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A fact from Pamela Stephenson appeared on Wikipedia's
Main Page in the Did you know column on 14 August 2023 (
check views). The text of the entry was as follows:
Did you know... that comedian Pamela Stephenson was pleased that her 1987 book How to be a Complete Bitch was described as "sexist, violent and crude"?
Though she is New Zealand born and first found public fame (as a TV actor) in Australia, I really think of her more as English what with Not the Nine O'Clock News. As far as I can tell she briefly lived in Australia but does not class herself as Australian. (p.s. I'm Australian)
Format (
talk)
00:34, 21 November 2010 (UTC)reply
On the contrary, in the 2009 BBC documentary on Not the Nine O'Clock News she describes herself as Australian several times and says she has an Australian accent. Never once does she even mention New Zealand. She clearly still identifies as an Australian (and still sounds like one). --
Necrothesp (
talk)
22:14, 6 August 2013 (UTC)reply
After watching for a significant amount of time I am starting to feel this article is being trolled to a degree. I do not know why this article is attracting them but there seems to be a couple of users that do not understand what is noteworthy, what is good style practice, or have unreasonable biases against the subject. Living Persons articles must be taken particularly seriously and dealt with with sensitivity. I have tried to be diplomatic but I am growing weary of protecting this article from juvenile edits. I would like to request that everyone please be a little more thoughtful when making changes. There is still a lot of valuable information that can be contributed to the article, but avoid trivia, irrelevancies and when an experienced editor makes a copy alteration consider why they have done so and don't take it personally. Thank you.
Tubusy (
talk)
15:18, 11 November 2010 (UTC)reply
Is she a vegan?
I have heard (from television) that Pamela Stephenson is a vegan. If reliable sources can be tracked down, this could be put in the article.
ACEOREVIVED (
talk)
23:37, 21 July 2011 (UTC)reply
Divorce from Ball
This
source says "After escaping to Bali in a futile attempt to forget Connolly and her failed short marriage to British actor Nicholas Ball, Stephenson returned to the UK and her ‘‘gypsy lover’’." But when were she and Ball divorced? I can find 1981 online, but only some non-RS sleb-goss-type sources.
Martinevans123 (
talk)
10:59, 17 March 2022 (UTC)reply
The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.
Hi BennyOnTheLoose, I came here through a weird series of events sparked by watching the film What We Did on Our Holiday the other day. Looking forward to reviewing this article as part of the
August 2023 GAN Backlog Drive!
OK I've put this review on hold, comments bvelow. Overall I guess I'm concerned that references added prior to you revamping the article are hard to verify and may have introduced inconsistencies, so it would be good to talk that through.
Mujinga (
talk)
14:32, 6 August 2023 (UTC)reply
@
BennyOnTheLoose nice work! I've replied to things and I think the only three queries now stopping this becoming a GA are about the pesky Buddhist sentence, the NTNON sketch and How To Be A Complete BitchMujinga (
talk)
13:09, 8 August 2023 (UTC)reply
4 She concealed the fact but was expelled from her home by her parents once her medical condition was known, later saying, "I remember the feeling well, because I still experience it every time someone rejects me, even in some relatively small way." - ok
Finders Keepers (1984) received very mixed reviews,[49]: 333–334 - ok
with Stephenson also receiving contrasting appraisals: Andrew Yule, in his biography of the director, Lester, praised "a deft appearance by the wonderfully funny, ridiculously underrated Pamela Stephenson",[49]: 334 - ok
96 & 97 - In 2003, on the BBC Radio 4 programme Devout Sceptics, she told Bel Mooney that through Buddhism, "I could at last feel I had begun life as a wonderful piece of creation, that a person doesn't have to struggle every day to overcome darkness and sin."[96][97] - 96 isn't doing much, 97 could do with a page number since it's a book - quote is on p4, so it is backed ... 6 could back the year but then it's 2002 not 2003
The Guinness book of Classic British TV authors Paul Cornell, Martin Day and Keith Topping wrote that Stephenson "took up the punk ethic of outraging the audience with directness",[24]: 150 - ok
and that "most critics were united in their praise of Atkinson and Stephenson".[24]: 151 - ok
She caricatured various newsreaders such as Angela Rippon and Jan Leeming in the show.[24]: 150–1 - ok
Not the Nine O'Clock News was awarded the Silver Rose for innovation at the 1980 Montreux Festival.[24]: 151- ok
Spin-offs from the show included several books, record albums, and a stage show, Not in Front of the Audience.[24]: 152 - ok
In 2007, she published Head Case: Treat Yourself to Better Mental Health,[79][80] which was followed by Sex Life: How Our Sexual Encounters and Experiences Define Who We Are in 2011.[72][81] - dont really need 80 and 81, which are the books themselves (as you know ofc). 79 is about Shrink Rap and does mention Head Case, but not the full title. 72 is "Schwartzkoff, Louise (26 June 2011). "Sex is on her mind". The Sun Herald. p. E.4." and like a number of references on this article is hard to verify. did you add/verify these yourself BennyOnTheLoose?
Yes, some are through
NewsBank which I have access to as a British Library reader. The Schwartzkoff article has Her doctoral dissertation focused on the "intra-psychic experience of fame". and Stephenson-Connolly tells the story in her book, Sex Life: How Our Sexual Experiences Define Who We Are. I've added an extra ref from 2007 for the full title of Head CaseBennyOnTheLoose (
talk)
00:19, 7 August 2023 (UTC)reply
Looking in more detail, there is one exception: Theatre Record, 19 May 1982 to 2 June 1982, p. 278 (I should be able to check the hard copy this week, looks like the publication title should be London Theatre Record).
