Cate Blanchett to play Maid Marian

Cate Blanchett looks more and more of a certainty for the role of Maid Marian in Sir Ridley Scott's forthcoming film Nottingham after Sienna Miller was apparently deemed too slim and youthful for the part. "I think Cate Blanchett is set to take the Maid Marian part," says Mark Strong, who has already been signed up to play Sir Guy of Gisbourne, at the London Film Critics' Circle Awards, at the Grosvenor House hotel, in Park Lane. "She is a wonderful actress and it would make it a much classier film if she was in it."

More enemies for Sir David Hare

After angering the comrades with Gethsemane – which was deemed to be a full-scale assault on the Labour Government – and sections of the Jewish community for creating a character in the play which was considered to be a crude anti-Semitic caricature, Sir David Hare now seems to be intent on evoking the ire of his neighbours in the rarefied part of Hampstead where he resides. The playwright says he is finding it "delicious" watching the American bankers who live close to him "go broke".

Margaret Beckett's caravan stays in her garage

Since it began to snow, Mandrake has had a nagging fear that Margaret Beckett might not be able to get her 23 ft caravan out. "It's in the garage at our home in Derbyshire," the housing minister's husband, Leo, was quick to assure me at Macmillan Cancer Support's Parliamentary Palace of Varieties, at the InterContinental hotel in Mayfair. Margaret, for her part, says only a foolhardy caravanner would even try to get his pride and joy out at the moment. "Our next big expedition will be to France in the summer," she added. Incidentally, Mrs Beckett looked her usual glamorous self – and not at all "in need of renovation", as Alan Duncan, the shadow leader of the House, nastily suggested as he helped compere the evening.

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