Moore shimmers at Flawless gala – BBC

Hollywood star Demi Moore, along with husband Ashton Kutcher, have attended the charity premiere of her latest film, Flawless, in London’s West End.

The 46-year-old actress, who plays a 1960s businesswoman frustrated by the glass ceiling, said scooping film roles as an older woman was a challenge.

“It’s not difficult, but different. It’s not ageism, but as human beings we’re captivated with what’s new”.

Moore stars opposite Sir Michael Caine in the movie, which opens on Friday.

‘Tough times’

Moore, who was dressed in an eye-catching Chanel gown, said there was no reason why she should not continue acting into her seventies like the Oscar-winning actor.

The pair form an alliance in the film, which tells the story of an ambitious diamond robbery.

The film industry is being affected really, really badly Flawless director Michael Radford on the economic downturn

Moore’s 30-year-old husband posed for photographs, but did not speak to reporters at the gala.

Flawless director Michael Radford described his pleasure at working with its leads.

“It’s great working with people who know their business. You don’t direct Michael Caine. There is nothing to say to him. He’s so inch-perfect and very professional.

“I was asking Demi to play her age, and that’s not kind,” he added.

The British film-maker, whose previous credits include Il Postino, revealed that his current film project has been halted as a result of the global financial crisis.

“The film industry is being affected really, really badly. I am supposed to be making a film in Spain at the moment, and on 10 November all Spanish banks ceased their cash flow for movies.

“It’s stopped us in our tracks. I’m waiting to find if there’s another way of getting money for pre-production that’s not from the banks.

Sir Michael Caine and Demi Moore form an unlikely alliance in the film

British actor Nathaniel Parker said the chance to work with Radford had been an immediate attraction to taking a role in Flawless.

“He’s one of the best storytellers we’ve seen in the last 30 or 40 years,” said the star.

He also revealed that the premiere was his first glimpse of the finished movie.

“On the flights from Los Angeles I saw it was available, but said ‘Nope! I’m not going to watch it’.”

He agreed that Flawless was an old-fashioned film with “no action, no sex and no violence – and it’s a thriller!”

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Wham ‘most played Christmas song’ – BBC

Wham’s Last Christmas is most played festive track of the last five years, according to the company that collects royalties for composers and musicians.

The Performing Right Society puts the 1984 hit at the top of their chart of seasonal songs, just ahead of Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas.

The Pogues come third with Fairytale of New York, recorded with the late Kirsty MacColl and first released in 1987.

Other featured artists include Slade, Mariah Carey and Bruce Springsteen.

Carey’s song All I Want for Christmas is You comes fourth in the chart, just ahead of Springsteen’s version of the popular standard Santa Claus is Coming to Town.

MOST PLAYED CHRISTMAS HITS 1. Last Christmas – Wham! 2. Do They Know It’s Christmas? (original 1984 recording) – Band Aid 3. Fairytale of New York - The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl 4. All I Want For Christmas Is You – Mariah Carey 5. Santa Claus Is Coming To Town – Bruce Springsteen 6. Stop The Cavalry - Jona Lewie 7. I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday – Wizzard 8. Merry Xmas Everybody - Slade 9. Lonely This Christmas – Mud 10. White Christmas – Bing Crosby Source: PRS

The live recording, which took place at Long Island University in 1975, was originally the b-side to My Hometown and famously features the Boss bursting into laughter.

Iconic

Jona Lewie’s 1980 single Stop the Cavalry comes sixth, despite not being originally conceived as a Christmas song.

The anti-war song does, however, feature the line “wish I was at home for Christmas”, while its brass band arrangement and chiming bells make it a common inclusion on Christmas playlists.

Surprisingly, Wizzard’s ubiquitous I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday and Slade’s iconic Merry Xmas Everybody chart relatively low at seven and eight respectively.

Mud’s Lonely This Christmas comes ninth in the poll, one place ahead of White Christmas by Bing Crosby.

The crooner’s 1942 recording of the Irving Berlin song, which was originally featured in the film Holiday Inn, has sold at least 50 million copies, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.

The PRS collects royalties when songs are played on radio, TV, online and in public places and distributes them to its 60,000 members.

Jona Lewie, who is finishing work on his third album, told the BBC News website he was still proud of his biggest hit and had not tired of hearing it on the radio.

“The only time you might hear the song would be at Christmas, so that’s not very often throughout the year,” he said.

