Pandora: Britpop's screen queen

In a development that's likely to send shockwaves through London's Primrose Hill Set, the former Britpop singer Pearl Lowe's revealing memoir All That Glitters is getting the movie treatment. Lowe (whose book reveals, among other things, the infamous wife-swapping episode involving her, Sadie Frost and Jude Law) has met director John McKay for discussions which she says are "quite far down the line."

"I'm not sure who should play me, I suppose whoever it is will have to know how to sing," she told me at the Girls Make Your Mark Awards. "Jaime Winstone would be great, and actually she doesn't need to know how to sing. I just used to shout."

'Standard' calls the tune for composer

When the composer Keith Burstein was bankrupted after his failed libel action against the Evening Standard, he claimed he had absolutely nothing to lose.

"They won't be able to get anything out of me because I haven't got anything, I just write music," he chirped at the time. That now doesn't appear to be quite true. Burstein, who unsuccessfully tried to sue the paper after claiming one its critics suggested his 2005 opera, Manifest Destiny, glorified terrorism, has had all his written works seized by the official receiver.

Burstein has been told he won't get them back until he pays the legal costs which the high court awarded to the Standard, or the order is discharged.

"This seems to mean that, in effect, Associated Newspapers Ltd own my music, and all royalties," he says.

"When I was told my bankruptcy would mean state seizure of my goods, I had no idea that my creative works could also be seized.

"I am now an artist whose works are held captive or hostage until the ransom on my opera Manifest Destiny is paid."

That's unlikely to happen. The bill stands at £68,000 which Burstein says he has no chance of paying.

"In effect, the official receiver is my agent, the UK Government is my publisher, and the London Evening Standard is my patron. What could be nicer?"

Ritchie's support

Of the six major films which make up Guy Ritchie's cinematic oeuvre, half of them feature old chum Jason Statham. Surprising, then, when Pandora ran into the gritty star last week he admitted he hadn't seen Ritchie's latest RocknRolla.

"I haven't seen it yet," he said, before adding: "But I'm going to, it's the top film at the moment."

The pair last collaborated on the 2005 flick, Revolver. After that turkey, Ritchie's latest is being heralded as a return to form. "What do you mean a return to form? He's always been on form," added Statham tartly.

Cave has a tale to tell

Nick Cave is making another venture into fiction. Twenty years since his first novel, the oddball rocker has just signed a deal with Canongate to publish his new work, Death of Bunny Munro. As anyone who's ever had a crack at one of Geri Halliwell's children's books will know, popstars don't always make the best writers. But Cave's 1989 novel, And the Ass Saw the Angel was actually very well received ...

Jack White is fizzing

The White Stripes singer Jack White's decision to pen the theme to the latest Bond movie has rather backfired. As well as the film, the song, "Another Way To Die", is also being used in an advert for Coca-Cola. White, to put it mildly, is not happy. He certainly gets twitchy about work being used without permission. A couple of years ago, he threatened legal action against the artist Billy Childish after accusing him of plagiarism.

Unhappy Friend recalls acting agony

Last week, the British actor Toby Kebbell told Pandora how much he enjoyed filming the Stephen Frears movie Cheri, because he got to thump Keira Knightley's beau, Rupert Friend.

Unsurprisingly, Friend didn't think it was quite so jolly. "Well it turns out that Toby is actually a professional boxer. I didn't know this before filming, so it wasn't much fun," he told Pandora at the premiere of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas.

"Stephen Frears thought it would be funny for him to hit me again and again – he kept shouting "harder, harder." And, you know, Toby has got quite a clip on him."