Dinner With The Illuminati

Italian newspapers and blogs are reporting that Tom Hanks and Dan Brown have tonight been invited to dinner with Giuliani Di Bernardo, reportedly a member of the Illuminati. Di Bernardo's purpose, apparently, is to discuss the upcoming adaptation of Angels and Demons. Remember to look out for his name on the credits.

Other invited dinner guests include Rupert Murdoch, Cardinal Friedrich Wetter, Pier Giorgio Bassi and Vincent Canstraro, a Bush advisor and one-time CIA power-player.

Apparently, the meal is to consist of raw fish on triangular dishes, the tables illuminated by pyramidal candles. I'm not sure if everybody will have to dress like extras in Eyes Wide Shut, but the images amuses and frightens me in equal measure, so I thought I'd share it.

Stranger than fiction, perhaps - and precisely as daft. Thanks to Antonello for the links.

Beaten By Beatty

Jeffrey Wells - who, amazingly, is neither embarrassed by nor being ironic with his little photo at the head of his Hollywood Elsewhere page - has reported that Warren Beatty is close to signing up as Nixon in Frost/Nixon. Disappointingly, this pretty much cements the film going ahead with Ron Howard as the director. Just a few days back, when we ran the Frost/Nixon script review and Angels and Demons was given a start date, I began fantasising about another director taking over from Howard. Now, and also according to Wells, it looks like Howard will be shooting Frost/Nixon this August then Angels/Demons in February of next year, the two of them then released in late 2008 like one of those Spileberg double-hitters.

Michael Sheen is reportedly being held over as David Frost from the theatrical version. That's good.