AMERICAN HUSTLE
On the X Factor this year there was a contestant called Tamera Foster. Sixteen years old, blessed with breathtaking beauty, confidence and passable pipes, Tamera was deemed early on to be a favourite to win the popular karaoke competition. And so it proved for a while: like the other contestants, she would come out on a Saturday in front of the four judges and warble her 'version' of a popular tune, and it seemed fine: she looked amazing, her vocals held up, she was classy and game, like a decent Beyoncé tribute act. But after a while, a weird frailty started creeping in: two weeks in a row, half way through a typically barnstorming performance of some hokey standard, Tamera completely forgot the words . It produced a strange effect, since an ordinary singer in a normal gig would either start again or sing a lalala to cover it up, or do something : but Tamera Foster was on prime-time TV on a Saturday night, and being judged on her performance, and she was an amateur and didn...