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Hollywood A-lister, Patrick Bergin, brings Tinseltown to local Rottingdean pub
If you fancy a chance of some real Hollywood A-list star spotting, head off to a certain pub on a Tuesday night in Rottingdean and you’re more than likely to bump into the Irish actor Patrick Bergin.
The swarthily handsome star made his name opposite Julia Roberts in Sleeping With The Enemy, as the lead in Robin Hood and as the baddie in Patriot Games with Harrison Ford. And he’s been making five or six films a year since in various countries around the world, as well as putting in stints on the stage.
His latest films, due for release this year, include playing a senator in the Swedish movie The Black Pimpernel, Strength and Honour with Michael Madsen and Vinnie Jones, and the animated Dominator X which is directed by one Tony Luke. Is that the same Brighton Tony who used to illustrate rather good adult comics?
At the moment he’s shooting Connolly, opposite Peter Mullan and directed by Adrian Dunbar.
So which pub did I say? Ah, well. You’ll just have to do a pub crawl of the village to find out.
Serious roles for Alistair
One of Brighton and Hove’s newest residents, funnyman Alistair McGowan, has been cast as the lead role in The Mikado in the West End at the Gielgud Theatre.
The show opens on Wednesday 30 January and runs until 10 February. The man who made John Motson popular is starring opposite Nichola McAuliffe and the show is the start of a big Gilbert and Sullivan season.
The Big Impression comic, who looked very tanned and slim when I saw him at Victoria Station the other day, has turned his hand to more serious roles, appearing in the BBC’s adaptation of Dickens’ Bleak House, and has bought a house in the trendy Seven Dials area.
He has just finished working on his first major film role with the team who made My Big Fat Greek Wedding.
Brothers in arms
Gary Marshall, the brains behind one of Brighton’s biggest success stories of recent years, the Guitar, Amp and Keyboards Centre in North Road, which has expanded online (www.gak.co.uk) to become one of the biggest musical retailers in Europe, has just returned from his winter break to find he had a famous footballer as a new neighbour.
Gary, who will be known to many of you as one of the leaders of legendary local ska band The Hot Knives, has a house in one of the landmark developments in Dubai and while putting out the trash he bumped into Manchester United midfielder Paul Scholes who lives three doors down. A couple of ‘hellos’ later and the pair are now great buddies. Does this mean the Albion season ticket will be traded in for some prawn sandwiches, Gazza?
A fond farewell
And finally a sad farewell to Mike Howard, one of The Argus’s critics, who died recently. A kind man, he’ll be remembered in these quarters for – as well as his reviews – his flamboyant taste in cuff links, his love of Inspector Morse, and his ability to successfully concentrate and review a film at midnight in the Odeon, or a play at the Theatre Royal, despite the loud snoring of his fellow critic Bob Shelton. A rare talent indeed.
Jo Brooks is director of Brighton-based PR company JBPR Ltd
01273 622555, www.jb-pr.com
