John Crace First Person Madonna, Michael Jackson and Lenny Henry did it last month. Caroline Quentin, Jennifer Saunders, Michelle Pfeiffer, Sean Bean, Gary Oldman, Sharon Stone and Rik Mayall did it earlier in the year. And come November, Jamie Lee Curtis will be doing it, too. Not so long ago, 40 was old. It was […]

Adam Haupt On stage in Cape Town Evita se Perron hosts the Hello, Darling Festival again this year and promises to provide much entertainment by way of theatre, concerts and cabaret. Whilst Pieter-Dirk Uys’s Tannie Evita Praat Kaktus and Ouma Ossewania Praat Vuil are proven drawcards, the festival has quite a few new and interesting […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Friday 4.00PM. ZIMBABWEAN and Angolan troops are accused of killing dozens of unarmed civilians in the Democratic republic of Congo with “indiscriminate shelling of Kinshasa suburbs” in an Amnesty International open letter to Presidents Robert Mugabe and Nelson Mandela. Pierre San, the secretary general of Amnesty International, has written an open […]

Simon Segal and Andy Brown The chips are down for leading black empowerment companies in the wake of the stock market crash. There are fears that many will not be able to repay their loans because their stock prices have declined and they are being crippled by high interest rates. Rate hikes could also cripple […]

Winning eight Lions at the Cannes awards this year, the South African advertising industry has shown it has the talent for temptation. Alex Dodd reports I exit the cinema feeling a bit like a latter day Phineas Fogg. I’ve seen the world and it’s taken me a whole lot less than 80 days. In more […]

Angella Johnson VIEW FROM A BROAD `I’m ready for my close-up, Mr DeMille.” These immortal words delivered by Gloria Swanson in the film classic, Sunset Boulevard, came flashing to my mind as I stood before a solitary camera in a poky but brightly lit back room of a Johannesburg theatre. The lights created a sweltering […]

Martin Thorpe Soccer Arsenal and Manchester United stepped into line last week by agreeing to discontinue talks with the proposed Super League and seek change to Europe’s club competitions through official channels. All 20 Premiership clubs agreed the same rules after meeting to hear Gerhard Aigner, United European Football Association’s (Uefa) general secretary, assure them […]

Chris Roper On show in Cape Town Their name makes me think of some kind of League of Super Heroes, and I picture them in tights and colourful costumes, ta-dahing off into the lurid sunset in pursuit of their evil nemesis, Bad Taste Man. A ridiculous fantasy, brought on by the early hour at which […]

Maureen Barnes Down the tube Money, the SABC is always telling us, is the problem which prevents us from watching top-quality television – a fact which we silly viewers just can’t get into our heads. There’s not enough money from the government; there’s not enough money from advertisers and there’s not enough money from us […]

Ferial Haffajee speaks to visiting Asian-American author Ruth Ozeki Ruth Ozeki is so like her lead character, Jane Takagi-Little, that I call her “Jane” several times in the course of our interview. She doesn’t mind the gaffe, adding that her best friend refers to the character as “Ruth”. Takagi-Little, the narrator of the novel My […]