Time Out with Jenness Mitchell

Upcoming festivals: Doune The Rabbit Hole; 22-24 August at Cardross Estate, Port of Menteith. Bands include Peatbog Faeries, Errors and The Wave Pictures. www.dounetherabbithole.co.uk Electric Fields; 30 August at Drumlanrig Castle, Thornhill, Dumfries. Bands include Fatherson, We Were Promised Jetpacks, The LaFontaines, Honeyblood and Prides. www.electricfieldsfestival.com Top read: Obsessed (The Lizzy Gardner Series) by T.R. Ragan; Desperate for better ratings, radio psychologist Madeline Blair tells her listeners she’s being stalked, unaware that her long-time listener and biggest fan, Seth Brown, will do anything to protect her. When her publicity stunt is revealed, Seth becomes enraged by her deceit and dangerously unhinged. When her friends mysteriously begin to vanish and damning evidence points to Madeline, she turns to private investigator Lizzy Gardner for help. Lizzy knows her way around a murderer’s mind, after surviving her own horrifying ordeal at the hands of a serial killer years ago. As Lizzy closes in, Seth Brown is undeterred. Madeline wanted a stalker and now she has one. Nothing is going to stop him. He’s obsessed.

Art Is Child’s Play: British artist Jake Chapman reportedly stated that taking kids to art galleries is a “total waste of time”. He claimed parents were “arrogant” for thinking their young offspring could understand Mark Rothko or Jackson Pollock, adding “children are not human yet”. Chapman and his brother Dinos were nominated for the Turner Prize in 2003 and are known for their explicit, and often profane, three-dimensional works. In my personal opinion; Chapman’s an art snob. When I was a wee seven-year-old Coalsnaughton Primary pupil I came across a picture of Vincent van Gogh’s Starry Night Over the Rhone when ripping pages out of a magazine to cover my desk ahead of a class painting lesson. The reflective sparkling of blues and yellows caught my eye. I fell in love the instant I saw it. Thereafter I folded the glossy page, stored it away, and managed to keep a hold of it right up to P7 until it mysteriously disappeared from my personal tray. As the years passed I would go on to forget about the picture - until Tuesday 15 February 2005. While wandering around the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, I was stopped in my tracks. There, on the wall, was van Gogh’s Starry Night Over the Rhone. I can’t explain it, but I froze. I fell in love with the painting all over again, but this time it was actually in front of me. You have no idea how much I wanted to reach out, touch it and run my fingers across the paint and brush-strokes. Obviously I didn’t. Instead I stood there for what seemed like an eternity, just staring at it like a creep. Whether you’re seven, 17 or 70, art is not to be understood - it’s to be experienced.

Chapman - who dressed mannequins as Ku Klux Klan at an exhibition in Serpentine - likes to shock. I believe he lazily pushes boundaries and made the wild statement with the sole purpose of gaining publicity. If he truly believes children can’t appreciate art - he’s in the wrong business.

The Expendables 3: The boys are back in town. The mercenary group, led by Barney Ross (Sly Stallone), are assigned to take down the team’s co-founder and now ruthless arms dealer Conrad Stonebanks (Mel Gibson). After the loss of one of the gang, The Expendables recruit a younger generation of allies to help face their foes. Expect lashings of action, explosions and epic fight scenes as Stallone, Schwarzenegger, Statham, Li, Lundgren, Couture and Crews are joined by newcomers Wesley Snipes (Blade), Antonio Banderas (Desperado), Mel Gibson (Lethal Weapon), Harrison Ford (Indiana Jones), Kelsey Grammer (Frasier), Kellan Lutz (Twilight), UFC fighter Ronda Rousey, boxer Victor Ortiz and Robert Davi (Licence to Kill). As an 80s kid, this is right up my street. My only reservation is that the movie was trimmed down to obtain a PG-13 (12A) rating. With this all-star action cast I want blood and guts spilling out the cinema screen. If I feel Stallone has wavered on the warfare specifically for a younger audience, I’ll be sending him a disapproving Tweet – alongside my request to star in the forthcoming Expendabelles.