BennyOnTheLoose (
talk)
13:02, 7 August 2023 (UTC)reply
cool thanks for the reply on that, then my concern that there are references here which you have "inherited" and might not be accurate is assuaged
Mujinga (
talk)
12:49, 8 August 2023 (UTC)reply
2 The varnished untruth should be capitalised to be standard
Also our fave plugin signals "Inconsistent use of Publisher Location (3 with; 7 without)"
Is the paragraph beginning "In one Not the Nine O'Clock News sketch" necessary? It could be if expanded to discuss Stephenson's opinion on how she is/was perceived by people, shifting the focus from her breasts to her. For example the quote says in full:
But don’t be thinking this is easy for me. I’m darn good at getting under
other people’s skin, but opening up about my own life is quite a different
matter. And since I truly hate to be misunderstood, how am I going to
communicate the gestalt of who I am? People who have come to public
attention are portrayed in fragments, and I would be quite afraid to discover
which particular aspect of me you had already gleaned. Was it ‘the woman in
the American Express sketch’? Or ‘Billy Connolly’s missus’? Or simply
‘wacky, zany Pam’? Being reduced to a three-word phrase turns one into a
one-dimensional being and the impression that’s created is very hard to shift.
So how shall I portray myself? There are choices, you know. Wife, mother,
psychologist, writer, comedian, actor, dancer, diver, gypsy, dreamer, rich girl,
poor girl, beggar girl, thief . . . I am all of those and more. Tell you what,
YOU decide. You decide exactly what I am.
I've had a go at this. The sketch is certainly one of the best-known and most representative examples of the show's humour, which was often deliberately shocking and provocative, but as you say the focus in the article was a bit off. May need some further work.
BennyOnTheLoose (
talk)
23:57, 7 August 2023 (UTC)reply
Oh yeah that's great now, nice one! I'd only suggest changing "In one Not the Nine O'Clock News sketch" to "In one Not the Nine O'Clock News sketch that became famous" or similar - just something that can be sourced to show why this particular sketch deserves mention
Mujinga (
talk)
12:52, 8 August 2023 (UTC)reply
I've amended the text. The Gold Coast Bulletin has "Thirty-something years on people still call Pamela Stephenson's bust-revealing American Express skit one of the highlights of the irreverent British TV comedy Not The Nine O'Clock News."; and The Independent has, about Stephenson, "Most memorable line: "American Express Sir, that will do nicely...}}", athough it misquotes the sketch.
BennyOnTheLoose (
talk)
14:07, 8 August 2023 (UTC)reply
i find the small b in "The Guinness book of Classic British TV" slightly odd, what do you think?
39 weird that cite news gives different outputs between "Wheatcroft, Howard (18 March 1982)" and ""TV's off moments". Walsall Observer. 19 February 1982."
On "1981 BBC1 series about the creative process," - the comma should be a semi-colon?
"The 1986 drama Lost Empires saw her in a serious role. The Daily Telegraph critic Charles Clover felt that Stephenson was one of the positives in a dull series." - run these two sentences together?
Maybe you can explain what How To Be A Complete Bitch was, presumably a comedy book?
I've added "comedy"; the best desciption I could find was in Birmingham News for 30 October 1987, where Stephenson tells an interviewer that she modelled her character for the book on Mae West and Bette Davis, and "The book tells you how to be bitchy to your family, how to humiliate your man, and how to be a leisure bitch". I can add some of this if you think it's worthwhile.
BennyOnTheLoose (
talk)
23:37, 6 August 2023 (UTC)reply
"She told Candida Baker of The Age that she was pleased with the book being described as "sexist, violent and crude"" - is pretty hilarious! i think this bit is improved and could also benefit from saying the book followed the book Ade Edmondson wrote with the same authors
Mujinga (
talk)
12:58, 8 August 2023 (UTC)reply
Wow, this is a real rollercoaster of a paragraph! I think being a MP candidate for a joke party needs to be contextualised. And
alar might be better off with its own paragraph.
"Stephenson converted to Buddhism in 1979, shortly before she joined Not the Nine O'Clock News" - This sentence seems quite random, because we are in the 2000s talking about her books about Connolly then we jump back to 1979 before she met him. And what is its relevance to the next sentence "The couple moved to Los Angeles in 1991, and later alternated between homes in New York and Scotland"?
"She attended Sarah Ferguson's hen night with Diana, Princess of Wales, where the trio dressed as police officers." - again rather random and not particulary encyclopedic
The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.
Did you know nomination
The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as
this nomination's talk page,
the article's talk page or
Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.
ALT1: ... that comedian and psycologist Pamela Stephenson(pictured) gained her doctorate in clinical psychology with a thesis about the "intra-psychic experience of fame"? Greenstreet, Rosanna (9 November 2012). "
Q&A: Pamela Stephenson Connolly". The Guardian.; Schwartzkoff, Louise (26 June 2011). "Sex is on her mind", The Sun Herald p.4: "Her doctoral dissertation focused on the "intra-psychic experience of fame'".
ALT2: ... that comedian Pamela Stephenson(pictured) was pleased that her 1987 book How to be a Complete Bitch was described as "sexist, violent and crude"? Source: Baker, Candida (26 December 1987). "
Bitchy response to a book for bastards". The Age. p. 30
Article is a newly-promoted GA and easily meets the length requirement. Thoroughly reviewed by Mujinga at GA, and I find no other concerns. Personally I think ALT2 is the funniest, and it is in the article and cited appropriately. The photo looks nice at small size and appears to be appropriately licensed from Flickr. Good to go IMO. ♠
PMC♠
(talk)19:55, 9 August 2023 (UTC)reply