She was the 18th century celebrity who made men faint in awe of her beauty by her very presence. But her beauty - and her vanity - led to her demise as the lead-based make-up she insisted on plastering on daily resulted first in the loss of her looks, then deadly blood poisoning. Now the grand 7ft mirror in which Maria Gunning, the former Countess of Coventry, admired her stunning reflection has been auctioned off for more than £300,000. Labelled the first victim of vanity, Maria died aged 27 in 1760 after her love of make-up resulted in her untimely death. The 253-year-old mirror sold well above its estimate even though her condition meant she the society hostess used it for a matter of just months. A glorious George II giltwood overmantel design, it was bought for her by her husband The Sixth Earl of Coventry in 1759, who is said to have been so frustrated by his wife's love of make up that he would chase her around the dinner table with a handkerchief, trying wipe it from her face.
For years Jeorgia Woodd, 30, abused her body, having succumbed to a condition known as 'diabulimia' .
Throwing a right hook as he launches onto his opponent with his gnarling teeth at the ready, this is the OTTER-LY ruthless showdown between two otters .
Louise McManaman, 50, from Liverpool, started seeing Ian Blackburn, 62, in November 2021 .
Kevin Silva, 52 from Indiana in the USA, has spent an estimated £65K ($100K) on Batman trinkets over the years, and even keeps his 2,500-item haul in his very own basement 'Bat Cave' .
The gunslingers are long gone and tumbleweeds have taken over at this abandoned American Wild West Theme Park in Cornwall .
SWIMMING slowly towards the shore, a small group of bottlenose dolphins arrive for breakfast at a beach in Western Australia .
Heart pounding, Rebecca Cain jumped as a car door slammed on the street outside .
A mother-of-four has revealed how, like the Beckhams, she’s added an outside toilet to her home .
A hungry hippo is seconds away from catching a bird in its gigantic jaws .
Balanced on one leg, a frog assumes the crane kick martial arts stance made famous in the movie The Karate Kid .
Exploding out of the water, a great white shark performs a backflip during a hunt for seals .