Faces of the week

Our regular look at some of the faces which have made the news this week. Above are MORRISSEY (main picture), with HENRY ALLINGHAM, DAME ELIZABETH TAYLOR, THE DIXIE CHICKS and DAVID WALLIAMS.

Morrissey

Morrissey's recent outburst about vivisection - "the shame of England" - plus a chart-topping album and David Cameron's revelation that he was a Smiths fan, has focused the spotlight once more on Manchester's bequiffed archpriest of angst.

Just like a famous savoury spread, Steven Patrick Morrissey - to give him his full moniker - sharply divides opinion.

Those who love him point to his acerbic wit, his uncompromising outlook on life and status as Spokesman for a Generation.

Morrissey-haters dismiss the man as twee, depressing and shallow, a false prophet full of sound and fury who signifies nothing.

Morrissey on Top of the Pops in the 1980s

Fittingly for the man some call the Pope of Mope, Morrissey currently resides in Rome. Though the Eternal City is as far removed as it could be from his home town of Stretford in Manchester, his concerns remain the same as ever.

The gladioli-strewn poster boy of 1980s student angst is all of 47. The iconic hair might be greying at the edges but age and success has not wearied him.

If anything, Morrissey's anger - at Bush, Blair, animal experimentation, the meat trade and Britain's Royal Family - has become even more vocal and urgent in recent years

Singular interviews

In an outburst at a recent concert, he vented spleen at Oxford University's new animal research laboratory, currently under construction.

"If you agree with vivisection, go and be vivisected upon yourself," he told the audience at the city's New Theatre and warned those working at the site, adding: "We'll get you."

Morrissey's Garboesque refusal to give up much to journalists, plus his world-class verbal dexterity, has transformed the cat-and-mouse game that accompanies the rock-star interview into an art form.

Charmed: David Cameron is a Smiths fan

As the author Douglas Coupland recently put it: "Interviewing Morrissey pinpoints the bankruptcy of interviewing as a form of expression: if you don't believe in it, it can't happen."

So those who wish to get inside the man's head tend to pore over his lyrics for any glimmer of insight into his thoughts and, most pruriently, his sexuality.

Fans in high places

Though he famously "outed" himself as celibate in the 1980s, Morrissey's amatory proclivities, be they gay, straight or otherwise, continue to obsess press and fans alike.

Despite his new album, Ringleader of the Tormentors, yielding a number of tantalising clues, he refuses to be drawn on the subject, saying "I'm simply myself, which is inexcusable to many people - I'm not trapped by anything".

Even though The Smiths folded following guitarist Johnny Marr's departure in 1987, the band - and its anthems for alienated youth - remain hugely influential, with everyone from The Stone Roses, through Blur and Oasis, to The Libertines tipping their hats to Moz and co.

Mozza in full flight in London

And the Conservative leader, David Cameron, chose the band's This Charming Man as one of his Desert Island Discs, declaring Morrissey's appearance on Top of the Pops to be "an iconic moment for people of my age".

With a Smiths reunion probably out of the question, what next for its driving force?

Well, Morrissey's recent comments on the Eurovision Song Contest revealed a tantalising possibility. "I was horrified but not surprised to see the UK fail again," he told one interviewer.

"And there's one question I keep asking myself. Why didn't they ask me? That question keeps on going round my head."

Heaven knows, but next year in Finland might just reveal the answer.

---

Henry Allingham Britain's oldest man, 109-year-old Henry Allingham, who is the last known survivor of the Battle of Jutland, helped launch a commemoration of the World War I naval engagement. Mr Allingham, who served as a naval aviator, boarded HMS Belfast on the Thames to unveil a holographic portrait of himself and open the Ghosts of Jutland exhibition. Recalling the battle, he said: "People ask was I frightened, but you don't have time to be frightened." Full story

Dame Elizabeth Taylor Dame Elizabeth Taylor has appeared on US television to quash press rumours that she has Alzheimer's Disease. Speaking to CNN's Larry King, the 74 year-old actress and two-time Academy Award winner said: "Am I dead, am I alive? I'm alive, I think so." Dame Elizabeth, who uses a wheelchair because of chronic back pain, talked of her passion for designing jewellery and added: "If they want to hear I'm dead, I'm sorry folks, I'm not." Full story

The Dixie Chicks US country music superstars the Dixie Chicks have reached the top of the charts with their first album since publicly criticising President George W Bush three years ago. The Chicks' latest work, Taking the Long Way, went straight in at No1 in the Billboard 200, despite little airplay on country music stations. In 2003, lead singer, Natalie Maines, told an London audience that group was "ashamed" that Bush was from their home state of Texas.

David Walliams Little Britain star David Walliams is set to attempt to swim the English Channel. Walliams, who partners Matt Lucas in the hit BBC comedy series, has trained for 11 months for the 21-mile sea crossing, which he is doing to raise money for the Sports Relief charity. "I think I've probably got about a 50/50 chance of getting across," he says. "But I hope people see it as a kind of symbolic thing." Full story

Written by BBC News Profiles Unit's Andrew Walker