CHARLIE CONDOU - No.947

GARBO SINGS!

Charliecondou: There are no words @alanhalsall


Brendan_Surrey: @Charliecondou Hilarious. That rubbish rapper looks like the bloke on Corrie!

disabilitydiva: @Charliecondou @alanhalsall Tbh, I can think of a few . . .

newcybersol: @Charliecondou @alanhalsall Oh my!

HOT PANTS AND KLEENEX

DerrenLitten: Come on, let's all watch The Spa tonight. 9pm SKY LIVING If just to see @officialolivier's squashed cock in a pair of silver hot pants.....

Charliecondou: @DerrenLitten @officialolivier *sets sky plus. Opens new box of kleenex*

DerrenLitten: @Charliecondou @officialolivier I've even got the hot pants in the back of my car. Long story... (strange gift from cozzy designer!)

PhillTurnerDIY: @Charliecondou @DerrenLitten @officialolivier bum!! I'm at my #inlaws!!! Kleenex will have to wait xxx

DerrenLitten: @PhillTurnerDIY @Charliecondou @officialolivier Ha!

officialolivier: Watch #thespa on SkyLiving now to see me in hot pants xx

BIRTHDAY PARTY
CONDOU STYLE

Charliecondou: Today is the day I'm going to attempt to send out birthday party invites. I always end up asking some people 3 times and forgetting others

Eamonn_Forde: @Charliecondou *looks sadly at empty inbox* ("inbox")

Charliecondou: @Eamonn_Forde I promise, if someone drops out, you're almost halfway up the reserve list

Eamonn_Forde: @Charliecondou This is all I ever wanted in life.

SirThomasWynne: @Charliecondou I know you'd invite me . . . if I wasn't busy right?

Charliecondou: @SirThomasWynne well obviously

SirThomasWynne: @Charliecondou  x

redOrly: @Charliecondou Well I do have a very busy schedule but I might be able to fit you in!! :)

Charliecondou: @redOrly excellent! I'll text/DM/Facebook you info later xx

DelVonBoy: @Charliecondou Cough, cough.

Charliecondou: @DelVonBoy of course! *brings condoms*

heawood: @Charliecondou Pls to invite me so I can write entirely confused column about Corrie scriptwriter again

Charliecondou: @heawood excellent idea! You should sleep with a cast member (not me) and do a first person kiss and tell

heawood: @Charliecondou Why not you? I did have your 3rd lovechild after all. All that secret long-distance pagan fertility ritual we went through.

Charliecondou: @heawood oh go on then, I'm due a mid-life crisis. Knocking up another bird would work perfectly

katemagowan: @Charliecondou my favourite way to kick off the year!

MAN FLU
&
DAN OF OZ
&
A TREAT FROM LEE

salislee: Well post Christmas man flu has hit in! Not surprised really!!!

Charliecondou: @salislee I'm guessing your tarragon oil didn't work then? I've STILL got my bloody cold!!

salislee: @Charliecondou oregano not tarragon!!! It did work and it went but it's back!!! Back on the oil!!! U STILL have yours?! X

Charliecondou: @salislee yes!!! I reckon it'll go on my first day back

Dan_Brocklebank: @salislee @Charliecondou We must all be suffering the same thing... Mine has lasted through a month of Australian sunshine!! #GayManFlu

Charliecondou: @Dan_Brocklebank @salislee that tweet was just an excuse to show off about being in Australia wasn't it

salislee: @Charliecondou @Dan_Brocklebank he's not in Australia is he????!!!! :-)

Dan_Brocklebank: @Charliecondou @salislee ....I thought I'd barely mentioned it until now... ;)

SirThomasWynne: Ahem, @salislee @Charliecondou @Dan_Brocklebank we have this arrangement in Oz whereby we still accept a small quota of UK convicts (true) x

salislee: @Charliecondou i'm going to make you an oregano treat for your return :-) x

Charliecondou: @salislee oh Jesus!

THE TWITTER SEARCH IS ON

liamwaterloo: All of Twitter is trying to get hold of @IncrediblyRich.

