Union J eye Iggy Azlea and Little Mix duets

Union J say they would love to get a couple of babes – and possibly a baby – on to one of their singles.

Proud dad JJ Hamblett, 26, said his six-month-old son Princeton could add vocals to a track in a similar way to how Mariah Carey’s three-year-old twins sang on her latest album.

‘He doesn’t speak at the moment so it would be a bit difficult, but maybe the next album. That would be cool,’ Hamblett told me.

He added that the band – which includes Josh Cuthbert, 21, Jaymi Hensley, 24 and 20-year-old George Shelley – would love to draft in some female vocalists as well.

‘We’d love to do a song with Little Mix,’ the former X Factor star said, adding that Australian rap babe Iggy Azalea was also a target.

‘Me and George are huge fans of Iggy. We said eight months ago when she released Work that we would love to collaborate with her. And she just collaborated with Ariana Grande. She is so cool,’ he gushed.

It could become possible because Union J and Azalea are set to take to the stage at the Capital Summertime Ball in London’s Wembley Stadium on Saturday.

‘I’ve planned it already. I’m going to go backstage and put the idea out there. If you don’t ask, you’ll never know,’ he laughed.

Union J will perform their new single Tonight (We Live Forever), which is released in August, live on Saturday.

‘It’s about partying all night and being with your friends,’ Hamblett said of the song – adding that his young son with model girlfriend Caterina Lopez is not keeping him awake at night.

‘Do you know what? He sleeps all the way through. We are so lucky.’

[Originally published Metro, Guilty Pleasures, Thursday 19 June 2014]

Cher Lloyd wants a baby and a honeymoon

Cher Lloyd can’t wait to have kids – so she can finally go on a honeymoon.

She tied the knot with 23-year-old Craig Monk in November but the happy couple have not had time to go on holiday to celebrate.

‘It has been non-stop for the last two years. The only thing I was able to do for myself in that time was to get married – and I was only given two days to do that,’ she told Metro in an exclusive chat.

‘When my mum and dad got married they never had a honeymoon. And then there was us four kids and then we all went on holiday together and that was kind of classed as their honeymoon.

‘I wouldn’t mind doing that. I would like to wait until we have a kid. And I can take it with me.’

And the 20-year-old former X Factor wannabe is determined to start a family.

‘I cannot wait. It’s something that I’m really looking forward to and it’s a very rewarding thing. It’s important for me to have a really good family,’ the Swagger Jagger singer said.

Having spent two years in the US, Lloyd is home and looking forward to the release of her second album – called Sorry I’m Late – which is due to be released on her 21st birthday.

‘The past two birthdays I’ve spent in America I have worked on my birthday. And I will probably be doing that this year as well because my album is out,’ the workaholic claimed.

‘I can’t believe it’s been nearly four years since I released an album. Whenever I have a day off I write anyway because I can’t physically stop.’

[Originally published Metro, Guilty Pleasures, Tuesday 17 June 2014]

5 Seconds of Summer sent male strippers by fans

Obsessive fans of pop rockers 5 Seconds Of Summer once sent a group of male strippers to the band’s shared house.

The Don’t Stop singers were stunned when uniformed officers turned up on their doorstep – only for them to be erotic performers.

‘Some people sent strippers to our house, which was interesting because they were male strippers. It was a bit of a joke, but it was funny,’ 18-year-old Calum Hood of the band explained in an exclusive chat.

‘I’m not sure who sent them exactly, but I will try to get them to send female ones next time.

‘They were dressed as policemen but we didn’t answer the door because we were scared. They could actually have been the real police,’ he laughs, saying his bandmates can be rowdy when they get together.

Although Hood said he and his Aussie bandmates enjoy their shared party pad, the Kerrang! award winners prefer to chill out when they take a break from supporting One Direction on tour.

‘We have fun when we live together – it’s kind of hard not to. We haven’t had the neighbours complaining yet but they probably will in the near future.

