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Articles by Anna Malpas
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Inthe Spotlight
Anna Malpas writes her last column for The Moscow Times after six years of watching bad television and writing about Ksenia Sobchak.
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Inthe Spotlight
This month, NTV launched a new reality show, "The Call of Fate," where sleazy "model producer" Pyotr Listerman helps a millionaire choose from a harem...
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Inthe Spotlight
This week, long-running children's show "Spokoinoi Nochi, Malyshi," or "Good Night, Little Ones," stirred fears that a new law could lead to censorship...
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Inthe Spotlight
This week, tennis star Maria Sharapova brought the world something it only dimly realized it needed: "premium" fruit gums under her own brand called Sugarpova...
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Inthe Spotlight
This week, the sultry model girlfriend of footballer Cristiano Ronaldo was hired to replace Ksenia Sobchak as the judge of "Russia's Next Top Model"...
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Inthe Spotlight
This week, Madonna gave her support for the members of Pussy Riot on trial by speaking at her concert, pulling on a balaclava and revealing the words...
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Inthe Spotlight
This week, everyone's attention has been on the Pussy Riot trial, whether wishing the women freedom or joyfully anticipating a long sentence, like pop...
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Inthe Spotlight
This week, a new star rose on NTV television, spreading fear throughout the land.
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Inthe Spotlight
This week, figure skater Yevgeny Plushenko and his wife, pop producer Yana Rudkovskaya, announced that they are expecting in Hello! magazine. This was...
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Inthe Spotlight
On Friday, television personality-turned-opposition-activist Ksenia Sobchak made her last appearance on Dom-2, the reality show she began hosting eight...
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Inthe Spotlight
In December, flamboyant pop star Filipp Kirkorov announced that he had become a father, with a daughter born from a surrogate mother. This week, he...
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Inthe Spotlight
This week, the campaign to free the punk group Pussy Riot hit the big time with some glossy, powerful and unexpected people signing a petition saying...
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Inthe Spotlight
This week the acclaimed actress Chulpan Khamatova and It Girl and media personality Ksenia Sobchak in a rare mood of unity both criticized the jailing...
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Inthe Spotlight
This week, television presenter Ksenia Sobchak had both her privacy and her safe invaded, as it turned out that investigators were following her love...
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In the Spotlight
This week, pop star Filipp Kirkorov and Putin-loving rapper Timati had a mild disagreement on Twitter over who won gongs at an award ceremony, which...
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Inthe Spotlight
This week, media personality and reality-show-host-turned-opposition-activist Ksenia Sobchak very publicly lost her job hosting the MUZ-TV music awards...
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Inthe Spotlight
This week, the Eurovision Song Contest is being held in Baku with all its usual deadly seriousness and an incongruous dose of Caspian glamour.
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Inthe Spotlight
Ksenia Sobchak is continuing her role as the unofficial queen of the barricades — even if the more hardcore activists aren't too happy about that...
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Inthe Spotlight
This week, Vladimir Putin invited rapper Timati and lion-taming brothers Edgard and Askold Zapashny to his big day. On the other side of the barricades...
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Inthe Spotlight
This week, crooner Iosif Kobzon had to cancel his tour of the United States after yet another refusal of a visa, based on his alleged links to organized...
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Inthe Spotlight
This week, Rossia channel came out loud and clear with its position on the Pussy Riot punk group, airing a talk show called "Provocateurs" with a weeping...
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Inthe Spotlight
This week, Channel One’s star presenter Ivan Urgant got his own talk show, “Evening Urgant, “ which is a direct imitation of the American late-night...
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Inthe Spotlight
This week, flamboyant pop singer Filipp Kirkorov christened his baby Alla-Viktoria. It was just a small event with a national television channel filming...
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Inthe Spotlight
This week, the Federation Fund brought another batch of Hollywood stars to Moscow, film star Jim Carrey was reported to be on the point of marrying...
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Inthe Spotlight
This week, President Dmitry Medvedev attended top-level talks with Barack Obama on nuclear security, and the world sat up and took notice when his cat...
