JAMES MCAVOY FILMING GLASGOW

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James McAvoy has been spotted filming behind the scenes for the first day of his new film in Glasgow as he makes his directorial debut. 

Glasgow born James disguised himself with a small beard, wore a black cap and several layers in the cold air as actors Seamus Mclean Ross, the son of Deacon Blue stars Ricky Ross and Lorraine McIntosh,  and Bafta-nominated Samuel Bottomley talked and rapped for the scene in the East end of the city. 

California Schemin’ is a true life story about Silibil N’ Brains, the Scots born rap duo who duped the music industry in their hopes to become global superstars.

After pretending they were from the States, Dundee born Gavin Bain and Arbroath’s Billy Boyd were signed by Jonathan Shalit and rubbed shoulders wirh Madonna and Eminem before their elaborate hoax came crashing down. 

Seamus, who plays Bain is a graduate of London’s Guildhall School of Music & Drama.

His debut was in Payback, alongside Peter Mullan and he has been in three episodes of Rebus. He also portrays Colum MacKenzie in Outlander spin-off Blood of My Blood.

Yorkshire born Samuel who plays Boyd in the film first appeared in Paddy Considine’s film Tyrannosaur alongside Peter Mullan and Olivia Colman.

He has also been in Ghost Stories with Martin Freeman and the film version of Everybody’s Talking About Jamie.

He received a Bafta nomination for his role as Aaron in Channel 4 drama Somewhere Boy.

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In an interview with Deadline, McAvoy, who was recently spotted in Dundee mapping out scenes, said: “With California Schemin’ I’ll be telling a story about friendship, rap and glorious failure that has the potential to move, shock and entertain.”

The BBC documented the rise and fall of Silibil N’ Brains on its Storyville series in 2013.

JAMES MCAVOY MOVES INTO NEW HOME WITH LISA LIBS FOLLOWING LOCKDOWN

JAMES McAvoy and his glamorous partner Lisa Liberati have finally managed to move into a big new house in London following lockdown. 
Glasgow born James and Philly born Lisa jet between London and the States where Lisa also works as a social media manager for a Pennsylvanian estate agent app.
The couple have been in a relationship since 2017 when James met Lisa, then a production assistant, on the set of Split where he held a starring role. 
According to reports,  James who was married to actress Anne Marie Duff, mother to his child Brendan, was in the process of separating from her after an eleven year marriage. 
James spent lockdown with Lisa at his ‘small’ London apartment.
During isolation, James showed off Lisa’s cake and donut making skills on his Insta account.  
He has now revealed that the couple had all their belongings packed up in a spare room in April and have eventually managed to move to a bigger house in London now that lockdown is over. 
He said: “We are in London and it’s all good. We’ve just moved into a nice, slightly bigger house but we were in a tiny flat before. Round about April we built a makeshift studio in my spare bedroom. Our only spare bedroom which was full of moving stuff was rammed and just full of this James made recording studio.”
James and Lisa had were spotted strolling hand in hand and looking at London properties including a £3.5 million house in September last year. 
It is thought that the couple had intended to move around April in conjunction with James birthday celebrations but were held up due to government Covid restrictions. 
James gave a glimpse of his new property‘s high vaulted and embossed ceilings and white walls when he appeared on The Jimmy Fallon show. 

JAMES MCAVOY PROVES TO BE A REAL SWEETIE IN NEW SHOW

Beverley Lyons

X Men’s James McAvoy got rave reviews for his dress rehearsal of Cyrano de Bergerac - after letting the audience pay with sweeties - and going topless. 

The Hollywood A lister decided to invite people to London's Playhouse theatre ahead of the official opening night to make theatre accessible to everyone. 

He told fans ahead of the show: “We are doing an open dress rehearsal. That means that even though we are rehearsing, Anybody and everybody come can come. That means you can pay whatever you like 1p or 1000p. You can pay in sweets or anything you like really. We’re pretty excited.  It’s pretty unprecedented in the West end.”
As he also gave out Haribo from a box to some of the theatre goers outside in the queue, James said: ”Hope you enjoy the show. This is a dress rehearsal. Be kind.” 

The stage production was stark with few props but the rhyme and performances got thumbs up from the fans ahead of the official previews. 

The fact that James also performed shirtless in just a pair of leather trousers also got rave reviews. 

Paige Oblong Ellìot wrote: “Other plays may be good but are they James McAvoy in leather pants sitting in front of you shirtless with leather pants on? I thought not.”

Abha T was one of the punters who took advantage of the offer and paid £12 for tickets that would normally cost £119. 

She said: “The show was fantastic. The cast was incredible.”

Scottish actor Max McVey also said of the performance: “Amazing performances by all! Had me in tears by the end of it. Fantastic first half. Couldn’t help but laugh. On the edge of my seat the whole time. And such wonderful use of rhyme.” 

Another lucky ticket holder Sylwia added: “The show was outstanding.”
And Mira Vasiliu wrote on Twitter: “Just saw Cyrano de Bergerac  at @ThePlayhouseLDN and now I don’t know what to do with myself. How do you return to your life after seeing something like that?? #cyranodebergerac #JamesMcAvoy #theatre #London.”

HUGH JACKMAN SAYS DEEP FRIED MARS BAR IN SCOTLAND DIDN’T AGREE WITH HIM

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Beverley Lyons

 WOLVERINE might possess enhanced physical capabilities,  and a powerful regenerative ability known as a healing factor but Hugh Jackman admitted yesterday that his stomach was still reeling after trying out a deep fried Mars Bar in Scotland. 

