ALISON BOSHOFF: Aimee Lou Wood’s star rises into the West End and it would be foolish to write off her chances of winning the EE Rising Star Bafta
The bookies don’t fancy her chances of scooping the EE Rising Star Bafta next week — Daryl McCormack and Naomi Ackie are the hot tips — but it would be foolish to discount Aimee Lou Wood, who is having a ‘moment’.
Wood, 29, a RADA graduate from Stockport, shone opposite Bill Nighy in the critically acclaimed film Living. And from next week, she will be playing Sally Bowles in Cabaret in the West End.
Oh, and she’s got a Bafta already, for playing Aimee Gibbs in the Netflix series Sex Education.
Liz Karlsen, who produced Living, says: ‘I just want to put the essence of Aimee Lou in a bottle and spray it around. She’s got such joy and spirit, you feel it instantly. Bill Nighy loved working with her.’
The bookies don’t fancy her chances of scooping the EE Rising Star Bafta next week but it would be foolish to discount Aimee Lou Wood
Ms Wood, 29, a RADA graduate from Stockport, shone opposite Bill Nighy in the critically acclaimed film Living
Ms Wood has got a Bafta already, for playing Aimee Gibbs in the Netflix series Sex Education.
Karlsen, who saw Wood on stage in Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya, adds: ‘Unfortunately for her, people have only seen her in comedy. But I can tell you that she is an amazing serious actress.’
Depp joins widow (and dog) for a final farewell to his buddy Beck
Johnny Depp’s late-flowering fellowship with British guitar legend Jeff Beck was so meaningful to both men that Depp was the only other mourner present when Beck’s wife Sandra said her final farewells to him last Saturday.
Beck, 78, died suddenly in January after contracting bacterial meningitis. His funeral was last Friday and it can be revealed that he was buried the following day in an unusual ‘green’ ceremony in the gardens of his home in Wadhurst, East Sussex.
His widow Sandra, their dog Paddy and Depp shared the moment. The 59-year-old actor is understood to be staying in Wadhurst post-funeral.
Friends say he reveres Sandra and her bond with Jeff. ‘There was genuine love between the two men, and Johnny had huge admiration for him and his talent,’ I’m told.
Johnny Depp’s late-flowering fellowship with British guitar legend Jeff Beck was so meaningful to both men
Beck, 78, died suddenly in January after contracting bacterial meningitis. His funeral was last Friday (Pictured with wife Sandra)
Depp spent much of lockdown at the couple’s home, and the run-up to his disastrous High Court action, when he unsuccessfully sued a newspaper for describing him as a ‘wife-beater’ after the breakdown of his marriage to actress Amber Heard.
He and Beck also released an album last year, and did a short tour in Europe and America.
The actor supported Sandra at Beck’s funeral, arriving with her at St Mary’s Church in Beddington, Sutton. (There was no sign of London lawyer Joelle Rich, with whom he enjoyed a romance last year, and pals believe they broke up some time ago.)
A friend says: ‘It was always Jeff’s great wish that Johnny would find someone who was good for him, a soulmate, in the way Sandra was his soulmate. They would talk about it often.’
The funeral was more starry than initially reported, with reclusive singer Kate Bush among those at the church. Others included Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood, friends from their days in the Jeff Beck group, and eulogies were given by Depp, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, Bob Geldof and Beck’s best friend Peter Richardson, who created The Comic Strip Presents.
Singers Joss Stone, Imelda May and Beth Orton performed alongside the local choir.
Depp and Beck met in 2014 in Tokyo, when the Pirates Of The Caribbean star was making a film and the legendary guitarist was on tour. Depp knocked on Beck’s hotel room door and introduced himself.
Why Michelle’s a marvel
Michelle Pfeiffer, an improbably lovely 64 years old, reprises her role as Janet van Dyne in the forthcoming Marvel blockbuster Antman And The Wasp: Quantumania.
She had to train up to tackle plenty of action sequences as Janet, who has spent 30 years lost in the quantum realm.
Pfeiffer called the prep ‘a lot of fun’. ‘I like doing that sort of thing. I liked that Janet is kind of a badass.’ Michael Douglas, who plays her screen husband Hank Pym, commented that he is ‘in awe of my incredible wife Janet — and what great shape she was in those 30 years she was in the quantum realm’.
The 78-year-old actor continued to speculate on ‘what she must have been eating and drinking, what else she was doing down there’.
The film has its UK premiere next week.
Meghan and Prince Harry dropped many bombshells in their six-part Netflix documentary this year — and almost as many intriguing hints. One was the warm way in which the Duchess of Sussex referred to her old website, The Tig. ‘It wasn’t just a hobby, it was a really successful business,’ she said of the site, supposedly named after one of her favourite red wines, Tignanello.
