ALISON BOSHOFF: Will Timothee Chalamet's SNL Hamas 'joke' take a bite out of Wonka at the box office?

All is sweetness and light with the anticipated release of Wonka - the origin story of Roald Dahl's eccentric candyman.

Critical feedback has been positive (so far) and it is on track to make at least $40 million in its opening weekend in the U.S. on a budget of $125 million: not stratospheric, but not too shabby either.

However you don't have to drink too deeply from the chocolate fountain to detect a little bitter aftertaste.

First, there was surprise - and some mockery - when trailers for the Warner Bros film dropped and didn't feature any singing. The movie is a musical and lead actor Timothee Chalamet really can sing, but you wouldn't know it from the ads.

Film research guru Kevin Goetz told the website Puck that it was probably a deliberate strategy, to try to avoid losing potential audience. 'Musicals haven't worked theatrically for the last several years,' he said.

And then, more seriously, there is the clumsy 'joke' about Hamas made by Chalamet, when he started the publicity tour for the film almost a month ago. On November 11, 35 days after the terror group committed the mass slaughter in Israel which ignited a war, Chalamet performed a skit on Saturday Night Live in which he pretended to be the frontman of a band called 'Hamas' (pronounced 'Haymus').

Suicidal because nobody is listening to his music, he changes his mind (on the window ledge) when three passers-by offer to publicise it on social media. Until he spells the name out for them.

Hundreds of negative comments have been posted on Chalamet's Instagram account - where he is followed by 18.4 million fans - since the SNL sketch was broadcast. Dozens say simply 'Boycott Wonka'. Others accuse the actor of 'supporting genocide' and displaying 'white privilege'. Many say that they will never watch a film featuring Chalamet and are no longer fans. Some comments include the Palestinian flag or the phrase 'Free Palestine'.

One poster wrote: 'Tell me, how does it feel to crack jokes about genocide like it's nothing.' That has attracted 2,167 likes. Another says: 'Unfollowed you. Maybe it hardly matters to you but can't support someone who thinks killing children has some kind of humour in it.'

When I asked whether the row might impact the film, Chalamet's PRs were not happy.

His publicist writes: 'This story is old. The news on Wonka is all positive and is current and you're clearly looking for something negative, if you're trying to claim some sketch he appeared in on SNL from a month ago is hurting the film. It clearly is not.'

Chalamet himself has yet to comment on the controversy.

Buckle up, Timmy! The famous five ride again 

Timmy the dog is one of Enid Blyton's Famous Five - along with two-legged pals Julian, Dick, George and Anne - and the BBC have cast Kip, a bearded collie cross (and screen veteran) in the role in a forthcoming adaptation, one of their Christmas highlights.

Up until now, Kip's work has been strictly commercial... mainly in the field of vacuum cleaners (he's been in ads for both Shark and Dyson). But all concerned said he enjoyed the BBC shoot in Cornwall and got on, er, famously with the children. Handler Rosie Ison, who lives in Bracknell, Berks, said: 'He really loved filming on the beach.'

The first of three 90-minute dramas, The Curse Of Kirrin Island, is out on December 9 on CBBC and iPlayer (with a BBC One airing to follow), with the others out early in the new year.

The shows have been directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, of Drive fame, and produced by Matthew Read of Peaky Blinders.

Nicolas Cage is attracting some of the best reviews of his career for his work in Dream Scenario, in which he plays a mild-mannered college professor who becomes a sensation overnight, literally, after he starts appearing in everyone's dreams.

Cage says he had a similar experience in real life, when clips of him from movies went viral. The actor said he woke up one morning and 'made the mistake' of googling himself. What he found was 'this mash-up called 'Nic Cage Losing His You-know-what'. It was just cherry-picking all these crisis moments of different characters that I had played.'

Cage described the experience as being 'meme-ified'. 'I couldn't stop it. I couldn't control it. It just started growing exponentially... and then it went into memes and T-shirts. And I thought: "Boy, I don't know what to do with this."

'But when I read Dream Scenario, I thought: "Yeah, I could apply that experience to this person."' 

J-Lo brings us Bennifer the album... and film! 

Many famous folk complain about focus on their private lives but J-Lo - actress, singer, businesswoman - has leaned into the attention by making an album AND a film about her extraordinary marriage to actor Ben Affleck.

Lopez and Affleck were engaged back in 2004 (when they were known collectively as 'Bennifer') but broke up.

She then went on to get hitched three times (to actor-producer Ojani Noa, choreographer-dancer Chris Judd and singer-songwriter Marc Anthony), while he wed actress Jennifer Garner (they divorced in 2018). You'd think that would be enough walks down the aisle for anyone, but after rekindling their love in 2021, the pair tied the knot last year, and now share a blended family - and a $60 million mega-mansion in Beverly Hills.

