Kathryn Morris UK

Kathryn @ Toyota Pro/Celeb Race Day – April 2007

Oops! I’m sure that’ll polish right out! 😯

That was from the practise day so no worries.

Three weeks after the training it was race day. On this day (14th Apr) in 2007 (it was a Sunday that year) Kathryn took part in the Toyota Pro/Celebrity race in aid of the Racing For Kids charity that supports local children’s hospitals. Last year we brought you a photo of Kathryn and George Lucas visiting one of those hospitals that receives funding a few days before the race.

As well are four more photos from the weekend we have two videos. One is from the practise day. The second a longish highlights show covering the race. Kathryn features multiple times in both videos so try and watch them all the way through. Find it all in the KM UK Gallery.

Thanks to Jan Wagner at the Automatters website for allowing KM UK to post their photos.

In the race Kathryn finished a creditable 13th out of the 17 taking part. Not bad on her first ever race. Dave Mirra (BMX racer) won outright despite coming up through the field from 30 seconds behind with the other Pros Bucky Lasek (X Games winner) and Scott Kelly (drag racer). Tennis legend and returnee to the event, Martina Navratilova, was 2nd (1st celeb) and Joshua Morrow (The Young And The Restless) was third. George Lucas continued to disappoint in spectacular fashion by crashing out and taking innocent victim Annamarie Dean (charity fund raiser) with him. Kathryn and Emily Proctor (CSI: Miami) weren’t able to put the first part of their evil plan into play. We don’t know if the managed the second part. Watch the video to find out more.

The 2014 version of the event happened yesterday (13th April) and was won by returnee Brett Davern, who finished 2nd last year. Brett will be known to Cold Case viewers as Lilly Rush’s half-brother Finn Cooper. Currently Brett can be seen in the TV show Awkward. (with a full-stop).

Golden Coin Wins In France

The award winning short film has won an award. Another one.

As I originally posted back in January, The Coin was screened last Saturday (5th April) at the south of France-based Avignon International Short Film Festival (known better to locals as the “Fenêtre Sur Courts” Festival International du Film de Court Métrage d’Avignon).

The event proved fruitful for the 9 minute-long movie The Coin as the co-writer and co-producer Fabien Martorell took the prize for his other role as the film’s director.

Congratulations to Fabien and everyone else involved in this project for its continued success.

Next stop (that we know about so far) is the Newport Beach film festival in two weeks time.

Something French For The Weekend?

In mid-May the world famous Cannes Film Festival takes place. This year the 11 days of madness ends on the same day as the the equally famous Formula 1 race at Monaco. Lots of film stars will be adding to the clamour/glamour on the grid that Sunday. Not sure if that is by accident or design. With Bernie Ecclestone in charge you should take nothing for granted. With his money he makes things happen his way.

Speaking of money, cars, the south of France and film festivals… (Now that’s a segue!)

As reported previously Fabien Martorell’s short film The Coin has been selected for screening at the Avignon International Short Film Festival, or as it is known more locally the “Fenêtre Sur Courts” Festival International du Film de Court Métrage d’Avignon.

Avignon is inland, 50 miles (85km) north-west of the coastal city of Merseille. It’s around 100 miles (160km) west of Cannes, which is itself 20 miles (32km) west of Monaco.

The festival starts today (Friday, 4th April) but The Coin will be shown tomorrow at 2pm in a bill of seven films under the title of ‘Competition 4’. Could there be a prize in the offing?

For writer/director/producer Fabien it is something of a homecoming (though I don’t think he will be present) as he is French by birth, but lives in LA these days.

If you happen to find yourself in the south of France this Saturday, pop along to the festival and let us know what it was like.

You can read more details on the festival at the Fenêtre Sur Courts website (in French).

The Coin Gets Newport Slot

Two years ago the Newport Beach Film Festival saw the première of the short film Sunday’s Mother.

In the upcoming 2014 edition of the California-based event the short film The Coin is being screened, though it is far from its first showing. Another one due this very weekend in France, more on that later.

