Guilty Pleasures
By Associated Press
UK comedian told to remove hot dog from subway poster over junk
food ban
LONDON | On the London Underground, hot dogs are no joking matter.
Comedian Ed Gamble has been ordered to change a subway station poster campaign for his new standup show because the image of a hot dog violated the transit network’s ban on junk food advertising.
The poster for the show, “Hot Diggity Dog,” showed a mustard- and ketchup-smeared Gamble beside a half-eaten hot dog on a plate.
A bemused Gamble replaced the wiener with a cucumber, and the poster was approved.
Gamble, who is diabetic and co-hosts the “Off Menu” food podcast, said he could see the point of the ad rules, which are intended to help curb obesity in children.
“But the new posters promote something way more harmful — the idea that cucumbers pair well with ketchup and mustard,” he said.
Gamble isn’t complaining about the extra publicity the case has generated.
“The posters are making way beyond their value now,” he told the BBC on Thursday.
Since 2019, Transport for London has banned ads for foods that are high in fat, sugar and salt from the city’s subway trains and stations, buses and bus shelters. It also bars advertisements that promote unhealthy or unrealistic body shapes.
“Following a review of the advert, we advised that elements would need to be removed or obscured to ensure it complied with our policy,” the transit operator said. “A revised advert is now running on the network and we are always happy to work with people to ensure adverts follow our policy.”
Last year a poster for the play “Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding” featuring a large wedding cake fell foul of the rules. TFL ordered the cake to be cut from the ad.
The ad policy has attracted the ire of Britain’s tabloid press, with The Sun slamming “killjoy TFL bosses.”
Makers of ‘Food, Inc’ sequel, launch impact campaign around pressing issues
The Oscar -nominated documentary “Food, Inc” helped change the way many consumers think about the systems behind the things we eat.
But in the 16 years since it came out, new problems have arisen and old problems got worse, magnified in part by shortages during the pandemic. They’re given a spotlight in a sequel, “Food, Inc 2,” arriving in theaters and on digital in April.
The filmmakers are going one step further, too: The activist media company Participant, and producers River Road and Magnolia Pictures, are launching a multi-faceted campaign to raise awareness about farm workers rights, corporate consolidation and ultra-processed foods.
The campaign, announced Thursday, is in partnership with: The Open Markets Institute, a non-profit monopoly watchdog supported by Senators Cory Booker and John Tester; The Coalition of Immokalee Workers, supporting the rights of farmworkers; And FoodFight USA, the nonpartisan movement started by entrepreneurs Todd Wagner and Lori McCreary with a goal of “cleaning up” the American food supply, which they estimate is 70% ultra-processed foods.
In October, California became the first state to ban four chemicals from processed food and drinks sold in California by 2027. The chemicals — red dye no. 3, potassium bromate, brominated vegetable oil and propyl paraben — are still used in popular products like Peeps, the popular marshmallow chicks most associated with Easter. The chemical has been linked to cancer and has been banned from makeup for more than 30 years.
“The passing of the California Food Safety Act and the subsequent introduction of similar bills in five additional states illustrate the timeliness of (the) documentary,” Wagner said in a statement. “People are beginning to recognize how tainted the U.S. food supply is and that many of the chemicals in our food are banned in other countries.”
All four chemicals are already banned in foods in the European Union.
David Linde the CEO of Participant noted that the company’s campaign for the first “Food, Inc” “supported the first major piece of food safety legislation since the 1930s” referring to the Food Safety Modernization Act, which Barack Obama signed into law in 2011. Linde said the company is proud to to “continue the critical work of galvanizing change in the food industry.”
“Food, Inc 2,” directed by Robert Kenner and Melissa Robledo and produced by Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser, will play in select theaters on April 9 before its digital release on April 12.
No police charges for Swift’s dad over paparazzi incident in Sydney
SYDNEY | Taylor Swift’s father will not be charged over a paparazzi photographer’s claim that Scott Swift assaulted him on the Sydney waterfront hours after the pop star’s Australian tour ended last month.
Photographer Ben McDonald had alleged that one of Swift’s security guards forced an umbrella into his face and camera and that Scott Swift then punched him at the Neutral Bay Wharf, where the father and daughter had just come ashore from a yacht Feb. 27.
Taylor Swift’s representatives responded by accusing members of the media of aggression during the interaction.
Police began investigating the incident at the time and announced Wednesday that “no further police action” would be taken.
“No offences were detected, and the investigation was concluded with no further police action required,” said the statement from the New South Wales Police Force.
More than 600,000 fans saw the Australian leg of her Eras Tour at seven Australian stadium concerts.
Her tour shattered records when it reportedly surpassed $1 billion last year, and her film adaptation of the tour quickly took No. 1 at the box office and became the highest-grossing concert film to date.
Scorsese will dive into the journey to sainthood with an eight-part Fox Nation docuseries
Martin Scorsese has already said he’s working on a film about Jesus, and now he’s making a project about saints.
Scorsese will host, narrate and produce an eight-part docudrama called “Martin Scorsese Presents: The Saints” for the streaming service Fox Nation, it announced Wednesday.
The series will follow the lives of eight men and women who have been beatfied, including Joan of Arc, Francis of Assisi, Thomas Becket, Mary Magdalene and Maximilian Kolbe, a Franciscan friar who volunteered to die at Auschwitz to save the life of the father of a family.
The first four episodes of “Martin Scorsese Presents: The Saints” will debut in November. The remaining four will air by May 2025.
The Oscar winner, who briefly pursued becoming a priest before switching to filmmaking, told the Los Angeles Times in January that his next film would be an adaptation of Shūsaku Endō’s book “A Life of Jesus.”
—From AP reports
