Breaking Media, Politicians & Celebrities Since 1995

MADDIE WATCH - Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann, Kate McCann and Gerry McCann

DAILY MIRROR: “Real victims who reduced me to tears”

Fiona Philips – ‘the woman with the whitest teeth and yellowest hair in daytime telly’ – “on GMTV heartaches and meltdowns”

Fiona Philips is fighting the tears as Helen Newlove, whose husband Garry has been murdered, is sat on the sofa to tell her story.

Tears are the new laughter.

She has quizzed everyone from Prime Ministers to popstars, but it has been real people like Helen, those who have achieved the extraordinary or faced tragedy and heartache, who have had the biggest impact on her.

Are you crying yet? GMTV – Greally Moving Television.

Kate and Gerry McCann’s visit to publicise the first anniversary of Madeleine’s disappearance. Sara Payne’s tireless campaigning since her daughter Sarah’s murder. And Mark Prince, dad of promising young footballer Kiyan, 15, who was stabbed to death in May 2006.

Cry. Cry. Cry.

“Meeting people like that is very humbling,” she says. “They are what have kept me in the job for so long. Just seeing the McCanns made me feel tearful.”

Where’s there’s tears, there’s brass…

“I went in to see Kate while she was in makeup and I could barely find the words. I just said: ‘I don’t know what to say.’ You can actually see the tragedy in their demeanour. They carry it with them wherever they go. They are parents who are grieving and Kate is remarkable. I have no idea how she’s managed to cope.”

Cry. Like Heather Mills…

“We sat down in the dressing room and she poured her heart out about everything. The vilification of her and all the frustrations of her relationship with Sir Paul. “Heather had been pushed to the edge. It was shocking, awful to see someone break down like that. She was talking and talking and I had to get back to the sofa and get on with my job. In the end I said: ‘Heather, I’ve really got to go.’ And she left.

Crying…

Although horrified by Jade Goody’s behaviour on Celebrity Big Brother last year, Fiona has been moved by news that the reality star is battling cervical cancer.

Next on GMTV, we have Jeremiah… Where’s it hurt, Jerry..?

DAILY TELEGRAPH: “Madeleine McCanns’ man now speaks for Freud. Kate and Gerry McCann’s once ubiquitous spokesman - has accepted a job with a PR company”

Clarence Mitchell gets work. It’s all PR, you know…

“I’m going to specialise in crisis management for a range of clients which might include businesses, football clubs or even showbiz personalities,” says the former BBC reporter. “I want to broaden out my portfolio of interests.”

Do you have a problem? Are you in crisis? Call Clarence and he’ll do the PR (POA)…

“Kate and Gerry are happy for me to do this, it became clear that I wasn’t needed on a full-time basis to work for them anymore so this move makes sense,” he says.

NEW SCIENTIST: “Genetic data withdrawn amid privacy concerns”

A new method of forensic DNA analysis has created an unexpected headache for scientists investigating the genetic roots of common diseases.

David Craig of the Translational Genomics Research Institute in Phoenix, Arizona, has designed a statistical method that allows the identification of individual DNA profiles from a mixture of DNA of more than 1000 people.

The danger is that the method allows possible violations of the privacy of volunteers in genetic studies. To avoid this, research organisations led by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) have abruptly pulled genome data from off the web.

Craig’s method uses sophisticated algorithms to analyse between 10,000 and 50,000 genetic variants called single-nucleotide polymorphisms, or SNPs. These can be detected using standard DNA microarray “chips”

And…

Craig suggests that the technique might find use in high-profile missing-persons cases – such as the 2007 disappearance in Portugal of the British girl Madeleine McCann. In such investigations, he says, it might reveal whether the person had been present in a particular location, from DNA left behind on surfaces they touched.

Madeleine McCann: On it goes…

Posted: 2nd, September 2008 | In: Broadsheets, Madeleine McCann, Magazines, Online-PR, Tabloids. Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0