The 25th Sundance Film Festival Wrap-Up

Source: Edward Douglas
January 25, 2009

It's shocking how the best-laid plans of even the most prolific writer can immediately get sidelined, especially when it comes to film festival coverage. When ComingSoon.net's Edward Douglas flew out to Park City ten days ago, the plan was to see as many movies as humanly possible and write reviews for each and every one of them. Unfortunately, spending long days running or shuttling between Main Street and the Marriot Headquarters, from the Eccles to the Egyptian, can take a lot out of a guy, and we decided our time would best be served spending it seeing as many movies as humanly possible and talking to as many filmmakers and actors we could fit in, rather than locking ourselves in a hotel room writing. That's not to say that we don't have a lot of reviews and interviews on the way, but we decided to give CS readers a taste of the nearly 30 movies we saw at this year's festival with brief write-ups of the ones that stood out, as well as laments for those that faltered.The Best of the Fest:

1. 500 Days of Summer (Fox Searchlight) - Clearly the biggest crowd-pleaser at this year's festival was this romantic comedy from first-time director Marc Webb and screenwriters Scott Neustadter and Michael Webber, which covers a year and a half in the relationship between Tom Hanson (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and Summer Bishl (Zooey Deschanel), the latter a flighty woman who breaks the former's heart. While some of the ground covered is stuff we've seen before, the film is told in an innovative and clever narrative style, jumping around in time from the height of their developing love affair to the months that follow their break-up. Gordon-Levitt creates an infinitely likeable character that both guys and women can relate to, much like John Cusack in his heyday. The film also includes some great comic turns from Geoffrey Arend and Clark Gregg. What could easily be seen as a "...Say Anything" for the younger generation, the film's Sundance premiere received a standing ovation from the audience, and one can expect that when it opens in July, it will be another Searchlight hit in the vein of Garden State and Once.

2. We Live in Public - Ondi Timoner's profile of internet pioneer Josh Harris was a more than worthy follow-up to her Sundance Jury Prize winner Dig!, and this one took even longer to make, over ten years, as Timoner culled through over 500 hours of footage from Harris' career. Harris' early "art projects" included the World Wide Web's first streaming video television station Pseudo.com, followed by the experimental community of "Quiet" where thirty volunteers were holed in a secret underground bunker in New York's Village with every moment captured on a series of surveillance cameras. You'll find yourself amazed by the foresight of Harris' achievements, as well as his inevitable implosion, as the dot.com bubble bursts and Harris goes into hiding from his creditors. Timoner successfully contrasts what Harris was trying to achieve with the rise of social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook, and anyone who spends even a few minutes online--which one would assume is most ComingSoon.net readers--will want to see this movie whenever it becomes available. Look for our interview with Timoner and Harris soon.

3. Paper Heart - Fans of the Judd Apatow crew might not have known what to expect when they went to see Charlyne Yi's mockumentary about her cynical search for true love, interviewing people from around the country in various backgrounds, but it ends up being the ultimate in META, because you're never sure what is real and what is being staged for the cameras. (For instance, the documentary's director Nicholas Jasenovec is actually played by an actor himself.) Not since My Date with Drew has what is essentially a documentary warmed your heart so much, as you can't help but smile at Yi's adorable antics and expressive reactions, not to mention the way Yi's real-life boyfriend Michael Cera continues to prove why so many young women gush over his every move.

4. I Love You Phillip Morris - It's not often you'd have a movie starring Jim Carrey playing at the Sundance Film Festival, let alone being one of the best movies there, but there's something about the way Bad Santa writers Glenn Ficarra and John Requa were able to turn the true crime story of conman Steven Russell into a comedy vehicle for Carrey that makes it work far better than his recent dog Yes Man. While most of Carrey's strongest films have been dramas like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Man on the Moon, Ficarra and Renqua have found a way to bring an edgier approach to Carrey's usual comic delivery to make this one of his stronger comedies. Despite being a very funny situational comedy, it's also a surprisingly touching romance involving Russell's gay relationship with his fellow inmate Phillip Morris, played by Ewan McGregor. This was easily one of the most commercially viable films of the festival, so it's somewhat surprising it hasn't yet picked up for U.S. distribution.

