The BBC’s Paris correspondent Hugh Schofield is broadly happy with his children’s French education, but he does have one complaint: French schools have absolutely no extra-curricular activities. There are no debating societies, no orchestras, no film clubs, no sports teams, no painting classes, no school newspapers, and no drama, at least none worthy of the […]
Read MoreBritish luvvies are a rich source of entertainment to me—as long as I am careful to keep my theatre-going to a minimum; it’s the stuff they say in interviews that puts a smile on my face. So many of them talk cobblers. Fortunately, it doesn’t matter because (apart perhaps from the likes of Mackintosh and […]
Read MoreAfter all those heterosexual pairings, here’s a homosexual one. I live in the gay capital of the UK and photograph weddings, yet I had to drive to Stratford-upon-Avon to shoot my first civil partnership. Ivan used to design clothes, some of which my sister used to model, and now he is Costume Co-ordinator at the […]
Read MoreResponding to the unusually early death of actor Chris Penn, Squander Two writes about acting—and explains much of my problem with (British) theatre: If only Sean Penn were anywhere near as talented as his brother, his films wouldn’t be so irritatingly tedious. Cintra Wilson’s right: truly great acting is something you don’t even notice. That’s […]
Read MoreGINGA I could be well moved, if I were as you: If I could pray to move, prayers would move me: But I am constant as the Commons Bar, Of whose true-fix’d refreshing quality There is no fellow among vintners. The streets are linéd with unnumber’d pubs, They are all fine and every one doth […]
Read MoreI’ve been in bed for the past couple of days with a nasty little dose of food poisoning. On reflection, it was probably the Stilton, bacon, and red onion baguette that did for me. It tasted wonderful at the time. Because of my illness I’ve been listening to lots of radio. On Friday, as the […]
Read MoreWhen I was about 16, Charlotte Jones, now a playwright, beat me in the final of a public speaking competition. Because we were released from the green room to compete one-at-a-time, I didn’t meet her in person until a couple years later when we wound up undergraduates at the same college. We then spent far […]
Read MoreSorry to resort to the same edition of Private Eye again, but I have to share this with my American friends. It's from a regular column in the magazine called “Luvvies” to which readers submit ridiculous quotes from actors. This week's was from Emmy Rossum, being interviewed in Vanity Fair: “We were doing this scene […]
Read MoreI meant to post this at the start of the week when it was topical. My dad used to think Bill Kenwright was a great producer. Charlotte used to think that Tennessee Williams was a great playwright. Judith used to think Ashley Judd was the most beautiful woman in Hollywood. So that’s three people who […]
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