万花筒 Kaleidoscope 2007-05-04&05, 保镖眼里的麦卡特尼

As we all know, singer Paul McCartney is in the middle of a messy divorce battle with Heather Mills. Now a former bodyguard¹ is standing² up for Mills and going public with new details about the bitter breakup. This as Mills has been here in America, entertaining millions on Dancing with the Stars. CBS news correspondent Mark Philips is live in London with more. Good morning! Mark.

Good morning. Julie. Well, this is a divorce battle that's been fought not just by lawyers in the courts. But in the court of public opinion and through the newspapers, and now a new broadside has been fired, this one coming from the Heather Mills camp.

The McCartney divorce is all about money and so is this story. A man named Sean Ghent, a former soldier who worked for the couple and then for Heather as a bodyguard for a total of seven months has sold his story to one of London's tabloids⁴ claiming to have the insider scoop⁵ on the couple's breakup.

This guy has come out of wood work. Really, we didn't really know about much about him. If you look at the period of time that he actually worked for the family, it's er, kind of amazing the things he said, this claiming, the things that are slightly dubious⁶ I think.

Among the shocking claims that Paul was depressed⁷, that he drank, that he cut off Heather's credit card and store accounts after they separated.

As for Heather, that she isn’t the gold-digger she's made out to be. That she was only trying to straighten Paul out.

You wanna get his word and what exactly did he really see, you know, he talks about, in his interview, about support being depressed. Well, wouldn't you be? Living with Heather? Yeah, it looks good and it's a very great tabloid³ story. But if you read deeper, it's not about martini. She's always gone on for the jackpot. Now she would get a big slice of money from support McCartney. But the way that she lives now won't last too long. So she's gotta trying to find a new career, you gotta another 40 years to be independent.

Paul for his part appears to have moved on. He's been spotted⁸ in the company of an old friend, Sabrina Guinness of the Irish brewing⁹ family. They're just friends as the official line. But they may be friends who are getting closer.

One result of this increasingly ugly divorce battle is that Paul has slipped down the British Pop Music Rich List. His fortune thought to be in the billion and a half dollar range has now been discounted because of the massive lumpy stock he will have to give Heather. Julie.

Mark, meanwhile what is it that we hear about Heather continuing her career as a Reality Show star?

It's one of those stories that won't go away. There has been repeated rumors¹⁰ here that Heather has been asked to appear on the British version of the Big Brother Show and a fee of somewhere in the range of half a million dollars involved in that. Today her publicist though came out and said that Heather will not be doing the British Big Brother, so that story may finally have gone away. Julie.

Well, maybe she will make room for the US version which starts in July. You'll never know. Mark Philips in London.

Thanks, Mark!

1 bodyguard   

n.护卫，保镖

参考例句：

• She has to have an armed bodyguard wherever she goes.她不管到哪儿都得有带武器的保镖跟从。
• The big guy standing at his side may be his bodyguard.站在他身旁的那个大个子可能是他的保镖。

2 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

3 tabloid   

adj.轰动性的，庸俗的；n.小报，文摘

参考例句：

• He launched into a verbal assault on tabloid journalism.他口头对小报新闻进行了抨击。
• He believes that the tabloid press has behaved disgracefully.他认为小报媒体的行为不太光彩。

4 tabloids   

n.小报，通俗小报（版面通常比大报小一半，文章短，图片多，经常报道名人佚事）( tabloid的名词复数 )；药片

参考例句：

• The story was on the front pages of all the tabloids. 所有小报都在头版报道了这件事。
• The story made the front page in all the tabloids. 这件事成了所有小报的头版新闻。

5 scoop   

n.铲子，舀取，独家新闻；v.汲取，舀取，抢先登出

参考例句：

• In the morning he must get his boy to scoop it out.早上一定得叫佣人把它剜出来。
• Uh,one scoop of coffee and one scoop of chocolate for me.我要一勺咖啡的和一勺巧克力的。

6 dubious   

adj.怀疑的，无把握的；有问题的，靠不住的

参考例句：

• What he said yesterday was dubious.他昨天说的话很含糊。
• He uses some dubious shifts to get money.他用一些可疑的手段去赚钱。

7 depressed   

adj.沮丧的，抑郁的，不景气的，萧条的

参考例句：

• When he was depressed,he felt utterly divorced from reality.他心情沮丧时就感到完全脱离了现实。
• His mother was depressed by the sad news.这个坏消息使他的母亲意志消沉。

8 spotted   

adj.有斑点的，斑纹的，弄污了的

参考例句：

• The milkman selected the spotted cows,from among a herd of two hundred.牛奶商从一群200头牛中选出有斑点的牛。
• Sam's shop stocks short spotted socks.山姆的商店屯积了有斑点的短袜。

9 brewing   

n. 酿造, 一次酿造的量 动词brew的现在分词形式

参考例句：

• It was obvious that a big storm was brewing up. 很显然，一场暴风雨正在酝酿中。
• She set about brewing some herb tea. 她动手泡一些药茶。

10 rumors   

n.传闻( rumor的名词复数 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷v.传闻( rumor的第三人称单数 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷

参考例句：

• Rumors have it that the school was burned down. 有谣言说学校给烧掉了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Rumors of a revolt were afloat. 叛变的谣言四起。 来自《简明英汉词典》