People are talking: The taming of the 'shrew'

The New York Post ran pieces like "five times Katherine Heigl was difficult" and since then she has been forced to repent and talk, almost constantly, about a film that would otherwise have been quickly forgotten. Seth Rogan again mentioned the 2007 film on Howard Stern's radio show this week, saying he felt "betrayed ... I thought she hated us."

That criticism of Apatow's films was fairly valid back then. From Forgetting Sarah Marshall to Pineapple Express the men in his films are the adorable manchildren, the women are the sensible killjoys who never get the best jokes.

When the Sunday Independent asked Apatow's wife Leslie Mann if the character she played in Knocked Up wasn't just a teeny bit naggy and whether her own sympathies were with the more fun-loving male characters, she responded "That's just you seeing it through a young boy's eyes". Apatow said that the film mirrored real life male-female relations "almost like a documentary." Feminism was called his "blind spot", until he hitched his wagon to the fabulous Amy Schumer last year.

It seems a bit much that Heigl still gets called "difficult" and has had to wear sackcloth and ashes, even if in Hollywood that means pearls and Gucci gowns.

Kim's delight at trimness so real it looks fake

Sarah Caden

Some new mothers might simply wish to fit into their clothes in a manner that did not remind them of squeezing a sausage into its skin. Kim Kardashian, however, wants to look like she's been artificially altered.

Kim has merely been on a drastic diet since the birth of her son and is now, at 124lbs, just 4lbs off her goal weight. She's happy and here's the proof.

"'You guys, doesn't my waist look Photoshopped?" she trilled on Snapchat last week, ecstatic at looking digitally altered.

Well, she can't be run of the mill, can she? I mean, anyone can achieve a thigh gap by just tipping their pelvis back and positioning the camera carefully. And as for the one-foot-forward camera pose perfected by Posh? Sure everyone's at that, to the point that line-ups of women look like they're readying themselves to do the can-can.

A girl like Kim has to set herself apart, and if that means dieting to the point that she looks digitally enhanced, then so be it.

Olympics takes gold with some world-class perving

Pat Fitzpatrick

We all love the first week of the Olympics. Why? Because it's about perving.

Forget about endeavour, drugs and national pride. It's men's diving and women's volleyball that has half the country up half the night, muttering "I definitely would" at some stranger in a pair of non-existent swimming trunks. If there is a baby boom here in nine months' time, our guess is that half of them will be named after members of the German women's volleyball team (above). They got the juices flowing in a nearly-there outfit early in the week. To highlight their uber-sexiness, they played against two fully covered Egyptian ladies.

There was something for everything at the men's diving. Rather than endless repeats of the dive while the judges totted up the score, ladies and gay men were treated to shots of the hunky contestants lolling around in a hot-tub. As soft porn goes, it was a whole lot classier than watching Celebrity Big Brother with the sound down.

So now it's on to the running and throwing stuff in the main stadium. That's about as sexy as long johns. Unless you like watching a foreigner with goosed-up blood tearing around the place. Which you don't.

Dear John, tone it down please

Will Hanafin

There's a neglected constituency that's finally getting representation in the new government, and it's not one that you'd think.

No, not women, young people or ethnic minorities. Finally eccentric uncles prone to irrational outbursts at family events are getting a voice at the heart of power. They're being proudly represented by Waterford TD John Halligan (right), now the Minister of State for Training and Skills.

Recently he was on about legalising brothels and assisted suicide. And last week he wanted US military planes banned from Shannon, called for a married Catholic clergy, demanded that US corporations here pay more tax, and called Donald Trump a clown (and some other choice expletives).

We need an intervention to separate John from press microphones or he'll be getting a Dear John from the electorate very soon!

The joke's on us, Donald

Eilis O'Hanlon

Did Donald Trump really suggest that Hillary Clinton might be shot if she tries to take away the right of Americans to own a gun?

His detractors say he did. His people say he didn't. It's unclear, let's put it that way.

But for most candidates, even vaguely sounding like you're wishing violence on your opponent would count as a major faux pas. For Donald, it's just another day at the office. That's how weird the race to be US President has become.

One thing you can say in his favour is that he's setting the bar so low that now any politician only has to say "well, at least I'm not Donald Trump" to look good by comparison.

It's starting to look as if his candidacy is just an elaborate prank, with the whole world as the butt of the joke. So why is no one laughing?