How About Eddie Izzard or Minnie Driver as the Next Doctor?

People are throwing Eddie Izzard‘s name around as a potential successor to David Tennant as Doctor Who (even though Tennant hasn’t said yay or no to continuing on in the part). I don’t know if Eddie would want to give up his burgeoning U.S. career for long stints of time in Cardiff, and I think he’d be all kinds of awesome as the Timelord. Ever see him as Charlie Chaplin in Peter Bogdanovich‘s The Cat’s Meow? If he can bring any of that sleazy charm to the role of Doctor, I think we’d have a winner on our hands.

And if Eddie’s not available, what about his Riches co-star Minnie Driver as the first female Doctor? She’s funny as hell, quick as a whip, commanding, quirky, madcap, a little daft – all prerequisites for a place in the TARDIS. I don’t know about you, but I think my idea is kinda genius. Imagine her and John Barrowman together – a gay boy’s dream.

What do you think?

In other news:

• Will the four specials be enough to keep fans from suffering Doctor Who withdrawal until 2010?!?!?(Telegraph)
• Gawker’s sci-fi blog, io9, is psyched about Primeval.
• A brutal stabbing spree has claimed four victims in London. And it has gotten so bad that some are suggesting teachers wear stab-proof vests. London: it’s just like Compton, y’all.
• In happier news: the top picnic sites in Britain.(Guardian)
• More bloggers are wading into the Top Gear pay battle. Picking up where Mark Wright left off, Patrick West of Spiked says, “I don’t mean to be rude to May or Hammond, but surely they can understand that they are not Top Gear‘s selling point? It’s always going to be Clarkson. Because he is deliberately un-PC in a way his co-presenters are not, he’s the one that sells the programme abroad. Hammond may be young and handsome, May fogeyish and demure, but neither taps into the revulsion felt by the pro-motoring, anti-ecomentalist brigade as Clarkson can. He is a hero in Australia, America, Malaysia, Romania, Georgia, Russia – and recognised on the streets of these countries – for a very good reason: he says what people are thinking. And that’s why he makes the BBC money.”
• Faces may get back together – and, yes, Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood of The Rolling Stones are game.(BBC)
• She was working as a waitress in a cocktail bar: Ronnie Wood has supposedly left his wife for an 18-year-old Russian server girl.(NME)
• David Coverdale, 56-year-old lead singer of Whitesnake, is down with the youth of today: “As Mr. Dylan says ‘the times they are a-changin’ and I think to resist will be painful and uncomfortable, so, I’m moving on, boys and girls – you coming?” How could we resist?(Liverpool Daily Post)
• Sir Ian McKellen – who is either Britain’s hardest working actor or the most shameless British thesp since Sir Michael Caine in taking what ever sh** part comes his way – wants a X-Men spinoff for Magneto. Good luck with that, man. I mean, Sir.(BBC)
• The Queen‘s putting on a concert to start the countdown to the 2012 Olympics in London.(Mirror)
• Are The Who done releasing new material for good?(Contact Music)
• Keira Knightley‘s latest Oscar-bait film, The Duchess, will premiere in Toronto this September.(Guardian)
• That drum on the cover of The Beatles‘ Sgt. Pepper album has sold for $1 million at auction.(UPI)
• Meet Sharleen Spiteri, former lead singer of the Scottish band Texas, who’ll appear on next week’s episode of The Graham Norton Show.
• Banned from driving due to a speeding rap, Weakest Link host Anne Robinson has taken to bike-riding.(Daily Record)
• Two absolute hot messes that Americans will be glad to not recognize – Kerry Katona and the shockingly fugly racist Jade Goody – are back on British telly.(The Sun)
• Damn that Neve Campbell: she gets to snog Rupert Penry-Jones.(The Sun)
• The Sun has dubbed Boy George “Boy Gorge,” and you need only to look at him to see why.
• Is Bloc Party‘s new single “Mercury” the latest in a long line of odd British chart hits?(Guardian)
• Tricky talks to The Guardian ahead of his new album’s release. “I can be anything I want when I do an album. I can be vulnerable, I can be weak, I can be nasty, I can be strong, I can be good, I can be bad. They’re all in there – but in society you don’t get to use all these personalities because you’re trained.”
• The big questions about this year’s T in the Park musical festival: will Amy Winehouse turn up on Sunday, and if she does, will she assault someone?(The Times)