The Duchess of Sussex (pictured) dropped many bombshells in their six-part Netflix documentary tand almost as many intriguing hints. One was the warm way in which she referred to her old website, The Tig.
It can be revealed that her trademark application for The Tig will be ‘published for opposition’ next week — the final hurdle before approval can be granted in around six weeks’ time. She set up the website, which covered food, travel, fashion, beauty and health, in 2014 but closed it down in 2017, shortly before her engagement to Harry was announced.
A spokesmen for Meghan did not comment when asked if she is planning to relaunch it now she is outside the Royal Family.
Taking over the world with real girl power
The Power — a science fiction novel about women finding that they have the ability to unleash electricity from their fingers — was a literary sensation in 2016. And it has now been turned into a prestige drama series by Prime Video, with actress Toni Collette in the lead role as Mayor Margot Cleary.
Croatian actress Zrinka Cvitesic plays Tatiana Moskalev, the former first lady of Moldova who takes over the country and remodels it into a matriarchal state. She may be familiar to British viewers because she won an Olivier award ten years ago for her performance in the musical Once.
In real life, though, she is a footballer’s wife — her long- term partner is Niko Kranjcar, who played for Portsmouth and Spurs under Harry Redknapp, and also for Rangers, QPR . . . and his national side.
The series will start streaming on March 31.
Barrie Gower, who created some of TV’s most terrifying monsters — Vecna for Stranger Things and the Night King for Game Of Thrones — was involved in prosthetics on a less supernatural scale for Matilda The Musical.
Barrie Gower revealed that the inspiration for Emma Thompson’s transformation into brutal Miss Trunchball for Matilda the Musical came from poet Edith Sitwell
Gower turned Emma Thompson into brutal Miss Trunchbull for the film. He told a Bafta panel he ‘only’ gave her jaw, chin, nose and earlobe pieces for the film, which is in the running for an Outstanding British Film award. ‘She was completely open to the process,’ he said, adding that his inspiration for her look was the poet Edith Sitwell.
The transformation took an hour and a half each day, and make-up artist Naomi Donne explained: ‘The great thing about Emma is that she doesn’t sweat much, so her make-up stayed on really well.’
Channel 4 is safe from sell-off after numerous changes in the post of Culture Secretary (and PM!) — and a prolonged political fight. The website Deadline reports that C4 CEO Alex Mahon spent at least £100,000 a month on lobbying and PR over an 18-month period to safeguard the company — £1.8 million in total.
Jake Kanter, of Deadline, reveals: ‘Mahon and her top team were heavily advised by two Eds: Ed Richards, the former Ofcom CEO who founded advisory firm Flint Global; and Ed Williams, president of Edelman, the powerful PR agency.
‘One person familiar with Project Orchid, as the rearguard action was dubbed internally, estimated Channel 4 paid more than £100,000 a month for their outside counsel.’
You may be a Mrs now, Rita, but your new single’s still a miss
You can’t fault her work ethic — or the incessant global efforts of her PR machine. However, despite a lavish party in LA, an appearance on a chat show in New York, a photoshoot with GQ, a documentary with Louis Theroux, an all-star pop video and dozens of promo appearances (including one in a see-through plastic dress in London), Rita Ora’s latest single release has been distinctly underwhelming.
Sources indicate that You Only Love Me narrowly failed to make the UK singles chart Top 100 last week. An insider said it got around 500,000 streams and dropped out of the Top 100 at the end of the week. It takes about seven million streams to be No 1, and 1.3 million to make the Top 40. The song has now entered the midweek charts . . . at no 64.
Sources indicate that You Only Love Me narrowly failed to make the UK singles chart Top 100 last week
A veteran industry source says: ‘Rita has a new deal with BMG and they have thrown everything at the launch. It will have cost easily over half a million pounds. At this stage BMG will have to make hard decisions about what to do.’
Supporters of Ora, who is a judge on The Masked Singer and who recently married Jojo Rabbit film director Taika Waititi, say it’s not uncommon for singles to debut low and then climb. They add that sales are better this week and she is still on course to hit 400,000 streams.
Some artists do have a slow climb up the charts — Lizzo’s Truth Hurts took two years to become a hit.
But this isn’t the case with established hit-makers such as Harry Styles, who went straight to No 1 with As It Was, or Miley Cyrus, who did the same with Flowers, and is still No 1 this week.
Over her ten-year career, Ora has had 13 UK Top 10 singles and four UK Number Ones. She has never hit those heights in America.
Her video for You Only Love Me has sought to capitalise on interest in her wedding to Waititi, with the singer appearing as a bride. Actresses Kristen Stewart, Lindsay Lohan and Sharon Stone appear in cameo roles in the video.
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