‘When we have free time we would rather be sleeping, to be fair.’

As for painting the town red with thier 1D tour mates, Hood added: ‘The thing is we are very busy at the moment and it’s very hard to find time in our schedules to party together.'

With 1D recently causing a storm when a video emerged appearing to show band members smoking drugs, Hood said 5SOS were much more clean living.

‘Did they offer us marijuana or drugs? No! Definitely not,’ he said.

[Originally published Metro, Guilty Pleasures, Monday 16 June 2014]

Kirsten Dunst: You have to love acting to make it last

Kirsten Dunst has warned child stars who want to go the distance in Hollywood that they will need to love their jobs to make it all the way.

The 32-year-old blonde beauty found fame at the age of 12 when she appeared opposite Tom Cruise in Interview With A Vampire in 1994 and is still going strong 20 years later.

'You really have to love it, I think. If you don't, then there's no point. You have to love the craft of doing what you are doing,’ she said at the UK premiere of her latest film The Two Faces of January.

The star also warned that acting hopefuls that want to get into the industry for fame and fortune alone will be left disappointed.

‘If you are just in it to be famous or for the glamour, it can feel very empty,' she added.

While Dunst has been dating fellow actor Garrett Hedlund, 29, after meeting on the set of 2012’s On The Road, it is action man Viggo Mortensen that she plays the wife of in her new mystery thriller.

'Viggo is a very handsome man and a very talented actor,’ she said of her co-star, adding: ‘It was very easy to play his wife. He was one of the reasons I wanted to make the film.'

With filming taking place in various locations – including Greece and Turkey – Dunst revealed she was glad to soak up some culture with her boyfriend when she had breaks in filming.

‘We lived in the sightseeing places. We were at the Acropolis and places like that. We would go swimming in the sea, we would eat and swim – although we only had one day off per week. It wasn’t like being on vacation. We were at work.’

And the actress also explained she made some four legged friends while on the continent.

'There are a lot of cats in Greece and I love cats, so I would feed the cats with my boyfriend,' she giggled.

Co-star Mortensen was quick to enthuse about working with Dunst as well, saying: 'I enjoyed having Kirsten as my beautiful, young wife. It was fun. She works very hard but she also has a very good sense of humour which helps.'

The actor also took a moment to reflect on his time in the Lord of the Rings trilogy - revealing he enjoys watching Peter Jackson's current Hobbit trilogy and holds no resentment over not being invited to take part in the blockbuster series.

'Aragorn isn't in the book - although they've taken so many liberties for The Hobbit so they could have stuck him in there as well. But I have been to opening days for the first two and sat in the front row with 3D glasses. For me, personally, it was interesting to once-in-a-while catch an element of non CGI parts of New Zealand and that brought fond memories,' he said.

James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender revel in X-Men roles

James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender have delighted in the fact they play young versions of Patrick Stewart and Ian Mckellen in the latest x-men film.

Fassbender, who plays a you Magneto - played also by Mckellen - confessed he stalked the older actor online to perfect his part.

'I did study Ian Mckellen. I found something on YouTube which was a workshop back in the 70s for the RSC which was about 10 minutes long.

'I thought I'd watch that as I didn't want to ask him how to do my acting,' he said. Meanwhile McAvoy took a more jovial approach to working with Patrick Stewart.

'It's terrible to have Patrick on screen. This is my film now and I want it back!' he laughed. 'The next one I want all for myself. It's been amazing.'

He also believes the X-Men series owes it's success to keeping the story-lines relatable.

'Most super heroes have super problems, X-Men have very human problems. They're being punished for being different and that relates to so many,' he said.‎

Meanwhile, with the World Cup coming up, McAvoy risks being rejected by his homeland after confessing he will support England in Brasil.

'‎I will actually - and I know that hurts a lot of Scottish people that any Scotsman would back England, but I do,' he revealed.

