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"No one ever asked me to play Hamlet," Al Pacino complained at the height of his Hollywood fame. "I don't think I'm right for the part, but it would have been nice to be asked." Well, now the little guy's been asked to be honorary patron to the Philosophical Society at Trinity College, Dublin, and he's happy to say Yes. The ancient group, which witnessed one of the world's first demonstrations of the telephone and numbers Dracula man Bram Stoker among former presidents, installed Pacino yesterday. Equipped with his new shamrock credentials, the 66-year-old star is now off to wilder Ireland to research his planned documentary film Salomaybe. This will look at a long-standing fascination Pacino's had with another Philosophical Society alumnus, Oscar Wilde, and the influences which led to his 1892 masterpiece Salome.

Beatrice Cointreau has a nice line in leisurely generation-think, as befits the latest in a line of vineyard tenders going back to the 12th century. Mme Cointreau is the newest Knight of the Order of Agricultural Merit, a gong handed over this week in Paris. An expert producer of cognac and champagne, she told the assembled bigwigs: "In my family, we say that the grandfather plants the vine, the son makes the wine and the grandson will know why." Just amend that, thanks to her pioneering in a traditionally man's world, to grandmother, daughter and granddaughter.

Britain's newest art prize was announced last night with Turner prizewinner Martin Creed leading a studio full of northern luminaries on the judging panel. Struggling folk in garrets are being urged to abandon all modesty and go for it, via heats in the three northern regions before a grand final for the £16,500 award, plus three runners-up, next summer. "Art - like everything else - is all about competing, about being the best, about not losing," Creed told the launch of the Northern Art Prize at Leeds city art gallery.

The endless fascinations of eBay are increased today by the chance to buy miniature models of the Queen's corgis made from the hair of inmates at Battersea Dogs' Home. This curious byway of modern art has been created by the Japanese artist known as Sinco, whose real name is Nobuko Nagakubo. She has also produced miniature versions of Paris Hilton's chihuahua Tinkerbell and Geri Halliwell's shih tzu Harry, and if you think this is all slop, then let me tell you that Sinco's book Fleece Dog is massive in Tokyo and the weird craze for mini dog-hair sculpture has swept Japan.