Joann tells me that there are four literary dinners advertised at London’s Savoy – with one of the speakers being Richard which is scheduled for December 16th. REG’s “theme” will be “Why Can’t women tell jokes – because they marry them”. The cost is £75 each including a champagne reception and can be booked by telephoning 020 7420 2669 (Britain)

In response to the literary dinner, Denise phoned the number and got this email reply from the organiser:

Dear Ms Hale,

I am delighted to be able to tell you about the second series of Literary Dinners being held at The Savoy with the hotel’s Writer in Residence for 2003, Kathy Lette. Kathy will take up her post in October and will be resident in the hotel for three months.

Kathy’s reputation as a witty and satirical observer of modern mores has brought her both critical acclaim and a world wide following, and the Literary Dinners are your chance to enjoy her lively wit at first hand over a gourmet dinner.

As a theme for the Literary Dinners Kathy has chosen the eternal battle between the sexes and she has persuaded an impressive array of co-speakers to debate suitably controversial topics with her:

28th October
Sir John Mortimer QC – “Why Can’t a Man Think More Woman?”

26th November
Stephen Fry – “Beauty Versus Brains – Wrinkles, Why Won’t Men Read Between Her Lines?”

16th December
Richard E Grant – “Why Can’t Women Tell Jokes – Because They Marry Them”

15th January
Salman Rushdie – “Why Do Men Like Smart Women – Because Opposites Attract.”

The cost for each dinner is £75 per person and includes a champagne reception followed by a gourmet dinner, including wine, created by The Savoy’s Maitre Chef.

Kathy has been achieving literary success since publishing her first book Puberty Blues as a teenager in her native Australia. Her novels since then, Girls Night Out, The Llama Parlour, Foetal Attraction, Altar Ego and Nip ‘N’ Tuck propelled her firmly to the top of the best seller lists with Mad Cows being made into a film starring Joanna Lumley. Kathy’s next novel, Dead Sexy, will be published in November and she is hoping to collect material during her stay in The Savoy for her next book suitably titled Lady Muck.

The dinners will take place in the Beaufort Room at The Savoy and promise to be both lively and entertaining with guests encouraged to take part in the debate. Please find attached the menu. Places are strictly limited and can be reserved by telephoning the Food and Beverage Office on 020 7420 2669. I do hope we will see you there.

Yours sincerely,

Vicki Behrens
Food and Beverage Office
The Savoy
Tel 020 7420 2669
Fax 020 7420 2450

Thanks for the info, guys. So hop to it if you want to see Richard’s talk.

Jolie has sent me an article that appeared in UK People Magazine back in late July. It’s an “interview” with REG’s character, Zak (from the Argos commercials) and it’s pretty funny. It also includes some pics from inside “Zak’s Palace”. You can check it out here.

Also Aussie fans might be interested to hear that repeat screenings of The Scarlet Pimpernel are currently on Saturday nights at 9.30pm on ABC television.

Macworld UK Online – 3rd October, 2003

By Paul Hooper

Richard E Grant, best-known for his role as unemployable actor Withnail in the 1987 classic movie ‘Withnail & I’, said he made the decision to become a Mac user to stop him becoming a ‘historical curiosity’.

“A stills photographer on a film saw me clacking away on a portable typewriter, and warned me that I was at serious risk of becoming an historical curiosity unless I bought an Apple Mac laptop,” explains Richard.

Richard bought his first Apple laptop in the early 1990s and has “upgraded ever since, every three years.”

“I’m currently using a PowerBook G4, and am longing to have the latest version that can burn its own DVDs.

“I initially bought Macs as I was advised they were idiot-proof, and being a natural techno-saurus, took the bait. I was very alarmed some years ago when it was rumoured that Apple itself was going the way of the dinosaurs, but very happy to have had my loyalty rewarded with faultless design, ease of use, tactile, colourful, jube-jube looking iBooks, the utterly brilliant iPod jiggle-free music library, and the large screen for DVDs.”

The End?

While being a fan of Macs for well over a decade now Richard has had the occasional serious problem. “I wrote a novel some time ago, and had resolutely backed up as I went along, but neglected to print out any of the pages until I typed THE END. Fast-forward six months and publisher’s advance half spent, I scroll back to the first page to begin editing. Half way down the first paragraph, the screen freezes, then goes blank. Panic stations. I dutifully try all the things I have been trained to do. Half an hour later, I thought I was having a seizure, then vomited violently. Into the car and down to the Apple guys I had bought my machine from. ‘No problem’ was the word from on high.

“Two weeks later and a couple of grand ‘lighter’, they had unscrambled the text with one small problem. Every letter was joined together and the letter ‘V’ missing. As the main character’s name began with a ‘V’, I was ready to throttle anyone. Plus all my back-up floppy discs had an indelible fault so no salvation there. Having gone every colour in the anger spectrum, I asked if it was my fault, to which came the calm reply – ‘these things happen. Airports get shut down. Don’t take it personally’. Since which time, floppy discs are brontosauri and I print everything just in case.”

