Daily Telegraph - Access Interviews

Dakota Fanning

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 12:41:22 +0000

A rape scene in Dakota Fanning's new film has led to a rare brush with controversy for the sweet young starlet. She is only 14, but Dakota Fanning has already achieved more than most actresses do in their entire careers. The blonde-haired, blue-eyed starlet has held her own against such powerful on-screen presences as Tom Cruise, Sean Penn, Denzel Washington and Robert De Niro, whom she calls "Bob", and she earns £4 million a picture. Now, like Brooke Shields and Jodie Foster before her, who were about her age when they played prostitutes on screen, the eerily adult Fanning is generating controversy and outrage over a rape scene in the film Hounddog, which she made when she was 12 but which is only now being released. The low-budget, Southern Gothic tale, about a 12-year-old motherless girl obsessed with Elvis Presley, kicked up a controversy and elicited boos when it was shown at the Sundance film festival last year. Religious and conservative groups objected to the rape scene, which Fanning filmed without a body double, and petitions were circulated demanding that Fanning's mother be jailed on child pornography charges. The outcry, coupled with some negative reviews, sent distributors scurrying from the project. Now, 18 months later, Hounddog has been drastically recut, has found a distributor, and Fanning, who has emerged unscathed, calmly dismisses the fuss that surrounded it. "It's a movie and it's called acting," she says. ...

William Gallas

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 12:41:22 +0000

William Gallas is no stranger to an emotional outburst, but even he would be forced to admit that his latest effort will take some beating. The Arsenal captain launched a withering assessment of Arsene Wenger's side's campaign so far, questioning his young team-mates' stomach for a scrap and revealing that rows on the pitch and in the dressing room are threatening to derail Arsenal's season. Gallas, speaking while on international duty with France, says he was called upon to cool heads at half-time in the 4-4 draw with Tottenham and in another, unnamed Premier League game when two colleagues exchanged abuse. The former Chelsea defender – who believes his chequered diplomatic history makes him a target for any criticism directed at the club – would like his bickering colleagues to show more maturity. "There are things that can't be said and can't be tolerated. When, as captain, some players come up to you and complain about a player and then during the match you speak to the one who has been criticised and he insults us, there comes a time when we can no longer comprehend how this can happen. "I am trying to defend myself without giving names, otherwise I take all of the blame. It's very frustrating. I'm 31 and the player in question is six years younger than me. "Against Tottenham, there was a problem at half-time. The only thing I could say to them was that we resolve these problems after the match, not in the break." The picture painted by Gallas is of a squad more concerned with battling each other than some of their less illustrious opponents. It is clearly an issue which cuts the Frenchman to the quick. A fine display and two Samir Nasri goals may have put Manchester United to the sword, but limp defeats to Hull, Stoke, Fulham and, most recently, Aston Villa have all but finished off Arsenal's title challenge. And so Gallas has issued a captain's cri de coeur, imploring his talented team-mates to make sure they add steel to the silk for which Wenger's sides have become famous. Without that, he fears, their already faint title hopes will disappear altogether. He said: "We have to understand that to be champions, you have to play big matches every weekend and fight. Maybe against Manchester, the whole team fought for victory. But when you stop fighting together, there comes a time when the midfield will sink and the defenders can also sink. That's what happened against Villa. "We are coming up against teams who are not scared to play football against us, who are not scared to take us on at our place, and this is becoming dangerous. We are not brave enough in battle. I think we need to be soldiers. We have to be warriors." Gallas admitted that Wenger does not seem unduly concerned by his team's form – or, if he is, manages to "hide it well" – but the French international is certain that should Arsenal continue to lack fighting spirit, their title drought will continue this season. They have not won the league since 2004 or a competition of any kind since the following year. Failure to unlock the trophy cabinet this season would make this period the worst Arsenal have endured for 25 years. And that is not good enough, Gallas insists, for either him or an outfit of the Gunners' stature. He said: "I have to win something this year. I have to. Arsenal have to. It's nearly four years since we won anything and that's not good. "Another season without winning anything would be a kind of failure. But for me, the title is not over. It's true that we are nine points behind Chelsea, but you have to be optimistic. You can't give up. "Four defeats is a lot but it's a long season. I think it will be very tight this year and we will have to hope that Chelsea draw a few and lose a few. We will have to see if I will stay if we don't win the title. We don't know what will happen between here and then."

