Fabio, the Philip Marlowe-like anti-hero, is a disillusioned ex-cop and a former lover of hers.
Yet barring a deus ex machina, such as a foreign-policy crisis, a Tory super-scandal or an improbably rapid economic recovery, a route to victory for the government at the next election is increasingly difficult to envisage.
Alan Garcia, a charismatic ex-president, could be a wild card.
While those involved in these discussions are to be congratulated for their willingness to put aside the Fatah deus ex machina, their view of a Jordanian deus ex machina suffers from a flawed reasoning similar to that which plagues the Fatah enthusiasts.
With Noah Emmerich as a hysterical ex-cop and Jennifer Connelly as a loving wife more interested in her baby son than in her handsome but hapless husband.
Mr Saakashvili had to tread carefully in Ajaria because of a sprawling ex-Soviet base near Batumi, a legacy of the days when this was a cold-war frontier between the Red Army and Turkey, a NATO member.
Larry Pedeswick(ph) is a wiry ex-Marine who wears his hair in a ponytail.
But in the early 1970s Anthony DeStephen, a hustling ex-librarian in New Jersey, saw a market for a 70-year periodical index with all the Aentries in one book, the Bs in another book and so on.
What's more, you'll have no trouble at all understanding why Mr. Barbour's character, a chastened ex-boxer from Pittsburgh who returns to his birthplace to seek a quiet life, would have fallen for Jenny Powers at first sight.
Republicans, however, have a shot at picking up a seat in Wisconsin, where a popular ex-governor, Tommy Thompson, is taking on Tammy Baldwin, a gay congresswoman from liberal Madison, the state capital.
Thank modern times and certain Thai government policies, but also thank a Singaporean ex-architect.
Isn't that about as rare as, say, a competent campaign manager or a friendly ex-spouse?
China is also reportedly close to deploying its first aircraft carrier, a refitted ex-Soviet ship.
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First, the boss of EADS, whose corporate dreams have been squished by Angela Merkel and co, is a German ex-paratrooper.
The mayor's advisor for policing, Kit Malthouse, denied the claims, saying Mr Belgrave was a disgruntled ex employee.
Dasient, founded in 2008, is the brainchild of a few ex- Googlers including co-founders Neil Daswani and Shariq Rivzi.
But he got a loud earful from a few ex-players who argued that Warner's comments were tantamount to disloyalty.
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Mr Burton, a genial ex-teacher of physical education, remains upbeat about the north-east.
Her more recent second line, MHL, began with a simple cotton jersey top based on a found ex-army sports shirt.
The privacy vulnerabilities that Vet and Jackson are aiming to highlight may go well beyond a few ex-boyfriends hiding in bushes.
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As if this were not enough to keep him busy, Attilius also manages to incur the wrath of Ampliatus, a wealthy ex-slave.
I've been away from Cintas for two years and left on my own to start a successful business, so I'm far from a bitter ex-employee.
Despite the attorney-general's appointment of a respected ex-senator from Missouri, John Danforth, to investigate Waco, Republicans in Congress still want to conduct their own inquiry.
Through a colleague I found a small shelter operated by a reformed ex-con and former gang member who has spent the majority of his life in prison.
Lucky for Rory, Oswin provides a deus ex machina escape.
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Not that there's anything wrong with that, au contraire, but let's understand one another: This is a fantasy about a triumphant ex-wife desired all over again by her ex-husband.
Accused by British authorities of murdering a fellow ex-spy, Alexander Litvinenko, in London last November, he's now in the middle of already strained tensions between the Britain and Russia.
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And Margaret Hodge, a Labour ex-minister, who now chairs the powerful Public Accounts Committee, has sent shudders through Whitehall, by insisting that civil servants must answer to Parliament for waste and inefficiency in government.
If the sinking were stopped by adding fresh water (a deus ex machina often invoked to change the climate), the Gulf Stream would hardly care except in so far as the wind system changed too.
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