Hilary Duff soothes her aching back as she gets some mummy practice at the park

By Daily Mail Reporter

Last updated at 4:01 PM on 26th November 2011

She's got until March until she's due to give birth but heavily pregnant star Hilary Duff already looks like she's struggling with the aches and pains of carrying the extra weight.

But the singer/actress didn't let that stop her enjoying a post-Thanksgiving day out at Coldwater Canyon Park in Los Angeles on Friday.

The Disney star, who headed out with her husband, professional ice hockey player Mike Comrie, was seen supporting her aching back with her hands while she played with the children at the park.

In bloom: Pregnant Hilary Duff enjoyed a day out at the park in LA yesterday but soon had to support her back after standing up for too long

Duff, 24, rested against a large tree for support as she conversed with the 31-year-old sports star in the November sunshine.

She's been seen in an array of figure hugging dresses recently as she proudly shows off the growing bump.

And Duff has admitted she has purposely been opting for tighter ensembles.

Discomfort: The singer and actress rested against a fence as she watched her friends' children play

She has said: 'In the beginning (of my pregnancy) I was thinking, I'm going to wear really loose things, because you don't really look pregnant at first - you just feel a little bigger than your normal self.

'And now that you start to show I think it's better to wear tighter things, but it's kind of a challenge to find things!'

But the Lizzie Maguire star opted for a more casual affair for her day out, donning comfortable brown leggings with flat leather boots, while a long-sleeved black top skimmed over her pregnant belly.

Resting: As the 24-year-old gets used to her growing figure she uses a wall to rest her aching back

Ensuring her style wasn't jeopardised, she wore a matching green necklace and oversized shades to dress up the outfit.

Comrie sported a red baseball cap, grey Yale T-shirt and black jeans with trainers and was at one point seen tenderly caressing his wife's back and looking at her lovingly.

The pair will welcome a baby boy when their first child comes into the world early next year, and Duff was seen getting some practice in by tending to a young boy in the park.

 Where does it hurt? Mike was very attentive to his wife, massaging her shoulders as they stood around

Despite resting her hands on her lower back for support, Hilary felt energetic enough to pick up a young boy as he played in the sand pit.

And that's not the only motherly instinct Hilary showed on her day out - she also played with one of her dogs as she bent down on some grass.

Leaning her weight on her knees, the TV and film star threw a ball as the pooch ran to collect it before returning for a pat and a stroke.

November sun: The former Disney star enjoyed the autumn air as she prepares to give birth to a baby boy in March

Puppy love: The actress rested on her knees as she played catch with her little dog

Hilary was clearly enjoying the fresh air as she was seen laughing at her friends as Mike looked on.

The pair later enjoyed some alone time, with Hilary perching on a gate and resting her chin on her hands as they both looked in the distance.

While she may be enjoying her down time now as she prepares to become a mum, Hilary is already setting her sights on a return to music.

She recently revealed she wants to debut her new material after the birth at some point between 2012 and 2013.

Playful: The star still has several months to wait until she can become a full-time mum

My Week With Marilyn review: Oscar-winning performance from Michelle Williams

By Chris Tookey

Last updated at 9:53 AM on 25th November 2011

My Week With Marilyn (15)

Verdict: A magical 100 minutes

Rating:

My Week With Marilyn is a high-quality British film that doesn’t have the depth of last year’s The King’s Speech, but should have a similar appeal to discerning grown-ups.

It’s an enchanting tragi-comedy, a hugely enjoyable trifle, and may prove an eye-opener to generations too young to remember the allure of Marilyn Monroe.

It is based on Colin Clark’s memoir of a week as third assistant director, or dogsbody, on an indifferent British film comedy, The Prince And The Showgirl (1957).

Screen goddess: In playing Marilyn, Michelle Williams might just achieve what the actress did not - win an Oscar

The reason that movie is remembered today is that it marked a clash between superstars from either side of the Atlantic, and two completely different styles of acting.

The actress playing the showgirl was Marilyn Monroe (Michelle Williams), newly married to intellectual playwright Arthur Miller (Dougray Scott) and already having doubts about  the relationship.

Williams has given exquisite performances before in Brokeback Mountain, Blue Valentine and the little-seen Incendiary, but here she’s at her most magical, brilliantly capturing Marilyn’s voice and physical mannerisms.

Never content to play her as a victim, she captures her emotional neediness and her power to entrance, on and off screen.

Critical acclaim: Eddie Redmayne playing Clark with Emma Watson's wardrobe mistress

Williams must surely be nominated again for an Academy Award as Best Actress (the real Marilyn, of course, never won an Oscar).

I suspect she will be joined in the Best Supporting Actor category by Kenneth Branagh, always a superb character actor, here presenting a delightfully accurate take on Laurence Olivier: theatrical, endlessly exasperated by Marilyn’s lack of professionalism and uneasily aware that she looks better on screen than he does.

Eddie Redmayne also excels in the challenging task of playing Clark, an intelligent but inexperienced 23-year-old Old Etonian who has to toss up between a relationship with a pretty wardrobe mistress (Emma Watson, excellent in her first big-screen role since Harry Potter) and a chance of love with the most famous woman on Earth.

All-star cast: Judi Dench and Kenneth Branagh in the film

The film is worth seeing for its marvellous array of British acting talent. I especially enjoyed Judi Dench as the kindly Dame Sybil Thorndike, Jim Carter as a star-struck barman and Philip Jackson as Marilyn’s down-to-earth bodyguard.

This is a bittersweet story of first love. Perhaps Adrian Hodges’s script could have been sharper and a little less eager to spell out what is happening and why, but it’s elegantly directed in his big-screen debut by TV veteran Simon Curtis: delightful, classy entertainment.

