Is Gemma Arterton hoping to be the first female 007?
I ask because the 35-year-old former Bond Girl says she only agreed to appear in Matthew Vaughn’s The King’s Man after he told her she’d be portraying a 007-type figure.
‘He said he would love to have a female action-spy, James Bond-esque character,’ says Gemma, who plays Polly Wilkins in the prequel to the Kingsman films.
Maybe she’s had enough of leaving viewers shaken and stirred in raunchy outfits — and wants to be the one to carry the gun.
Is Gemma Arterton (pictured) hoping to be the first female 007?
PM’s wife and her boss wooed to join the herd of Netflix hits
Carrie Johnson has had a busy year, working for an animal charity and recently becoming a mother for the second time.
But I can reveal 2022 could be a blockbuster for the Prime Minister’s wife, as she has been in talks with Netflix to produce hard-hitting nature documentaries.
Shows fronted by figures such as Sir David Attenborough are smash hits on streaming sites.
And after Prince Harry and Meghan scooped an estimated £100 million-plus Netflix deal as executive producers, signing up with broadcasters is a no-brainer for public figures.
Carrie, 33, is head of communications at the Aspinall Foundation. She and her boss, Damian Aspinall, are being courted by Netflix, among others, who want them to make a programme about the elephants at Aspinall’s wildlife haven.
The herd of 13 is currently at the Howletts Wild Animal Park in Kent, but is due to be relocated to Kenya in the coming months in a world-first project of its size.
A friend of Mrs Johnson tells me: ‘Carrie’s phone was ringing off the hook after it was announced she was working hard on the project to rewild the elephants. It’s an inspiring story, and she and Damian are such charismatic and passionate people that they are the right people to tell it.’
Since the rehoming project was announced in July, Carrie has been fielding requests from national broadcasters as well as streaming giants, who want to film the quest, following the magnificent animals (which weigh 25 tonnes each) on their 4,000-mile journey to a top-secret location in their native Kenya.
Damian, son of gambling tycoon John Aspinall, and Carrie hope this will pave the way for a wider programme on the ‘cruelty’ of zoos.
They hope to make a show similar to the Netflix hit Seaspiracy, which made a powerful case against eating fish and became one of the top-ten most viewed shows on the streaming service worldwide.
A source close to the pair tells me: ‘Carrie and Damian are the perfect pair to teach the world about the horrors of zoos. Watch this space!’
Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood gets a great deal of Satisfaction from painting, saying: ‘There is no kind of therapy like the one you have from starting a picture and then seeing it through to the end.’
I can see why the 74-year-old rocker finds art so good for his mental health — especially as, I can reveal, he has raked in £600,000 in the past year selling his paintings.
Many are still up for
