Writer and editor Mike Shaw | mpshaw.co.uk

The ‘Johann Hari’s got form’ link I posted earlier has died. Sudden rush of traffic to the site perhaps?

Here I have pasted the Hackwatch article from Private Eye number 1076, 23 March – 3 April 2003, page 5.

If you’d like to see the original page, here is a screenshot of the cached page.

Johann Hari, The Independent’s new columnist, has been bemoaning the “corrosive acid of distrust” in public life. “We in the press are least trusted of all British institutions,” observes the 24-year-old pundit, who was shortlisted as young journalist of the year in this week’s British Press Awards. “The number of my friends who assume that we just make up stories – even at reputable paper such as The Independent is startling.”

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Academy changes Best Picture rules

Last year’s Oscars had 10 Best Picture nominees, which many people felt was too many.

Seems that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences agree, as they have changed the rules to allow between five and 10. In previous years, the number was just five.

Retiring Academy executive director Bruce Davis said: “If there are only eight pictures that truly earn that honour in a given year, we shouldn’t feel an obligation to round out the number.”

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Neil Patrick Harris Is Amazing

The question of who should host next year’s Oscar ceremony has been answered; now all that’s needed is for the Academy to come to the same conclusion: Neil Patrick Harris is the man for the job.

NPH hosted the 2011 Tony Awards last weekend and was hilarious, charming, and slick.

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Sandpaper, willies and centipedes

Last year’s The Human Centipede (First Sequence) was undoubtedly disgusting, but it was so daft as to be funny in places; not what the director intended.

And it seems that writer and director, Tom Six, has taken that feedback on board and made sure accusations of being funny or entertaining can in no way be applied to the follow-up film, The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence), as the British Board of Film Classification has rejected the film.

The first film dealt with a mad doctor who kidnaps three people and sews them arse to mouth in order to produce the human centipede of the title…

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RIP Randy Savage and Jeff Conaway

It’s been a very sad week for the teenage Mike Shaw.

One of professional wrestling’s all-time greats, Macho Man Randy Savage, died at 58 after having a heart attack while driving. If you weren’t/aren’t into wrestling, you’ll probably recognise Savage as Bonesaw in Spider-Man (the wrestler Peter Parker fights for money).

In an era when people were being force-fed outlandish characters like Hulk Hogan and the Ultimate Warrior, Randy Savage stood out as a great worker in the ring and on the mic, but he never got the recognition he deserved.

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Titanic 3D sets sail

He’s threatened it since Avatar, and now James Cameron has finally announced the release of Titanic 3D.

On April 6, 2012 – 100 years (give or take a few days) since the superliner’s fateful voyage – a remastered 3D version of the second most successful film of all time will be premiered worldwide. The date also marks 15 years since the film was originally released. At the time, the most expensive film ever made, Titanic went on to scoop 11 Academy Awards and was (until Avatar) the most profitable film ever made.

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