The Londoner: I’m ready to give up acting due to virus, says Michelle Collins
Michelle Collins is reconsidering her acting career because of coronavirus, as she warns actors are being forced to use food banks.
“I haven’t worked since January,” Collins told The Londoner, adding: “I was working on an independent film in Liverpool last week and we had to close it down because of lockdown.”
The star, who has appeared in EastEnders, Coronation Street and a host of West End plays, said: “I’m seeing actors who are going to food banks in Islington, young actors queuing for food banks which are going to close down.”
Meanwhile a socially distanced march is due to take place in London today calling for more support for actors. The Panto Parade “aims to highlight the lack of panto this year and the wider damage the theatre and live events industry are suffering”. Paul Fleming of the performers’ union Equity said: “Our members pay their taxes to get support at times of crisis. Over 40 per cent have received no support from the Government. “The Government’s approach isn’t a pantomime, it’s a tragedy.”
Collins, too, hit out at the Government for giving “all this money to buildings. It is the workforce we need to look after”. Desperate times.
Corrin bones up on royal trivia before Crown series
Emma CORRIN (above, in character), who plays Princess Diana in the next series of The Crown, has been boning up on the woman she’s playing — not just by making a picture of Diana and Prince Philip her computer background but talking to Diana’s former private secretary Patrick Jephson and, most importantly, naming her cockapoo Spencer. As for the new series, writer Peter Morgan has revealed to Vanity Fair that because of coronavirus halting production “we are missing two weeks of filming” and they had to restructure the story. “I just hope you can’t tell where.”
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Michaela Coel, the writer and star of I May Destroy You, says Twitter is a “monster” for her and she often has to leave it in order to “feel more me again”. However, she tells GQ, “by overly avoiding it you’re almost giving it a strange weight in your life”. So now Coel has realised “you can see it either as this huge monstrous thing or this little baby that’s having teething problems”. A baby that can really bite.
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Gaby Wood, Booker director, says this year’s prize ceremony is to be postponed — for Barack Obama. “It was unfortunate that two of the most exciting literary events of the year were due to fall on the same day,” Wood said, as Obama’s new memoirs are out on November 17. So the Bookers will be at the Roundhouse two days later. They probably wouldn’t do that for Trump.
SW1A
Rory Stewart, who famously took off his tie during the 2019 Tory leadership debate (above), branded both candidates’ failure to do the same during last night’s US presidential debate “their worst mistake”. Get on that plane and sort them out, Rory.
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New mum and Labour MP Alex Davies-Jones includes her young son Sulley on Zoom calls. Davies-Jones told us: "sadly Parliamentary debates aren’t able to take place at 3am when I’m often in my prime, and the last few months have really taught me how to juggle competing priorities." She added "On a practical note, I think my local supermarket are convinced I’ve developed a severe tea addiction". Despite the benefits of bringing in Sulley, she explained: “A teething one-year old and the world of politics don’t always align.” Though there are tantrums in both.
