Chris Pratt “My Son Thinks Acting is Stupid”

Chris prattIt can be hard to impress your kids. Parents are often thought of as uncool and poor Chris Pratt has found that even being a famous Hollywood actor does not help. Chris’s four-year-old son Jack thinks that acting is “stupid”.

The truth came out when the 37-year-old was doing a Reddit Ask Me Anything segment where someone asked if his kid thought he was a firefighter. “”He knows I’m an actor, but he thinks it’s kind of stupid. haha! I suppose he’s right!!!”

He also said his wife Anna Faris was his favourite actress and that he would love to work with her one day.

He also told Entertainment Tonight that his son was a natural behind the camera.

“Jack has been on set to visit me on every movie I’ve done since he’s been alive, he’s getting really comfortable with the idea of sitting behind the monitors. He’s like a little director! There was a moment when he was behind the monitors where the director and the producer sit, watching what’s happening on camera. He had his cans (headphones) on and he was looking through his little glasses at the monitor, and he just said, ‘Can I get a coconut water? And he wasn’t like talking to anyone necessarily, which is totally terrible behaviour that we do all the time, where you just like throw a random request into the ether and expect someone to deliver it cause we’re totally spoiled brat baby actors.”

 

The Grantchester Mysteries by James Runcie Review By Margaret Graham

grantchester mysteries , book review

I feel a bit of a fraud saying that this is a review. It is really a ‘I could kiss your feet, James Runcie, I enjoy these so much.’ And I’m not really a devotee of feet.

Honestly, for a lilting evocation of a gentler time, the early 1960s,this is the series for you. Though there are murders, but somehow they’re rather charming too.

I stumbled across Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death by accident, but from the first page, I loved it. It’s not just because I can picture James Norton in his television role of Sidney, or Robson Green as Inspector Keating, but it is the life it evokes, the mysteries, the profound insights into Sidney’s world as a man of God, at times a slightly doubting one (?). They are uproarously funny, or so I have found The Problem of Evil, but also moving. His love for his wife is touching, his confusion as a male living with a female, hilarious.

I find myself pondering them, wondering  if the books are actually about friendship: he and Keating, he and his wife. Then there’s his feelings of compassion, at times sorely tried, his confusion at the behaviour of people,his beloved dog who dies… Arghh.

Do try them, enjoy them. They will remind you of good things, good people, and you will continue to picture Sidney and Keating  playing their weekly backgammon, and sorting out the problems of the Cambridge area. I am reading them out of order, I’m sure, but it doesn’t matter. I still guess at who dun it, and each stands on its own. I think I prefer the series to coffee creams, and that’s saying something.

I now have The Perils of the Night, and The Forgiveness of Sins to read. I do hope there is another on the way, or I might sulk. It has been known.

James Runcie is the son of former Archbishop Runcie.  He is novelist, documentary film-maker, television producer and playwright. He is Commissioning Editor for Arts on BBC Radio 4, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and visiting professor at Bath Spa University. (where my daughter went to university and loved every minute)

The Grantchester Mysteries published by Bloomsbury. Read them, I insist.

 

 

 

Elizabeth Taylor's Bel Air estate sells

Dame Elizabeth Taylor’s home has been sold.

The Oscar-winning actress – who passed away from congestive heart failure in March at the age of 79 – lived in the 1960s ranch-style house in Bel Air, California, for 30 years until her death, and it is now believed to have sold for somewhere in the region of $8.6 million.

According to an email announcement from listing agent David Mossler of Teles Properties, the property was purchased by an undisclosed buyer after 33 days on the market.

While the price the ranch was eventually sold for is yet to be revealed, the 7,000-square-foot estate – previously owned by singer Nancy Sinatra – features its own swimming pool, maids’ quarters and bricked motor court.

Meanwhile, the second-floor master suite offers “treetop views, master bath with spa tub, adjacent dressing room/salon and two smaller bedrooms”.

Elizabeth’s son Christopher Wilding previously said of the property: “The house was where we all gathered, especially at Thanksgiving and Easter. She never entertained the notion of moving.”

Elsewhere, a number of items belonging to the ‘Cleopatra’ actress are to be sold at auction in December.

Marc Porter, chairman of Christie’s Americas – who will be selling the star’s personal possessions – said: “A rare woman who was at once an international film and fashion star, loving mother, successful businesswoman and generous humanitarian, this collection of her many cherished possessions will bring us closer to the essence of Elizabeth Taylor’s unique spirit.”

Orlando Bloom intimated by LA

Orlando Bloom thinks Los Angeles is “big and intimidating”.

The British actor – who divides his time with wife Miranda Kerr and their six-month-old son Flynn between London and the US city – was overwhelmed when he took a flight out of California and caught a glimpse of the landscape.

He said: “My first overriding memory of LA is flying out of the city to New Zealand to do ‘Lord of the Rings’ and looking out of the window of the plane thinking it looked big and intimidating.

“A bit scary really – just so vast and bustling.”

Despite regarding Los Angeles as his work base, Orlando loves going out into the hills on his bicycle.

He said: “I love being close to nature and being outdoors, so I would have to say my favourite part of LA is the hills or the canyons, which are great for mountain biking.”

However, the actor also loves to spend time at home with his family and friends.

Asked to describe a perfect day, he told Tatler magazine: “Having family time, good food, good friends, a nice glass of wine, then winding down with a movie at home.”

Natalie Portman names son Alef

Natalie Portman has named her baby son Alef.

The Oscar-winning actress and her fiance, choreographer Benjamin Millepied, have named their first child – who was born last month – after the first letter in the Hebrew alphabet.

According to Israeli TV Show ‘Good Evening with Guy Pines’, the Jewish actress decided to pay homage to her motherland with the moniker, which also means the “oneness of God”.

Meanwhile, the couple – who met on the set of ‘Black Swan’- have decided their son will adopt both their last names with the surname Portman-Millepied.

Prior to the birth of baby Alef, who is yet to be seen in public, Natalie admitted her Jewish ancestry had caused her to be “superstitious”.

She explained: “I think it’s a Jewish thing to be kind of superstitious. You don’t do any of the baby stuff before the baby arrives.”

Throughout her pregnancy Natalie paid tribute to her parents Avner and Shelley Hershlag, saying she hoped to look after her child in the same way that she was brought up.

She said: “If I am a shadow as good a parent, an echo, then I will be the best in the world, so thank you.”