Donal MacIntyre

THE Carr sisters, Jacqueline and Georgia, are the first Australians to represent the internationally famed Elite model agency after the company opened for business on the Gold Coast last week.

The company, which made famous Claudia Schiffer and Linda Evanglista, signed a $32 million deal with a Queensland developer last Thursday to manage models in Australia and New Zealand.

Jacqueline, 16, and Georgia, 14, from Bayswater in Victoria, were chosen from a national talent hunt conducted by the newly appointed head of Elite in Australia, Greg Tyshing.

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Hitman suspect banged up over car ban after beating murder rap

A GANGLAND thug once cleared of a notorious hit on a rival has finally been caged – for driving while banned.

Mark Clinton, 35 – a henchman of hoodlum Paul Ferris – was sentenced to seven months for getting behind the wheel of his Ford Probe.

Last year Clinton walked free over the Glasgow slaying of gangster Billy McPhee after the case collapsed when witnesses failed to identify him in court McPhee, 38, a sidekick of millionaire crime boss Tam "The Licensee" McGraw, was savagely knifed to death while watching a rugby match in a pub in a brutal gangland assassination.

Clinton and Ferris, 41, are friends and appeared on TV presenter Donal McIntyre's Channel 5 show last year when Clinton needed subtitles to be understood. Jubilant Clinton was filmed outside court celebrating when his murder trial collapsed after just one day.

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It seems hardly credible but Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, after meeting Prime Minister Tony Blair, is on record as saying that the increasingly rocky road back to devolution as Stormont will end with "the flowers that bloom in the spring" tra la.

Good news at last, or another false dawn?

Do they know something that has escaped us in the political turmoil of the sick counties of Never-neverland in this other winter of our discontent?

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FORMER career criminal Paul Ferris, whose autobiography Vendetta, co-written with writer Reg McKay, has just been published, was in Rothesay a wee while ago with documentary maker Donal McIntyre and his crew to film where Glasgow gangster Arthur "The Godfather" Thompson had a holiday flat.

The filming done by early evening, they returned to their B&B where there was no food. The jovial Donal asked about the nearest restaurants only to be told they were all closed for the day.

An incredulous McIntyre, not well versed in the ways of sleepy Rothesay, did not believe it, so then scoured the entire town to discover that yes, all restaurants were indeed shut and all they could find was a fish-and-chip shop and an off licence. So that is why an award-winning TV presenter, an infamous ex-gangster and two highly-rated film-makers were later seen sitting forlornly in a bus shelter near Rothesay pier scoffing fish suppers and passing two bottles of wine between them which they had to slug from the neck.

Yes, the glamour of telly.

October 13 2005
KEN SMITH and DAVID BELCHER October 13 2005
The Herald
http://www.theherald.co.uk/features/48819-print.shtml

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In this series, journalist Donal MacIntyre pinpoints
the locations at the heart of the prevailing social
problems and offers an insight into the underworld
of each town by talking to the people committing
the crimes, including drug dealers, football
hooligans, arsonists and gang members. The series
examines what is being done by the authorities to
combat these anti-social problems and hears from
victims whose lives have been blighted by crime.
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Ratings for All About George dropped by a million viewers on its second outing, according to early overnights.

…

Five's Killer Shark Live held a steady 1.12 million (5.2%) but was outperformed by Channel 4's Risking It All (1.48 million, 6.9%) and BBC Two's A Year at Kew (1.74 million, 8.3%) / No Waste Like Home (1.69 million, 7.8%).

…

Friday, October 7 2005
Digital Spy
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/article/ds25024.html

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A peak of 6 million viewers tuned in for BBC One's tribute to Ronnie Barker on Tuesday, according to early figures.

…

Property Ladder brought in 3.21 million (14.2%) to Channel 4 in the 8pm hour, while on BBC Two, Mastermind and What the Ancients Did for Us had respective audiences of 2.57 million (11.6%) and 2.95 million (12.8%). Five's Killer Shark Live put in 1.28 million (5.7%).

…

Thursday, October 6 2005
Digital Spy
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/article/ds25001.html

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An odd "biopic" charting T-Rex's rise to fame failed to strike a chord with viewers last night.

T-Rex: A Dinosaur in Hollywood, which featured interviews with the likes of King Kong, pulled in just 2.06 million (9.5%) for BBC One in the 8pm hour, landing the channel fourth place amongst the terrestrials. ITV1's The Bill more than trebled the audience, averaging 7.25 million (33.5%), while on Channel 4, How Clean Is Your House? and It's Me or the Dog put in 3.24 million (15.3%) and 3.55 million (16.1%) respectively. BBC Two began with 1.88 million (8.9%) for A Week of Dressing Dangerously but rose to 2.86 million (12.9%) for Rick Stein's French Odyssey in the second half of the hour. Five trailed with 1.37 million (6.3%) for Killer Shark Live.

Thursday, October 6 2005
Digital Spy
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/article/ds25002.html

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