Downey’s Location Report

Hollywood testimonial dinners are usually deeply cringeworthy affairs where a host of the star's friends and enemies stand up to fawn over him or her in the hope of being remembered when their next project takes form. Thankfully for those attending a ball in Jodie Foster's honour this weekend the evening had more than a few surprises, not least of all was the input from Robert Downey Jnr. Surprising, not because the actor wanted to sing Jodie's praises, but because he was calling the ceremony from a local prison - or "on location" as Downey himself preferred to refer to it. According to one report, Downey sounded pretty cheerful, even though American law required his piece to be prefaced by an announcement that the call was being made 'from a state correctional facility'. The award was presented to Foster by her Silence of the Lambs co-star Anthony Hopkins and the evening included suitably gushing contributions from the likes of Robert de Niro, James Woods and Lisa Kudrow.