Entertainment Live: Reaction to Matt LeBlanc's Top Gear role and other news

Summary

News and updates for 4 February 2016
Matt LeBlanc named as co-host of Top Gear
Muffin tops in The Great Sport Relief Bake Off
British stars defend Academy against racism claims

Live Reporting

Victoria Lindrea and Genevieve Hassan

Early reaction to Top Gear's new Friendpublished at 11:45
Piers Morgan - never shy with his opinion - was among the first to tweet his reaction to Matt LeBlanc's new role presenting Top Gear.
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Matt LeBlanc has Top Gear formpublished at 11:27 Greenwich Mean Time 4 February 2016
Image source, AP
While his presenting role may come as a surprise, Matt LeBlanc is already a familiar face to Top Gear viewers.
The Episodes star has been a two-time guest on the show and is the fastest celebrity to date around the Top Gear track in its reasonably priced car.
LeBlanc also presented the recent standalone spin-off Top Gear: The Races, where he led fans through some of the most memorable racing moments from the previous 22 series.
He hinted at an exciting announcement just yesterday...
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Matt LeBlanc to co-host Top Gearpublished at 11:18 Greenwich Mean Time 4 February 2016
Matt LeBlanc has been announced as one of the presenters on Top Gear, which is due to return to BBC screens in May.
The Friends star's new role marks the first time the show has ever had a non-British host in its 39-year history.
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Quote Message
Matt’s a lifelong fellow petrolhead and I’m thrilled he's joining Top Gear. Acting out our craziest car notions on screen is a dream job and I know we’ll both be debating some epic road trip ideas.
Chris Evans
Quote Message
As a car nut and a massive fan of Top Gear, I'm honoured and excited to be a part of this iconic show’s new chapter. What a thrill.
Matt LeBlanc
Craig David all over your...published at 11:00 Greenwich Mean Time 4 February 2016
Mark Savage
Music reporter
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As every toddler knows, Craig David's comeback is worth getting excited about.
It's almost a decade since his last top 10 hit, but the star sounds refreshed and re-energised on When The Bassline Drops, his collaboration with Big Narstie - the "zookeeper of grime" (yes, he actually calls himself that).
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Earlier this week, I caught up with Craig to discuss this sudden reversal in his fortunes, and you could tell he was genuinely excited to be back in the limelight.
He says the decision to work with producers at the bleeding edge of UK dance - Sigala, WSTRN, Chase and Status, Kaytranada - had reinvigorated him.
"I’d step behind the microphone and the first thing that’d come out of their mouth would be like 'ooooooh – you still got it bruv!'" he says.
"For me, that was that little bit of stoking the fire. Because I’d always had that passion – it’s just the candle was getting a little dim."
Read the full interview here.
British stars defend Academy against racism claimspublished at 10:38 Greenwich Mean Time 4 February 2016
Image source, PA/Getty Images
British acting greats have added their voice to the #OscarsSoWhite row.
Speaking to Channel 4 news about the lack of diversity at this year's awards, Dame Helen Mirren said it was "unfair to attack the Academy" after it failed to nominate a single black actor for the second year in a row, claiming “It just so happened it went that way".
She argued that Idris Elba missed out on a nomination because “not enough people saw – or wanted to see – a film about child soldiers”.
She said:
Quote Message
I’m saying that the issue we need to be looking at is what happens before the film gets to the Oscars. What kind of films are made, and the way in which they’re cast, and the scripts … it’s those things that are much more influential ultimately than who stands there with an Oscar.
Oscar winner Catherine Zeta Jones also spoke up in the Academy's defence, saying it "can only vote on what they see":
Quote Message
Let's get back to the writers, the film-makers - and the studios, who really finance everything - and make a broader spectrum of movies, roles... Let's open the floodgates, because there's a whole bunch of great actors out there waiting to do those jobs.
Speaking at the same interview, Zeta Jones's Dad's Army co-star Sir Tom Courtenay - who was a possible contender for 45 Years - told the Metro newspaper, external the Academy was "ageist and not racist":
Quote Message
Michael Caine didn’t get one, we’ve been in the frame recently, Michael Caine and myself, and we’re both over 75... And we didn’t get a nomination so I think they’re ageist and not racist.
Your views: Most lied-about bookspublished at 10:20 Greenwich Mean Time 4 February 2016
