NEVER FORGET AS ONE DOOR CLOSES, ANOTHER OPENS WIDE, SO FOR 2014 GENEROSITY WOULD BE A BEAUTIFUL THING

The new year has started and I am in a good mood, I laughed a lot on New Years Eve with my friends Ayako and Michel Comte in Bel Air.  They have terrific style and are also a fan, like I am, of  the 20th Century furniture designer Charlotte Perriand. She was hugely influenced by Corbusier and the Japanese. I once rented my house out in West Hollywood only to find that the chairs were propping up a television when the rental people had gone. For those who do not know, the stools are very valuable, to you they may look nothing but better treat them with care.
 I love Michel and have known him for at least twenty two years.  I owe him a lot, he took me to Italian Vogue where Franca Sozzani asked me to take photographs for a book called British Artists at Work and write a diary. Michel's generosity towards me was incredible. That is real friendship.
Ayako, his wife, is from Japan and is a perfect chef creating delicate dishes imaginatively. For example she mixes banana with risotto and whisky which was completely delicious.  I am lucky to have such friends. We ended the evening with noodles which apparently in Japan bring you good luck in the new year. I went with my son and still photographer Jack English. He did the photographs of Gary Oldman and the cast for the Globe winning film Tinker Tailor.
They have none stop energy which is admirable and have just finished a film called The girl from Nagasaki, a film based on an updated version of Madame Butterfly,  which will be shown at Sundance this year. One or two of the actresses were there last night and they were so much fun and so very talented. There is a gentleness and a politeness to the Japanese,  it is very alluring, I can't wait to see the film.  My lovely friends Lisa Zane, who was in my film The gun the cake and the butterfly singing, and Marianne Faithfull are both cast, and also starring my favourite actor Michael Wincott with Robert Evans too. It feels very much a family affair. Michel asked me if I wished to be in a scene and I had last minute nerves, I should have done it, it would have been fun.

A PHOTOGRAPH by MICHEL COMTE

I wanted to do some exercise this morning but at the club I go to,  I was surprised to find Yoga was not on the menu, instead meditation was.  I thought Yoga was meditation? A note of advice. As much as I love Yoga, there is nobody more sanctimonious and aloof than a yogis. When people become "spiritual" they become ever so slightly patronising and this is not yoga. I started doing Yoga in 1992 and it literally saved my life. I have found that  the door needs to be wide open and there is plenty of room for everybody,  being moralistic about other people is a bore, and very narrow minded.
I could be irritated by the behaviour of some colleagues but no need as there is always someone else who can love me, and work well with me. However, I am not like some women who will accept any behaviour just to be loved. No I am feisty.

BEAUTIFUL PHOTOGRAHY BY MICHEL COMTE FROM THE GIRL FROM NAGASAKI

I personally like people a bit rough around the edges, I like faults, it is what makes us human, I really do not need them to chant, I like them to laugh, scream and cry.  Of course I have not started my exercise routine as planned, actually I feel rather calm and pensive.
I am, after all, just one grain of sand in an enormous desert.  Why would I think that my little shiny grain can do anythings as an individual?. Of course when I leave this desert I want to be remembered, preferably  by the people who knew who I was. Since they are going to be forgotten too, there is little likelihood I shall be remembered, once we are all knocking up the roses.
I was told by my friendly paranormal spiritual advisor that the human body may give up when we die, but our spirit continues to live on, as do parts of our body for quite a while. I therefore do not want to be sent to the morgue so quickly.
I was thinking about the men who built the pyramids? As I do not know who they are, I  better remember that I am unlikely to be leaving a permanent mark, and live life with a lot of humour to the full, enjoy sex without being too selfish and give to my friends lavishly, but not buy them with money.
I shall take a walk round the park instead with a spring in my step and dream of watching an updated version of Madame Butterfly, The girl from Nagasaski I am sure Puccini would approve.

VARIETY IS THE SPICE OF LIFE

As The Artist sweeps the board we should all be asking ourselves, why?  This film  is black and white, an old fashioned story a la Norma Desmond, of course the other way round and silent. It has done  well as it was way above all the other films in so many ways. I am totally fed up with films like the Descendants and Hugo, there are some adults among us who want to be stimulated intellectually. What about a little variety next year, something quirky.   How many of the Academy saw or could sit through, In the land of blood and honey?  It was brilliant.  So  I will probably agree with the results. All the male actors are good but of course I have a soft spot for Gary Oldman and Tinker Tailor.  I actually loved it, slow and brown as it was, and Gary's performance was brilliant.  To follow in Alex Guinness's footsteps is a tall order, but I think everybody will agree he followed well.