Charliecondou: @liamwaterloo @IncrediblyRich why, what's he done?

liamwaterloo: @Charliecondou *whispers* Eternal are back.

Charliecondou: @liamwaterloo thank GOD!

A DRIVE BY INCIDENT

IanMarber: Did I just drive past you on Bond Street? @Charliecondou

Charliecondou: @IanMarber yes!

IanMarber: @Charliecondou Shopping and hoping to bump into me?

Charliecondou: @IanMarber well obviously

FROM THE CREATORS OF

SOUTH PARK

Philippa_Perry: Today's the day we take a family outing to The Book of Mormon. The tickets cost SO much that the pressure to enjoy ourselves is oppressive.

Charliecondou: @Philippa_Perry I've heard very mixed things. And the price has definitely put me off

Philippa_Perry: @Charliecondou :-O

Charliecondou: @Philippa_Perry we have no kids today so are going to the Wolseley for breakfast. I imagine it'll cost the same as your tickets

Philippa_Perry: @Charliecondou more of a guaranteed winner

'GAY OSCARS'

Tom Daley short-listed for his first out LGBTI award in ‘Britain’s Gay Oscars’

You can vote for stars including Paul O’Grady, Russell Tovey, Elton John, Ian McKellen, Joey Barton, Lorraine Kelly and Jennifer Saunders, plus much more

26 DECEMBER 2013

BY TRIS REID-SMITH

The British public is being urged to vote for their favourite lesbian, gay and bi-sexual personalities ahead of the 2014 Out in the City and G3 Magazine Awards. Dubbed Britain’s ‘Gay Oscars’, the awards bring together gay celebrities and LGBTI allies as they do battle for a series battle of top gongs at a glitzy red carpet event at London’s Landmark Hotel on 25 April 2014. The short-list was includes a number of surprise entries including footballer Joey Barton, breakfast TV presenter Lorraine Kelly and Absolutely Fabulous star Jennifer Saunders who will all go head to head for the Straight Ally award. Alan Carr is pitched against Paul O’Grady in the Broadcaster of the Year category while Sir Elton John, Sir Ian McKellen, Russell Tovey and Boy George have made the short-list for the coveted Celebrity of the Year award. The awards also see Tom Daley nominated for his first ever gay award as he goes up against fellow Olympian Nicola Adams for Sports Personality of the Year. Other categories include Charity of the Year, Diversity Champion of the Year, Brand of the Year, Marketing Campaign of the Year, Best event of the Year, Inspirational Role Model of the Year, Rising Star of the Year and Lifetime Achievement. 

The ceremony will be hosted by TV soap Coronation Street’s Charlie Condou and actress Sophie Ward. Condou said: ‘The Out in the City and G3 Awards provide an exciting opportunity for people to pay tribute to established and new and emerging talent LGBT talent. ‘The awards also give us the chance to celebrate gay role models and allies – the people who show young people that sexual orientation isn’t a barrier to success and those the gay community has a great affection for.‘Organizations and charities that have excelled in promoting equality and diversity will also be recognized. ‘Voting is now open online. I urge people to take part to ensure those who are most rewarding pick up the glitziest award of 2014.’

The awards are presented in association with the Royal Bank of Scotland.

You can vote here.

THESE PICS SUM UP

MY xmas EFFORT

THIS YEAR

*Not actual picture of my home!!

THE UK DAILY MAIL

MrFist: Ahhh, Daily Mail, the nation's racist batshit uncle

UK POLITICS

BillWilliams01: Apparently this image is making Ian Duncan Smith very angry. Please circulate. 