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Inthe Spotlight
When British boy band of the 1990s East 17, and euro pop acts Snap, La Bouche and Culture Beat walked off after a nostalgic disco night at Olimpiisky...
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Inthe Spotlight
This week, Channel One began showing "A Short Course in Happy Life," a much-anticipated new drama from Valeria Gai Germanika, the director of the...
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Inthe Spotlight
This week, Russia finally got it with Eurovision, sending the Buranovskiye Babushki, who dance in shoes made of birchbark, but to a disco beat.
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Inthe Spotlight
This week, it girl and media personality Ksenia Sobchak reopened her talk show on politics after it was shelved by MTV Russia. The show, now called...
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Inthe Spotlight
This week, rock musician Sergei Shnurov, whose band Leningrad was once banned in Moscow for its lyrics littered with swearwords, took on a very different...
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Inthe Spotlight
This week, MTV Russia announced that it was pulling a political talk show hosted by It girl and media personality Ksenia Sobchak after just one episode...
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Inthe Spotlight
This week, MTV Russia switched off the reality shows for an hour to teach the kids about politics with a chat show called "Gosdep," or "State Department...
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Inthe Spotlight
This week, billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin lined up their teams of celebrity supporters for the presidential race, with...
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Inthe Spotlight
This week, the main topic of gossip was the surprisingly colorful love life of Anatoly Chubais, the redheaded economic reformer of the 1990s. Rumor...
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Inthe Spotlight
It's a measure of the changes in Russia that pop diva Alla Pugachyova got married — for the fifth time — and no one was really that bothered.
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In the Spotlight: New Duma Deputies
The State Duma has opened for business with its new deputies, including actress Maria Kozhevnikova, 27, who once posed for Playboy and this year was voted...
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In the Spotlight: Interview
The grande dame of the Russian glossies, former Vogue editor Alyona Doletskaya, presented the first issue of her new magazine, and the party was at a venue...
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In the Spotlight
This week, the most unlikely celebrities have manned the barricades, whether on Twitter or actually by going out and getting arrested. Others confessed...
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In the Spotlight: Flamboyancy
Flamboyant pop star Filipp Kirkorov just made the announcement that he's now the father of a daughter through a surrogate mother in the United States....
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Inthe Spotlight
This week, Britain's Daily Mail highlighted the case of Kristina Rei from St. Petersburg, who has enormous lips springing out of her face, created...
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Inthe Spotlight
This week, blond pop singer Valeria became an unlikely dissident, as her husband and producer, Iosif Prigozhin, complained in an interview with Radio...
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Inthe Spotlight
This week, the scandal around media personality and it-girl Ksenia Sobchak and her jokey exposure of youth tsar Vasily Yakemenko at a pricey restaurant...
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Inthe Spotlight
This week, socialite and media personality Ksenia Sobchak caused a bit of a sensation in an Italian restaurant by going up and filming the founder...
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Inthe Spotlight
This week, Russian MTV started "Project Podium," its homegrown version of the U.S. hit show "Project Runway," where young designers compete to create...
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Inthe Spotlight
This week, Channel One started a new show called "Special Assignment," where famous people have to put on khakis and join the Russian army for six...
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Inthe Spotlight
On Wednesday night, Rossia television treated viewers to more than an hour of a "live" concert in Grozny to celebrate the 35th birthday of Chechen...
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In the Spotlight
This week, pop diva Alla Pugachyova has been on everyone's lips since she stood up, hands in pockets, and bluntly expressed her support for "Misha" Prokhorov...
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Inthe Spotlight
This month, Channel One has a new show called "Phantom of the Opera," in which pop singers have to sing operatic arias live. Russian stars have already...
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In the Spotlight
This week, actor Ivan Okhlobystin, who plays an irascible doctor in TNT's medical comedy "Interns," announced his plans to run for president. If that...
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In the Spotlight
This week, "Sex and the City" star Sarah Jessica Parker came to Moscow and dodged a kiss from a Bolshoi Theater security guard, who was overwhelmed...
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In the Spotlight: The Liquor Tab
When it comes to excess, Russians tend to take the biscuit, especially abroad, when there is national honor at stake. This week, a group of Russians...
