Latest 7 magazine

Latest 7 talks to Ryan Gosling about being a martyr for his art and working opposite a sex doll in his new film Lars and the Real Girl

How was it working with your co-star Bianca, a rubber doll?
It was amazing. She showed up at the read through and I just couldn’t take my eyes off her. I found her endlessly fascinating. You think that she’s looking at you sometimes, or that you just caught her blinking. If you could spend ten minutes with her you could see what I mean; you’d fall in love with her too. I saw her effect on myself and on everybody in crew and on the cast. She’s interesting. She asks you to look at yourself and forces you to be creative and develop a relationship with yourself.

But wasn’t it difficult on set?
Actually I would look forward to our scenes together. When they called ‘action’ it was just me and her, and that bonded me to Bianca. I was relaxed when she was on set, she had a calming presence. We just kind of developed this bond where I felt safe in the scenes with her, to the point where I could try anything and do anything.

Did she become real to you?
Yes. It’s a totally different experience reading it to watching the film. She does become real to you because you’re reading it and when you watch it as a film you realise that it’s a doll, and she’s never going to get real. But Craig [director, Craig Gillespie] said: “I’m going to treat her as if she’s got a nudity clause in her contract.” He required that everyone treat her like an actress. She got magazines between takes, she had her own trailer (which she changed in), and when she came on set she was treated like any other actor.

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Burlesque theatre has got a bit of a fuzzy definition in most people’s minds, mixed in as a legitimate name for something a little bit sordid. This is so not the case with Boutique Theatre. The largest burlesque troupe in the country, this is a mix of sassy and sexy, with a sense of humour, which gives you a sly wink and then makes you laugh.

With the beauty of the dance en pointe of Coco Smooth, the torch song chaunteuses, the humour of the striptease – which showed no more flesh than you’d see outside of Gemini’s of a hot summer’s day – and even a trapeze artist, this was fabulous, sumptuous entertainment. Topped with an old style cancan that sent shivers through us, as well as various other flavours of extravagance throughout the night, this was a feast for the senses.

Concorde 2, April 12 2008
Victoria Nangle

Sandra Omo on how being a contestant for Miss Nigeria isn’t all easy

When I arrived at the Nigerian international airport, I was excited. My journey had been a long one because the flight was delayed for over an hour and when we finally left Gatwick, it felt like a whole day’s flight, due to my anxiety. As if the delay in London was not enough, I met another delay in Lagos – my baggage took forever to come out. When it finally did, I could not find the number of the driver assigned to pick me up. It then took me a couple of hours to get hold of the driver, who was at the car park waiting for me to call. I arrived in Lagos at exactly six and by the time I arrived at the hotel, where all the contestants were staying, it was half past ten.

I was impressed when I arrived at the hotel. It is huge and beautiful – well it is a five star hotel. I was not through absorbing the beauty of the hotel when the organisers presented me with a basket of fruit and flowers and a portable DVD player. I guess they thought we could do with some movies while in camp but believe me, it was so hectic I barely had five hours’ sleep each night and couldn’t even think about bringing the DVD player out of its box. Because I arrived late I couldn’t meet the other contestants, as they were already in bed. By the time I met everyone the next morning, it dawned on me I had come here for a competition and what a huge competition. But my ability to always stand out from the crowd pulled me through.

“As I write, my feet are swollen and my face is crying for freedom from make-up”

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Katie is not a fan of life in cartoon motion, and stumbles across Mika’s dark secret

I am not a fan of Mika. I hope he takes this personally. He should. Because the reason I don’t like him is not that his sell-out sugar drenched pop makes me want to reach for a bottle of gin, a packet of painkillers and a sharp razor. It is because he is a twat.

Anytime I have met Mika he’s been a moron. (Never was alliteration so satisfactory). Reserving his multicoloured charisma for the likes of music videos and daytime TV he manages the feat of consistently behaving like a spoilt diva and a nobody at the same time.

This off-message muppetry comes across in various forms, but most significantly so in his miserable antisocialness.

The first time I meet Mika it was at a hugely public event – 200 plus people had been invited, Read the rest of this article »