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McEwan makes Booker shortlist

Ian McEwan cemented his position as favourite to win his second Booker Prize when he emerged this afternoon as the only well-known name on the shortlist of six authors for his novel, On Chesil Beach. Even before the announcement, Ladbrokes was quoting him as 3-1 favourite.

Despite the current hype surrounding McEwan (below) - including stellar reviews for the film of his previous novel, Atonement, which opens at UK cinemas tomorrow - the smart money may continue to support Lloyd Jones, whose novel Mister Pip is second favourite. Jones already has form: in the spring, he won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, and he also took the Montana New Zealand Book Award.

The other four titles on the Man Booker shortlist are Darkmans by Nicola Barker, The Gathering by Anne Enright, The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid, and Animal's People by Indra Sinha. The winner will be announced on October 16.

BBC reins back on climate change

THE BBC has scrapped Planet Relief, a TV climate change special which would have starred Ricky Gervais and Jonathan Ross, after senior executives said it would preach to viewers and make the corporation look biased.

The Comic Relief-style programme, which had been in development for 18 months, was due to be screened in January and would have involved viewers in a mass temporary switch-off of electrical products to save energy.

The programme had been condemned as biased last month by two of the BBC's most senior news and current affairs executives, Newsnight editor Peter Barron and head of TV news Peter Horrocks. Barron told the Edinburgh Television Festival it was "not the corporation's job to save the planet". Horrocks added: "We should be giving people information, not leading them."

The ratings flop of Al Gore's summer Live Earth concerts was a factor in the cancellation, as were audience comments that they are sick of being lectured to on going green by hypocritical celebrities who themselves lead extravagant lifestyles.

September 6-15: Brad Pitt, Jude Law, Ewan McGregor, Keira Knightley and Cate Blanchett (above) are just a few of the A-listers expected to attend the Toronto Film Festival.

September 7: Germaine Greer reads from and signs copies of her new book Shakespeare's Wife at The Country Bookshop, Bakewell

September 7-9: Primal Scream, the Beastie Boys and the Chemical Brothers play Bestival 2007, Isle of Wight

September 9: Britney Spears, Foo Fighters and Kanye West are expected at the MTV Video Music Awards, Las Vegas

September 10: Kate Nash plays an intimate gig to celebrate Xfm's 10th birthday at Barfly, London

Oliver Stone attacks ‘Clinton censorship’ over 9/11 DVD

FILM'S enfant terrible Oliver Stone (above right), who built his directorial career upon conspiracy theories, is accusing ABC of "censorship in the most blatant way" because the American network has refused to release last September's (continued below ad)

(continued from above ad) hotly disputed mini-series Path to 9/11 on DVD.

The film, which aired on BBC2 in Britain, starred Harvey Keitel. It depicted the Clinton administration failing to capture 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden and setting in motion the events of that day in 2001.

Four months is the average time between a programme's TV broadcast and its DVD release and an ABC spokesperson told the Los Angeles Times yesterday that the company "has no release date" planned.

Cyrus Nowrasteh, the writer-producer of the Emmy-nominated series, says he was told by a top ABC exec that "if Hillary weren't running for president, [the DVD release] wouldn't be a problem."

Nowrasteh went on to tell the Times that he thought political pressures to not only protect Bill Clinton's legacy but also shield former first lady Hillary's campaign were at work.

"I'm not vouching for [the film's] accuracy," said Stone, who doesn't often support right-wing causes. "But it's an important work and needs to be seen."

Fonda shoots into latest role

ACTOR Peter Fonda had a tough upbringing, raised by his Oscar-winning but remote father Henry Fonda after his mother, Frances Ford Seymour, slit her throat in a mental institution when he was 10. But one incident - accidentally shooting himself in the stomach at the age of 11 - helped him lend authenticity to his latest film, 3:10 to Yuma.

Fonda's character in the western, which also stars Russell Crowe and Christian Bale, is shot in the guts, but moseys on without complaint after the bullet is removed.