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In the Spotlight
This week was the first episode of reality show "Russian Dolls" on the U.S. Lifetime channel, which could not have been more hotly anticipated, at least...
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In the Spotlight
This week, Roman Abramovich's teenage daughter reportedly moved into a starter home in London worth £4 million ($6.46 million), soon after calling off...
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In the Spotlight
This week, Forbes magazine published its list of the highest-earning Russian stars in entertainment and sport, and the top place went to chanson singer-songwriter...
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In the Spotlight
This week, rock star Courtney Love sang at Kolomenskoye with her band Hole and treated the audience — and several hapless journalists — to some...
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In the Spotlight
This week, pop star and actress Jennifer Lopez announced she was divorcing singer Marc Anthony, but the show went on, as she sang at the wedding of an...
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In the Spotlight
The charity fund that persuaded Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to sing "Blueberry Hill" — and prompted those awkward questions about money — is doing...
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In the Spotlight
This week, Channel One controller Konstantin Ernst took a dig at the luxuriant breasts of retired ice dancer Anna Semenovich, saying they were doubly...
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In the Spotlight
DTV's new drama series "Bailiffs" aims to bring a touch of humanity to the service, which for one reason or another, has always had a bit of an...
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In the Spotlight
This week, porn actress and former reality show contestant Yelena Berkova was convicted of drug possession in a sad comedown for the voluptuous star...
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In the Spotlight
This week, Moskovsky Komsomolets published a bizarre kiss-and-tell story about Spanish pop singer Enrique Iglesias, alleging that his long-term romance...
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In the Spotlight
This weekend's attempt to hold a gay pride event in Moscow was the usual truncated affair with protesters running the gauntlet of riot police, icon-brandishing...
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In the Spotlight
This week, officials cruelly invaded the privacy of Russian celebrities. First they stripped epic film director Nikita Mikhalkov of the flashing blue...
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In the Spotlight
This week, Russia's Alexei Vorobyov only came in 16th place in the Eurovision song contest, prompting grumpy comments that Russia was represented by a...
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Inthe Spotlight
This week, Johnny Depp came to Moscow to promote the latest installment of "Pirates of the Caribbean," prompting Depp-mania. Even journalists attending...
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In the Spotlight
This week, a former diplomat-turned-blogger unveiled his vision of how to save Russia: borrowing Prince Harry from Britain and crowning him tsar to rule...
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In the Spotlight
This week, someone planted explosive devices on the set of the long-running reality show "Dom-2" in a bizarre incident that was the most serious in the...
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In the Spotlight
This week, everyone was transfixed by President Dmitry Medvedev's moves on the dance floor after some rat leaked a video from his university reunion...
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Inthe Spotlight
CTC's new show, "The Closed School," picks up on the trend for spooky, gothic shows like "True Blood." Starting this week, it is set in a school for the...
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In the Spotlight
This week, MuzTV started a show called "Top Model po-Russki," a reality show in which a group of would-be models live together and go through tests...
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In the Spotlight
This Wednesday, actress and singer Lyudmila Gurchenko died at the age of 75. She was one of the last remnants of a lost era of Soviet stars, who...
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In the Spotlight
In Ren-TV's new show, "Who's the Star?", celebrities are caught off guard as they are interviewed by apparently the world's least competent journalist...
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In the Spotlight
This week the tabloids have been discussing former Miss Universe Oksana Fyodorova and the end of her very public love affair with blond crooner Nikolai...
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In the Spotlight: Putin Party
This week Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was outraged and demeaned at the idea of a nightclub party with semi-naked girls shouting his name. But luckily...
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In the Spotlight: Art
This week, a group of female anarchists grabbed policewomen in the Moscow metro and forcibly kissed them on the lips, in an artistic happening apparently...
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In the Spotlight
In MTV Russia's new reality show, "I'm Having a Baby," four teenage girls are expecting their first babies, with varying degrees of support from parents...
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In the Spotlight
This week, ballerina Anastasia Volochkova was once again the subject of earnest political commentary, as she alleged in her blog that the shadowy Kremlin...
