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TV highlights 01/06/2012

A Jubilee Tribute To The Queen By The Prince Of Wales | The Great British Story: A People’s History | Episodes | Radio Rebel | Punk Britannia | Dexter

A Jubilee Tribute To The Queen By The Prince Of Wales
8pm, BBC1

Prince Charles has done himself few favours in his TV life, with a recent go at reading the weather forecast for Scottish TV a rare successful attempt to reveal the character at ease behind the uncomfortable public figure. Preview tapes were unavailable for this tribute to his mother, but one can well imagine the collection of rolling landscapes, fond recollections and unguarded home-movie moments that will have been put together here. One imagines a tone of respectful intimacy; a feel of stealthily deflated pomp. John Robinson

The Great British Story: A People’s History
9pm, BBC2

Episode two of Michael Wood’s chronicle deals with the arrival of the Vikings, and the emergence of Britain’s different nations at a time when Bede saw the English (Anglo-Saxons) as comparative newcomers. In keeping with the series’ bottom-up ethos, we’re whizzed around the country to see how ordinary people would have lived in the post-Roman dark ages. Telling details abound: a precursor to the rule of law lay in compensation values associated with body bits ? six shillings for a front tooth, 150 shillings for genitals. Jonathan Wright

Episodes
10pm, BBC2

With ratings plummeting on the show-within-the-show Pucks!, market research is called in to save the day. Matt LeBlanc, from bitter experience, is no fan: “Yeah, research said Joey was gonna be a hit!” He’s even less happy when the results come in showing that another cast member’s hair is testing better with the audience than he is, leading to an episode where he’s practically written out of his own show. Elsewhere, Beverly is missing hanging out with Sean, and discovering he has a Facebook page nearly sends her over the edge. Phelim O’Neill

Radio Rebel
5.55pm, Disney Channel

This is everything a feature-length Disney film should be: a high school tale of jocks v geeks v cheerleaders, plus a whole lot of abbreviation that anyone who doesn’t say “OMG” in everyday conversation may struggle with. Tara is the Radio Rebel in question, a shy girl who sits silently at the back of the class but gives good podcast. Naturally, there’s a prom, a scheming popular rival and a Jonas-style dreamboat to trouble her. So will the “Hey kids! Be yourself!” message win through? The words “Like” and “totally” spring to mind. Hannah Verdier

Punk Britannia
9pm, BBC4

When punk broke in the UK in 1976 most would have assumed it was a bout of short-lived juvenile delinquency. Its cultural effect, however, would be seismic and, as this new series shows, the forces that gave rise to it had been rumbling for a long time. Tonight we look at 1972?76, the pre-punk years, which saw the emergence of pub rock triggered by the arrival in the UK of a US combo called Eggs Over Easy, and a rock’n'roll revival led by two collectors of 50s platters who formed the Chiswick label, home to the 101ers (later the Clash). There’s a real flavour of the fustiness of the 70s mainstream, with Nick Lowe, John Lydon and Billy Idol among the many interviewees. David Stubbs

Dexter
10pm, FX

The news that Gellar was Travis’s imaginary passenger wasn’t quite the shocker the show intended, generating “Yes, we’ve known for bloody weeks, can we please move things along now?” from frustrated viewers. This week Travis targets the Miami PD with a poison gas attack ? and, really, who can blame him? The show has wasted so much time on dead ends that now it’s reduced to frantically hammering square pegs into round plot holes. PO’N

Vagam Bodjukyan Kotetsu Boku  Tony Bonello Stephan Bonnar Lorenzo Borgomeo 

Mad Men: Season 5, episode 11 ? The Other Woman

In an epic episode, Peggy, Joan, Roger, Pete, Lane and Megan all saw their lives shift dramatically. Did it take you by surprise?

