No, Helen Mirren's academy award hasn't been thrown overboard, but London's favourite battleship, HMS Belfast, has lost Oscar - one of its two cats. We're keeping our hopes alive that the ginger moggy hasn't drowned as he apparently tried in vain to find the other ship's cat, 'Kilo'. History is on Oscar's side. During World War II, the German warship Bismark sank to the ocean floor and took almost 2,000 men with it. But......

From the outside, you wouldn't guess anything was going on behind the peeling, Georgian facade at all but inside, what was once called "the handsomest room in town" was graced by equally handsome Hugh Grant and the luscious Helen Mirren as part of a fundraiser to raise awareness of the ever worsening plight of Wilton's Music Hall. Earlier this year, Wiltons hit the headlines when it was listed in the World Monuments Fund top......

Heathrow co-pilot arrested for being drunk. Helen Mirren's dogs win award. Song devoted to Enfield homeless man. Henman versus Edberg in the Royal Albert Hall. Voice of Homer Simpson on stage in London Image courtesy of TwoCrabs via the Londonist flickr group.......

Heathrow is often a scrum of paparazzi and obsessed fans when a big star arrives, especially from a celeb-fest of a city like Los Angeles. No scrum was in evidence yesterday, however, as former uber-superstar Michael Jackson touched down and breezed through the terminal. In fact, quite the opposite. Airport staff were more helpful than normal, rushing to carry his nine suitcases. Which is nice. For the Jenny Bonds of the world, he wore......

.... we mean, It's Commonwealth Day! Hurray! Hurrah? Hmm... The modern Commonwealth, or as we like to call it, 'Britain's grasping at straws oh bugger the empire's gone tits up club', was set up in 1949 and since 1958, when it was renamed from Empire Day, 'we've' celebrated Commonwealth day. According to the BBC, the Queen, who these days is played by Helen Mirren, will urge people to celebrate diversity and find it a......

This week - Edward Norton does magic tricks (The Illusionist) and Nicholas Cage sells his soul to the devil and replaces his usual head and motorbike with burning versions (Ghost Rider). But first, a couple of words about Helen Mirren, someone who, on principled grounds, turned down an CBE in 1996 but then became a Dame (more accurately, Dame Commander of the British Empire... bugger her principles, she wasn't going to be outdone by......

A great interview with Marianne Faithfull gives us our favourite quote of the week: "I lived on a wall in Soho" Turns out that Marianne was a little preoccupied with drugs to notice what else was going on in Soho in the 70's, but now she's had the chance to go back in her new film Irina Palm: The grandmother from the shires is offered a job giving hand relief to clients whose faces......

Congratulations to Dame Helen Mirren on winning the Bafta. The Queen won Best Film too. Christ knows why. South Londoners are to give trees a boost with a new planting scheme. While children are to give birds a boost with a new... erm... birding scheme. That letter bomb confession turned out to be a load of crap. And Sue Lawley is unleashing her might to save Sloane Square. Go Sue!......

The nominations for the Oscars (or the 79th annual Academy Awards if you're bing picky) have been announced: Best Picture: The Departed Babel Letters From Iwo Jima Little Miss Sunshine The Queen Best Actor: Forest Whitaker (The Last King of Scotland) Leonardo DiCaprio (Blood Diamond) Ryan Gosling (Half Nelson) Peter O'Toole (Venus) Will Smith (The Pursuit of Happyness) Best Actress: Helen Mirren (The Queen) Judi Dench (Notes on a Scandal) Penelope Cruz (Volver) Meryl......

This week - Filth and disgustingness (Dirty Sanchez: The Movie), a dystopian look at London 2027, (Children of Men) and the sequel to Clerks, (Clerks 2). Today's Friday Film News is going to be a little different in terms of order. Usually the first spot is given to the most hyped film of the week, or the most worthy film. However, as the focus of this post is supposed to be the reviews and......

We haven't posted much about the Olympic bid recently. Mainly because you can read about it just about everywhere, but also because we're sick to the back teeth of it. When it gets to the point where they're using the DLR as a promotional tool then, to be honest, we just stop listening. But even we have to admit that the latest promotional release from London's 2012 team is pretty impressive. At four minutes......