David Tennant and Billie Piper get together again on big screen for murder thriller



Billie Piper and David Tennant are being reunited on the big screen.

The Doctor Who stars are in discussions to appear in a big-screen thriller that will be directed by Piper's husband, the actor Laurence Fox.

The movie, Love On The Murder Mile, will also star Mackenzie Crook and Matthew Rhys, the Welsh-born, LA-based actor.

Rhys, who portrayed Dylan Thomas in Edge Of Love opposite Keira Knightley and Sienna Miller, is one of the main cast members on U.S. television drama Brothers & Sisters.

The plan is for him to shoot his scenes in Love On The Murder Mile during the summer break from his TV show.

Piper and Tennant were a mammoth success as the good doctor and his assistant Rose.

The script, by Johnny Glynn, is set in London and the story is described as an urban thriller.

Double act: Dr Who David Tennant and assistant Billie Piper pose in Glasgow in April 2006

Robin Fox, the film's producer (and brother of Laurence), said negotiations were still ongoing and that not all the cast were officially contracted.

He said his brother had 'always had this ambition to direct'. Meanwhile, Laurence has withdrawn from the play Eigengrau, which opens at the Bush Theatre in West London next Wednesday.

He did ten days of rehearsals but withdrew 'gracefully', after deciding that his part had changed. He has been replaced by Geoffrey Streatfield.



Riding off into the Sunset Hotel as it gets set for the annual Vanity Fair Oscar Party

Set for a gong? Carey Mulligan has been nominated for Best Actress

The transformation that Hollywood undergoes during Oscar week always fascinates me.



Designers, lighting experts, florists and event creators have been sweeping through the Sunset Tower Hotel on Sunset Boulevard to turn the venue into an ultra-glamorous setting for the annual Vanity Fair Oscar Party.

The hotel's circular drive will be enclosed with mammoth classic Vanity Fair photographs of Rita Hayworth, Leslie Howard, Josephine Baker, Bette Davis and others.

Enormous searchlights will pan across the sky as contemporary stars make their way into the party to eat hamburgers flipped by chefs from the In And Out Burger joint, and wash them down with Champagne.

Since the VF Party switched from Morton's (now closed) to the Sunset Tower, it has become more intimate, more desirable - and, if possible, more difficult to get into. (Although, not too difficult for some of us!) Farther along Sunset towards West Hollywood, Nick Jones has opened the newest branch of his Soho House empire.

There were still workmen, in hard hats, finishing off the final details this week: aspects of the fabulous wrapround terrace and the huge, rooftop olive tree garden with its retractable roof.



'This is virgin space!' Nick said, as he led me around the two-storey club that comes with an awesome marble staircase, epic bar and brilliant city views from. . . the loo!

Last night, Finola Dwyer and Amanda Posey hosted a drinks party for their Oscar-nominated film An Education, with guests including writer and Oscar nominee Nick Hornby, leading lady and best actress hopeful Carey Mulligan, director Lone Scherfig and Olivia Williams.



For a film that was shot on a shoestring BBC Films budget, it has done extraordinarily well to get all the way to the Oscar red carpet and a swanky (and very sexy) penthouse club on Sunset Boulevard.

Elton John and David Furnish were also hosting a soiree last night, while tomorrow Harvey Weinstein is throwing a really big bash at the Soho House for Inglourious Basterds, which has seriously steamrollered into the Oscar hopes of The Hurt Locker and Avatar.

Some are calling it a threeway race, but the smart money is still on The Hurt Locker - although look out for a possible upset on Sunday night!



Kristen Bell stars with Christina Aguilera and Cher in Burlesque

From bombshell to alarm Bell

Kristen Bell had just finished being a total bitch to Christina Aguilera. 'No, no!' Kristen explained hastily, lest I misunderstand.



'It was make believe. I just pretend to make Christina's life a misery.' Oh. That's all right, then.

Kristen stars opposite Aguilera and Cher in the film musical Burlesque, which director Steve Antin has just finished filming in LA.

Aguilera plays a woman who leaves her small-town home and finds work at a nightclub owned by Cher. 'I'm the girl who feels threatened by Christina,' Kristen told me.



'I'm a blonde girl who goes dark to go bad. They didn't buy me as being blonde and bad. They felt my character should be brunette and bad!'



Martin Samuel, the celebrated movie hair stylist (he worked on all the Pirates Of The Caribbean pictures), designed a dark wig for Kristen, although I gather much of his time was spent taking care of Cher's tresses.

