Adam’s Neighborhood

Just found this lovely interview Newsweek did with actor friends Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna. It was just before their film Rudo y Cursi came out. Diego reveals why the put-him-in-your-pocket-sized Gael always wears a hat these days.

Love Skunk Anansie. Alongside Muse they are probably my favourite band so I was well chuffed when I heard they

were getting back together again, all former differences apparently set aside. (Coughs: need the money).
They are brilliant live. Skin has an amazingly powerful voice that is note perfect. She really goes for it and also has a penchant for jumping into the audience which, naturally, goes down a storm.
Thursday night was not only the final gig on their European tour but also, it being Brixton, Skin's home turf so it held a lot of promise.
And there was nothing to disappoint. Skin was on top form, dancing around with her usual verve in a gold sequined one-piece and jumping into the audience for a bit of crowd surfing, all the time maintaining a note perfect performance.
She was a chatty mood too and during the first encore persuaded security to let about six or seven people up on the stage to jump around with her. At the end of the song she climbed onto the drum stack beckoned the on stage audience to gather in close in front of her and then staged-dived into their arms.
Fab welcome back gig playing the best of their three albums and a handful of new tracks that appear on their new greatest hits album. They also play an as yet unrecorded track which Skin described as being about "f*cking". Indeed the f-word featured quite heavily in the lyrics in typical Skunk Anansie style.
Lets just see how long they can get on with each other this time.
Oh and the support band, which we caught the last few songs of were quite good to. Most unlike the usual supports. They were called The Chemists, see if you can spot their pic in the bunch below. Pics were taken by Melanie as I, in a rare moment of restraint, decided to leave my camera at home.

• 09:38 Off to buy snorkeling gear. As you do. #
• 18:25 Have been offered free tickets to a screening of an 'as yet unnamed British comedy'. Am intrigued enough to give it a go. (And it's free) #
• 18:43 @polyg Never been to one before. Am quite excited. #
• 18:44 @sjc_home4tea I did and the mask stuck which is a good sign. Apparently. #

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• 20:34 Support band is doing a really cool cover of britney's toxic #
• 21:56 Skin has climbed into the audience #
• 19:17 May have to rethink whole microwave on top of fridge/freezer thing. The beast is so tall cable for microwave doesn't reach plug. #
• 19:19 First Abel & Cole delivery. V. impressed. Venison + red wine stew doing nicely on the stove as I type. Right where's the rest of that Rioja #

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• 21:31 @Matthew_Lucas Good review. Twilight was a guilty pleasure New Moon just felt like it had money thrown at it. #
• 21:33 @trevfee Thanks will investigate #
• 18:39 Off to see Skunk Anansie. Their 'we don't hate each other any more and need the money' gig. It's going to be brilliant. #

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About nappy coats in Dr Who and future projects including a pilot for NBC in LA

Happened upon this set of interviews in my Whishaw files. It includes not only Ben but Eddie Redmayne, whom I know for playing Angel in the recent TV version of Tess of the D'Uberville's, Rupert Friend who was wonderful as Prince Albert in the Young Victoria and Aaron Johnson who I don't really know.
I like it for its relaxed and candid nature. And for not having the usual pretty but dumb interviewer.

The odds were stacked against me liking the film of New Moon. I loved the book and the scene where Edward leaves Bella is one of my favourites and had me an emotional wreck when I first read it.
So when I started seeing trailers which showed the scene in the film and it just didn't seem the same as how I remembered it, I wasn't hopeful.
I'm not saying that I didn't enjoy the film, I did, but it seemed to lack the charm and freshness of Twilight which was inevitably shot on a much smaller budget. It was like the film makers made a list of all the things that would make the teen girls scream and added them by bucket load.
Now I'm all for admiring a finely worked out male torso but it was gratuitous ripping off of shirts at every possible opportunity, or so it seemed. The audience actually started to laugh.
Edward's smoky appearances were just to appease the Pattinson fans and almost looked cartoon-like .

The CGI wolves were, well, I don't watch a lot of films with CGI as I think it often looks too animated and Jacob et al looked like they'd be at home on CITV in their furry form.
And to top it all the Volturi - who I actually did like - had opera as lift music. I mean, please.
The way Bella just immediately forgives Edward irked me in the book too. I just wanted her to yell, just a little bit. Particularly as one of the bits in the book that I liked for its added emotional impact was the fact that Edward cleared out her room of all the things he'd given her so she didn't have any reminders.
There is only a fleeting reference to this in the film. I thought that was not only very mean but made Edward a far more interesting character. Well lets face it, leaving Bella is the most interesting thing he does in pretty much the entire series.
I am strangely tempted to see it again though to see if its better second time around when I'm more relaxed about what they've done and can sit back and enjoy it as a film in its own right.
Strangely I'm actually quite hopeful for what they will do with Eclipse. It is the weakest of the books with a big build up to a pretty lame confrontation. No one dies, there isn't anything tragic, its all a bit disappointing. Now the film-makers aren't going to kill someone off but they can certainly add a bit more drama. I think some of the action sequences in Harry Potter work much better in the films than in the books. 
So overall a bit disappointed really. It was OK but definitely could have been better.

• 07:32 Ben Whishaw wins at international Emmys. bit.ly/8NyQFT #
• 18:22 London to get its own fringe festival? I hope so! bit.ly/5emUIh #

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New Moon broke The Dark Knight's single day box office record. Are you planning on seeing this teenage vampire love story? If so: Team Edward or Team Jacob?

Seen it. They've sold out big time, it is a real shame. I'm too old to choose.

(Fuller review coming as soon as I've got time to write it!)