Connery Turns Chicken

Sean Connery was a surprise guest of honour last night at the UK premiere of Chicken Run. The star, who came as a personal guest of Chicken Run's executive producer Jake Eberts, was the head-turner at the otherwise low-key premiere in London's Leicester Square. Although a number of the film's British stars turned up, including Julia Sawalha and Miranda Richardson, the absence of Mel Gibson, who is currently working on the production What Women Want in the States, was a disappointment to the hundreds of fans gathered outside the Odeon cinema. Last night's event was the focus for a protest by a group of vegetarians, headed by a pantomime chicken carrying a placard exorting the premiere attendees to 'Go Veg'. The protest may fall on deaf ears though - director Nick Park recently told a UK newspaper that although he had certain pangs of concience over meat-eating, he still took a secret delight in eating chicken sandwiches.