Igal Naor is the possessor of the job perhaps least expected to be done by a nice Jewish boy. The Israeli actor is playing Saddam Hussein in BBC2's new drama House of Saddam. Naor says he has long yearned for the role of the Iraqi tyrant, so much so that when he heard the BBC was auditioning, he searched out a fake moustache and Arab head scarf and emailed his photo to the casting director. Scarily, he looks the spit of Saddam - indeed, he recalls that, when filming in Tunisia, he was greeted by locals who asked for his blessing and wished him victory in the war against America. Naor himself has prior experience with Saddam, so to speak - he had to evacuate his family home in Tel Aviv when an Iraqi missile landed 50 yards away during the 1991 Gulf War.
Legendary rocker Alice Cooper says he thinks Amy Winehouse parties harder than he ever did. I've interviewed Cooper on a few occasions - he is a surprisingly friendly chap and openly talks about his hedonistic days, and the fact that drinking was nearly the death of him - so maybe Winehouse, whose waxy likeness has just been unveiled at Madame Tussauds, should take his words as a stark warning.
A picture of the usually super-groomed Joan Collins without make-up has been published in the News of the World. Admittedly the shot was taken 10 years ago, but considering she would have been 65 then, she was looking pretty amazing. And the secret to her fresh-faced sparkle? Sex with her toyboy lover, Percy - who's 35 years her junior, of course. She says: "It's definitely one of the best and cheapest beauty treatments there is."
Can a girl really have it all? Maybe not. Just as Sarah Jessica Parker should be enjoying the success of the Sex and the City movie, US magazine Star, has been suggesting her marriage could be in trouble. A report in the magazine claims her husband, Matthew Broderick, who has been wed to Parker for 11 years, had been having an affair with a 25-year-old youth worker while the 43-year-old actress was off filming her hit chick-flick. Broderick's spokesperson Simon Hall, simply said: "There will be no comment."
Jonathan Ross has said he and his Jewish wife, screenwriter Jane Goldman, have been tempted to have a fourth child. "She's got a lot of time left if she wants another one. I'll be good to go 'til I'm about 75. I'm like Charlie Chaplin, I'll be banging them out 'til I'm about 100. So I don't know - we're tempted." And if outbursts like that weren't enough to embarrass his three children, he admits: "I deliberately try to embarrass them. It's good for them, it toughens them up. I collect them from school and I used to deliberately try and find the stupidest outfit I could wear to go and get them."
The credit crunch is biting, but not for Gwyneth Paltrow, Sarah Jessica Parker, Ben Stiller and Adam Sandler. All five figure in the latest Forbes magazine list of highest earning film stars, with Stiller taking home a very tidy £20 million last year.
"I love how Palestinians and Jews hate each other. It's so cute. Honestly, what's the difference? They're brown. They have an odour. It's like sweet potatoes hating yam." So reflects American comic Sarah Silverman, whose movie Jesus is Magic opens in the UK today. Silverman, who has just broken up with her boyfriend, late-night talkshow host Jimmy Kimmel, has a big reputation for treading the fine line between funny and offensive. In the movie she has a routine about the Holocaust. I predict there could well be outrage in the offing.