Kevin Spacey has been running the Old Vic theatre company (way back this famous old theatre housed the National Theatre before its own new premises were built next to the river - and it was run by Laurence Olivier).
Then there's Gillain Anderson. Wonder why she's been off your radar recdently, my US readers? She's been living over here and making great programmes. The latest is a really creepy serial killer crime drama, The Fall. If it makes it over there, you must watch.
I've also been musing on the "6 degrees of Kevin Bacon" scenario, since it occurred to me that a late acquaintance of mine interviewed gazillions of famous people over many years.
He was called Roy Plomley, and he invented and presented a radio programme called Desert Island \discs for over 40 years:
Louis Armstrong Dirk Bogarde Mel Brooks James Cameron Richard Chamberlain
Bing Crosby Noel Coward Marlene Dietrich Brian Epstein Douglas Fairbanks Jr
Alec Guinness Liberace David Niven Norman Mailer Peter Sellers Paul Robeson
Ginger Rogers Stephen Sondheim Tennessee Williams
There are a few that stand out. As well as Julie Andrews, there is the person she is most famous for portraying, Baroness Maria Von Trapp. There's Guy Gibson, who led the Dambusters raid during WWII - and died before the end of the war - and the actor who played him in the film, Richard Todd. There's also actress Valerie Hobson, who played the Wife of Frankenstein, and after whom I was named. Sadly, she is most famous for being the wife of politician John Profumo, whose affair with Christine Keeler led to fears of a major security breach in 1963.
I wish I'd actually met a few of these people, or even discussed them with Roy way back then. Two degrees of separation seem a bit pointless now.
