In this confessional age, it's all a little too familiar, including the stint in rehab and the redemptive follow-up.

FORBES: Music Mogul Meltdown

Whitmarsh said Hamilton's penalty would clearly affect their approach in France, with the Briton likely to run a little bit longer in the first stint than would otherwise have been the case.

CNN: McLaren: Hamilton's crash penalty hard but fair

Having completed a well-received stint in West End comedy The Little Dog Laughed this spring, she will appear in three films over the summer blockbuster season - Tamara Drewe, Prince Of Persia and low-budget thriller The Disappearance Of Alice Creed.

BBC: Gemma Arterton misses Cannes film premiere

Tung is a conservative former shipping magnate with strong Chinese roots but little experience in government outside a xxxx-year stint in Patten's Executive Council.

CNN: The Shift of Power

There is little of Kerouac to find here, though, considering his brief stint with the US Navy, you could get your 21st-century kicks at popular Navy Pier, a distracting bevvy of fast-food restaurants and high-tech amusement rides.

BBC: Jack Kerouac��s US road trip

Moreover, his stint at the stock exchange and his experience of developing his little firm's trading software had made him an expert on how exchanges are run.

FORBES: Exchange For Good

It was a sporting tragedy that Gascoigne had to end his playing days in the lower divisions of English football before a stint with a second-rate Chinese outfit left him as little more than a novelty circus act for a curious nation.

BBC: The tears and joy of Gazza