London, April 13, 2008
Biteback
John Harlow
Jennifer Aniston has bought the rights to Getting Rid of Matthew, a comic novel written by Ricky Gervais’s long-term girlfriend, Jane Fallon. The novel is all about how appalling men are, especially adulterous men. Her new production company, Echo, has also purchased The Divorce Party and The Goree Girls. The latter is about how cool women are without men. Got the message yet, Brad?
Will Smith, the world’s most dependable box-office draw, is setting up a private school in Los Angeles this summer. He says children should know Plato at six, as well as more "real world" skills. He has little patience with traditional teachers, boasting he could teach himself to fly a space shuttle "because someone has written a book about it, and I could read that". His confidence is disarming, but if I spotted Smith climbing aboard a shuttle, armed only with Space Flight for Dummies, I’d jump clear.
Anne-Sophie Dutoit has signed a deal to have Faded Memories, a drama about a teen who cannot stand to be touched, released in five LA cinemas. She is 17. Orson Welles was 25 when he was hailed as the "youthful genius" of Citizen Kane. What a slouch he has turned out to be.
The New York Times has run an apology for misreporting Eddie Izzard’s "cake or death" stand-up routine. "He imagined what would have happened if the Church of England, rather than the Roman Catholic Church, had run the Inquisition – not if the Church of England rather than the Romans had tried to conquer the world." Yep, that’s Eddie Izzard, sucked dry and reduced to dust.
And a last word on the Oscars, from nominee Tom Wilkinson, on meeting Julie Christie at the ceremony: "When I started out, I wanted to make movies, to make money and to have sex with Julie Christie. I wanted to tell her that, but I don’t think she’s the kind of woman who does humour."
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http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/tv_and_radio/article3720885.ece