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Inthe Spotlight

Anna Malpas writes her last column for The Moscow Times after six years of watching bad television and writing about Ksenia Sobchak.

Inthe Spotlight

This month, NTV launched a new reality show, "The Call of Fate," where sleazy "model producer" Pyotr Listerman helps a millionaire choose from a harem...

Inthe Spotlight

This week, long-running children's show "Spokoinoi Nochi, Malyshi," or "Good Night, Little Ones," stirred fears that a new law could lead to censorship...

Inthe Spotlight

This week, tennis star Maria Sharapova brought the world something it only dimly realized it needed: "premium" fruit gums under her own brand called Sugarpova...

Inthe Spotlight

This week, the sultry model girlfriend of footballer Cristiano Ronaldo was hired to replace Ksenia Sobchak as the judge of "Russia's Next Top Model"...

Inthe Spotlight

This week, Madonna gave her support for the members of Pussy Riot on trial by speaking at her concert, pulling on a balaclava and revealing the words...

Inthe Spotlight

This week, everyone's attention has been on the Pussy Riot trial, whether wishing the women freedom or joyfully anticipating a long sentence, like pop...

Inthe Spotlight

This week, a new star rose on NTV television, spreading fear throughout the land.

Inthe Spotlight

This week, figure skater Yevgeny Plushenko and his wife, pop producer Yana Rudkovskaya, announced that they are expecting in Hello! magazine. This was...

Inthe Spotlight

On Friday, television personality-turned-opposition-activist Ksenia Sobchak made her last appearance on Dom-2, the reality show she began hosting eight...

Inthe Spotlight

In December, flamboyant pop star Filipp Kirkorov announced that he had become a father, with a daughter born from a surrogate mother. This week, he...

Inthe Spotlight

This week, the campaign to free the punk group Pussy Riot hit the big time with some glossy, powerful and unexpected people signing a petition saying...

Inthe Spotlight

This week the acclaimed actress Chulpan Khamatova and It Girl and media personality Ksenia Sobchak in a rare mood of unity both criticized the jailing...

Inthe Spotlight

This week, television presenter Ksenia Sobchak had both her privacy and her safe invaded, as it turned out that investigators were following her love...

In the Spotlight

This week, pop star Filipp Kirkorov and Putin-loving rapper Timati had a mild disagreement on Twitter over who won gongs at an award ceremony, which...

Inthe Spotlight

This week, media personality and reality-show-host-turned-opposition-activist Ksenia Sobchak very publicly lost her job hosting the MUZ-TV music awards...

Inthe Spotlight

This week, the Eurovision Song Contest is being held in Baku with all its usual deadly seriousness and an incongruous dose of Caspian glamour.

Inthe Spotlight

Ksenia Sobchak is continuing her role as the unofficial queen of the barricades — even if the more hardcore activists aren't too happy about that...

Inthe Spotlight

This week, Vladimir Putin invited rapper Timati and lion-taming brothers Edgard and Askold Zapashny to his big day. On the other side of the barricades...

Inthe Spotlight

This week, crooner Iosif Kobzon had to cancel his tour of the United States after yet another refusal of a visa, based on his alleged links to organized...

Inthe Spotlight

This week, Rossia channel came out loud and clear with its position on the Pussy Riot punk group, airing a talk show called "Provocateurs" with a weeping...

Inthe Spotlight

This week, Channel One’s star presenter Ivan Urgant got his own talk show, “Evening Urgant, “ which is a direct imitation of the American late-night...

Inthe Spotlight

This week, flamboyant pop singer Filipp Kirkorov christened his baby Alla-Viktoria. It was just a small event with a national television channel filming...

Inthe Spotlight

This week, the Federation Fund brought another batch of Hollywood stars to Moscow, film star Jim Carrey was reported to be on the point of marrying...

Inthe Spotlight

This week, President Dmitry Medvedev attended top-level talks with Barack Obama on nuclear security, and the world sat up and took notice when his cat...

Inthe Spotlight

When British boy band of the 1990s East 17, and euro pop acts Snap, La Bouche and Culture Beat walked off after a nostalgic disco night at Olimpiisky...