SPOILER ALERT: This blog is for those who are watching season five of Mad Men on Sky Atlantic. Don’t read on if you haven’t seen episode 11

Paul MacInnes’s episode 10 blog

“If they weren’t out of our reach, beyond our control, would we love them like we do?” – Don Draper

Did you expect this ? that one episode would contain so much? A single 47-minute episode no less, of a series that seems to delight in delaying narrative gratification. Did you expect to see Peggy walk out on Don, Joan become a partner, Roger reveal his true colours, Pete make his move to the head of the firm, Lane to undermine that same firm’s entire future and the blessed Megan have her dreams sourly squashed? You may have done. I certainly did not.

This was an epic episode with a thoroughly disquieting tone. It is sometimes said that none of the characters in Mad Men are likeable. Such thoughts were borne out spectacularly in this hour. The weight of obnoxiousness falls exclusively on male shoulders too. If every plot event this week wasn’t set off by a misogynistic act, then you could have fooled me.

First among equals in this regard is Pete Campbell. I have not felt a loathing so visceral for a TV character in a long time, if ever. (If I did, it was probably for Grotbags). It wasn’t just the depravity of his actions; his decision to actively pursue the idea of Joan selling her body so to improve SCDP’s chances with Jaguar. Neither was it the way he picked the thought up without anybody asking and pursued it with such gusto. No, it was the way he rationalised the proposal as a business decision or transaction not much different from schmoozing a client. And what’s more, she’d get paid! “We’ve all had nights in our life when we’ve made mistakes for free”, says Pete, equating a drunken tryst with being sold out by the closest thing you have to family. “I hope I haven’t insulted you. That’s all that matters to me.” Get out of my face Campbell!

Not that his colleagues were much better. Roger Sterling, the man who just last week was scoping out the possibility of rekindling romance with Red, had only this to say when it comes to the crunch: “I’m not going to stand in the way, but I’m not paying for it.” Lane? He was convinced he was acting with compassion ? “I’ve put your interests above those of the company” ? but he couldn’t see that his plan to wrangle a partnership meant he was still treating Joan’s honour as a commodity to be traded. Bert Cooper, meanwhile, does nothing but issue a limp, tardy “Let her know she can still say no.”

It’s pretty clear that if Joan did say no, while the company might not fail, she would be held responsible for any downturn in fortunes (by Pete, at least). How much a sense of corporate duty influenced her decision though, I’m not sure. I would say more it was a sense of abandonment, and an accompanying flight of self-respect. It was self-loathing that drove her.

Well, that and the money. It struck me that Joan did end up conducting a Cost Benefit Analysis on her indecent proposal. And she decided the benefits were worth it. Admittedly a refusal might have ended her career, but her acceptance of the offer had at least three distinct advantages. First, it paid well and would support a woman and her child for a lifetime (as Lane says). Second, it gave her a status within the organisation to which, judging by her daily behaviour, she had always felt entitled; Third, it gave her a win over Peggy Olsen. (And if you think that didn’t matter to Joan, check the sly glance across the office as she celebrates and Peggy makes her exit.)

***

The man I didn’t mention as being complicit was Don, because he wasn’t. That doesn’t mean he didn’t have his own moment of misogynist madness; a reckless, disdainful gesture that brought his protege to walk away from her mentor. “You wanna go to Paris? Here, go to Paris.” With an intensity that came out of nowhere, and ? as far as I was aware ? a complete misreading of Peggy’s interests (she wanted the account, not the trip), Don chucked money at his colleague in an act reminiscent of a punter at a strip club.

Don doesn’t own Peggy. But in this moment he acted like he did. And while the tone may have simply flared up in the middle of a stressful period ? Ken attributes Don’s actions to a belief that SCDP had lost Jaguar ? the sentiment didn’t. Later when, saying goodbye to Peggy, Don couldn’t help but snap “Let’s pretend for a minute that I’m not responsible for everything good that’s ever happened to you.” Really, it’s not a good look.