Angelina Jolie

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 12:41:22 +0000

Angelina Jolie tells Will Lawrence about her expanding family, life with Brad - and how her mother inspired the performance that could win her an Oscar. Angelina Jolie's latest movie, Changeling, had a profound effect on her. Before she started work on it, the 33-year-old actress was already a mother of four. But, during the shoot, she decided that she wanted more children. "When I started the film, I wanted to get pregnant," she says bluntly. "I think it was the high emotion of thinking about children, which the film makes you do." Jolie discovered that she was expecting towards the end of the shoot, which started in October 2007, and gave birth to twins Vivienne and Knox the following July. "I didn't want to tell anyone the news [that I was pregnant]. During one scene, I remember someone saying, 'I think Angie should jump up and try and kick the guy.' And I was like, 'Erm, I don't think the character would do that - she's a little more timid and less physical than I am.' Secretly I was thinking, 'I just can't do it in my state!' In many ways, I was relieved to step away from this film."

John Sergeant

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 12:41:22 +0000

The 64-year-old political correspondent has repeatedly been saved from eviction by the public vote despite coming bottom of the score table. Judges on the BBC One show have criticised the public for keeping Sergeant on the show, saying that what started as a "joke" vote is no longer funny. In a statement, Sergeant said: "I am sorry to say I have decided to leave Strictly Come Dancing. "It was always my intention to have fun on the show and I was hoping to stay in as long as possible. "The trouble is that there is now a real danger that I might win the competition. Even for me that would be a joke too far. "I would like to thank Kristina [his dance partner] and all those viewers who have been rooting for me through the series." Sergeant's dramatic departure comes amid reports that the show's producers are considering a new "three strikes and you're out" rule. Under the new rules, which would be adopted for the next series, a contestant who finishes bottom of the judges' leader board for three weeks in a row will be automatically ejected without participating in a dance-off. If Sergeant had been subject to this rule, he would have been removed from the show by now. One of the show's judges, Arlene Phillips, has accused Sergeant of undermining the programme and has said she would be "desolate" if he won. Cherie Lunghi, the actress who lost out in the most recent dance-off, accused the former political journalist of turning the show into a "soap opera". The BBC One controller, Jay Hunt, said Sergeant and his Russian dance partner Kristina Rihanoff would perform a farewell dance during Saturday's show. She added: "We are very sad to see him go."

Claudia Castillo

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 12:41:22 +0000

The first woman to have a transplant of an organ grown from stem cells has spoken of the moment she opened her eyes following the pioneering surgery and knew that her life had changed forever. In an exclusive interview with the Daily Telegraph Claudia Castillo said she feared she would never be able to take her two children to the park, read her youngest a bed time story or take them to visit family in Colombia. "The moment I woke after the procedure, I looked up at the doctor and he smiled and told me it had been successful - it was the best moment ever," she said. "I knew then that I had a life and a future." The 30-year-old Columbian mother of two, who has lived in Spain for nine years, was struck down by tuberculosis five years ago. She was given conventional treatment but her condition worsened. "I was coughing all the time, I couldn't walk very far and I couldn't say more than a few words at a time before becoming breathless," said the dental nurse speaking on Wednesday at the Barcelona hospital where she was treated. "I wasn't able to work and couldn't do the normal things mothers to for their children."

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 12:41:22 +0000

Gary Rhodes loves the Caribbean island of Grenada so much he runs a restaurant there.

