This is going to be a blow to the people of Hove, but it appears that Brad Pitt is not busy designing their new leisure centre after all. The architect Frank Gehry - who is working on the proposed King Alfred Centre scheme - explained to Newsweek magazine that he did know the actor, who was indeed interested in design. There was a throwaway suggestion that he might "design the bar or an apartment or something", Gehry said, but the rumour that the beautiful one was actually working on the Hove plans, when not making babies with Angelina Jolie, seems to have arisen from a photograph of Pitt leaning over Gehry's model of the scheme while visiting the architect's office. Building magazine reports that Gehry is visiting the Sussex resort in person to try to drum up more support for the designs which, whoever the author, have had a very mixed reception.
Two-time Oscar winner Tom Hanks has been named America's favourite film star for a second year running, despite not releasing any films in 2005. The actor, who first topped the poll in 2002, was last seen on screen in 2004's The Polar Express. Second place went to Johnny Depp, who stole Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, while the late John Wayne tied with Harrison Ford for third place. Julia Roberts, also on hiatus in 2005, rounded out the top five, while the rest of the top 10 comprised Clint Eastwood, Mel Gibson, George Clooney, Sean Connery and Sandra Bullock. The nationwide Harris Poll, which is based on an online poll sampling the movie star preferences of 1,001 adults, has been conducted every year since 1993.
Thomas Magnum, the Hawaii-residing, Ferrari-driving, Navy intelligence officer turned private eye and owner of the most famously luxuriant moustache on TV, is heading for the silver screen under the pen and camera of the man behind the sleeper hit comedy Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story. Rawson Marshall Thurber has signed to write and direct the adaptation of the series that made Tom Selleck a star. The series ran between 1980 and 1988. Thurber has told the Hollywood Reporter that the film would not be a spoof but would stick closely to the tone of the original. Universal Pictures, which is backing the film, must be hoping that it will follow in the successful footsteps of such recent film adaptations of TV staples as Charlie's Angels, Starsky & Hutch, and, erm, Dukes of Hazzard.
After her gunslinging turn in Domino, Keira Knightley will be back in demure, period mode for Silk, based on the Alessandro Baricco novel. The film, which tells the story of a 19th century French silk merchant who travels to Japan in search of disease-free silkworms and falls in love with a mysterious woman instead, will be adapted and directed by Francois Girard, of Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould and Red Violin fame. Michael Pitt, Alfred Molina and Koji Yakusho have already signed up and production begins next month in Japan.
