Billy Bob Thornton makes a perfect Santa Claus — if you like yours drunk, swearing and stained with urine. He talks to John Patterson about his most cynical and funny film yet.

”Sex is the consolation that you are left with when you do not attain love.” And old man finds that his memories are melancholy and the future has become full of terrible excitement, and realises that it is love, not old age, that will kill him. Giles Tremlett looks at Gabriel García Márquez’s new novel.

ROMANCE OF THE WEEK: In a spirit of ”if it ain’t broke why fix it?”, director Beeban Kidron’s sequel reprises almost everything that worked in the first film, but Peter Bradshaw enjoyes Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason nevertheless.

Artists should wait the NAC’s tables: It’s money in the pocket directly after the board burps. And the more expensive the meal, the larger the tip. No more filling out forms and months-long delays, writes Mike van Graan.

Khaled’s global breakthrough came in 1992 when his song Didi sold more than one million copies across Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and Asia. His mix of African dance music and Western pop made him a star — and won him enemies back home in Algeria, writes Robin Denselow.