Fabien Martorell’s film about the young son (Jack Ryan Shepherd) of a very stressed mother (Kathryn) meeting a homeless man (Christopher Lloyd) at a grocery store, will be shown with 6 other shorts in a programme called ‘Short Connections’. The one and a half hour screening is happening at The Triangle, Harbor Boulevard, Costa Mesa, on the Saturday the 26th April starting at 3:45pm.

The other films on the bill include projects from England, Finland and Germany as well as America. Floating Sunflowers starring Anna Chlumsky (Veep) will be getting one of its first airings as part of this collection of short films. Animation The Hungry Corpse voiced by Stephen Mangan (Episodes) and Bill Nighy (Love Actually) is representing for those of us that still put a “u” in colour

The NBFF is celebrating its 15th year and is running a promotional campaign called “15 Years Under the Influence” to highlight the event. As you can see from the colourful banner image above the festival starts on April 24th (a Thursday) and runs for 8 days. More details on the Newport Beach Film Festival can be found on the official website HERE.

Kathryn @ Toyota Race Training – March 2007

The start of a new season raises thoughts of the prospects it brings. All the changes to come. So many possibilities. The sights, the sounds (or lack of), the smells. The ugly noses!

What?!? Spring? No, I meant the 2014 season of Formula One that kicked-off in Melbourne, Australia, the weekend before last. It’s a new era for the sport with massive technical changes signalling a move towards more advanced power-trains to increase the relevance to road cars. And ugly noses.

Naturally when considering the opening of a new fight for the F1 World Championship (and very much NOT the ugly noses) one’s mind turns to Kathryn. No? Just me then?

Seven years go (that’s 2007 for those thinking about taking their socks off at this point) Kathryn was invited to take part in a Pro/Celebrity Race which features at the Long Beach Grand Prix each April. The event is backed by Toyota and is run to raise money for the Racing For Kids charity which supports children’s hospitals in the area.

March 17th was where those taking part that year met for initial training in handling a car on a race track. With Kathryn were tennis legend Martina Navratilova, X-Games star Dave Mirra, actor/singer Joshua Morrow (The Young And The Restless), ‘model’ Kendra Wilkinson, actress Kelly Hu (Arrow), actress Aisha Tyler (Friends), radio personality Robin Quivers (The Howard Stern Show), film director George Lucas (Star Wars), and actress Emily Procter (CSI: Miami).

The training was done at the Willow Springs International Raceway in California using the same Toyota Scion tC cars that were used in the race. The Scion range is only sold in North America, though in some cases the cars are available elsewhere in the world under different names. The front engined, front wheel drive Scion tC was the model used for the Pro/Celeb races from 2006 to 2012 and has been replaced by the FR-S (aka the more racey rear wheel drive Toyota 86/GT86/FT86). If you want to you can follow in Kathryn’s wheel tracks without even leaving your sofa as the Willow Springs circuit features in the PlayStation 3 game Gran Turismo 6. The Scion tC doesn’t. George Lucas has a history with the track. No, it wasn’t used for the podrace in SW: Episode 1, it is where he made one of his first films: 1:42.08. Also, the British TV show Top Gear filmed a segment there in 2013 which saw the presenters chased by aeroplanes. Silly boys.

The 2014 Long Beach Grand Prix is due to take place on Sunday the 13th of April. This year the likes of Adrien Brody (The Grand Budapest Hotel), Corbin Bleu (High School Musical), Lilly Rush’s half-brother on Cold Case Brett Davern, and Tricia Helfer (Battlestar Galactica) are getting behind wheel for charity.

Sartorial elegance was not the order of the day but Kathryn still looked adorable as further shown in 12 new photos from the training day. We also have 2 small videos. One is brief interviews with some of the guest drivers. The other is just general footage from the day, which doesn’t noticeably feature Kathryn until the very end. They’ve all been added to the existing set in the KM UK Gallery.