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

Kate Winslet, Andy Serkis and Chris Pratt are just some of the stars who have taken part in a video chain letter where they grill each other with burning questions.

Three men and one woman arrested in New York have been charged with drugs offences possibly connected to narcotics found at the home of film star Philip Seymour Hoffman following his death of an apparent heroin overdose, law enforcement officials said last night.

Detectives found almost 50 envelopes, branded “Ace of Spades,” containing what is believed to be heroin, in the apartment of Philip Seymour Hoffman, who was found dead on Sunday.

Scarlett Johansson is set to make her directorial debut.The 'Avengers' actress will step behind the camera for the very first time to direct 'Summer Crossing', an adaptation of Truman Capote's first novel.

OSCAR WILDE collected them and Truman Capote adored their jewel-like mystery. Since the 1851 Great Exhibition in London showcased the charm and beauty of the French paperweights, glass weights have inspired generations of makers of these treasured fancies. The three great names in antique weights are Clichy, Baccarat and St. Louis, all of France, and producing in the golden years 1845-1860. These gems of the glass makers’ art are known for their tiny candy canes of millefiori in tightly packed blossoms, ribbons, ‘stardust’ grounds and intricate lampwork inclusions. Even slightly damaged examples of these tiny formal gardens are expensive investments known the world over, with prices starting in the area of €500 for a piece with a few indents or rubs to the base.

Scarlett Johansson worries no one will want to hire her as an actress.

PROLIFIC writer Emma Donoghue’s new play, The Talk of The Town, premiered at the Project Arts Centre last night and continues until Oct 14.

John Connolly and Declan Burke convinced great writers to write about their favourite mystery novels. Val Nolan is impressed

Celebrated author, playwright and commentator Gore Vidal has died at the age of 86, his nephew said today.

It’s now class to wear glass. More and more people are eyeing up the fashionable possibilities spectacles offer, says Deirdre Reynolds

Richard Ford, at 68, admits that he has only a limited number of books left in him. He spoke to Declan Burke about what might shape them

Brooks Douglass was 16 years old when two drifters entered his family’s Oklahoma farmhouse, killed his parents, raped his sister and left him for dead. He survived, and passed a law allowing him to watch his attacker be executed. But it took 30 years, and making a movie reliving the tragedy, to bury his demons, writes Lois Romano

Zadie Smith

Ashton Kutcher has revealed he had to rule himself out of a new movie because he did not feel he was physically right for the role.

JACKIE KENNEDY had a steamy four-year affair with Bobby Kennedy after JFK’s assassination, according to a new book.

Stephen Fry has criticised the way straight actors are congratulated for playing gay characters.

Having already seen an Oscar-winning performance in 2006 about Stateside writer – and complex character – Truman Capote there is still to be got from his writing of the true-life murder best-seller In Cold Blood.

Horror sequel The Grudge 2 topped the US box office over the weekend with $22m (€18m), knocking director Martin Scorsese's film The Departed into second place.

THE ensemble drama Crash pulled off one of the biggest upsets in Academy Awards history, winning best picture over cowboy romance Brokeback Mountain, which had been the front-runner.

The ensemble drama Crash pulled off one of the biggest upsets in Academy Awards history, winning best picture over the cowboy romance Brokeback Mountain, which had been the front-runner.

Bookies' favourite Philip Seymour Hoffman won the best actor award at the Oscars for his role as writer Truman Capote in the biopic Capote.

Much praise, including a BAFTA, for Hoffman who plays, to brilliant perfection, Stateside author Truman Capote in one of the outstanding films of the year.

COWBOY love story Brokeback Mountain led the Academy Awards field with eight nominations, including those for best picture, best actor and best director.

A film directed by Irish playwright Martin McDonagh was tonight nominated for an Oscar.

The cowboy love story Brokeback Mountain led the Academy Awards field today with eight nominations, including those for Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Director.

Gay cowboys, country singers, literary lions, a bullheaded CIA agent and a transsexual on a road trip are among the likely cast of characters for Academy Awards nominations today.

DRAMA Crash pulled off an upset win over previous Oscar-favourite Brokeback Mountain at the Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Golden Globe nominee Cillian Murphy is to launch Ireland’s biggest movie event, the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival, organisers confirmed today.

THE cowboy romance Brokeback Mountain led the Golden Globes in Los Angeles with four prizes, including best dramatic film and the directing honour for Ang Lee.

Cowboy romance Brokeback Mountain led the Golden Globes in Los Angeles yesterday with four prizes, including best dramatic film and the directing honour for Ang Lee.

The Golden Globe Awards ceremony takes place in Los Angeles tonight, with cowboy romance Brokeback Mountain dominating with seven nominations.

Brokeback Mountain, the story of forbidden love between two cowboys, is emerging as the front runner for a best-picture Golden Globe nomination today.

Nobel laureate Saul Bellow, a master of comic melancholy who in Herzog, Humboldt’s Gift and other novels both championed and mourned the soul’s fate in the modern world, has died at 89.

New York’s Plaza Hotel – for 98 years a watering hole and meeting place for kings and queens, presidents and stars – will close this spring to become luxury flats, shops and and a much smaller guest house.

Gwyneth Paltrow is set to earn almost €3m to sing one three minute song on the big screen - making her the highest paid actress ever for a cameo appearance.

Gwyneth Paltrow will star as late singer Peggy Lee in a film about the life of American writer Truman Capote, it emerged today.