» Celebcity with Jo Brookes
Banksy premiere paints the town, Marcus Brigstocke exits in comic style, and Ian Fleming’s nephew visits
Spray Painting with the Stars
Last Monday saw the UK premiere of the film by UK artist and Brighton favourite Banksy. I took the JBPR team along and we decamped onto the spray-on red carpet underneath Waterloo Station to manage the paparazzi pack (and believe me, a press pack of 30 snappers is quite hard to manage!)
The film was being shown in a pop-up cinema inside the train arches right underneath the old Eurostar platforms and was complete with make-shift box office, fully flushing toilets, banksy art installations and the all important ice cream van providing freshly popped pop corn and bags of Haribo.
As guests arrived, they were encouraged to make their mark on a bit of wall outside the tunnel entrance. The guest list was pretty stellar, including Mark Ronson, Keith Allen, Daisy Lowe, Edith Bowman, Eliza Doolittle, Thandie Newton, Sean Pertwee and Rhys Ifans – who incidentally narrates the film.
But the star of the show had to be hot actress and daughter of Ray Winstone, Jaime Winstone, who arrived – in keeping with the evening – wearing a spray on body con catsuit that looked completely amazing.
On leaving the event, Jaime decided to literally spray the paps with spray paint, which made for quite an interesting spectacle. She did leave her mark, that’s for sure. If you want to catch Exit Through The Gift Shop, it is currently showing at the Duke of Yorks cinema in Preston Circus – it’s a must see!
Marcus’ Mad Dash
Saturday night saw me bent double with laughter at the Marcus Brigstocke and Friends gig at the Theatre Royal in Brighton. Argumental host and Radio 4 favourite Marcus had gathered together a gaggle of his best comedy friends, including Mark Steel and Brighton local Alastair McGowan, to put on a benefit in support of the Green Party.
Not surprisingly the comedy was extremely political and not a night David Cameron (also hosting a gig in town last weekend) would have enjoyed. The audience played their part, texting some of the naughtiest jokes of the night to Marcus to win a rather less than glamorous pot of humous.
The comedy didn’t end there. While making my way home I spotted Marcus running hell for leather across the Brighton Station concourse in what looked like fancy dress: tweed suit, huge two-tone brogues, cape and an enormous tweed cap, heading for the London Victoria train.
The large titfer must have obscured his view as he ran straight past the train bound for the capital and right down the wrong platform before doubling back with his cape and two satchels flapping in the wind, finally jumping on the right train with just seconds to spare. What a night!
Bonding Over a Good Book
To celebrate the launch of City Reads on World Book Day last Thursday, I joined festival organisers Max Crisfield and Sarah Hutchings at their party at myhotel. The book chosen for the 2010 City Reads is the Ian Fleming Bond classic, From Russia With Love – apparently one of JFK’s favourite tomes.
In attendance at BOTTLE (the café-bar in myhotel) was playwright and author Damian Barr, who will be appearing throughout April as myhotel’s ‘reader in residence’. Damian will be reading excerpts from the book in the hotel’s penthouse while his audience sip vodka-martinis.
Guest of honour at the event was Robert Laycock, Ian Flemings’ great nephew, who spoke about his love for the book. We were all shaken and stirred by the fabulous entertainment – I do love a Bond theme! A whole programme of events (many free) will take place across the city until 28 May – click on www.cityreads.co.uk to get involved.
