ALISON BOSHOFF: Naomi Campbell reveals cooking Sunday roasts with Kate Moss was a taste of home

Bradley Cooper was Oscar-nominated for playing Leonard Bernstein in Maestro and it can be revealed that he’s turning to a biopic again for his next prestige role: portraying the tough guy lover of French writer Simone de Beauvoir.

American author Nelson Algren had a tortured 17-year-love affair with de Beauvoir, famously the partner of philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, which included the period in which she wrote her most famous book, The Second Sex.

Algren gave her first orgasm at the age of 39, and the love affair was so meaningful that, though she was buried next to Sartre in Paris, she was also wearing Algren’s ring.

The film is being written by Sir Christopher Hampton, and will also star French actress Elsa Zylberstein as de Beauvoir.

Cooper, 50, who is dating model Gigi Hadid, is currently making Is This Thing On?, a drama starring Laura Dern about a comedian and his failing marriage.

He can also be seen in a surprise guest slot in the new series of hit TV show The Righteous Gemstones, about a family of televangelists whose sins are many.

Meanwhile, the script for the untitled biopic is being readied, and there are hopes that filming may start as early as this summer.

Cooper has been nominated five times for acting Oscars, for films including A Star Is Born, American Hustle and Silver Linings Playbook, but hasn’t won yet. Perhaps the role of Algren, a handsome former GI who made a living as a writer and a poker player, will change his luck.

Bradley Cooper (pictured) was Oscar-nominated for playing Leonard Bernstein in Maestro and it can be revealed that he’s turning to a biopic again for his next prestige role: portraying the tough guy lover of French writer Simone de Beauvoir

American author Nelson Algren (right) had a tortured 17-year-love affair with de Beauvoir (left), famously the partner of philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, which included the period in which she wrote her most famous book, The Second Sex. Pictured: de Beauvoir and Algren in 1947, at the outset of their 17-year affair 

Algren wrote about the poor and downtrodden. His work earned him critical acclaim, and the admiration of Ernest Hemingway.

He and de Beauvoir met when she was on a trip to the US in 1947.

They spent summers together at his cottage in Miller Beach, Indiana, and also travelled to South America together in 1949. She depicted him as ‘Lewis Brogan’ in her novel The Mandarins.

But as she became ever more celebrated and successful, he sank into obscurity, and the physical distance between them became an issue; all the more so as Algren was unable to get a passport while being surveilled by the FBI on suspicion of subversion.

Ultimately, neither of the lovers was willing to quit their home cities of Paris and Chicago — and eventually, the largely long distance liaison came to an end.

The film has been written making use of de Beauvoir’s many love letters to Algren, which have been sold by her heirs.

Actress Zylberstein said: ‘I was stunned by the beauty of these letters, and this relationship which started in the most unexpected way after Simone de Beauvoir travelled to Chicago for two days.

‘Simone de Beauvoir wasn’t an austere intellectual; she was a very passionate and audacious woman, who was in love with two men — Jean-Paul Sartre and Nelson Algren.’

Cooper (pictured as Leonard Bernstein in Maestro) has been nominated five times for acting Oscars, for films including A Star Is Born, American Hustle and Silver Linings Playbook, but hasn’t won yet

Naomi: Cooking Sunday roasts with Kate was a taste of home  

Naomi Campbell was only four months into her modelling career when she got her first cover — on i-D magazine.

The legendary publication has been struggling but has been bought by supermodel Karlie Kloss, and relaunched as a bi-annual physical magazine, and Naomi again does the honours as its cover star.

Inside the mag she is interviewed by friends including fellow model Kate Moss, director Steve McQueen and actor Colman Domingo.

She and Moss reminisce about cooking Sunday roasts together in New York in the 1990s, with Naomi saying: ‘Kate, those Sunday lunches were everything – our little piece of home, especially when we were travelling, living out of suitcases. These days, I love making Cornish hens with sage and onion breadcrumb stuffing, served with Yorkshire pudding. 

Naomi Campbell was only four months into her modelling career when she got her first cover — on i-D magazine. The legendary publication has been struggling but has been bought by supermodel Karlie Kloss, and relaunched as a bi-annual physical magazine, and Naomi again does the honours as its cover star (pictured)

 Inside the mag she is interviewed by friends including fellow model Kate Moss, director Steve McQueen and actor Colman Domingo. Pictured: Naomi Campbell for the latest edition of i-D magazine 

 She and Moss reminisce about cooking Sunday roasts together in New York in the 1990s. Pictured: Naomi Campbell for the latest i-D magazine 

Naomi said: ‘Kate, those Sunday lunches were everything – our little piece of home, especially when we were travelling, living out of suitcases’. Pictured: Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell at a party in 1993 

‘But nothing beats a proper British Sunday roast.