During filming, director James Mangold and other sceptical crew members wondered if anyone could survive such a wound. Fonda was able to put them right. "Anybody here took lead?" the Easy Rider star asked. "Unless it hits bone, it just stings. You're in shock - you bleed to death if you don't get help, but it doesn't hurt."

The actor, now 67, has long dined out on the shooting being the inspiration of the Beatles song She Said She Said on the 1966 Revolver album.

The story goes that John Lennon and George Harrison visited Fonda's LA home and all three tripped on LSD. "George was wrecked," says Fonda. "He kept saying, 'I'm dying.' I said, "I know what it's like to be dead."

Then Fonda told the two Beatles the story about how he had been shot himself when he was a little boy. "John was looking at me, horrified, and he said, 'No, no, you're wrong.' Then I heard She Said She Said. It was all there:

'She said, "I know what it's like to be dead. I know what it is to be sad." And she's making me feel like I've never been born'

Solo McCartney spreads his wings

AGEING rocker Sir Paul McCartney is living the high life now that his divorce from Heather Mills is almost complete. The 64-year-old former Beatle has been spotted getting cosy with three blonde celebrity divorcees in only three weeks on both sides of the Atlantic.

At the GQ magazine awards at the Royal Opera House - where he was named 'man of the year' by host Sir Elton John - he wrapped his arm around supermodel Elle Macpherson after chatting to her all evening. (He also snuggled up to Australian singer Natalie Imbruglia.)

At a recent James Taylor concert in the Hamptons he was seen slow-dancing with former model Christie Brinkley, 53, who met McCartney through her ex-husband, singer Billy Joel.

Also in the Hamptons, where he owns a house, he was seen with actress Renee Zellweger, 38, who split from singer husband Kenny Chesney in 2005. The couple got close on a lounger at a party thrown by Jon Bon Jovi, and shared a candlelit meal at the American Hotel in Sag Harbour.

But McCartney, who is finalising an expected divorce settlement of £70m with his estranged wife Heather, tried to play down claims of romance with Zellweger at the GQ party, saying: "We're not dating. We're in the same group of friends and that's it."

The return of ‘Squidgygate’

WITHIN days of the Bishop of London urging those who have 'scored points' since the Princess of Wales's death to 'end it here' at the memorial service for Diana, the controversial 'Squidgygate' tapes are back to haunt all concerned.

The tapes, made of a phone call between Diana and her friend James Gilbey in 1989, could be aired in court at Diana's inquest, it emerged yesterday.

The tapes record Gilbey, 45, an Old Etonian bachelor, calling the Princess 'darling' and 'Squidgy', and promising that he will wrap 'warm protective arms around you in a couple of days'. Diana is heard criticising the Royal Family and describing her life with Charles as 'torture'.

Michael Mansfield QC, representing Mohamed Fayed, whose son Dodi died in the 1997 car crash with Diana, insists that the recording could reveal her state of mind in the years before she died.

Mansfield claims the tapes show that Diana suspected seven years before her death that she was being monitored by the security services.

Richard Branson believes his friend Steve Fossett, who went missing in a small plane over Nevada on Tuesday, is still alive... Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich is reported to have bought a customised £150m Airbus A380 'superjumbo' for use as a private jet... Paul McCartney and Ozzy Osbourne are among those invited to be guest DJs on Radio 1 to mark the station's 40th anniversary... F1 star Lewis Hamilton (above) has signed a multi-million pound book deal... Oprah Winfrey (above) is to throw a fundraising party at her home for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama

Fred aims to be acting President

The Law and Order actor Fred Thompson finally announced he is seeking the Republican nominaton for next year's presidential election. He chose an appearance on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno to make his long- anticipated declaration. Thompson, 67, would be the first actor since Ronald Reagan to take the White House if he were to win election. But he has eight other Republican candidates to beat first, led by the ex-mayor of New York, Rudy Giuliani.

If he can overtake them, he will then probably face Hillary Clinton, currently the Democratic front-runner, in the November 2008 election. He has two advantages over all the others: the public know his face and he has at least played the president on film.

People - Here, There and Everywhere