Was Paul Newman the last of the finest?

Donald Clarkeon film

It was no surprise to discover that the death of Paul Newman, the Oscar- winning, universally popular, blue-eyed humanitarian movie star, was greeted with a wealth of tributes last week.

The volume and sincerity of the reporting would, surely, have taken the great actor aback. His image was on the front page of every Sunday newspaper, and the appreciations continued right through the week. One broadsheet even gave away a free biography of the actor.

This sort of coverage usually only comes the way of those actors who die young - think most recently of Heath Ledger - and it leads one to wonder if Newman really was the last of the great, old-fashioned movie stars. Stubborn old Kirk Douglas is still with us, and Tony Curtis continues to behave eccentrically in some part of southern California. But even those two mighty stalwarts would have trouble drumming up the affection that came the way of Newman.

It helped that, blessed with durable looks, Newman managed to change so little throughout his career.

"He was the same man in 2008 that he was in 1956," commented AE Hotchner, author of the memoir King of the Hill, and a close friend of Newman's. "He was unchanged, despite all the honours and the movie stardom, not a whisper of a change.

"That was something - the constancy of the man."

Stars such as Julia Roberts, Tom Hanks, Sean Penn and Jack Nicholson are expected to attend a benefit gala for the late actor's California kids' camp, The Painted Turtle, on October 27th.

Russell to play Robin and his hood

What that you say now? When cinema buffs heard that Russell Crowe (Grrr!) was to take a role in Ridley Scott's proposed Robin Hood film, they assumed that he was to play the Sheriff of Nottingham rather than Robin. Sure enough, it emerged that Billygoat Gruff was indeed to take on the shoutier part. Well, we now hear that he is, in fact, to become Mr Hood, after all.

So, who's playing the Sheriff then? Russell Crowe, of course. Weren't you listening? "He's playing both!" Scott said. "One becomes the other. It changes."

Methinks Sire Ridley is having a jape with us scribes.

More gongs for Sands biopic

The buzz surrounding Hunger, Steve McQueen's extraordinary study of Bobby Sands's experiences on hunger strike, gets ever louder by the day. The singularly unsettling film, which opens in Ireland on October 31st and is at the Cork Film Festival on Oct 11th, has just been nominated for the Discovery Award at the upcoming European Film Awards. The prize, which honours first- time directors, will be presented in Copenhagen on December 6th.

McQueen already has the Camera d'Or at Cannes.

Don't mention the war, Spike

Another week, another Spike Lee controversy. Miracle at St Anna, Lee's latest film, which opened in the US last week to poor reviews and worse box office, has managed to enrage certain Italian war veterans. The film, a study of the African- American experience in the second World War, is said to draw a link between anti- fascist partisans and a notorious Nazi massacre of 560 Italian civilians.

James McBride, the film's writer, issued a polite apology, but Spike, feisty as ever, took a more aggressive stance.

"I am not apologising for anything," he said to his Italian audience. "I think these questions are evidence that there is still a lot about your history during the war that you have got to come to grips with." That's telling 'em.

Those who can't, write

Ahoy, budding screenwriters. The time has come to stop eating pizza and shouting "I could do that" at the telly. The deadline for Write

Here, Write Now, an admirable collaboration between The Jameson Dublin International Film Festival and Walt Disney, Ireland, is 5pm on October 10th.

The organisers want feature-length scripts by Irish writers, and will award the tidy sum of €7,500 to the winning entry. www.jdiff.com.

Stars hang out dirty laundry

With all these "amicable" break-ups about the place, it's gratifying to learn that one former celebrity couple still knows how to stage an undignified brawl. Meg Ryan, the slug-lipped star of When Harry Met Sally, has been bellyaching to In Stylemagazine about her divorce from sulky Dennis Quaid.

"Dennis was not faithful to me for a very long time," she said. "And that was very painful. I found out more about that after I was divorced."

Quaid was quick to issue a counter-whinge. "It was eight years ago, and I find it unbelievable that Meg continues publicly to rehash and rewrite the story of our relationship. Also, I find it regrettable that our son, Jack, has to be reminded in a public way of the turmoil and pain that every child feels in a divorce."

This is how we want our movie stars to behave.

Quote of the week

"This is, in fact - and I'm choosing my words carefully here - one of the worst movies I've ever seen"- Richard Schickel reviewsThe Woman inTime magazine

$10k The sum of money - equivalent to $146,000 today - that American Tobacco reportedly paid Clark Gable and Joan Crawford to smoke Lucky Strike