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Orphan tale set for the screen

Jamila Gavin's award-winning novel Coram Boy is expected to be adapted for the screen by director Alan Parker. Parker is now in negotiations to write and direct the film version of the young adults' novel, which is set in 18th century England.

Coram Boy centers on two orphans - one rescued from an African slave ship, the other the abandoned son of the heir to a great estate - who get a second chance at life in a home for deserted children. The book won the Whitbread Award for British children's literature.

A stage version of the 2000 novel recently opened on Broadway to critical acclaim and is a hit in London at the National Theater.

Parker most recently directed 2003's The Life of David Gale. He wrote and directed the adaptation of Frank McCourt's memoir Angela's Ashes and the musical Evita and helmed The Commitments, based on a novel by Roddy Doyle.

Loss is gain for rocker's ex-wife

Valerie Bertinelli, whose life spans the different worlds of television and rock 'n' roll, is working on a memoir. Losing It: And Gaining My Life Back One Pound at a Time, which also documents her fight to lose weight, will be published in April 2008 by the Free Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.

"Writing a book is an exciting new adventure for me," Bertinelli said in a statement issued on Tuesday by the Free Press. "I've grown up in and out of the public eye, survived some tough times, learned some important lessons, and come out as has my entire family in a great place. I think it's a recipe for a good book. Ironically, as there's less of me, I have more to say."

Bertinelli, 47, starred as the wholesome Barbara Cooper in the 1970s sitcom One Day at a Time, then joined a far wilder world when she married rock guitar god Eddie Van Halen in 1981. They divorced in 2005.

Hollywood veteran dead at 102

Charles Lane, the prolific character actor whose name was little known but whose crotchety persona and roles in hundreds of films made him recognizable to generations of moviegoers, has died. He was 102.

Lane, whose career spanned more than 60 years, appeared in such film classics as It's a Wonderful Life, Mr Deeds Goes to Town and Twentieth Century. He also had a recurring role as the scheming railroad man Homer Bedloe on the 1960s TV sitcom Petticoat Junction and appeared often on I Love Lucy. His crisp, stage-trained voice and no-nonsense appearance made him a natural for playing authority figures. He was a judge in God Is my Partner, a prosecutor in Call Northside 777, a priest in Date With an Angel and a member of Clark Gable's newspaper editorial board in Teacher's Pet.

Agencies

(China Daily 07/12/2007 page18)