ACCORDING to gossip website Realbollywood.com, Brad Pitt is looking for someone to write a bio-pic about John Lennon that he will probably star in. He's been chatting with Yoko Ono about it, who is impressed by his keenness to learn to sing in a Scouse accent.

Too utterly random or destined to be a box office smash? What do you reckon?

ART Media Contacts has released its Top Ten Art Blogs of 2010. Their criteria was as follows:

Number one in our judging criteria is that the blogger must have something to contribute to the debate on art. Secondly that they have carried out genuine and independent research on their subject. First-rate writing is not enough either, a good blog needs regular postings and an interactive community or readership too. We all love great design here at Arts Media Contacts, and good-looking blogs with interesting graphics and images score well in this pageant.

Here's the full list, with AMC's comments. I already follow quite a few of them and will be checking out the others over the next few weeks.

IN CASE you missed it in last Wednesday's paper, here is my list of 10 shows that shouldn't be missed in 2011. . .

1. AFTER bringing his spectacular Swan Lake to the Empire Theatre in 2010, Matthew Bourne returns with his 1940s version of Cinderella. This extraordinary production transforms the heroine from a dejected princess to a daughter ignored by her large step-family and the prince into an air force pilot searching for her in the Blitz.

The costumes are beautiful, resembling Erte paintings, and the stage sets ambitious with a steam train entering the stage in the final scene.

MATTHEW BOURNE'S Cinderella, Empire Theatre, April 26-30.

I WILL definitely be making a trip over the Pennines this spring to see Jaume Plensa's first major UK exhibition. I really love Dream, the 20m-high sculpture of a girl's head in St Helens, and am looking forward to seeing more of his work - particularly in the beautiful surroundings of the Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

LAST year I was honoured to be asked to judge a heat of Writing on the Wall's Pulp Idol competition, the result of which has just been published in a book - Pulp Idol Firsts.

Competitors had to read out the first chapter of their novel - some completed, others still only a single chapter - and then answer the judges questions. Two writers from each heat went forward to the grand final.

Pulp Idol Firsts is an anthology of the finalists' first chapters so is a really good mixture of genres, subjects, characters, voices. The only drawback is it makes you want to read on but the rest of each book isn't available. We'll have to hope that the authors all win publishing contracts so we can find out what happens next.

VERY sad news this morning that Pete Postlethwaite, former Liverpool Everyman actor, has died after a long illness.

Those of us who had the privilege of seeing his Lear at the Everyman in 2008 have had Postlethwaite's heartbreaking performance etched on our memories ever since. His gentle portrayal completely changed the play for me and I am grateful that he returned to the theatre where he began his career so those of us who didn't watch him there first time round could witness his brilliance. It's just a shame that we won't get the chance to see him step out on that stage again.

Here is what the Press Association is filing:

I'VE been taking advantage of the lull in reviewing (it's pretty quiet now until early Feb) to catch up on a bit of blog reading.

Guardian theatre critic Lyn Gardner tweeted a link to this post by Terry Teachout, of the Wall Street Journal, who is known for travelling coast to coast to review theatrical productions. In it he specifies precisely - it's a long piece that includes bullet points and a numbered list - what he will and won't review in what goes beyond the boundaries of a wish list. In Gardner's tweet she commented "Not sure it's job of a critic to tell theatres what to programme" and I have to agree, especially as I like to be surprised by what makes it on to the Liverpool stage. I don't want it to be full of stuff I've already heard of.

HERE are the answers to the quiz. . .

I RAN this quiz in the Daily Post last week but in case you were preventing from seeing it by a giant pile of mince pies and figgy pudding blocking your way then here it is again. I'll put the answers in a subsequent blog post so you won't see them by accident and spoil the fun.

1. What was unusual about the swans in Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake that toured to the Liverpool Empire?

A FEW weeks I invited you to vote in the readers' choice section of the LDP Arts Awards 2010. Here are the results of your votes, which follow the main awards chosen by me and my team of reviewers.

Theatre

BEST PRODUCTION

WHEN Slung Low pitched their 1950s airstream caravan at the back of the Everyman and set up home in Liverpool for three months, we knew to expect something out of the ordinary. In Anthology, the Leeds-based theatre company created seven individual stories and invited audiences out on to the streets to enjoy them.

It was daring, innovative and captured the essence of the city, but most of all it celebrated the best about theatre - wonderful storytelling, strong characterisation and realistic dialogue.