Jude Law and Robert Downey Jr were back in their side-burned glory Monday afternoon as legendary sleuthing duo Sherlock Holmes and his trusty sidekick Dr Watson, filming the follow-up to last year’s hit movie.

Guy Ritchie, 42, is once again directing the film, which is at present simply called ‘Untitled Sherlock Holmes Sequel’, and parts of Richmond Park have been turned into a 19th Century gypsy camp for the first few scenes.

Jude, 37, and Oscar winner Robert, 45, were seen in character riding around through the autumnal landscape in a horse-drawn carriage as Guy explained each scene.

It saw Ritchie realise detective Holmes as more of an action figure, which rubbed some purists up the wrong way, even though Ritchie insisted the action was inherent in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s original books.

He also used London almost as another character in the movie and faithfully re-created 19th century street scenes as described by Conan Doyle with all the necessary mud, dirt and darkness involved.

The first movie took a whopping US$209,019,489 at the box office, and there’s high hopes for Sherlock Holmes 2 which is due to open in cinemas on 16 December next year.

— Daily Mail

Forty rocks!

Claudia Schiffer celebrates landmark birthday with 40 different covers for a single magazine issue

There is hardly a more appropriate way for one of the world’s most famous supermodels to celebrate a landmark birthday.

Claudia Schiffer has marked her 40th by shooting a staggering 40 covers for the November issue of Zeit Magazin, which is celebrating the same anniversary this month.

The mother-of-three, who only gave birth to her youngest daughter in May this year, demonstrates her incredible versatility in myriad guises including a hippie, a rocker and even as an Eighties Madonna.

Christoph Amend, editorial director for the German title, told Bild.de: “We look back on 40 years of life. As Claudia Schiffer is 40 just now, she was our model for the cover.”

The images were shot during a two-day shoot in London, which was also filmed for a ‘making of’ video, showing how the sets and the transformative make-up looks were created.

Schiffer has been busy of late. In addition to the Zeit shoot, she has been creating her own fashion line.

According to fashion industry title WWD, she is set to launch the range with a party next month, although her debut collection won’t hit stores until next winter.

— Daily Mail

Kanye West says he once considered suicide

Kanye West told an audience at a screening of his film, Runaway, that he thought about killing himself, but now feels a responsibility to make a meaningful contribution to pop culture and art. Describing himself as a “pop icon” and “soldier for culture”, West told the crowd “there were times that I contemplated suicide.” However, he said, “I will not give up on life again. There’s so many people that will never get the chance to have their voice heard” as loudly as his, West said Monday. “I do it for them.” West, who didn’t say when he had considered suicide, is credited as director of the abstract 35-minute film, which features portions of nine new West songs, boldly colorful visuals and off-kilter camera angles. The mostly dialogue-free piece, set to premiere this weekend on MTV, VH1 and BET, will accompany West’s upcoming album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, which will be released on November 22.

— AP