News: Justin Timberlake makes good on Marine Ball date

British PM imitates Julia Gillard’s accent

Well this is different. He didn’t quite get it bang on (he was broadly trying for an Aussie accent) but the audience at the Lord Mayor’s Banquet in London gave him a resounding round of applause. He was speaking about the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Perth where agreement was reached that the ‘male only’ heir rule in the monarchy should end, allowing the potential first daughter of William and Kate to become a Queen if that’s how things should pan out.

Here’s the video:

He did it! Timberlake accompanies marine to ball

Remember when we were talking about the ‘will he, won’t he’ pledge of singer and actor Justin Timberlake to take Marine Cpl. Kelsey de Santis to The Basic School Instructor Battalion 236th Marine Corps Birthday Ball? Kelsey had asked JT for the date on a whim, using YouTube and the star said yes. Then he posted about the experience on his own website. Swoon. “…To people like me who get to benefit from this type of person… One with character and courage. With strength and bravery. With humility and honor… I say: Send your thanks. Do it however you can. Write a letter, type an email… Hell, buy ’em a beer next time you run into someone from our Armed Forces in a bar. When they say thank you for that drink that cost you 3 bucks, they’ll mean it. They won’t take it for granted and, they won’t forget it. Thank you Corporal Kelsey DeSantis. Thank you for inviting me. And, thank you for being my hero.”

PM says she’s still against same sex marriage, but backs new vote

Julia Gillard has said she will back a conscience vote at the Labor National Conference in December this year but that, personally, she is still opposed to same-sex marriage. A conscience vote is likely to fail, however, as the Opposition said it does not support allowing a similar vote for its MPs. A new Herald / Nielsen poll revealed that public support for same-sex marriage was now at 62 per cent, up five per cent from a year ago. Among Labor voters it was at 71 per cent support.

PM wants to reverse Labor’s ‘no uranium’ pledge on India

PM Julia Gillard says a policy change is needed so Labor can start selling Australian uranium to India, which has nuclear power and weapons. Labor’s policy has previously been to not sell uranium to countries that refuse to sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. Ms Gillard argued that nuclear power was a cleaner source of energy and would help the world’s second largest country be greener. She also said it did not make sense to sell uranium to Japan, China and the US but not to India. The Opposition has been calling for a reversal in policy for years.

Oprah wins an Oscar

Or, more precisely, she’s been awarded one. The 57-year-old talk show queen, who has amassed a personal fortune in the billions, was awarded the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award for her services to the underprivileged across continents. The award is handed our periodically by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. ABC reports: “She said she could not imagine that someone who was born in 1954 in the small town of Kosciusko in rural Mississippi state could ever receive an Oscar. Her grandmother used to tell her that she hoped she would find “some good white folks” to work for in the future, Winfrey recalled. “Nobody could ever imagine that it would be possible that you could be anything other than a maid, who had some good white folks who would give her clothes and let her take food home for the holiday. It’s unimaginable that I would be standing before you tonight.”

Aussies leaving the UK to come home

It used to be the pilgrimage to end them all: living and working in London, getting paid by the Pound. But Australians are returning home in large numbers because there are more jobs back home and the conversion rate isn’t nearly as bad as it used to be. The Guardian reported: “Home Office figures show that the number of Australian citizens entering the UK for employment has dropped by 35% over the past three years, while the number of New Zealanders has fallen by 40% … According to Home Office immigration statistics, in 2007 the total number of Australians admitted to the UK for employment was 26,500. By 2010, this number had fallen to 17,100. Over the same period, the number of New Zealanders fell from 8,490 to 5,210.”

Chelsea Clinton joins NBC News

The daughter of former US President Bill Clinton and current Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Chelsea, has been hired by NBC News as a ‘special correspondent’ to tell the stories of everyday Americans. Chelsea said in a statement: “I hope telling stories through ‘Making a Difference’ — as in my academic work and nonprofit work — will help me to live my grandmother’s adage of ‘Life is not about what happens to you, but about what you do with what happens to you.’ ” NBC said it was a ‘serious hire’ and they expected the relationship would go deeper than ‘just the surface’.

Want fries … or salad with that?

From today fast food mega-chain McDonald’s will be offering customers the choice of a salad (with lettuce, cherry tomatoes and cucumber) instead of fries in value meals with burgers and a drink. That’s a choice of 114 kilojoules instead of more than 1500kj for a medium fries. But is that what the punters are after? CEO Catriona Noble said it was all part of a move toward health while dieticians like Karen Inge ‘seriously doubt that people who go to McDonald’s are interested in health at all’.