FILM: OUT TAKES

"He looks like he's only got 91/2 weeks left," some wag was heard to say on spotting professional hellraiser Mickey Rourke recently. Those outside LA wishing to witness Rourke's deterioration to mummified puffball need look no further than Vincent Gallo's Buffalo 66, where a cameo by the actor demonstrates just how easy it is to go from leading man to character player in 10 short years.

Usual Suspects character Bryan Singer has run into trouble on the set of his new film, Apt Pupil, due out in the States next month. Production has been dogged by a lawsuit from some of its teenage extras, who claim to have been victims of predatory homosexual activity by Singer and several of his crew while filming a shower scene. Although an investigation by both the Department of Labour Standards and the FBI failed to turn up any evidence, and other extras present flatly deny the story, the boys continue to pursue the case through the civil courts. A sanguine Singer has suggested the young players are the victims of predatory lawyers eager to take his studio to the cleaners.

Bizarro film-maker David Lynch has announced plans to film the story of a pensioner who rides across America on his lawnmower to be reconciled with his dying older brother. Provisionally titled The Straight Story, he can rest assured that Lynch's treatment will be anything but.