This year is a lot quieter, although I have been out every night. The films reflect the crowd and in turn that changes the atmosphere.

I am going to Elton John's party with a girlfriend, my male friends all being away. It will give me the perfect freedom to have fun.  Nicky Haslam is staying the night and going to the Vanity Fair Party so we will be living the best of both worlds. You know I think that is the best method?. My dress is from Alexander McQueen's Spring 2012 collection. Plain and Simple.

BAFTA's and what it means to me.

Oh goodness. it is the BAFTAs and I am struggling what to wear. If there is one thing I loathe, it is having to put on a long dress.  I become a complete frump. I look in the mirror and I look like my great aunt.  I was lucky enough to find a Martin Margiela close fitting mermaid number with a bit of a train in black silk jersey. Generally, in a long dress, I am so uncomfortable I want to go home and strip off straight away. Last week, because of the cleanse, I managed to lose four pounds, so I felt incredible. But since arriving home, I am probably fat again.  Oh hell's bells, this is all too much. For fear of being boring, I shall describe last night.
In any case, back to the BAFTAs. It is really becoming a very glamourous event, and the Royal Opera House is giving it a credibility and status that is luring the biggest stars of Hollywood, from George Clooney to Brad Pitt and Meryl Streep.
Of course, I wanted my favourite Gary Oldman to win. The other day, I was in my house in Los Angeles and I heard someone coming in. I screamed out, "Who is it?" and the man said "Alan Rickman." Assuming and hoping it was, I went out of my bedroom to find Gary Oldman chatting with my lovely friend Jack English. Gary has charm on film and off, displaying all the discretion he embodied in Tinker Tailor; so underplayed and so very correct.
I have seen the film three times. The first, I thought it was terrible, but now I'm totally addicted. Gary should have won Best Actor. (Let's be fair, how many more times does he have to play Batman?)
The Artist took the night, as it should have - clever, daring and a twist on an old tradition. It was beautifully made and fun, with Ludovic Bource winning best musical score.  The dog should have won too, or at least given a prize, along with the Joey the horse in War Horse.
Everything went to the French - the music, script, film and actor - so at least the English stayed loyal to what they believe is good. Clever Harvey Weinstein for always picking a winner. Pity no nominations for WE, which deserved Best Costumes. Come on, let's be correct: the film was better than just okay and the costumes by Arienne Phillips were stunning.
I had the chance also to speak to the very eloquent and charming Secretary of the Arts Ed Vaizey, who said I should come home and do something important with the arts.  Little did he know I am trying.

With one more day in London there is a lot to do.  I have fitted nearly all my close male friends and now for fashion week, my son and the certainty of a singing lesson.

GIVE GARY OLDMAN ACCOLADE

After six days I have started to see my real shape and am back down to some figures I like to see on the scales.  I was told I was boring talking about it, but whether people like it or not, if I stay slim, I stay much healthier so the person concerned can really go and watch her own weight.

Back to the drama and Hollywood circus, Gary Oldman, 'the actors actor', took the stage at the Cinema yesterday to do a QA about Tinker Tailor.  This is a tricky film but funnily enough the more I have seen it the  more interesting it gets.  It is brilliantly shot and my only criticism is that there is not enough glamour.  I think the world of spying was somewhere between 007 and the film.  After all Kim Philby was a relatively unknown journalist who knew my father Anthony Cave Brown in 1963, Kim had a certain 'je ne sais quoi'. {which Gary does in a very quiet smouldering way} . My father and Kim were apparently great friends, both good looking and  beautifully dressed, as is by the way Gary in the film, definitely Saville Row, a little brown though.  They led daring and exciting lives outside England as journalists. Philby, a spy left his wife and became a General in Russia leaving all that was English behind.  The film makes it look all so ordinary on the surface, underneath you feel the temperature rising.

Photograph by JACK ENGLISH

Gary Oldman's performance is quite incredible as is Colin Firth's.  He is definitely simmering and will get to the top.  If he does not get an Oscar it will be a great pity, he should do, he has trampled the boards enough and shown to the world he has genius, give him the accolade.