Yes, kudos to the News of the World for the worst pun -- it doesn't even make sense -- of the year so far.

gossi | January 23, 02:15 CET

If it's in the News Of The World it must be true...

Wait, what colour was the sarcasm font again?

zz9 | January 23, 02:27 CET

What an unlikely combo. And does anyone else find it hard to believe that Robbie Williams is only 32? It feels like he's been in the public eye forever.

Razor | January 23, 03:01 CET

Well, Take That formed -- what -- 14 years ago? Something like that. I doubt many people outside the UK know who he is, though.

gossi | January 23, 03:08 CET

I don't think you date Robbie Williams. I think you shag him and move on.

crossoverman | January 23, 03:14 CET

The headline of this post might be directly from News of the World, but, ewww. :-(

billz | January 23, 03:17 CET

So going shopping and making someone laugh is classed as "laying". Im sluttier than I thought...

Ashley | January 23, 03:24 CET

People in the US may not know who he is, but he's a pretty big deal in literally every other part of the world.

Impossible | January 23, 03:44 CET

I find this incredibly disturbing. Yes, I'm 18 and I've had a crush on Robbie for maybe ten years ... but I would never actually date the guy. I'm with you, Razor, the guy seems older.

gossi, I don't know about the rest of the world, but he's pretty damn famous in Australia.

buffy_kitten | January 23, 03:51 CET

I like Robbie, so go Michelle. But seriously that pun made my ears hurt. Wow! I almost feel like throwing up!

Snoogins | January 23, 03:53 CET

Pretty sure he could waltz into any bar or restaurant in the States and be treated pretty much like I would.

Okay, I'm old and busted and not so cute...but my point is, we don't know him here in the US. At all.

And, yes, the pun was dreadful, even as puns go. And not even accurate, duh! Dawnie wasn't even a Slayerette, let alone a vamp, thanks to that well-placed #2 pencil...

Chris inVirginia | January 23, 04:00 CET

Pervy title. Pervy age difference (sorta). An excuse to finally use the word pervy 3 times on Whedonesque? Priceless.

[ edited by kerfuffle on 2007-01-23 02:07 ]

[ edited by kerfuffle on 2007-01-23 02:07 ]

kerfuffle | January 23, 04:01 CET

@Impossible
You may have come up with the best european-guy-trying-to-pick-up-an-american line EVER.

"You may not know who I am, but I'm a pretty big deal in literally every other part of the world."

kerfuffle | January 23, 04:06 CET

People in the US may not know who he is, but he's a pretty big deal in literally every other part of the world.

He's pretty big in parts of Europe and Oz, but in -- say -- the Middle East, China and America they have no idea who he is. And that's a vast majority of the world population.

You know, I think Marti and Michelle went shopping once. Let's start the rumours! I think NOTW offer £200 per story they print, we could so be quids in if we get Photoshop out..

gossi | January 23, 04:11 CET

This can't be true, he's too old for her!

And gossi, you are right, most Americans don't know who he is, despite his having been in "De-lovely" and doing that nice duet of "Something Stupid" with Nicole Kidman.

I doubt they are dating, they are probably just friends.

chickenbird | January 23, 04:28 CET

I don't think you date Robbie Williams. I think you shag him and move on.

*giggles*

Nice!

Mythtaken | January 23, 04:29 CET

According to the BBC:

Robbie Williams was born Robert Peter Williams in Stoke-on-Trent on 13th February, 1974.

Still a bit too much of an age gap for me, but it's hardly uncommon in that line of business. Alexis is eight years older than Allyson, and no-one bats an eye.

Gill | January 23, 04:38 CET

A bit lowbrow, isn't this...

zillah | January 23, 04:38 CET

A bit lowbrow, isn't this...

Oh, definitely. I am fascinated that Michelle has become tabloid fodder, though.

crossoverman | January 23, 04:47 CET

Actually, he's also pretty famous in South East Asia. Girls here go absolutely ga-gas over him.

NickSeng | January 23, 05:16 CET

"So as far as Michelle is concerned, she's just spending time with a normal bloke from a place called Stoke. That's just how Rob likes it."

For Christ's sake, it's just like the bit with the paparazzi on Extras. That's pretty laughable.

NekoDono | January 23, 05:34 CET

I honestly started laughing reading this. I mean when she was dating Shawn Ashmore the same tabloid reported he was gay. So well, guess they´ll be married soon. Paparazzi must be bored nowadays, I guess, cause I´m a bit surprised they are after Michelle now.

Kessie | January 23, 05:53 CET

Yeah, the headline made me cringe as well.

As far as older guys, Michelle does have a crush on Hugh Laurie, so I guess she's not too much of a stickler about age.

