Owen meanies: Mark Owen asks if he's being sorry enough

This morning's reports about Mark Owen's human failings leave a nasty taste in the mouth, with the "confession" in the Sun having all the hallmarks of a vaguely famous person reluctantly washing their dirty laundry in public to head off the paper from parading the skidded knickers for all to see.

"I have been living with the guilt. It has always been there - you carry it around with you," he said.

"It held me back in my relationship with Emma. I wouldn't have done any of this if I had my time again.

"I am halfway through my life now and this, in a way, is a lesson. You've got to learn and that's what I am going to do."

It's not entirely clear what the lesson is - although 'if you want to sound heartfelt, don't let your press office draft your apologies' might be a good one - but at least the story seeped out in a controlled way. You know, the way BNFL used to control the radioactive water they'd pump into the Irish Sea.

Over at the Mirror, without the actual apology to run with, the 3AMies fall back on listing

Mark Owen, Tiger Woods, Vanessa Hudgens and the top 10 not so squeaky clean stars

Top of the list is Britney Spears for, erm, being mentally ill. Classy, 3AM Girls. Classy.

Lavigne fans rig YouTube stats

How, you might wonder, are the slender ranks of those who still believe in Avril Lavigne managing to show their enthusiasm for her so much that her Girlfriend video has become the most-watched option on YouTube?

By rigging it: there's a page which happily refreshes the video page every fifteen seconds, with instructions to Avrilophiles to:

keep this page open while you browse the internet, study for exams, or even sleep. For extra viewing power, open up two or more browser windows at this page!

Of course, as it resets every fifteen seconds, the bonus is that you can build Avril's page views without the video ever reaching the song's introduction. Even her biggest fans, it seems, would rather not have to listen to the awful tune.