ANOTHER one time New Avenger Gareth Hunt (remember Joanna Lumley as Purdy?) came to town last night for the Irish launch of his techno brainchild - a live action video casting directory. The idea is that actors put together a showreel which is then fed into a computer and can be accessed anywhere in the world.
Anyone who has seen printed casting directories will know that sometimes the photos can - to put it nicely - be a little less recent than is helpful to casting directors and this new technology should bring everyone bang up to date.
It'll also mean that Irish actors will be seen by casting agents worldwide and those who have already signed up for the potentially career broadening service include John Kavanagh, Pauline McLynn, Eileen Colgan and Joe Savino, all of who made it to the launch in the National Library, as did producers David Collins and Bill Hughes and casting agent Nuala Moiselle, who is just back from a very successful trip to Cannes.
Film producer John Kelleher set up the service, called ICU, in Ireland together with entertainment marketing whizz Marianne Guimond.