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MANY of the films at the Venice Film Festival this year look to other art forms - literature, music or visual arts - for inspiration…

MANY of the films at the Venice Film Festival this year look to other art forms - literature, music or visual arts - for inspiration.

Continuing cinema's fascination in recent years with 19th century literature, New Zealand born director Jane Campion will unveil her adaptation of Henry James's novel Portrait of a Lady in an out of competition screening.

The film, starring Nicole Kidman and John Malkovich, will have its world premiere next Friday.

The New York City art scene is scrutinised in Basquiat, which is competing for the Golden Lion prize to be awarded on the final day of the festival.

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The film, about the life of artist Basquiat who died of a heroin overdose in 1988, features David Bowie as Andy Warhol.

Queen, the British rock group whose flamboyant lead singer Freddie Mercury died of AIDS in 1991, is featured in Made in Heaven.

Hello! magazine diarist and socialite, the Marquesa de Varela, went public yesterday on her conflict with editor Maggie Kuomi - which she says will force her to leave the glossy social magazine.

The woman who interviewed Sarah Ferguson, Koo Stark and Mother Teresa told Sky News: "I am at the end of my tether. We have two different opinions. Thank God I have other offers on the table. If I have to go I will go!"

Marianne Faithfull began her world tour last night - but instead of rock'n'roll or free love, she sang 1920s cabaret songs by Kurt Weill.

The tour, entitled An Evening in the Weimar Repiibhc, begins with six shows in London's Almeida Theatre.