Le postscriptum – Zizou: ‘Je regrette pas’

The long awaited interview with the man whose actions mystified the globe, left the lipreading profession in disarray and reignited the popularity of ‘yo mamma’ jokes, has left us none the wiser.

A contrite (and very handsome) Zinédine Zidane, speaking on France’s Canal television last night, apologised for his chest-butt, particularly to the children and stated that he would rather have suffered a blow to the jaw than have heard Materazzi’s words.  But he did not reveal the Italian’s specific words.

The outcome of the FIFA investigation may reveal the exact words which passed between the two men that night.  (Anyone inclined to pore over FIFA’s 90 page disciplinary code can do so here).

But does it matter?

Dude, the defender’s chest is not a football

His actions have stunned his nation and the globe and will, no doubt, dominate water cooler conversations and newspaper headlines tomorrow.

Minutes after a glorious header attempt on goal (brilliantly blocked by Buffon, whose name still manages to make me smile), Zidane decided to put his head to practise again… err, on an Italian defender’s chest. Needless to say, as they’ve been doing for thousands of years, the Italian collapsed like a Portuguese player.

Raccoons and summertime

A million English flags lie rotting in skips around the country as London cranked up the temperature to a sweltering 32° Celsius. Dodging pinkish half naked folk wandering about, and the hordes of beer toting pubgoers spilling onto London pavements, I headed to the ICA to check out Princess Raccoon, a 2005 Japanese film starring Zhang Zi Yi.

And it turned out to be very peculiar indeed. Directed by 84 year old Seijun Suzuki, Princess Raccoon tells the tale of *ahem* a raccoon princess (Zhang) who falls in love with the human, Prince Amechiro (Jô Odagiri). A fairytale of sorts, it involves an old mad king determined to retain his status as the ‘fairest in the kingdom’, a magical frog of paradise, an ostrich ninja and lots of bouncing plastic raccoons as the Princess and the Prince seek to overcome all obstacles on the path to true love.