Out of the other nine tracks on the list, he said his favourite was Fairytale of New York.

He added: “I’d like to have seen Greg Lake’s track [I Believe In Father Christmas] in there, and Elvis Presley’s Santa Claus Is Back In Town – it would have been nice to get a bit of blues in there.”

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Cliff and The Shadows to reunite – BBC

Cliff Richard and The Shadows are to reunite for an arena tour in 2009 to celebrate their 50th anniversary.

They dominated the charts in the late 1950s and 1960s and notched up 19 number one hits between them.

Their hits included Move It, Living Doll and Travellin’ Light. It will be the first time they have performed in concert together for 20 years.

The group say it will be their final tour. Tickets for the 11 dates in autumn 2009 go on sale on Sunday.

Initially formed as a backing band for Sir Cliff Richard, The Shadows were originally called The Drifters until finding out there was already a US band with the same name.

The Shadows also appeared with him in films including The Young Ones and Summer Holiday.

The line-up split in 1968 to pursue individual careers. The Shadows toured throughout the 1970s and 1980s while Sir Cliff achieved huge success as a solo star.

Fans will be able to see Sir Cliff, Hank Marvin, Bruce Welch and Brian Bennett on the following dates:

September 2009

Fri 25 and Sat 26 – London O2 arena
Wed 30 – Nottingham Trent FM Arena

October 2009

Sat 03 and Sun 04 – Birmingham NIA
Tue 06 – Cardiff CIA
Wed 07 – Liverpool Echo Arena
Fri 09 – Glasgow SECC
Mon 12 – Newcastle Metro Radio Arena
Wed 14 – Sheffield Arena
Sat 17 – Manchester Evening News Arena

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Eleanor Rigby paper fetches £115K – BBC

A document which may have provided the inspiration for the Beatles hit Eleanor Rigby has sold at auction for £115,000.

The 97-year-old paper shows the pay received by scullery maid E Rigby, from Liverpool’s City Hospital.

Sir Paul McCartney sent it to charity worker Annie Mawson when she asked him for money for the Sunbeams Music Trust – for children with special needs.

Miss Mawson believes it was the inspiration for the Beatles hit though Sir Paul says he made the character up.

The charity auction took place at London’s Idea Generation Gallery on Thursday night.

Fictional character

According to Miss Mawson the document surfaced in 1990 when the former Beatle responded to her request for funding for the Cumbrian-based charity which provides music therapy for children with disabilities.

“I wrote… to Paul and asked him for £500,000,” she said.

“But by the end of the letter I just said ‘Look, I know you’re a very caring person and I feel it’s a privilege to share my story with you.”

Nine months later an envelope, with McCartney’s tour stamp, arrived containing the document.

Very little is known about the Beatles hit, except that a grave to Eleanor Rigby was found in the churchyard of St Peter’s Church, Woolton, in the 1980s.

But Sir Paul has always maintained that Eleanor Rigby was a fictional character.

“Eleanor Rigby is a totally fictitious character that I made up,” he said.

“If someone wants to spend money buying a document to prove a fictitious character exists, that’s fine with me.”

The funds generated from the auction will go toward the charity’s new centre which is expected to be built near Penrith, Cumbria.

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Clash photographer Smith honoured – BBC

Rock photographer Pennie Smith, who shot the image on the cover of The Clash’s London Calling album, has been honoured at a music ceremony in London.

She got an outstanding contribution accolade at the Record of the Day Awards for music journalism and PR.

Barbara Charone, the high-powered PR woman who guards the images of stars like Madonna and REM, also received an outstanding contribution honour.

REM sent a video message to congratulate Ms Charone.

She used her speech to pay tribute to Rob Partridge, the former U2 and Bob Marley press officer who died of cancer on Wednesday.

A third outstanding contribution award went to punk journalist Jon Savage.

Ms Smith’s award was presented by musician Graham Coxon.

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BBC Two to air George Best drama – BBC

A factual drama about how alcoholism destroyed the life and career of football legend George Best is to be screened on BBC Two.

Best, which is being aired in the Spring, also reveals how Best’s mother Anne was afflicted by the disease.

Actor Tom Payne, who appeared in BBC One drama Waterloo Road, will play the former Manchester United winger.

Belfast-born Best, who had a liver transplant as he battled the effects of alcoholism, died in 2005 aged 59.

