Six degrees from Christian Karlsson
Christian Karlsson, as one-half of Swedish electro music duo Galantis, performed in Hong Kong for the first time this month. Having produced tracks for Kylie Minogue and Madonna, in 2005, Karlsson won the best dance record Grammy for the wiggly bits and thronging bassline on Britney Spears’ electro-pop single Toxic. Cowriting the southern belle’s hit earned him another award, for songwriting and composition, this gong being named after Welsh actor Ivor Novello …
In 2013, to mark the 200th anniversary of the first publication of that book, Britain’s Daily Mail newspaper ran a satirical report about Austen that many among the tabloid’s esteemed readership held to be true. The article detailed a 1804 visit to Bath, during which Austen entered a women’s mud-wrestling competition. “I found on my return that my pale-blue dress was too tarnished with mud, dust and saliva to be able to wear to the ball that evening,” the novelist was said to have written to her sister, Cassandra. So popular is her legacy, that an estimated 600 Austen adaptations are in production at any given time. In 2010, one of them – based on the novel Emma – was Indian romcom Aisha, starring Sonam Kapoor …
Descended from Indian acting royalty (her grandfather is Surinder Kapoor and she is the niece of producer Boney Kapoor and actor Sanjay Kapoor), the Hindi actress was nicknamed “giraffe” by her father (Bollywood star Anil Kapoor), who was perhaps referring to her height: 1.79 metres. Sonam was, in fact, an obese teenager: “I had every issue related to weight that I could have. I was unhealthy, I had bad skin and I had hair growing on my face!” By the time she made her acting debut, in 2007, in Saawariya, “the ugly duckling” had shed 35kg. In 2012, she starred in Players, a remake of The Italian Job, a 1969 British film that featured Benny Hill …
Before making his first television appearance in 1950, Hill worked as a bridge operator, milkman and drummer. Eventually, he became a comedian, following in the footsteps of his father and uncle, who had both been circus clowns. Today he is most remembered for lewd skits in which he would chase gaggles of scantily clad young women – and vice versa – to the tune of Boots Randolph’s Yakety Sax. In 1991, Hill appeared in the music video for Anything She Does by Genesis, the frontman of which was Peter Gabriel …
After leaving Genesis in 1975, the Surrey-born singer-songwriter carved out a solo career, and his 1986 hit Sledgehammer became the most-played video in MTV history. Last month, Gabriel paid US$33 million for a Florida mansion once owned by Jennifer Lopez, the US pop star who has had hits written for her by Christian Karlsson.