Robin Gibb reveals: 'Doctors told me I had an hour to live'

By David Wigg

Last updated at 7:54 AM on 25th November 2011

Determined to get well: Robin is being cared for at home by wife Dwina

With a wide, impish, welcoming smile, Robin Gibb was standing waiting for me at the front porch of his magnificent 12th-century Oxfordshire home .

He appeared thinner than I had seen him look for a long time, but he explained that he’s never weighed more than 9??st, so there was no reason to think that anything was wrong.

It was only later that day, when he confided that he’d been to see a specialist about his recurring stomach cramps, that alarm bells rang.

After an examination and a scan he had been told he’d got one hour to live unless he had immediate surgery.

‘I told the surgeon, “Hang on, I’ve only got cramp,” recalled Robin. ‘But he said I’d actually got an intestinal blockage and it could be about to burst. The way he put it to me was blunt: “The only way out for you, pal, is through the operating theatre.”

‘I was petrified. I’d never been in hospital before. I had the op there and then and after three days felt a lot better.’

Our conversation took place in the summer, almost nine months after the operation. I didn’t know then that three months before we met Robin had been diagnosed with liver cancer.

He and his wife Dwina had decided not to say anything publicly to allow him to quietly undergo treatment. Only in October, after viewers were shocked by his gaunt appearance on Alan Titchmarsh’s ITV chat show, did the true extent of Robin’s illness emerge.

Then, earlier this month, he was rushed to hospital after a 999 call from his home. His 91-year-old mother Barbara and older brother Barry flew in from their Miami homes to be with him.

Never far from their minds will be the sad loss of Robin’s twin brother Maurice, who died eight years ago from complications following the same medical emergency to unblock a twisted intestine.

Robin told me he has never got over that — ‘We were like one person, with one soul,’ he said — or the grief of losing his youngest brother Andy from a heart infection in 1988, at the age of 30.

This week Robin, 61, publicly thanked fans for their get-well messages. And he is determined to be well enough to hear his latest musical project performed next year.

Working with his 28-year-old son R.J. (Robin-John), he has composed an impressive classical work entitled The Titanic Requiem, to commemorate the 100th anniversary next year of the sinking of the liner, and he plans to have it played at the Royal Albert Hall in London in April.

They have been working on this hour-long piece for a year and it has been recorded by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

In the imposing surroundings of his home, a former monastery once visited by Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, he told me how he had fulfilled a long-held ambition. ‘I’ve always wanted to write a classical piece and I put it to my son that we should do it together because he’s got a great talent for music,’ explained Robin.

‘We were like one person, with one soul': Robin, pictured with older brother Barry (right) said he has never got over over the death of his twin Maurice (left)   

‘Anyway, a lot of our music with the Bee Gees is classically orientated. If you just take the voices away, you can hear that it is classical pieces, traditionally. I love stuff like Mozart. I don’t like rock opera with back beats.’

Robin was halfway through this project when his life-threatening blockage was diagnosed.

‘All this time I’d thought it was wind cramps,’ he said. ‘But the surgeon said that was typical of the way it manifests. The blockage was so bad that he was surprised it hadn’t burst the day before, but it was too dangerous to delay any longer.

‘The relief was enormous, and afterwards I needed no painkillers. Not even an aspirin. I have a vegetarian diet, and a great appetite. Everything seemed to go back to normal.’

Once on the mend he was determined to finish his Titanic composition. Writing and recording all night, the way he prefers to work, he would go to bed just as the sun was rising and sleep until around 1pm.

Shock: Robin's gaunt appearance on the Alan Titchmarsh show on the Southbank sparked widespread concern

He also re-recorded one of the Bee Gees’ most iconic hits, I’ve Gotta Get A Message To You, with the harmony group The Soldiers, released last month as the official Poppy Appeal single.

But it is the Titanic Requiem that now takes up all his attention. He is fascinated by the story. ‘It’s not a morbid piece,’ he said. ‘It is a celebration of the time this great ship made its maiden voyage, and it will have that feeling in the music.’

Unsurprisingly, after such a close brush with death, Robin was in reflective mood with me. Although the Bee Gees broke up after Maurice died, they remain a powerful entity in music, so Robin inevitably made comparisons with today’s stars.

‘It’s hard to tell how the fame really affected us because it all happened so fast. We always had a belief in ourselves but not for fame or riches. One of the things about young people starting out today is they just want to be famous and make money.

'When we began, we just wanted people to like our songs. We simply enjoyed the passion of making music. We never thought about the material things it could bring us. You went into the studio and it was like a big toy shop.’

The Bee Gees had more than 50 international hit singles and sold 110 million albums. They have the biggest song catalogue in the world, along with Lennon and McCartney. ‘I can turn on the radio every day and hear five Gibb brothers’ songs,’ said Robin.

‘That still gives me a thrill. And yet you hear new artists and they are not composing. They’re not creating catalogues — so what will happen in the future?’

While still schoolboys living in Manchester, Barry, Maurice and Robin perfected the art of close harmony singing and won prizes at cinema screenings for their vocal performances.

‘There was a time at the beginning when the three of us slept in one bed! We were a very poor family. My dad had about five jobs so we could survive.

‘It was post-war England in the late Fifties and we didn’t even have carpets on the floor.’

To find a better life, their father Hugh moved the family to Australia, where he worked as a photographer. ‘We lived in a run-down house. My mother got very sick from mosquito bites,’ Robin recalled. ‘They were hard times and often we just lived on chips.’

Australia didn’t live up to expectations and so the family returned to England. ‘We had nothing, except this blind faith in ourselves to pursue a musical career. It was almost as if we talked ourselves into it.’

Sounds of the Seventies: The Bee Gees (from left to right) Robin, Maurice and Barry Gibb in 1979

So where did they find the inspiration to write songs that were so mature when they were so young?

‘Love and relationships’, said Robin. ‘Where other guys, like Ray Davies of the Kinks, were writing about social problems, we were writing about emotions.

