Coming Up: From prunes to DiCaprio ...every Monday, a quirky look at the week ahead
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Your support makes all the difference.Pruney toons...
If you've had your head in the clouds of late you might not realise that this week is National Prune Week. With the slogan "Prunes and Prejudice - the sexy new snack of the Nineties", experts at the California Prune Board are on a mission to rid the squidgy fruit of its association with frightful school dinners. They claim research has revealed it's the trendy, sexy personalities who gulp them down by the bucket and only prudish, traditional types who turn their noses up at them. Just to prove it, they hired model Lili Maltese to sprawl across a chaise longue with the word prune tattooed on her breast. Miss Maltese, one imagines, does not need to worry much about prunes; she's due to marry Henry Dent Brocklehurst and share in his pounds 50m fortune and his Gloucestershire pile, Sudeley Castle.
If prunes are not your bag, maybe you should opt for bananas. This week Sainsbury's gets one up on its rival, Tesco, by becoming the first supermarket to launch an organic version. They sell 48 million of Britain's favourite fruit each month but believe this environmentally friendly initiative will see figures rocket. "They are slightly smaller and thinner than their non-organic equivalent," a spokeswoman admitted, "but they do have a delicious, sweet flavour."
The iron man
Top banana for millions of teenage girls is Leonardo di Caprio, for whom they endure three hours of the movie Titanic up to six times. They should cancel all plans for the weekend. From Friday night his latest effort, The Man in the Iron Mask opens at the flicks. The 22-year-old boy wonder faces his biggest challenge yet as he plays the duel roles of the King of France and a low-life prisoner in this convincing drama. But don't worry if your anticipation of the plot is more accurate than with most Hollywood offerings - it is the sixth remake of James Whale's original 1939 classic.
No smoking
The Body Shop's range of hemp goodies is at last arriving in the shops. Their experts claim marijuana's sister plant can work wonders as a moisturiser, and from Monday you can snatch up supplies of hemp soap, hemp lip conditioner, hemp hand protector and, best of all, hemp elbow grease. But the chain is keen to stress that THC - the mind-altering compound found in spliffs - is not detectable in their products, and they strongly advise you not to try smoking them.
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