I thought Peggy’s departure came as a surprise. I knew she was struggling with her workload and lack of recognition, but I didn’t think she’d exactly been impressing anyone either. This week, of course, she pulled out a piece of spontaneous impro copywriting, thus reminding us of her credentials just as she cashed them in.

I am slightly puzzled by the final shot of the episode though. We had another massive musical climax, with the Kinks’ You Really Got Me kicking in as the credits fade up. This rush of rock’n'roll seemed significant, as if it was representative of all the exciting adventures yet to come for Peggy. It was even corroborated by Peggy herself, a previously pensive look slipping into a sly smile as she stepped into the lift (and not, presumably, the lift shaft).

But why? Why was she smiling? What was exciting about her departure? She’ll get more money, she’ll get a different title but surely it won’t be any more creative? This ability that Peggy purportedly has, to make every ad campaign personal, will that really be encouraged in other places any more that is had been to this point? I wonder. And I wonder therefore whether her move was actually not about self-determination but about being wooed. She was made to feel wanted; to feel special. “First day of work ends with you and me at La Caravelle,” says her suitor from Cutler, Gleeson and Chaough – and that was all she was looking for.

***

In the final contribution to the section marked “the systematic degradation of female Mad Men characters” we pass briefly over Megan. The Perfect One got a callback after an audition. This was exciting news for everyone. Less exciting for Don was the fact Megan chose not to tell him that, if she were to get the part, she’d be immediately pushing off to Boston for nigh-on three months to rehearse. Megan had chose to hold back on that particular piece of info and, after revealing it, accused Don of denying her dreams.

Other fantasies were to be dispelled at the callback, however, as Megan, dressed plainly and neatly, was instructed by her auditioners not to read her part, but give them a twirl. Advertising may be a wheeze for shifting product, but the acting trade is not quite as high-minded as Megan might have convinced herself.

This week’s notes

? Who are the Jaguar freelancers? And why are they so hardnosed?

? I note that 60′s “car men” are generally boorish and unpleasant. Thank god that’s changed then.

? If Lane affects the most implausible mock-outrage on the subject of the bonuses once more, I will scream.

? I have forgotten, but I’m sure you’ll know. Where does “ballerina’, Freddie’s nickname for Peggy, come from?

? Didn’t dig on the time-split thing. I know that point needed to be made, but such a trick felt as if it undermined the power the moment could have had.

Time stamps

? We are in 1967. And Valentine’s day is coming up. Roger Corman released his film ‘The St Valentine’s Day Massacre’ in 1967. It had Jack Nicholson in it in an uncredited role.

? In other January 1967 news, San Francisco’s hippy movement started bubbling up with the Human Be-In in Golden Gate Park. Also, the UK began negotiations to enter the EEC. (Wonder how that turned out?)

Robert Berry David Bielkheden Michael Bisping  Dan Bobish Vagam Bodjukyan

Radio review: A month in Ambridge

Adam and Ian are ensconced in a hot tub, but on the watery theme, why not add crying Amy as a feature?

I hesitate to get a reputation as a coppers’ nark, but do Borsetshire constabulary realise that Adam and Ian have been cavorting in a hot tub during a hosepipe ban?

The sight certainly set Brian back on his heels (“Oh! I didn’t realise you were ?”) when he happened upon them splashing girlishly in the garden. I wasn’t quite sure what a hot tub was for, so I Googled it. The site seemed devoted to Embarrassing Incidents in Hot Tub. That, apparently, is what they are for. It would be just too awful if Adam and Ian ended up in that scandalous rag the Echo. Or online.

The thieves who recently left Adam in a coma are now trying to stop David testifying against them. This week they shot out his security lights as a warning. One can only hope that in the thickening darkness they will encounter the Wild Boar of Borsetshire, which is currently rootling around.

Ambridge has blossomed into an eye-searing scheme of red, white and blue for Britain in Bloom. It reminds me of the dormouse who lived in a bed of deliphiniums blue and geraniums red, and all the day long had a wonderful view of geraniums red and delphiniums blue. (Mind you, all that ended rather badly with lengthy medical intervention and the dormouse in a state of psychotic denial. Let us hope for a happier outcome.) Personally, I think the design needs a little something. Amy, I suggest, would make a eye-catching water feature.

