Pandora: Clip sent to room 101
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Your support makes all the difference.Feeling sensitive? The BBC is – or so it seems.
Paul Duddridge, show-business agent-turned documentary maker, is soon to premiere his new project, A Film About Races, in Los Angeles. The work poses the esoteric question "what is race?" and part of it, we're told, examines Anne Robinson's notorious remarks about the Welsh on Room 101 ("What are they for?" she asked "I never did like them.")
All well and good, you might think, except for the fact that the BBC have taken the highly unusual step of refusing Duddridge permission to use the clip, despite his offers of payment.
"We've been in contact with them for five months," he explains . "We were going to be on the BBC's side, too." The production company behind Room 101, Hat Trick, have also refused access, despite the potential for royalties. Neither they nor the Beeb were inclined to comment. "We'll discuss it anyway," says a defiant Duddridge. "We just won't have the clip."
* Joanne Cash, the well-bred Tory candidate for Westminster North was quick to blame her campaign's failure on the press (they "trash people and lie about their families", she fumed). Her team don't share her distaste. Her former campaign manager Stuart Gardner is considering joining the dark side himself. "I've signed up for a NCTJ course in September," he tells us. "But I'm wary of saying too much." No wonder.
* News that Sadie Frost was to write a "tell all biography" was met, by several accounts, with alarm bells chez Law, where her erstwhile husband was said to have called in the lawyers. Why all the fuss? Frost herself is bemused. "I don't think anyone should be worried about it," she insists. "I'm not. It's a really good read." If she says so herself.
* "I've grown up," announces painter-decorator-turned-artworld impressario Steve Lazarides. "I'm 40 now. A bit more mature." The claim is a surprising one. Banksy's former manager – the pair split mysteriously in 2007 – isn't renowned for his decorum. Still, it's just as well. His erstwhile client is currently engaged in a bitter turf war with fellow street artist King Robbo. Lazarides is refusing to get involved. "I want nothing to do with it. I'm the elder statesman."
* Due to visit the British Airways picket line yesterday, joint general secretaries of Unite, Derek Simpson and Tony Woodley, were forced to change their plans. The cause for delay? Transport issues, of course. "Due to delayed arrival over travel difficulties, BA picket line visit will be tomorrow," announced a perky Simpson online. "I know!" Whether or not they planned to board a jet en route remains unknown.
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