I wouldn’t have a taken a man like Richard Branson for someone who would try to gank an little extra fame by riding on Bowie’s coattails. It appears I was wrong. Last Sunday’s article in the Observer “reports” that Bowie and Iman are coughing up £230,000 for an orbital trip around the world. The reporter was told (didn’t receive the information from reliable sources, just told) that Bowie felt that since he wrote Space Oddity he should take advantage of the publicity surrounding the “event.” The story goes on to, ahem, report that Iman would also have claim to the title of First Supermodel in Space.

Needless to say, Bowie officially declared the story “total tosh” and issued a virtual slap via Bowienet to Branson by saying, “This must be Branson going for some cheap PR.” One might think if Branson wanted to make the most of false PR he would have said that Posh and Becks had ponied up for the ride.