One Direction fans really are charmers, aren't they?

Anna Crotti works at an Australian radio station and, during the course of her work, she came into contact with Zayn Malik. He's one of the trousers in One Direction. He was quite taken with Anna, and invited her on a kind-of date.

It never happened:

She is quoted by MTV as saying: "A security guard came up to me. I thought I was in trouble but he said, 'The lads want your number'. I got a text later saying hello. I asked who it was and it was Zayn.

"By the end of the day, it got a bit too scary. Random girls were abusing me on Facebook. Girls were calling the radio station and giving me s**t.

"Mothers even called me in tears, demanding to know if I knew where One Direction were because their daughters wanted to meet them.

"I didn't even want to walk home. It was so intense. I messaged Zayn and said, 'Maybe it's not a good idea we meet up'. It was just a bit too full on."

It's almost as if One Direction fans like the idea of their heroes being paranoid virgins, isn't it?

Coming a couple of days after the same group was sending death-threats to a man for having the temerity to ask Simon Cowell why he took a name already being used by a band, they're building a bit of a whiff around the band they supposedly love.

Gordon in the morning: More bullying from Bizarre

Having played a major part in helping develop awareness of the sex video sold by Tulisa's ex, Gordon continues to bully the young woman this morning.

His 'story' is that she went to a party but left after people going on about the video made her feel awkward. Is there any way that Smart thinks detailing that in a paper is kind? Or worth publishing?

Remember, this is something horrible that happened to her, without her agreement or knowledge.

If Cowell really wants to support his protege, how about cutting off the supply of stories he feeds The Sun until they stop this constant harrying of her?

Gordon in the morning: Won't someone think of the children?

Now, there's no excuse for the person tweeting at Cher Lloyd that they hope her mum dies. Today Cher calls for someone to do something:

She said: "It disgusts me that nobody really cares about online bullying. I kind of take it on the chin but there are boys and girls out there who can't."

Cher added: "I'm worried about something happening to a young person. The Government should step in."

Yes. Perhaps they could start by stepping in and banning a TV programme which effectively offers a platform to millionaires to get richer by bullying people who want to sing a bit, as that's clearly not helping create an atmosphere where people think about what they say before they say it.

Apple try to stop sales vanishing down the Amazon

According to Hypebot, Apple have started to use their market share to - shall we call it bully? - to bully labels into not taking part in the Amazon Daily Deal.

Alarmed at the prospect of Amazon effectively underwriting the cost of spot promotions on albums, Apple warned labels to not do deals with its rival. Billboard quotes anonymous music industry insiders who claim to have been on the wrong end of Jobs' boys turning up with a "nice artist here, shame if something happened to their visibility on the largest online music store" friendly warning.

If that's true, Apple are running a little out of control.

And Hypebot reckons it has evidence:

But the proof of Apple's tactics and the labels' acquiescence can be found within the [Amazon] Daily Deals themselves.

Gone are most of the new hit makers. There are a fraction of the one day exclusives that there were just a month ago; and the label executives are back to complaining about iTunes instead of helping an alternative compete with them.

It's amusing, though, that the labels are so weak and unable to think things through that they're caving in to Apple and then moaning about Apple's dominance. Perhaps if they said "yeah? Well, how long do you think iTunes would keep market share if you did bury major label content that was being discounted over on Amazon?" then they wouldn't be sat at home wailing about how Apple treat 'em bad.

The positive thing in a dismal story is that if the majors are too frightened to get the subsidised promotion on Amazon, there are plenty of other, smaller labels - labels who could probably benefit from a bit of extra support from Amazon.

Gennaro Castaldo watch: Bully

Of all the places you'd expect Gennaro Castaldo to crop up, who would have put money on him tailing a piece in the Swindon Advertiser, reacting to a group of schoolchildren's campaign to have a video game banned?

The kids are unhappy that Canis Canem Edit was available in their local HMV. They all wrote to the manager, and got no response, so instead they hopped on a train to ask their MP about it up in Westminster.

Gennaro, mind you, says we shouldn't be alarmed by the game:

HMV spokesman Gennaro Castaldo said the game was meant to empathise with the victims of bullying in showing them fighting back.

He also said that the company had never banned a game in order to maintain its customers' free choice, but that controversial games such as Canis Canem Edit are not usually promoted in store, meaning customers would have to search for them.

Ah! So it seems to be an official line at HMV then that the correct response to violence is more violence - presumably it's only a matter of time before Nipper is replaced by one of those jaws-on-legs dogs that perform the role of accounts overdue for drug dealers.

We're also entranced by this idea that HMV doesn't ban things because it wishes to maintain the customer's right to choose. Where's the hardcore porn section in our local store, then?

More to the point, isn't the same HMV which banned The Rolling Stones back catalogue from its Canadian branches because it was having a hissy fit at the Stones doing a deal with a rival store?

And how touching is the "well, customers have to look for it, so that's alright, then" defence - perhaps something drug dealers could look into: "Nah, I'm not a pusher, but if the kids find the heroin filed under 'H' in the 'Drugs for sale' cabinet, what can I do?"

Face to face with the past

Chris Martin has been going through some old school memories, having met someone who bullied him at school:

“I bumped into a guy who used to give me hell at school. He was a bully who always said I wouldn’t make anything of myself.

“I had great pleasure asking what he was up to now. He wasn’t up to much. Then I turned around and said, ‘This is my wife Gwyneth.’ His face dropped and he looked really embarrassed.

“It was a proud moment. I’m not one to get my own back and look for revenge — but that was pretty sweet.”

They reckon revenge is best served cold, but this is so icy you could keep vegetables in it for months. We're not even entirely sure we believe it - what sort of bully goes round telling their victims "you'll never make anything of your life" - either Chris went to a school where the bullies were very mild indeed, or else we're talking about an ineffectual careers master.

We can't help wondering if this "bully" was just a common-or-garden old school friend, and he's had to be recast as a tormentor of some sort because Martin realises that this "look at my Hollywood wife - what are you doing, do you have a Hollywood wife? Have you been in an amusing sketch with Ricky Gervais? Look, I've got Bob Geldof's phone number? What are you doing, is it as important as being in Coldplay, eh? How many times has your music been used for a goal montage on Match of the Day, eh?" business might reflect quite badly on him, making him look shallow and a little bit pathetic?

After all... there can't be many people who don't know Martin is married to Gwyneth Paltrow, so it's pretty unlikely this old school friend would be surprised by that, is it?