Carl has broken Amy’s heart and don’t we all know it. She has been weeping steadily all May, which may be a record. Them sobbing, sobbing women, who lived in the Roman days, aren’t in Amy’s league. “I never realised anyone could cry that much,” said Chris, the blacksmith, a man of iron who is cracking under the strain.

Ambridge moves at a vegetable pace unlike, say, Walford. A month has passed and no one has thought of thumping Carl on the head.

A month in Ambridge returns on 27 June.

Mikhail Avetisyan Luiz Azeredo  Luciano Azevedo  Ba Te er  Ryan Bader 

‘Prometheus’: The (Early) Reviews Are In!

Critics love the effects and praise Michael Fassbender’s performance, but some feel the sci-fi flick gets lost in its own high-mindedness.By John Mitchell

Michael Fassbender as David 8 in “Prometheus” Photo: Twentieth Century Fox

One of the summer’s most anticipated films, director Ridley Scott’s “Prometheus,” doesn’t open until June 8, but early reviews for the sci-fi blockbuster are already trickling in, something many studios would fear so far ahead of a film’s release — that is, if they weren’t as universally positive.

So far, the consensus is clear: “Prometheus” is a flawed film with a lot of great things going for it, most notably a breakout scene-stealing performance from Michael Fassbender (“Shame”), inspired and amazing 3-D effects and plenty of “jolt and amaze” moments that all but assure filmgoers “will be right back for seconds” when 20th Century Fox releases the film next Friday.

Critics have nothing but praise for the performances of Charlize Theron, Noomi Rapace and Idris Elba, though they are particularly emphatic in their appreciation for Fassbender as the android butler David. When MTV News caught up with Theron recently, she gushed about what makes Fassbender worthy of all that praise. And for fans who can’t wait to see the cast in action, Theron will appear at the MTV Movie Awards, airing this Sunday, June 3 at 9 p.m. E.T. on MTV.

“Technically, ‘Prometheus’ is magnificent. Shot in 3-D but without the director taking the process into account in his conceptions or execution, the film absorbs and uses the process seamlessly,” The Hollywood Reporter writes. “There is nary a false or phony note in the effects.”

“Scott and his production crew compensate to some degree with an intricate, immersive visual design that doesn’t skimp on futuristic eye-candy or prosthetic splatter,” Variety agrees.

Those going in expecting a straightforward prequel to Scott’s “Alien” may be disappointed. While it does answer a few questions burning in the minds of sci-fi aficionados, including some insight into the acid-for-blood aliens of the original series and the spacecraft they are discovered aboard, “Prometheus” is very much its own film.

“Much of Scott’s audience are expecting a fully-formed prequel to ‘Alien,’” The Telegraph writes, “but ‘Prometheus’ only really lays the groundwork, leaving plenty of dots disconnected.”

Though movie review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes is only culling from nine reviews so far, many of them are from top critics, and the film enjoys an 88 percent “fresh” rating. That puts “Prometheus,” presently, a few points ahead of “The Hunger Games” and a few points behind “The Avengers” in the race for best-reviewed blockbuster of the year so far. And several critics attribute that standing to Fassbender.

“Upstaging everyone is Fassbender, who provides the film’s real glint of steel, while decentring its dramatic focus,” the Guardian continues. “[Fassbender] steals the film with the chilling, parasitic relentlessness of that first gut-bound alien.”

“The film contains the ideal embodiment of its sly existential paradox in David, the man-made manservant whose soulfully soulless presence brings to mind both ‘A.I.’ and ’2001′; he’s like HAL 9000 with better cheekbones,” Variety concludes. “In a particularly witty touch, Fassbender’s droll performance takes its cues from Peter O’Toole in ‘Lawrence of Arabia,’ a clip of which David continually watches as a model for how to behave around humans.”

