Once a ladette, always a ladette British superstar model and chronic reality TV show star Katie Price, 31 (also known as Jordan) recently attempted to singlehandedly save the failing Champagne trade
during a weekend binge in Ibiza. “The most disturbing aspect of her
boozy antics was when she threatened to knife another clubber outside
Eden nightclub in San Antonio who had popped over to say hello.”

But the eyeliner still makes you look like you woke up drunk Singer-songwriter, rehab party-girl, and renowned alcohol enthusiast Amy Winehouse went on trial for punching dancer Sherene Flash in the eye
at London’s Berkeley Square last September.  Winehouse has protested
her innocence on the grounds that while her beehive hairdo makes her
look taller, she’s too short to have punched Flash in the face. “My
hair does make a difference” Winehouse said. Later in the year, Winehouse was arrested for punching out the manager of a puppet theater in the midst of a performance of Cinderella, and suffered what was described as a nervous collapse at home on Christmas Day. ‘Round about the same time, fellow musician and youth role model Pete Doherty was arrested for possession of heroin, on his way out of the courtroom where he had just been fined for drunk driving.

Maybe Amy Winehouse has cleaned up her act after all The British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) issued a report claiming that more than 50 pubs have gone out of business each week over the past 12 months,
at a cost of 24,000 jobs. “Since the onset of the recession nearly 2500
pubs and bars in UK have disappeared and the situation could well
continue for some time to come.”

Meanwhile, in other UK news Police in Cardiff have been given the power to confiscate alcohol from people consuming it in public…

The Daily Mail bust a gasket over an intoxicated student pissing on a war memorial…

Newcastle police have started to force drunken young women to clean up the mess they make in the streets when they, uh, make a mess in the streets…

Just serve the beer in condoms with a straw The traditional English pub pint glass is undergoing an official redesign.
“The Design Council has been asked to create a new kind of glass by the
Home Office in a bid to reduce the number of glass-related injuries
from 87,000 a year. The appointed designers of the new glasses, Design
Bridge, said the challenge was to reduce the ‘opportunity for the
vessel to be used as a weapon’”.

I wonder what the poor wine-writers are doing today In the face of a lot of mostly indifferent reviews of the vintage, Robert Parker gave the 2008 Bordeaux a glowing endorsement in The Wine Advocate, putting the vintage right up there with 2005 and 2000, and raising the price of Chateau Lefite 75% overnight. Later in 2009, Bordeaux really did have a spectacular harvest and vintage, leading to speculation that by mid-2010, Parker will have to either revise his 2008 numbers downwards, or spontaneously combust. In a related story, publications all across North America are cutting back by laying off their wine critics.

The catch is that now they have to label rosé as “failed red wine” After months of near-violent protest by (especially) French rosé producers, the European Union has finally deep-sixed a plan
that would have allowed European winemakers to label as rosé any
product made by mixing red and white wines together. (Rosé is
traditionally made by leaving the skins on red grapes for a short time
during fermentation to give the resulting wine its pink-amber colour.)
In a semi-related story, France has finally decided to allow alcohol advertising on the internet

Must have been because of a late-night phone call from Ralph Klein Alberta Premier Ed Stalmach announced that the Province was repealing a three month-old liquor tax-hike,
which had been expected to add $180M to provincial coffers annually.
“April’s liquor tax hike, the first booze markup since 2002, had added
$2.85 to the price of a 750-millilitre bottle of spirits, $1.30 to a
12-pack of beer, and up to 75 cents to a bottle of wine.”

The rejected names: In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning; A Foggy Day; Accidents Will Happen; and Learnin’ the Blues Sinatra Family Estates has just released its first, limited-edition wine,
which they are calling Come Fly With Me. “The 2007 Napa Valley Cabernet
Sauvignon is named in honour of Ol’ Blue Eyes’ 1957 classic album, his
first Billboard chart-topper, which was nominated for a Grammy 50 years
ago. It sells at US$570 per six-bottle case, plus shipping and taxes,
including a CD of the original 1957 recording of Come Fly With Me and a first-day US postal stamp and postcard signed by a Sinatra family member. “

Just as long as he gets to throw up all over Rex Murphy on his Jan. 6 Toronto tour stop It is rumored (rumored, mind you) that Kayne West has a wee alcohol problem; and it is concurrently reported that he is planning to check himself into rehab
at the conclusion of his “Fame Kills” tour in January. That makes two more weeks to keep watching the tabs for fresh outrages — and renewed garment-rending from the cranks