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Adrian Wootton on a writer's secret cameoThis year marks the 50th anniversary of the death of legendary American crime scribe Raymond Chandler, whose seven completed novels, including The Big Sleep, Farewell My Lovely and The Long Goodbye profoundly changed crime fiction and crime movies. The success of his novels - The Big Sleep was first to be published in 1939 - led Chandler to try his hand at screenwriting, notably with his debut screenplay, adapting James M Cain's sultry pulp thriller Double Indemnity with Billy Wilder, who also directed. Their collaboration was fertile and productive but also fractious. Chandler learned a lot from Wilder and Wilder managed to draw the very best out of Chandler. But they never worked together again and neither ever spoke fondly of the experience. Now, however, more than 60 years after its release, a French cinema historian and two US crime-writers almost simultaneously happened on the same bizarre discovery - that Raymond Chandler, uncredited and

Writer, director, actor, Doctor Who sidekick, Bafta winner - when chances come Noel Clarke's way, he takes them. And now: zombies. Cath Clarke (no relation) met himNoel Clarke wrote and acted in the two films that best captured the public fear of 'hoodies' - Kidulthood and Adulthood, directing the latter, too. So when he gives me a hoodie - a sweater, not a teenager - it throws me a bit. Clarke picks up two more (the sports brand in question sent clothes to the set while Kidulthood was being filmed, and still sends Clarke bags of the stuff). Perhaps clocking the unlikelihood of it being worn, he adds: 'You could give it to your boyfriend or husband or whoever. Red or brown?'In February Clarke won the rising star award at the Baftas for his two-film mini franchise. They were a pure word-of-mouth phenomenon - films about kids that kids actually wanted to watch - and Adulthood eventually grossed £3.4m. Which of course means they are packed with the stuff of their parents' nightmares

Box-office records aren't the preserve of Hollywood blockbusters. We asked Guardian writers around the world to tell us about their countries' biggest homegrown hits ...South AfricaMr Bones 2: Back from the Past Dir: Gray Hofmeyr, 2008When a TV broadcaster ran a public vote on the 100 greatest South Africans of all time, the winner was no surprise. But lower down the list, two heroes of the anti-apartheid movement, Oliver Tambo and Albert Luthuli, trailed in behind a white comedian. Leon Schuster is the man who beat them, and is the creator of the country's most wildly popular films. Mr Bones grossed $33m on its release in 2001, a record for a homegrown movie surpassed only by its sequel, Mr Bones 2: Back from the Past, which has taken $35m since its release last year, despite being derided by critics for being crude and scatalogical. In a breakthrough unheard-of for domestic film-makers, the Mr Bones titles have enjoyed more success at the South African box office than Hollywood serie

Sixteen contestants enter the Big Brother house to kick off the 10th series of the Channel 4 reality TV show.

A former rock star, two glamour models, an Oxford University graduate who lives in a stately home and a virgin are among the 16 hopefuls who walked through the doors of the Big Brother house tonight.

Walden Theatre's three-week Summer Academy-6 different casts of twenty-six students each, ages 8-14-will present this original play June through August! The students have worked together with Walden instructors to produce a full-length production, complete with sets and costumes. Written by Hank Willenbrink, Grimm Tales is an original work based on the stories of the famous brothers-when a summer storm sends kids playing in Cherokee Park for cover, they decide to pass the time by telling stories from the Brother's Grimm. What they don't realize is that one of the kids has a real ghost story of their own pulled straight from Louisville Folklore. All performances will be held at Walden Theatre, 1123 Payne Street.

New york (AP) -- 'Billy Elliot' and 'God of Carnage' were the biggest attractions in a Broadway season that finished with a flourish on stage and, despite the economic downturn, at the box office, too....

Will America's  students spend more time reading or playing this summer? Some teachers are worried that longtime children's publisher Scholastic is pushing kids towards toys rather than books.

theres no reason to watch this movie when its all done better in IMy Big Fat Greek WeddingI, or in virtually any other movie in which someone gets their groove back. The primary crime of IMy Life in RuinsI isnt that its unoriginal, but that it doesnt even try.

As she demonstrated in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Nia Vardalos has eyes like black olives and humor twice as salty. In My Life in Ruins, a salt-free Vardalos is Georgia, an unemployed classics scholar working as a tour guide in Greece on the Acropolis-to-Temple-of-Apollo circuit.