With mail

Richard’s childhood was spent in Africa, having been born in Swaziland, and he has been a lifelong letter-writer to keep in contact with friends who moved away – though he admits that “the advent of the Internet and email has been revolutionary.”

“One of my best friends, whom I last saw when I was 13, left to live in Perth and not long after I wrote to him asking to have news of Australia and his new life out there. 33 years later, having tracked me via my old school Web site, he replied with ‘Sorry this is a bit late in coming, mate’. Then when I did a film in Sydney, he flew over and we never stopped talking for about 48 hours – so we owe the internet for bridging the gap.”

Having to travel a lot to get to film locations has mean that Richard has become expert at tapping into ISPs abroad. “The relief of getting online when installed in foreign parts is enormous,” Richard explains.

Email has become extremely important to him over the years: “I do all my correspondence on email including dealing with fan stuff, requests from my official Web site, invitations, digital photos, everything.

“It’s very useful for sending scripts in seconds via broadband back and forth between London and Los Angeles, whereas even the best of fed-ex can’t begin to compete with this. I like the informal immediacy of email, though loathe the landslide of junk-mail that has hit my inbox in the last month.

Someone somewhere thinks I need medical help, Viagra and ways to increase my mortgage, loans and dental care,” describes Richard.

Action!

Macs and the Internet are also helping Richard extend his skills into directing. “I have written a screenplay that I will direct in Africa next spring, and have made an iMovie of the locations with music and basic sound-effects that has been instrumental in getting people involved and seeing what and where they will be working. Invaluable.”

Richard believes that the popularity of Macs in the creative professions is “perhaps to do with the fact that they are so perfectly designed, are very user-friendly, sort of idiot-proof (though I have challenged that myth on a regular basis), and are perceived as the smaller, idiosyncratic, less corporate company, as opposed to the megalith Windows brigade.”

Richard is currently appearing in Stephen Fry’s directorial debut ‘Bright Young Things’ and was able to get some help from the Mac-fanatic Fry while on the set.

“I needed a DVD burned of the iMovie I made of all the African locations I’ve filmed for my screenplay, and asked Stephen what to do and where to go as my G4 can’t burn DVDs. He sent me to his Apple Mac doctor in Tottenham Court Road who was fantastically helpful and got it done there and then in the shop,” explained Richard.

Hiccups

Richard is also very grateful to Macworld magazine, describing how “David Fanning at Macworld has been my laptop doctor and very generously guided me through the techno-squalls that intermittently scramble my brain.

Nothing quite matches the stress when something goes wrong or the sheer relief when it then gets righted.”

Apart from the occasional hiccup Richard is very happy with his Macs though he has one gripe – not with Apple, but with “those bastards who sussed that DVDs could be zoned unlike CDs which are the same worldwide. I would be glad to have a laptop that could switch from zone one to two, to take advantage of Amazon’s DVD library of movies.”

Despite this minor niggle Richard is still smitten with his Macs. “Shopping, travelling, home movies, email, mini cinema, music, photo library, script writing, internet surfing – all this magic in a small flat box – it’s nothing short of a techno-miracle. Apples forever,” exclaims Richard.

Thanks to David Fanning and the staff of Macworld UK Magazine for sending the Temple this exclusive article. If anyone wants to check out Macworld UK Magazine, click here.

Sue W. emailed me to say that there was a Royal Charity Premiere of “Bright Young Things” on Sunday night in London. Sue ventured over to Leicester Square Odeon last night where it was taking place to see the arrivals and that Nigella Lawson walked by her. Sue also added that Dan Ackroyd was on one of the morning shows talking about the film.

Denise also emailed me about the “Bright Young Things” charity premiere and sent me an article about it.

I should add that Richard wasn’t present at the premiere as he’s still filming “The Story Of An African Farm” in South Africa (He’ll be there for another couple of weeks).

Rosemary informs me that Hildegarde is on again next week on one of the Sky movie channels, and Scarlet Pimpernel Ep. 5 is on this week, and Ep.6 next week – both on UK Drama. Very late at night though!

Jenna emailed to say that Blackstar.co.uk has Gosford Park and Twelfth Night on sale for 6.99 and Dracula for 5.99, so if you don’t have those films yet, you might consider buying now.

And last, but not least, Gary tells me that he was having trouble sleeping last night and was listening to a late night phone-in and one of the topics was Dr Who and who should play the part.

Interestingly the two front runners came out as Judy Dench and Helen Mirren!

Last month Susan W. sent me some pics from a couple of film premieres that Richard had attended. The first set is from the Veronica Guerin Film Premiere “Screen On The Green” Islington which you can see here.

The second set of pics is REG & family at the premiere of “Legally Blonde 2 at Warner Villiage, West End London, which you can see here.

I haven’t heard back from REG yet (he told me that emails from S.A. will be intermittent while he’s there) on the matter of the new Doctor Who series. However, when I do I’ll post the info here.