Physical appearance and weight seem to matter more for women, and height more for men.”As well as uncovering a “beauty premium” for those with the right look, the researchers also identified a “plainness penalty” for women with below-average appearance. The academics asked 1,800 people to complete a confidential questionnaire on personal characteristics and their earnings over three years. All those who took part were between 18 and 64 and were healthy. Most were married, with an average age of 40 for women and 42 for men.Each participant was asked to “rate” his or her physical appearance, taking into account factors such as height and weight, and regularity and comeliness of their facial features.Boxes were ticked on a sliding scale from “very handsome” or “beautiful”, to “very unattractive”.When physical appearance was cross-referenced with income, it was found that women who classed themselves as having “above-average appearance” had 8 per cent higher earnings than those who rated themselves “average” For men, there was no male equivalent of a “beauty premium”. The results suggest that above-average appearance is worth more to a woman than education. The former adds 7 per cent to income, while the latter is worth only 5 per cent extra, the study showed.The value of a man’s wage packet, in contrast, tends to be higher if he is married.Manchester University psychologist Professor Cary Cooper said: “It is a very interesting finding. It is a sad commentary if people get jobs or promoted to top jobs based more on their attractiveness than their education.

It shouldn’t be the quality you look for when you promote someone.”. Three million fewer people watched this year’s final of Big Brother compared to last year – confirmation that the fourth series of Channel 4’s reality television programme was, as the critics asserted, a “flop”. This year, just under 12 million votes were cast throughout the series, compared to 23 million last year.Tabloids branded the show a flop and even its host, Davina McCall, according to one report, admitted she found its last stages boring.But Channel 4 defended series four yesterday, saying it was still the “second highest-rating show of the year” for the channel. The highest rating was achieved by the opening programme when viewers first got to see the housemates.A Channel 4 spokeswoman said: “We are very pleased because you have got to put it into context of Channel 4 – the normal audience we get on a Friday night is two million.”She said the series average of 4.8 million viewers had still beaten the averages of series one and two.

Big Brother is guaranteed to run on Channel 4 for at least another two years.Conrad Green, the editor of the first series of Big Brother, who now works in Los Angeles, said: “I think it’s an institution. Even if one year it’s not quite so good, that won’t necessarily matter.”. Mel Brooks did it for Hitler Now Cambridge students are doing it for Stalin. In a distinct echo of Springtime for Hitler, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival is to stage An Evening with Joe: Stalin the Musical

Mel Brooks did it for Hitler Now Cambridge students are doing it for Stalin.

In another song, a doe-eyed “Uncle Joe” serenades his wife:”Mrs Stalin, you are my darling.”To which she replies adoringly:”Joe, you are my beau.”Cos I’ve got you and you’ve got me,”And we are as happy as a tyrant and his girl can be.”Later, she sings that she’d love to marry him but is worried about his genocidal tendencies. In fact, Stalin’s second wife, Nadezhda Alliluyeva, killed herself.The musical culminates with a full-blown Moulin Rouge-style dance routine at Stalin’s funeral, during which Trotsky returns from the dead to camp it up in drag alongside a high-kicking troupe of generals, state officials and mourners. As they do so, they sing along to a rousing chorus of “Sweet Stalin (I’m in Love Again)” – a spoof of Barry Manilow’s kitsch ballad “Sweet Heaven”.The musical – coming in the year of the 50th anniversary of Stalin’s death – is the brainchild of history graduate James Stevens, a leading player in Cambridge’s Amateur Dramatics Club Theatre. Alumni include the Oscar winners Sir Ian McKellen and Sam Mendes, the comic Griff Rhys Jones and Sir Peter Hall, the former artistic director of the RSC.Though he concedes his new production will not be to everyone’s taste, Stevens insists it was born of a desire to satirise, rather than trivialise, Stalinist Russia. By encouraging the audience to laugh instead of cry, his aim is to place them in a position analogous to that of the misguided Western leaders who were seduced by the despot’s avuncular charm.”The play is meant to be very funny in the beginning, but it does get quite serious,” he explained.