[Originally published Metro, Guilty Pleasures, Tuesday 13 May 2014]

Quickfire Q&A: Simon Kinberg X-Men: Days of Future Past

The time-travel adventures of the X-Men in Days of Future Past has been brought to the big screen by incredibly talented writer/producer Simon Kinberg – who also penned The Last Stand in 2006 and is already hard at work on DOFP sequel X-Men: Apocalypse (out in 2016) as well as scribing the upcoming Fantastic Four reboot.

Simon stopped at the UK premiere of X-Men in London for some quick questions about the latest instalment, future X-Men films and possible Marvel cross-overs.

Days of Future Past is an incredibly ambitious film – what was the biggest challenge brining this vision to life?

It was two things – one is time travel is a nightmare as a writer because there are all these logic problems and plot holes and paradoxes. So getting the time travel right and creating the rules and sticking to the rules was a big challenge. The second part is having eight-to-ten main characters and giving them everything they want and need emotionally. They have their own stories to play.

JJ Abrams 2009 Star Trek’s reboot has wiped the slate clean for their time-line, will X-Men have a similar impact for future instalments?

We knew with a time travel story, everything that happened in the past was going to affect the future. So there are things that happen in 1973 Days of Future Past which are going to have an impact going forward. So everything from 1973 onwards – which will cover X 1, 2, and 3 and The Wolverine. There are ripples that don’t necessarily change the overall current of the river, but do ripple on down.

What stage is X-Men: Apocalypse at?

Just starting the writing process now. It’s going really well so far. Luckily there is no time travel this time and I only have to worry about one version of each character. But it has different challenges. The scale of that movie will be even bigger or any superhero movie you have seen. It is a disaster movie. It is an extinction-level event kind of film. So keeping it character based, emotional and grounded while also having Roland Emmerich levels of action – that’s the new challenge.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 suggested there could be scope for an X-Men/Spider-Man mash-up when a teaser for DOFP was attached to the end of the film credits – will the X-Men recruit Spidey in the future?

I wish that was true and they let us put our tag at the end of their movie but integrating the characters into one movie will have different challenges.

What about a cross over with the Fantastic Four?

It’s tough because they take place in different worlds. In the X-Men movie’s we’ve never mentioned that there is the Fantastic 4 superheroes living in New York. I would love to see it, and there is probably ways to figure it out. But for right now we are just making the best stand-alone Fantastic Four movie we can make. It’s going to be good.

Quickfire Q&A: Lauren Shuler Donner X-Men: Days of Future Past

The latest X-Men film – Days of Future Past – unites the original X-Men trilogy cast (including Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Ellen Page and Hugh Jackman) with Matthew Vaughn’s First Class prequel (Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence and Nicholas Hoult).

Based on the Uncanny X-Men’s 1981 storyline Days of Future Past, the X-Men use their powers to send one character (in the case of the film Jackman’s Wolverine) back in time to stop a horrifying future in which Sentinel robots have wiped out most of the world’s mutants.

X-Men’s mega-producer Lauren Shuler Donner stopped for some rapid fire questions about the superhero franchise.

What was the biggest challenge bringing Days of Future Past to the screen?

It was a logistical nightmare to get the whole cast together because everybody had other commitments. Patrick and Ian were doing a play, Jennifer Lawrence was doing the Hunger Games, Hugh had to go and sell the Wolverine – it was very, very difficult. But the end result was all worth it!

How will the time-travel element in DOFP impact the timeline seen in the original X-Men trilogy?

It will be fine. The next one – X-Men: Apocalypse (due in 2016) – will move into the 80s.

Is X-Force still going ahead as well?

I’m not sure. But it would be good.

With such a rich history in the X-Men comics, what other X-Men storylines would you like to see brought to life in cinema?

You know, I do have a special project that I wish I could talk about. When I can, I will say “this is the special project I meant!”

You tease!

I know! But I just can’t. It will be very different…