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In the Spotlight: Backdated Apologies II
A few more show business stars awkwardly explained why they signed a letter backing the first jail sentence for former Yukos chief Mikhail Khodorkovsky...
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In the Spotlight: Backdated Apologies
Ballerina Anastasia Volochkova emerged as a staunch supporter of jailed oil magnate Mikhail Khodorkovsky, five years after signing a letter backing his...
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In the Spotlight: Anna Chapman
Russian spy Anna Chapman intoned “I will reveal all the secrets” in her new television show. Although the show abounded in bleeding wounds and starred...
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In the Spotlight: Orthodox Dress Codes
Vsevolod Chaplin, a top Orthodox Church spokesman, had a go at Russian women for “mistaking the street for a striptease,” saying that women who wore...
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In the Spotlight: Planes That Catch Fire
On New Year’s Day, one of Russia’s oldest pop groups, Na-Na, was preparing to fly back to Moscow in a creaky old plane after giving a concert in the...
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In the Spotlight
Alina Kabayeva, the Olympic rhythmic gymnast who is now a State Duma deputy, has posed on the cover of Russian Vogue in a gold dress, prompting speculation...
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In the Spotlight: Raunchy Expats
This week, Deidre Clark, the Moscow expat lawyer-turned-raunchy novelist, is suing her former firm, Allen & Overy, for unfair dismissal and sex discrimination...
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In the Spotlight
The flamboyant pop star Filipp Kirkorov has dominated the tabloids this week after he reportedly hit a director’s assistant at a concert rehearsal. She...
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In the Spotlight: WikiLeaks
The latest WikiLeaks revelations are causing blushes and choking fits around the world, and one Dagestani oil magnate will definitely not be inviting those...
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In the Spotlight: Leonardo DiCaprio
This week, Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio came for a tiger conference and met Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who called him a “real man.” They were...
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In the Spotlight: Putin's Puppy, Sex Kittens
This week, in the ultimate fluffy news story, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin hugged a puppy and invited us to think of a name. The male puppy was a gift...
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In the Spotlight: She's Come Undone
This week, supermodel Natalia Vodianova prompted fears for her marriage by going out with hairy legs, while another model, Naomi Campbell, quashed rumors...
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In The Spotlight: Dmitry's Parody
This week, President Dmitry Medvedev revealed a self-deprecating streak of humor, writing in his Twitter account about a comedy sketch that parodied his...
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In the Spotlight: Anna Chapman
Red-haired Russian spy Anna Chapman has posed on the cover of Maxim magazine and in a centerfold, wearing lacy underwear and carrying a pistol. The cover...
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In the Spotlight
The former Bolshoi ballerina Anastasia Volochkova, sacked for being too “fat,” is a pretty entertaining character, what with her plastered-on makeup...
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In the Spotlight: Tabloid Tasering
This week, gossip columnist Bozhena Rynska caused some gossip of her own, writing a lovingly detailed account of how she was groped in a nightclub and...
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In the Spotlight: Georgians
In this month’s Russian GQ magazine, It Girl Ksenia Sobchak interviews Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, in his first meeting with Russian media...
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In the Spotlight: Prison TV
Channel One began showing its remake of the U.S. show “Prison Break,” transferring the whole story to Russia. While it’s not unusual for sitcoms...
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In the Spotlight: Yury Luzhkov
This last week, Russian television got its teeth into Mayor Yury Luzhkov with some breathtaking revelations, such as that he likes bees, his wife is very...
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In the Spotlight: Out-Doctored Folk Healers
The popular folk healer and host of Russia’s crankiest television show, Gennady Malakhov, mysteriously disappeared just as he was supposed to resume...
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In the Spotlight: Rich Divorces
Tabloids have been reporting that Russian-born model Natalia Vodianova is about to get divorced from her husband, British aristocrat Justin Portman. Vodianova...
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In the Spotlight: Silly Sex Shows
Every night, TNT airs a show called “Sex With Anfisa Chekhova,” whose curvaceous host promises that she knows “everything about sex.” That's debatable...
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In the Spotlight
Just in case we needed examples of how insipid and ridiculous celebrities can be while ordinary people suffer, Moscow's smog has provided. Enter Dima Bilan...