News Archive 2000

24 December 2000

Rogue Trader  has finished its stint on SKY's Box Office pay-per-view service, and will be shown on SKY's subscription movie channels from next month.  The first showing is on Premier 1 at 10pm on 6 January.

Thanks also today to Dolphine for passing on the following URL, where you can view a trailer for the upcoming release of the movie Everlasting Piece.  Have a pleasant Christmas.

http://www.reel.com/movie.asp?MID=131332&Tab=screening&buy=closed&CID=13#?

14 December 2000

Thanks to James for alerting me to the news of Anna's collapse while filming on the Isle of Man.  Here is the report from The Sun's web site:—

ANNA FRIEL has had emergency surgery to remove a cyst from one of her ovaries.

The sexy actress was filming scenes for her new movie Me Without You on the Isle Of Man when she collapsed in agony on Tuesday.  She was taken to the Nobles Isle Of Man hospital and had an operation to remove a five centimetre growth.  Doctors say the op was a complete success.

Last night Anna was resting in hospital. A spokesman for the actress said: "She is on the way to a full recovery."

I'm sure you will all join me in wishing her a full and speedy recovery.

13 December 2000

Some more information about Anna's forthcoming West End début in Lulu  courtesy of Dolphine, webmaster at the Anna Friel Reference Site.  He reports:—

Play will run from 1st March to 12th May 2001.  Most likely the 1st - 7th March shows will be treated as previews, with the 8th March being the press show which will give them time to fine-tune the play.  Tickets not on sale until probably 2nd week in January 2001.

10 December 2000

Those of you with access to the channel UK Drama can see a repeat run of the BBC's acclaimed production of Charles Dickens' Our Mutual Friend, starring Anna, from 9pm on Friday 22 December.

4 December 2000

The following is taken from a press release from the Almeida Theatre regarding Anna's upcoming stage appearance in London.  US visitors will also be interested in the news that the play will run in Washington next summer, and it appears that Anna will be crossing the pond to star in it.

Contrary to original reports that the play would run at the Old Vic while the Almeida is undergoing refurbishment (see the entry below from 10 March), it will actually be performed in the Almeida's new temporary accommodation in an adapted former bus garage — the Old Coach Station off Caledonian Road near Kings Cross.  Rehearsals commence on 8 January.

23 October 2000

Although I missed the first couple of minutes following the final commercial break, I can't say I saw any evidence of Anna on Breasts Uncupped  last night.  Nor Victoria Beckham come to that.

Anna is however definitely appearing in the movie A Midsummer Night's Dream, currently showing on SKY box office, and in a TV advert for the Virgin airline.

18 October 2000

You can catch an interview with Anna on SKY1 at 21:00 this coming Sunday (22nd) on the documentary Breasts Uncupped.  The programme blurb describes it thus:—

One-off documentary special in which Kate Thornton talks to women about how they feel they are viewed by society today in relation to their breasts.  Featuring interviews with actresses Sadie Frost and Anna Friel, singer Victoria Beckham, television presenters Davina McCall and Cat Deeley, and designer Stella McCartney.

Pervs need not bother tuning in at all, as there isn't a single breast shown on the programme.  If you manage to miss it, it's repeated on 31 October, again at 21:00.

3 October 2000

I've just had a mail from the Official Site advising me that the news section there has just had an update.

They are also quoting the title of Anna's next movie as being You Without Me, rather than the Me Without You  that I'd seen reported last week (see below).

28 September 2000

Thanks to Dave Campbell for alerting us to the fact that Anna is about to start filming on a new movie project entitled Me Without You.

Anna and Michelle Williams (Dawson's Creek) star as two best friends in what is described as a 'coming-of-age story', set in London during the 70's and 80's.  Shooting is set to start in October, with four weeks filming in London and four weeks on the Isle Of Man.

Anna then moves on almost immediately on to rehearsals for the London stage play Lulu  (scroll down to the entry from 10 March for more on this).

26 September 2000

The movie Rogue Trader  is currently showing on SKY's pay-per-view 'Box Office' facility, which means it will probably be shown on their subscription movie channels fairly soon.  I'll confirm the date of first screening as soon as I have it.

15 June 2000

The usual movie premiere slippage continues to occur.  The US release date for Sunset Strip  is now apparently 15 September, some 6 months later than was originally announced.

