Leading article: Hair today...

These have been a triumphant few days for two stalwarts of the entertainment business. Robert Plant, winner of five Grammys, and Mickey Rourke, named best actor at the Baftas, both inhabit different corners of the showbusiness universe. But there is a pleasing symmetry about the lives of these two veteran performers.

Both enjoyed considerable success while young. Both have recently emerged from a (by their standards) fallow period in the respective careers. Both have long been keen on "integrity" in their art. But, most strikingly of all, both now flaunt long, luxuriant hairstyles of the sort that society generally considers inappropriate for men who have passed a certain age in life to wear.

Long may Rourke and Plant defy such silly style conventions. As with the biblical hero Samson, any brandishing of the scissors would surely only succeed in diminishing their considerable powers.