Comedienne Brand plays sitcom nun

Comedy star Jo Brand is to play a nun in the new ITV comedy pilot Sister Frances, to be shown later this year.

The comedy, which Brand has also co-written, is set in a modern-day convent in Croydon. If the pilot is successful a series will follow.

Veteran actress Honor Blackman - who played Pussy Galore in the Bond film Goldfinger - will play the convent's Mother Superior.

Comedienne Morwenna Banks, the partner of David Baddiel, will also appear.

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Actress MacLaine stars with Diaz Shirley MacLaine is to star opposite Cameron Diaz and Toni Collette in the new film In Her Shoes, which begins shooting next month.

MacLaine will star as the grandmother of two sisters, one a party girl (Diaz) and the other an ambitious lawyer (Collette) who move in together.

The movie is directed by Curtis Hanson, who filmed LA Confidential and 8 Mile, which starred rapper Eminem.

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Loach actress gets Berlin honour The film is based on a comic novel by author Jennifer Weiner.

Actress Eva Birthistle, the star of director Ken Loach's new film Ae Fond Kiss, will be honoured at the Berlin Film Festival next month.

Birthistle will receive the Shooting Star award for emerging talent.

In Loach's film she plays a drama teacher who falls in love with a Muslim student. The film is in competition for the festival.

Birthistle, who lived in Northern Ireland, appeared with Colin Farrell in the 1997 film Drinking Crude.

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P Diddy in child support row

The mother of one of rap star Sean 'P Diddy' Combs' sons says the rap star should pay $30,000 (£16,600) a month in child support.

Misa Hylton-Brim, the mother of Combs' 10-year-old son Justin, said in family court in New York on Tuesday he paid the same amount for his other child.

Combs has a six-year-old son with another woman, model Kim Porter.

Ms Hylton-Brim said she needed the money to pay for her son's private schooling, a nanny and security costs.