Pop: Sleeve Notes

THE EX-KENICKIE front person Lauren Laverne is a front-runner to replace Denise van Outen on Channel 4's The Big Breakfast. A glance at her CV reveals a whiff of the meeja star: a convent school upbringing; presenting experience via The Alphabet Show; a colourful vocabulary. Others in line for the job include Melanie Sykes, MTV's Jenny McCarthy, Sophie Dahl, Melinda Messenger and the former Hollyoaks star Davinia Taylor.

JUST DAYS after trashing his hotel room in a post-concert rampage, Marilyn Manson is accused of setting his bodyguards on a journalist from Spin. Craig Marks, executive editor of the alternative music mag, says he was grabbed by the throat, pulled up in the air and tossed against a wall by the shock rocker's goons following a concert at New York City's Hammerstein Ballroom. Marks, 37, charged Manson & Co with harassment and assault. NYPD is investigating. There's no immediate word from the Manson camp, who have become adept at "no commenting" on the singer's myriad controversies.