Pandora: Radio 1's rat race

(© Tim Sanders)

Horrific visions of furry friends over at Radio 1, akin to the mutant, dog-sized, man-eating rodents of James Herbert's novel The Rats – if you believe the hysterical emails circulating the BBC. Colleagues at sister stations seem not a little delighted that on Tuesday, Radio 1 staff had to evacuate after a sewage pipe broke in the street, requiring the emergency intervention of Thames Water. Amid the stench and chaos, reports differ.

Some speak of gangs of Rattus norvegicus carousing in the basement effluence. The official station line is that non-essential staff were sent home for their health and safety. (DJs and producers had to keep broadcasting.)

Vermin scurrying about the studios, or shooting geysers of poop? Take your pick!

Dave and Matt: lock, stock and two smoking Tories

Tony Blair's 2005 election coup was persuading the Oscar-winning helmsman and son of ice cream manufacturers Anthony Minghella to direct a (much derided) party political broadcast.

David Cameron has shown that he, too, can reach out to those behind the film set cameras. The Conservative leader signed up the British director and producer Matthew Vaughn to create a promotional video for the Tories.

Last night, the new film, directed by Vaughn, was released on the social networking website Facebook.

Vaughn directed the Daniel Craig gangster film Layer Cake and produced the 1998 London gangland flick Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. ("I've just spent 120 quid on me hair. If you think I'm puttin a stockin over me head, you're very much mistaken.")

Cameron, The Movie has few frills, and no sawn-off shotguns. It features Dave, in his office, addressing the electorate. "David and Matthew met several times before," says a spokesman. "Matthew was impressed with him and offered his services, so it was his idea. That's the only work he's done for us, but there may be other things in the future."

Vaughn brings a salivating collection of glamorous (and wealthy) celebrity contacts. He is married to the German model Claudia Schiffer, and is chummy with Lock, Stock director Guy Ritchie and Madonna.

It's not the first time Vaughn has offered his services to Dave. At a Tory fundraising ball last year, one auction lot was a walk-on part in his next film.

Rising Riley weighs anchor for a nautical yarn

Talulah Riley, last seen frolicking in the remake of St Trinian's, is about to take that rite of passage for every aspiring British starlet – appearing in a Richard Curtis film.

Having hung up her jolly hockey sticks, Riley, 22, tells Pandora that she is to act in the director's next comedy, The Boat That Rocked, alongside would-be disc jockeys Rhys Ifans and Bill Nighy.

In preparation for the film – which is set at a 1960s pirate radio station similar to Radio Caroline, broadcast from a ship off the Felixstowe coast – Curtis took the cast away for a weekend bonding session. "We went to stay on a boat in Dorset," Talulah says. "It was brilliant, Bill, Rhys, Richard and I sleeping on this boat in bunks. We had a great time."

She adds: "My best friend plays my love interest in the film. I'm going to have to snog him. It is bound to be a bit weird." So long as he doesn't look like Tony Blackburn...

Ian insists: no pop

The last time someone waved a bottle of fizz at Ian Brown, it was a BA stewardess with the duty-free trolley in 1998, a mile up. On that occasion, the no-nonsense Stone Roses frontman saw fit to threaten to "chop your fucking hands off" – a bit harsh on the cabin crew member but almost an understandable response to the tat from the trolley. The flight captain, meanwhile, was advised to "piss off and have a shave".

So it was with no little trepidation that Pandora approached Brown at a party for Dom Perignon champagne at London's Langham Hotel. I was surprised to find him the model of charm.

"I haven't had a drink in nine years," he declared, spurning the hooch. "So I walk in here tonight and all they're serving up is this vintage shit. It took ages to find a glass of water."

Bardem's bob

Javier Bardem's barnet in No Country For Old Men helped him win not only a best supporting actor Oscar but also a place in cinema's hall of mingers. Accepting his statuette, he described his mop-top, based on British medieval knights, as "one of the most horrible haircuts in history". The host, Jon Stewart, said it combined "Hannibal Lecter's murderousness with Dorothy Hamill's wedge cut".

Bardem's barber, Paul LeBlanc, has been tracked down in Canada – and he is delighted with the publicity. "It was wonderful," he tells The First Post. "I didn't get mentioned but my work did – and that's all that counts."

LeBlanc has had no requests for the "Bardem bob" at his salon but says: "It seems, throughout the States, young men are asking for it. Isn't that a hoot?"

pandora@independent.co.uk