Pop legend Sir Paul McCartney has become the first major celebrity to go on the London Eye, otherwise known as the Millennium Wheel.

"That was great!" he said after the 30-minute ride. "I'll see you again soon."

The 56-year-old made a special request to go on the wheel, which opens officially on 1 March.

The Eye, which was due to open at the New Year, has been dogged with teething problems.

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Critics hail Spend, Spend, Spend

Hit show Spend, Spend, Spend hogged the spotlight at the London Critics' Circle awards, beating big budget productions such as The Lion King to win the prize for best musical.

The musical, which stars singer Barbara Dickson, is the real-life story of housewife Viv Nicholson, who blew a £1m pools jackpot in 1961.

Best play went to Mnemonic by Simon McBurney and best actor and best director went to Henry Goodman and Trevor Nunn, respectively, for their Royal National Theatre production of Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice.

The awards come just days ahead of London's Olivier Awards, the British equivalent of Broadway's Tonys, on 18 February.

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Beresford to direct an opera

Bruce Beresford, the director of recent box office hit Double Jeopardy, has accepted an invitation from the LA Opera to direct Verdi's Rigoletto.

The Australian who catapulted Ashley Judd into movie fame is to update the classic story of jealousy and revenge to present day.

His version will transform the hunchback Rigoletto into a Hollywood agent and the Duke of Mantua will be played as the head of a film studio.

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Swedes plan Greta bio-musical

A musical based on the life of movie legend Greta Garbo is being staged by a theatre company in her hometown.

The story will trace her career from being discovered in a Stockholm department store to Hollywood fame in the 1930s in films like Mata Hari.

It's hoped the show will premiere in Stockholm in 2001.

Publicity-shy Garbo, the first Swedish actress to make it in Hollywood, died in 1990, age 84.

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I'm still a wild child, says Hucknall

Simply Red's Mick Hucknall has revealed he is not ready to settle down yet because he claims that he is still a "wild child" at heart.

Hucknall, 39, told ITV's This Morning: "I do whatever I want. That's the way I live my life."

But he added that he did want to marry and have children.

"If I meet somebody I commit. I commit, I really do," said the singer, whose past flames have included tennis star Steffi Graf and Catherine Zeta Jones.

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Hannibal still needs a Clarice

Finding a new Clarice Starling is the final element needed for the Hannibal film to go ahead, it has been confirmed.

Universal Studios say the screenplay is completed and Sir Anthony Hopkins is firmly on board as Hannibal Lecter in the sequel to 1991's Silence Of The Lambs.

The studio said it decided not to "re-approach" Jodie Foster about reprising her role as this would delay the movie.

US trade paper Daily Variety says Cate Blanchett tops the list of candidates.

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Blair Witch faces legal action

A Los Angeles judge has given the green light for legal action against Artisan Entertainment - distributors of last year's hit horror Blair Witch Project.

Sam Barber claims he acted as executive producer on the film, in a deal with producer Gregg Hale and writer-director Daniel Myrick, but was not credited.

Barber alleges he was "pushed out" of the project although he invested money in it. Made on a very low budget, the film went on to make $140m (£87.5m) at the box office.

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Dreyfuss to be a TV president

Hollywood star Richard Dreyfuss is to star as the US president in the live TV broadcast Fail-Safe.

The nuclear drama, which George Clooney is producing and starring in, is to be directed by Britain's Stephen Frears.

Dreyfuss will take the role originally played by Henry Fonda in the 1964 film.

Clooney told US Daily Variety: "I never dreamed we'd get someone like Richard to play the president. He responded to the idea of doing this TV movie live."