Inthe Spotlight

This week, Channel One began showing "A Short Course in Happy Life," a much-anticipated new drama from Valeria Gai Germanika, the director of the...

Inthe Spotlight

This week, Russia finally got it with Eurovision, sending the Buranovskiye Babushki, who dance in shoes made of birchbark, but to a disco beat.

Inthe Spotlight

This week, it girl and media personality Ksenia Sobchak reopened her talk show on politics after it was shelved by MTV Russia. The show, now called...

Inthe Spotlight

This week, rock musician Sergei Shnurov, whose band Leningrad was once banned in Moscow for its lyrics littered with swearwords, took on a very different...

Inthe Spotlight

This week, MTV Russia announced that it was pulling a political talk show hosted by It girl and media personality Ksenia Sobchak after just one episode...

Inthe Spotlight

This week, MTV Russia switched off the reality shows for an hour to teach the kids about politics with a chat show called "Gosdep," or "State Department...

Inthe Spotlight

This week, billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin lined up their teams of celebrity supporters for the presidential race, with...

Inthe Spotlight

This week, the main topic of gossip was the surprisingly colorful love life of Anatoly Chubais, the redheaded economic reformer of the 1990s. Rumor...

Inthe Spotlight

It's a measure of the changes in Russia that pop diva Alla Pugachyova got married — for the fifth time — and no one was really that bothered.

In the Spotlight: New Duma Deputies

The State Duma has opened for business with its new deputies, including actress Maria Kozhevnikova, 27, who once posed for Playboy and this year was voted...

In the Spotlight: Interview

The grande dame of the Russian glossies, former Vogue editor Alyona Doletskaya, presented the first issue of her new magazine, and the party was at a venue...

In the Spotlight

This week, the most unlikely celebrities have manned the barricades, whether on Twitter or actually by going out and getting arrested. Others confessed...

In the Spotlight: Flamboyancy

Flamboyant pop star Filipp Kirkorov just made the announcement that he's now the father of a daughter through a surrogate mother in the United States....

Inthe Spotlight

This week, Britain's Daily Mail highlighted the case of Kristina Rei from St. Petersburg, who has enormous lips springing out of her face, created...

Inthe Spotlight

This week, blond pop singer Valeria became an unlikely dissident, as her husband and producer, Iosif Prigozhin, complained in an interview with Radio...

Inthe Spotlight

This week, the scandal around media personality and it-girl Ksenia Sobchak and her jokey exposure of youth tsar Vasily Yakemenko at a pricey restaurant...

Inthe Spotlight

This week, socialite and media personality Ksenia Sobchak caused a bit of a sensation in an Italian restaurant by going up and filming the founder...

Inthe Spotlight

This week, Russian MTV started "Project Podium," its homegrown version of the U.S. hit show "Project Runway," where young designers compete to create...

Inthe Spotlight

This week, Channel One started a new show called "Special Assignment," where famous people have to put on khakis and join the Russian army for six...

Inthe Spotlight

On Wednesday night, Rossia television treated viewers to more than an hour of a "live" concert in Grozny to celebrate the 35th birthday of Chechen...

In the Spotlight

This week, pop diva Alla Pugachyova has been on everyone's lips since she stood up, hands in pockets, and bluntly expressed her support for "Misha" Prokhorov...

Inthe Spotlight

This month, Channel One has a new show called "Phantom of the Opera," in which pop singers have to sing operatic arias live. Russian stars have already...

In the Spotlight

This week, actor Ivan Okhlobystin, who plays an irascible doctor in TNT's medical comedy "Interns," announced his plans to run for president. If that...

In the Spotlight

This week, "Sex and the City" star Sarah Jessica Parker came to Moscow and dodged a kiss from a Bolshoi Theater security guard, who was overwhelmed...

In the Spotlight: The Liquor Tab

When it comes to excess, Russians tend to take the biscuit, especially abroad, when there is national honor at stake. This week, a group of Russians...