‘They were something boys didn’t write about then because it was seen as a bit soft. But people love songs that melt your heart.’

Robin says the most difficult part of his career was handling the 1988 death of his brother, Andy, who had experienced a failed marriage and was recovering from the after effects of cocaine addiction.

‘I was stunned. It was his 30th birthday. It was the first time I’d lost anybody. He was staying in this house. He’d gone into hospital for a check-up and two days later someone said, “He’s gone.” I said, “What, he’s left the hospital?” and they said, “No, he died.”

‘I still don’t know why he died. They said it was a heart infection.

‘Then in 2003 Maurice took ill. In two days he had gone. We were absolutely devastated. As brothers we were like one person. Me and Barry have always been the principal writers of the Bee Gees’ sound and Maurice was the glue that kept the personalities intact. We were kind of triplets really.

‘I feel blessed I was born into a family that had Barry and Maurice in it. On a creative level it’s like winning the lottery — you can’t choose that.’

I’ve Gotta Get A Message To You by The Soldiers with Robin Gibb is on sale now.

Lily Allen baby girl: Singer gives birth to daughter with Sam Cooper 1 year after miscarriage

By Ben Todd and Nicola Jones

Last updated at 12:17 PM on 26th November 2011

Lily Cooper last night gave birth to a little girl.

The pop star had her longed for first child in the early evening on Friday.

And it comes just a year after the 26-year-old tragically had a miscarriage when she was six months pregnant.

Lily Cooper had last displayed her baby bump at Halloween, where she tweeted: 'Me, bump and pumpkin, i did it last night during x-factor.'

It was not known last night if her husband Sam Cooper - who she married in June - was with her at the birth.

However, last night a close friend admitted the birth had been ‘all good.’

A spokesman, though, declined to comment.

Her DJ, close friend and former boyfriend Seb Chew last night Tweeted: ‘sending out love to lily, sam and mini cooper......YES.’

The singer told fans on Twitter in October she had begun to suffer from Braxton Hicks – false labour pains which can begin as many as six weeks before the due date.

Reveal: The singer's close friend and ex-boyfriend Seb Chew revealed the news on Twitter

New life: Lily Cooper, pictured at a Reebok party in July, is now living in the Cotswolds after marrying husband Sam Cooper in June

Marital bliss: The singer has changed her surname from Allen to Cooper after marrying husband Sam in rural Gloucestershire

During a newspaper interview in September Lily said her mum, film producer Alison Owen was desperate to know the sex of her grandchild-to-be: ‘It’s between me and my husband. She thinks she knows what it is and whenever she calls me she refers to the baby as Betty.’

The birth is particularly poignant for the couple who have suffered miscarriage pain in the past.

Last November the retired singer was rushed to hospital with a suspected viral infection and later lost a baby boy at six months. 

The star was also left devastated when she had a miscarriage at four months pregnant in 2008 when she was dating The Chemical Brothers's Ed Simons.

Who'll play tragic Amy? Winehouse's life and death could be made into a sensational film

By Baz Bamigboye

Last updated at 11:07 PM on 17th November 2011

Amy Winehouse's extraordinary life, and death, could be made into a sensational film (pictured with Tony Bennett)

Amy Winehouse’s extraordinary life, and death, could be made into a sensational film.

Several Hollywood producers are considering buying the screen rights to a book about the hugely gifted, but fatally flawed, North London singer.

There’s no screenplay and there isn’t a director yet, and any film is still a long way off.

But there is a tome called Saving Amy, written last year by celebrity journalist Daphne Barak, who also made a documentary of the same name for Channel 4.

It details Barak’s friendship with Amy and how she accompanied her to St Lucia and kept an eye on her while she was ‘resting’ at various hospitals in England.

Barak also befriended Winehouse’s ex Blake Fielder-Civil and her father Mitch.

If the right calibre of script writer can be found to turn Ms Barak’s jottings into a decent screenplay, and an A-list director hired to direct, then there might be hope for such a project.

But the most important factor is to find an actress to portray Winehouse.

It should be someone who can sing and act and she would need to be someone with spirit, energy and talent, not some nobody  from some TV talent show and certainly not Lady Gaga — that would be a travesty. 

David Hare pointed out the other night, at a fabulous tribute to Vanessa Redgrave hosted by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, that actors are vital contributors to any movie, often more vital than the director.

Such a person is needed for the Winehouse film.

I gather that Tessa Ross from Film4, one of the executive producers of the Margaret Thatcher film The Iron Lady, and Jeff Berg from ICM in Los Angeles are in talks about the Winehouse film and how to develop it.

A stage musical version of the film Finding Neverland, which starred Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet, is being planned for the West End.

Julian Ovenden as J. M. Barrie and Jenna Russell as Sylvia Llewelyn Davies (her sons inspired Barrie to write Peter Pan) will perform in two workshops of the show with a full cast in London on December 12 .

Film version: Kate Winslet (left) and Johnny Depp (right) starred in the 2004 film Finding Neverland

Rob Ashford, who will direct and choreograph the show, told me that initially it was going to open in the U.S. but he suggested to Harvey Weinstein — who was behind the film and is producing the musical — that they work on it in London.

The show’s composer is Scott Frankel, who wrote Grey Gardens.

Lyrics are  by Michael Korie and the book is by Allan Knee, whose novel was adapted into the film.

‘It’s more a character piece with music and dancing than a full-blown piece like 42nd Street or Singing In The Rain,’ says Ashord.

A friend who heard the score at a workshop in New York described it as ‘beautiful and moving’, a point echoed by Ovenden, who said he was struck by how much the piece moved him.

He hailed Frankel and Korie as ‘musical heirs to Rodgers and Hammerstein, or Lerner and Loewe’. 

The idea is to run Neverland at a regional theatre, then bring it to the West End next autumn or early in 2013, or as theatre availability permits.

