Jason Alexander, who played nervous ball of angst George Kostanza in Seinfeld, recently met Israel's president Shimon Peres to discuss the Middle East. The Israeli press inevitably asked the actor and campaigner if humour had a role to play the peace process, Alexander replied in the negative "because someone is always going to be offended".

A show of 'barely controlled chaos' wins the £10,000 award – and guaranteed fame – for Adam Riches at the Edinburgh Festival

The founder of financial comparison website Moneysupermarket.com Simon Nixon is £14m wealthier today after the firm – which he stopped running in 2008 but still owns a majority stake – paid out a special £20m dividend to shareholders on top of its interim dividend.

Veteran comics of the Fringe recall some of the gigs they would rather forget

Sky Sports' new pundit Gary Neville is hoping the exorbitant price of tickets for the Champions' League final, travel to Wembley and overnight accommodation (it is an evening kick-off) will not adversely affect the attendance at his testimonial match between Manchester United and Juventus on Tuesday week, from which proceeds will go to local community projects.

Comic Relief may be over, but the relationship between charity and comedy continues apace. In the last two weeks there have been three major charity galas, including this event that celebrated 60 years of the movement founded by humanitarian Victor Gollancz.

David Baddiel's new novel sets the monster ego of the Great Writer against the flaky identity of the New Man.

Moneysupermarket.com; N Brown

The People Speak is a documentary film project inspired by American historian Howard Zinn and developed by writer and academic Anthony Arnove. It presents history as told by the people - and in this case a rather illustrious set of them.

Colin Firth is heading a group of actors and actresses dramatising key moments in Britain's past. He tells James Rampton why it will enthral a new generation

You would have to indulge in Howard Marks's premium brand not to find this flat biopic, starring an irritating Ifan Rhys, smug and self-congratulatory

It's at least five days since I last wrote about Angelina Jolie and, fresh from her publicity tour for the broad Cold War stereotyping of her spy thriller Salt, the star has revealed she's to make a more nuanced movie next.

The preparations for Tony Blair's book signing at Waterstone's Piccadilly sounded a tad over the top when they were announced yesterday morning. The former PM will sign copies of his memoir, A Journey, on 8 September, reported The Bookseller. However: "Customers cannot be photographed with Blair, there will be no personal dedications and all bags, backpacks and briefcases must be checked in, along with cameras and mobile phones... Blair will sign a maximum of two books per customer." The security rigmarole seemed slightly more salient by the afternoon, however, when the Stop The War Coalition set up a Facebook page calling on its members to stage a "mass protest" at the event, and announced plans to arrest Blair for alleged war crimes. "We will be asking people to boycott Waterstone's completely and shut the chain of shops down if this event goes ahead," warned activist Andrew Burgin. Mr Burgin also works as a second-hand bookseller, but far be it from me to suggest he might have an ulterior motive.