suffer from depression, suicidal thoughts or something similar is tantamount to weakness, but the sooner people get used to it being part of everyday life the better.

Brian Wilde – how old was he?

Last Of The Summer Wine star Brian Wilde has died, meaning another great British comedy actor has flown the nest.

The Guardian reported the story, but seemed slightly unsure how old he was – if you look at the grab taken from the MediaGuardian TV homepage on Easter Sunday, you can see that there were obviously two warring factions in the subs department.

One report said that he was 80, when he died peacefully on Thursday.

But if you look at the picture story on the top left, he apparently aged 6 years overnight, leaving the earth at 86 years of age.

However, when you clicked on the updated story, complete with picture this time (why have they replicated the same article?) maintained that he was still 80.

Just in case you are in any doubt, Brian Wilde was born in June 1927 and was definitely 80. Sad to see him go.

An update: It seems that there was considerable confusion as to Brian Wilde’s date of birth. Imdb.com had it down as 1 June 1921 and is probably where the confusion arose.

However, this site’s information is provided by users and not any specific authority, so it proves you should believe what you read on the Internet!

Hobson’s choice: Nicole or Dannii?

So Nicole Kidman has been accused of turning into a bat, according to one ’eminent’ plastic surgeon (actually, I’m not really sure a plastic surgeon can be eminent, if it’s for cosmetic purposes, but hey-ho).

Anyway this news made me smile, on the back of a recent tale from a journalist friend.

This friend had managed to wangle a whole load of cosmetic treatments and one of them was Botox injections.

She duly went along for the appointment and the doctor ran through a couple of questions before administering the needle.

Now, apparently, there are two different patterns of injections, depending on the effect you wish to achieve – something to do with the bits of the face are rendered lifeless, from what I gather.

So, what was the final query before the doc started?

Do you want to look like Nicole Kidman or Dannii Minogue?