Captain Moonlight: Lives of the luvvies

KENNETH BRANAGH Warning: been rather quiet lately, had you noticed? But not for much longer. Time to go on full alert for major Branagh coverage. First, a biography, wait for it, Ken & Em, out later this month; then, at the beginning of next month, to open the London Film Festival, Frankenstein, directed by Branagh, starring Branagh, who gets billing above Robert De Niro. The book? Sounds rather more Pasternaky than Boswellian, I'm afraid. Actually, I met that Anna Pasternak this summer at a drinks do. Seemed absolutely charming to me. Told me that the Daily Express had asked her to tone down her account for them of the Hewitt thing. Perhaps I should have told you all this at the time. But you know how it is: the Captain has blind spots. I once sat in on a rehearsal at the National with Peter Hall directing Sarah Miles. You know, the one now claiming to have had a lengthy affair with Olivier, after Danny Kaye. Larry wanted her to call him Lionel, apparently, which seems even more rum than fancying Danny Kaye. Anyway, Hall and Miles didn't seem to be getting on all that well. The National press officer told me Peter had been most concerned that I should have seen all this. I couldn't work out why they were so worried until, a few days later, Miles walked out. A few day after that, Hall ran off with the press officer. Heigh-ho. Meanwhile, Keanu Reeves is still on course to play Hamlet at the Manitoba Theatre Centre, Winnipeg, next January.