5. Brief Interviews with Hideous Men - Jon Krasinski makes his directorial debut with the difficult subject material of David Foster Wallace's novel which explores how men perceive women, sex and relationships. It stars Julianne Nicholson as Sara Quinn, a post-grad doing a study on the way men think by doing interviews with a variety of subjects, from the classic "God's Gift to Women" to the wallflower to everything in between. The film is constructed of a series of vignettes and monologues by an impressive array of television and character actors including the likes of Will Arnett, Christopher Meloni, Will Forte, Bobby Canavale and more. Besides being an impressive directorial debut, Krasinski also delivers one of the film's most powerful moments as Sara's boyfriend, a charming fellow who doesn't mince words when confronted by an affair. It's a film that leaves you in a cold sweat.

6. When You're Strange - Tom DiCillo (Living in Oblivion) was given carte blanche with hundreds of hours of Doors footage, some never seen before, to tell the story of how Jim Morrison, Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger and John Densmore became one of the more influential bands of the '60s despite Morrison's chronic problems with drugs and alcohol. It's a highly artistic first attempt at a doc from the indie filmmaker that's certain to bring a newfound appreciation for the band from anyone who might not have cared for them in the past. We had a chance to sit down with DiCillo and Densmore early in the festival, so look for that soon.

7. Mary and Max - The quirky Claymation dramedy about two mismatched pen pals who help each other get through their difficult lives, was a strange choice to open this year's festival, but it was also a heart-warming effort from the Oscar-winning Australian animator Adam Elliot that set the tone for the rest of the fest. Voiced by Toni Collette, Mary is an excitable Australian girl while Max (voiced by Philip Seymour Hoffman) is a 44-year-old Jewish New Yorker with Asperger's Syndrome, yet the two of them find common ground to bond over. Told in a very unique style, using different monochromatic color schemes for each character's environment, the film really captures your attention and tugs at your heartstrings. Review

8. Black Dynamite (Sony) – Scott Sanders' spoof of '70s blacksploitation films found many a fan during the festival's Park City at Midnight program, which is no surprise, since it's probably one of the outright funniest movies at the festival being that it's not as much a straight spoof as a serious attempt at recreating the bad acting, writing and the wild funk soundtracks of the genre with Michael Jai White playing the ass-kicking title character with the likes of Arsenio Hill and Tommy Davison playing typical stereotypes. (Ironically, black filmmaking pioneer Robert Townsend was at the festival this year with his new doc Why We Laugh.)

9. The Girlfriend Experience (Magnolia) - Not really a film festival entry as much as a sneak preview of Steven Soderbergh's follow-up to Bubble, this was a far looser affair starring porn actress Sasha Grey as a $10,000 New York escort trying to broaden her business while trying to maintain a relationship with her physical trainer boyfriend. You can read more about what quickly became one of the highlights of this year's festival here.

10. Cold Souls - Sophie Barthes' sci-fi film has been compared ad nauseum to the work of Charlie Kaufman due to its quirky premise and clever humor. Most of the latter comes from its star Paul Giamatti, playing himself, who turns to a groundbreaking soul storage company during an emotional crisis, leading to all sorts of unexpected results. Giamatti is as funny as always, essentially creating a comic incarnation of his own personality and lifestyle, while David Strathairn plays the quack Dr. Finkelstein whose troubles begin due to his dealings with mules who transport Russian souls into the country. It's certainly one of the most innovative debuts from a director we also had a chance to talk to before leaving Park City.

11. Brooklyn's Finest (Senator/Sony) - Antoine Fuqua's return to police work jumped coasts for a three-pronged story about disgruntled police officers working in various aspects of law enforcement in the fight against crime and drugs in Brooklyn. Don Cheadle is great as always as Tango, an undercover officer embedded within the city's toughest drugdealing gang, while Richard Gere and Ethan Hawke give equally strong performances as two very different police officers trying to get their way around the system that has made their personal lies difficult. Even so, the most surprising performance comes in the form of a nearly unrecognizable Wesley Snipes as a criminal released from jail and trying to fly right despite the bad influence of Cheadle's character. This might not only be Fuqua's finest movie, but it could also be the movie that gets him taken far more seriously as a filmmaker. Interview with Antoine Fuqua

12. Grace (Anchor Bay) - Paul Solet's supernatural thriller stars Jordan Ladd as a first-time mother who chooses to bring her stillborn baby to term, leading to seriously disturbing consequences when she realizes that the seemingly alive baby has certain cravings that the loving mother feels the need to provide. As creepy as the catalog description might have been, the results have a seriously deep psychological impact in the way Solet mixes the visceral gore inherent with the birthing process with edgy suspense. Any woman who isn't sure whether they want to go through childbirth will probably want to stay away, but this was clearly this year's Joshua, a great thriller in the vein of '70s greats that hopefully will find its audience.Look for our interview with Solet over on ShockTillYouDrop.com sometime next week.

