Who’s Playing Who? It’s 26-Year-Old Matt Smith!

UPDATE, 1/3/09: The new Who is relatively unknown 26-year-old actor Matt Smith, best known for his role on the UK series, Party Animals. He’s not black, he’s not Asian, not female, not David Morrissey, but he’s the youngest actor by far to play a Timelord. You can watch clips of him on Party Animals here.

He reminds me a bit of Christopher Eccleston, which leads me to believe we’re getting a creepier, less manic Doctor. An emo Timelord, if you will.

The announcement’s coming earlier than we thought: the makers of Doctor Who will reveal the person who’ll play the eleventh Timelord at 12:35 p.m. EST tomorrow in an episode of Doctor Who Confidential, airing on BBC1 in the UK. The actor or actress chosen to play the Doctor “will be giving his or her initial reaction” to the announcement during the special. How exciting!

So who do you think it’ll be? Paterson Joseph? Catherine Zeta-Jones? Whomever it is, following in David Tennant‘s sneaker tracks will be no easy task.

In other news:

• Life On Mars‘ Philip Glenister stars as an American vampire slayer in the new series Demons, but Gene Hunt still casts a shadow on the veteran actor. He tells The Daily Mail that playing the gruff cop hasn’t changed him, but it has changed his career: “Maybe I’m a little more forceful than I used to be, but I don’t think I have changed. People’s attitudes may have changed towards me. The size of my part in Demons, for example. I thought it was going to be a glorified cameo role and suddenly I’m doing a lot more.”
• Glenister reveals that he and John Simm were both up for reprising their roles in a two-part Life On Mars finale special. But they were turned down, Glenister told The Times. “The BBC budget for eight one-hours and from their point of view they are not going to put eight hours’ worth of money into two 90 minutes. I imagine that is how it works.”
• Gavin & Stacey star/co-creator James Corden is auditioning to play Jack Black‘s sidekick in a new film version of Gulliver’s Travels.(The Sun)
• What can we expect on British telly in the upcoming year?(The Times)
• Pretty damn cool: Eddie Izzard did a 90-minute standup routine at the bedside of a victim of the Mumbai terror attacks.(The Sun)
• Kate Winslet is smokin’, dashboard-in-a-Louisiana-summer hot. (The Sun)
• Lily Allen has snagged herself another older man, this time 45-year-old Jay Jopling (who is still married to artist Sam Taylor-Wood).(Daily Mail)
• Natasha Bedingfield‘s brother Daniel may actually release an album this year.(The Sun)
• Music industry insiders and Times writers pick their breakout bands of 2009. La Roux, White Lies, and Little Boots get multiple mentions. Anglophenia faves Doves are coming out with a new album. “They’re getting up that big head of steam that’s going make them … well, not the next Coldplay, but they’re going to step up like Elbow have. I’ve heard the new record, and it’s fantastic,” says Fraser Kennedy.
• thecocknbullkid is someone who should be huge in ’09. But she’s not your typical pop star; The Guardian’s Paul Lester calls her the musical child of “Little Richard and Björk”, and she idolizes Morrissey. In her interview with Mr. Lester, she says “I’m into the new and futuristic. People put me in the MIA category, but I’m not grime and I’m not some ‘ghetto princess’. I want to make pop music. The media put black people in boxes. It really irks me.”
• Duran Duran bassist John Taylor guest-stars as Christina Applegate‘s love interest on an upcoming ep of Samantha Who?.(EW’s Popwatch)
• Tornado from the UK Gladiators was arrested “on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm with intent” after he allegedly attacked a man outside a Manchester nightclub.(Daily Mail)