'It's easy to hire your mates, not new faces'

INTERVIEWS

In an interview in 'The Guardian', Lenny Henry, pictured, followed up on the speech he gave to the Royal Television Society, criticising broadcasters for not doing enough to encourage ethnic diversity.

"I do not think the media is racist. I do think that as an industry we are stuck in terms of providing a support system for black, Asian and ethnic minorities who don't have a natural way into the industry. It's bullshit, it needs to change .... We are a multicultural, multi-ethnic society and there is an area of that society that is slightly hoping it's not true .... They've got to catch up. Afro-Caribbean culture is the lingua franca of young people today, with Asian culture not far behind .... With the Eastern European influx, there are a lot of positive things being done. I'm not seeing that reflected in the media, I'm afraid. Things are changing and we've got to catch up otherwise we'll be left behind .... Go to any production company, you might have a black person on reception and an Asian person in IT. And that's it. That's appalling .... There are people who love the status quo. It's really easy to hire your mates or people you've worked with before. It's a bit harder to come out of your comfort zone. You've got to get off your arse and find people .... The easy thing to do is to take these guys from Radio 4 or those guys from Edinburgh. The hard thing is to go into the ends, into the community and check out what is going on in some dodgy club over a pub."

'I am the First Lady of France until his term ends'

In her first interview since marrying the French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Carla Bruni told 'L'Express' magazine that she will enjoy being First Lady.

"I am the First Lady of France until the end of my husband's term of office and his wife until death. I am Italian and I don't like divorce .... I have not planned how I will handle being First Lady but I am proud to be so and I will do my best .... What happened between Nicolas and me was not quick, it was immediate, so for us [getting married after three months] seemed rather slow."

'I've shown them kids drinking dry-cleaning fluid'

Talking to the 'Mirror' just before the premiere of the fourth 'Rambo' movie, Sylvester Stallone revealed how he tries to keep his three young daughters away from Hollywood.

"The only thing I really ask of them is that they're nice to people who don't have it as good. I've taken them back to my old neighbourhood and shown them kids their own age drinking dry- cleaning fluid ... and doing drugs. I could teach them about real life by throwing them out of the house with $5 .... But I'm not going to do that."

'My salary is ridiculous. But a dustman is worth 1m'

In a move that provoked criticism from many quarters, Natasha Kaplinsky confessed in an interview for the 'Radio Times' that she doesn't think she deserves the "ridiculous" salary she has been offered on Channel Five's new programme, 'Five News with Natasha Kaplinsky'.

Is she worth the money? "Five seem to think I am, but, no, how can anybody justify that? A dustman is worth 1m for cleaning up the rubbish ... and a doctor is worth 20m for saving someone's life ...."

'Since January the PM has found his bearings'

On 'The Andrew Marr Show' on BBC1, Peter Mandelson appeared to add to the criticism of Gordon Brown that began when the former Home Secretary Charles Clarke called him "a ditherer", "tormented" by the memory of Tony Blair.

"During the autumn you would have been forgiven for wondering whether this was going to be a transition from one version of New Labour to another. I think what the Prime Minister has said since January is a strong indicator of a man who has found his bearings .... "

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