These pictures of some of Britain’s most beautiful actresses will feature in a new exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery.

The images of Rosamund Pike, Sienna Miller and Gemma Arterton, newly acquired by the gallery, are among 39 pictures in The Actress Now display, opening on October 20.

Photographer Sarah Dunn revealed how she broke through Pike’s “very proper” demeanour. She said: “I just told her a dirty joke to get that reaction. She’s very proper, Rosamund, which is what I love about her. I had to be very cheeky.”

Elisabeth Hoff, who photographed Sienna Miller, said: “She didn’t have an entourage and so it was very free and very raw. Although she is really famous she did not come with lots of baggage.”

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Gemma Arterton talked briefly about Byzantium when she attended the Burberry Prorsum.

Arterton had weather on her mind. “I’m glad it’s not too hot today — can you imagine, we’d melt in this plastic tent,” she said. “Everyone is wearing leather and tweed, so I’m grateful the good old English weather came through.” The bubbly Arterton is headed to Dublin next week to begin filming “Byzantium,” directed by Neil Jordan. “I’m playing Saoirse Ronan’s mum, would you believe? That makes me feel old.”

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AMAZON, an exhibition to support our campaign with Sky to help save one billion trees in Acre, North West Brazil will open at Somerset House on 2 November.

The free exhibition will feature imagery from Brazilian photographer Salgado’s photographic essay ‘Genesis’ as well as imagery taken by Petterson on a recent trip to Acre with actress Gemma Arterton. ‘Amazon’ will run until 4 December.

Find out more

Actress and Bond girl Gemma Arterton joins Matt and Alex in the studio. Plus the ordinary people who stood up to fascism in the 1930′s, a tribute to Dad’s Army writer David Croft and a new scheme to help hedgehogs.

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Thanks Lorna for the heads-up.

Thesp lands male lead in Neil Jordan pic
By Justin Kroll

Caleb Landry Jones has landed the male lead in “Byzantium” directed by Neil Jordan.

The pic currently stars Saoirse Ronan and Gemma Arterton and is based on the Moira Buffini play.

Story revolves around a mother and daughter who are vampires and arrive in a small British town revealing their secret to the town. Jones plays a teenager dying of leukemia which in turns forces him to struggle with his mortality, causing Saorsie Ronan’s character to struggle with her own immortality.

Buffini also penned the script with Elizabeth Karlsen and Stephen Woolley producing.

Jones was most recently seen in Fox’s “X-Men: First Class” and can be seen next in the Universal/Working Title co-production “Contraband” starring Mark Wahlberg.

He is repped by Paradigm, Untitled and Bloom Hergott Diemer Rosenthal Laviolette Feldman Schenkman & Goodman.

Source: Variety

If you’ve picked up the new issue of Grazia – out today! – you’ll know Gemma Arterton is on a mission to save the world, win an Oscar and have a baby. Oh yes.

But first things first. When we sat down to chat with the A-list actress, Gemma revealed her plans to tackle climate change by protecting the rainforest. ‘Deforestation is responsible for as much greenhouse gas emissions as all the world’s cars, planes, trains and ships put together,’ she says. And right now, with a new highway slicing through one of the last densely forested areas of the Amazon, the future of the planet is very much in danger – whenever a road appears in Brazil, loggers quickly follow.

Fortunately, Gemma’s got there first. As an ambassador for the Sky Rainforest Rescue project in partnership with WWF, she’s helping to create sustainable partnerships that prove the trees are worth more alive than dead. Go Gem!

Here’s where you come in. Photographs documenting Gemma’s trip to the Amazon will appear as part of a collaborative exhibition with the acclaimed Brazilian photographer Sebastiao Salgado later this year. So for your chance to win a pair of tickets to the VIP launch party and enjoy a caipirinha with Ms Arterton, just answer the question below…

Question:
Gemma starred alongside Daniel Craig in which film series?

Options:
* Star Wars
* Harry Potter
* James Bond

Closing Date: 29/08/11

You need to sign up first in order to participate in this competition.
Please click here to sign up or log in first.

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Berlin-based shingle Egoli Tossell Film and Film House Germany in Frankfurt have boarded Paul Andrew Williams’ ”Song for Marion,” starring Vanessa Redgrave.

Pic marks the first collaboration between the German companies since Film House took over Egoli Tossell earlier this year.

Williams’ London-based Steel Mill Pictures is producing along with Coolmore Productions and Aegis Film Fund.

