Dangerous Liaisons at the V&A

Last night was very Dangerous Liaisons at the V&A. Never have I seen it so busy as they staged a sumptuous renaissance ball to celebrate their new Medieval and Renaissance galleries. Sadly the queues for the cloakroom, bar and workshops were horrendous. Still, it was fabulous watching people (and costumes) from the balcony. Here are some photos:

 

  

  

  

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Just seen the trailer for The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo film adaptation on Film 2010. It looks brilliant. Thank god the Swedes have filmed it before Hollywood does. The U.S. version is in pre-production apparently. What's the betting it'll be Nikita all over again? ie. take an amazing European psychological thriller (Luc Besson's Nikita) and remake it into an insubstantial action flick (like Point of No Return starring Bridget Fonda).

But I digress. Here's a longer version of the one just shown.

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I've got a feeling it might not be the official trailer because "definitely" is spelt "definately" (pet hate...grrr).

If you haven't yet read Stieg Larsson's Millenium trilogy of books which begins with The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo then, as well as being in for a treat, you have until 12th March when the film opens in the UK.

No way José!

 

 

Which one of these pictures is the odd one out? The middle one and I'll tell you why in a minute.

Every year, for the past few years, I've marvelled at the skill, patience and imagination of the photographers chosen (out of 43,000 entries this year) for the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition.

So I stood open-mouthed half-way round the exhibition at the Natural History Museum yesterday. Not because a shot had floored me with its brilliance. But because there was a blank space where the overall winning photo should have been (the middle of the three above called The Storybook Wolf). With words saying the winning photographer José Luis Rodriguez has been disqualified because he was found to have used a model wolf. No way José!

After announcing The Storybook Wolf as the winner of the 2009 Wildlife photographer competition, it has had pride of place since the exhibition opened in October. Three months later, the judges decided this week that it is "very likely the wolf is a model". By that, they mean a trained wolf from a zoo as the BBC explain here.

Suspicion fell on the Spanish photographer late last year when wolf experts concluded that a wild wolf wouldn't jump a fence. It would squeeze through the gate's bars instead.

Rodriguez has been banned from the competition for life and presumably has had to hand his £10,000 prize money back. This is certainly the most dramatic event in the competition's 46 year history.

The question is, why on earth has this only come to light half way through the exhibition's run? Calendars, mugs, postcards have all been printed. It's so odd. Something very strange has gone on methinks.