A humble man who describes himself as “a country solicitor”, Scott Andrews agreed with Renault that their mass dampers did not contravene the technical regulations.The FIA, however, has indicated its intention to appeal against its own stewards’ opinion – to its own court of appeal. This is reminiscent of the situation in which BAR Honda found themselves at Imola last year, where the FIA stewards declared their cars to be legal after a post-race inspection, only to have the FIA overturn their decision the following day.Those who recall how the FIA retrospectively reassessed its own measurement of acceptable tyre wear back in 2003, to the detriment of Michelin, whose teams McLaren and Williams thus had their championship campaigns very significantly interrupted, are concerned that the status quo of 2006 may yet similarly be turned on its head.. If Jon Wilkin was not playing for St Helens in their Powergen Challenge Cup semi-final today he would be at Huddersfield watching the club he has supported since childhood. Wilkin first watched Hull KR when he was three, his father works for the club, his girlfriend’s family are fanatical supporters and he was at Blackpool two weeks ago, cheering them on in the Northern Rail Cup final.
“I try to separate my career and my passion and this is the first time it has been an issue,” said Wilkin, who faces his old club for the first time since leaving them as an 18-year-old four seasons ago “Obviously for them it’s a big, big occasion. It’s certainly the biggest game of their recent history.”I’m ecstatic for them but this weekend is all about St Helens.” Saints have something to prove after last year, when they were unexpectedly outplayed by Rovers’ neighbours, Hull, at the same stage and the same venue.That left a sour taste which Wilkin and his team-mates will be keen to obliterate when they face the other Hull club this afternoon. “We took Hull for granted and Hull did a job on us,” is the way Saints’ hooker, Keiron Cunningham, puts it.Apart from his Humberside connections, the versatile Wilkin has become an important player for Saints, especially when their captain, Paul Sculthorpe, is missing. During the captain’s latest injury, he has slotted into his role without the team missing a beat.Outweighing the absence of Sculthorpe is the return of Sean Long, after missing the past two matches with a leg injury, and the availability of Jamie Lyon, who escaped without a suspension this week after being sent off for a late challenge on Leeds’ Rob Burrow.Rovers are without their stand-off, Scott Murrell, who twisted an ankle in training on Thursday.

Creative Response Concepts was also the group which helped to craft the Swift Boat Veterans For Truth campaign which so successfully attacked the Democratic candidate John Kerry in the 2004 presidential race, depicting him as a traitor to the country because of his anti-Vietnam War positions, a conflict in which he fought.The irony is inescapable. In the audience were several opinion-makers from the conservative right, including writers from the National Review as well as Cal Thomas, a syndicated columnist and pundit of Fox Television, and Brent Bozell, the president of the highly conservative Media Research Center, which has led the campaign against violence in Hollywood.This may have seemed like opening your battle tent to your most feared enemy But the move was deftly calculated. The New York Times revealed last week that Paramount had hired an outside firm called Creative Response Concepts to reach out the conservative right and to romance it in advance of the film’s release. This is an outfit that has a long history of working for clients of the far right, including Bozell’s Media Research Center as well as the Christian Coalition. MTV is owned by Viacom and so is Paramount.None of the advance screenings were more important, however, than the one during the Washington DC stop on the 10-city tour. It makes perfect sense that they’d want to know what really happened.”Altering its marketing tactics accordingly, Paramount crafted new advertising spots aimed at young audiences. “Every generation has its defining moment,” one spot intones against music from the band Coldplay.

“This was ours.” Meanwhile, the popular music channel MTV last night aired a special “Town Hall” forum of young adults discussing the film and what it means. “Kids who were seven, eight or nine at the time didn’t know enough. The first, which apparently even Paramount wasn’t prepared for, has been the film’s appeal to teenagers. The young adult demographic is key for ensuring big box-office for a film, but when the subject matter is history, studios don’t usually bother with it. But it was Stone, who has two children of 10 and 14 years, who began telling Paramount that the film would have particular resonance for teens. They were alive when the attacks happened, he reasoned, but were too young at the time to fully to understand what was happening.

The film almost gives them a second chance to process those events and to express their feelings about them more fully.”Oliver believed in his heart that young audiences would respond in a profound way,” Gerry Rich, marketing president for Paramount, told the Los Angeles Times last week The first screenings showed that Stone had a point “They loved the movie,” said Mr Rich. (Guests for the opening of United 93 at least got a late-night supper at the Four Seasons restaurant.)This is the city, after all, where the attacks actually happened and almost 3,000 people perished. In the same spirit, studio bosses ordained that there should be no billboard advertising in New York or in neighbouring New Jersey, where so many of the victims lived. We have, however, been seeing the cinema trailers and television spots in the rest of the country.Meanwhile, rather than inviting journalists from around the world to a one-day junket in a hotel in New York or in Los Angeles to push the movie as a studio might normally do, Paramount yesterday wound up a 10-city tour of the US, screening the movie in each place and introducing guest audiences to cast members and to the two men the film celebrates, police officers John McLoughlin (Cage) and Will Jimeno.These and earlier test screenings have delivered a few surprises.