13. In the Loop (IFC Films) - Spinning off from the television show "The Thick of It," director Armando Iannucci took a hilarious look at British and American politics from the inside of the bumbling government agencies whose personal squabbles and egos build up to a controversial decision to go to war. With hilarious performances by Tom Hollander, James Gandolfini and Peter Capaldi and a surprising cameo by Iannuci's frequent collaborator Steve Coogan, the comparisons that have been made to "The Office" and Christopher Guest's improvised mockumentaries are sound. This may be one of the first post-9/11 political comedies that works unequivocally, and here's hoping IFC Films can get this to wide audience of British humor fans. You can read our interview with Iannucci sometime next week.

14. Tyson (Sony Pictures Classics) - James Toback's portrait of his friend, boxer Mike Tyson, was the second movie we saw at the festival, and whether or not you want to spend an entire film watching Tyson talk about himself, there's no question that it's one of the most fascinating and comprehensive looks at a controversial sports figure ever captured on film.

Hochkar Open, 07.02.2009, Senonerpark Hochkar

(lifepr) Graz, 19.01.2009 - All good things come in threes. And so Lower Austria's biggest snowboard contest goes into its third round on the 7th of February 2009! The Hochkar Open is more...

Pressemeldung inaktiv.Leider hat die Pressestelle des Herausgebers dieses Firmen-Pressefach noch nicht für den uneingeschränkten Journalisten-Zugriff aktiviert.

Charmed forces

By Douglas Wight, 21/12/2008
ATTENTION lads! Even in desert camouflage you can spot how stunning Gemma Atkinson charmed her way into the hearts of Britain’s brave troops.
Fully armed with those weapons of mass distraction, former Hollyoaks babe Gemma features as covergirl on a special News of the World Forces Edition bringing Christmas cheer and family greetings to our boys and girls in Afghanistan, Iraq and around the world.
See photos of Gemma Atkinson modelling lingerie
Last night trouper Gemma— currently serving as Peter Pan at the Manchester Opera House!—said: “It’s an honour to be doing this to support all our servicemen and women.
“They’re true heroes and making such sacrifices, away from their loved ones and friends, not knowing when they might next see them.
“It’s very humbling. We must all take time out to remember them this Christmas. They’re doing such a fantastic job.
”Gemma was joined in our big seasonal push for the troops by top chef Marco Pierre White, who travelled to Iraq to cook Christmas dinner.
And Chelsea soccer stars, including John Terrry and Frank Lampard, played a blinder inviting injured soldiers for a visit to their Surrey training ground to support the special issue.

