DIANA RIGG - DAME DIANA LIGHTS UP THE STAGE

DAME DIANA LIGHTS UP THE STAGE

DAME DIANA RIGG has been given permission to flout England's smoking ban and will light a cigarette on a London stage next week (begs03Sep07). The Avengers actress, 69, is appearing in a West End adaptation of Pedro Almodovar's All About My Mother at the Old Vic theatre. Rigg is the second actor to be given a special licence to smoke indoors after Sir Mick Jagger's thespian son James was last week (ends31Aug07) allowed to perform with cigarettes for his roles in two black comedy plays at London fringe theatre the King's Head. Smoking in enclosed public places was banned in England and Wales on 1 July (07).