The ultimate result, according to THR, is a “visual feast of a 3D sci-fi movie that has trouble combining its high-minded notions about the origins of the species and its ‘Alien’-based obligation to deliver oozy gross-out moments.”

It’s a sentiment echoed by The Guardian: “It is a muddled, intricate, spectacular film, but more or less in control of all its craziness and is very watchable. It lacks the central killer punch of ‘Alien’: it doesn’t have its satirical brilliance and its tough, rationalist attack on human agency and guilt. But there’s a driving narrative impulse, and, however silly, a kind of idealism, a sense that it’s exciting to make contact with whatever’s out there.”

Are you planning to see “Prometheus”? Let us know in the comments below!

Head over to MovieAwards.MTV.com to vote for your favorite flicks now! The 21st annual MTV Movie Awards air live this Sunday, June 3, at 9 p.m. ET.

Jason Ellis Aleksander Emelianenko Fedor Emelianenko Yasubey Enomoto Mark Epstein

Stephenie Meyer Misses Robert Pattinson And Kristen Stewart On Set

‘It seems funny not to have Kristen here,’ ‘Twilight’ author tells MTV News from New Mexico set of ‘The Host.’By Fallon Prinzivalli, with reporting by Josh Horowitz

Stephenie Meyer Photo: MTV News

Stephenie Meyer has a lot to be excited about. “Breaking Dawn – Part 2,” the final installment of her “Twilight” vampire saga, hits theaters later this year, and the author has already started on her next big-screen project. She is currently working on the set of “The Host,” the film adaptation of her sci-fi romance novel.

When MTV News headed to Albuquerque, New Mexico, for a behind-the-scenes look at the movie, Meyer told us how strange it feels not to have “Twilight” stars Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart hanging around on set.

“It makes it a lot calmer. I do miss them, though,” she said. “It seems funny not to have Kristen here. ‘I’m on a set, why can’t I talk to Kristen?’ That’s a little funny.”

Although she misses working with the actors she spent nearly five years with bringing Edward Cullen and Bella Swan to life, Meyer has welcomed the experience of filming “The Host.” Along with giving audiences the chance to see a whole new cast of characters, it was an opportunity to escape the dark and gloomy weather in Forks. “This [set] has beautiful landscapes everywhere we’ve been, and so that’s been kind of different, too,” she said. “We’re not in a forest where you can’t really see. We’ve got all this beautiful stuff. It’s great.”

She particularly enjoyed filming on the cave sets. “It was so awesome. The cave set was enormous. It was vast,” the writer said. “They’re just so cool, so much fun to walk on. It was kind of like someone built something out of your imagination just for you.”

Meyer’s story follows the invasion of an alien race called Souls. They enter the human body like parasites, erasing their hosts’ personalities. But when Melanie Stryder’s (Saoirse Ronan) body snatcher, Wanderer, instead becomes engulfed in Melanie’s memories, she develops her own feelings for Melanie’s love Jared (Max Irons) and allies with her host body to find him.

Those of you wondering if the script will stay true to the book needn’t worry; the story is in good hands. Meyer revealed she’s had a lot of input in this film thanks to director Andrew Niccol.

“Andrew and I work pretty well together. He’s really, really great, and so he was super-easy to work with,” she said. “In the script-writing process he loved to hear what I had to say and worked really well with me on that. He’s really about, ‘What do you think about this? What do you think about that?’ I think [I have more input] because we are really in sync.”

If you’re like Meyer and you too miss Stewart and Pattinson, tune in to MTV on Sunday, June 3, at 9 p.m. ET for the 2012 MTV Movie Awards to see if they take home the award for Best Kiss!

Check out everything we’ve got on “The Host.”

For young Hollywood news, fashion and “Twilight” updates around the clock, visit HollywoodCrush.MTV.com.

