Scots star presenter Kelly celebrates 50th with charity gig

By Rory Reynolds

SCOTS sofa queen Lorraine Kelly joins the big 50 club today.

The chirpy TV favourite is still looking good as she enters her 6th decade, as her legions of polling internet fans could attest to.

The Dundee-based veteran presenter has been on the box for as long as anyone can remember, rising quickly from a cub reporter on a local paper to a TV-am telly journalist.

And it wasn’t long before she’d worked her way onto ITV, and even had a hand in helping to launch GMTV despite being in her early 30s.

Now Lorraine is one of Britain’s best-loved presenters, still fronting the early morning news and chat show, while finding time to write two newspaper columns every week and commute home to Dundee.

Boyle could lose £5million to online merchandise black market

By Rory Reynolds

SINGING sensation Susan Boyle could lose millions of pounds in revenue to an online black-market for unofficial memorabilia.

The singer’s management are failing to capitalise on an estimated £5million-a-year worth of merchandise – including dog T-shirts, quirky aprons and £1,000 car number plates – as the market for unlicensed souvenirs booms on sites like eBay.

The 48-year-old is expected to sell 400,000 copies of her album, I Dreamed a Dream, in the first week alone.

But fans online were astonished that there is no official Susan Boyle merchandise available, instead only finding unofficial knock-offs.

One wrote: “Has there been any thought as to having some kind of official merchandise that would benefit Susan, like official T-shirts, bumper stickers, etc?”

Scots comic’s family blast STV for “dreadful” tribute DVD

By Rory Reynolds

THE FAMILY of Scots comedy legend Chic Murray have blasted STV for attempting to flog an unofficial tribute DVD online – just weeks before their own star-studded version is to be released.

The late comic’s daughter Annabelle – who included tributes from Billy Connolly and Elaine C Smith on the DVD – said she was “horrified” when she found out STV has released a version dubbed “dreadful” by fans.

Annabelle, her brother Douglas and mum Maidie, had been working with Scots publishers Birlinn on a special DVD to celebrate what would have been Chic’s 90th birthday.

She said: “We did a documentary called A World Of His Own in 1998, with a man called Andy Bates, who works with a company called Indigo Television.

“Last year he received an emailed from Ken Maliphant of Alba Home Vision, who told Andy he was planning on releasing a DVD about my dad.

American rye knocks top Scotch off world No.1 spot

By Rory Reynolds

SCOTLAND has been knocked off the top spot in whisky rankings after an American rye was crowned best in the world.

The Whisky Bible 2010 replaced Ardbeg – this year’s world’s best whisky – with Kentucky distilled Sazerac.

Sazerac, known for its Christmas cake ‘nose’, beat Ardbeg Supernova into second, whose distillery has dominated the list in recent years since reopening in 1997.

Renowned whisky writer and publisher Jim Murray defended his decision, saying that crowning an American rye whisky was a wake-up call to complacent Scots distillers.

He said: “There is still a sneering attitude in some quarters that, if it is not made in Scotland, then somehow it is not proper whisky.

Scotland besieged by massive horde of exotic killer jellyfish

By Rory Reynolds

SCOTLAND is under threat of being besieged by a massive horde of exotic killer jellyfish.

Numerous sightings of the mauve stinger – which devastated salmon farms on the west coast in 2007 – have led experts to believe that the Mediterranean creatures have returned to Scotland’s coasts.

The tiny critters, who travel in massive swarms or ‘blooms’ – numbering billions – also caused over £1million of damage when they decimated more than 100,000 fish in Northern Ireland.

The latest bloom was spotted last week off the coast of Orknay, with others seen near Lewis and Fair Isle.

The Marine Conservation Society said that recent turbulent weather and a slight rise in sea temperature around Scotland could mean that the red swarm may become a familiar sight in the North Sea.

Record number of women lags blamed on “ladette” culture

By Rory Reynolds

RECORD numbers of Scots women have been imprisoned in the past year, with a sharp increase in the number of alcohol-fuelled attacks believed to be partly responsible.

The increase in the number of woman being sentenced to jail time has increased nearly 10 per cent on last year.

Drink-fuelled violence on the streets and a sharp rise in shoplifting, linked to the recession, are partly responsible, according to crime experts.

New government figures have shown that 1,025 women were jailed last year, the highest total on record.

Figures showed 484 woman aged 21-30 were sentenced, while the number of women over 50-years-old has risen by four times in the past decade.