Society

There has been so much controversy in the run-up to the 2026 World Cup that it is sometimes easy to forget that it is actually a soccer tournament. That is why it is something of a relief that the competition is finally underway, allowing fans to focus on the game itself rather than all the off-field goings on. The 2026 competition is being played in North America with thousands of fans descending on the United States, Canada and Mexico to watch their national teams in action. It features 16 host cities, 48 teams, and 104 matches. It amounts to a stupendous orgy of soccer excess. Even so, the build-up to this tournament has been markedly ugly and increasingly politically-charged, despite FIFA’s attempts to paint it as a unifying global event.

I get the sense that the political and media class badly miss Katie Hopkins. Back when the reality TV star was still a regular on Britain's screens and in our newspapers, she could be relied upon to be the focus of attention whenever the people in charge didn’t want the public’s attention to be focused where it ought to be. So when a British soldier was decapitated on the streets of London, or a suicide bomber went off at a pop concert packed with teenage girls, Ms. Hopkins could be found saying something that a lot of people were thinking – only in a more colorful or unwise way.

Parisians were recently treated to the impromptu spectacle of a shirtless 26-year-old man scaling bare-handed the 59-story Montparnasse office tower. For many in the French capital, news reports of the vertiginous feat were another reminder – if they needed one – of how much they loathed the chocolate-brown skyscraper looming incongruously over the burnished boulevards of the Left Bank. The spiderman exploit was not witnessed by anyone inside the 210-meter skyscraper. The Montparnasse tower was empty. The city’s most unloved building has been vacant since March. More than a half-century after its inauguration, it’s awaiting a long-overdue facelift. The wait may be long. The Montparnasse is despised by Parisians as an eyesore, but it has also failed functionally.

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was photographed driving yesterday with a large bruise on his face. Whichever unfortunate "well-placed source" that has the responsibility for reassuring the public about the disgraced former royal’s wellbeing insisted that the injury was not down to some outraged former lover or member of the public attacking him. Nevertheless, they said, it could not be revealed for "medical confidentiality." However disfiguring the injury, however, it seems insignificant when compared to the even more bruising round of revelations that have emerged about Andrew’s financial situation – this time involving his former home of Royal Lodge.

Bonnie Blue has achieved something nigh impossible in today’s political landscape – she has united Britain under one singular opinion: unilateral disgust. After faking a pregnancy, the "adult content star" is now, apparently, genuinely expecting a baby due in November. Far from halting her explicit internet sex stunts to prepare for motherhood, Bonnie Blue has doubled down – announcing her intent to host an X-rated "golden baby shower," featuring all manner of bodily fluids. The unborn baby carried in her belly is seemingly to become a fetish prop for a porn party. He’s being exploited for profit within the sex industry before he’s even been born.

Marilyn Monroe was born a hundred years ago today. She was famous enough in her lifetime to be one of those rare figures referred to by their first name alone. Such fame seldom lasts. Even Frank now needs to be called "Sinatra." She is still "Marilyn" partly because the name fell out of use; her fame survives partly because she died young – of a barbiturate overdose, presumed to be suicide – at the age of thirty-six.  My favorite Monroe story is one told by Billy Wilder, who directed and co-wrote the film Some Like It Hot. Newly engaged to Arthur Miller, the actress was taken to meet Miller’s parents in a small New York apartment with thin walls. Nervous of being overheard while she was using the bathroom, Monroe turned on the taps to cover the noise.