Julie Salt

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 12:41:22 +0000

As thousands more layoffs are announced, Neil Tweedie talks to one of the first victims of this middle-class recession. Julie Salt experienced a distinct sense of déjà vu when, last August, her husband, a director of an internet travel company, called her at home in Henley-on-Thames. "He said he would be coming home from work at lunchtime," she says. "I joked, 'So you've lost your job then?' And he said 'yes'. It was horrifying, stomach-churning. It reminded me of the day my dad came back with his tie off and his top button undone." Twenty-nine years earlier, her father had arrived at the house with the same news. He was no longer a middle manager with a transport company, he announced – he was unemployed. So it began again: the shock, the anxiety, the dawning realisation that life would have to change in many ways, not for the better, and possibly for good. There are lots of Julie Salts out there at the moment and, as 2008 turns into 2009, there will be many more. The recession, which for the majority of Britons has remained a news item, is about to become very real. And because of the circumstances of its birth in the financial sector, it is going to bite hardest in the area of the United Kingdom that least understands the effects of large-scale unemployment: London and the South East.

Susan Hampshire

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 12:41:22 +0000

The actress Susan Hampshire explains her fondness for the culture and beauty of St Petersburg - just don't ask her to fly.

Susanne Butscher

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 12:41:22 +0000

Dozing peacefully in her mother's arms, this is four-day-old Maja Butscher, the first baby to be born as the result of a whole ovary transplant. Maja, appropriately named after the Roman goddess of fertility, is a symbol of hope to millions of infertile women around the world who could benefit from the same pioneering procedure which enabled her mother Susanne to conceive naturally. Mrs Butscher, 39, who went through an early menopause, fell pregnant a year after being given an ovary by her identical twin sister. Recovering from the birth at the Portland Hospital in London, she said: "Being a mother at last is an indescribable feeling. It's been hard to take my eyes off her since she was born. "I'm so lucky to have had this wonderful opportunity which has given me a sense of completeness I would never have had otherwise. "Being the first woman in the world to give birth after a whole ovary transplant hasn't sunk in yet, but I'm just so grateful to the doctors who enabled this to happen and to my sister, of course. "I'm happy to be sharing my story with the world to give other women hope who might have similar problems." Doctors believe the pioneering transplant treatment which Mrs Butscher underwent in the US last year will not only benefit women who suffer an early menopause, but could also help women who undergo chemotherapy or radiotherapy for cancer and who could freeze one of their ovaries before beginning treatment.

Clint Eastwood

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 12:41:22 +0000

The 78-year-old actor-director has two new films due and is developing another, but, he tells John Hiscock, his 11-year-old daughter is the biggest priority in his life It's not that Clint Eastwood has an insatiable desire to work. It's just that he can't resist a good script, and they seem to be landing in his lap more often than ever.

Nick Knowles

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 12:41:22 +0000

Nick Knowles recalls a romantic break in Blackpool and the time he almost brought a wife back from Australia.

Beyoncé

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 12:41:22 +0000

Beyoncé has it all - she's Mrs Jay-Z, the undisputed first lady of pop, a figurehead of female empowerment, a burgeoning film star and all-round bootylicious powerhouse equipped with laser-guided ambition. Tom Horan meets the $80-million-a-year diva. Be it on television, in the pages of magazines, or in the little rectangle of a YouTube screen, we tend to see the famous in two dimensions. The rarest and most prized performers are the ones who are able to escape the restrictions of that single flattening plane. Call it presence, dynamism, star power: it is a strange and fleeting quality - and those who possess it can name their price. This may be one reason why Forbes magazine announced last month that the highest-paid pop musician in the world this year, with earnings of $80 million, is the extraordinary singer Beyoncé Knowles. Before I travelled to New York recently to meet the 27-year-old Texan, I had seen her perform just one song. But if you had to choose a single Beyoncé number to witness live, her 2003 breakthrough hit, Crazy in Love, would surely be it. The occasion was the 2004 Brit Awards, held on a wet Tuesday in February at that gloomy west London cowshed, the Earls Court arena. On a night notable for a particularly feeble and parochial showing from British acts, Beyoncé put in an unforgettable performance. As part of her act, two huge Cadillacs were tipped over, fire spurted into the air, and a trillion slivers of silver glitter fell from the sky, but it was the magnificent figure of Beyoncé herself that stayed in the mind, advancing down a white staircase in skyscraper heels, hair blasted vertical by hidden fans, not so much singing a song as detonating a great bomb of glamour, passion and joie de vivre in the middle of the whole lacklustre affair. On screen her ability to project is exceptional; witnessed in 3D that night it left the thousands in Earls Court crackling with pleasure. ...

