IAN MCSHANE - MCSHANE PAYS FILM TRIBUTE TO BRITISH JOURNALIST BENSON

MCSHANE PAYS FILM TRIBUTE TO BRITISH JOURNALIST BENSON

Actor IAN MCSHANE's latest movie character is his personal tribute to late British journalist ROSS BENSON. The SEXY BEAST star jumped at the chance to play a crack society hack in WOODY ALLEN's new film SCOOP because it gave him an opportunity to honour the Daily Mail and Daily Express foreign correspondent and columnist. MCShane, who is a close friend of Benson's widow - British royal expert INGRID SEWARD, says, "I didn't exactly base the character on Ross but I did remember him as I worked on my character. "Ross Benson was a reporter and did everything from beauty pageants to films to wars; he was all over the place." Benson, a former classmate of PRINCE CHARLES' at top Scottish school Gordonstoun, died last year (05). While MCShane loved playing a journalist in the new comedy, which also stars HUGH JACKMAN and SCARLETT JOHANSSON, he fears he could never play an American hack. He adds, "I think American journalism has been a bit emasculated in the last few years. "Fleet Street (London) journalism is full of the real investigative journalists, who live there."