OZ POLITICS

KieraGorden: #NewsCorpse and Malcolm Turnbull caught out (yet again) in a blatant, manipulative lie! #AusPol

bruce_ian: That's Tony Abbott to a tee, a little man who indiscriminately poops on everything positive to achieve power #auspol

AusPolitix: Australia's new conservative PM. A moron! - see @moir_alan: CARTOON

BOYCOTT SOCHI

Thanks, Putin, But No Thanks: Few Are Grateful for Russia’s Pre-Olympic Amnesty

Russian President Vladimir Putin grabbed international headlines last week with a pre-Christmas amnesty that included the release of a number of prominent dissidents. Those freed aren't exactly glowing with praise for Putin, though

It was an awkward debate for Russia’s dissidents and the Western politicians who support them. Should they thank President Vladimir Putin for the massive amnesty that freed Russia’s most famous political prisoners over the past week? Or was the attempt to whitewash Russia’s record on human rights in time for the Olympic Games in Sochi too brazen to deserve any gratitude? In the coming weeks, as world leaders decide whether or not to boycott the Sochi Games in February, this question is sure to muddy the debate. And that is exactly what Putin seems to have intended.

From the timing of the amnesty that much was clear. Just days after the U.S. President and Vice President joined the growing number of Western leaders who will not be going to Sochi, Putin moved to take the wind out of their criticism of his government. His most shocking gesture was the release this weekend of his political nemesis Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the former oil tycoon whom rights groups considered a “prisoner of conscience” for the decade he spent behind bars. A few days earlier, the Russian parliament approved an amnesty for thousands of other prisoners, including many of those charged in connection with anti-Putin protests over the past two years. On Monday, two members of the performance-art collective Pussy Riot, who outraged Putin with their protest in a Moscow cathedral last year, were released after serving roughly 20 months for the crime of hooliganism.

But none of them rushed to thank the man who granted them their freedom. He was, after all, also the man they see as having taken it away. “It is very difficult for me to say that I am grateful to Vladimir Putin,” Khodorkovsky told a press conference on Sunday in Berlin, where he flew immediately after his release to reunite with his family. He added, “I am glad of his decision” to grant the pardon. But even among the ranks of Khodorkovsky’s supporters, that grudging tone proved controversial. His press conference, which was held at a historical museum in Berlin, was interrupted by booing and jeers when the museum’s director thanked Putin, among others, for allowing Khodorkovsky to go free.

Few people would have more reason to sympathize with those jeers than Pavel Ivlev. Back in 2003, he was working as a lawyer for Khodorkovsky’s oil company, Yukos, when Putin initiated the legal onslaught against that company and its executives, who had begun to challenge the Kremlin’s rule. Ivlev was among the first to be called in for interrogation and, he claims, faced threats of violence when he refused to bear false witness against his colleagues in court. That same night, Ivlev fled the country, and he has since become a vocal critic of Putin’s government from his exile in the U.S. But after the recent amnesty, a bit of gratitude was nonetheless in order, he says. “I would have thanked him,” he tells me by phone from Colorado, soon after his former boss walked free. “Of course he is still an awful scumbag for doing all of this in the first place. But in this specific instance, for this specific act, Putin deserves some thanks.”

Other activists felt no such obligation. Until last week, Maria Baronova was on trial for “inciting mass unrest” in Moscow. On the eve of Putin’s inauguration in May 2012, she helped organize a massive opposition rally that ended in violent clashes between protesters and police. As part of the pre-Olympic amnesty, all charges against her were dropped. “The only thing Putin did for me is provide a hard lesson about his tolerance for dissent,” she tells me by phone from Moscow. “But I will not thank him for this blatant attempt to clean up his image. It is a propaganda ploy, not an act of goodwill.”

Her fellow activists from Pussy Riot went even further. Maria Alyokhina, one of the group members freed on Monday, said if she had been given a choice, she would have refused the amnesty to deprive Putin of any political dividends he stands to gain from her release. So far, the value of those dividends remains uncertain. The Presidents of Germany and France have already announced their decisions not to attend the Sochi Olympics, dealing a blow to the event on which Putin has staked his public reputation. Considering the “obvious human-rights violations” in Russia, Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite said last week it is “politically impossible” for her to attend the Games. But that was before Putin took such drastic steps to sanitize his human-rights record. And whether or not the beneficiaries of his amnesty are willing to thank him for it, their freedom will make it a lot harder to justify boycotting the Sochi Olympics. For that, Putin will have himself to thank.