Depp presents Lee with BFI fellowship
Johnny Depp made a surprise appearance at the London Film Festival to give a career honor to horror icon Christopher Lee.
Depp called Lee “a national treasure” and “a genuine artist” as he presented the 91-year-old actor with a British Film Institute Fellowship.
Lee’s 250 movie roles include Dracula in a series of Hammer Films thrillers, James Bond villain Scaramanga in “The Man with the Golden Gun,” the founder of Pakistan in “Jinnah” and Saruman in “The Lord of the Rings.”
During a ceremony Saturday, the London festival gave its best-picture prize to U.K.-based Polish director Pawel Pawlikowski for “Ida.”
The 12-day festival ends Sunday with a gala screening of “Saving Mr. Banks,” starring Tom Hanks as Walt Disney and Emma Thompson as “Mary Poppins” author P.L. Travers.
Mr. Big narrating family concert
Actor Chris Noth is appearing with a different kind of cast in New York City: eight cellos.
The star of “Law & Order” and “Sex and the City” will be at Carnegie Hall today for a show called “Angel Heart.”
He’s narrating the family concert based on a new CD storybook. It’s about a girl whose heart is broken then healed on a journey with some fantastical creatures. The story by best-selling children’s writer Cornelia Funke comes with songs created for voices, cellos and mandolins by Luna Pearl Woolf.
Noth said life is “spinning so fast” now that children like his 5-year-old son should slow down and awaken their imaginations with just words and sounds. The Brooklyn Youth Chorus joins Monday’s performance.
Obama photog weds at White House
President Barack Obama hosted a wedding at the White House this weekend for presidential photographer Pete Souza.
The White House said the wedding ceremony for Souza and Patti Lease was held Saturday in the Rose Garden. About 35 friends and family members attended.
Souza is a near-constant companion for Obama, documenting events at the White House and during the president’s trips around the U.S. and overseas. The White House frequently distributes Souza’s photographs on Twitter and other social media platforms.
The birthday bunch
Author Ursula K. Le Guin is 84. Rock singer Manfred Mann is 73. Musician Steve Cropper (Booker T. & the MG’s) is 72. TV’s Judge Judy Sheindlin is 71. Musician Lee Loughnane (Chicago) is 67. Musician Charlotte Caffey (The Go-Go’s) is 60. Actress-author Carrie Fisher is 57. Rock musician Steve Lukather (Toto) is 56. Actor Ken Watanabe is 54. Actor Jeremy Miller is 37. Reality TV star Kim Kardashian is 33.