Damien Hirst recently announced that his next work will be a human skull cast in platinum and studded with 8,500 diamonds. The work should garner the pecunious artist about £8m. But was it all his own idea?
The South African-born sculptor Steven Gregory has been working with skulls for more than four years, and Hirst is such a fan that last year he wrote the introduction to Gregory's "Skulduggery" exhibition catalogue. "My own personal favourites are the real human skull and bone pieces," he enthused.
Hirst has faced accusations of plagiarism in the past, and had to pay out after his £1m sculpture Hymn was shown to have been based on a plastic toy worth £14.99.
Gregory was diplomacy itself when I called. "Damien has bought skulls from me going way back. Everybody influences each other," he said. "It doesn't bother me in the least." Really? "Yes. Before Damien got his idea I had approached [the diamond company] De Beers about getting some uncut diamonds to put on a skull. But I haven't heard back from them yet."
Thank You for Smoking, the new, funny and disturbingly moral film about the tobacco industry starring Aaron Eckhart and Katie Holmes, could have been so very different. It was made by the indie director Jason Reitman, but Mel Gibson's company Icon Films - best known for the epic Passion of the Christ - initially co-owned the rights. Gibson developed the project for eight years before giving up in 1993. "He wanted it to be edgy without being too edgy," I'm told. The big man even called Reitman from his plane to enthuse about the project and gush about how keen he was to work with him. They never spoke again.
The musical Cabaret is soon to open on Shaftesbury Avenue - but I gather that this production will have some distinctive casting. Denise Van Outen and Martine McCutcheon have been in the frame to play the luvverly Sally Bowles, the role that won Liza Minnelli an Oscar in the film version. However, I've heard that cross-dressing Eddie Izzard is high up the wish-list to play the gal trying to find a decent lay in 1930s Germany, as is Bath's queen of glam-sex decadence Alison Goldfrapp.
Sad news from the New Wimbledon Theatre. The star of this year's Christmas panto, the former Baywatch legend David Hasselhoff, has dropped out, apparently due to "conflicting dates with a TV commitment in the US". But it seems that a story in the Sun charting The Hoff's career decline ("Hoff's fall from Hollywood TV idol to panto baddie") was what really scared him off.
English National Opera's forthcoming production with Asian Dub Foundation, Gaddafi: a living myth, will feature a cameo appearance by Tony Blair. In the final scene, the PM attends a tea party with Muammar Gaddafi, where the Libyan leader tells Blair exactly what he thinks of him by showing him the sole of his shoe. Ramon Tikaram, who played Ferdy in the classic BBC2 drama This Life, will play Gaddafi.
bendowell@btinternet.com