Gemma Arterton, Terence Stamp and Christopher Eccleston also star in the London-set comedy-drama about a grumpy pensioner who joins a local choir.

The film is set to start shooting this month in North East England.

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A film which could do for choirs what Brassed Off did for brass bands begins shooting in the North East next week with a glittering cast led by Vanessa Redgrave and Terence Stamp.

Gemma Arterton and Christopher Eccleston also star in the film, Song for Marion, and North East extras are being sought to appear as audience members during a six-week shoot.

Locations in County Durham and Newcastle will be used in the film which highlight the increasing popularity of choral singing. Read the rest of this entry »

Gemma Arterton is to star as the conductor of a ‘rock choir’ in a new British film co-starring Vanessa Redgrave and Terence Stamp. The film called Song For Marion has been inspired by the surge in progressive community choirs around the country, spurred on by hit TV show Glee, and will feature music from Motorhead, Billy Joel, Stevie Wonder and Cyndi Lauper, the Daily Mail reports.

Vanessa, 74, will play Marion who is a member of the local choir in the north-east of England, and she and her conductor, played by Bond girl Gemma, are both keen to get her retired husband Arthur, played by Priscilla Queen Of The Desert star Terence, to join. Christopher Eccleston has also been cast as the son who has a difficult relationship with his father.

Producer Ken Marshall, from Steel Mill Pictures, revealed: “Both Vanessa and Terence can sing, and each has a big solo spot number”, adding that Vanessa’s number is a classic ballad “that will have you crying into your shirt.” The film will be directed by Paul Andrew Williams, whose debut, gritty drama London To Brighton, won much critical acclaim.

The film begins shooting for six weeks at the end of July on location in and around County Durham.

Gorgeous British actress Gemma Arterton is back in front of the camera for G-Star’s fall campaign. Following her first campaign in spring, Gemma’s new ads are similarly gritty and raw, but with a tougher edge to them. She shows off the brand’s 3301 denims, which she says “are definitely one of the style must-haves because they are so practical”. The ads and clothes Gemma wears hit stores in September.

Vanessa Redgrave, Terence Stamp and Gemma Arterton are to get down and rock in a new movie.

Song For Marion, which also stars Christopher Eccleston and Anne Reid, looks at the rock-choir phenomenon that has soared in all parts of the country, and abroad.

Producer Ken Marshall, from Steel Mill Pictures, said: ‘Choirs have always been a massive part of the British social fabric,’ adding that the TV show Glee had made them even more popular. Read the rest of this entry »

A galaxy of stars are at Wimbledon as the 125th men’s final displays some sparkling tennis.

Away from the Royal Box, famous faces punctuate the crowd.

Bond Girl Gemma Arterton, 25, who starred in Quantum of Solace, sits beside her husband Stefano Catelli, a fashion sales manager.

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Gemma Arterton is expected to be among the 42 actors who will feature in the ‘Brits to watch’ dinner that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will attend.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have not yet packed their suitcases for their trip to North America, but tempers are already fraying among the actors who hope to meet them in Hollywood.

Mandrake hears that the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, whose inaugural “Brits to Watch” dinner will be attended by Prince William and the former Kate Middleton, has been deluged with calls from agents desperate for their clients to be among the 42 actors featured. Read the rest of this entry »

The costume (in Hansel and Gretel) will be a complete contrast for her next project, A Song for Marion , which is a small British movie with Arterton playing a choir teacher for an old-peoples choir.

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Gemma Arterton reveals she’s learning the piano for her new role: click HERE to watch her short interview.

Follow us: http://twitter.com/gemma_arterton

Today’s A-listers are versatile chameleons who convince audiences they can inhabit the lives of just about anyone in any context. What they can’t do as convincingly is portray characters whose ages differ widely from their own.

Age might not be anything but a number, according to R&B singer Aaliyah, but it is important in establishing realism.

Still, a lot of recent casting announcements seem to be placing familiar actors in roles that don’t seem age-appropriate.

Sure, as audiences, we can suspend our disbelief, but that willingness may be stretched to the breaking point in some of these upcoming films. (…)

Gemma Arterton and Saoirse Ronan as mother and daughter

Even more curious was the announcement of Byzantium, director Neil Jordan’s return to vampire movies, which will star Gemma Arterton and Saoirse Ronan as vampires who pose as sisters. That’s believable, but they duo is actually supposed to be mother and daughter.

This is problematic because Arterton is 25 and Ronan is 17. So Arterton was 8 when she gave birth? Okay, vampires don’t exactly age like we poor mortals do, but still, does that make sense?

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