Digest

Labor of love wrecked in car rally

By TIMES WIRES
Published April 22, 2007

Australian actor Eric Bana crashed his painstakingly restored 1974 Ford XB Coupe into some trees during an around-the-state rally Saturday but emerged uninjured along with his co-driver.

Bana and co-driver Tony Ramunno walked away from the crash during the Targa Tasmania rally, where they were 53rd in a field of 115 cars in the Outright Classic competition in Hobart, Australia. Initially, Bana hoped that the car, which he has owned since he was 15, could be repaired to continue the final day of racing today. But a closer inspection showed it was badly damaged.

Airline clips rival's scene from Bond film

British Airways cut a cameo by Richard Branson from its in-flight version of the latest James Bond film and blurred out the tail fin of a Virgin Atlantic plane seen in the movie.

British Airway's entertainment team cut a cameo appearance by Branson, chairman of the rival airline Virgin Atlantic, that appears in the original version of Casino Royale, a spokesman confirmed Saturday.

In the original film, Branson can be seen turning around after walking through a metal detector at Miami Airport.

"We screen all films before they're used on our aircraft so that we can control the content of what is displayed," the spokesman said on condition of anonymity, in line with company policy. "We have full control over what is shown."

The tail fin of a Virgin plane appearing in the film is also obscured in British Airway's in-flight version.

[Last modified April 22, 2007, 00:45:25]