Maureen Lipman
(Picture: Dave Benett)Maureen Lipman has criticised the casting of fellow actor Dame Helen Mirren as former Israeli prime minister Golda Meir in an upcoming film because she is not Jewish, and suggested a new panel for controversial casting decisions.
Speaking about the upcoming Meir drama, Dame Maureen said: “With that I disagree, because the Jewishness of the character is so integral. I’m sure she [Mirren] will be marvellous, but it would never be allowed for Ben Kingsley to play Nelson Mandela. You just couldn’t even go there.”
Lipman told the Jewish Chronicle: “Perhaps you need to have some sort of panel of people who say this is not acceptable, this is acceptable.” The casting for actors outside of their race and sexuality has become a talking point. Last year, Tamsin Greig said she “probably” should not have played a Jewish matriarch in Channel 4 sitcom Friday Night Dinner.
Dame Helen has called playing Meir in Golda a “great challenge”, and said: “I only hope I do her justice.” Last month, Dame Maureen said comedy was in danger of being “wiped out” because performers were afraid of causing offence.
Hugh: I could have been a real-life spy
HUGH DENNIS says although he was headhunted for a job at MI5, he would’ve made the “world’s worst” spy. “Why I got an interview is beyond me,” says the comic and actor — who has a brief cameo in the latest 007 film. He told the hiring panel about his
thesis on the spatial distribution of elementary education in 19th-century Wakefield. “I could’ve been a spy, I just wished I’d never told them about my thesis. That’s essentially where it all went wrong,” he explains on the Headliners podcast. “I just remember being sort of stared at.” Bond it ain’t.
Writer puzzled at being on Lee’s list
STAND-UP Stewart Lee started 2022 with a bang, listing tens of people he doesn’t like and would put in a “pedal bin” — starting a row with a colleague in the process. One of those named was fellow Observer columnist Kenan Malik, who Lee included as “Keenan Malik” alongside Vladimir Putin and the Taliban. Malik countered: “Don’t know what I’ve done to upset that nice Mr Lee, but at least he could have spelt my name right”. New year, new feuds.
SW1A
IS it time to get over the Red Wall? Pollster Anthony Wells thinks so. “It is the very definition of fighting the last war to instead keep on obsessing over the seats that happened to change hands at the last election,” he thunders on his blog after polling showed the Tories might lose those very seats. Just don’t mention the Wall.
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LIB-DEM MP Jamie Stone says juggling politics and am-dram can be tough. There’s the logistics of costume changes: “I had to haul myself into a massive bra and fake boobs,” he tells The House. And playing a baddie brings other baggage: “I had hundreds of my constituents booing me.”
Cheers guys. Have a wonderful Christmas. A gift from me ❤️🎁 pic.twitter.com/vkwlEE5yE0
— Jamie Stone MP (@Jamie4North) December 16, 2020
