IAN MCKELLEN - ACTORS FUME OVER ARTS CUTS

SIR IAN MCKELLEN, KEVIN SPACEY and SAMUEL WEST have passed a motion of no confidence in the Arts Council England over plans to cut the funding of nearly 200 organisations. Members of the actors' union Equity said consultation over the cuts had been too brief and that the criteria the decisions were based on were not clear. Van Helsing star West says, "Cut funding to our smaller spaces and you eventually starve our larger ones to death." The motion of no confidence was passed at a meeting attended by nearly 500 members of Equity earlier this week (begs07Jan08). Arts Council England has said it won't make any final funding decisions until the end of the month (Jan08), but vowed to fund 80 new projects.