ACTOR Damian Lewis called for more funding for underprivileged artists as he gave out the inaugural Helen McCrory Award in honour of his late wife last night. Actor McCrory tragically died of cancer last year. HVH Arts charity, where she was a patron, gave arts training prizes to children in her name.
Discussing how UK art had been “middle-classed” due to being “critically underfunded” compared to neighbours, Lewis told The Londoner: “If we want working-class writers... we’ve got to find a way of giving them the confidence to pursue it, but also the financial backing to have failures.”
In a heartwarming ceremony, Lewis read out a McCrory quote on how art can “help children flourish”. He told us he plans other awards in his late wife’s memory.
Prize for a low profile
AUTHOR Ruth Ozeki took home the Women’s Prize for Fiction for novel The Book of Form and Emptiness last night, but told us she’d been “looking forward to someone else winning”. Ozeki said she likes writing in cafes with “managable noise”. Talk was of sadness at the end of the Costa prize, which was suddenly pulled by organisers last week with little explanation.
Knight at the museum?
Grayson Perry turned heads at the Royal Academy exhibition summer party night, and we joined in a dispute with wife Philippa over which honour the Queen could give him. “She wouldn’t know whether to give him a Knighthood or a Damehood”, she said. But Grayson thinks the royals are “chillaxed”. “When I got my CBE I rocked up looking like the mother of the bride – they didn’t bat an eyelid,” he said.
Ladies in Loubs
IDRIS and Sabrina Elba joined Christian Louboutin to clamber around new hotel and members club The Twenty Two celebrating their charity shoe collaboration. They were joined by singer Lianne La Havas, actor Malachi Kirby and presenter AJ Odudu for dinner and drinks, as well as musician Little Simz with model Chuck Junior Achike. Presenter Vick Hope was bookish at the 2022 Women’s Prize for Fiction awards in Bedford Square Gardens, while actor Daisy Edgar Jones attended the press night after party at The Old Vic Theatre, for a new production of US play Jitney.
Thompson’s taboo
Why aren’t ‘orgasms’ allowed on the tube? Censors are being called prudish for not letting the word run in full on a poster for Emma Thompson’s new film, Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, on the Underground. Previously, ‘cock’ and other words have been banned. Sex expert Annabelle Knight told us printing “org*sm” is “depressing”. “People should be able to enjoy the word in all its glory”.
