Anna Friel bares all on opening night
Anna Friel bared all for a star-studded audience at the opening night of her new play. Sir Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart, Paul O'Grady, Jeffrey Archer and Sir David Frost attended the opening night of Breakfast At Tiffany's at London's Theatre Royal Haymarket. Cilla Black, Richard E Grant, Antony Cotton, Gloria Hunniford, Ruby Wax and Rachel Stevens were also among the audience for the performance during which Anna bared all in a full-frontal nude scene when her character, Holly Golightly, lay naked under a sun lamp. Sir Ian said of the play, adapted by Samuel Adamson from Truman Capote's novella: "It was wonderful, you should bring someone you love to see it." Paul O'Grady said: "I thought it was great. I've never seen the film you see - I can't stand Audrey Hepburn. But I'm a great fan of the book and it was very true to the book. I thought she (Friel) was very good." Coronation Street star Antony Cotton added: "It was lovely. I'm very, very proud of my very old friend." Anna received cheers as she took her curtain call but some members of the audience in the circle complained they struggled to hear her speak during the play. American actor Joseph Cross - who recently appeared alongside Sean Penn in Gus Van Sant's film Milk - starred as writer and Golightly's neighbour William 'Fred' Parsons. Gimme, Gimme, Gimme star James Dreyfus played agent OJ Berman. Anna sang and played the guitar several times during the play but Moon River, the song made famous by Audrey Hepburn in the film adaptation, was missing from her repertoire.
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Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix.
An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.