There's an interesting little story about film in the interview with Emo Philips in this week's Friday Thing:

In his absence, some of you may have seen his name attached to the Robert De Niro/Ben Stiller farce 'Meet the Parents'. You probably thought, that must be nice for Emo. But no.

Philips made a film called 'Meet the Parents' for £22,000 in 1991 - which he showed at Edinburgh, and at the NFT and which got rave reviews on the arts pages. Universal bought the remake rights and then, seven years later, butchered it in the remake.

'They put my name on the film in the same way we name streets after Indians we've massacred,' he explains. 'I haven't been to the cinema since. I hated the ending. In mine, everyone died. But then, mine was a film and theirs was a movie. In a film, anything can happen. In a movie, you know exactly what's going to happen. But I've learnt my lesson. I'm not planning to do any more movies. I know my limitations. I'm a good stand-up. A lot of my contemporaries are now writing gags for sitcoms. That's rather like giving up bullfighting and becoming a meat packer.'

B-)