SwayBlog

Nicolas Sarkozy This article is more than 13 years oldLike father, like son: Sarkozy Sr on the art of life – and loveThis article is more than 13 years oldArtist and president of France have drive, a sense of duty – and a weakness for womenThe artist, a silver-haired 82-year-old with a suntan and a Breguet wristwatch, smokes, holding a portable ash tray, as he gestures towards a self-portrait. The picture, hanging in the gloom of the Espace Pierre Cardin, shows a man of two halves – one poor, one rich – grinning over the air vent of a Parisian metro station.

Far outScienceMetal messiah"The time of deliverance has come at last," cried New Era, an American spiritualist newssheet, in July 1854. It was hailing the "birth" of the New Motive Power, a miraculous mechanical device described by its 50-year-old "father" John Murray Spear as "Heaven's Last Gift to Man" and the "New Messiah". Spear, an ardent spiritualist and fervent abolitionist, was in psychic contact with the "Band of Electricizers" a committee of scientifically-minded spirits headed by Benjamin Franklin.

A life in ...BooksInterviewNeil Gaiman: 'I don't think I'm mainstream. I'm lots of different cults'Alison FloodThe Sandman author reveals how he lied his way into journalism and why he could write a sequel to almost everything he's publishedIn one of the earlier stories in Neil Gaiman's hugely popular Sandman graphic novel series, a writer is keeping the muse Calliope imprisoned – "demeaned, abused, and hurt" – to fulfil his need for ideas.

Rebecca HallInterviewRebecca Hall on race, regret and her personal history: ‘In any family with a legacy of passing, it’s very tricky’Ellen E JonesThe actor has just directed her first film, an adaptation of Nella Larsen’s 1929 novel Passing. She discusses the family story that inspired her, cultural appropriation and class in Hollywood It would be easy to assume that Rebecca Hall has never had to fight for anything in her life.

Virginia TV news shooting This article is more than 8 years oldVirginia TV shooter Vester Lee Flanagan was a 'disturbed' and 'unhappy man'This article is more than 8 years oldDecade of lawsuits alleging racism at work culminated in ABC News fax claiming attack was revenge for Charleston church shooting in June Vester Lee Flanagan was a popular teenager, a model for Macy’s department store as a young man, and appeared to be a successful reporter at local television news stations in California and across the American south.

STAGE AND SCREENWho is actually limping - Inspector Morse, the character, or John Thaw the actor? Mike Allen, Alvechurch, UK I believe that John Thaw suffered from polio as a child, hence the limp. Graham Ralph, Gravesend It is the character. In the Morse books Endeavour Morse is described as walking with a slight limp. John himself does not limp nor does he normally speak with a dreadful Yorkshire accent as in that terrible QC program.

Gregorio De Falco is being transferred from operational service at Livorno coastguard to an administrative post. Photograph: Filippo Monteforte/AFP/Getty ImagesView image in fullscreenGregorio De Falco is being transferred from operational service at Livorno coastguard to an administrative post. Photograph: Filippo Monteforte/AFP/Getty ImagesCosta Concordia This article is more than 9 years oldAnger as Costa Concordia ‘hero’ transferred to coastguard admin dutiesThis article is more than 9 years oldGregorio de Falco was praised for ordering stricken ship’s captain, Francesco Schettino, to get back on boardHe was the Italian hero to Francesco Schettino’s villain: a coastguard official who, in the days after the Costa Concordia disaster, became a symbol of responsibility in nation that was horrified by the allegedly reckless behaviour of the cruise ship’s captain.

US theaterReviewLucille Lortel Theatre, New York The White Lotus star struggles alongside Girls’ Christopher Abbott in an overcooked relationship two-hander from John Patrick Shanley Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, the 1983 two-hander from the dramatist John Patrick Shanley, is an odd choice for an off-Broadway revival in 2023. A short and bruising portrait of a doomed working-class romance in the Bronx, a kitchen-sink drama with wild emotional swings and ample domestic violence, it’s out of style with talky, cerebral or sociopolitically provocative contemporary theater.

Denmark This article is more than 3 years oldDenmark launches children's TV show about man with giant penisThis article is more than 3 years oldCritics condemn idea of animated series about a man who cannot control his penis, but others have backed it John Dillermand has an extraordinary penis. So extraordinary, in fact, that it can perform rescue operations, etch murals, hoist a flag and even steal ice-cream from children.