WE HAVE MOVED! PLEASE CLICK HERE

FAMEmagazine.co.uk

MISCHA BARTON: “I WANT TO BE A BOND GIRL”

By Andrea Clarke

HOLLYWOOD actress Mischa Barton has revealed she dreams of being a Bond girl.
The former OC actress, who’s mother Nuala is Irish, is a huge fan of the 007 series and would love to act opposite Daniel Craig in the next spy film, tentatively titled Bond 22.
"I mean, what girl wouldn't”, she said. “It's kind of like a dream”.
In the past Bond girls have been played by Halle Berry, Eva Green, Ursula Andress and Honor Blackman.
Since leaving the hit TV show The OC, Barton has been concentrating on her movie career.
The 21-year-old stars in the upcoming World War II film Closing the Ring, directed by Sir Richard Attenborough, which was filmed in Belfast. The actress enjoyed working with Attenborough so much she did a stint at the prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA) last summer at his bequest.
She said: “He encouraged me but learning more about Shakespeare has been my goal for years now.
“I think some of the students were a little intimidated when they first saw me but I was lucky as they were very accepting”.
Mischa recently completed filming St Trinian’s alongside Colin Firth and Rupert Everett. She is currently shooting the drama Finding t.A.T.u in Russia.

Branagh joins Cruise in Germany

By Kellie Cunningham

BELFAST thespian Kenneth Branagh joined co-star Tom Cruise in Germany to begin shooting controversial film Valkyrie.
The movie tells the story of Claus von Stauffenberg (Cruise), a German officer who plotted to assassinate Adolph Hitler. The Northern Ireland director/actor will play Henning Von Tresckow, a German general who mentors Stauffenberg and helps hatch the plot to kill the dictator.
There was some initial resistance to the film when Tom and the crew arrived in Germany. The Minister of Defence declared the Top Gun actor wouldn't be allowed to film on certain military sites because of he is a follower of Scientology. The minister used Tom's belief in Scientology as an excuse.
The German government views the religion as a dangerous, profit-based cult with totalitarian aims.
Despite this filming has now begun and is scheduled to shot for 70 days in
Europe.
The film also stars Patrick Wilson and Bill Nighy.

Irish actor Stuart Townsend has reportedly be cast in the next Harry Potter movie.

By Andrea Clarke

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen star is set to appear in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince along with Joseph Fiennes and Naomi Watts.
The actor, from Howth Co. Dublin, will join fellow Irish stars Evanna Lynch, who plays Luna Lovegood and Devon Murray aka Gryffindor student Seamus Finnegan.
Australian actress, Watts has been cast as Draco Malfoy’s mother Narcissa, while the characters played by Townsend and Fiennes, younger brother to Ralph who is Lord Voldemort in the films, have yet to be confirmed.
Speculation on Harry Potter fansites suggest that Townsend will either play Ron’s brother Bill Weasley or the evil werewolf Fenrir Greyback.
In the penultimate instalment of the series Harry Potter begins his 6th year
at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, while Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters wreak havoc on the wizarding world.
With the help of Dumbledore, Harry begins to delve into Lord Voldemort's dark past hoping to find the secret to his immortality.
The sixth film in the franchise will see the return of Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson, who portrayed Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger in the last five adaptations.
Filming is due to begin in September and the movie is set to be released in November 2008.

YOUNG IRISH ACTRESS TO STAR IN NEW PETER JACKSON MOVIE

By Andrea Clarke

YOUNG Irish actress Saoirse Ronan has been cast in director Peter Jackson’s adaptation of Alice Sebold’s best-selling novel The Lovely Bones.
The starlet will play Susie Salmon, a 14-year-old who has been raped and killed by a neighbour she refers to as Mr Harvey.
Susie watches over her parents, played by Rachel Weisz and Ryan Gosling, and her killer from heaven.
The Devil Wears Prada’s Stanley Tucci is in negotiations to play murderer George Harvey in the film.
Ronan, from Co. Carlow, is no stranger to the big screen.
The 13-year-old is currently filming the Tom Hanks produced City of Ember in Belfast and she has several movies awaiting release including Death Defying Acts, starring Catherine Zeta-Jones and Guy Pearce, and I Could Never Be Your Woman, starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Paul Rudd.
Jackson, director of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, penned the adapted screenplay with his long-time collaborators Philippa Boyens and Fran Walsh.
Filming is due to begin in October in Pennsylvania and New Zealand, with Jackson at the helm.

BONO MAKES ACTING DEBUT

By Andrea Clarke

IRISH rocker Bono is make his acting debut in the musical film Across the Universe, based on the songs of the Beatles.
The U2 frontman, who sang with Paul McCartney at Live 8, will star alongside Eddie Izzard, Salma Hayek, Evan Rachel Wood and Jim Sturgess, in the movie directed by Julie Taymor.
Across the Universe, named after a Beatles track, is the story of a Liverpool dock worker, Jude (Sturgess), who travels to America to find his long lost father. On his way, he falls in love with an American girl, Lucy (Wood) and joins the anti-war movement.
Bono’s character, Dr Robert, along with Izzard, act a guides for the young star-crossed lovers as they are swept up into the peace and counterculture movements.
All of the film’s main characters are named after Beatles songs and the movie incorporates many of the Beatles’ hits including Hey Jude, All You Need Is Love and Girl.
The film is set to be released in the UK and Ireland on September 28.

