I just heard in the news that Jean Marais died today.

As most of you know, he was the cover-star on the "This Charming Man" single with the famous "mirror-cover" from the movie "Orphee".

The Reuters report from Brad:

NICE, France, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Veteran French film and theatre actor Jean Marais has died, friends said on Monday. He was 84.

They said he died in hospital in the Riviera resort of Cannes early on Sunday.

Marais' best-known role was as the fierce-looking but kind-hearted beast in "Beauty and the Beast," an internationally-acclaimed fantasy directed in 1946 by poet Jean Cocteau, his mentor and long-time companion.

His relationship with Cocteau was unknown to the public at large and Marais' spectacular good looks made him a heartthrob for French teenage girls in the early years of his long career.

His last film appearance was three years ago in Bernardo Bertolucci's "Stolen Beauty."

He appeared in dozens of classical plays, wrote several books and was also a talented sculptor.

Although he starred in films during the 1940-1944 German occupation of France, Marais joined General Philippe Leclerc's French Second Armoured Division after the liberation of Paris and participated in the Allied push into Germany as driver of lorries delivering petrol and ammunition to the front, often under fire.

Singer Morrissey really is devious, says judge.

The trial judge was right to describe the Eighties pop singer Morrissey, of The Smiths, as "devious, truculent and unreliable" when he ordered him to pay about £1 million to former band member, the Court of Appeal ruled yesterday.

The court dismissed Mr Morrissey’s claim that comments made in a hearing last month were an "unjust and gratuitous attack" on his character and had led the court to rule that drummer Mike Joyce was entitled to a quarter share of the band’s profits.

Judge Weeks was accused by Mr Rosen of basing his ruling not on the evidence but "because of the adverse impression he had formed" of Morrissey when he gave evidence.

But this was rejected by the three appeal judges. Summing up, Lord Justice Waller acknowledged that Mr Morrissey may have felt "aggrieved" but added: "It has given great offence because of the unpleasant connotations that the word devious can have.

"All the judge intended to convey was that Mr Morrissey had not faced up to Mr Joyce and he was reflecting the fact that Mr Morrissey had problems dealing with the obvious difficulties in his case."

It is not known whether Mr Morrissey will appeal against the ruling, which brings to an end a nine-year legal battle between the band members.

Morrissey misery over court verdict

Morrissey, the ex-lead singer of The Smiths, is facing the prospect of handing over £1m to his former drummer after losing a legal battle at the Court of Appeal.

Morrissey lost his appeal against a £1m court order previously issued against him when the Court of Appeal ruled that the original High Court judge had not been unfair in describing the Smiths singer as "devious, truculent and unreliable."

The three appeal judges threw out Morrissey's appeal that Judge Weeks' "unjust and gratuitous attack" on his character had led him to rule that drummer Mike Joyce was entitled to a quarter of the profits amassed by the four-piece Manchester band.

In the original case, Judge Weeks ruled in favour of Joyce and bass guitarist Andy Rourke.

The pair had argued that they had never been told they would receive just 10% of the earnings of the group which split up after five years in 1987.

Judge Weeks described the drummer and bassist as honest, but said Morrissey, on the other hand, "did not find giving evidence an easy or happy experience. To me at least he appeared devious, truculent and unreliable where his own interests were at stake."

In the appeal, Morrissey's lawyer argued the judge had based his ruling on his own impression of the former Smiths star.

But the appeal court decided that Judge Weeks had not rejected all of Morrissey's evidence.

"It is unfair to suggest that the adverse view that he formed of Mr Morrissey in the witness box dictated his findings on the individual matters," said Lord Justice Thorpe.

'Never equals'
Morrissey had been fighting the claim against him on the basis that The Smiths were never an equal partnership.

Morrissey maintained that he and songwriting partner Johnny Marr were the heart of the group, in charge of the band's affairs, contracts and day-to-day business.

His lawyer argued that Joyce and Rourke had little or no roles other than performing with the band.

He said the bass player and drummer knew from the start they would receive only 10% of the band's profits while Marr and Morrissey would get 40% each.

But the appeal court found that it was "simply unsustainable" that the partners were working as a band on the basis that the split would be 40/40/10/10.

Morrissey now looks set to have to hand over around £1m to Joyce.

Rourke dropped his case against Morrissey after being offered £83,000 in 1989.

Manchester may well have take British music hostage over the last decade or so, but its contribution to British literature has long been overlooked. In this essay I draw attention to Manchester's considerable literary heritage and explore the way the city has been portrayed by writers and received by readers. I pay particular attention to the reasons why Manchester has not come to be considered a literary town, dispute its formidable literary output. I conclude the paper with a tongue-in-cheek sight-seeing tour around areas of the city that have so far been immortalised in print.

This is and old song, but I just noticed this today!! The song "Fagetarian and Dyke" on Team Dresch’s album "Personal Best" features the lyrics: "I spent the last ten days of my life ripping off the Smiths" Thought you might find that fancy! I did!