Related Videos

• MTV Rough Cut: ‘The Host’

Arman Gambaryan Manvel Gamburyan Sean Gannon Edgar Garcia Leonard Garcia

‘Breaking Dawn’ Characters Meet Their ‘Destinies’ In ‘Part 2′

In lead up to Sunday’s MTV Movie Awards, ‘Twilight’ producer promises vampire series finale will give fans ‘closure.’By Kara Warner

Kristen Stewart in “Breaking Dawn – Part 2″ Photo: Summit

Judging by everything we know about the fifth and final installment in the “Twilight” series, “Breaking Dawn – Part 2″ is going to be a fitting, action-packed and altogether epic conclusion to the über-popular franchise.

Bella and Edward have a daughter, Bella fully becomes a vampire and we get to meet some new fanged friends of the Cullens. When MTV News caught up with “Twilight” producer Wyck Godfrey recently, we asked for his thoughts on the addition of all the new vamps, as well as what scene he thinks will be the fan favorite when the finale hits theaters in November.

“I think it’s about time,” Godfrey said of introducing new blood from other covens in “Part 2.” “I think there’s that sense when you’re reading the book and you start to see the entire spectrum of vampires around the world — it expands the whole unit in a way, you’re dying for that to happen.

“And as a movie, when you finally start to see who Carlisle’s friends are around the world, you’re like, ‘Who’s next? Who’s next?’ We’ve done a really good job with the casting of those roles,” he continued. “Lee Pace makes an extraordinary Garrett, and we had a blast shooting that stuff.”

Godfrey went on to say that he particularly enjoyed the multiple character arcs and the way in which the film ends, adding that it’s a proper conclusion with a little something extra beyond what’s in Stephenie Meyer’s book.

“For me, the last movie is all about closure and the characters finally coming fully into themselves about what their destinies are,” he said. “Edward becoming, in a sense, the patriarch of the family; Bella becoming a mother and a vampire finally, which I think is truly the thing everyone wants to see. It is ultimately the closure of their lives. For those that have followed [the films] from beginning to end, there is a great final moment where you really get to re-live that entire the experience and I think that is something the fans can look forward to.”

Speaking of “Breaking Dawn”-related anticipation, something else fans can look forward to is the possibility of a fourth Best Kiss win for stars Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson at the 2012 MTV Movie Awards, airing live this Sunday, June 3, at 9 p.m. ET.

Head over to MovieAwards.MTV.com to vote for your favorite flicks now! The 21st annual MTV Movie Awards air live this Sunday, June 3, at 9 p.m. ET.

Houston Alexander Ricardo Almeida  Eddie Alvarez Thiago Alves  Andre Amade 

Paloma Faith: Fall to Grace ? review

(RCA)

When Hackney’s Paloma Faith was preparing to follow up her platinum-selling debut album, 2009′s Do You Want the Truth or Something Beautiful?, she reread Milan Kundera’s Immortality, declaring it a big influence on her songwriting. Perhaps its themes of art and death are behind lyrics such as Black and Blue’s “I know people who use chatrooms as confessionals/ I know down and outs who once? once they were professionals”. Then again, she might have randomly cut and pasted a couple of headlines from the Daily Mail website. Her second album is littered with such pseudo-profundities, and the music ? lots of nondescript ballads, a splash of contemporary disco ? is no less banal.

Rating: 2/5

Randy The Natural Couture  Dan Cramer Alberto Crane Marcio Pe de Pano Cruz Luke Cummo 

Koechlin: Magicien Orchestrateur ? review

Wegener/Hoelscher/Stuttgart SWR RSO/Holliger
(Hänssler)

Charles Koechlin‘s list of original works includes well over 200 opus numbers, but he was also a prodigious and skilled orchestrator, regularly transcribing not only his own chamber pieces but music by other composers, too. The latest release in Hänssler’s slowly accumulating Koechlin survey is devoted to the best known of those transcriptions, the earliest of them a seven-movement suite from his straightforward orchestration of the incidental music his teacher Fauré had composed to Maeterlinck’s play Pelléas et Mélisande in 1898.

