Veteran actor Sir John Gielgud (93) admits he is acutely shy and depends on hiding behind his make-up when he plays a role. After making a rare public appearance yesterday, he said: "I am fearfully self-conscious - I cannot wait to get the make-up and costume on and become someone else."
Sir John, receiving The Talkies special award from the book cassette industry, lamented the changes which have sustained his career for 75 years. "The microphone is a terrible invention, really. So much is founded on it now, particularly in the music world."
Cherie Blair, the British prime minister's wife, is under fire for not wearing a skirt during a visit to Queen Elizabeth at Balmoral. She turned up in trousers and "neglected to curtsy to the queen".
The sombre meeting, conducted over a long lunch, focused on ways the royal family could modernise in the wake of Princess Diana's death.
Pop singer Mark Morrison has been fined £120 for not producing his insurance documents to the police.
Morrison (25), of Kensington, was also ordered to pay £60 costs by magistrates in Leicester. He was charged with three counts of failing to produce insurance documents.
In Hollywood, there is a long history of actresses who cite compelling artistic reasons to justify doing nude scenes. The latest is Helena Bonham Carter, a "serious actress" and star of big-screen costume dramas who sheds her Edwardian period costume near the end of her latest film.
In one long scene with Linus Roache in The Wings of the Dove, Bonham Carter bares all, even though Henry James never wrote it as a bedroom scene in his 1902 book.
Now Ms Bonham Carter, and director Iain Softley, are trying to justify doing something she has never done before in any of her major film roles - a nude sex scene.