sudan cycle yes,we cannes - claire fordham · cannes with her bridport-based friend diane aldred....

DORSET ECHO Wednesday, May 6, 2009 3

By RUTH MEECH

ruth.meech@dorsetecho.co.uk

dorsetecho.co.uk/news

NEWS IN BRIEFSudan cyclefor studentsWEYMOUTH: Studentsfrom Weymouth Collegewill run and cycle thedistance from Land’s Endto John O’Groats in 24hours to help build aschool in Sudan.

The youngsters will takeon the challenge in thecollege gym to raise fundsfor the Grace SecondarySchool Appeal.

They will start peddlingand pounding thetreadmill at 5pm onSaturday and finish at5pm the following day.

Barclays Bank has alsoagreed to match fund allthe sponsorship raised bythe students.

The Grace SecondarySchool Appeal was set upby Dorchester coupleClaire and Richard Buddlast August and has sinceraised over £40,000 to helpbuild a new secondaryschool in the deprivedarea of the NubaMountains in Sudan.

Yacht alertWEYMOUTH: The passengerferry Barfleur alertedPortland Coastguard after ithad received an emergencycall from a yacht in trouble.

The Palamedes radioedfor help after getting intodifficulties off Anvil Point.Swanage lifeboat waslaunched and the crewmanaged to free thestricken vessel’s snaggedrudder.

Writer heads to film festival in pursuit of leading man

YES, WE CANNESA WEYMOUTH writeris on her way to theCannes Film Festivalfor a date with destinyand – hopefully –George Clooney.

Claire Fordham, a for-mer columnist with theEcho who now lives inLos Angeles, will be at thefestival on Sunday, May17, for the launch screen-ing of her ‘mockumen-tary’ The Making Of PlusOne With Kate, Cate andGeorge, The Story Of AHollywood Nobody.

The short film follows thetrials and tribulations suf-fered as she struggles to gether book Plus One – A YearIn The Life Of A HollywoodNobody made into a feature-length movie, ideally star-ring George Clooney withCate Blanchett and KateWinslet as Claire and hermusician sister Julia.

“Just to be a part of thatworld is so exciting,” saidClaire, who was born andbrought up in Weymouthand wrote the Echo’s CrossTalk column in the late 1980s.

“It has been a big, excitingadventure and as far as I’mconcerned, for me, personal-ly, life is all about having asmuch fun as you can, beingcreative and having anadventure.”

The Cannes Film Festival isarguably the biggest, mostglittering celebrity event ofits kind. It is where the nextbig films are previewed andfight it out in a prestigiouscompetition to win the Palmed’Or ‘best of festival’ award.

This year’s competitorsinclude Quentin Tarantino,Ken Loach, Ang Lee andJane Campion.

She added: “I haven’t beento the Cannes Film Festivalbefore, but I hear it is a com-plete zoo. I shall be wearingred velvet – vintage BananaRepublic – and comfortableshoes, taking my high heelsin a bag for the main event.”

Claire will be travelling toCannes with her Bridport-based friend Diane Aldred.Her sister Julia is unable togo with her as she will beundertaking a week-longtour of Japan, following twosell-out concerts at theNewbury Theatre andPigalle Club in London.

The Making Of Plus OneWith Kate, Cate and George,

The Story Of A HollywoodNobody stars respectedHollywood actors Oscar nom-inated Jennifer Tilly,Amanda Plummer, GeraldineChaplin and John Sessions.

Claire said: “Julia and I hadan absolute blast filming ourparts. It is a very funny filmbut has a lot of truth in it.

“The vast majority ofbooks that are optioned forfilms never get made, largelybecause it is so hard to getthe money together.

“For every JK Rowling or

Da Vinci Code, there arethousands that never see thelight of day. Even if you getthe actors you want to star inyour film, there are so manythings that can go wrong.

“Living in LA, you hearthese terrible stories ofpeople who have started film-ing but have run out ofmoney. There are peoplethere who have mortgagedtheir home to make a filmand then lost their house orare up to their eyeballs indebt.”

Claire has written a sequelto Plus One called The Oneand is hoping that Canneswill be the key to the contin-ued success of her firstnovel.■ Plus One – A Year In The Life Of A HollywoodNobody is available fromAmazon. Find out moreabout Claire’s latest adven-tures at clairefordham.com,while Julia’s website is juli-afordham.com

To see the trailer for PlusOne, go to youtube.com

SISTERS ACT: Claire Fordham, left, with her singing sister Julia and, inset, hertheoretical co-star George Clooney

‘Being part ofthis world is so exciting’

Claire Fordham