Idris Elba, James Corden and Gok Wan all appeared at Advertising Week Europe at BAFTA this month, speaking on various panels about the advertising and creative industries.
Victoria Pendleton, Freddie Flintoff, Morgan Spurlock, Sir Trevor McDonald, Natasha Kaplinsky, Caitlin Moran Steve McManaman, Ashley Roberts, and Steve Coogan all also attended. It was pretty star-studded and we have some pictures.
In an astonishingly versatile career that has lasted nearly two decades, British filmmaker Michael
Winterbottom has turned his hand to an astonishing amount of challenging and diverse output.
His work has strayed from fiction to factual, between comedy and drama and from light froth
to storms of controversy. His new film marks the fourth collaboration with comedian Steve
Coogan, their most notable so far being 24 Hour Party People, an excellent account of the
Manchester music scene of the late 70’s and early 80’s. Their subject matter this time around
is Paul Raymond, ‘The King Of Soho’, a notorious figure of the British media who starting in
the late 50’s built an empire from his ‘gentleman’s clubs’, pornography publications and real
estate properties to become the richest man in Britain, broke many taboos of the post-war era and
led an extravagant lifestyle both in and out of the public spotlight. Such a divisive and colorful
character seems almost tailor made for a tell all, illuminating biopic; a modern day King Midas
story. Citizen Kane by way of Boogie Nights if you will.
Soho, 1958: Paul Raymond (Coogan) along with his wife Jean (Anna Friel) open their
first ‘gentlemen’s club’ which allow it’s patrons access to displays of sexuality previously
unavailable due to British law. As the years pass, Raymond invests in multiple properties and
starts his own magazine publications which quickly make him one of the country’s wealthiest
men. However his rise to the top is littered with adversity and tragedy shown through the prism
of the other two key women in his life; Fiona Richmond (Tamsin Egerton), cover girl and
journalist for his Men Only Magazine and Debbie Raymond (Imogen Poots), his utterly devoted
and loving daughter who was destined to take over his empire.
Raymond’s excessive and colorful lifestyle was no secret to the public at large; he had an
uncanny knowledge of PR and treated his name like a brand. The Look Of Love certainly
succeeds at portraying this lavish and sordid empire in terrific detail. Costume and set designs
are beautifully rendered across the decades that the story spans and it’s quite remarkable that
with a fairly modest budget at the filmmakers disposal, the streets are Soho are convincingly
transformed to their period look. Cinematographer Hubert Taczanowski conjures up a stunning
look for the film. The early 50’s set monochrome sequences morph into a lurid, enticing color
scheme that practically drips off the screen and replicates the grainy film stock feel of the era
that thankfully doesn’t feel forced although a number of flashy edits and montage sequences feel
a tad overdone. Unfortunately it’s in discussing the brilliant visual aesthetic of the film that you
can’t help but notice it coming up shorthand in the emotional department.
Raymond’s life was not without it’s moments of heartbreak and tragedy and the film doesn’t
shy away from them. The problem is that for the majority of its running time it assumes the
veil of a bawdy, knockabout comedy breezing through the darker and more dubious aspects
of Raymond’s career without much time to absorb the morality or the lack of it. A scene
where he faces allegations that one of his clubs is being operated as a brothel is quite literally
blink and you miss it, as though the filmmakers are worried that you may start to dislike
this man. Montages whip past in a blur stopping to name drop many important events and
accomplishments of Raymond’s eventful life yet we rarely get any heft or scope of these events.
At it’s worst it almost resembles a live action Wikipedia biography page. It’s understandable that
the filmmakers would want to market the film to the widest possible audience by keeping the
appeal broad and the laughs coming. It’s certainly not without it’s funny moments and they are
their best when dark and scathing. The sight of Raymond giving his daughter a line of cocaine
to help her through labour elicits gasps and guffaws in equal measure. Yet the film revels in it’s
comic background to a sometimes overbearing degree. Cameos from the likes of Stephen Fry,
Dara O’Briain David Walliams and Matt Lucas (in a an uncanny portrayal of John Water’s
muse Divine) are distracting and many of them far too fleeting to have any major impact on the
narrative.