Scream: Ghostface is heading to the small screen. After four massacre-filled movies the franchise will be adapted for MTV. The one-hour pilot was written by Jay Beattie and Dan Dworkin (Criminal Minds, The Event, Revenge) and will be directed by Jamie Travis (Faking It). All we know at this point is that it’s set in a small town with plenty of secrets and teens to slaughter - which reportedly starts after a YouTube video goes viral. Whether the reinvention features the famous 'scary movie rules’ and copious amounts of blood and gore is yet to be confirmed. On the scare scale, I’m envisioning something along the lines of Pretty Little Liars and Revenge rather than Hannibal and The Following. Either way, this could be a great show.

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice: Warner Bros. and DC have moved the Man of Steel sequel to a 25 March 2016 release date. The film had previously been slotted to open opposite Marvel’s Captain America 3 on 6 May 2016. This is a wise move as it avoids a face-off with one of their rival’s flagship superheroes. However, Warner and DC have made a shift to compete with Marvel’s cinematic universe. They just announced nine untitled and two 'event’ films running through to 2020. Expect to see a Justice League movie, a Gal Gadot Wonder Woman spin-off, Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s Sandman and Jason Momoa’s Aquaman to fill some of the slots.

Terminator: Genisys: Skynet is back to crush humanity – starting with our syntax. Arnold Schwarzenegger was given the honour of revealing the official title of the fifth instalment in the franchise. He took to Instagram and uploaded a shadowy shot of himself sitting in a set chair with the name of the film emblazoned on the back. Terminator Genisys, directed by Alan Taylor (Thor: The Dark World), stars Arnie, Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones), Jason Clarke (Zero Dark Thirty), Jai Courtney (A Good Day To Die Hard), Byung-hun Lee (G.I. Joe: Retaliation), J.K. Simmons (Spider-Man), Matt Smith (Doctor Who), Sandrine Holt (House of Cards) and Dayo Okeniyi (The Hunger Games). With plans to turn the reboot into a fresh trilogy, the T-800 still has a few miles left in its cyborg skeleton.

Forbes highest-earning actresses 2014: 1. Sandra Bullock, $51m 2. Jennifer Lawrence, $34m 3. Jennifer Aniston, $31m 4. Gwyneth Paltrow, $19m 5. Angelina Jolie, $18m 6. Cameron Diaz, $18m 7. Scarlett Johansson, $17m 8. Amy Adams, $13m 9. Natalie Portman, $13m 10. Kristen Stewart, $12m Forbes highest-earning actors 2014: 1. Robert Downey, Jr., $75m 2. Dwayne Johnson, $52m 3. Bradley Cooper, $46m 4. Leonardo DiCaprio, $39m 5. Chris Hemsworth, $37m 6. Liam Neeson, $36m 7. Ben Affleck, $35m 8. Christian Bale, $35m 9. Will Smith, $32m 10. Mark Wahlberg, $32m Gravity star Sandra Bullock is the highest-earning actress of 2014. She reportedly took home an estimated $51m (£30m) in the last year, according to the Forbes rich list.

Jennifer Lawrence placed second with a reported $34m (£20m) thanks to her share in The Hunger Games series and Jennifer Aniston ranked third highest with $31m (£18m) after her comic turn in Horrible Bosses and We’re the Millers.

Despite Bullock’s large pay packet, women are still earning less than the men in Hollywood.

Forbes reported that the top 10 ladies on the list earned $216m (£128m) combined, which is almost half of the $419m (£249m) that the top 10 actors brought home.

Robert Downey, Jr. topped the male poll for the second year in a row with $75m (£44.5m) earnings from the Iron Man trilogy and Avengers films. To date, Marvel has made almost $4 billion (£2.3bn) from movies starring Downey, Jr. - and that’s not including merchandise.

The two lists are not surprising. I’m not a fan of Kristen Stewart and would rather have seen the likes of Emma Stone or Shailene Woodley up there, but with the Twilight series in our rear view mirror I don’t think the 24-year-old will be able to sustain her position for next year. It’s not that Stewart’s a terrible actress - I just think she’s better in a supporting role rather than leading lady. In 2015 Jen Lawrence has the potential to knock fellow Oscar-winner Sandy Bullock off the top spot with her takings from The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 and Downey, Jr. could hold on for a third year after stepping out as Iron Man once again for Avengers: Age of Ultron.