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David Cameron: I want to be Harry Potter
50 minutes ago
Pm tells students in Kazakhstan that he would like to be Jk Rowling's hero but hints that some might view him as the villain
David Cameron has joked that anyone with "any sense" would like to be Harry Potter, though he acknowledged that the British people would probably see him as the malign Voldemort.
In a question and answer session with students in the Kazakhstan capital, Astana, the prime minister showed a good knowledge of the Jk Rowling books by not actually mentioning Voldemort's name. The evil character is famously known in the Harry Potter novels as He Who Must Not Be Named.
Speaking at Nazarbayev University – named after the authoritarian president who flew the prime minister on his private jet on Sunday – Cameron also said that he misses his wife Samantha "desperately" on overseas trips. He also admitted that some of his Oxford tutors write to him to »
- Nicholas Watt
Lone Ranger shot down in early reviews
1 hour ago
Johnny Depp's Tonto widely seen as pushing 149-minute revival out of shape
It is being billed as a reunion for the team behind the multi-billion dollar Pirates of the Caribbean film series – star Johnny Depp, producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Gore Verbinski. But the first reviews for The Lone Ranger are unlikely to help the movie mirror the success of its predecessors and recoup a reported $250m (£164m) budget.
At time of writing, the film holds a rating of 29% "rotten" on the review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, with several negative Us trade verdicts yet to be counted. The consensus is that Verbinski's over-long (149-minute) film tries too hard to recapture the franchise-launching magic of the first Pirates movie, Curse of the Black Pearl, while Depp's turn as heavily-made-up Native American Tonto ends up distracting attention from its title character, played by the rather less famous Armie Hammer.
Writes Todd McCarthy »
- Ben Child
Letter: Jim Goddard was an impressive director of The Black Stuff
1 hour ago
As producer of Alan Bleasdale's The Black Stuff, I was immensely impressed by Jim Goddard's direction. Although it was transmitted as a BBC Play for Today, it was in fact a feature-length film. I recall Jim working in west London with the team of actors led by Bernard Hill playing Yosser Hughes, walking back and forth in a rehearsal room, to measure out a long tracking shot which was to be filmed on the roads of the north-east. With the actors in mind, Jim took full advantage by combining old-style television rehearsal with the economic need to keep the film camera turning.
This valuable preparation gave the team of actors the freedom of spirit which subsequently Michael Wearing and Philip Saville inherited when producing and directing, with newly introduced lightweight cameras, Bleasdale's compelling series The Boys from the Blackstuff.
DramaDrama
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Bert Stern obituary
2 hours ago
Photographer and film-maker who took some of the last shots of Marilyn Monroe
In the summer of 1962 Bert Stern, who has died aged 83, took more than 2,500 photographs of Marilyn Monroe over three sessions held in a Los Angeles hotel. The images captured Monroe in a sometimes pensive but mostly playful mood as she posed nude, variously covered by bedsheets, a chinchilla coat, a stripy Vera Neumann scarf and a pair of chiffon roses. Despite their air of carefree humour, the portraits are inescapably wistful because – along with George Barris's subsequent pictures of Monroe at Santa Monica beach – they are among the last photographs taken of the star. She was found dead at her home several weeks later.
The shoot was for Vogue, which had Stern on a contract that required him to fill 100 fashion pages a year and afforded him an additional 10 pages for personal projects. Stern proposed Monroe as a subject, »
- Chris Wiegand
Rupert Murdoch's News Corp reborn as publishing arm targets smartphones
2 hours ago
Chief executive says company aims to 'own the second screen' through deals such as Sun's Premier League highlights service
News Corporation, the newly devolved publishing division in Rupert Murdoch's global empire starts, launches on the New York and Sydney stock exchanges on Monday with the aim of dominating the smartphone market for news, entertainment and information.
Robert Thomson, the chief executive of new News Corp, told investors in Sydney the company would retain "Murdochian magic" and would have "a permanent startup sensibility" with globalisation and digitisation its biggest opportunities for growth.
"One of our foremost ambitions outside Australia is to own the second screen," he said in an investor roadshow whether this was "a football match or a British election".
He said the media sector was "still at the early stage of a second great migration, from print to web from web to mobile" and it was working on »
- Lisa O'Carroll
Gromit has bad day out as Aardman animation sculpture vandalised
3 hours ago
Five-foot replica of Wallace's dog, on display in Bristol fundraising event, has tail broken off
A giant statue of Aardman Animations' beloved Gromit, which was designed by actor Joanna Lumley for a charity drive, has been vandalised in Bristol.
The five foot sculpture of Wallace's canine best friend is one of 80 on display in the city as part of the 10-week Gromit Unleashed arts trail, which aims to raise funds for Bristol Children's hospital. It had its tail broken off on Friday night, according to organisers, and police are now investigating.
"We're very sorry to say that late Friday night, one of our Gromit Unleashed sculptures was damaged," said organisers of Wallace and Gromit's Grand Appeal in a statement. "We are dismayed that anyone would want to damage one of the Gromit sculptures, which have been created to raise money to treat sick children in hospital and to provide »
- Ben Child
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