Then there is Coogan himself in the central role of Raymond. Coogan is an undeniable talent
and it can be a pleasure to see comedic actors broaden their range with more straight faced
fare. However as talented a performer as he is Coogan feels miscast in the role. One of the
key problems is that the spectre of his most famous creation, appalling self centred Norfolk
based DJ Alan Partridge, hangs over the performance. Many of Coogan’s mannerisms and
vocal inflections skirt very close to that of Partridge (look out for the scene where he coaches
his dancers through their moves) and it can’t help but pull you further out of the world the
filmmaker’s are clearly working very hard to create. It seems almost churlish to criticise Coogan
for being the gifted comic actor that he is but here the pitch of the performance jars badly, the
character is played so much for laughs that when we step into his darker moments there’s a
distinct lack of empathy. Fortunately many of the supporting performances raise the films game,
most notably from the trio of actresses who play the women of Raymond’s life. Anna Friel is
terrifically steely as Raymond’s first wife; a solid bedrock of support for her husband’s ventures
and she provides one of the genuinely raw moments of drama as their marriage falls apart.
Tamsin Egerton piles on the glamour but is no fool as Raymond’s pin up girlfriend. Imogen
Poots arguably steals the whole thing as Debbie Raymond, pulling off what on paper seems like
a character of contradictions; hedonistic and full of life yet fragile and achingly vulnerable. It’s
the scenes between father and daughter that stick in the mind and hint the most at Raymond’s
softer and more conventional family persona. It’s in these scenes that we perhaps get a clearer
picture of what the film was aiming for before the tone got muddled.
The Look Of Love is certainly no disaster but given Michael Winterbottom’s terrific range
and style this can’t help but feel incredibly conventional, underwhelming and perhaps only as
substantial as one of its protagonist’s glossy publications. A lot of razzle but not enough dazzle.
The Leveson Inquiry has been warned that actor and activist Hugh Grant has been “punished” for his decision to speak out about press intrusion on Monday.
Associated Newspapers – publisher of the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday- hit out at Grant’s allegation that his phone had been hacked by the Mail on Sunday by claiming that he had lied under oath.
“Mr Grant’s allegations are mendacious smears driven by his hatred of the media,” the publisher said in a statement that also said that it “utterly refutes” Grant’s claims.
Barristers representing the Metropolitan Police and numerous hacking victims have said that the actor’s treatment after giving evidence would probably be “intimidating” to other witnesses.
The Daily Mail also “unequivocally denies” the paying of a hospital source to secure information about the birth of his first child.
Robert Sherborne, the legal counsel representing the hacking victims said the newspaper was using its power to bully the star.
“What was filed in the pages of the Daily Mail and the website was not a denial but a personal attack on Mr Grant as a witness…what they suggested is that he was deliberately lying.”
“There is a difference between a right of reply and a right of attack – if those you have been brave enough to come and give evidence receive this kind of treatment then witnesses will be unwilling to be that brave any longer,” Sherborne added.
Metropolitan Police QC Neil Garman was also concerned that Grant’s treatment could affect other witnesses
“Witnesses will be very cautious, we fear, if the likelihood is that they will face that kind of treatment the day after.
Other high profile witnesses who are expected to give evidence are Steve Coogan, Sienna Miller [one of the first people to sue News Corporation] and JK Rowling.
Jonathan Caplan QC, representing Associated Newspapers, said that the newspapers had made the statement “under pressure” in response to serious allegations of serious criminal misconduct, which it denied.
When asked about the attack on Grant, Caplan told Lord Justice Leveson:”I accept everything you say.”