RMS students “dive in” to Deep-Sea Adventure in class

Brenda Jensen, News reporter

Seventh grade science students at Richmond Middle School spent part of November on a ‘virtual expedition,’ when they participated in “Extreme 2008: A Deep-Sea Adventure.” The marine science program was developed by the University of Delaware to learn more about one of the most extreme environments on the planet: hydrothermal vents.RMS science teacher William Dooley prepared his students to be a part of the expedition using the eMINTS/METS Grant computers in his classroom. “All of the seventh graders were present when we called the Research Vessel Atlantis and the Research Submersible Alvin,” said Dooley. “Alvin was at the bottom of the Sea of Cortez (Gulf of California) conducting research on viruses and bacteria near the Hydrothermal Vents in that area.”The 274-ft research vessel Atlantis was on a 21-day mission to explore the vent sites in the Pacific Ocean. Once at the dive site, hundreds of miles from shore, two of the scientists and a pilot climbed into the submersible Alvin to descend over a mile to the vents. It was Nov. 24, when the “Phone Call to the Deep” took place. Meeting in the library, students Catherine Pence and Jordan Beck were to make the calls, as all of the seventh graders gathered.“The phone call to the deep” was a voice only. Think of the call from here going to ATT for a conference with the other schools, and hooked into the satellite phone to get to the Atlantis ship,” Dooley explained. “From there they send a ‘voice’ sound down to the Alvin using a huge speaker and microphone on Alvin. Alvin has a speaker sending their voice back to Atlantis where the voice is picked up by a microphone and then into the satellite/radio phone system.“The Middle School science program also went along on this voyage in 2004, and many students will remember their experiences,” said Dooley. “I am excited that we are able to be a part of the program again, after several years waiting for the expedition to happen.”In order to help prepare his students for what they would be experiencing, Dooley showed a ‘silent video’ of an earlier Alvin journey. Subtitles were added so the students would know what was happening. They also spent time checking out the interactive Web site, www.expeditions.udel.edu/extreme08, for information, photos, videos and interviews. Armed with this background, the students were able to participate, explore, and understand how scientists can study the extreme environments of the earth using their various instruments. Two students’ names were drawn to make the connection with the vessels. Catherine called Alvin. Jordan called Atlantis. “I was really nervous. I thought I’d mess up and they wouldn’t be able to hear me,” said Catherine. “The sea floor is really cool. I learned about new species of animals. There is a Colonial Dandelion – a big, puffball. It’s yellow, like a dandelion.”The connection was clear and the students were able to hear questions from each school participating in the call. Catherine said they also learned that it took the Alvin an hour to descend the mile to the sea floor and the three-man sub stays for around five hours as they study and perform various experiments. “This is a ‘once in a lifetime’ opportunity for our students. I am very pleased to have been able to arrange for this experience,” said Dooley. “It was a wonderful way for our students to talk with real research scientists while they are actually working.” More than 20,000 students from over 350 schools in the United States, Aruba, Australia, Canada, Costa Rica, Great Britain, and New Zealand participated. The students were able to write to the research team, propose experiments to be conducted at sea, and participate in a virtual science fair. Fifty schools were selected to participate in the conference call with scientists working in the submersible Alvin on the seafloor. RMS was selected as one of the schools to participate directly by calling and speaking with the scientists as they worked on Nov. 24.Extreme 2008 was sponsored by the National Science Foundation. The program is the sixth in the University of Delaware’s popular “Extreme” series, which has won state and national awards for public outreach and education. The research team includes scientists and graduate students from six universities and the J Craig Venter Institute.Photo: RMS seventh-graders talk with scientist on the ocean floor to learn more about hydrothermal vents.Photo by William Dooley

More questions than answers

Thomas Beatie, as all the world now surely knows, is a transgender man from Oregon who had the breasts he was born with surgically removed, but elected to keep his female reproductive organs. When his wife, Nancy, found that she could not have another child - she has two daughters from a previous relationship - he decided to leave off taking the testosterone for a while and get pregnant himself, using donor sperm. In June, he gave birth to a daughter, Susan.
Needless to say, when the news of his pregnancy broke, the media went wild and a now infamous photograph of Thomas, his swollen belly covered in soft, dark hair, quickly travelled across the world (the picture was taken by Nancy, to accompany an article Thomas wrote for the Advocate, in which he explored the legal questions surrounding his new status). The Beaties, who run a business printing T-shirts, reacted to this voracious and often unkindly press interest by appearing on Oprah, and by signing an exclusive deal with People magazine and the makers of this documentary. People would publish the first pictures of Susan, and a television crew would film the goings-on in the labour room, as a bearded man struggled and strained to bring a new life into the world.
Advance publicity for The Pregnant Man (11 December, 9pm) suggested that it would be far superior to the physiological freak shows one finds on some other channels. The word went out that the Cutting Edge film would not judge, nor would it point and stare. Rather, it would use Thomas Beatie's story as a way of looking at gender, at our preconceptions about the roles of the sexes.
To which I say: what utter baloney. I watched The Pregnant Man with a feeling of nausea, not from the Beaties' unusual arrangement - they appear to be decent, straightforward people, and more capable of bringing up a child than some conventional couples I can think of - but because of the film's tone.
It wasn't only because Thomas was so often filmed half-clad, flexing his muscles, the better that we might stare at his bizarre form (however liberal you are, there is no getting away from the fact that a pregnant man looks pretty odd). Nor was it because the director was so fixated with playing the hateful anti-Beatie video messages posted by anonymous bigots on the net.
No, what I really despised was the feeling that this - the birth of a child - was a just a caper. Laugh at the clod-hopping German TV reporter as he tries and fails to get access to the Beaties' neighbours! Smile as Craig Kelly, our chirpy northern narrator, builds the excitement! Why were Thomas and Nancy repeatedly interviewed in bed? Why were no expert witnesses - doctors, psychologists, social historians - ever called upon to put their story in context? And why, oh why, was the film's background music so jaunty? It sounded like leftovers from How Clean Is Your House?.
This unsettling combination of prurience and reductive triviality is an increasingly common feature of Channel 4 documentaries, and it drives me nuts. Apart from anything, it is just so frustrating to see genuinely interesting material - a real scoop - in the hands of people who apparently lost their sense of inquiry at the same time as they mislaid their sense of decency.
The Pregnant Man threw up plenty of questions, big and small, but it answered virtually none. "I kind of have a penis," said Thomas, grinning at an interrogator we could not see. Really? Do they just grow, like cress? We never found out. When Nancy was shown breastfeeding Susan, a disembodied voice asked what she'd done to stimulate her milk. She mumbled something confusing about "birth control" and "herbs", and the voice, presumably satisfied with this answer, did not pursue it.
I hear, via Barbara Walters, that Thomas is expecting another baby. I wonder: is there any hope that he might be induced to have this one in private? Pluck in the face of prejudice is always admirable. But it is also the case that some stories are best told by means of a life well led, and a job well done, rather than instantly, via television cameras and supermarket magazines. The time for telling is when Susan and her little brother or sister are grown, and safely despatched to college.

