A phrase in this morning’s Independent set News Hour wondering about the changing state of language. Reviewing Katherine Jenkins and Darcey Bussell’s new stage show, a tribute to the hoofers and singers of yesteryear, Lynne Walker wrote that the show was:
‘Said to have cost a million pounds to stage, but looked a million dollars’
Meaning Viva La Diva actually appeared to cost half a million quid, or the price of a small flat in Kensington. Was she implying that the production team were ripped off at every turn? We carefully scanned the rest of the review for further indications of shoddiness, but despite the mild pejorative in saying that the show ‘reeks of cultured decadence’ the tone lead us to believe that she was serious, not sarcastic. ‘The $64,000 dollar question’ is less in use than it once was, and one can only speculate on a time when to say someone looks ‘a million dollars’ is to snootily imply they buy their clothes at a charity shop.
Perhaps this is the reason that NBC remade the Bionic Woman, rather than the original Six Million Dollar Man. Wouldn’t buy you much in bionic augmentation these days, six large. That, and the fact that everyone would think it was a new game show.
News hour, with Jerry Caesar 