‘Back in the day, if we were travelling and had access to a kitchen, we’d cook together, and those Sunday lunches kept us connected to home.’

A family falling apart, in one long, unflinching take 

After the success of Boiling Point – a film shot in a single take, showing the chaos in the kitchen of a restaurant on one manic night – its star Stephen Graham was asked to come up with something similar.

The result – stunning miniseries Adolescence – is streaming now on Netflix.

Graham plays ordinary dad Eddie Miller, and newcomer Owen Cooper is his son Jamie, who stabs a girl to death.

Unusually, the focus is on the offender and his family – and the toxic reach of influencers such as Andrew Tate.

The Liverpool actor recalled his inspiration. ‘I’d read an incident in the newspaper where a young boy had stabbed a young girl to death and then a couple of months later on the news there was a story, again, of a young boy stabbing a young girl to death. They were at opposite ends of the country, and if I’m honest with you, it really hurt my heart.

‘I just thought: what’s happening in today’s society where, you know, a young boy does something like this, and it’s not a one-off incident?’

Stephen Graham (right) plays ordinary dad Eddie Miller, and newcomer Owen Cooper (left) is his son Jamie, who stabs a girl to death

Jack Thorne wrote the script and the cast rehearsed before going for one-shot takes – one per episode.

Cooper, 15, was chosen from 500 boys who sent in audition tapes for the role of Jamie. ‘I sent the tape off, not expecting anything back. And then a month later, I get a recall in Manchester with [producer] Phil Barantini. And it all kicks off from there,’ he said.

He added that a scene in episode three where he has to frighten his psychiatrist (played by Erin Doherty) was tough. ‘I have to get right in her face and scare her. In rehearsals, I couldn’t do that at first. But we had two weeks and I was perfectly fine.’

Graham said of the show: ‘We wanted to eliminate the cliches… We wanted to have that kind of dad that never raised his hand. Mum was not an alcoholic. He [Jamie] hasn’t been abused physically, mentally or sexually by one of his uncles or another member of the family.’

And that’s why we need a babysitter…  

Director Sam Taylor-Johnson met her husband Aaron on the set of the film Nowhere Boy and says that she is longing to work with him again.

Director Sam Taylor-Johnson (left) met her husband Aaron (right) on the set of the film Nowhere Boy and says that she is longing to work with him again. Pictured: The couple at the world premiere of the film Kraven The Hunter, which he was the protagonist in, in December last year 

‘It’s quite weird leaving the house and thinking: I’ve left the best actor at home,’ she said at an In Conversation event hosted by the magazine A Rabbit’s Foot on Wednesday night.

She added: ‘It’s the best collaborative partnership, where we know each other so well and get to work together. But we do have four children, so it’s complicated.

‘If his parents are free to babysit then we can make another film together.’

Richard E Grant on feeling frisky  

Richard E. Grant was on frisky form in Austin, Texas, where he was promoting his new scary movie Death Of A Unicorn at the SXSW Festival.

Taking to the stage with co-stars Tea Leoni and Jenna Ortega, he said they had a grand time filming.

Richard E. Grant was on frisky form in Austin, Texas, where he was promoting his new scary movie Death Of A Unicorn at the SXSW Festival. Pictured: Gary Smith’s cartoon of Richard E Grant

‘There were no moral police in Hungary and the fact is that we had group sex on a daily basis,’ he joked.

He then hugged Leoni and pretended to hump her.

The film, which also stars Paul Rudd, involves killer unicorns whose blood can cure any ill, and is out on April 4.

Was it something I said?  

Did it all start to go wrong for Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni when he claimed he could talk to her dead dad?

Lively has complained in her legal filings (which allege sexual harassment… strongly denied by Baldoni) that the actor, a member of the Baha’i faith, repeatedly said he could do so.

Did it all start to go wrong for Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni when he claimed he could talk to her dead dad? Pictured: Lively and Baldoni in the film It Ends With Us

Sources say Lively is touchy about her father, Ernie Brown, who died in 2021 and whose name she honours in her haircare range Blake Brown.

Vernon Kay’s star rises  

How times have changed for Vernon Kay. Under fire in 2010, after exchanging text messages with model Rhian Sugden, and apparently less successful than his Strictly Come Dancing TV presenter wife Tess Daly, things are on the up.

Kay is a hit on BBC Radio 2, where his show attracts 7.2million listeners – making it the most popular in the country.

How times have changed for Vernon Kay (pictured at the Universal Music BRIT Awards afterparty earlier this month). Under fire in 2010, after exchanging text messages with model Rhian Sugden, and apparently less successful than his Strictly Come Dancing TV presenter wife Tess Daly, things are on the up

And ITV have just ordered a second series of Dress The Nation, which he fronts with AJ Odudu.

In the show, which went out in October last year, wannabe fashion designers compete for the grand prize: a chance to create their own collection, to be produced and sold by M&S.