‘Most famous victim’

Actress Michelle Fairley, who appeared alongside Nicole Kidman in movie The Others, will take on the role of Best’s mother.

Payne, 26, said he was “excited and honoured to the playing the role of footballing hero and icon George Best”.

George Best is regarded as one of the greatest footballers of all time

The film, which is set in Manchester and Belfast during the 1960s and 1970s, is billed as a “sensitive study of the impact of alcoholism”.

Executive producer Nick Mirsky said: “George Best is the most charismatic footballer the UK has ever produced, but he’s also our most famous victim of alcoholism.”

He called Belfast-based television dramatist Terry Cafolla’s script “deeply sympathetic, through which you can really understand the effect of alcohol not only on George, but his mother and indirectly the rest of the family”.

The film will be screened as part of the BBC’s Headroom initiative, a rolling offering of programmes and online content to raise awareness of mental health issues.

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Britney confirms UK concert dates – BBC

US singer Britney Spears is to play two concerts at the O2 arena in London next June – the only European shows on her forthcoming world tour.

Tickets for the dates on 3 and 4 June will go on general sale on 5 December – although fans who register with her website can buy them 24 hours earlier.

“It’s going to be very special,” said Rob Hallett of tour promoter AEG.

The concert, he said, would take its theme from her latest album The Circus, which is released next week.

“We’re creating a musical circus,” he said. “Expect to see jugglers, dancers, tattooed ladies and acrobats.”

According to the promoter, the concerts will be Spears’ only dates in Europe “for the foreseeable future”.

Spears last performed in the UK in 2004 when her Onyx Hotel tour visited Birmingham, Glasgow, Belfast, Manchester and Wembley Arena in London.

‘Radiant’

The 26-year-old will be in the capital this weekend to appear on ITV1 talent show The X Factor.

Before that she will travel to Germany to attend the annual Bambi entertainment awards in Offenburg.

The singer will be named best international pop star after achieving what organisers have called a “stunning comeback from an absolute low point”.

Lynne Spears has written a book about her family called Through the Storm

“Britney Spears is back,” said host Hubert Burda. “Radiant and better than ever, the erstwhile idol has reclaimed her throne.”

In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, the performer admitted she felt “like an old person” now her much-documented troubles are behind her.

“I go to bed at, like, 9.30 every night and I don’t go out or anything,” she is quoted as saying. “I just feel like an old fart.”

Spears’ mother Lynne, meanwhile, has been telling the BBC how happy she is that her daughter has got her life back on track.

“Britney wants to do it right,” she told Radio 5 Live’s Colin Paterson, attributing her recent turnaround to having “good people around her” and “lots and lots of prayer”.

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Cardinal asks gallery for artwork – BBC

The Archbishop of Westminster has urged the National Gallery to give up a Renaissance masterpiece, calling it “a work of faith” rather than art.

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor says that The Baptism of Christ, painted by Piero della Francesca in the 1450s should be in Westminster Cathedral.

“It is a mistake to treat it as a work of art, it is a work of faith and piety,” he said.

The painting has been in the gallery’s collection since 1861.

“I would like to see this painting taken down from the walls of the National Gallery and placed in a Catholic church in London,” the Cardinal said in a lecture for the Royal Fine Art Commission Trust.

‘Catholic treasure’

“It is an expression of the Church’s life and a way into prayer. I will willingly offer Westminster Cathedral as the new home for this painting, it should be restored to a religious setting.

The Cardinal promised the director of the National Gallery that the church would “cherish this Catholic treasure”.

The artwork, which is painted on poplar, is so delicate that its preservation is ensured by constant gallery care with temperature, humidity and light levels all controlled.

The painting has not been moved from the gallery since World War II, when it was evacuated to Wales during the Blitz. It is too delicate to be loaned to other institutions

The National Gallery has said that visitors were welcome to pray in front of the painting where it hangs in the Salisbury Wing.

‘Different levels’

Luke Syson, the National Gallery’s curator of Italian paintings from the period said: “The National Gallery is a place for learning about pictures, but also for appreciating them on many different levels.

“For some, Piero’s Baptism is a masterly artistic exercise in perspective and mathematical composition. For others, these aspects are intimately linked with Piero’s ability to set the protagonists of the Christian story into a rigorously, even miraculously described universe.”

“By seeing the picture at the National Gallery, in an especially secluded room which evokes a chapel setting, visitors can experience this masterpiece in any number of ways, according to their beliefs or, indeed, lack of beliefs,” he added.

