| World
record |
| Madonna
and Janet Jackson records topple Britney |
agencies
Madonna's
pay-packet, Janet Jackson's malfunctioning wardrobe,
Hillary Clinton's memoirs and Sigourney Weaver's
height all have one thing in common -- they're
world record breakers.
Veteran pop singer Madonna supplants younger
rival Britney Spears in the latest edition of
Guinness World Records, winning the title of
highest annual earnings by a female singer after
she took home an estimated $50 million in 2004.
Despite the relentless media coverage of her
personal life, Spears is also unseated by another
40-something as the world's most searched-for
person and most searched-for news item on the
Internet.
She loses those top spots to pop diva Janet Jackson
who also gets credit for the largest ever fine
imposed on a broadcaster after one of her breasts
was exposed live on air.
The most wanted man on Internet search engine
Google in 2005 was Hollywood heart-throb Brad
Pitt, according to the star-studded 2007 version
of the Guinness World Records book which goes
on sale on Friday.
In the world of publishing, Senator Hillary Rodham
Clinton holds the title for fastest-selling non-fiction
book after her memoirs sold 200,000 copies on
day one.
Not to be outdone, her husband, former U.S. President
Bill Clinton, also clinches a place for the largest
advance for a work of non-fiction.
Oscar winning movie star Nicole Kidman is another
top earner, holding the record for the most money
paid per minute to an actor after she earned
a reported $3.71 million for a four-minute commercial
for Chanel No.5 perfume.
Elsewhere, chat show host Oprah Winfrey is the
highest paid person on television, Cher's 2005 "Farewell
Tour" was the highest grossing music tour
by a female artist and Irish rock band U2 were
the biggest earning act in the world last year.
As for the downsides of stardom, modern celebrities
have yet to match Errol Flynn's real-life courtroom
performances which saw him jailed a record
four times.
And if you've ever wondered who are the biggest
people strutting Hollywood's sidewalks, Clint
Eastwood, Vince Vaughn and British horror
actor Christopher Lee are its tallest leading
men
at 6 foot 4 inches.
At 6 foot, Hollywood's tallest leading women
are Alien star Sigourney Weaver, Brigitte
Neilsen and Oscar-winner Geena Davis, who
also starred
in the world's biggest ever box-office
flop, Cutthroat Island.
 Back
to to
| Hyperactivity
and distress |
| Sugar linked
with mental problems in Norway study |
agencies
Oslo
teens who drank the most sugary soft drinks also
had more mental health problems such as hyperactivity
and distress, Norwegian researchers reported
on Thursday.
Their study of more than 5,000 Norwegian 15-
and 16-year-olds showed a clear and direct association
between soft drink intake and hyperactivity,
and a more complex link with other mental and
behavioral disorders.
They surveyed the students, asking them how many
fizzy soft drinks with sugar they had a day,
and then questions from a standard questionnaire
used to assess mental health.
The teens who reported skipping breakfast and
lunch were among the heaviest soft drink consumers,
Dr. Lars Lien and colleagues at the University
of Oslo found.
"
There was a strong association between soft drink
consumption and mental health problems among
Oslo 10th graders," they wrote in their
report, published in the American Journal of
Public Health.
"
This association remained significant after adjustment
for social, behavioral and food-related disorders."
Most of the students said they drank anywhere
between one and six servings of soft drinks
per week.
Those who drank no soft drinks at all were
more likely than moderate drinkers to have
mental
health symptoms, the researchers said. But
those who drank the most -- more than six
servings a week - had the highest scores.
For hyperactivity, there was a direct linear
relationship -- the more sodas a teen drank,
the most symptoms of hyperactivity he or
she had.
The worst problems were seen in boys and
girls who drank four or more soft drinks
a day. Ten
percent of the boys and 2 percent of the
girls drank this much.
The researchers said it was possible that
other substances in the soft drinks, such
as caffeine,
were to blame for the symptoms, and they
did not check other possible sources of refined
sugar in the children's diets.
But they said many of the teens were clearly
drinking too many sugary drinks. Norway's
recommended intake is 10 percent of the day's
total calories
from sugar and the researchers said at least
a quarter of the boys were getting this much
from soft drinks alone.
"
One simple and effective measure to reduce soft
drink consumption in this age group would be
to remove soft drink machines from schools and
other public places where adolescents gather," they
wrote.
Back
to to |
