A PREGNANT woman, whose baby was two days overdue, laughed so much during the Christmas Eve edition of Channel 4's Father Ted that she went into labour.
Helen MacSkimming McArthur (30), a mother of two, told the Sun she had been giggling at the antics of the priests, but the turning point was when housekeeper Mrs Doyle fell off a window sill.
She gave birth to daughter Phoebe on the way to hospital.
Princess Diana went to the Caribbean to celebrate the festive season, after trying to throw paparazzi off the track by booking seats for Australia.
She left Britain with her personal assistant Victoria Mendham, leaving behind her two sons William (14) and Harry (12), who spent Christmas at Sandringham.
Meanwhile, a picture showing the princess in leather gear and carrying a whip - coupled with a message about "a spanking New Year" - has sparked a protest by the head of Queen Elizabeth's working household, who has approached the Advertising Standards Authority. The composite photograph was used in an advert for the satirical magazine Insider.
Veteran actor James Garner, of The Rochford Files and Maverick fame, says his favourite medium is the small screen.
Major film companies, he said, "don't make pictures about the human condition much any more ... because, they're not big blockbusters." And big movie producers are creative businessmen, "but they sure don't know films," he added.
Garner (66) currently stars as an ex president in My Fellow Americans and as an FBI agent in Dead Silence.