The painting was bought by the National Gallery in 1861 from the Camaldolese Abbey, now cathedral, at Borgo Sansepolcro, the artist’s native town in Italy.

It it thought it was probably painted as part of a larger ensemble or as an altarpiece in its own right in a chapel dedicated to the Baptist.

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Boy George ‘reported data theft’ – BBC

Singer Boy George, accused of tying a male escort in chains and beating him, had told police his laptop was hacked days before the incident, jurors heard.

But the singer said “nothing at all” about his suspicions regarding the involvement of escort Audun Carlsen, 29, Snaresbrook Crown Court heard.

He named an ex-employee as the suspect, Det Con Matthew Foy told the court.

The singer, real name George O’Dowd, denies unlawfully detaining Mr Carlsen at his east London home last April.

Giving evidence in court, the officer, who was then posted at Stoke Newington police station, said the former Culture Club star reported personal data including photographs had been stolen.

Det Con Foy said: “He told me that photographs had been stolen from his computer by an ex-employee.

“He said the employee had worked for him and may have seen him type his password into the computer.”

When Mr O’Dowd’s computer was examined by police, they found no evidence that it had been tampered with, the court heard.

Hacking accusations

But Mr O’Dowd’s lawyer, Adrian Waterman QC, suggested that the officer was “piecing together” information and that the singer may have named the ex-employee as one of several possible suspects.

When cross-examined, the officer said that although he spoke to the singer last April he had made no record of the conversation until earlier this month, relying on his memory to write the case report.

He said he remembered the conversation as it was “unusual” to speak to a celebrity and “because Mr O’Dowd is Boy George”.

Earlier the court heard that Mr O’Dowd and Mr Carlsen had met on a social networking website and during a pornographic photo shoot they took cocaine and Mr O’Dowd performed a sex act on the escort.

Soon after that visit the singer accused the escort of hacking into his computer but they parted on good terms.

Mr Carlsen said that weeks later when he went to the singer’s home in Shoreditch at his insistence, Mr O’Dowd and another man beat him, forced a manacle on his arm and chained him to a bedroom wall.

He escaped in his underwear and handcuffs. He claims he was imprisoned as the singer suspected him of hacking into his laptop.

The trial continues.

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Little Britain USA set for return – BBC

Little Britain USA is to return for a second series, despite claims Americans failed to get the jokes and found it too rude.

Numerous headlines claimed Americans were shocked by the show, but the pair deny that it caused any controversy.

“I don’t think it really did,” Matt Lucas told Newsbeat.

He says the US network they made it for were very happy.

“We’re getting a second series. It was very successful on HBO, it got good viewing figures, great reviews, everyone was really pleased,” David Walliams added.

“We’re delighted, we’re very proud of it.”

But they do admit that they pushed taste limits.

“It has some of our most outrageous things in it,” said Walliams.

“Tom and Mark those bodybuilders with the big muscles and their small… it’s not for everybody but we thought it was funny.

“We’re always just trying to entertain people, not offend them, and I think if it’s not your cup of tea, don’t watch it.”

‘Nerve-racking’

Lucas and Walliams revealed the news of the second series on the Chris Moyles show while they plugged the programme’s DVD release, which is out on 1 December.

Despite the US having stricter rules about what is allowed on TV, Walliams said they didn’t tone down any scenes but that there weren’t any outtakes for a DVD.

Old and new characters were featured in the first series Listen to David Walliams and Matt Lucas with Chris Moyles

He said: “I think we put all the really filthy stuff on screen, I think there might be a couple of rude scenes, but that’s what you get with Little Britain.

“It’s always been quite edgy humour but you know in Shakespeare there are jokes about bottoms and farts, this is the stuff of life and people like that kind of thing.”

The comic pair said it did them good to go to the US for the series.

“It was a bit nerve-racking at first because we had to prove we were funny all over again but that’s probably a good thing.

“It was like starting again and it was quite an exciting place to be.”

Lucas, who is in the middle of filming Alice in Wonderland with Johnny Depp and Tim Burton in Hollywood, has become particularly fond of spending time in the city.

“It’s very nice to visit Los Angeles, the sun’s out and you bump into big celebrities like Same Difference and you can have burgers for breakfast, lunch and dinner,” he joked.

“Oh yes, and I met Tom Cruise, Johnny Depp and Will Ferrell. I forgot about them.”

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