14 June 2000

Anna appeared on Channel 4's The Priory  last night.  We failed to learn anything new, save for the fact that the show is pure dross with Zoe Ball, and Jaime Theakston in particular, making it look like amateur night.

It must really be difficult for Anna to still have to put up with the same old references.  Jaime's "interview" began with 'so what have you been doing since Brookside — we haven't seen much of you'.  When Anna said she had done 10 films and 6 months on Broadway, the clown tried to pretend he was on top of his research by jumping in with a reference to 'Work Girls'!  The remainder was predictable; the "lesbian kiss" scene got a mention, as did serial engager Darren Day.

What on Earth was her agent doing booking her to appear on this drivel?  I guess she agreed because it is a Ginger production and, while rumours of a romance are incorrect, she does seem to get on OK with Chris Evans.  Anyway, at least she is back in the country and meeting the media, so the recent drought of new pictures may be close to an end.

Anna coyly admitted to the existence of a few romances that the press have failed to pick up on, and revealed that she is desperate to have a baby.  I think she first mentioned this a year or maybe 18 months ago now, so she must be getting really broody these days!

If you missed it, and can turn your brain off while waiting for Anna's appearance in part two, the show is repeated this coming Monday (19th) on Channel 4 at 00:55am.

PS  Glad to see the hair extensions are still in Anna!

11 June 2000

The UK terrestrial TV premiere of Land Girls  airs on Channel 4 on Monday 19 June at 9:00pm.

10 June 2000

Anna is back in the UK to do the final scenes for War Bride, the movie that she has been filming in Canada.  She is also in the process of moving home from Chelsea to Windsor.

The first recent picture since she left back in March was added to the site today and thanks to the modern phenomenon of hair extensions the 'flowing locks' look is back.  Here's hoping she is persuaded to let her barnet grow again for a while as a result!

2 June 2000

I've just spotted that the official site had an update on 22 May.  As it only relaunched in April, this is an encouraging sign that it might stay more up-to-date this time round.

21 May 2000

For those of you with access to it, the digital channel BBC Prime is repeating Our Mutual Friend, starring Anna of course.

The run starts on Wednesday 24th at 9:00pm, and seems to be repeated on Saturdays from the 27th.

16 April 2000

Anna's new official site (see item from 8 April below) has now been launched.  You will need the Flash plugin for your browser in order to view it.

The news section is now up to date, and even contains a denial that she is pregnant following her recent minor weight gain.  The big hit of last year Closer finally gets a mention, as do all of her film projects since Land Girls, so it has to be seen as an improvement from the old site.

There are also some new pictures to view online.  Unfortunately they were first out in September last year, so we have seen almost all of them already.  They seem to have been embedded as Flash objects, so cannot be downloaded for offline viewing, and are relatively small and poor-quality images taken from the shoot done for Tatler magazine.  See afsc0399 to afsc0410.jpg for my versions of the same photographs.

Let's hope the site has further expansion to come and manages to stay more up to date this time round.

08 April 2000

News today about plans for a major revamp and update of Anna's official web site at www.netshopuk.co.uk/annafriel/.  

I know many of you share the frustrations I have voiced about how badly maintained it has been, with just one update in around 18 months.  But the wait seems finally to be almost over, with the site getting what amounts to a relaunch later this month.  Here's the mail I received about it yesterday from Des . . .

"Hi!!! just a quick note to say thanks for the kick up the posterior in relation to Anna's official website.

We have been working really hard to produce a brand new site for Anna which is going to be live later this month.  I know it sounds a bit lame, but we decided that it was better to concentrate on the new site........a new start so to speak rather than playing all over again with the old front page version.

We would love to have some involvement with the designers of the homage pages..would you be interested in posting a bit of work on a new section of the site called....'the best of' (or something similar)?  We felt it important as part of the process to pay respect to the many people out there who have done such brill sites.  Get in touch and let us have some feedback please.  Sorry for the frustrating wait and thanks for reading such a long mail.  Look forward to hearing from you. 

P.S. We are doing the site using Flash and will look forward to your comments.  Best wishes, Des Friel (N.S.U.K.) (Anna's Dad)"

19 March 2000

Anna is currently engaged in a "hectic party lifestyle" according to unnamed 'friends' in one of yesterday's tabloids, and has been "spotted drinking into the early hours with Chris Evans, Bono and Andrea Corr".  

