* BBC star Dara Ó Briain says he has been amazed in recent weeks at the number of Irish production companies approaching him to front new TV shows to replace RTé's The Panel. The irony is that Ó Briain's own production company makes The Panel. He joked: "Do they really think I'm going to help them make a replacement for my own show?" The Bray native will be filming an Irish episode of BBC2 TV series Three Men In A Boat with Griff
Rhys Jones and Rory McGrath. "We'll be using every waterway available to go from Dublin to Dunquin. The only problem is we're doing it in a barge and filming in October which was the only time all of us were free. I pray we get good weather."

* She's not just famous for The Clinic and being Brian O'Driscoll's girlfriend.

Penguin Books Ireland have revealed that actress Amy Huberman's debut novel is to get a UK release. Hello Heartbreak hits the shelves here in July.

However Amy (30) has even bigger hopes for her story set in contemporary Dublin. She said: "It hasn't even been printed yet but I'd love if it was optioned for a film, but these things take a long time."

* It wasn't all bright lights and swanky dinners for West Wing star Martin Sheen when he visited Dublin earlier this month. Making an appearance on The Late Late Show, off-screen Sheen (68) visited a number of 12 Step Programmes for recovering alcoholics around the city. Having waged his own battle with booze, the Emmy award winner was keen to show his support. The actor returns to Ireland later this year for film Stella Days in which he will play Fr Dan Barry, a cinema-obsessed cleric in 1940s Ireland.

* SPOTTED: Last weekend Spandau Ballet, the Leinster rugby team and Irish soccer player Andy Keogh were all seen in Krystle. Spotted in Lillie's were Xposé presenter Glenda Gilson and Pogues singer Shane MacGowan, flashing his brand new teeth.