Sydney Sweeney may be Hollywood’s sex bomb du jour, but the 26-year-old, who first caught the eye in Euphoria and The White Lotus, is determined not to be typecast.
In her new film, Eden, glamorous Sweeney will be playing a mumsy hausfrau alongside some A-List talent — including Jude Law and Vanessa Kirby — and I hear she more than holds her own.
Buzz is already building about her strong performance in the picture, a thriller from director Ron Howard about a group of settlers on Floreana — a remote island in the Galapagos — in the 1930s, based on a stranger-than-fiction true story.
Law plays Dr Friedrich Ritter, a pioneering nudist German vegetarian (with stainless steel teeth). Kirby plays his wife Dore.
In her new film, Eden, glamorous Sydney Sweeney (pictured) will be playing a mumsy hausfrau
Sweeney stars alongside A-List legend Jude Law (pictured)
Ana de Armas is the ‘Baroness’, who arrives determined to build a hotel on the isle, and takes numerous lovers
Ana de Armas is the ‘Baroness’, who arrives determined to build a hotel on the isle, and takes numerous lovers. And Sweeney is Margaret Wittner, married to Heinz (played by Daniel Bruhl).
Put them all together and murder and mayhem ensue.
A source says: ‘Sydney is amazing. It’s going to take her Hollywood career up to a new level, playing across from all of these heavyweight actors and working with a director of Ron’s calibre. ‘
The film has been produced by Hollywood super-indies Imagine and AGC Studios, and is expected to launch its awards campaign with a premiere at the Venice Film Festival this summer.
True tale of the ‘spy who loved me’ heads to the big screen
Jodie Comer poses at the 2023 Outer Critics Circle Awards at The New York Public Library for Performing Arts on May 25, 2023
The amazing — true — story of the British undercover policeman who had a baby with an animal rights activist (without her knowing his real identity) is to be told in a Hollywood film.
Everything I Ever Knew, written by Prima Facie’s Suzie Miller, tells the story of Jacqui who discovers, after 25 years, that the father of her eldest son was not a fellow activist, but an undercover cop.
Interest in the tale was sparked by the 2012 article The Spy Who Loved Me, published in the New Yorker.
Bob Lambert was a policeman who posed as a long-haired anarchist and had a romance with animal rights activist Jacqui. They had a son but, when he was two, Bob vanished.
Two decades later, in 2012, Jacqui read an article about spy cops and realised that her disappearing boyfriend had been a police officer.
In 2014, the Met paid her £425,000 in return for her dropping legal action alleging assault, negligence, deceit and misconduct. In 2020, Scotland Yard apologised and paid compensation to her son.
At least two other police spies are known to have fathered children with activists. A public inquiry into undercover policing is under way.
Jacqui, now 62, lives in Essex and teaches law at a college. She was contacted by director Phyllida Lloyd and is a paid consultant on the film.
Her son and Lambert are supportive of the project. (Against the odds, the three of them have maintained a friendly relationship, after the initial shock of the revelation wore off.)
Jacqui said: ‘I’m excited and a bit terrified. What happened to me was like an atomic bomb going off in my life. The repercussions have gone on for decades . . . it took me a long time to get my head around it and find some peace.’
Director Lloyd said: ‘It was as if someone had taken this woman, thrown her against a wall and shattered her into a million pieces . . .
‘You want to help her make sense of it, give her the voice she deserves. To bring to life the outrageous roller-coaster of her story,’ she continued, adding: ‘This is a role for a mighty actress.’
Sources say someone with an international profile — such as Jodie Comer, , star of one-woman smash hit play Prima Facie — would be a natural fit.
Another similar project, After You’d Gone, starring Gemma Arterton and with input from women who were involved with undercover police officers, is also in development.
Foodie Jake finds cookery a piece of cake
Jake and girlfriend Jeanne Cadieu are also keen bakers; a favourite is buttermilk cake
It turns out Hollywood’s Jake Gyllenhaal is a huge foodie.
The actor, who is currently starring in Apple TV+’s Presumed Innocent, said: ‘Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall — do you know him?
‘He leaves his gig as a chef in London and he buys a place out in the English countryside, like a little cottage, and what he does is he learns about the land, and he learns about how to raise animals and how to grow things.’
Jake and girlfriend Jeanne Cadieu are also keen bakers; a favourite is buttermilk cake. Sister Maggie says: ‘He’s as gifted a cook as he is an actor.’
Bethany Antonia — Lady Baela Targaryen in The House Of The Dragon, which sees season two launch at the weekend — reveals that, in truth, the experience was quite low-tech.
‘No matter how much budget you have, and how much CGI, there’s always going to be a guy with a wind machine,’ she says.
Boxset 1, bordeom 0
Gabby, who is a key figure in the BBC host line-up said: ‘I discovered a wonderful BBC sitcom called Two Doors Down’
With Euro 2024 about to kick off, Gabby Logan is searching for a box set to help her decompress in any down time.