Grant told the hearing he had tried to keep his ex-girlfriend Tinglan Hong’s pregnancy secret after the News of the World first speculated that she may be carrying his baby in April. Grant said: “my overwhelming motive throughout this whole episode was to protect the mother of my child”.
Grant said that Hong had been followed by paparazzi but the papers “seem not to have anything to print that could link her to me until I visited the hospital after the birth when again there seems to have been a leak from the hospital”
Grant said that he received a phone call the next day from the Daily Mail, and then the Daily Star. He said that he refused to comment, believing that to do so would give the paper confidence to publish.
He said that the Mail had adopted a “fishing technique and they didn’t want to print the story based solely on the hospital source because that might have been unethical or possibly illegal so they needed a comment from my side and that is why I said nothing”.
The Mail did not publish the item. The news was then published by US Weekly last month. The actor said the baby was the product of a “fleeting affair” and that Hong was “besieged” by photographers after the news was published and the actor was forced to take out an injunction to force them to go away.
When questioned by Robert Jay, QC to the Leveson inquiry, Grant said the only people who knew about he child were a female cousin, and Hong’s Chinese parents, “who spoke no English”.
The Mail issued a statement saying it “unequivocally denies Hugh Grant’s allegation that it secured information about the birth of his child from a source at the hospital” which instead came from “a source in his showbusiness circle more than two weeks after the birth”.
Grant said that he was sure the Mail had hacked his phone and referred to a report in the Mail on Sunday in February 2007, which said his relationship with his then girlfriend, Jemima Khan, was “on the rocks” because of “persistent late-night phone calls with a plummy-voiced executive from Warner Brothers” – a story he said was “completely untrue”. Jemima Khan also denied the story via her Twitter account.
Lord Justice Leveson also heard evidence from the parents of Milly Dowler, the murdered schoolgirl whose phone was appallingly hacked by the News of the World.
Bob and Sally Dowler spoke publicly for the first time about the moment they believed their daughter was picking up her voicemail messages, giving false hope that she was still alive.
Sally Dowler’s told the inquiry that after a period in which every time she rang her missing daughter’s mobile phone, it said the mailbox was full. She said: “It clicked through on to her voicemail so I heard her voice and [said]: ‘She’s picked up her voicemail Bob, she’s alive’.”
The couple also told the court that a private walk they took seven weeks after their daughter’s disappearance was pictured prominently in the News of the World. They claimed photographers were tipped off about the walk after the paper hacked their mobile phones.
Bob Dowler said: “The thing to remember is the walk was nothing to do with Milly’s phone.” His wife added: “That was our own home phone or own mobile phones.”
News International has paid £2m in compensation to the Dowler family, and the company said it had nothing further to add following their testimony.
i’s 100 Issue Anniversary – Tues 15th March
Last night i held a glittering party at Century to celebrate its 100th issue. The newspaper sells over 170,000 copies a day and has been going for 6 months. At the party we chatted to national treasure Ian Hislop, talked to the gorgeous Ronni Ancona who told us to watch her and Olly Murs do a trek for Comic Relief on Thursday.
Nancy Dell’Ollio looked stunning, Emily Maitlis and Dom Joly chatted in the corner for most of the night, Amanda Donohoe was very friendly and Janet Street Porter was tall and charismatic. Dom Joly was telling everyone about breaking his leg on Celebrity Wipe Out.. When he arrived he was struggling up three flights of stairs before Nancy Dell’Ollio pointed out the lift and helped him into it.
We congratulated Editor Simon Kelner who gave a good speech. A ‘slightly tipsy’ journalist embarrassed Ronni Ancona with a story involving an illegal substance, a hotel room and Steve Coogan. Thankfully she was saved by Ian Hislop and made a swift exit. We also managed not to give the Evening Standard’s diary journalist too much gossip, even though he was a ridiculous amount of fun and had a good conversation with Bang Media’s Ricky Sky. All in all, an amazing night.
