Yahoo News Londoner's Diary: Raise a cup to the V&A and Game of Thrones
Has everyone gone Game of Thrones mad? The chainmail-covered fantasy programme is in its seventh series, and even the cultural doyens at the V&A are tuning in.
“One of my eagle-eyed colleagues recently spotted that an object from the V&A’s collection appeared to have found its way into an episode of Game of Thrones,” metalwork curator Alexandra Jones wrote in a blog on the museum’s website this week. “The object in question can be seen in the hands of the particularly unpleasant Lord Walder Frey, played in the show by David Bradley. It is remarkably similar to the cup from the Metalwork collection.”
The cup in question, glimpsed above, was a favourite of the dastardly character, now deceased: it was even present at the gory Red Wedding. But how did he get hold of a replica of a V&A treasure? It turns out both versions are copies. The V&A displays the piece as an example of electrotyping, a method of using electrical currents to deposit metal particles onto moulds. The original is in the British Museum, and the V&A commissioned duplications in the 1850s. They kept hold of three, before one found its way to Westeros.
This isn’t the first time London’s cultural institutions have aligned themselves with the programme. Last month the British Museum publicised its forthcoming exhibition on the Scythians, warriors of ancient Siberia, by calling them the real-life Dothraki, the show’s fiercest fighters.
One commenter on the V&A blog begs them to sell copies in the gift shop. Now there’s a stocking-filler.
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Bertie Carvel’s turn as a cheating husband in Doctor Foster earned plenty of social media ire, but the actor doesn’t think the French version of the BBC series, newly commissioned, will see his character earn the same vitriol. “It’s a cliché verging on racism,” Carvel writes in the New Statesman this week. “But I can’t help wondering whether the French will have a different attitude to a story about marital infidelity.” Liberté, égalité, adulteré?
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Leading lights of Soho grow dim
The Lights of Soho have gone out: the neon-lit creative hub has been forced to close its doors for good due to massive rent hikes. The art gallery and private members’ bar has been shining bright on Brewer Street for more than two years, hosting some of London’s glitziest gatherings and providing sanctuary in Soho to stars including Jude Law and Rita Ora. But it cannot afford the ground rent for the space. “There is no subsidy for any hubs like us to exist and it is sad that the support for London’s creative generation is so lacking,” a Lights of Soho spokesman told The Londoner.
Will the last person to leave Soho turn off the lights?
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Quote of the Day
‘I don’t feel like the first, or the last, or a lady’
Brigitte Macron, the wife of French President Emmanuel, says she doesn’t like being called First Lady
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BBC Two is behind the veil
Nineties fashion is making a comeback to BBC2, and Penélope Cruz is leading the way. Today the channel confirmed that it will air new crime drama The Assassination of Gianni Versace. Oscar-winning actress Cruz has been transformed into iconic designer Donatella Versace, pictured above. It will premiere next year and is teased with these images. Previous portrayals of Donatella have hit wide of the mark but Cruz, in blonde wig, looks the part and has said she got the fashion diva’s blessing before taking on the role. We hope she managed a discount at Versace, too.
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Comedy just ain’t what it used to be, according to John Cleese. The veteran Monty Python star has been at the Sarajevo Film Festival, complaining about modern laughs. “The great problem with most of the comedy out there at the moment is that it’s aimed at 19-year-olds who are astonishingly ignorant,” he said. “Once you’ve done The Hangover you’ve made jokes about all the things they know about: drugs, liquor, celebrities... They don’t know anything about anything else.”
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Michelle Mone eyes up the decor
From uplift of the figure to that of decor: former brassiere magnate Baroness Mone and her billionaire partner Doug Barrowman have set up design company Michelle Mone Interiors. Could her new standing in Westminster provide some lucrative opportunities?
We caught up with Mone yesterday to see if she had offered her services ahead of the renovations of the Houses of Parliament. She took her seat in the House of Lords in 2015, so understands its limitations.
“It’s a shame we didn’t have Michelle Mone pitching for that, it would have been a good project,” she said with a chuckle. “It’s obviously a very traditional place full of history and you don’t want to lose any of that, but it’s falling to bits at the moment. They need to give it that British quality and style that will compliment it being an incredible place, but I’ll give them my number. Although I’m sure they’ve got it.”
It’s a shame Jeremy Hunt didn’t give her a call before the Department of Health forked out £44,000 on a bathroom suite. Mone could have got him a much better deal.
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Tweet of the Day
‘Little by little, Trump is isolating himself. Soon he’ll be Oz the Great and Terrible: little man, big voice, hiding behind a curtain.’
Thriller writer Stephen King has a way with words about the US President.
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Food fun of the day: Fitzrovia ramen bar Tang has new Jeremy Corbuns, Theresa Mayonnaise buns and Pablo Esco-buns. The latter comes with a free coke. The drink not the drug, that is.
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Pierce and Lily tune up for Mamma
Is the world ready to hear Pierce Brosnan sing again? His vocals were panned in Mamma Mia!, but he’s taking rehearsals for the sequel seriously: here he is with Lily James yesterday, who will play a young Meryl Streep. Hope she’s got earplugs.