Directorial debut: Dustin Hoffman is directing Quartet, starring Maggie Smith and Tom Courtenay (pictured)

Dustin Hoffman is on the set of Quartet and the joint’s jumping.

There’s a chap playing rag on the piano and another on saxophone.

This is during a break from filming. There’s energy in the room and everyone is smiling.

Dustin seems to be having the time of his life. He’s 74 and making his directorial debut working with Maggie Smith, Tom Courtenay (above) — who suggested to Ronald Harwood that his play Quartet, set in a home for retired opera singers and musicians, be turned into a movie — Michael Gambon, Billy Connolly, Pauline Collins and a host of great character actors.

Producer Finola Dwyer looked on and marvelled. ‘To have had the career he’s had and to be doing this in this act of his life is remarkable,’ she said.

Courtenay said Hoffman is a master of timing. ‘He makes jokes the whole time and it keeps the energy levels up. Maggie loves being directed by him.’

An executive from film distributor Momentum watched the rushes and told Dwyer he’d just seen the movie’s main action scene. ‘What’s that?’ she asked. ‘The croquet,’ he replied.

Francesca Annis at 'Company' Rehearsals at The Youth Arts Theatre in Battersea

As rehearsals for Stephen Sondheim’s seminal musical Company kicked into action, Francesca Annis (left) lifted up her knee and grabbed her derriere as her fellow actresses launched into a song about poor Bobby, a friend they believe is stuck at home playing solitaire.

‘The women have a view of Bobby. They think he’s on his own waiting for the phone to ring,’ says Francesca’s co-star Samantha Spiro. ‘But the men know he’s out fornicating.’

Bobby, or Robert, as he’s variously known by his married friends, is played by Daniel Evans.

As Francesca and Samantha join Anna-Jane Casey, Samantha Seager and Claire Price to lament about their ‘poor baby’ being all alone, he is romping on a bed with Lucy Montgomery, who plays an air hostess.

Lynne Page, the choreographer, moved in to suggest that Daniel and Lucy rough up the sheets a bit more and that her ladies ‘thrust’ out this way and that so the dance movements represent, she later explained to me, ‘their sexual frustration and their longing for Bobby’.

Observing all of this was Jonathan Munby, who is directing Sondheim’s 1970 show about Bobby, who, through the course of the musical, goes on a journey of self-discovery.

Munby was rehearsing with his cast in Battersea, South London, before decamping to Sheffield, where Company will begin previews at the Crucible on November 29.

Munby, Samantha and Francesca explained that though Company is set at the heart of cultural change, Bobby would have gone to university in the Fifties and so would have spent his formative years in a conservative milieu.

‘He’s not the generation of change and he’s under pressure from his peers to get married,’  said Munby.

The director has cast his production with actors armed with the ability to probe Sondheim’s lyrics.

And it’s hard to fathom that Company was considered such an experimental piece when first staged in New York 40 years ago.

‘It’s not a show of standard chorus numbers or linear narrative. They  thought they were going to be laughed out of the room,’ Munby told me.

Daniel, who’s also the artistic director of the Sheffield Theatres, already has two award-winning Sondheim roles under his belt — Merrily We Roll Along (which he did with Samantha at the Donmar) and Sunday In the Park With George.

And all of the cast have real humdingers to sing.

One of the most famous is The Ladies Who Lunch, which brings Francesca (who plays the acerbic Joanne) back to musicals after a long gap.

This is her first foray into the genre since she appeared in John Barry’s Passion Flower Hotel in the Sixties.

‘I did that when I was very young — ugh,’ she told me, making a gagging noise.

‘It was a nightmare, so I haven’t sung since, until now,’ she said. Singing teacher Mary Hammond advised her to sing at home.

‘But I was so traumatised from that early musical that I couldn’t think of a single song. I’ve never sung in the bath or in my car. I think I blocked it,’ she said, as Munby declared that he and the cast have liberated her.

As well as her musical trauma, Francesca also suffered physical aches and pains after rehearsals when she awoke to find her sides, knees and back hurt because of the singing and dancing.

She said: ‘It has taken some time, but I’m getting there. Now I sing all the time!’

Sally Hawkins will be in Nick Payne's play Constellations

Sally Hawkins, who will join Rafe Spall in Nick Payne’s play Constellations at the Royal Court’s Jerwood Theatre Upstairs, from January 13.

It’s a return to the London stage for the actress, who won a Golden Globe for her role in Mike Leigh’s Happy-Go-Lucky and acclaim for parts in Dagenham Girls, Never Let Me Go and the movie Submarine, which has garnered her a nomination in the forthcoming Moet British Independent Film Awards.

Sally said the stage part came up very quickly. She read for the playwright and director Michael Longhurst to get the role.

The play charts the beginnings of a relationship between the characters played by Sally and Rafe. ‘It deals with various things in their life such as love and death and illness across many different dimensions, universes and timelines’, the actress told me.

As we chatted we both agreed that the piece reminded us of Charlie Kaufman’s film Synecdoche, New York and, perhaps, a little of Terrence Malick’s work. First, though, Sally will play Mrs Joe, Pip’s violent sister in Mike Newell’s film Great Expectations. She will use a tickler, more like a whip, she said. ‘Can’t wait to use it’!

Jacqueline Bisset who will join leading men Chiwetal Ejiofor and Matthew Goode in Stephen Pioliakoff’s five-part drama Dancing On The Edge for BBC2. It’s a drama set in the Thirties about a popular black jazz band that gets caught up in high society, royal patronage and a mysterious death.

The cast also includes Angel Coulby (Guinevere in Merlin), Janet Montgomery, Mel Smith, Anthony Head, Jane Asher, Tom Hughes and Caroline Quentin.

Jacqueline Bisset who will star in in Stephen Pioliakoff's five-part drama Dancing On The Edge for BBC2

Emma Fielding, Joss Ackland and Ian McNeice who will portray, respectively, Queen Elizabeth (the Queen Mother), George V and Winston Churchill in the stage adaptation of The King’s Speech by David Seidler who won an Oscar for his screenplay.

