Don't fret, faithful reader, we're not going all Tiger Beat on you. There is actually a very good reason why we're writing about the latest pop-star turned actor. And here it is:
UK singer Lily Allen has just been announced as the lead in upcoming Pride and Prejudice spoof Jane Austen Handheld. This is Allen's first acting role and why this matters - beyond the fact that Austen is actually quite good, thanks - lies with the rest of the cast and the hand behind the camera. Allen will be playing the role of Lydia Bennet while playing her parents will be Carrie Fisher and Stephen Fry. Yup. Jeeves and Princess Leia.Fisher hasn't done much I've been interested in for quite a while but Fry is entirely a different matter. Yes, the man has appeared in the odd clunker but he himself is never short of brilliant. Absolutely never. The man is pure comic gold and worthy of every superlative you could possibly heap upon him. I really, really like Stephen Fry. Also intriguing on this is the presence of director Tristam Shapeero, a relative neophyte to film work whose television resume includes work on stellar UK shows Green Wing, Peep Show and Brass Eye. Ask anyone up on their Brit TV about those three titles and they'll tell you they each stand among the very best the UK has had to offer over the past decade. Shapeero's really good.
