The Daily Mail, UK
25th September 2008
By Richard Kay

On the fashion front line it has broken friendships and strained business loyalties. No issue divides models, designers and the celebrities who wear their clothes quite like fur.

Now, just weeks from giving birth to her third baby, X Files star and animal rights campaigner Gillian Anderson has upped the tempo by agreeing to spearhead a campaign against Italian genius Giorgio Armani.

She claims he has gone back on his word and incorporated rabbit and fox fur into his latest creations. Significantly, she has timed her attack to coincide with Milan Fashion Week.

Last year in Paris, Armani announced he would no longer use real fur after viewing a disturbing video made by Peta - People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals - whose high-profile supporters include Stella McCartney and Ricky Gervais.

Campaigners say Armani has abandoned his pledge because his ready-to-wear collection this season includes outfits featuring both rabbit and fox fur. What particularly upset Gillian is a new line of fur coats for toddlers and even a fur snow suit for babies.

This week, Gillian met Peta vice-president Dan Mathews in Soho, a day after he flew back from Milan having visited Armani executives. Over lemonade and apple crumble at the Groucho Club, she agreed to narrate a video of undercover footage taken inside rabbit fur farms.

She said she would have to make the film this week "because I'm virtually ready to pop".

The London-based actress tells me: "I am stunned that Armani has gone back on his word. I can't understand why anyone would want to use real fur, and especially rabbit because it is so easy to replicate as the pile is so short."

Says Mathews: "Gillian will be narrating our new video which shows our investigations in France and China from where we believe Armani gets his rabbit fur."

A spokesman for Armani insists they were honouring their commitment to Peta to refrain from future use of any animal furs other than humanely sourced rabbit fur, adding: "As a luxury fashion house which has always been attentive to this issue, we feel we are being unfairly targeted in comparison to our competitors."

X Files star attends film premiere
The Press Association
September 24, 2008

Heavily pregnant Gillian Anderson attended the premiere of her new film - Brit-flick How to Lose Friends and Alienate People.

Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead comedy star Simon Pegg, who plays the lead in the movie, was also on the red carpet.

How To Lose Friends and Alienate People is based on the best-selling book of the same name by British journalist Toby Young. It chronicles Young's ignominious period as a journalist at New York's prestigious Vanity Fair magazine.

Pegg, 38, plays Young, whose bad manners and predilection for vulgar pranks win him no friends and cause monumental mishaps in New York.

The romantic comedy also stars Spider-Man actress Kirsten Dunst as the journalist's love interest. But Dunst, who was reported to be in rehab in Utah earlier this year for depression, was not at the world premiere in London's Leicester Square because she was said to be filming.

Bleak House and X Files star Anderson, 40, did arrive, despite being eight months pregnant with her third child.

"I'm so close to popping out but the cravings have ended," she said. "This time around, nectarines were the only thing that I had a craving for."

Asked if she was planning to follow other celebrities by giving her baby an eccentric name, she said: "No I don't think so. I have chosen something but I don't think it's crazy."

Official London Theatre Guide
Donmar Warehouse

The season continues... with Gillian Anderson in A Doll’s House, which is now confirmed to play from 14 May to 18 July, 2009 (press night 19 May). Anderson takes on the iconic role of Nora in this new version of Ibsen’s classic by Zinnie Harris, who has previously written for the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal Court and the Hampstead.

The release of Boogie Woogie has been pushed back to early 2009.