I told you a while back that Charles Edwards and Jonathan Hyde would be playing George VI and Lionel Logue the speech expert who helped the monarch cope with his speech impediment.

The production, directed by Adrian Noble and designed by Anthony Ward will run at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford from February 1 through February 11 before touring Nottingham, Bath, Brighton, Richmond and Newcastle — and then it will head into the West End.

Anna Chancellor and Nicholas Farrell who will bring into the West End the David Hare-Terence Rattigan double bill of Hare’s South Downs, written in response to Rattigan’s The Browning Version. Both works played to much acclaim at the Chichester Festival Theatre in the summer.

Hare told me the plays would move into ‘town’ once Ms Chancellor completes a second series of Abi Morgan’s BBC TV drama The Hour.

Jackie Mason, the famed Jewish stand-up comic, will be making what he insists will be his last appearance on the London stage when his new show Fearless! comes to Wyndham’s Theatre for a five-week season from February 13.

50/50 review: Diagnosis is surprisingly uplifting for cancer movie

By Chris Tookey

Last updated at 9:53 AM on 25th November 2011

50/50 (15)

Verdict: Uplifting cancer movie

Rating:

50/50 is a surprisingly uplifting romantic comedy about a likeable young radio journalist (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who discovers he has cancer — an affliction that changes his relationships with his self-absorbed girlfriend (Bryce Dallas Howard), overbearing mother (Anjelica Huston) and oafish best buddy (Seth Rogen).

The diagnosis also brings him into contact with a cute if inexperienced doctor (Anna Kendrick). She wants to help him psychologically, and in other ways, too.

Life-affirming: Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bryce Dallas Howard in 50/50

Levitt and Kendrick are subtle, sweet and intelligent enough to compensate for the faint misogyny of the script and the crassness of Rogen’s contribution, which is blatantly an attempt to play to opening-weekend teenagers.

Will Reiser’s semi-autobiographical script leans over backwards and in every other direction to find the positive aspects of cancer, and discovers a few truths that offset the usual cliches of cancer weepies.

It’s no masterpiece, and Jonathan Levine’s direction has the flatness of TV. All the same, it’s cute, even for people who are well; and to those unfortunate enough to have a potentially terminal illness, it could be inspirational.

Ugly Betty star America Ferrera says swapping sitcom for suspenders has been liberating

By Michael Hellicar

Last updated at 7:48 AM on 25th November 2011

Super sexy: America as Roxie Hart in Chicago

Somewhere deep inside actress America Ferrera’s wardrobe is a poncho, thick-rimmed glasses with beer-bottle lenses, a frizzy wig and a metal teeth brace that give her a smile like a half-open sardine tin.

They were her trademark look as the frumpy star of the hit TV show Ugly Betty in which she played the eponymous heroine, and were presented to her on the last day of filming as a permanent reminder that you don’t have to be beautiful and sexy to succeed.

‘I’m keeping them safe,’ she says. ‘I don’t  suppose I will ever wear them again, even though there is talk of making an Ugly Betty movie, but it is nice to keep them because we defied the old showbusiness belief that looks are everything by proving that they aren’t.’

Not that Miss Ferrera, 27, is anything like the unfortunate Betty in real life. She is petite, curvy and elegant, with dark soulful eyes, perfect white teeth and an exquisitely sculpted face.

Transforming her into plain Betty Suarez complete with wild, bushy eyebrows and a wig — a process she calls Bettification — would take two make-up artists more than an hour every day.

The U.S.-made show struck a chord with viewers, becoming a hit in more than 70 countries, and was screened here by Channel 4 until the show ended in April last year.

It told how Betty, a humble assistant on a New York fashion magazine, rose through the executive ranks in spite of merciless bullying by the bitchy staff until she was finally offered, and declined, the editorship.

She flies to London for a new life and the final scene showed Betty — who had blossomed from ugly duckling into sleek swan — meeting her old boss Daniel Meade in Trafalgar Square where they fall into each other’s arms.

By a strange coincidence — or is it life imitating art? — although Betty has gone, America (who in June married film-maker Ryan Piers Williams) is now back in London making a fresh start herself. She is starring in the West End stage musical Chicago?.?.?. just around the corner from where Ugly Betty’s poignant last scene was shot.

‘Betty was clumsy, wrong-footed and if anything was going to go wrong for her, it would,’ says America. ‘Thank goodness I’ve left all that behind or I’d be falling flat on my face in every dance routine ten times a night.

‘I’ve never sung or danced professionally before. When I was 10, I played the Artful Dodger in my school  production of Oliver! but that’s about it. And until now, I hadn’t even set foot on a stage for six years.’

Confessing she wasn’t sure about taking the new role, America adds: ‘When I was offered the part [of showgirl Roxie Hart] my first instinct was to say, “No.” Then I thought, well, it’s another challenge.

‘Every night, I’m conscious that it’s not like TV or films. There are no second chances, no edits, no cuts, no body doubles. I’ve got to get it right first time, every time..

Real-life: America married her long-time boyfriend, director Ryan Piers Williams, this year

‘Even the simplest mistake can throw me off course. The other night my hat fell off in the closing number. I was devastated, even though it wasn’t my fault, and the audience probably didn’t even notice’.

In fact, she is a stunning success, getting a standing ovation most nights. But the precision and discipline that is required is a far cry from the Ugly Betty set.

‘We spent four years on that show just laughing and laughing,’ she says. ‘It was a luxury to be able to take our time to get everything perfect. My teeth braces would get uncomfortable, so I’d slip them out between takes.

‘Then I’d be called back on to the set for more filming and just when we thought we’d finished for the day I’d realise I had forgotten to put the braces back in. No one had noticed — not me, the director or the cameraman. So we’d have to start all over again.’

