In Brief: stars’ silent protest for writers

Striking writers are enlisting some of Hollywood's biggest stars for a series of internet downloads to show that, without writers, stars have nothing to say. Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon (pictured) and Harvey Keitel, plus cast members from Desperate Housewives and Ugly Betty, have all been filmed for the project, entitled Speechless, due to debut today ... Troubled chanteuse Amy Winehouse, 24, may have more trouble ahead after being photographed with a suspicious white substance in her nostril following a gig in Blackpool.... Rival celebrity chefs Jamie Oliver, Gordon Ramsay and Hugh Fearmley-Whittingstall are joining forces to campaign on TV against "cruel" producers of battery-farmed chickens... The diseased 150-year-old chestnut tree, which gave diarist Anne Frank solace as she hid from the Nazis, has been given a temporary reprieve by Amsterdam authorities... Books by writers including Stephen Hawking, Umberto Eco and Haruki Murakami are to be translated into Arabic, as part of a major project to widen access to international literature... Evan Davis, the BBC's economics editor, is quitting television to become one of the regular presenters of Radio 4's /Today/ programme...