WEEK IN SHOWBIZ
FRIDAY FUNDAY
Dermot O Leary tells me he loves hosting This Morning with pal Alison Hammond. ‘It’s been nice to get to know Alison and get really close. She’s such a nice person to be around. We both like people and we want to tell other people’s stories.’ So who would Dermot like to grill him? ‘Part of me wants to say Alison but she knows me too well. Graham Norton I’ve always loved. But you think you’ve got a lot to say and then you sit down and get into it and realise how boring you are!’
HANK-ERING FOR AN INVITE!
Singer, songwriter and producer Rita Wilson, whose new album Now and Forever: Duets is out now – tells me she and husband Tom Hanks like to warble at home. ‘We love our romantic songs, we do our own little duets,’ Rita reveals. And the pair aren’t shy about making friends sing for their supper, either. ‘We say bring a song, you are going to have to sing,’ Rita tells me. ‘If you and your wife come, you both have to sing. It’s a great equaliser.’ Beats karaoke back at mine!
GOING FOR GOLD
There’s already an Oscar buzz around Academy Award winner Viola Davis’ new film The Woman King, about a group of female warriors. I caught up with Viola and her co-star Thuso Mbedu. ‘The Oscars are something you cannot control at all,’ Viola tells me. ‘And guess what? After you get that statue and walk across the stage, and I know this for a fact, and you put it down on your shelf the three most important words are, “And now what?”’ You gotta keep going!’