Bettification: It took two make-up artists an hour every day to transform America into Betty

When Lindsay Lohan guest-starred in a couple of episodes as Betty’s high school nemesis, Kimmie, she and America got on famously — despite reports there was friction between them.

‘We had to do one scene 30 times before we got it right. It was mostly my fault. I had to meet her at the lift and walk her through the office, chatting while picking up papers and signing things. It required a lot of co-ordination of dialogue and action, and I kept fluffing it. You’d think a big star like her would get impatient, but instead we were in hysterics.

‘And when they started bringing in guests like Victoria Beckham, Adele and Naomi Campbell, we welcomed them. Victoria was very friendly and down to earth. And Naomi was a surprise.

‘Judging by the bad publicity she’s had, you’d think she would be very difficult, but she happily poked fun at her reputation for throwing phones by posing with one in front of the camera.’

The offer to play Ugly Betty came out of the blue. ‘What attracted me was that Betty was nothing like the usual TV heroine,’ says America. ‘It wasn’t about playing an ugly girl. It was about playing someone who was a very nice person and who got on in life in spite of her looks.

‘She wasn’t conventionally beautiful but her inner beauty and decency shone through, which must have been a first for American network TV.

When we started work on it, they assigned Patricia Field, the stylist behind Sex And The City, to come up with Betty’s look. They had me trying everything — but no one could agree on how ugly Ugly Betty should be.

‘Then one day they put the braces in, slipped the glasses and poncho on, mussed my hair up and we’d got it. From that moment, I was Ugly Betty, the epitome of the underdog’.

That first series won America a Golden Globe, an Emmy and a Screen Actors’ Guild award. Time Magazine named her one of their 100 Most Influential People. ‘By the second series we’d begun to hit a few bumps in the road,’ she admits. ‘It seemed as if everyone had a different vision for the show.

‘There were too many cooks. Some of the stories didn’t gel and the whole ethos of the show lost its way a little. A lot of viewers switched off. By series three we were back in our stride but many viewers never came back, so the network pulled the plug.

‘I love being Roxie Hart, but I miss Betty Suarez. I find it funny that people are shocked when they see I don’t really look like Betty. Some of them are  disappointed. I’m not though’.

¦?America is in Chicago, at the Garrick Theatre, London, until December 31 (0844 482 9673).

Deep Blue Sea review: Just a shallow romance

By Chris Tookey

Last updated at 8:40 AM on 25th November 2011

The Deep Blue Sea (12a)

Verdict: Too dry and too wet

Rating:

The Deep Blue Sea is an achievement in two areas — it’s well acted and beautiful to look at. But as a drama, director Terence Davies has teamed up with the late playwright Terence Rattigan, and it’s not a match made in heaven. Where Rattigan was glam, Davies is glum.

Previously shot in 1955 with  Vivien Leigh, this is the story of a romantic triangle circa 1950, with a beautiful young wife, Lady Hester Collyer (Rachel Weisz), walking out of a sexless marriage with judge Sir William Collyer (Simon Russell Beale).

She shacks up in seedy lodgings with former RAF pilot Freddie Page (Tom Hiddleston). Freddie’s a dashing, handsome young chap but nowhere near as much in love with Lady Hester as she is with him.

Damp squib of a love affair: Tom Hiddleston and Rachel Weisz

And therein lies the tragedy: this really isn’t that deep. Despite the emotional hurt on display, there’s not much grandeur. You feel these agonies belong on an agony aunt’s problem page rather than on the big screen.

Davies tries through his camerawork and a couple of musical interludes to link the angst of his characters to the aftermath of wartime destruction, but the parallel  isn’t convincing.

These characters could exist at any time, at any place.

The tone is downbeat. Rattigan’s instinct was to undercut melodrama with humour. That doesn’t happen enough here. Rattigan’s smart, pacy dialogue is slowed to a standstill by Davies’s fancy camerawork and let-it-all-hang-out acting.

There’s more cigarette smoke in the air and Vaseline on the lens than in any picture since the Forties, but most films of that era bustled on at a good clip.

Nostalgic: There's more cigarette smoke in the air and Vaseline on the lens than in any picture since the Forties, but these characters could exist at any time, at any place

The performances will be widely praised and work on a scene-by-scene basis, but too many confrontations are played in a leisurely fashion, with every line given the greatest possible weight, as actors tend to if given slack direction.

The cumulative effect is of far too solemn treatment being given to trivial material.

Hiddleston fails to make Freddie likeable, and that makes Weisz’s performance — her most luminous since The Constant Gardener, and a likely Oscar nominee — increasingly hard to empathise with.

By the end, it’s hard not to feel fed up with her whingeing.

Resistance review: 'What if' Nazi movie that is entirely resistible

By Chris Tookey

Last updated at 8:41 AM on 25th November 2011

Resistance (PG)

Verdict: Resistible

Rating:

There have been several ‘what if’ movies about what Britain might have been like had the Nazis occupied us. This is one of the worst.

It’s a sluggish love story about a Welsh farmer’s wife (an underpowered Andrea Riseborough) who discovers in 1944 that her husband has left, presumably to join the anti-Nazi resistance along with most other men of the valley, leaving the women to cope with a German patrol under the leadership of a polite, English-speaking captain (Tom Wlaschiha).

Sluggish love story: A farmer's wife discovers that her husband has left, presumably to join the anti-Nazi resistance

Bit part: The trailer implies Michael Sheen has a starring role in the film, but he makes a cameo appearance

The only star name, Michael Sheen, has a cameo role, though — naughtily — the trailer implies he’s a lead.

Amit Gupta’s flaccid direction leaves plenty of pauses to be filled by actors gazing opaquely into space.

The script, by Gupta and Owen Sheers, based on the latter’s novel, leaves so much unspoken it never begins to work as a cross-cultural love story or tackles its theme of how far collaboration can ever be justified.