Carol Vorderman exclusive: She reveals her tearful farewells on her last day of Countdown

By Sue Carroll 11/12/2008

Tomorrow, viewers will see a tearful Carol Vorderman, accompanied by her mother and children, finally leave the job she's done for the past 26 years.
The final Countdown was always going to be a sad moment.
And for millions of fans the tribute show will be an emotional farewell to the woman labelled Britain's Thinking Man's Crumpet.
"There were tears, of course," admits Carol in an exclusive interview with the Daily Mirror, "but there were loads of laughs. It was a real party atmosphere.
"But look, I think I'm one bloody lucky lady to still be around. I never forget that. I'm no spring chicken, I'm 48 now." Not, I hasten to add, that she looks it today.
Wearing a green skintight Roland Mouret dress, she possesses that potent mixture of mischief and Mensa.
She's smart enough to realise it's onwards and upwards now. She says: "Leaving Countdown has given me a chance to look carefully at what I want to do. I don't think I've got anything to prove.
"For years I've been chasing my own tail, working non-stop and I've never had time to enjoy things, especially my children.
"Katie is 16 now, in a couple of years I'll lose her to university so we've already made plans for some treats.
"Next summer we'll go to America and learn to fly - just the pair of us, it's our adventure and we'll have more.
"I've never spoken much about my children but I'm so proud of them. Katie is just the most lovely, caring person. And clever, too. One of the reasons we're flying is that she's already decided on her career - she's going to be an astronaut.
"I love being with my kids and when I told them I wouldn't be going back to Leeds to make Countdown they were thrilled." Carol's departure from the show is well-documented. She was pivotal in holding the show together after the death of long-term presenter Richard Whiteley in 2005.
But programme-makers ITV Productions offered her an ultimatum.
They demanded she take a 90 per cent pay cut or stand down. She was given 48 hours to take it or leave it.
To her credit, Carol shows no bitterness or rancour at the way she was treated.
She says: "I just want to remember all the good times, and they were brilliant. I never want to lose the fact that for years I had an extremely happy time." She does want to make it clear, however, that for 20 years of her time on Countdown she was far from rolling in money.
"That came later, when other broadcasters were trying to persuade me to quit and sign up with them," she says. "Despite all the offers, I stayed loyal to the show that made me - but it was more than that, I loved it.
"I was never, ever driven by the desire to be famous. Back in 1982 the idea that I would become the first woman on Channel 4 struck me as hilarious.
"I slipped under the wire and got into TV for the simple reason I could do sums." Her mum Jean says her daughter's success story is like "something out of the Arabian Nights". She's not far wrong. The two women were in a fairly precarious situation when Carol landed the job at Yorkshire TV, the company making Countdown for the launch of Channel 4 in 1982.
"Mum had left my stepfather and was living in student digs. She was 52, which was an awful situation. I had a boyfriend in Leeds so I knew houses were cheaper in Yorkshire.
"I persuaded Mum we could scrape together enough to buy a little place up there.
"The day we moved into our £20,500 house was the first time Mum had ever been that far north. We started from scratch with borrowed curtains and furniture - even the cutlery wasn't our own." Proud and extremely determined for her daughter, it was Jean who wrote Carol's application letter for Countdown, even forging her signature. The rest, of course, is history.
"It's hard to believe now," says Carol, "that there were only three TV channels back then and just a handful of women on the box - Esther Rantzen, Anna Ford and Angela Rippon." Then along came Carol, a Cambridge graduate and trainee with transport firm Christian Salveson - a most unlikely candidate with dolly bird looks but a formidable brain.
Carol says: "I was happy beyond words when I joined the show. It was so exciting.
"It was the equivalent of being propelled into a movie with George Clooney - from nowhere. It was all a bit of a fluke really.
"I think I was paid £20 a show - certainly not enough to give up my day job at Salveson.