You can see why Anna gets annoyed with much of the British press coverage she receives, as the story was trying to give the impression that Anna is falling off the rails a bit as a result of her "turbulent love life".  Now to put this into a bit of perspective consider that Anna has had two or three reported relationships in the past five years.  There were years with Darren Day, weeks with Robbie Williams and, well, days with Gavin Friday.  Turbulent?  Bull!  I don't even know how they have the gall to refer to the latter two as relationships  at all!

We are also to believe that she is "broken-hearted, alone and careworn".  Charming.  Anna hasn't exactly helped herself lately mind you with an "all I want is a man in my life" theme coming up fairly regularly in interviews.  They are bound to speculate, and who knows, perhaps she currently is — we all are sometimes.  But you could just view it that she is letting her hair down for a bit during the few short weeks when she is not working this year.

10 March 2000

Following the tremendous critical and commercial success of Closer on Broadway last year, Anna is set to make her London theatre début in what is described as a "sexually frank and explicit play".  Calm down boys!

Fans will be delighted to have the chance to see Anna performing live in the West End, though the production does not start until next Spring (2001).  Anna takes the lead role in Lulu, a work based on two plays (Earth Spirit and Pandora's Box) written by Frank Wedekind and adapted by dramatist Nicholas Wright.

Jonathan Kent, the co-artistic director for the Almeida Theatre and the chap we must thank for casting Anna in the title role, is quoted as saying that it's "the female equivalent of Hamlet in that it's a huge part that resides in the personality of the person who is playing it.  It's not one of those parts where you can just get a terribly good actor — it requires someone who trails clouds of personality.  What's so great about Anna is that she is a subversive spirit: she's a strange mixture of knowingness and innocence.".  As our American cousins discovered when Anna hit New York last year!

Although it is an Almeida production the play will actually run at the Old Vic while the Almeida is undergoing modernisation.  I have no news of the actual run dates yet, but I'll post these as soon as I hear anything.  It is likely that she will squeeze another film in between the end of War Bride  and the start of the theatre run, but there are no firm details on this yet either.

09 March 2000

Anna made an appearance as a catwalk model in Milan a couple of weeks ago, modelling a rabbit-fur coat designed by Patty Shelabarger.  The scan is afsc0454.jpg.  Apparently Donatella Versace asked Anna to model for her at the show, but Anna declined.  Whatever next??

Anna is currently in Kenya, and is due to return home this weekend before setting off for filming in Canada next month (see the entry below for more on this).

03 March 2000

With the majority of filming work completed on Everlasting Piece, Anna has evidently found time to find a new home.  Having sold her London flat, Anna is reported to have purchased a property in Windsor.  As with the flat however, it looks as though she is destined to spend little time there.  Anna is due to fly out to Canada next month where filming starts on her next movie project War Bride.

All I know about the project so far is that Anna plays an Eastender who gets hitched to a Canadian soldier in London.  As he goes off to war Anna flies out to Canada to live with her new husband's family, and gets a less than warm welcome.

The movie is to be directed by Lyndon Chubbutk.

01 February 2000

According to newspaper reports Anna, who is in Dublin filming Everlasting Piece, has a "new boyfriend".  Gavin Friday was, evidently, a singer in an Irish punk band called The Virgin Prunes before going solo.  Welcome to your paragraph Gavin! 

Anna has also recently put her London home on the market, but there's no mention of where she is planning to move to.

04 January 2000

The Official Fox movie site has confirmed that Sunset Strip will be released to video in the US on 18 February.  Thanks to Steve Johnston for sending through the URL http://movieweb.com/movie/sunsetstrip/index.html

02 January 2000

News about the delayed release of Anna's movie Sunset Strip  was posted here recently.  Here's the extract . . .

Release Date: TBA 2000 (previously listed as Fall, 1999)

Rumored Video Release: This site has received a report from a source that has proven informed in the past, that this film may be released direct-to-video in February, 2000. If this is true, this explains why the address of its official site points to Fox Home Video.

"The Anna Friel Homage Page dwarfs any other online offering"
Zoo magazine 02 June 2005

This site is designed to be viewed at 1280*1024 resolution in true or high colour mode

Copyright to all of the photographs and video captures on this site remains with the original owner(s)
Please respect the fact that they are presented here for personal, non-commercial use only