Gabby, who is a key figure in the BBC host line-up said: ‘I discovered a wonderful BBC sitcom called Two Doors Down when I was working at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. And the Scandi drama The Bridge when I covered the Euros in Ukraine and Poland in 2012. So, this time, I’m on the lookout for an immersive, dark German thriller.
‘I’m too old to be decompressing with late nights out, and I’m certainly too old to be presenting with hangovers, so box sets it has to be.’
Coming soon? The break-up of Bennifer (Part II)
Over the past few weeks the pair, known as Bennifer, have been arriving and leaving separately at various events involving their children. (Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez at ‘The Mother’ film premiere)
Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck are clearly on the outs — with news of a divorce ‘imminent’ according to multiple sources. But when will an announcement come?
‘She likes to dump news on a Friday,’ a J-Lo insider said, adding that the singer tends to be ‘strategic’ with her announcements and may wait until she can marry the sad news with something upbeat . . . news of a Vegas residency, or another commercial tie-in. ‘She’s a smart cookie,’ the source revealed.
Over the past few weeks the pair, known as Bennifer, have been arriving and leaving separately at various events involving their children (they have five between them from previous marriages) and it seems that their needs will be a priority.
Affleck moved out of their Los Angeles mansion in May and is now living in Brentwood, close to his first wife, Jennifer Garner.
Lopez announced on June 1 that she was scrapping her tour, saying she wanted to take time off ‘to be with her children, family and close friends’.
Friends meanwhile are speculating that the actress and singer might rebound to her former fiance Alex Rodriguez (‘A-Rod’).
‘He was always her best match,’ one friend commented, despite reports that A-Rod’s infidelity led to the collapse of their engagement in 2021. ‘I don’t think cheating is a deal-breaker for her any more,’ they continued. ‘I think she won’t announce the split until she has someone else lined up.’
The pal added that J-Lo and Yankees baseball legend Rodriguez were well matched in terms of ‘lifestyle, looks and grooming’.
A-Rod and J-Lo started dating in 2017 after he saw her in a restaurant and tapped her on the shoulder. They went official on the red carpet at the Met Gala that May.
He proposed marriage to her with a $4 million (£3.14 million) diamond ring in 2019, and they had a handwritten note of congratulations from former U.S. President Barack Obama. But they split in February 2021, after he was linked to reality star Madison LeCroy. She admitted they’d exchanged messages but denied a physical relationship. Rodriguez is now dating fitness guru Jaclyn Cordeiro.
Some fear that Affleck, who has been in and out of rehab, may be at risk of a relapse during this marital crisis. Both he and his wife continue to wear their wedding rings.
Who Wants to Be A Millionaire? presenter Jeremy Clarkson poses for a promotional shot
Who Wants to Be A Millionaire? is finally recruiting new brains for the programme, which looks set to return to our screens next year.
No new episodes have been made since shortly after host Jeremy Clarkson’s anti-Meghan outburst in December 2022 and, for a time, there was talk that he might even be axed.
But ITV announced last month that the quiz show will be back — with Clarkson (left) still in the host’s chair. The search is now on for contestants. But get in quick: applications close in November.
Excitement over the filming of the third in the Knives Out movie series, starring Daniel Craig as Detective Benoit Blanc, as well as Josh O’Connor, Andrew Scott, Jeremy Renner and Daryl McCormack.
The title, Wake Up Dead Man, suggests that director Rian Johnson is repeating his Glass Onion trick, by referencing a musical track.
Not the Beatles this time, but a 1997 song by U2. Johnson hopes there will be many more instalments.
‘If each one of these can really be what Agatha Christie did — if it can be not just in a totally new location, with a new cast, but also trying something exciting — I’ll keep doing it as long as Daniel [Craig] and I are having a good time.’
And as long as Netflix is willing to foot the bill… the streamer is said to have forked out in excess of $400 million (£300 million) for the rights to parts two and three.
My, my, Mr Myrie, that’s a new look
The Mastermind presenter revealed that he was very glad he had turned down offers to appear as a contestant on the celebrity version of the show
We are used to seeing newsreader Clive Myrie in a sober suit and tie, behind a desk — but, outside of work, he breaks out the shades, trucker cap and a natty little kerchief (pictured).
Arriving to give a talk at the Guildhall in Bath, Myrie joked: ‘Who am I wearing, darling?’ before quipping: ‘Make sure you get my best side!’
The Mastermind presenter revealed that he was very glad he had turned down offers to appear as a contestant on the celebrity version of the show.
‘They asked me to be on the celebrity version twice, before I got the job. I am so glad I said no. I would have been rubbish — and I would never have got the job as the presenter!
‘I am a classic journalist. I know a little bit about lots of things. But the kind of depth you need for Mastermind . . . the contestants are so amazing, and it’s a real insight into what the great British people are into. I learn something new on every episode of that show.’