There were plenty of passing mentions of Jane Austen in various news stories this week.

Perhaps we should put this under F.O.J., but every feeling revolts. Alert Janeite Lorraine let us know that the Guardian has an extract from Claire Tomalin’s new biography of Thomas Hardy that mentions Jane Austen.

And while he listened to Florence read him Jane Austen and compared himself happily to Mr Woodhouse in the winter of 1919, in 1920 he was poring over the most modern of poets, Ezra Pound, and corresponding with him.

And therein lies the rub with Thomas Hardy. Would one really want to read a novel written by Mr. Woodhouse? (It would probably begin, “Kitty, a fair but frozen maid…Oh, bother. I can’t remember the rest. I used to know it, but…Kitty, a fair but frozen maid…”)

Lorraine also let us know that the Globe and Mail had a review of the new television program UGLY BETTY that compared the show to Jane Austen’s work. No link, but she kindly sent the quote:

Tonight’s opening episode has some hilarious scenes at the expense of the fashion industry and fashion magazines. Because of that, the show has been erroneously tagged as a sort of TV version of “The Devil Wears Prada”, with a dumpy, Latino heroine. It’s not. It’s closer to a spin on Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice”, with the apparently shallow Daniel as a kind of contemporary Mr. Darcy.

As a Mr. Darcy type, Daniel is arrogant and moody and thinks he’s more clever than he actually is. He’s also cruel to Betty. But as we see by the end of the opening episode, he has begun to see her merits as a hard-working and very smart woman.

Viewer, she might marry him. Or she might not. Betty’s no fool.

We watched the episode and never thought of Jane Austen once, though we would not be surprised if some romantic tension sprung up between the leads. (You can watch the episode on ABC.com, incidentally. Yes, the whole thing!)

The Herald has an article about Lyme Regis that, unsurprisingly, mentions Jane’s fondness for the place that led her to include it in her novels.

A popular spa town from the late eighteenth century, with its seafront promenade and streets and houses that scramble up the hillside, Lyme Regis has always been an attractive watering hole, especially for artists and writers. Turner and Whistler both painted here, and Jane Austen, who described the town as a place for “unwearied contemplation”, penned Persuasion during a visit.

Um, no. She was resident in Chawton while writing Persuasion. But she did definitely visit there a few years before.

Though Austen would hardly recognise the seafront now, which has been spoilt slightly by too much tourist tat and a gaudy amusement arcade, it still has a laid-back charm, and of course, the chunky Cobb wall at the harbour.

It was in Persuasion that the thirteenth-century Cobb wall was first immortalised as a place of mishaps and romantic misadventures.

An article about the environmental effects of hedgerows could not but mention Jane Austen.

Three years ago, this was nothing but a rough hedgerow along the upper side of the field, never thought of as anything, or capable of becoming anything; and now it is converted into a walk, and it would be difficult to say whether most valuable as a convenience or an ornament; and perhaps, in another three years, we may be forgetting — almost forgetting what it was before.

See story below
ADVERTISEMENT
– Jane Austen,

“Mansfield Park.”

Jane Austen may have seen the country hedgerow, quaintly immortalized in the landscapes of Constable and Turner, as blight better replaced with something fussier and more civilized.

But in California, the humble hedgerow is making a comeback. Horticulturists and owners of small farms are rediscovering the value of planting long walls of shrubs and trees as windblocks, naturally aesthetic borders and to provide habitat for beneficial birds and insects that reduce or eliminate the need for chemical pest controls.

And this week’s submission from Desk Incomprehensible, courtesy of the Sydney Morning Herald:

Chick-lite is the low-fat form of chick-lit, a genre not known for its weightiness, anyway. If you want plenty of bubbles and no hangover, Maggie Alderson is a bit of fun, even if her book makes Helen Fielding read like Plato. And, like all chick-lit which blows a kiss in her direction, she makes Jane Austen read like - well, Jane Austen.

So Helen Fielding is to Plato as Jane Austen is to Jane Austen? Is anyone else lost? Or having flashbacks to their SATs at least?

And lastly, Alert Janeite Erin let us know that Jane turns up in the most unlikely places.

And finally, the ubiquitous Lindsay Lohan didn’t take kindly to being besieged by shutterbugs when she exited a Los Angeles club over the weekend.

The drama-magnet starlet, her head covered by a black sheet held by bodyguards, told assembled paparazzi to “[bleep] off and die,” reports TMZ.com.

According to LiLo’s rep, her outburst was caused by her weariness with being constantly trailed, a situation that would seemingly remedy itself if she just stayed home with some hot cocoa and the collected works of Jane Austen every now and then.

We agree!