Tale of the Unexpected

Tomorrow (well, later today) it's Cleaner day so today (well yesterday) is Tidy-up day, so of course I settled down in front of the telly. Having more than five channels is a recent novelty, and I am so pleased to have found another way to aggravate the RSI already caused by over-mousing.

ANYWAY. Synchronicitously, the opening credits of something I had never heard of called 'Birthday Girl' were rolling, so I left off depleting the stock of sinovial fluid round my right fore-knuckle. Actress with Fake Russian Accent turned out to be Nicole Kidman, a piece of casting I felt was a bit of a mistake. Mind you, I think casting La Kidman under any circumstances is a bit of a mistake.* But the piece of casting I did like was, as Smarmy Bank Employee, my very own favourite, let's hear it for, Mr Stephen Mangan! In, it has to be said, a really crap hairstyle. And sporting a charisma bypass. With, as Terry Pratchett said, char-isn't-ma. Can anyone out there tell me when SM crossed the line between eeuw and phew? Same thing happened when 24 hit UK screens - only question I had was, when exactly did Kiefer Sutherland get so hot?

* JOKE! Honest! Certainly don't want a copycat Gina Ford / Mumsnet scenario erupting. By the by, I heard that at her recent photoshoot at Waddesdon Manor, Kidman ate with the family in the room where Ingo Maurer's Porca Miseria hangs. There is an upside to mega-Hollywood-stardom after all.