A controversial election. Members disgruntled. Plenty of plot-lines at the BFI
• Exciting times at the British Film Institute. Today the BFI unveiled a new addition to the board of governors, the acclaimed film-maker Peter Kosminsky. He's a top man. So that's all fine and dandy. Except it may not be. For the election for a new person to help represent the membership was run under rules themselves controversial. They said that those contesting the election had to come from outside London, the better to represent the regions, and that the winner should obtain 10% of the vote. This miffed quite a few in London who might like to have stood, and they are even more scratchy now because Kosminsky, though victorious, only gained 9.25% of the vote. High ups on the board, led by chairman Greg Dyke, have been trying to work it all out since the polls closed in December. Kosminsky's the man, is the approach. Seems that in the event of no candidate reaching the 10% threshold, the board is empowered to make a decision, and there was no mention of his electoral deficiency in today's press release. But there is grumbling. It's all a bit tinker tailor don't you think?
• And exciting times for readers of the Irish Post with the appointment of a new editor. Who he? Step forward Murray Morse, who comes to the job having been editor-in-chief of the Daily and Sunday Sport since 2008. An early act there was signing up Lembit Opik as a star columnist. So, he has a sense of the ridiculous.
• And as John Prescott launches his campaign to become the elected police commissioner in Humberside, Angus Young, the Hull Daily Mail's answer to Jeremy Paxman, poses the most salient question. "Will the image of you punching a protester during the 2001 general election campaign come back to haunt you?" he asked. Locals are already taking Prezza's past into account. "He's got plenty of fight in him," was one woman's reaction. It does show he can be tough on crime.
• Meanwhile, ministers do all they can to encourage more efficient rubbish collection. This eyewitness report from our correspondent Keith Flett. "6.30am, Tottenham High Road, Wednesday 15 February. Operatives can be seen tidying up and carting off rubbish. Who might be visiting? It can't be Prince Charles, that was Friday. 9.30am, Wednesday 15 February. January jobless figures announced. Tottenham, at over 6,607, still has the highest unemployment in London. Later still all is revealed. Eric Pickles, the communities secretary, is visiting." And did Tottenham benefit. "Not really. Might have been more useful if he had picked up the rubbish himself."
• No Bafta for actor Nicolas Cage or his new film Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, but this can only have been an accident of timing. His abilities are widely recognised. And as he tells ShortList magazine, he never goes into a role unprepared. "There's a theory that all actors, whether they know it or not, have emanated from medicine men and shamans, who would go into these altered states of consciousness and recover visions," proffers Nic. "They were probably psychotic, but they were respected, so I tried that. I'd sew bits of Egyptian artefacts into my costume that were thousands of years old. I'd paint my face with white and black skull make-up and put in black contact lenses so there wouldn't be any eyeballs. I looked like Afro-Caribbean voodoo icon Baron Samedi, who was the spirit at the gateway of death. When I walked on set, I saw the fear in people's eyes." Reminds one of the Laurence Olivier put down of Dustin Hoffman as the latter agonised about his difficulties getting into character. "Try acting, dear boy," Olivier said.
• Finally, the church should be sober but never dull, so there is rejoicing at the forthcoming elevation of archbishop Timothy Dolan to the cardinalate on Saturday. How to describe him? Imagine Jimmy Carr in robes. On becoming an archbishop, Dolan announced: "My first pastoral letter's gonna be a condemnation of light beer and instant mashed potatoes." Receiving a box of French pastries, he thought of the needy. "I am going to give these to a hungry person," he said. "Namely me."
twitter: @hugh_muir