When academic and biographer Paula Byrne announced the discovery of what seemed to be a new drawing of Jane Austen, there was a frenzied debate over the picture's authenticity. Arguments are bound to be reignited by the news that the controversial portrait will go on display at the Bodleian Library in Oxford as part of the celebrations for World Book Day, before moving to Jane Austen's House Museum in Chawton this April. The picture, showing a thin-faced woman gripping an inky quill, accentuates Austen's professionalism.

There was a lot of fuss made about this modern-day Western – it's sort of like Shane, only with cars not horses – upon its cinema release, and Nicolas Winding Refn's slick, violent thriller has a lot to recommend it: Albert Brooks's abhorrent Mob boss, his repellent partner (Ron Perlman) and Bryan Cranston's unlucky mechanic.

My name is Brandon, and I'm addicted to sex. But enough about me...

Starring: Michael Fassbender, Carey Mulligan

The film festival premieres Steven Soderbergh's thriller about a deadly virus starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Matt Damon

In films as diverse as Jane Eyre and Junkhearts, a new generation of British actors and actresses is about to give Dominic Cooper and Carey Mulligan a run for their money. Their hallmark? Versatility, says James Mottram, as he selects 10 talents to watch

24-hour weepie people – the film of the hit-lit romance

"You will be adults, but very briefly," Sally Hawkins's teacher grimly informs her young charges at an old-fashioned boarding school.

For a band that has quietly ruled the indie waves for the last 15 years, the sound of fans gathering for a Belle and Sebastian gig is surprisingly loud. Given that tonight's gig is the second of three headline gigs, their first in London for five years, though, it's no wonder that the crowd is barely keeping it down to a dull roar. The Glasgow seven-piece are here to play songs from their recently released eighth studio album, Belle and Sebastian Write About Love, as well as their back catalogue and the audience is excited in a thoroughly well-mannered way.

Books: As usual, I have several books on the go. The current crop includes Kishwar Desai's 'Witness The Night', which won the Costa first novel prize; George Eliot's 'Daniel Deronda', which I'm re-reading skipping most of the ponderous faith/Jewish culture bits; and Colin Thubron's 'A Mountain in Tibet' – he's such a writer, and my late pa got halfway to Lhasa from Delhi in 1944, when he hadn't enough wartime leave to come home in.

If you ask me...

Starring: Carey Mulligan, Andrew Garfield, Keira Knightley

Shia LaBeouf was placed in handcuffs by police after a fight broke out in the early hours of Saturday morning.

So we now have the first pictures of 25-year-old Rooney Mara in the role of the year: the goth bisexual computer hacker Lisbeth Salander, in David Fincher's English-language version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. The accompanying interview in W magazine does not, I'm afraid, dispel troubling rumours that the stars, Mara and Daniel Craig, will be "doing" Swedish accents in the film. However, Fincher does reveal the names of some of the others who auditioned for the role at a time when any actress seen to have cut her hair was said to be desperate to land it (viz Carey Mulligan, Emma Watson). Natalie Portman, he explains, was too exhausted after shooting three other films back-to-back. Scarlett Johansson was "too sexy". Jennifer Lawrence was "too tall". Mara's winning moment came when she screen-tested a graphic scene, which required her to insert something large into something small belonging to another character. "That's Salander's big scene," said Fincher. "We had to see if they could do it."