Victoria Newton

The neutrality of this article is disputed. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved. (December 2012) This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2012) Victoria Newton Born (1972-03-09)March 9, 1972, Liverpool Victoria Newton (born 9 March 1972 in Liverpool) is an English journalist and showbiz correspondent. She is best known for being the former editor of the Bizarre showbiz column of Rupert Murdoch's The Sun newspaper. Early life: She attended the Rushcliffe School, a comprehensive school in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, where her father Don was deputy-headmaster. She went to Newnham College, Cambridge. Career: Newton started in Fleet Street in 1993 at the Daily Express, and then started the showbiz beat at The People. In 1998, she became an assistant to Dominic Mohan on The Sun's Bizarre pages, before becoming the paper's Los Angeles correspondent in 1999. Newton returned to the UK in 2002 to become the Daily Mail's showbiz editor, and returned to The Sun in 2003 to become editor of "Bizarre" replacing the departing Mohan. In November 2007 it was announced that Newton would be leaving the Bizarre pages and had been promoted to Head of Features and Entertainment. Bizarre: Under her direction, "Bizarre" was known for presenting awards like Shagger of the Year or Caner of the Year and various other awards in the paper's end of year awards. However, it was revealed that the 2006 winners of the "Bizarre" readers' poll awards - who included Justin Timberlake and Madonna - were presented with their awards before readers had the opportunity to vote. From 2006, Newton started producing a weekly podcast featuring many celebrity friends and musicians. Newton's column often contradicts her former News International colleague Rav Singh's then-showbiz column in the News of the World, believed by many to reflect an internal and personal dispute. Bizarre's biggest rivals were the Daily Mirror's "The 3AM Girls" Eva Simpson and Caroline Hedley, which is billed as the column packed with "proper showbiz exclusives." Bizarre is billed as "award-winning," but Newton frequently made appearances in Private Eye's Street Of Shame, and she was also the subject of a blog called "VickyWatch", which aimed to correct the "many mistakes in her column. From basic facts to downright lies." The blog ended on the same day her promotion away from Bizarre was announced. In November 2007 Victoria left her Bizarre column behind, replaced by assistant Gordon Smart. Victoria still works at The Sun newspaper where she is now an Executive.1 However, certain members of staff have voiced concerns that she remains at The Sun, as they claim she brings the paper into disrepute. Criticisms: Among other claims Newton apparently reduces her year of birth by ten years, to hide actual age from "aimed at young and trendy" column readers and uses the terms "I can exclusively reveal..." when a more accurate description would be "I have received a press release" or "I have read this on the internet." She has occasionally missed items when proofreading.2 Newton apparently supports Liverpool FC, despite the sustained boycott of The Sun in Merseyside over inaccurate claims the paper made about the Hillsborough disaster in 1989. She also refers to herself as a scouser 3. She also has been accused of glamourising domestic violence 4, and fabricating and altering her stories.5 She was embroiled in controversy over allegations of racism. An article on Hilary Duff having a Bollywood theme on her latest video was captioned "Hilary Poppaduff". She has a well known dislike of Heather Mills; having written many articles that criticise the hapless ex model. She coined the term "Mucca" and then claimed that the public invented this item. Other articles claimed Mills' adult photos were too "revolting" to appeal in a family newspaper, despite the fact the paper is well known for featuring topless women on page 3. In early 2006 just before he was due to perform at the BRIT Awards, Newton wrote that Prince had re-directed traffic so he could enter a hotel without being seen. She then inaccurately claimed that he had his last UK chart hit (not including the 1999 remix) in 1995 which was 'Purple Medley' a mix of his hits, when in fact he had hits such as 'Eye Hate U', 'Gold' (his last UK top 10 single), 'Betcha By Golly Wow' and 'The Holy River'. Her claims had seemed based on either a dislike of Prince or a play on his widely universally considered eccentricity. Ironically, Prince would gain a US #1 album and UK top 10 album that year with '3121' and his performance at the awards was generally considered as the highlight of the night. Another example of her odd approach to journalism was to publish a 'World Exclusive' review of the new Britney Spears album, which was based on an article from the Entertainment Weekly website three weeks earlier, and leaked songs uploaded to YouTube. Awards: British Press Awards 2006 Show-business Writer of the Year

Source: Wikipedia

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