Exes mark the occasion

Damien O'Donnell, the feted director of East is East, is surrounded "my sisters and my exes" but he won't point out the ex-girlfriends…

Damien O'Donnell, the feted director of East is East, is surrounded "my sisters and my exes" but he won't point out the ex-girlfriends. His sisters at the party are Kim, Caroline and June. His mother and father, Teresa and Liam, enjoy the celebration to mark the international success of the film along with the movers and shakers of the film industry, in the Clarence Hotel in Dublin this week.

The hostess of the party, tall and dramatic as always, Siobhan O'Donoghue, the chief executive of Media Desk Ireland, confides she is wearing an Issey Miyake number. Paddy Breathnach, director of I Went Down, and currently working on Blow Dry with Emma Thompson and Alan Rickman, is here in a purple and lilac check shirt - very nice.

Other fashion victims include Ronan Glennane, who has just finished his first feature film, Peaches; Kieran J. Walsh, just finished his first feature, written by Roddy Doyle, When Brendan met Trudy; and Anthony Byrne, just finished his first short film, Clubbing.

Meanwhile, down Kinsale way on Thursday night at the Kent Gallery, more dignitaries were expected to arrive to view the colourful work of Shane Johnson, including president of the Cork Chamber of Commerce Gerry Donavan and his wife, Barbara; president of UCC, Prof Gerry Wrixon and his wife Marcia and Judy Friel, of the Abbey Theatre. And the artist's father, Harold Johnson, made sure the whole thing ran smoothly. Plus Pauline McLynn opened the show, which runs until Tuesday, July 11th.