The album - J-Lo's first new studio release in ten years - is called This Is Me... Now. Due out on February 16, it's a riff on her 2002 album This Is Me... Then and features a track called Dear Ben Pt II, a follow-up to the earlier record's Dear Ben.

And that's not all. Inspired by the album, she's also written a film about her love story... with help from her Oscar-winning husband... which will include music from the LP (are you keeping up?).

Also out on February 16, on Prime Video, This Is Me... Now: The Film will tell the lightly fictionalised version of their love story - with J-Lo and Affleck playing themselves.

A number of celebrity cameos are promised, and speculation suggests that everyone from Matt Damon to Ellen DeGeneres could be involved.

A trailer released this week shows J-Lo reprising Gene Kelly's famous twirl around a lamppost from Singin' In The Rain.

Richard Osman says it's unlikely he will make a cameo appearance in Steven Spielberg's forthcoming movie version of his hit novel The Thursday Murder Club because he's too famous... and too tall. 

'I guess in a country where they don't show Pointless I could just about get away with it. But when the film was shown in the UK it would look weird. A scene with Richard Osman lurking in the background. I'm six feet seven inches tall, so I'm not that easily hidden.'

The Thursday Murder Club film will start shooting in the spring.

Holly Willoughby - who quit This Morning this year - is in hot water with HMRC over her 'girl power' talent agency. 

Willoughby, 42, set up Roxy Management in 2020 after deciding that she wanted to be in charge of her own management. 

However the company has been issued with a first strike-off notice by HMRC because its accounts are overdue.

A friend of Willoughby's said accounts had not been submitted as a result of the trauma arising from the alleged kidnap plot which led to her quitting the show.

Gruffudd's ex: I'll have to work at Starbucks to feed our kids

Actress Alice Evans is in dire financial straits - and has told friends that she cannot pay her rent or afford food, and is contemplating taking a job in Starbucks.

Evans, 55, is in the throes of a marathon divorce fight from actor Ioan Gruffudd. She has told pals the money she got from the sale of the marital home in Los Angeles, believed to amount to $100,000, is gone - much of it on lawyers - and she is now in a financial crisis.

A friend said: 'Alice has been extremely upset and says that she can't afford to make rent when it is due later this month - at least not if they want to eat - and has just hit financial rock bottom. She has nothing... not even medical insurance.

'This week she has been discussing trying for a job in Starbucks but she thinks they might not want her as she is probably too old for them, at 55. Also, her agent doesn't want her to do it in case it looks bad.'

The friend added: 'She is feeling desperate and is out of ideas about how she can get along. She has been crying herself to sleep.'

Evans and Gruffudd, pictured, are divorced but custody, as well as spousal and child support for their daughters Ella, 14, and Elsie, ten, has yet to be settled and the next hearing in the case is due in March.

Her life imploded two years ago after the sudden end of her marriage to Gruffudd, whom she met on the set of the film 102 Dalmatians. Evans announced he was leaving his family on Twitter in January 2021.

Gruffudd, 50, famous for the ITV drama Liar and the Fantastic Four film, went public in October 2021 with new girlfriend Bianca Wallace, 31, an aspiring actress.

In June 2022 Evans launched a Go Fund Me page asking for $25,000 to help pay her bills. Following a hearing in August 2022, she was hit with a restraining order after Gruffudd argued her posts on social media were false and amounted to harassment. In June this year daughter Ella filed for a restraining order against Gruffudd, following a disagreement during a custody visit at the home he shares with Wallace. This was later withdrawn.

In August, a judge granted Gruffudd's request for appointment of a child psychiatrist 'evaluator', and ruled that Evans must take Ella and Elsie to weekly sessions with a 'reunification therapist'.

Maître D' turned media personality Fred Sirieix has been surprising some viewers of I'm A Celebrity with his buff body. It turns out that his secret is boxing - although he has a chequered history in the ring.

In 2012, before he found fame on Channel 4's First Dates, he decided to organise a charity boxing show, with the highlight being a fight between him and MasterChef star Marcus Wareing.

'I told him a bit about the tournament, then said: "Hey Marcus, do you want to fight me?",' Sirieix recalled in his 2017 memoir Secret Service. Wareing's response to his challenge was: 'You're going to hospital, mate!'

Wareing was in fact declared the winner, after a 'shambolic' final round during which both men wound up tussling on the canvas. But it was Wareing who went to hospital... after he broke his foot in the melee.

Sirieix commented: 'Admittedly, not the sort of injury that you would associate with boxing. The rest of us went to a club and danced into the early hours of the following day, while Marcus was in Accident & Emergency.'