It can't be easy for Janice Hadlow just now. She is the woman who made television stars of Simon Schama and David Starkey. She is ready to enthuse about plans to broadcast underwater images of a submerged Mycenaean city, to make a landmark series on the classical world, and to reveal the home-decorating secrets of the Victorians.

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.

Frank Skinner and the Assembly are at loggerheads over his last-minute withdrawal as host of The Talk Show at its new venue in Princes Street Gardens.

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.

I've been coming up to Edinburgh for almost 25 years – with a seven-year gap in the middle. The Fringe has totally changed in that time. You used to turn up on the day and do your show. Now you're doing interviews about your show in March.

I would love the opportunity to join the British National Party – and set up a new wing.

Among the many morals one can draw from Sheridan's comedy of manners is a stark warning of the perils of speaking ill of others. Try telling that to a bunch of comedians.

He survived a turbulent upbringing and stints in prison to become one of Britain's best-loved poets – now Benjamin Zephaniah wants to find his soul mate

The old ones are still the best

Well, it's a start. By admitting that Darwin may have been on to something after all, the Vatican has dragged the Catholic Church slap bang into the middle of the 19th century. Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, head of the Pontifical Council for Culture, declared this week that not only is the theory of evolution compatible with Christian faith, but has impeccable antecedents in the theology of Saints Aquinas and Augustine. "In fact," said Ravasi, "what we mean by 'evolution' is the world as created by God."

A comedian has said he was told by Prince Harry: "You don't sound like a black chap."

The London comedian recalls a week in which he performed for the Prince's Trust's gala in honour of Prince Charles's birthday

Idiot MC, pretend pub, feeble band and no jokes. Radio 4 comedy is having a laugh