David Tennant expected to thrill Scottish fans in Broadchurch STV 11 January 2013 17:18 GMT (STV ENTERTAINMENT)

Crime drama Broadchurch is likely to be a huge hit in Scotland this spring, with fans of David Tennant expected to flock to the eight-part series.

The actor, who starred in Doctor Who for five years, was voted into the top five contenders for STV's Greatest Scot in 2009 and has remained popular since.

Audience figures during his time as The Doctor show that he was particularly popular in Scotland, while an appearance on The Jonathan Ross Show last weekend doubled the average audience of the programme.

In his latest role, he'll play DI Alec Hardy: a newly promoted detective brought in to investigate when the bloodied body of a boy is found on an idyllic beach.


READ MORE: http://entertainment.stv.tv/tv/209451-david-tennant-expected-to-thrill-scottish-fans-in-broadchurch/

Gerard Butler New Year's Eve Plans to go Pagan Posted by Adam Monday December 31, 2012 (SHOWBIZ SPY)

GERARD Butler has revealed his plans for New Year’s Eve — he’s going to a pagan festival!

The actor  returns to his native Paisley, Scotland, most years to be with his family, and will be taking part in the traditional celebrations to cast out evil spirits as she sees 2013 in.

“I love New Year’s Eve,” he said. “I often end up in my local village in Scotland where my parents now live, and they have this pagan festival where everybody lights these wooden torches and marches around the village to cast out evil spirits. It’s amazing, it’s one of the coolest things.”

Gerard, 43, had some ups and downs in 2012, with him completing three weeks in the Betty Ford Center in February to be treated for a reliance on prescription drugs, although he says he is “glad” he went.

READ MORE: http://www.showbizspy.com/article/255510/gerard-butler-reveals-nye-plans.html

Gerard Butler: Having a ball (SCOTSMAN.COM)

 By Alice Wyllie
Published on Sunday 30 December 2012 11:00

GERARD Butler has had a busy month. Dubai, Toronto, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Oslo. And Scotland.

He celebrated his 43rd birthday last month and knew he had to do it in the motherland, so he made a stopover on his way back to the US, where he lives between New York and LA.

Born and raised in Paisley, for Butler, Scotland is “a break” from a life lived 24/7, a place where he can “get out and breathe and be a part of the mountains, glens and lochs”. As such, he visits as often as he can, and 
today – a grey December morning in a bare hotel room in London – he can’t stop raving about a “magical” Highland trip he took in the summer.

“I just made it up as I went along,” he says excitedly. The adventure took him from a “haunted room” in Loch 
Lomond to Inverlochy Castle via various pitstops: “I was begging for a B&B at 1am in Plockton because everywhere was full and the barmaid ended up saying, ‘well, I have a B&B in another town if you want to come and stay there?’ It was nuts. A lot of my best trips have been those ones in Scotland where you never quite know they’re going to happen.”


He recalls another: “I was on my way to the airport and it just felt too soon. It was really breaking my heart. You know that feeling that only thinking about your country can ever give you, those butterflies?” He puts his hand on his heart.

“I was on the phone with my agent saying, ‘why am I leaving?’ And they said, ‘well don’t leave. Stay’. So I got to Edinburgh Airport and I carried on driving. I drove right through to Perth, went into an outdoors store and bought a tent and walking boots and spent the next few days camping and walking.”

Start him on the green green grass of home and he’s got plenty to say.


READ MORE: http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/film/gerard-butler-having-a-ball-1-2712144http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/film/gerard-butler-having-a-ball-1-2712144

EWAN MCGREGOR BACKS DISABLED CHILD'S CHARITY SONG (EXPRESS.CO)

Actor EWAN MCGREGOR is urging fans to raise funds for a hospice in his native Scotland by downloading a charity Christmas song penned by a paralysed boy.

The Big Fish star has praised the youngster for his vivid imagination and the lengths he went to to pen a story titled The Christmas Gibbons, which was then set to music by family friends.

Adam Bojelian, 12, from Edinburgh, Scotland suffers from cerebral palsy, a condition that causes physical disability, and lost all movement at the age of 10 months. He can only communicate by blinking and composed the poem with the help of his mother who held up a series of words and letters in front of him.

McGregor is a supporter of the Children's Hospice Association Scotland (CHAS) which helps to care for Adam and the song is being sold on iTunes to help raise money for the unit.

READ MORE:http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/366454/Ewan-McGregor-backs-disabled-child-s-charity-song

Scots comedy legend Billy Connolly in tears as he accepts BAFTA award

Kevin Bridges and Billy Connolly

Billy Connolly sobbed as he received a Scottish Bafta award last night (10 Dec)

He was presented with a gong for an Outstanding Contribution in Television and Film by stand-up comedian Kevin Bridges. Kevin thanked Billy for being a inspiration to generations of Scots comics and Billy replied: “This is a delightful thing, especially coming from Scotland. “I’ve been nominated for loads of things and got b***** all. I occasionally get these good attendance things, like the guy in remedial class getting a prize for being kind. “Genuinely, to get this from Scotland, I almost say it breaks my heart. It just hits me somewhere where I live.”

As Billy burst into tears, the crowd in Glasgow’s Fruitmarket applauded wildly. He continued: “I don’t know what to do now. It’s been a real pleasure to talk to you. I guess you only get these things once … but could we meet every second week?”

The presentation came at the end of a 90-minute discussion about Billy’s Life In Pictures alongside a few dodgy jokes about thalidomide and the Gorbals. The Big Yin talked about his roles in films such as 1978’s Absolution with Richard Burton and Mrs Brown with Judi Dench. Of Burton, he said: “The funny thing was, I was drunk and he was sober. “They shot the graveyard scene from the back and what you couldn’t see was him singing I Belong to Glasgow. “He was a priest and I showed him where the pocket was in the cassock for his fags.”

Mrs Brown also left a big impression. Billy said: “At one point, I thought that Judi Dench fancied me. She kept giving me the eye in one scene and I thought, ‘What am I going to do?’ I danced about more and she started doing it again. “It was getting worse and then it dawned on me that she was being Queen Victoria, so I fancied her back.”

Billy admitted he was disappointed to miss out on a Bafta for Mrs Brown – instead it went to Ewan McGregor for Trainspotting. He said: “Ewan beat me with that filth about drugs in Edinburgh – and that language, too. “I hate Ewan for beating me. When you get beaten by somebody you like, it’s worse.

READ MORE: http://scottishactors.blogspot.com/2012/12/billy-connolly-bafta-award.html