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‘Slumdog’ star gets Frost recognition

Alice-Azania Jarvis
Monday 23 February 2009 01:00 GMT
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Anil Kapoor delighted the papers by claiming his Slumdog Millionaire co-stars Freida Pinto and Dev Patel were more than friends. And from the sound of things, it seems that there will be plenty more of his colourful outbursts to look forward to.

Kapoor – who played the host of Who Wants To Be a Millionaire in Danny Boyle’s award-laden film, and is already a mega-star in Bollywood – claims he has been considering a career shift to take up full-time TV presenting.

“I’ve been encouraged by Larry King and David Frost,” he tells Pandora. “Both said my television presenting skills were second-to-none. When such icons of the form give you a compliment like that you simply cannot ignore it. David said I could go on to be one of the great television hosts of our time so it is something I’m seriously looking into.”

If all goes according to plan, Kapoor may well use the success of Slumdog as a springboard to try his luck in the UK.

“Perhaps I could front my own show here,” he adds. “I’ll rule nothing out.”

Alan excited about liaison with Gok

The prospect of a new project has got Alan Carr really excited. “Gok Wan and I are talking about doing something together,” he told Pandora recently. “We could be the new Richard and Judy.” Good to see them getting along. Last time Pandora ran into them, they were squabbling over their ranking on the Independent On Sunday’s Pink List.

It’s raining mice...

I hear the BBC Weather Centre is suffering from a nasty mouse infestation. Apparently, staff are at their wits’ end after trying a catalogue of solutions, with some radical thinkers even suggesting that they bring in a cat. Naturally, Pandora sympathises and would like to offer support by way of readers’ suggestions. Anyone who has a particularly inventive solution is welcome to send in their ideas. We’ll do our best to convey them to the BBC.

John happy to embrace his Teddy

What with all the fuss over last night’s Oscars, Britain’s achievements at another award ceremony have been somewhat overlooked.

Urbane actor John Hurt has been honoured at the annual Teddy Awards, the ceremony celebrating films covering lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender topics.

Collecting the Best Actor gong for his performance in the (as yet unreleased) ITV/Leopardrama production An Englishman In New York, Hurt graciously commented that the award “compared to any other I have received in my career”. The film, which also stars Sex And The City’s Cynthia Nixon, saw Hurt reprise his role as Quentin Crisp.

Billboard skips Beatles history

Norwich Union’s campaign to advertise their reincarnation as Aviva features Elle McPherson, Ringo Star and Bruce Willis.

But they’re missing a trick on their billboards. One claims that “before they were the Beatles, they were the Quarrymen”. But that is, in fact, false. Before they were the Beatles, they were the Silver Beats and before that, the Silver Beetles. Before that, they were the Quarrymen. “It’s all about the big picture,” a spokesman said. Tsk.

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