Host bans Hugh Grant from TV show

He may be Hollywood's idea of a charming British chap, but Hugh Grant has been banned from television’s The Daily Show by host Jon Stewart – for being a "big pain in the ass".

In an onstage Q&A session with a fellow Comedy Central host Stephen Colbert at a theatre in New Jersey last week, Stewart said he would "never" have Grant back on his show, adding that the actor was his least favorite guest. "And we've had dictators on the show," he said.

Grant's controversial appearance on The Daily Show came in 2009 when he was promoting the movie Did You Hear About the Morgans? Stewart said the actor spent much of the time at the studio complaining to staff and saying he had better places to be. "He's giving everyone shit the whole time, and he's a big pain in the ass," Stewart told Colbert.

Grant reportedly complained about the clip that was shown to promote the romantic comedy, which would have been provided by the film's publicist. Stewart responded: "Well, then make a better fucking movie."

Pay it again Sam!

Of all the auctions houses in all the world …  the piano from the classic 1942 Humphrey Bogart-Ingrid Bergman film Casablanca has been sold at auction for $602,500 (£370,000) – around half of what it was expected to fetch.

The blue-and-white upright (pictured above) on which Sam (Dooley Wilson) played it again - "it" being doomed lovers Rick and Ilsa's song As Time Goes By – had been tipped to bring in as much as $1.2 million in the sale at Sotheby's in New York. It was put up for sale by a Japanese collector who purchased it for $154,000 at a Sotheby's auction in 1988. 

A few days earlier, a rare poster for Fritz Lang's Metropolis (1927) sold for $1.2 million. The art deco image came bundled with other memorabilia, including the poster for King Kong (1933), The Invisible Man (1933) and the original oil painting of Elvis Presley used on the poster for Jailhouse Rock (1957).

Britain's Got Talent - The Movie

Who better to play a small tubby superstar than another small tubby superstar? But while the name of the first might elude anyone who wasn't a devotee of the TV show Britain's Got Talent, the same can't be said of the actor chosen to portray him in a new British movie.

Cue the ubiquitous James Corden, one time History Boy and lately of Gavin & Stacey not to mention the award-winning London and Broadway stage production One Man, Two Guvnors, who portrays Paul Potts in the recently-wrapped, One Chance.

Paul who? He was the shy, bullied shop assistant by day and an amateur opera singer by night who became an instant YouTube phenomenon after being picked by Simon Cowell for Britain's Got Talent.  Wowing audiences worldwide with his phenomenal voice, Paul went on to win the first series in 2007  and the hearts of millions.

Directed by Hollywood's David Frankel (Devil Wears Prada, Hope Springs, Marley & Me), One Chance, which shot in Italy and the UK, co-stars Julie Walters, Mackenzie Crook, Jemima Rooper, Colm Meaney and Alexandra Roach.