Out of this world

Remember Contact, that fantastic sci-fi thriller from 1997 in which Jodie Foster (pictured below) played a young scientist with America's SETI programme?

Well, it seems that memories of her own contact with The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence have lingered on because thanks to a donation of $200,000, including a sizeable wedge from Foster herself, SETI's 42 radio telescopes in Northern California will now continue to beam on after being threatened with closure.

Mind you, as the actress probably got something like $5m-$10m for her role, you could say it was only partial payback.