In brief: the ‘new Bardot’ unveiled

Louise Bourgoin (pictured left), 26, who until recently was the weather girl for French TV channel Canal Plus, has been hailed as the "new Brigitte Bardot" (right) following her film debut in The Girl from Monaco in which she plays a young woman who throws a middle-aged lawyer’s life into turmoil. A writer for Variety, the US entertainment trade newspaper, described her thus: "As liberated as a young colt and with a bod kissed by Aphrodite" ............ Matt Helders, drummer with the Arctic Monkeys, is opening a pub in the band's home town of Sheffield. The Bowery will serve as a bar and gig venue ............Penelope Cruz, the Spanish-born actress, is coming to live in London. She told the Daily Telegraph she is renting a property in the capital with her current boyfriend, fellow actor Javier Bardem, 39, so that she can prepare for her part in the film musical Nine, which also stars Nicole Kidman, Danel Day-Lewis, Dame Judi Dench, Marion Cotillard and Sophia Loren ............Banksy, the graffiti artist, will be more concerned than most by the effects of Hurricane Gustav. He has been in New Orleans daubing walls to commemorate the third anniversary of Katrina …………Sir Ian McKellen has lent his resonant voice to the campaign to save the George Tavern - a 17th century pub in Stepney - from having a block of flats erected next to it. McKellen joins Kate Moss and Amy Winehouse, both of whom argue that the Grade II-listed pub would lose its appeal if the flats were built…………Barack Obama has been tipped to win the American election by none other than former Times editor William Rees-Mogg. This should be cause for concern for Democrats. Rees-Mogg once guaranteed that Colin Powell would be President and Michael Heseltine leader of the Conservative Party…………To promote his forthcoming novel, A Most Wanted Man, espionage writer John Le Carre, has employed the film producer Simon Channing Williams to make a nine-minute promotional film which is being shown on YouTube..........