In the Spotlight

This week was the first episode of reality show "Russian Dolls" on the U.S. Lifetime channel, which could not have been more hotly anticipated, at least...

In the Spotlight

This week, Roman Abramovich's teenage daughter reportedly moved into a starter home in London worth £4 million ($6.46 million), soon after calling off...

In the Spotlight

This week, Forbes magazine published its list of the highest-earning Russian stars in entertainment and sport, and the top place went to chanson singer-songwriter...

In the Spotlight

This week, rock star Courtney Love sang at Kolomenskoye with her band Hole and treated the audience — and several hapless journalists — to some...

In the Spotlight

This week, pop star and actress Jennifer Lopez announced she was divorcing singer Marc Anthony, but the show went on, as she sang at the wedding of an...

In the Spotlight

The charity fund that persuaded Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to sing "Blueberry Hill" — and prompted those awkward questions about money — is doing...

In the Spotlight

This week, Channel One controller Konstantin Ernst took a dig at the luxuriant breasts of retired ice dancer Anna Semenovich, saying they were doubly...

In the Spotlight

DTV's new drama series "Bailiffs" aims to bring a touch of humanity to the service, which for one reason or another, has always had a bit of an...

In the Spotlight

This week, porn actress and former reality show contestant Yelena Berkova was convicted of drug possession in a sad comedown for the voluptuous star...

In the Spotlight

This week, Moskovsky Komsomolets published a bizarre kiss-and-tell story about Spanish pop singer Enrique Iglesias, alleging that his long-term romance...

In the Spotlight

This weekend's attempt to hold a gay pride event in Moscow was the usual truncated affair with protesters running the gauntlet of riot police, icon-brandishing...

In the Spotlight

This week, officials cruelly invaded the privacy of Russian celebrities. First they stripped epic film director Nikita Mikhalkov of the flashing blue...

In the Spotlight

This week, Russia's Alexei Vorobyov only came in 16th place in the Eurovision song contest, prompting grumpy comments that Russia was represented by a...

Inthe Spotlight

This week, Johnny Depp came to Moscow to promote the latest installment of "Pirates of the Caribbean," prompting Depp-mania. Even journalists attending...

In the Spotlight

This week, a former diplomat-turned-blogger unveiled his vision of how to save Russia: borrowing Prince Harry from Britain and crowning him tsar to rule...

In the Spotlight

This week, someone planted explosive devices on the set of the long-running reality show "Dom-2" in a bizarre incident that was the most serious in the...

In the Spotlight

This week, everyone was transfixed by President Dmitry Medvedev's moves on the dance floor after some rat leaked a video from his university reunion...

Inthe Spotlight

CTC's new show, "The Closed School," picks up on the trend for spooky, gothic shows like "True Blood." Starting this week, it is set in a school for the...

In the Spotlight

This week, MuzTV started a show called "Top Model po-Russki," a reality show in which a group of would-be models live together and go through tests...

In the Spotlight

This Wednesday, actress and singer Lyudmila Gurchenko died at the age of 75. She was one of the last remnants of a lost era of Soviet stars, who...

In the Spotlight

In Ren-TV's new show, "Who's the Star?", celebrities are caught off guard as they are interviewed by apparently the world's least competent journalist...

In the Spotlight

This week the tabloids have been discussing former Miss Universe Oksana Fyodorova and the end of her very public love affair with blond crooner Nikolai...

In the Spotlight: Putin Party

This week Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was outraged and demeaned at the idea of a nightclub party with semi-naked girls shouting his name. But luckily...

In the Spotlight: Art

This week, a group of female anarchists grabbed policewomen in the Moscow metro and forcibly kissed them on the lips, in an artistic happening apparently...

In the Spotlight

In MTV Russia's new reality show, "I'm Having a Baby," four teenage girls are expecting their first babies, with varying degrees of support from parents...

In the Spotlight

This week, ballerina Anastasia Volochkova was once again the subject of earnest political commentary, as she alleged in her blog that the shadowy Kremlin...

In the Spotlight: Backdated Apologies II

A few more show business stars awkwardly explained why they signed a letter backing the first jail sentence for former Yukos chief Mikhail Khodorkovsky...

