ALISON BOSHOFF: Tragic Natascha McElhone finds love again 18 years after the death of her husband... with actor 20 years her junior

Natascha McElhone has found love with her co-star in the Sky series Hotel Portofino, 18 years after the tragic sudden death of her husband.Friends say that Ms McElhone, 56, is 'head over heels' for handsome Assad Zaman, 36, who played a doctor secretly in love with her son in the show, which ran from 2022 to 2024.I'm told: 'Natascha is besotted with Assad and it is a serious romance. She seems head over heels about him.'Representatives for both actors were approached for comment.Ms McElhone had three children with Martin Kelly, a plastic surgeon who died as the result of an undiagnosed heart condition in 2008 – when she was pregnant with their youngest.Afterwards, the actress raised their three boys Theo, Otis and Rex on her own. She has spoken about how, while happy to do it, the job was 'all consuming' for many years.'There have been long stretches where a lot of my creativity and energy have gone into my children, and joyfully so,' she said in 2023.Now that they were older, she had become 'the wallpaper, the background noise', she continued; adding: 'I'm glad to be irrelevant!'Zaman, originally from Newcastle upon Tyne, stars in TV hit Interview With The Vampire, renamed The Vampire Lestat for its third series (on BBC Two now). He plays a 500-year-old vampire called Armand. (The role was played by Antonio Banderas in the 1994 film version, which also starred Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt.) Natascha McElhone pictured attending the premiere of 'Halo' on March 14, 2022 in Austin, Texas Pictured left to right: Assad Zaman and Eric Bogosian on The Vampire Lestat panel at Comic-Con International 2026Ms McElhone, who played opposite George Clooney in Solaris and Robert De Niro in Ronin, also appeared as Penny Knatchbull, Countess Mountbatten of Burma – Prince Philip's carriage-driving companion – in the final series of The Crown on Netflix in 2023.A round that time, she was spotted embracing actor Sule Rimi in the street in south London, but it was never clear if they were an item.Her big-screen debut came when, aged 24, she was cast opposite Sir Anthony Hopkins in Surviving Picasso (released in 1996). Other projects include The Truman Show, and the TV series Californication.She was making that show when her husband was found slumped in the doorway of their home in Fulham, west London.McElhone wrote Kelly's obituary, in which she declared herself 'the luckiest woman alive, even though he's not here'.Two years later, she published After You, a book in the form of journal entries addressed directly to her husband about her grief.Hello, IT support team? It' Sian... Sian Brooke was always going to feel comfortable in the role of a police officer in the BBC's BAFTA-winning drama Blue Lights. Her dad was a policeman, after all.But the part of computer-savvy GCHQ intelligence analyst Barbara Napier, in the Channel 4 espionage thriller The Undeclared War, is more of a stretch. 'I haven't a clue around computers,' Sian admitted. 'I once spent an entire day composing an Instagram post and got it wrong to the point where it couldn't be posted.'I have to ask my two kids for advice about anything to do with using the computer ... and I still don't have a clue what they're talking about.' Pictured: Sian Brooke in the Undeclared War, where she plays computer-savvy GCHQ intelligence analyst Barbara Napier Who cares if Dakota looks nothing like Marilyn, says director of new Monroe filmThe Netflix film Blonde, starring Ana de Armas as Marilyn Monroe, was big news at the Venice Film Festival in 2022.And Monroe will be a hot topic at the festival again this year, thanks to a curious 17-minute short, funded by a luxury car brand which had to pay big bucks to the managers of the late star's estate, Authentic Brands (also home to the David Beckham, Elvis Presley and Muhammad Ali rights).Dakota Johnson will play the young Marilyn in Flesh Impact, which is directed by this year's jury president Maggie Gyllenhaal.Gyllenhaal said this week that she understands there is little physical resemblance but argued: 'I thought, 'That's ridiculous. Who cares?' I don't know that anyone even really totally knows what Marilyn looks like, because she's been so commodified and made into this myth and she's very blurry in my mind.'The meatier role of 'old Marilyn' – as she would have been, had she not died of a drug overdose in 1962 – goes to veteran actress Ellen Burstyn.Burstyn, who is 93, gives essentially a 15-page monologue as Monroe auditions for a part in a stage play.Burstyn will be in Venice to receive a Golden Lion award for Lifetime Achievement. (Last year's recipient was Hitchcock star Kim Novak.)Marilyn Monroe would have been 100 years old this June, which is