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Alien sex fiend is new Modesty Blaise

The role of comic strip heroine Modesty Blaise, reportedly turned down by Uma Thurman because it involved nudity, has gone to the virtually unknown actress Natasha Henstridge (left). Ms Henstridge is best known for playing an alien sex fiend in the science fiction film Species.

Bright lights, big pity

When the Bolshoi Ballet first hit America in the late 1950s, tickets were like gold dust. So how come, last year in Las Vegas, they were playing to 6,770 empty seats a night?

Feeling glum? You've been Cured

ROCK

Mum's the word

MAXIMOVA & VASILIEV AT THE BOLSHOI by Roberta Lazzarini, Dancebooks pounds 20

Birthdays: 23 December

23 December

Sleeping with the NME

Mary Wright reads a first novel that's in love with rock journalism; The Lonely Planet Boy by Barney Hoskyns Serpent's Tail, pounds 8.99

Theatre: DOWNFALL / TELL HIM

Contact Theatre, Manchester

OBITUARY:Alexander Godunov

Alexander Godunov was a dancer of handsome stature and blond good looks. He possessed a virtuoso technique and enjoyed a career of glamorous highlights in ballet and film; but his triumphs were short-lived.

FINAL CURTAIN

For Yuri Grigorovich and the Bolshoi, time stood still. No new productions, same old ballerina - that's his wife, Natalia Bessmertnova, he's putting through her paces. Then enter stage left, his successor Vladimir Vasiliev. LOUISE LEVENE reports on a Yeltsin coup. Photographs by LAURIE LEWIS

ROCK : Goths, weirdos and psychos

ON TUESDAY they cut the power at the Powerhaus. The Islington club closed down, and there to administer the Last Rites were The Damned. Appropriate, really: they played their first farewell gig in 1978 and seem to have been doing them almost soli dly ever since. To make the mood even cheerier, drummer Rat Scabies dedicated the show to Peter Cook. The crowd wore black. But then, they always do.

Out of Russia: Stalin of the ballet ripe for a fall in the Bolshoi revolution

MOSCOW - Russia has been - more or less - a free country for some time now, but little islands of dictatorship persist. One is at the Bolshoi ballet where, critics say, the artistic director and choreographer, Yuri Grigorovich, still rules with a Stalin-like grip. Even here, it seems, the winds of democracy may be about to start blowing.

RECORDS / The IoS playlist the five best sounds of the moment

Tchaikovsky Romances: Olga Borodina (Philips, CD). A seductive recital from the fast-rising Kirov mezzo. MW

The Broader Picture: A Company of Cranes

IN 1925, the Japanese Ministry of Culture raised the crane to the position of a national monument in an attempt to prevent the extinction of one of the country's most sacred birds. By then, what were thought to be the last 12 cranes left in Japan were surviving in the swampy area around Kushiro on the island of Hokkaido, where they had fled to escape being shot and cooked for dinner. (Eating crane was a privilege once reserved for the Emperor on New Year's Day, but gradually it became a widespread delicacy.) Today, some of the descendants of those 12 cranes live on a reservation in the same area, looked after by its director, Ryoji Takahashi, who for the past 37 years has studied their behaviour and mating habits, and in the process has become almost an honorary crane himself.

DANCE / So, how was it for Yuri?: 'You don't like my art? The public's out there so you must be wrong.' At the end of the Bolshoi's controversial London season,

Yuri Grigorovich interviews on autopilot. One more question and you expect him to confine himself to name, rank and serial number. Weary of press criticism and pathologically contemptuous of journalists, he is never the ideal subject. After six weeks of largely hostile reviews, a frosty reception seemed inevitable. I was led into his den in a warm basement bunker below the Albert Hall where he sat flanked by his smiling interpreter and his impresario Derek Block. This was their chance to point out that the Bolshoi's season has been a financial and popular success.
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'There is a battle going on inside us that is never discussed'

Masculinity in crisis?

'There is a battle going on inside us that is never discussed'
Have US shock jocks gone too far?

Have US shock jocks gone too far?

An incendiary remark from Rush Limbaugh may be the beginning of the end for outspoken right-wing US broadcasters
The ‘Beverly Hills’ of Surrey pays more income tax than big cities of the North

The ‘Beverly Hills’ of Surrey

Elmbridge pays more income tax than big cities of the North
Heavenly Bodies

Heavenly Bodies

Michael Landy's artistic marriage made in heaven... and hell
'He will always be a friend': Jackie Stewart backs Polanski

'He will always be a friend'

Jackie Stewart backs Roman Polanski
The price of pacifism: Refusing to go to war is finally being recognised as a brave act

The price of pacifism

From the Second World War refusenik to the 19-year-old Israeli, Holly Williams talks to five people who risked shame and suffering to take a stand as conscientious objector.
'It was mass hysteria': Jason Isaacs on groupies, theatre bores and snogging James Bond

Jason Isaacs: Groupies, theatre bores and James Bond

To millions, Jason Isaacs is one of Harry Potter's arch enemies – but his wife prefers him as a Scottish TV detective.
Notes from a small island: Is Sealand an independent 'micronation' or an illegal fortress?

Sealand: 'Micronation' or illegal fortress?

Thomas Hodgkinson spent a week at the tiny platform off the Suffolk coast to find out.
Not a bad bone: Mark Hix cooks with cutlets and ribs

Mark Hix cooks with cutlets and ribs

If you ignore cutlets and ribs, you'll risk missing out on some delicious and easy meals, says our chef.
The experts' guide to summer: From getting fit for the beach to recreating that Olympic buzz

The experts' guide to summer

From getting fit for the beach to recreating that Olympic buzz
Sex, drugs and fast cars: The legend of James Hunt has set Hollywood hearts racing

Legend of James Hunt has set Hollywood hearts racing

Early glimpses of Ron Howard's film Rush suggest it will portray Hunt as a high-living lothario, with an insatiable appetite for partying.
Macklemore: 'I don't have moderation when using drugs and alcohol. It was hurting my life'

Macklemore: 'I don't have moderation'

The next Vanilla Ice or the next Eminem? Macklemore doesn't have a record contract – but he does have the UK's biggest-selling single of the year.
Don't be shy: Bill Granger's Sri Lankan recipes

Don't be shy: Bill Granger's Sri Lankan recipes

Sri Lankan cuisine is light, sunny, wonderfully spiced – and so easy to cook from scratch. Just as soon as you've broken into the coconut, that is.
Sir James Dyson’s latest project: Cleaning up hospitals

Sir James Dyson’s latest project: Cleaning up hospitals

Doctors are hailing the revamp of a Bath neonatal unit, where babies sleep more and feed better, as the model for patient care
One man returns to Argentina's town that drowned

One man returns to Argentina's town that drowned

Epecuen was submerged under 10 metres of water in 1985. Now the floods have gone – and 83-year-old Pablo Novak has moved back in