Ron Howard and Elon Musk
(Picture: Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images / ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)DIRECTOR Ron Howard has explained why he chose to keep “high-profile distraction” Elon Musk out of his film about the 2018 Tham Luang cave rescue. Musk, right, tried to help in the effort to save a football team trapped in a cave but baselessly called one of the rescue divers “pedo guy” in a tweet.
Speaking at the premiere of film Thirteen Lives last night, Howard, far right, told us Musk “never really was a central part of the conversation”. Actor Joel Edgerton told us the Musk issue was a “silly distraction” from “a positive effort to rescue these kids”. British diver Rick Stanton said the rescue showed the importance of expertise. “If you don’t know anything about a subject, trust the experts,” he said, suggesting the pandemic was a case in point.
‘I’m a cancel therapist’
Jimmy CARR says he’s a “cancellation therapist” for comedians who have caused offence. “I get hold of their number, give them a call and try and talk them through it,” he says. Carr caused controversy this year with a joke about travellers and the Holocaust, but stands by the poor-taste jibe. “I told a joke and someone didn’t like it. That’s it.”
101 degrees farenheit
SPARE a thought in the heatwave for 101 Dalmatians actress Kate Fleetwood, right, playing fur-clad Cruella de Vil at the Regent’s Park Theatre this week. Producers have taken pity on her, adding “a number of brief pauses” to the show, report The Stage, and the show are giving out sun cream and ice packs. Elsewhere, Holland Park Opera has pledged to keep actors out of costume during the heat and laid on “extra fans” backstage. Phew.
The audacity of hope
Rehman Chisti, the Tory MP who hoped to be Prime Minister but got no votes from his fellow MPs, reportedly got a gentle mocking as he cast his ballot on the other contenders yesterday. But Chisti has no regrets, telling PoliticsHome that he hopes to be remembered as “somebody who has self-belief ... who has the courage to stick by their convictions and put themselves forward”.
Geranium wins best restaurant
DAPPER Stanley Tucci presented The World’s 50 Best Restaurants Awards last night, where Geranium, in Copenhagen, won top prize. Tucci said he’d “go to any lengths for a good meal”, but only had to go to Old Billingsgate Market. Chef Natsuko Shoji was there too. Actor Daisy Edgar Jones was at a Soho screening of Where The Crawdads Sing. In Leicester Square, diver Rick Stanton joined actors Ploy Pattrakorn and Joel Edgerton (with his stylist partner Christine Centenera) at the premiere of their film Thirteen Lives.
