She smokes roll-ups, dresses down and means well, yet the words Emma Thompson can set teeth grating. But then Mrs Branagh is that rare thing, a semi-ironic star

In the aftermath of the collapse of Stephen Fry and Cell Mates, Rik Mayall got involved with drugs. The result was a video, Out of My Head, released on Monday. James Rampton asks him how it happened

We tend to listen to the Today programme on Radio 4 each morning in our house, or rather we tend to have it on, because my wife thinks I listen to it and I think she listens to it. Left to our own devices, we each of us tend to turn it off by and by.

From Mr James Christopherson

If all publicity is good publicity, how come Cell Mates, the play memorably abandoned by an anguished Stephen Fry, is closing down on 25 March? David Lister on the anatomy of a disaster

The Stephen Fry saga resumed in splendid luvvie fashion last night with the playwright Simon Gray accusing the troubled comedian of leaving his play "in the most cowardly fashion".

The NFT's comedy weekend, titled "Are We Having Fun Yet?", makes no claims to be a definitive round-up of rib-ticklers, which is just as well. It's based around three sections: the first is a tribute to John Candy and Peter Cook. Candy never quite found the vehicle his talents deserved (certainly not in Wagons East, during the filming of which he died) but he was an endearing figure who will probably be remembered more as a Fatty Arbuckle than a Buster Keaton. Cook, on the other hand, who is featured in the priceless Bedazzled (left, with Dudley Moore), dominated any film he appeared in. The weekend also features four previews, including IQ, whose American cast (Tim Robbins, Walter Matthau, Meg Ryan) is given a touch of spice by Stephen Fry. Finally, there are five features plucked from an NFT members' poll of all-time great comedy films. The top 25 features some preposterous choices but the five faves - including Bringing Up Baby, Some Like It Hot, and Airplane! - are hard to dispute, surely. Oh, go on then, if you must: "Don't call me Shirley".

From Ms Alice Farnham

From Ms Marina Keet

Stephen Fry is acting out a fantasy we all share, but he'd be better off seeing a shrink He has created a newspaper story about the power of newspapers

STEPHEN Fry has disappeared, and everyone assumes (despite his protests to the contrary) that this is because he's depressed by the bad press he's been getting recently from theatre and television critics, and other vermin like myself - I mocked him in this column last week for being a computer buff. My father says it shows what strong stuff the royals are made of, and indeed Fry is supposed to be a chum of the Prince of Wales. If he could nip out of hiding and go and see the Prince to compare press slaggings I'm sure Stephen would feel better.

Concern was growing last night over the comedian Stephen Fry, who shocked the theatre world by pulling out of his new West End play in "emotional turmoil" just three days after its opening.

STEPHEN Fry may have a brain the size of Kent or California (`Forever English', 12 February) but his dismissive comments about critics suggest that he needs to use it a little more before passing judgement.

I WAS once asked to be a guest presenter on The Big Breakfast for a week while Chris Evans was away, but I said no as I knew I'd be hopeless. If they asked me to guest present the Today programme on Radio 4, however, I'd jump at the chance. To do that job a few years ago you had to be pretty clued up on politics, but these days this is unnecessary. You simply have to be able to bombard half-awake politicians with mindless speculation about things that are very unlikely to happen. And I'd just love to get Michael Portillo in the radio car.