Kristen, whom I bumped into at the Vanity Fair-Brioni fund-raiser for Artists For Peace & Justice, held at the Beverly Hills Hotel, was in the comedy Forgetting Sarah Marshall.



She was the title character who cheats on her boyfriend and has a fling with a self-obsessed rock god, played (brilliantly) by Russell Brand.

A tough job, Gerard, but someone's got to be mobbed by girls

There was a tsunami of long-limbed bimbos bearing down on Gerard Butler.



Deciding that resistance was futile, he gleefully allowed himself to be swept away by them.

Ladies' man: Gerard Butler often finds himself the centre of attention

'You can't run away!' the actor told me, as I counted five women thrusting themselves against him and a dozen more behind them, in the lobby of the Chateau Marmont hotel on Sunset Boulevard, where art gallery owner Nicolas Berggruen was hosting his annual pre-Oscar cocktail reception.

Jennifer Aniston, Gerard's leading lady in the forthcoming film The Bounty Hunter, was not part of the wave of women hitting on the Scottish-born star, who has become immensely popular in Hollywood.

The actor, pictured arriving, was wearing a beautifully cut Brioni suit, although by this stage - well after midnight - it was looking a little the worse for wear.

Earlier, we had been at the Beverly Hills Hotel, where Gerard co-hosted an event for Artists For Peace & Justice, which was backed by Vanity Fair magazine and Brioni (hence the suit, which at 6.30pm looked fresher and sharper).

Once he and Aniston finish opening The Bounty Hunter, Gerard told me he's off to Belgrade, where he will star with Ralph Fiennes in Coriolanus.

The film marks Fiennes's debut as a film director. He has wanted to make a film of the Bard's great war drama ever since he starred in an Almeida Theatre production at the old Alfred Hitchcock film studios about a decade ago.

Gerard also appeared in the title role when Steven Berkoff staged his version.

'I'm playing Tullus Aufidius, the general of the Volscian rebel forces. They're the underdogs and Tullus is Coriolanus's sworn, hated enemy - but Coriolanus respects him. They have shed blood on the battlefield and there's an admiration they have for each other,' Gerard explained.

'Tullus is totally fearless and I'm getting in shape and having fight training. War's not supposed to be fun, but I'm looking forward to making the film with Ralph.'

Vanessa Redgrave and Brian Cox will also star in Coriolanus.

On Sunday, Gerard will dress up in another suit as one of the presenters at the Oscar ceremony.

• How's this for a contrast in how to toast the Oscars? Charles Finch, the debonair entertainment entrepreneur, is hosting a sumptuous supper, sponsored by Chanel, at the smart West Hollywood Italian restaurant Madeo tomorrow night.

But Ioan Gruffudd and his mate Matthew Rhys will be at Ioan's home in LA, sitting in front of the TV, enjoying what they call a 'curry and slippers' night in. Not to be missed, boys. . .

• The way awards shows are being censored feels very 1950s. Sacha Baron Cohen was forced out of the Oscars because producers feared a gag aimed at Avatar director James Cameron would upset him. Meanwhile, at our own Baftas, the BBC made Jonathan Ross rip up 90 per cent of his gags for fear they might offend. HELLO! Jokes sometimes do offend. That's the point.

Watch out for...

• Sam Rockwell, Zoe Kazan, Christopher Walken and Anthony Mackie (he plays one of the bomb disposal experts in The Hurt Locker), who star in Martin McDonagh's scorching black comedy A Behanding In Spokane which, when I saw it at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre on Broadway, had a packed audience lauging one minute and screaming (jumping out of their seats screaming) the next.

The story, set in a hotel room, concerns a man (Walken) who has spent 47 years searching for his left hand, which was severed by some yobs. 'They waved me goodbye with it,' he complains. Mr Walken's character is wonderfully weird and the rest of the company match him. Dustin Hoffman and Michelle Williams were in the night I saw it and they had a good time.

• Jane Fonda, who told me that she's taking the play she did on Broadway last year, 33 Variations, to the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles early next year for three months. I asked her if she would bring the play to London. 'We'll see. I'm not ruling it out.' She looked a few years younger than when I saw her in late January. Probably something to do with the 'work' she has had done on her neck and eyes. Her hair was shorter and darker, too.

• Sandy Powell, up for an Oscar for her costume designs for The Young Victoria.

If Sandy wins, she plans to pay tribute to her long-time collaborator Annie Hadley, who died in January. Annie was one of the best costume cutters in the business and worked on everything from Brazil through The Last Emperor, Shakespeare In Love to The Young Victoria.

The British film industry is full of excellent, but unheralded, craftspeople who never get their moment in the sun.