Celluloid Novelist | January 23, 05:54 CET

heh, exactly ;)

I'm surprised he's only 32, I guess he was only 18ish when take that started, it's not that much of an age gap really...

charliethebloody | January 23, 06:53 CET

Alexis is eight years older than Allyson, and no-one bats an eye.

Well, consulting IMDB, AD was 37 and AH was 29 when they got married. That 8 years difference doesn't seem so much to me (since they are both, y'know, mature adults), and not anywhere near as much difference as the 11 years between someone who's 21 and someone who's 32, IMO. But, since Ms. Trachtenberg is 21, I guess it's not technically pervy. Remember -- she's Michelle, not Dawn! ;-)

billz | January 23, 07:00 CET

I've read that this story about Michelle T is a total fabrication, that she met Robbie Williams when out shopping and then the press blew it up into an affair. Given that the News of the Screws was the first paper to splash this, the "affair" is probably only a fantasy in the mind of some journalist. True or not, it won't matter to anyone but the protagonists. Stories about Whedonverse alumni, because of the devotion of particularly the internet fanbase, will run and run, taking on a life of their own.

nemesis | January 23, 07:19 CET

Why is everyone talking like this about my little Dawnie?
She'll always be Dawnie to me, and no using the word "layer" about her EVER!
And honestly, in that picture the photographer was probably closer to Michelle than he is!

Xane | January 23, 08:56 CET

The 'Millennium' guy? Thats all I know about him here in the U.S. *shrugs nonchalantly*

wouldestous | January 23, 10:34 CET

Oh if only he was loving Angel instead.

Simon | January 23, 11:23 CET

Boom boom.

gossi | January 23, 11:31 CET

Thank you. I'm here all week. Please, try the chicken.

Simon | January 23, 11:35 CET

Do you do Bar Mitzvahs?

QuoterGal | January 23, 12:18 CET

Yeech, this chicken is pink in the middle. I demand more funny !

...Michelle does have a crush on Hugh Laurie...

Yeah, but in fairness I have a crush on Hugh Laurie and i'm straight (and male obviously or the 'straight' bit would be less relevant ;).

Robbie Williams was in 'Take That' when he was about 14 so i'm not shocked that he's only 32. What I want to know is, why would Michelle want to hang out with a charismatic multi-millionaire rock-star anyway ?

Saje | January 23, 13:46 CET

Saje, I thought you were a girl.

*blushes*

Mythtaken | January 23, 16:45 CET

Well, i'm half girl, on my mother's side ;).

Saje | January 23, 17:25 CET

I almost deleted this one 'cause of the source and the pervy title . I was in a hurry, though, and you got lucky 'cause Simon LOVES pervy titles ;)

Saje - indeed :) House Hugh Laurie, or Jeeves & Wooster Hugh Laurie (or Blackadder Hugh Laurie, for that matter...)?

zeitgeist | January 23, 19:48 CET

You missed off 'A Bit of Fry and Laurie' Hugh Laurie zeitgeist (well worth checking out if you haven't already) but it's House Hugh Laurie anyway (in fact it's probably more House than Hugh). I think it's the obsession with finding and killing anomalies and the complete lack of the social graces alongside just about the most twisted, screwed-up nobility of any TV character I can think of. Who doesn't dig that shit ?

(I like Brennan from 'Bones' for the same reasons - minus the twisted nobility cos Brennan's just the normal kind of noble - though that, of course, isn't a man-crush, it's just a crush-crush ;)

Saje | January 23, 20:44 CET

Yeah I have A Bit of Fry and Laurie in my Netflix queue, I just haven't gotten there yet :) I really dig the character as well, in a similar way to the way I dig Dr. Cox on Scrubs.

zeitgeist | January 23, 20:54 CET

I adore Hugh Laurie from Peter's Friends.

Now that's true for-better-or-for-worse, come-hell-or-high-water, in sickness-and-in-health love. The rest of you are just crushing.

QuoterGal | January 23, 23:37 CET

I have to be honest, I'm a little bit offended by all the talk of the age difference making this relationship "pervy". I'm the same age as Robbie (well, about half a year younger or so) and I've dated girls in their early twenties in recent years myself. I can assure everyone that there was nothing pervy about it whatsoever. When I was 25 I was in a very healthy and longterm relationship with a girl who was just 18 years of age. We would likely still be together had our careers not forced us apart.

Frankly, once the age of consent has been reached as far as I'm concerned age is just a number. What matters are the two people involved in the relationship and if they are happy together. I've had girlfriends eight or nine years younger than myself who I have had much more in common with than girlfriends I have had who were the same age as I was at the time. On the flipside, I've had girlfriends who have been several years older than myself and found the results to be equally mixed. Sometimes they worked, sometimes not.

