Welcome to your Wednesday morning briefing. Let us ensure you’re up to speed on what’s happening and are prepared for the day ahead.

Most Fine Gael TDs are out of their comfort zones in attempting empathy with the unwashed, suggests Gerard Howlin. 

Two hospitality establishments given a makeover by John and Francis Brennan of RTÉ’s At Your Service programme open their doors this weekend with high hopes for the future.

SINGER, actress and more recently TV cook, Angeline Ball is a woman of many parts. 

Harrison Ford and Ridley Scott appear to have buried the hatchet.

Your daily spoiler-free guide to what to look out for on the box.

Venue: Mick Lally Theatre, Galway

The Wolf of Wall Street *****

In a visitor attitude survey carried out by Fáilte Ireland in 2010, 20% of overseas visitors said their holiday decisions were influenced by film and television. Film tourism, or “set-jetting”, has become big business by raising the awareness of previously little known tourist destinations, and prompting a surge of visitors to their locations.

ARDMORE Studios, which opened its doors as Ireland’s first film studio in May 1958, remains the physical heart of the Irish film industry. Having played host to more than 100 films, the original studios, situated on a 10-acre site, represented an investment of over £500m at the time.

Bates, Rathdrum, Co. Wicklow; 0404 29988 , batesrestaurant.ie

Film director and restaurant critic Michael Winner has died aged 77, his wife Geraldine has said.

SHE was the voluptuous pin-up girl who set a million male hearts pounding during World War II, the favourite movie star of a generation of young men long before she’d made a movie more than a handful of them had ever seen.

Jane Russell, the busty brunette who shot to fame as the sexy star of Howard Hughes’ 1941 Western 'The Outlaw', has died of respiratory failure, her family said today.

“HE was an irascible old bugger, but I loved him.”

THE 22nd Cork French Film Festival will take place next month and will be attended by one of cinema’s greatest living legends, film maker Agnes Varda.

OSCAR-NOMINATED film director Peter Yates has died at the age of 81, his agent said yesterday.

Simon Cowell once wanted to live in hotels forever, he has admitted.

Oscar-winning director Sydney Pollack, a Hollywood mainstay who achieved commercial success and critical acclaim with 'Tootsie' and period drama 'Out Of Africa', has died of cancer at 73, his agent said today.

ACTION is being taken to provide coastal protection for Inch Beach in Co Kerry where David Lean filmed part of Ryan’s Daughter.

TWICE Oscar-winning director David Lean, whose films also include Doctor Zhivago and A Passage To India, chose the Dingle Peninsula as the location for Ryan’s Daughter because of its rugged scenery and the Atlantic backdrop.

Ryan’s Daughter is being celebrated in Kerry this weekend, but what impact did the classic epic have on the poor, little-visited region where it was made, asks Donal Hickey.

MEMORIES of heady days in the late 1960s when the cinematic epic Ryan’s Daughter was shot on the Dingle Peninsula will be recalled when one of the stars, Sarah Miles, returns next month.

PARIS HILTON has been given some friendly advice by an ex-convict: lose the attitude.

THE reshowing of the film, Ryan’s Daughter, for the umpteenth time over Easter was a reminder of the magnificence of Irish beaches. Worth looking at for that alone.

JANET Leigh, the wholesome beauty whose shocking murder in the classic Alfred Hitchcock thriller Psycho was credited with making generations of film fans think twice about stepping into a hotel room shower, has died, aged 77.

Talk show host Michael Parkinson has bowed out from the BBC, after more than 20 years with the corporation.

CHAT show host Michael Parkinson yesterday sensationally quit the BBC and defected to ITV.

A new print of Ryan’s Daughter, the 1970 epic love story directed by David Lean is being screened by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Los Angeles next month.