what 'inspired' Genesis Motor America to stump up the funds for this project. Dakota Johnson poses on the red carpet during the 59th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival on July 5, 2025 in the Czech Republic Dakota Johnson will play the young Marilyn in Flesh Impact, which is directed by this year's jury president Maggie Gyllenhaal Meanwhile, Ellen Burstyn, 93, plays a 'version of Marilyn the world never had a chance to see'; Burstyn seen above in the projectPegg to be Tarantino's West End popinjayQuentin Tarantino's 'swashbuckling' stage comedy is close to finalising arrangements forits run in the West End – and I can reveal that actor Simon Pegg is in the frame to play the lead.As I first disclosed back in March, Tarantino has, against expectations, written a full-on, old-fashioned farce called The Popinjay Cavalier. I understand it is going to run at the Phoenix Theatre in London from February (it's currently hosting Stranger Things: The First Shadow).A cast of around 30 is being assembled, with Mission: Impossible star Pegg tapped to lead them. My understanding is Pegg will play a theatre impresario – the 'Popinjay Cavalier' of the title – who is trying to bring a production to the stage in Paris in the 1830s. So it will be a play about putting on a play. (A popinjay is a vain, talkative person, btw.)Sources indicate the new play is indeed a traditional trouser-dropping farce with a distinctly 'male' energy. Given that Tarantino has written it, that's no surprise.Around a week after I first wrote about the project, a press release gave the show's title, describing it as a 'rambunctious comedy of deception and disguise inspired by the grand swashbuckling epics of stage and screen', boasting Tarantino's 'signature style and unmistakable wit'.The US filmmaker, who has won two Oscars, is best known for violent, stylish film classics such as Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs and Kill Bill. Simon Pegg attending the Mission Impossible - The Final Reckoning red carpet atCannes Film Festival on May 14, 2025He's repeatedly spoken about his desire to retire from making movies once he has made ten films. His tally currently stands at nine.The Popinjay Cavalier will be his debut as a theatre writer and director. He first revealed his plans last summer, telling the Church of Tarantino podcast that the play was 'all written'.'It is absolutely the next thing I'm going to do,' he announced. 'We'll start the ball rolling on it in January. It's probably going to take up a year and a half to two years of my life – if it's a success and I've got to do the tour version of it and all that.'He added: 'I'm preparing for it to be a success. If it's a flop, I'll be done very quickly.'Publicist Neil Reading, who represented stars including John Cleese, Dawn French and the late Victoria Wood, has died aged 56 after a short illness.One of the great characters of showbusiness, he was known for his love of socialising, devotion to his clients, and infectious laugh.On our first encounter in the mid-1990s, he took me out for a lunch of shepherd's pie and champagne at the Ivy in Soho – and spent so long working the room of famous faces I wasn't sure if he was coming back! A one-off, who will be missed.The locals are revolting against Soho Farmhouse. The outpost of the Soho House members' club, nestled in 100 acres of Oxfordshire countryside and nicknamed 'Butlin's for toffs', has tried the patience of its neighbours with 123 planning applications since work began in 2014.The owners are now asking for permission to put up three 'sustainable cabins', available to book – or buy at a huge price.But an objection has been raised by The Tew Centre, a broke community resource nearby. It has had to close its playground, until it can raise £42,000 for its repair, according to spokesperson Lucy Drinkwater in a letter to the council.The letter flagged 'the cumulative impact of ongoing commercial development at Soho Farmhouse on the community infrastructure of Great Tew' – and requested the local authority secure Section 106 contributions as part of any permission deal. Section 106 contributions are when developers agree to fund affordable housing or local infrastructure (like play areas) as a means of smoothing ruffled feathers.Is this the most English case of 'the ick' ever?Sally Phillips said that while holidaying with a group of friends in Florence, she developed a big crush on one of them, who was a keen cricketer.'I remember sitting in one of the squares and a pigeon flying past and him just reaching up and accidentally catching it.'And that, said the actress who played Bridget Jones's buddy Shazzer in the films, was when the magic died.'He's holding the pigeon … He's surprised, the pigeon's surprised, I'm surprised … and having the thought: 'Is this relationship going to work?!' '