"After a year I was offered a proper contract and I remember thinking, 'Well, I don't want to reach the great age of 30 and have regrets'. I told myself I could always become an accountant so I bit the bullet and took it.
"For the first two years it was a hand-to-mouth existence. I still drove an old rust-bucket and made trips to the launderette.
There's a misconception about how much I earn. Yes, the last few years have been great but the big money has only been recent.
That certainly wasn't how it was for the first 20 years.
"But I wouldn't change any of it - except that Richard died three years ago and that was beyond anyone's control. I spent a long time after that feeling just grief-struck.
"It was like losing a spouse, and I thought long and hard about a lot of things." Reorganising, or changing your life, isn't uncommon among the bereaved and for Carol it meant a split from boyfriend Des, though they are happily reconciled now.
She also left her London base, a penthouse flat she's only just sold at a reduced price in an erratic property market, to move lock, stock and barrel with her children to Bristol.
She says: "I was brought up in Wales and I wanted Katie, who was becoming a teenager, and Cameron to have a chance to grow in the space that a big city can't provide. Now they're fantastically happy in a city that is clean, safe and friendly. We all have time to what I call 'tease' which means just messing about, listening to other people's stories and chatting.
I'm real northerner at heart - other people's lives fascinate me and I'm a constant talker." Meanwhile, the job offers have come pouring in so there may not, in the end, be that much time for teasing in Carol's life.
"I've got a lot of good friends in telly so they're all coming up with ideas for me and my work ethic is strong.
"I've always enjoyed getting stuck into projects but after I announced I was leaving Countdown I thought, 'hang on, don't consider big proposals till you've got the last show out of the way.' "I've done Celebrity Apprentice - I can't give away much except Ruby Wax and I end up in some intimate situations - it was hilarious and I now have time to do things I'd have never considered before.
"I'll be popping up on Ant and Dec's Takeaway next year and there are other TV plans which I can't talk about.
"Except, obviously, the Mirror's Pride of Britain, which is one of those rare shows that works so brilliantly because so much passion and commitment is invested in it.
I'm also working on an educational project which is really close to my heart. In many ways this is all like going back to the beginning, the excitement is there." Something, Carol confesses, that was missing earlier this year when she had 60 shows to film before she could walk away.
She says: "Not long after it was announced I woke up realising I'd gone numb down one side. I couldn't feel anything touching my arm and my skin was cold. It turned out to be pure stress, a complete build-up of worry but, I admit, it scared me." On her wrist Carol wears a Tiffany bracelet, a farewell gift from the Countdown team - lifelong friends and still on the phone to her everyday. Beside it is a friendship bangle from Richard Whiteley's partner Kathryn Apanowicz.
"I have so many lovely memories and made lifelong friends - how could I not wish the very best for the show? I've sent the new hosts Jeff Stelling and Rachel Riley flowers and messages.
"I wish them all the happiness I had for so many years. All I can do is look back and think, I had a wonderful run, I'm a lucky bird really, aren't I?" ONE Last Consonant Please Carol is on tomorrow at 2.55pm, C4, followed by Carol's last Countdown show at 3.25pm.
EVEN THE PM ADORES HER
Gordon Brown tells Countdown viewers in a video message on Friday: 'It's done more than any other programme to make counting and spelling fun and popular and is really good exercise for the mind.
"I wish Carol could have helped on some of my budgets when I was Chancellor - I might have got the sums right more often!"
..AND CLOONEY
George Clooney admits he's a fan, saying: "Carol is brutal. I like her."