'Ireland AM' presenter and panto king Alan Hughes was left "hurt and disappointed" when he lost out on this year's TV3's 'The Christmas Toy Show' gig. "It's very upsetting. Especially as it was such a success when I hosted it last year, " Hughes said.

October 23 2014 11:33 PM

But new Toy Show host Brian McFadden has limited sympathy for his predecessor.

"Alan would want to get over it," he joked. "They picked me because I'm cooler !"

Roy Keane was in a philosophical mood when he took to the stage at Dublin's RDS for a Q&A session about his book 'The Second Half' this week.

The Ireland assistant manager discussed the right and wrong decisions he had made during the course of his football career.

"There are some times you question certain decisions and think could I have done things differently," he said.

"Gone abroad to Real Madrid or things like that.

"But I don't have any regrets. I nearly signed for Blackburn after Forest so I'm aware I got a few good breaks along the way."

The second annual Richard Harris Film Festival, celebrating the life and works of the charismatic actor, kicks off in Limerick this weekend.

Harris had a reputation for haranguing producers into giving him roles.

While living in London in his early twenties, the Limerick native heard that Joan Littlewood's Theatre Company were looking for a strong male lead in an upcoming production.

Intrigued, Harris (inset) rang the producer to find out more. Unfortunately, the part was for a man in his mid-50s but this didn't deter the impoverished jobbing actor. "I look f***ing 50," he shouted down the phone. "I haven't had a good meal for four months and I haven't slept for days. Just take a look at me!" Needless to say, he got the part.

These days everyone is a critic and that certainly seemed the case at the launch of 'Judging WT Cosgrave' in the Royal Irish Academy this week.

"I like it," one gent remarked, looking at the book. "But it's very UCD, and very Fine Gael."

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Stalwart of the silver screen Brendan Gleeson is one of several Irish actors to appear in Ron Howard's upcoming drama 'In the Heart of the Sea'.

The film tells the survival story of the whaling ship Essex, which inspired Melville's 1851 novel 'Moby Dick'.

It was filmed off the coast of the Canary Islands, and most of the cast, including Cillian Murphy, had to spend weeks treading water between takes.But Gleeson said, "I play an ageing cabin boy and was spared all that.

"They went to the Canary Islands while I went to a studio hangar in Lewisham - not quite as exotic is it?"

Old habits die hard. So we'll forgive Newstalk presenter Pat Kenny for slipping up during his radio show and advising listeners to call his RTE phone line.

"It's the first time I've done that in a year," he laughed. And hopefully it'll be the last.

mulcahy@ independent.ie