Jo Wood

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 12:41:22 +0000

Rolling Stones wife Jo Wood talks for the first time about life after being deserted by Ronnie - and how she's found happiness again. This is Jo Wood's moment. It may not seem that way, what with her wayward husband running off with a Russian cocktail waitress 33 years her junior but, from where I am sitting (alongside her at a department store make-up counter), this marital crisis might just be the making of her. Until the middle of this year, Jo Wood was known to the great British public only by dint of being the wife of mad Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood, as the pretty little thing he had met at a party in 1977 when he was still married but also having an affair with model Pattie Boyd. Jo was a model, briefly, too, but mostly she became Ronnie's wife, producing two children, Leah and Tyrone, and mothering her alcoholic husband just as much - if not more - until he repaid her unflinching patience and loyalty by setting up home this summer with 20-year-old Ekaterina Ivanova, whom he is said to have met in a Soho sex bar. So far, so humiliating. It must have been heartbreaking for a woman who was so devoted to her husband that she would stand at the side of the stage when he was performing, clutching to her breast fresh T-shirts for him to change into. But Jo Wood has not rolled over, or dissolved in a flood of tears and bitterness. She has stepped out of the shadow cast by Ronnie's fame and addictions, and she has done so with a considerable degree of spunk. ...

Russell Crowe

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 12:41:22 +0000

Russell Crowe tells Martyn Palmer about putting on 50lb for Ridley Scott's new film and the benefits of family life. Russell Crowe and Sir Ridley Scott make an odd couple. The latter is a 70-year-old, softly-spoken knight of the realm who made his way into filmmaking in the Seventies via the BBC and commercials; the former is a 44-year-old, blunt-talking, New Zealand-born sports-loving actor, who has been in a few highly publicised scrapes. Yet Sir Rid, as the actor affectionately refers to him, has been Crowe's creative mentor-in-chief - and the man responsible for instigating some radical changes in his body shape - since they scaled the cinematic heights together with Gladiator in 2000. The film took the Best Picture Oscar, and Crowe won the award for Best Actor. ...

Rolf Harris

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 12:41:22 +0000

Australian entertainer Rolf Harris on getting turned away by airport officials and the time he took an electric drill on holiday.

Marc Foster

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 12:41:22 +0000

Marc Lee meets Marc Foster, the filmmaker behind the new James Bond film Quantum of Solace. Joining the dots in Marc Forster's filmography is a bit of a challenge. The German director's key works are set in, variously, the death row of a prison in the Deep South, a world of agonised Edwardian gentility, and the socially divided city of Kabul. Now, with Quantum of Solace, the international playgrounds of tuxedo'd super-spy James Bond can be added to that apparently eclectic list.

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 12:41:22 +0000

Brian Hanrahan is memerised by the beauty of Brazil where he chanced his arm on a spot of piranhafishing.

Jimmy Carr

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 12:41:22 +0000

The comedian Jimmy Carr on his love of Las Vegas and being pursued by a shark off the coast of Florida.

Alan Johnson

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 12:41:22 +0000

Alan Johnson has no airs and graces. Asked whether he, like his Cabinet colleague Lord Mandelson, would accept a holiday on a billionaire's floating palace, he replies: "I've not been invited on a yacht. Trawlers occasionally, but never yachts."

Julie Walters

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 12:41:22 +0000

Julie Walters recalls her most memorable holidays including the moment she cheated death off the Corfu coast.