In the Spotlight: Backdated Apologies

Ballerina Anastasia Volochkova emerged as a staunch supporter of jailed oil magnate Mikhail Khodorkovsky, five years after signing a letter backing his...

In the Spotlight: Anna Chapman

Russian spy Anna Chapman intoned “I will reveal all the secrets” in her new television show. Although the show abounded in bleeding wounds and starred...

In the Spotlight: Orthodox Dress Codes

Vsevolod Chaplin, a top Orthodox Church spokesman, had a go at Russian women for “mistaking the street for a striptease,” saying that women who wore...

In the Spotlight: Planes That Catch Fire

On New Year’s Day, one of Russia’s oldest pop groups, Na-Na, was preparing to fly back to Moscow in a creaky old plane after giving a concert in the...

In the Spotlight

Alina Kabayeva, the Olympic rhythmic gymnast who is now a State Duma deputy, has posed on the cover of Russian Vogue in a gold dress, prompting speculation...

In the Spotlight: Raunchy Expats

This week, Deidre Clark, the Moscow expat lawyer-turned-raunchy novelist, is suing her former firm, Allen & Overy, for unfair dismissal and sex discrimination...

In the Spotlight

The flamboyant pop star Filipp Kirkorov has dominated the tabloids this week after he reportedly hit a director’s assistant at a concert rehearsal. She...

In the Spotlight: WikiLeaks

The latest WikiLeaks revelations are causing blushes and choking fits around the world, and one Dagestani oil magnate will definitely not be inviting those...

In the Spotlight: Leonardo DiCaprio

This week, Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio came for a tiger conference and met Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who called him a “real man.” They were...

In the Spotlight: Putin's Puppy, Sex Kittens

This week, in the ultimate fluffy news story, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin hugged a puppy and invited us to think of a name. The male puppy was a gift...

In the Spotlight: She's Come Undone

This week, supermodel Natalia Vodianova prompted fears for her marriage by going out with hairy legs, while another model, Naomi Campbell, quashed rumors...

In The Spotlight: Dmitry's Parody

This week, President Dmitry Medvedev revealed a self-deprecating streak of humor, writing in his Twitter account about a comedy sketch that parodied his...

In the Spotlight: Anna Chapman

Red-haired Russian spy Anna Chapman has posed on the cover of Maxim magazine and in a centerfold, wearing lacy underwear and carrying a pistol. The cover...

In the Spotlight

The former Bolshoi ballerina Anastasia Volochkova, sacked for being too “fat,” is a pretty entertaining character, what with her plastered-on makeup...

In the Spotlight: Tabloid Tasering

This week, gossip columnist Bozhena Rynska caused some gossip of her own, writing a lovingly detailed account of how she was groped in a nightclub and...

In the Spotlight: Georgians

In this month’s Russian GQ magazine, It Girl Ksenia Sobchak interviews Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, in his first meeting with Russian media...

In the Spotlight: Prison TV

Channel One began showing its remake of the U.S. show “Prison Break,” transferring the whole story to Russia. While it’s not unusual for sitcoms...

In the Spotlight: Yury Luzhkov

This last week, Russian television got its teeth into Mayor Yury Luzhkov with some breathtaking revelations, such as that he likes bees, his wife is very...

In the Spotlight: Out-Doctored Folk Healers

The popular folk healer and host of Russia’s crankiest television show, Gennady Malakhov, mysteriously disappeared just as he was supposed to resume...

In the Spotlight: Rich Divorces

Tabloids have been reporting that Russian-born model Natalia Vodianova is about to get divorced from her husband, British aristocrat Justin Portman. Vodianova...

In the Spotlight: Silly Sex Shows

Every night, TNT airs a show called “Sex With Anfisa Chekhova,” whose curvaceous host promises that she knows “everything about sex.” That's debatable...

In the Spotlight

Just in case we needed examples of how insipid and ridiculous celebrities can be while ordinary people suffer, Moscow's smog has provided. Enter Dima Bilan...