Billions star Damian Lewis leads stars at finance company’s annual 9/11 charity event
Billions star Damian Lewis has led celebrities taking part in a finance company’s annual charity day to raise millions in memory of workers who lost their lives 20 years ago on September 11th.
The British actor, who plays hedge fund manager Bobby Axelrod in the hit US series, took part in the BGC event in support of two charities, one of which his late wife, Peaky Blinders actress Helen McCrory, was patron.
Lewis and his late wife Helen McCrory took part in the event together in 2019. Pic: James Veysey/Shutterstock
Lewis was joined by other stars including TV presenter Davina McCall, comedian and author David Walliams and actress Jenna Coleman, taking to the phones for the charity day, which is held at BGC offices around the world and last year raised $12m (about £8.6m) for charitable causes.
Speaking to Sky News’ business presenter Ian King, Lewis said money he raised would go to two grassroots organisations – Cure EB, which supports people affected by the skin condition epidermolysis bullosa, and arts group HVH Arts.
“It’s going to be the 20th anniversary tomorrow of that horrific day, 9/11,” he said. “I come here to support two charities, HVH Arts and Cure EB, and I’m here to try and raise money for them.
“I get on the phone with people who might have heard of me – or more likely have heard of Bobby Axelrod – and we do trades. Thankfully, all fixed interest so I can’t wipe millions off the share price in one morning.”
Lewis said his wife had been a patron of HVH arts before she died of cancer earlier this year and that it is a cause “very dear to my heart”.
He continued: “It specialises in working with underprivileged kids in the north London area, mostly Camden, Kentish Town, giving them an experience of the arts, photography, textiles, theatre, music. It’s an exposure to the arts, which I believe is so important for young kids, but it’s also an experience of self-worth and gives them a self-confidence.”
Lewis said he had worked with Cure EB for some time and that the charity funds clinical trials to try and find a cure for what is a “horrible, horrible disease”, which can cause skin cancer.
Lewis also recalled how he was filming a difficult scene of marital rape for period drama The Forsyte Saga with actress Gina McKee when he received news of the 9/11 attacks in 2001.
“It was much talked about in the lead-up to the filming because it had outraged audiences in the 1960s when the first adaptation was made,” he said of the scene.
“We were in the middle of this rather sensitive scene, myself and Gina McKee, and the first [assistant director] came on to set and said, ‘I’m terribly sorry to stop filming everyone, but a plane has just flown into the World Trade Centre’. And, of course, as we all know now, he arrived 16 minutes later to give us the news again, that the other plane had gone into the south tower.”
The BGC event is held each year in memory of the company’s 658 colleagues and the 61 Eurobrokers employees who lost their lives in the World Trade Center attacks.
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‘I sat on the bed crying all day’
TV presenter McCall said she had taken part in the charity day many times and that it is always exciting, but emotional.
“There’s such a buzz here today and there’s so much great energy and goodwill in the room,” she told King. “So many millions of pounds have been raised over the years for charities, in memory of their friends.”
McCall’s chosen charity is Action Medical Research, which funds research into rare childhood diseases. The star first supported the charity as a nine-year-old, encouraged to take on sponsored walks by her grandmother, and said she became an ambassador in later life.
David Walliams and Davina McCall also did their bit to raise funds
“It’s an amazing amount of money for them to get, we’re so enormously grateful,” she said. “But obviously, today is also tinged with sadness for these guys [at BGC], too. So it’s very moving being here.”
McCall said she was heavily pregnant with her first child when the terror attacks happened and recalled sitting and crying “the entire day, clutching my belly, wondering what kind of a world I was bringing my child into”.
She continued: “I just couldn’t see the world ever being the same again. But, I do feel like we’re healing bit by bit, and here we are today trying to do something good out of all of that.”
The Stone Roses bassist Gary “Mani” Mounfield has died at the age of 63, his family has said.
Mani’s brother, Greg, said in a post on Facebook: “It is with the heaviest of hearts that I have to announce the sad passing of my brother.”
“RIP RKID,” he added.
Gary “Mani” Mounfield and his wife Imelda at the world premiere of “The Stone Roses : Made Of Stone” in 2013. Pic: Reuters
Formed in 1983, The Stone Roses were a mainstay of the “Madchester” scene.
Mani joined the band in 1987 and formed part of its classic line-up alongside singer Ian Brown, guitarist John Squire and drummer Alan ‘Reni’ Wren. He remained with the group until their split in 1996.