All in all, it’s too minor and dull to be worth screening in a cinema.

Too much left unspoken: The film is too minor and to dull to be worth screening in a cinema

Don't carry on, Margot... Why Penelope was axed from the Carry On Films

By John Mcentee

Last updated at 1:24 AM on 18th November 2011

Two decades after the last Carry On film was made, the uniquely British series of low-budget films continues to amuse viewers who weren’t even born when Kenneth Williams’s Caesar declared ‘Infamy. Infamy.

They’ve all got it in for me’ — later voted the best Carry On one-liner of all time. 

Now the cast has been immortalised in a Who’s Who by aficionado Andrew Ross. Here, from his diligent research, are 30 things you didn’t know about Carry On .?.?.

This won't hurt a bit: Stars Barbara Windsor and Jim Dale

1 German actress Elke Sommer was paid six times the ?5,000 salary of Carry On stars Sid James, Kenneth Williams and Barbara Windsor when she played Russian Anna Vrooshka in Carry On Behind.

2 Penelope KEITH was a nurse in Carry On Doctor long before finding fame in The Good Life and To The Manor Born. Her scenes were cut in the editing process.

3 Shakira BAKSH, a former Miss World contestant, played Scrubba, one of Sid James’s wives, in Carry On Again Doctor. The Guyana-born actress is best known as Lady (Michael) Caine.

4 Kenneth WILLIAMS, who appeared in 25 Carry Ons, loathed Sid James, whom he said was ‘just too coarse’. 

5 THEATRE impresario and Everton FC owner Bill Kenwright played a reporter in Carry On Matron.

Coarse: Kenneth Williams (pictured), who appeared in 25 Carry Ons films loathed Sid James

6 POP star David Essex was 22  when he played a heckler in Carry On Henry, but ended up on the cutting-room floor.

7 Charles HAWTREY, who appeared in 23 Carry Ons, never recovered professionally after walking out in 1972 when his demand for star billing in the TV Christmas special Carry On Stuffing was rejected. He died in straitened circumstances in 1988.

8 Joan Sims, who starred in 24 Carry Ons, played a medium in Morrissey’s Ouija Board video in 1988.

9 Sid JAMES deemed the best moment of his 19 Carry Ons to be his performance in Carry On Cowboy, which gave him the chance to display his fine American accent.

10 Kenneth CONNOR, star of 17 Carry Ons, was the son of the petty officer on the Royal Yacht Victoria & Albert, and knew the Queen’s grandparents, George V and Queen Mary.

11 Peter BUTTERWORTH got billing in 16 Carry Ons, but also did uncredited, bit-part roles in several others.

12 Hattie JACQUES, the Carry On battleaxe, once declared: ‘All they see is a funny fat lady; no one dreams of casting you as a normal person.’

Peter Butterworth, right, with his wide, actress Janet Brown

13 Bernard Bresslaw, at 6ft 7in, towered over his co-stars in 14 Carry On films, including Up the Khyber.

14 Jim DALE, star of 11 Carry On films, offended his fellow actors when he declined to play Ug Ug in Carry On Up The Jungle because he wanted to broaden his horizons. Some of them later boycotted his This Is Your Life tribute in protest.

15 Barbara WINDSOR, star of ten Carry Ons, had elocution lessons as a teenager, but failed to lose her Cockney accent.

16 Edina RONAY, the fashion designer, played a saloon girl in Carry On Cowboy.

17 Amanda BARRIE, who played Alma Baldwin in Coronation Street, was Cleopatra in the spoof of the Burton/Taylor movie Carry On Cleo.

18 Johnny BRIGGS, Barrie’s Street husband Mike Baldwin, appeared in three Carry Ons.

19 Sara Crowe, famous for her role in the Philadelphia TV adverts, married Jim Dale’s son Toby a month after meeting him on the set of Carry On Columbus. They later divorced.

Sparring star: Boxing champion Freddie Mills appeared in Carry On Constable and Carry On Regardless

20 Shirley Eaton, sprayed gold in Bond movie Goldfinger, was in Carry On Sergeant as Bob Monkhouse’s wife. She also appeared in Carry On Nurse and Carry On Constable.

21 Sheila HANCOCK played Kenneth Connor’s nagging wife Senna Pod in Carry On Cleo.

22 Before fame as Miss Marple, Joan Hickson made her screen debut as the efficient ward sister in Carry On Nurse.

23 BURT KWOUK — crazy manservant Cato in the Pink Panther films — had a cameo role in Carry On Columbus.

24 Ian LAVENDER — ‘silly boy’ Pike in Dad’s Army — played Joe Baxter in Carry  On Behind.

25 Young Ones star Rik Mayall was cast as the Sultan in Carry On Columbus.

26 Irish character actor T. P. McKenna, who appeared in Straw Dogs and The Charge Of The Light Brigade played an Archbishop in Carry On Columbus. His scenes were edited from the final film release.

27 Terry And June star Terry Scott, who appeared in seven Carry On films, was forced by his parents to train as an accountant.

28 FORMER world light heavyweight boxing champ Freddie Mills was in Carry On Constable and Carry On Regardless.

29 Musical actress Dora Bryan played a love-struck  Army cook in Carry On Sergeant.

30 SERGEANT Bilko star Phil Silvers played the lead role in Carry On Follow That Camel. He was unpopular with the rest of the cast, who thought he considered himself superior. 

CARRY On Actors: The Complete Who’s Who Of The Carry On Film series, by Andrew Ross, is published by Apex.

Take Shelter review: No disaster movie can be as depressing as this

By Chris Tookey

Last updated at 8:39 AM on 25th November 2011

Take Shelter (15)

Verdict: Run Away

Rating:

A hysterical over-reaction to climate change or possibly a despairing response to the current economic crisis, Take Shelter is the story of a latterday Noah trying to warn mankind of imminent catastrophe.