www.acrosstheuniverse.com

COUNTY DOWN MODEL JAMIE DORNAN TO STAR ALONGSIDE SUPERMODEL GISELE IN NEW AD CAMPAIGN

By Tina Calder

NORTHERN Ireland model Jamie Dornan is to feature alongside supermodel Gisele Bunchen in a new steamy ad campaign.
The advertisement, which is to hit billboards, magazines and stores later this year sees the pair tangled in a compromising position on a pool table.
And as this picture shows it’s certain to set tails wagging.
According to executives the pair will star in the global campaign which was photographed by world famous photographer Mario Sorrenti.
Aquascutum president and chief executive Kim Winser said: “The campaign portrays a weekend of stolen moments, intrigue and trysts.
“Gisele and Jamie are the perfect pairing to communicate our creative vision for the new season”.
The campaign will break in next months issue of L'Uomo Vogue and later in the September issues of magazines including Tatler, British Vogue and Harper's Bazaar.
Jamie, 25, from County Down, is not only an accomplished model, working for fashion designers such as Dior, Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger but he is also making his mark in Hollywood.
The model/actor is also to star in a new movie The Wreck alongside British actress Jean Simmons.
This is Jamie’s second major movie role after working with the Oscar-winning director Sofia Coppola.
And in his spare time Jamie is also a singer with the band Son’s Of Jim, set to start touring again next year.

IRISH TD CALLS FOR SIMPSONS MOVIE TO BE HELD IN SPRINGFIELD, TALLAGHT

By Andrea Clarke

AN IRISH politician is calling for The Simpsons Movie premier to be held in his home town of Springfield, Tallaght.
Fianna Fáil TD, Charlie O’Connor wants Irish film authorities to host the Irish premier in Dublin suburb just like the fictional town.
He said: “A town called Springfield in Vermont, USA, will be hosting the world premiere of The Simpsons at the end of this month, following a competition with 13 other Springfields around the US for the honour.
“I think it’s only right that we host the Irish premiere in a town called Springfield and we have a large enough cinema in the Square shopping centre to cope with the crowds on the night”.
The satirical animated sitcom is set in the fictional town of Springfield is hugely popular across the globe and fans are eagerly awaiting the release of the film version.
“It is a satirical parody of the "Middle American" lifestyle epitomised by its title family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie”, said the TD.
“The show deals with many aspects of the human condition, as well as American culture, society as a whole, and television itself”.
And he thinks such an event would be good for the Irish Springfield.
He added: “It would be great for the people of Tallaght, the local businesses and the UCI staff to hold such a large event and I hope the authorities consider my proposal and roll out the yellow carpet on the night in our own Springfield”.

www.myspace.com/simpsonsmovie

EXHIBITION OPENS IN TRIBUTE TO IRISH DESCENDENT PRINCESS GRACE – BETTER KNOWN AS ACTRESS GRACE KELLY

By Ryan Kennedy

A NEW exhibition has opened in Monaco in tribute to the life of Princess Grace, detailing her life starting at her family’s humble beginnings in Newport, County Mayo.
Better known as the legendary film actress Grace Kelly, the display will take the audience through the glittering Hollywood career of the Irish descendant princess to her fairytale marriage to Prince Rainier III and her eventual tragic death.
Visitors to the exhibit will be able to view personal possessions of the late Princess including family photos and intimate correspondences.
One of the most idolised actresses of the silver screen, Grace Kelly set a trend of raw femininity that actresses to follow would model themselves on, and caught the eye of directors as legendary as Hitchcock on more than one occasion.
Curator of the exhibition Frederic Mitterrand has said how, in putting everything together, he wanted to show the woman behind the Romantic perception – and reveal her true, natural beauty.
He said: “I have tried to come out of the fairy tale setting to show she had real grandeur. The glacial blonde was in private, ‘melancholic, suffered from serious depression,’ but was always profoundly loyal.”
It comes 25 years after her death from injuries sustained in a car accident, where a hairpin turn in the road caused the car she was driving to plummet downhill below one of the Royal residencies in the area.
Most of the exhibits were chosen by her three children to Prince Rainier, Princess Caroline, Prince Albert and Princess Stephanie.
Some of the more personal items on display include a letter the late Princess wrote to Prince Albert on his birthday, and home movies never before shown outside the family - including one of her peeling potatoes – and letters from prominent figures including Alfred Hitchcock and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.
She was only 52 at the time of her death, but in her life was regarded by many to be single-handedly responsible for cleaning up Monaco’s image to turn it into the Mecca for the world’s rich and famous it is today.
The Life Of Princess Grace will run until September 23 at Monaco’s Grimaldi Forum.

www.grimaldiforum.com

CILLIAN MURPHY TO STAR ALONGSIDE SIENNA
MILLER AGAIN IN NEW MOVIE

By Andrea Clarke

IRISH actor Cillian Murphy has signed up to play counter-culturalist magazine editor Richard Neville in a new film with Sienna Miller.
The Cork-born star has just wrapped the Dylan Thomas romance The Best Time of Our Lives with the Factory Girl actress and will begin shooting Hippie Hippie Shake in September.
The film is based on Richard Neville's memoir of the same name, detailing his editorship of psychedelic hippy magazine Oz in the late 1960s.
The magazine regularly enraged the British establishment with its range of left-field stories and was subject to the longest running obscenity trial in British history after Neville invited 20 secondary school children to edit the magazine.
Known as Schoolkids Oz, the issue of the magazine was deemed obscene and an attempt to corrupt the morals of children by the Obscene Publications Squad. Neville and his two business partners were found guilty at trial and sentenced to hard labour but the verdict was overturned on appeal.
The movie, set in 1960s London, also stars Max Minghella and model-turned-actress Emily Booth.
Meanwhile, Cillian will reprise his role as Scarecrow in the Batman sequel, Dark Knight and his new film, Watching the Detectives with Lucy Lui is out later this year.