UPDATE with Golden Globe nomination: Maggie Smith was nominated this morning in the Golden Globes category of Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture — Musical or Comedy for The Lady In The Van. PREVIOUS EXCLUSIVE: True story: Miss Mary Shepherd parked her eyesore of a yellow van in Alan Bennett’s driveway…

A site at London's Tower Bridge that’s been earmarked for a cultural venue of national importance for more than 20 years has finally found an occupant. The History Boys and One Man, Two Guvnors director Nicholas Hytner and longtime collaborator Nick Starr's London Theatre Company is due to take up residence in what…

UPDATE, MONDAY 3:50 AM PT: A few weeks ago, a row erupted in London when prestigious indie venue the Tricycle Theatre said it would not host the UK Jewish Film Festival in November because the event is "supported by the cultural department of the Israeli Embassy in London." The festival is still scheduled to be held…

Richard Bean’s Great Britain — a scatalogically accurate satire of the press that has come hot on the heels of the hacking scandal that brought down The News Of The World and culminated last week in a guilty verdict handed down last week for former editor Andy Coulson — is transferring from the National Theatre’s…

Tom Rothman‘s newly launched TriStar Productions is charging ahead with The Lady In The Van, adapted from playwright and writer Alan Bennett‘s memoir about the elderly vagrant who parked her van in his driveway one day and stayed there for the next 15 years. The project reunites Bennett with BAFTA- and Tony-winning…