While fans are debating whether or not Ben Affleck can cut it as the Caped Crusader in the Superman v Batman film, I'm being a Cry Baby about another Hollywood casting revelation.

Lee Daniels, whose current film, The Butler, starring Forest Whitaker and Oprah Winfrey, is breaking box-office records in the USA, has announced that his next project will be a bio-pic of the great, sadly late, Janis Joplin.  Who will play the brilliantly soulful, raspy-voiced singer? Amy Adams. Yes, gorgeous, strawberry blonde, Amy Adams, she of the perfect, symmetrical features, cheekbones, and big beautiful eyes.

Of course, Ms Adams is a brilliant actress who says that she's already working on her singing voice in advance of filming. I'm sure she'll do a great job, and will probably end up Oscar-nominated, because Academy voters love when gorgeous actresses ugly-up - the most striking example being when Charlize Theron won the Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of serial killer, Aileen Wuornos.

Stunning Theron was transformed, through cosmetics and prosthetic dentures, into the far from braw killer. Her make-up artist, Tony G, wasn't nominated for an Oscar, incidentally. Funny that - would his nomination have weakened the case for hers? She, like Adams, is talented and beautiful. Lucky them, but what about the many gifted but normal-looking actresses who could play these roles without the layers of make-up?

Janis Joplin has always fascinated me, not just because of her voice, but also  because of her attitude, her looks, her clothes. She was sexual but one of the guys, she wore lots of jewellery and tiny vests and had matted hair. She was bright and troubled; a mess, but cool; she had bad skin and a good soul. She inhabited the music. Her drug addiction and demise rule her out as a role-model, but we need to see more real women like her on the big screen, not air-brushed versions.

Leonard Cohen regrets revealing that Janis was the woman in his song, Chelsea Hotel, but the lyrics are worth remembering: "And clenching your fist for the ones like us who are oppressed by the figures of beauty, you fixed yourself, you said, 'Well never mind, we are ugly but we have the music.'"

 

Ok, I've just mentioned Leonard Cohen, so I'm going to go for it, and throw in Samuel Beckett. Both men get a bad press, wrongly labelled as depressing, Lenny C for his supposedly dirge-like songs, Sammy B for his "what's the point of it all - we're all alone and going to die" plays.

The fact is they're a riot, and none other than Michael Gambon will be on in stage in Edinburgh as a Samuel Beckett season runs for the final week of the International Festival. Non-theatre pieces are being staged, while plays are being shown on film. You see, that's funny already. The season runs until the end of August, and, unlike Godot, Gambon will show up.