Lennon and McCartney stopped writing together because Paul McCartney developed a fixation on John Lennon's hair that freaked John out – it's thought that She's Leaving Home was first called I Want To Stroke John Lennon's Lovely Hair.

And he wasn't the only one with a slightly unnatural obsession for John Lennon's hair – because this week an auction sold John Lennon's hair for $48,000. Not all of John Lennon's hair, you understand – that would be creepy – but just a lock of John Lennon's hair. A lock of John Lennon's hair in a bag that you can occasionally open and sniff, pretending that you and John Lennon are such close friends that he can put his hair in a bag and let you smell it. And that's what the mystery hair-buyer will probably do – either that or blast it into the sun, thereby creating an evil nuclear-powered John Lennon to brutally enslave the world with, like in Superman IV.

It was the anniversary of John Lennon's tragic death last Saturday, and nobody really seemed to notice. We blame Yoko Ono, obviously – not only did Yoko bugger things up by opening her John Lennon Light Tower two months early but she also failed to mark the anniversary in the traditional way, by letting a mental Turkish employee inject her with poison in her sleep. Shame on you, Yoko.

But fortunately not everyone forgot to mark John Lennon's death this week. Fans from around the world paid their respect to John Lennon by listening to his music, soaking in his peaceful Utopian worldview and selling clumps of his hair for enough money to buy a couple of good quality horses.

A lock of John Lennon's hair sold at auction by Gorringes this week for $48,000, smashing the original estimate of $6,000. Now, it might sound a lot, but is it something that you can put a price on? Really? John Lennon's hair? After all, mix the hair with some mosquito blood and you'll be able to start your own tropical John Lennon safari park where people can pay to see all sorts of John Lennons in the wild, like the angry beclawed carnivore John Lennons, the docile giant herbivore John Lennons and the John Lennons that look cute but then suddenly turn vicious and blind you with hawked-up globs of sticky acid. It's an investment, if anything.

Gorringes spokeswoman Francesca Collin is certainly pleased that a manky wodge of dead man's hair was capable of making so much money:

"It is astonishing that there is still so much interest in the Beatles and the sale goes to prove that John Lennon is still an icon. To have some of Lennon's hair along with a signed note from him really does give it fantastic provenance and authenticity."

However, John Lennon's hair wasn't the only piece of Beatle hair memorabilia to sell at the auction. A photo of the group that George Harrison had signed "George "Dandruff" Harrison" went for $13,000. And 18 giant potato sacks full of every single public hair that Ringo Starr has ever grown, from the first flush of puberty to the present day, was also snapped up by a mystery bidder for 12p and half a packet of Polos.

Read more:

Lock of Lennon's Hair Sells for $48,000 – Associated Press  

Dear stereotypical Islamic terrorists, you might want to think about launching a harebrained, not entirely convincing terrorist attack on Los Angeles sometime within the next 48 days.

Why? Because it's literally the only chance you'll have of doing it without Jack Bauer chasing you, shooting you, kicking you out of the back of trains and never ever urinating not even once. That's right – Kiefer Sutherland is in jail. Yesterday Kiefer Sutherland was sentenced to 48 days in jail following his DUI arrest earlier this year, and then immediately started his sentence. And, unlike Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan or Nicole Richie, Kiefer Sutherland is expected to complete his jail sentence in full, something that Kiefer would have probably avoided if he'd thought to release an ill-judged pop CD, star in a terrible reality TV show or go without underwear when getting out of cars now and then.

What with the writers' strike still trudging along in Hollywood, season seven of 24 has been delayed indefinitely. And without a day job that involves blowing up the bloke from Babe on an oil platform or watching Little Lord Fauntleroy get blinded by a bomb, it's not like Kiefer Sutherland had anything particularly interesting to do anyway, so that's why he's in jail.

OK, technically the reason why Kiefer Sutherland is in jail is because he was arrested for drink-driving in September, capping off an impressively irresponsible run of four arrests for exactly the same thing, but you get the idea. And yesterday Kiefer Sutherland had to face the music.

At 5:30pm local time, just two hours after his 48-day jail sentence was confirmed in court, Kiefer Sutherland turned up to Glendale City Jail to begin his sentence. And, in typical fashion, not even the prison officers could stop themselves falling in love with adorable Mr Sutherland – like jail spokesman Officer John Balian, who said:

"Mr. Sutherland is very polite and humble. He was very cooperative during the booking process."

Spending 48 days in jail should be a breeze for Kiefer Sutherland, though. Like other celebrities, he'll be spending his sentence alone in a two-man cell and will get to move about the prison freely doing laundry and kitchen duties for the duration of his time inside. All that plus Kiefer should get the chance to brush up on his torturing skills each time a nonce tries to attack him from behind with a pebble in a sock.

But it won't all be fun fun fun. The timing of Kiefer's sentencing is terrible because it strips the world of one of the most-loved yuletide traditions, the sight of Kiefer Sutherland attacking a Christmas tree with his entire body. That's like Christmas without Santa or figgy pudding or that slightly disappointed feeling when you open presents that you don't want.

The biggest problem, however, will come after Kiefer Sutherland is released from jail. Once the 24 writers come back off strike, they're going to have to quickly work out a way to explain how Jack Bauer came to get a spidery tattoo reading 'I Love Glendale Prison Dec 07' scrawled all across his face two-thirds of the way through a telephone conversation with Chloe O'Brian.

Read more:

Kiefer Clocks Into Jail - E! Online