Yesterday we told you about the top 20 books people lie about reading, with Alice's Adventures in Wonderland topping the list.
Here are some of your responses:
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If you've only just had a chance to check out the list, get in touch via the usual channels and tell us which books you've fibbed about reading.
SPOILER ALERT! High and lows of this week's Sport Relief Bake Offpublished at 09:49
If you've not watched last night's Sport Relief Bake Off, look away now...
Newly-married Kimberley Walsh has become the second celebrity to be named Star Baker in this year's Great Sport Relief Bake Off.
The Girls Aloud star proved a worthy winner over Labour's Ed Balls, journalist Victoria Coren and footballer-turned-pundit Chris "Kammy" Kamara, triumphing with a Showstopper cake that included a sponge Mount Kilimanjaro, spray-on giraffes and a (suitably tiny) fondant Cheryl Fernandez-Versini.
Kammy had less success with his limp surfer on his body-boarding cake - more washed up, than surf's up - while Coren's yachting-themed cake went overboard on the salt. But Balls showed some unlikely skills with his Eddie the Eagle ski jump cake.
The hour-long show, hosted by former Star Baker Jennifer Saunders, saw the four celebrities tackle muffins, pies and a multi-tiered cake representing an extreme sport.
In the technical challenge, the meat and pea pies - football pies - were meant to include a football-type motif, but Ed Balls appeared less than impressed by Saunders suggestion that his hexagons resembled the nuclear sign..."sort of radioactive" said Saunders.
Meanwhile, Kammy discovered the amazing potential of a rolling pin and clingfilm, and Coren donned designer sunglasses to cut her onions.
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Winner Walsh married long-term partner Justin Scott in Barbados last weekend, with former bandmates Versini-Fernandez and Nicola Roberts as bridesmaids.
'Sexiest Rodin sculpture' sells for record pricepublished at 09:28 Greenwich Mean Time 4 February 2016
Image source, Sotheby's
A Rodin sculpture, dubbed the artist's "sexiest work", has sold for a record price at a London auction.
Iris, Messenger of the Gods, was Rodin's most explicit artwork and sold for £11.6m - much higher than it's £6m-£8m estimate - setting a new British auction record for the artist. Rodin's highest previous auction record was £9.6m.
Interestingly the bronze sculpture, cast during Rodin's lifetime, was once owned by Rocky actor Sylvester Stallone.
Apparently he called it the "Flying Beaver", external.
Soderbergh denies coming out of retirementpublished at 09:03
Image source, Getty Images
Steven Soderbergh has denied he is coming out of retirement to make another film.
Variety reported Soderbergh - who announced he was giving up filmmaking in 2012 - would direct Magic Mike star Channing Tatum in a film entitled Lucky Logan.
But, writing on his unofficial - but widely acknowledged - Twitter account, Bitchuation, Soderbergh said the story was "wrong".
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However, there was no comment on his official Twitter account.
Soderbergh has been focusing on TV since his last feature film, Side Effects, in 2013. He made the widely acclaimed HBO film Behind the Candelabra and currently directs Clive Owen in the TV series The Knick.
6 Music scores record audience figurespublished at 08:44 Greenwich Mean Time 4 February 2016
BBC Radio 6 Music had a bumper final three months of 2015, scoring its highest ever weekly audience and becoming the most-listened to digital-only radio station in the UK.
The station had 2.2 million listeners, overtaking BBC Radio 4 Extra which recorded 2.11 million weekly listeners.
Overall, BBC Radio 2 was the UK station with the biggest weekly reach attracting 15.47 million listeners, up from 15.38 million the previous quarter.
Chris Evans's Radio 2 breakfast show is still the most popular morning programme, with 9.44 million listeners each week, but it's bad news for BBC Radio 1 whose listeners fell to 10.33 million from 10.56 million the previous quarter.
Read the full story.
Get involved in the newspublished at 08:40 Greenwich Mean Time 4 February 2016
Genevieve Hassan
Entertainment reporter
What's that you say? You think that?! Get in touch with your thoughts on today's news - tweet @BBCNewsEnts, external or email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.
And if you missed what happened yesterday, check out Wednesday's live page.
Good morningpublished at 08:33 Greenwich Mean Time 4 February 2016
Victoria Lindrea
BBC Entertainment and Arts reporter
Welcome! Another day, another live page.
So here's a trivia question for you... Which member of the Doctor Who team will be visiting the Queen today?
Read on to find out!