In my experience it makes no difference at all to a relationship if there is a significant age difference as long as the two people have enough in common and, above all, can make it each other happy. Given my lifestyle still is the same as it was when I was in my early twenties I tend to find that the girls I have most in common with are of that age anyway. Basically, as long as they like going to very loud gigs as often as possible and enjoy watching Kerrang! TV and the Extreme Sports channel then I'm happy.

My point being, when I date a girl in her early twenties it has nothing to do with me being a pervert. It has everything to do with me wanting to be with somebody into the same lifestyle that I am and not minding me playing rock music 24 hours a day. Not every guy that likes to be with girls younger than himself is just in it for the sex. If Robbie and Michelle are making each other happy then why do some people feel the need to cheapen that?

Kaine | January 23, 23:45 CET

I'm never sure why people have such strong opinions about "age gaps" in other people's relationships - once, as you say, Arcane, both parties are above the age of consent, and assuming that the parties involved are neither blood nor adopted relatives or somesuch...

My partner is eight years younger than I am, and believe me, I have been treated to a whole lotta opinions about its "suitability" - if anything, people are just a tad more intolerant of an older woman with a younger man than the reverse, which is considered more "normal." But both combos take a lotta heat.

Normal is what's normal for you, as the old jingle used to say - is six prunes too many, is three too few?

QuoterGal | January 24, 00:24 CET

Guys, seriously.

It's just a post. Not a moral treatise. I was cracking a joke and enjoying an opportunity to use the pervy (in italics, no less) repeatedly.

Sheesh. I could give hoot who Michelle T. dates or how old he is. Am I actually expected to be taken seriously on a thread whose title involves the word 'Layer'?

That's it. I'm going over to James Gunn's blog. All of this political correctness is giving me hives.

[ edited by kerfuffle on 2007-01-23 22:39 ]

[ edited by kerfuffle on 2007-01-23 22:40 ]

kerfuffle | January 24, 00:35 CET

kerfuffle, you can decide to take it personally if you like, but as far as I was concerned, it was simply that the thread kicked up a topic of cultural interest and was therefore open for discussion.

You can choose to think it's about "political correctness" and yourself if that works for you, but I assure you that from my perspective, it was simply that I found the topic itself of personal interest.

Just FYI, and because you wrote your salutation in the plural...

QuoterGal | January 24, 01:00 CET

kerfuffle, So do you have a problem taking seriously anything that uses the word layer or just titles at Whedonesque? Are you by any chance saying that you won't take stone masons seriously if they are referred to as brick layers? If so all I can say is that I think you had better rethink your assumptions about words. ;-)

Meanwhile, people in general do like to stick their opinions into other people's business. My parents were 9 years apart so age differences never seem all that strange to me. Being from the USA I have no idea who this guy is...but also can't say I really care. People shop. I can't say I really care much about that either. I obviously have nothing much to offer so I'll just leave now.

newcj | January 24, 01:14 CET

Don't even get me started on those damn masons.

You guys are right. We should all be a little more open-minded. If Michelle likes old guys that's her business. It's like I always say...The best place to pick up hot men is the rest home.

[ edited by kerfuffle on 2007-01-23 23:30 ]

kerfuffle | January 24, 01:29 CET

My mention of pervy was specifically at the juvenile article title "Vampire Layer", for the record.



I did, too, though I watched it for Branagh/Thompson.

I knew I should've deleted this thread on my way out the door last night :)

zeitgeist | January 24, 01:51 CET

* sighs and raises a weary eyebrow*

And by the way Holly Vallance is the new Buffy and I'll be playing Wonderwoman (I've got the headdress and everything)

Right, if you'll excuse me I'll get back to my pervy relationship with my older husband .

[ edited by debw on 2007-01-24 00:17 ]

debw | January 24, 02:15 CET

Age difference? Buffys boyfriend had a bicentennial!

zz9 | January 24, 02:17 CET

That Buffy and her pervy, deviant ways. Shame, shame, shame.
:P

kerfuffle | January 24, 02:30 CET

The real issue, people, if you would please get your priorities straight for a change is whether or not we now refer to them as:
Robbenberg or Michelliams.

kerfuffle | January 24, 02:43 CET

Man, I guess I must be the biggest perv here. Ex-husband/Fiance is twelve years younger than me, and the father of my two youngest!

*Puts on stone-proof face shield* ;)

(Incidentally, nobody's ever batted an eye about us age-wise. Huh.)

Willowy | January 24, 02:44 CET

Does no one carry a torch for the Hugh Laurie from Stuart Little?

(ducking...)

jclemens | January 24, 02:46 CET

My partner is eight years younger than I am

Hey! Mine is 7 years younger than me. I feel much less...pervy right now. :)

Kerfuffle, I loved your use of the word "pervy". It made me smile lots.

