THERE IS a thriving market already in props used in the making of Titanic, which is perhaps the most bizarre measure of the extraordinary success of this $200m Hollywood movie. In the three weeks since it opened in America, Titanic has ceased to be a mere epic and has become a phenomenon. It may well turn out to be an epic phenomenon, quite apart from being the most extravagant movie ever made - perhaps the last of its kind.

Two UK actresses are emerging as favourites for the Academy Awards, reports Tim Cornwell. But there's no contest between the films

Only one woman in Hollywood specialises in thrillers. Sarah Gristwood meets Kathryn Bigelow, director of 'Strange Days'

The following have been elected to Fellowship of the Royal Aeronautical Society:

He was the world's greatest bodybuilder; he became the world's highest-paid actor. He married JFK's niece and has been spoken of as a future president. But there is a softer side to Arnold Schwarzenegger, as Nigel Andrews reveals

SAFE PASSAGE Robert Allan Ackerman (15) THE MAN IN MY LIFE Jean Charles Tacchella (12) SMILES OF A SUMMER NIGHT Ingmar Bergman (PG)

WATERWORLD Kevin Reynolds (12)

Two new titles this month come packaged in dual covers, a practice that crops up in the video industry whenever it's thought that a touch more raunch might boost a title's chances. In some cases, the alternative covers are employed to target a specific audience. For example, Tartan Video's simultaneous rental / retail release of the excellent Mexican vampire film Cronos (£15.99) has one cover for the buyers - a moody black- and-white shot - and one for the renters - a brightly coloured design depicting a naked woman leaning heavenwards. The fact that there are no naked women in the movie doesn't seem to have deterred Tartan from going for the loins.

THESE DAYS only two things are certain in movies: death and James Cameron's grosses. Imagine your life depended on making a hit. (If you already do this, you are running a Hollywood studio.) Your first phone call should go to Cameron, even before Spielberg. He has everything it takes to make a blockbuster: the smartness to second-guess the market; the boldness to dare - but not too far; the logistical and leadership skills of a Field Marshal; the intelligence to know better; the ruthlessness not to care. All of Cameron's hits have started from beguiling ideas - science fiction bumps into philosophy in The Terminator's speculations on time-travel - which are then bludgeoned into submission by hi-tech special effects. Following the pattern, his new film, True Lies (15), flirts with thoughts about spying and split personality, before settling

THE OPENING in Britain of True Lies, the latest coupling of sinew with cinema, rekindles a question that has been niggling at Hollywood's finer minds. How on earth did the movie, one of the season's big hits in America, come to cost such an astronomical sum?

Every now and then there comes a film with the power to bring criticism to its knees, whimpering. Such a film is the opposite of a masterpiece, nothing so humble as a failure but an astounding condensation of everything that can go wrong with a project. True Lies, the new Arnold Schwarzenegger action adventure, is just such a reverse classic or anti-paragon.

WENDY Davies, 18, of South Belfast, was remanded in custody by Belfast magistrates yesterday, charged with aiding and abetting the murder, by persons not before the court, of Mark Rodgers and James Cameron, council binmen shot dead on 26 October. She was also charged with possessing a sub-machine

JILL TWEEDIE has died, aged 59. She was an emblem for all that was best about the early years of the women's movement. She reflected the excitement, energy and optimism of liberal feminists who were prepared to argue their case with wit and humour, and at the same time retain affection and concern for the poor male creatures who needed to modify their ways. Not for her the stridency of radical feminists who were to split the sisterhood and set back the cause.

JEAN-CLAUDE Van Damme sounds like a curse from the Low Countries, and that's a pretty fair summary of his acting too. Like Steven Seagal, he started in karate, martial arts having replaced the Method as the Hollywood leading man's schooling. His early films were cheap but effective: ruthless kick-boxing extravaganzas, in which his lines could fit on a karate block. Van Damme turned down an offer from the Paris Opera Ballet to train as a dancer, and there was a balletic beauty to his kicks to the head. He couldn't put his foot in his mouth because he was too busy putting it in other people's.