It’s the version of the music that’s regularly performed, and Debussy’s “legende dansé” Khamma, too, is only ever performed in Koechlin’s orchestration. It was completed after Debussy lost interest in his commission to compose a ballet for the Canadian dancer Maud Allan, and Koechlin was brought in by a despairing publisher who, fearing litigation, asked him to turn the piano score into orchestral form. Even then, Allan never danced it, and the music was not performed until six years after Debussy’s death. Koechlin’s version is luminous and supple; Khamma is comparable in scale with Jeux, which followed soon after, and was to be one of Debussy’s greatest achievements, though Koechlin continued to insist that the more austere Khamma was superior.

In some respects, though, it’s two of the other pieces here, an orchestration of Schubert’s Wanderer Fantasy for solo piano and orchestra and the transcription of Chabrier’s brilliant Bourrée Fantasque that show Koechlin’s skills at their best. There’s no attempt in either to imitate the style of another composer, as there inevitably is in the Debussy and Fauré; both are just exercises in supreme orchestral craft ? preserving the virtuoso edge in the Wanderer Fantasy, distilling the wit and charm of Chabrier’s miniature into a brilliant little showpiece. Heinz Holliger and the SWR Orchestra play all these pieces with the right suave elegance, never overegging the effects; it’s a charming collection.

Rating: 4/5

Dos Caras Jr   Phil Cardella “>Roan Jucao Carneiro Shane The Engineer Carwin  Jason Hollywood Chambers

The cast of Buffy the Vampire Slayer: 15 years on

Louisa Mellor Feature May 18, 2012

Almost a decade after the finale of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, we find out what the Scooby Gang and co. have been up to since the hellmouth opened?

Rolles Gracie Royce Gracie Royler Gracie Ryan Gracie Peter Graham

Adlington blocks Twitter for Games

? Swimmer worried insults will affect performance
? ‘I won’t be checking it or going on it a lot’

It is easy to imagine that Rebecca Adlington has endless reserves of self-belief but the double Olympic champion can be a vulnerable and thin-skinned soul. Adlington says she plans to abandon her 50,000 or so Twitter followers during the Olympic Games because she is so distressed by the abuse she receives from some members of the public. She is worried that any insults she gets will affect her focus as she tries to defend her titles this summer.

“I won’t be checking it or going on it a lot during the Games,” Adlington said of Twitter. “The messages of support are amazing but you do have the chance of someone saying something that is going to be annoying. You don’t want that added stress. You don’t want to be thinking about that. I think I will just Tweet once it is over.”

Adlington, who was only 19 when she won her two Olympic gold medals in Beijing, admits that she used to read everything that was written about her online, including the comments underneath articles. She gave up because she couldn’t stand to read the negative remarks. “I used to read all the stuff about me but I’m one of those people who scroll down to the bottom and read the comments,” she said. “I learned very quickly not to do that. It is awful and I get angry. Even if there are 10 nice comments, you get one idiot. I’ve now given up. It upsets me or gets me angry.”

Some would say that such are the risks and consequences of putting yourself in the public eye but Adlington argues that it is not her professional work that is being attacked. If the trolls were criticising her swimming, Adlington says she would be able to cope. B ut it is her personality and physical appearance that have been targeted.

“Most things that I read about myself are not swimming related,” Adlington said. “They are to do with how I look, which has nothing to do with my performance in the pool. I’ve never read something that has really criticised me in the pool over the past year. It’s just nasty comments about things I can’t control. I can’t help the way I look or who I am. People are not always going to like me but that has nothing to do with my swimming. That really gets me going.” Her favourite thing about Twitter, she says, is “the block button”.

In 2009 Adlington complained to the BBC after Frankie Boyle said on Mock the Week that she resembled “someone looking at themselves in the back of a spoon”. It is easy to imagine that on Twitter she is open to comments that are just as cruel.