The Australian X Men, Greatest Showman  and Les Miserables A Lister, who is  appearing at the SSE Hydro for a three night run from tonight (Tuesday), told the Daily Record of his encounter with the famed snack in Clydebank as he made his way into the SSE Hydro for two intensive rehearsals yesterday. 

And as he walked all the way from his stylish city centre  hotel at the top of town to the venue, almost unrecognisable in a green anorak carrying his red umbrella in case he got soaked in the downpour, he talked about his visit to a local chippy in Clydebank. 

He told us: “I liked my deep fried Mars Bar but unfortunately I don’t think my guts appreciated it.”

He added: “We loved the boat trip though. It was awesome.”

Hugh and his crew of dancers and musicians, who have been working out and staying at Glasgow’s Crowne Plaza Hotel, have wasted no time in getting to know the area since he arrived here on Saturday and to fans excitement online he kicked off his visit with a drive by The Hydro to check it out ahead of his opening night. 

He also put up a video of himself online listening to his tour being announced on Radio 2 as he travelled along the M8. 

Hugh decided to surprise locals at a nearby city gym early in the morning by going for a work out ahead of his packed schedule. 

In a picture believed to be taken in Glasgow’s Pure Gym he smiled as he worked out alongside some stunned fans and posed for a selfie.On Sunday afternoon, Hugh also chartered a boat on Loch Lomond to tour the sights including Inchcailloch cemetery in Balmaha and, after shucking oysters  on board, went into Spar in Clydebank to get the chocolate for his deep fried Mars Bar and Reece’s cups treats in a Scots chippy. 

When the heartthrob initially showed up at Bennies Chip Shop in Kilbowie Road, staff initially told his coach party that they didn’t have deep fried chocolate on the menu.
So Hugh and his gang offered to buy the chocolate themselves from the supermarket next door in order to try the special treat. 
Clydebank’s Stephen Boag was in the chip shop on Kilbowie Road when Hugh appeared. 

He said: “A coach pulled up outside and about thirty people came into the shop and they were all looking for deep fried chocolate. It was English and American accents and the shop wasn’t doing it but they offered to buy their own chocolate from the Spar next door.
“The shop agreed to do it but it wasn’t until someone else came back in that they recognised it was Hugh Jackman and The Greatest Showman cast. At first it was quite funny because they were just going mental in the shop and looking at everything they could get. There were about three cans of Irn Bru getting passed about everybody and they were ordering deep fried pizza and trying battered sausages. It was pretty funny just watching it all happening but when I finally clicked that it was Hugh I felt I needed to get a selfie. To be fair he didn’t really stand out at first. He just came in with the crowd and they were all pretty excited about trying out the deep fried chocolate. And he did selfies for me and a couple of people behind us.”
Yesterday Hugh said he couldn’t wait to hit the stage in Glasgow for the sell out gigs.

His costars were also delighted to be in Scotland including Keala  Settle, the bearded lady from The Greatest Showman Film who will be making a ‘surprise’ appearance to sing her now famous hit This  Is Me. 

She told followers on Instagram that she ‘made it’ to Glasgow from Heathrow following some rehearsals there. 

SCOTS COMIC WRITER MARK MILLAR GIVES BLESSING TO WOLVERINE BABY

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Beverley Lyons 

SCOTS Wolverine fan Laura Hayton has called her new baby boy Logan after going into labour within hours of winning best costume at a Comic Con hosted by Utlimate X Men writer Mark Millar. 

Laura, from Coatbridge, who is a huge fan of the comic character had her costume made by her husband and waited for eight hours to meet Mark at the event. 

She said it felt great to get Mark’s blessing after he saw the outfit. 

She explained:”My husband Andrew and four year old son Nathan and I are over the moon that Logan is finally here. Andrew is very artistic and thinks of things that no one else really does. He came up with the idea and gave the outfit to me on Saturday morning. I'm usually up for anything especially with having a four year old. It's good to teach him not have any reservations about enjoying himself. 

“At the event it was tiring but I spent most of the time sitting down in the main hall listening to the Q+A's with the Outlander stars, Mark himself,  Robert Florence and Sanjeev Kholi. My husband introduced me to comics and the comic films, and Nathan loves Spiderman and the Marvel superhero comics. 

“Wolverine is one of my favourite films and my husband's favourite comic so he suggested the name Logan. He's definitely going to be a little superhero. I'm looking forward to seeing both my superheros growing up together.

She added: “The fact Mark has 'blessed' the baby is fantastic. I find it so funny and definitely a story that will be told at Logan's 21st.

A thrilled Mark Millar said: “The fact that Laura has now called her baby Logan after Hugh Jackman’s famous character is the cherry on the cake. It almost feels made up. Our host, the brilliant Glasgow comedian Billy Kirkwood, who was giving his services for free, picked Laura out from about thirty entries on stage. There were some great costumes here and Billy was left in the genuinely difficult position of choosing, especially given more than half of the entries were young kids. 

“Laura’s wee boy shouted from the audience, super-proud, that his Mum was having her baby on Monday and Billy looked around at this girl with the big pregnant bump who had brought her kid to the event for the entire eight hours and said ‘well, your Mum’s just won £100’. 

The money had been donated by Residence Estate Agents and it was the perfect end to a great show. The costume was utterly brilliant, two baby Wolverine claws busting out of her tummy. In a crowd of great costumes it was the stand-out and also means we can sell an extra ticket for the event next time!”

Mark added:”We all had a ball at the show and I’ve had a great time putting on these big events in my old Townhead area of Coatbridge. We’ve got a big Santa Experience planned for Nov 24th and a free Christmas dinner for all pensioners at an Abba Tribute night in December. My wife Lucy and I have enjoyed all these more than anyone.”