Robbie Williams? I'm from the US South. Didn't know who he was.

Hope Michelle is having fun. She's 21 and should be.

ETA: Oops. Mixing up famous people's names.

[ edited by April on 2007-01-24 00:56 ]

April | January 24, 02:51 CET

I only know who Robbie Williams is because I watched one of the shows on MTV or VH1 or something about the "Worst Videos Ever"
They showed that video where he strips off his clothes, then his skin, then his muscles etc.
Maybe it was "Most Nauseating Videos Ever" It was a long time ago.

I've had a husband older than me, a boyfriend younger, and I thought everything was just fine until my daughter started seeing someone old enough to be her father.

Trust me, it totally changes your perspective when it's your child, even if they are over the age of consent. Blech.

Xane | January 24, 03:48 CET

Not that this is related to the topic, but I'm totally all about Hugh Laurie in House. Mmmmm...nummy treat :)

deepgirl187 | January 24, 04:03 CET

She should just count herself lucky his name isn't Robbie Tucker.

NekoDono | January 24, 04:29 CET

Always amuses me how more-known and less-known some celebs can be depending on whether you're north or south of the North America border. Most Canadians I know are well aware of Robbie Williams. I figured he was big everywhere. He's a huge sex symbol and he was in that one (admittedly awful/boring) music video with him and Nicole Kidman performing a duet.

Then you have a lot of American shows and performers who we're never exposed to up here 'cause our channels don't import them, so unless you have satellite or premium cable, or buy the DVDs...

Kris | January 24, 05:25 CET

Bit left out, I really feel like I should mention pervy in some way ... Nope, got nothing.

Re: age gaps, it's horses for courses (to me a 10 or 11 year gap is nothing). I will say though that i'd imagine most people have a line. Over here the age of consent is 16 and, liberal as I like to think I am, there's still something a bit icky about a 50 or 60 year old man going out with a 16 year old girl (as, IMO, she most assuredly still would be). I think there's a point where it starts to seem exploitative (course even then, it varies case by case. If I met that hypothetical couple and they were clearly very much in love well, more power to their elbow).

Strangely, in the UK we tend to get many, many more US shows than Canadian (though quite a few US shows are made in Canada I guess). Not sure why, i'd've thought there might still be enough cross-cultural commonalities to make it worthwhile (for instance - and this is a tiny, tiny thing - but I like it when I hear Rodney Mckay on Stargate Atlantis say 'zed' rather than 'zee'. It's just nice to see him explicitly being from Canada instead of linguistically kow-towing to the beast beneath ;).

ETA: I reckon you're gonna dig 'A Bit of Fry and Laurie' zeitgeist, from what I can remember there's not too much that's culture specific in there, it's just a slightly post-modern, slightly surreal, very funny sketch show. And yep, "Peter's Friends" was good, not sure how it'd stand-up now but at the time it was kind of a dream cast of British comedy (and has Stephen Fry ever been bad at anything he's done ? Bastard ;).

[ edited by Saje on 2007-01-24 13:38 ]

Saje | January 24, 15:03 CET

Saje - even if there were some refs, I'm probably anglophile enough to be up to the task (if not, there's the intarwebs) Looking forward to it!

P.S. - don't eat muffins while I'm developing you! And no, Stephen Fry has never been bad at anything he's done.

zeitgeist | January 24, 20:33 CET

This is more off-topic than even I would've thought possible, but just thinking about Kenneth Branagh's delivery of this line in Peter's Friends makes me laugh:

"I am sorrier than it is humanly possible to be."

The movie holds up okay, although {SPOILER! SPOILER!} the handling of Fry's character's HIV diagnosis is a tad more dire than it would be now, and therefore appears dated... I so adore Imelda Staunton, Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson in this film, and I'm such an Anglophile, that I believe I may have seen it about *sheepish* 8 or 9 times.

What?!? I really like what I really like...

QuoterGal | January 24, 22:54 CET

You don't have to apologize to any of us, QG - I may have seen it several times myself (coyly).

p.s. - for anyone who may be, say, continually emailing our g-mail account complaining about this thread. a) yes, its a rumour, and we all know that, b) no, she isn't dating Shawn Ashmore anymore (confirmed in a Dec 2006 interview re: her movie Black Christmas), and c) you need a new hobby.

zeitgeist | January 25, 19:51 CET

I guess you have to be of a certain age in Canada to know who Robbie Williams is, 'cause I don't.
But Hugh Laurie? If I had Netflix, his oeuvre would be on my list, for sure. Saje got it as usual with his description of the "most twisted, screwed-up nobility of any TV character I can think of. "

Lioness | January 25, 22:45 CET