Adlington may receive a little less sympathy for her claim: “I’m not an athlete who wants to do everything they can to raise their profile. It’s not about that ? it’s about me swimming. It’s not about making lots of money. I want to let my swimming do the talking more than anything else.” Earlier this year she was one of a group of athletes rebuked by the Office of Fair Trading because of her “deceptive” advertising on Twitter, where she offers regular plugs for her sponsors.

After her disappointing performances at the world championships in 2009 she explained that she had been distracted by the opportunities and attention that came her way after her Olympic success. Those experiences were valuable ones. “I have definitely learned more from my disappointments over the last four years than I have from my good times,” Adlington says. “I think every swimmer has to go through that. If you can’t learn from them and move on well, then you will just keep going downhill. That is part of being in sport.”

Adlington, who competes in the Mare Nostrum in Barcelona this weekend, says that her lowest point was coming seventh in the 800 metres at the 2010 European Championships. “I remember the Europeans ? I came out crying. I learned so much from that experience. It makes you so much stronger, so much more determined. I knew what I was capable of. I realised how much it meant to me. If I wasn’t upset, I would think why am I doing this? Am I in it for the right reasons?”

After Barcelona Adlington will compete at the second set of British trials in Sheffield and then go to the team training camp. There’s not much on her program between now and the summer. “London 2012 seems more real now,” she said. She cannot wait for “the chance” to swim in London. British swimmers, she says, will be at an advantage because of “the buzz and the impact that I think will come from having the home crowd supporting us.” Except for those one or two “idiots”, that is.

Wes Soldier Combs  Ray Cooper  Kit Cope  Wesley Cabbage Correira  Patrick The Predator Côté 

Kleiner Perkins Partner John Doerr Speaks Out On Lawsuit: ?Our Firm Does Not Discriminate Based On Gender?

John Doerr, the longtime partner at Silicon Valley venture capital stalwart Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers who is perhaps the firm’s most recognizable public face, has spoken out for the first time about the gender discrimination lawsuit filed against the firm earlier this month by partner Ellen Pao (news of which was first broken by TechCrunch last week.)

Terrance Aflague Yoshihiro Akiyama  Gilbert Aldana  José Aldo  John Alessio 

‘That’s My Boy’ Heads To Sneak Peek Week: Tune In Tonight!

Andy Samberg and co-stars will introduce an exclusive clip from their new comedy on MTV at 11 p.m. ET.By Fallon Prinzivalli

That’s My Boy Photo: Sony Pictures Entertainment

After kicking off our second annual Sneak Peek Week with Kristen Stewart revealing an exclusive clip from “Snow White and the Huntsman,” our coverage rolls on Wednesday night (May 30) with Andy Samberg, Vanilla Ice, Will Forte, Ciara and Eva Amurri will hit Universal’s CityWalk to give us a preview of their R-rated comedy.

The film stars Adam Sandler as Donny, who knocked up his teacher while he was just a teenager and raised his son Han Solo Berger (Samberg) as a single parent until Han turned 18. After a financial mishap, Donny reappears in Han’s life on the eve of his wedding. As Donny tries desperately to reconnect with his son, now named Todd, he must face the consequences of his terrible parenting.

A few lucky viewers will screen the film before Samberg introduces an exclusive clip on MTV at 11 p.m. ET. Immediately following the on-air presentation, Josh Horowitz will sit down for a Q&A session with the actors live on MTV.com. You can follow along with the action on Twitter using the hash tag #MTVSneak.

The fun continues throughout the week with stars from “Magic Mike” and “Rock of Ages,” all leading up to the 21st annual MTV Movie Awards live on Sunday, June 3, at 9 p.m. ET.

Head over to MovieAwards.MTV.com to vote for your favorite flicks now! The 21st annual MTV Movie Awards air live this Sunday, June 3, at 9 p.m. ET.

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