'I believe that energy has to be used to get more energy," says Bernard Kops. And his is a remarkable energy. He has written more than 40 plays for television, stage and radio, nine novels, seven volumes of poetry and two autobiographies.

'It's a scary time. I'm not young - I'm 66 - and I don't know what's coming next," confesses Ruth Leon, as if answering the question written on the cover of her memoir.

Called But What Comes After?, it describes Leon's relationship with Sheridan Morley -the biographer, theatre critic and broadcaster to whom she was married until his death in 2007.

Jesse Eisenberg is still feeling the effects of his Oscar-nominated performance as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network, and it is making him uncomfortable.

The news that the Royal Shakespeare Company is to stage another major production of The Merchant of Venice would have been met with world-weary sighs in some quarters.

Two days before interviewing Vidal Sassoon, news arrives that he has cancelled all but our meeting to attend the funeral of a friend and fellow hairdresser, Joshua Galvin. I'm flattered, of course. But will the man who revolutionised hairdressing in the Swinging Sixties, and whose life is now the subject of an entertaining new documentary and a colourful memoir be in the mood for a conversation?

People tend to recognise Adam Goldberg's face before his name. He is the actor most remembered for playing the Jewish soldier Private Mellish in Saving Private Ryan and Eddie Meneuk, Chandler's scene-stealing, reality-challenged roommate, in Friends.

Michael Grade is not the man he was. When we last met, a long time ago now, he was everything that the caricatures made of him. He sat in a plush office, red braces and red socks, smoking a giant cigar. As boss of Channel 4 at the time, he was every bit the big mogul.

As Yaniv “Nev” Schulman points out, he’s got a fair amount in common with Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg.

Both are 26, from Jewish families in New York and live enviable lives surrounded by the latest in geek-dream software. And for both, being part of what Schulman calls “the first Facebook generation” has had unimaginable consequences.

How can you make a sitcom about Shabbat, and never mention the J-word? Friday Night Dinner writer Robert Popper explains that the rituals of Friday night with the family resonate beyond Golders Green and Edgware.

James Franco seems to be everywhere these day in all kinds of different guises.