Or it could be a study of  a paranoid schizophrenic falling apart. It’s up to the audience to choose, up until the final shot.

Hysterical overreaction: Michael Shannon and Tova Stewart in climate change disaster movie Take Shelter

Michael Shannon (above) does an eye-catching job of impersonating a present-day Cassandra, even if he does bear an unfortunate physical resemblance to Herman Munster.

His big scenes must give him an outside chance of an Oscar nomination as Best Actor. Jessica Chastain is nearly as impressive as his anxious,  but supportive wife.

However, writer-director Jeff Nichols has nothing positive to say, and spends more than two hours saying it. It’s a superficial movie pretending to be deep.

Taking Shelter would make a daunting double-bill with Lars von Trier’s end-of-the-world melodrama Melancholia, even for depressives. Miserable, slow and over-long, it’s not a barrel of laughs for anyone else.

Justice film review: A slick and competent thriller

By Chris Tookey

Last updated at 9:16 PM on 17th November 2011

Justice (15)

Verdict: Slick, competent thriller

Rating:

Who would have guessed that the best picture of the week would star Nicolas Cage? Certainly not me.

Director Roger Donaldson has made some entertaining movies in the past, notably Thirteen Days and No Way Out, but a good deal of his output has been Hollywood hackwork.

His latest exercise is typically well-crafted, and stars a subdued Cage as Will, a New Orleans teacher who becomes distraught when his much-loved wife (January Jones) is raped.

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Slick, competent thriller: Nicolas Cage stars as Will Gerard in the thriller Justice

A mystery man (Guy Pearce) turns up at the hospital and offers to help bring summary justice to the assailant. Will agrees. 

But then the mystery man demands favours in return, and Will finds himself the target of a sinister group of vigilantes.

There’s an interesting idea behind the film, which is how far the breakdown of law and order after Hurricane Katrina may have prejudiced ordinary people against the authorities; but the tone is kept so light, and the characters so under-developed, that social issues are never explored.

There’s so little attempt to analyse the rights and wrongs of vigilantism, that it makes Michael Winner’s Death Wish look like a thinkpiece.

All-star cast: Guy Pearce (left) stars alongside Nicolas Cage (right) in the film

Donaldson’s thriller is nowhere near the quality of the last film to feature Cage in New Orleans, Werner Herzog’s Bad Lieutenant, but it may fit the bill if you’re looking for a modestly entertaining chase thriller.

Donaldson’s skilful at orchestrating the action sequences, and there are two plot twists that should take you by surprise. At least you won’t be bored.

Even better news is that Cage doesn’t have to pretend to fall in love with a baby.

What a Slimeball! Jessica Jane-Clement battles gunk, pythons and rats in I'm A Celebrity trial... as she vows to only wear a bikini from now on

By Jo Abeyie

Last updated at 12:41 AM on 27th November 2011

Emily Scott may have been hogging the attention lately in I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!, but all eyes were on Jessica-Jane Clement tonight as she competed in her first Bushtucker Trial.

The celebrities, who now get to choose who does the task each day, agreed that the brunette beauty should do it after she volunteered.

Emily supported her, saying: 'Jess has a strong chance of bringing the goods back' - however she managed just six out of a possible ten stars.

Facing her fears: Jessica just before she is lowered to into a tank of fury friends

Ant and Dec told Jessica that she would be strapped into a harness and lifted above a mine shaft rail track, karts filled with various creepy crawlies and gunk would move along the track and she would be lowered into them.

She had one minute in each kart to find two stars, which would be tied to the bottom and she would have to undo them and throw them outside.

The first kart that arrived was full of eels, with Jessica laughing: 'That’s what I call my fianc?, it’s his name backwards.' 

As she was lowered into the kart filled with freezing cold water she screamed: 'I'm glad I took my false nails off yesterday, I couldn’t have done all this with them on.'

She then proceeded to successfully get the two stars.

Eeling okay Jess?  The pretty TV star unties two stars from a tank of freezing water

The next kart arrived and it was full of snakes, to which Jess boasted: 'I love snakes, I love the feel of them.'

She was lowered into the different breeds of pythons, where she struggled to undo the knots which held the stars but managed to get one.

The next kart was smelly fish guts and Jessica only managed one star again, after that she was confronted with a kart of rats, declaring: 'I love rats!', to which Ant said: 'Are you mad?'

Clement managed to then get two stars, even politely asking the rats 'excuse me'.

Once out of the harness she hugged Ant and Dec making sure they had black slime all over them. 

They asked if she was scared of anything as she was fine with the rats and snakes;
but the brave contestant said: 'I’m only bothered about spiders.'

You've been gunked! Jessica hugs Ant and Dec to make sure they too are covered in slime

Drenched: Jessica walks back to the camp feeling disappointed at only getting six stars

Despite admitting she felt disappointed Jessica added: 'This is my last vest top and I know I can’t get the gunk out of this so I’m going to have to wear a bikini from now on.'

After Sinitta was voted out last night, Loraine Chase said she wished it had been her.

She said: 'When Sinitta was voted out I really did want it to be me but it’s funny how things change.

'Everything’s turned around and I’m feeling bright and happy to be still here. I’m amazed at myself.'

Chosen: Prince Willie chose Loraine to be his jungle princess

The camp was then later transformed into a royal affair, with a massive four poster bed and two thrones.

All the contestants had to give a speech on why they should be made Prince or Princess of the Jungle, with Willie Carson eventually voted into the honourable role by his fellow campmates.

His first job was to choose a Princess, to which he mused: 'Do we go for comfort, speed or strength?'

He sat in his throne and declared to Lorraine: 'I suppose I’d better take you my dear,' before crowning her and kissing her on both cheeks.

Sealed with a kiss: Prince Willie plants a kiss on Princess Loraine's cheek