Mani’s death comes two years after that of his wife, Imelda Mounfield, who was diagnosed with stage 4 bowel cancer in November 2020. The couple welcomed twin boys in 2012.
Ian Brown, left, with Mani, right, performing on stage during their 2012 reunion concerts in Manchester. Pic: Reuters
The Stone Roses frontman Brown shared a tribute online, writing: “REST IN PEACE MANi X.”
Oasis singer Liam Gallagher said he was “in total shock and absolutely devastated”, describing the bassist as “my hero”.
“RIP Mani – my heartfelt condolences to his twin boys and all of his family,” wrote the Happy Mondays’ Shaun Ryder, whose bandmate Rowetta added: “Back with your Imelda, Mani. Going to miss you so much. All my love to the boys, the family & all those who knew & loved him.”
The Charlatans frontman, Tim Burgess, shared a photo of himself with Mani, writing alongside it: “I shared this photo a week or so ago on Mani’s birthday.
“It never failed to bring a smile to my face – and that was exactly the same for the man himself.
“One of the absolute best in every way – such a beautiful friend.”
Echo & the Bunnymen vocalist Ian McCulloch said Mani was someone “who I have always loved and always will love, deeply and forever. Like a brother”.
He continued: “I am in shock to be honest. Please tell me I’m just having a bad, bad dream. My thoughts and feelings and Mani. Love to all of his family from me”.
Pic: Robert Marquardt/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock
The “Madchester” bands were known for blending indie with acid house, psychedelia, and pop.
The Stone Roses’ eponymous debut album of 1989 was a huge success, and was named the second greatest album of all time in a “Music of the Millennium” poll conducted by HMV, Channel 4, The Guardian, and Classic FM.
The novel has survived the industrial revolution, radio, television, and the internet. Now it’s facing artificial intelligence – and novelists are worried.
Half (51%) fear that they will be replaced by AI entirely, according to a new survey, even though for the most part they don’t use the technology themselves.
More immediately, 85% say they think their future income will be negatively impacted by AI, and 39% claim their finances have already taken a hit.
Tracy Chevalier, the bestselling author of Girl With A Pearl Earring and The Glassmaker, shares that concern.
“I worry that a book industry driven mainly by profit will be tempted to use AI more and more to generate books,” she said in response to the survey.
“If it is cheaper to produce novels using AI (no advance or royalties to pay to authors, quicker production, retainment of copyright), publishers will almost inevitably choose to publish them.
“And if they are priced cheaper than ‘human made’ books, readers are likely to buy them, the way we buy machine-made jumpers rather than the more expensive hand-knitted ones.”
Chevalier, author of the book Girl With A Pearl Earring, with the painting of the same name. Pic: AP
Why authors are so worried
The University of Cambridge’s Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy asked 258 published novelists and 74 industry insiders how AI is viewed and used in the world of British fiction.
Alongside existential fears about the wholesale replacement of the novel, many authors reported a loss of income from AI, which they attributed to “competition from AI-generated books and the loss of jobs which provide supplementary streams of income, such as copywriting”.
Some respondents reported finding “rip-off AI-generated imitations” of their own books, as well books “written under their name which they haven’t produced”.
Last year, the Authors Guild warned that “the growing access to AI is driving a new surge of low-quality sham ‘books’ on Amazon”, which has limited the number of publications per day on its Kindle self-publishing platform to combat the influx of AI-generated books.
The median income for a novelist is currently £7,000 and many make ends meet by doing related work, such as audiobook narration, copywriting or ghost-writing.
Read more: The author embracing AI to help write novels
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Could the AI bubble burst?
These tasks, authors feared, were already being supplanted by AI, although little evidence was provided for this claim, which was not possible to verify independently.
Copyright was also a big concern, with 59% of novelists reporting that they knew their work had been used to train AI models.
Of these, 99% said they did not give permission and 100% said they were not remunerated for this use.
Earlier this year, AI firm Anthropic agreed to pay authors $1.5bn (£1.2bn) to settle a lawsuit which claimed the company stole their work.
The judge in the US court case ruled that Anthropic had downloaded more than seven million digital copies of books it “knew had been pirated” and ordered the firm to pay authors compensation.
However, the judge sided with Anthropic over the question of copyright, saying that the AI model was doing something akin to when a human reads a book to inspire new work, rather than simply copying.
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Most novelists – 67% – never used it for creative work, although a few said they found it very useful for speeding up drafting or editing.
One case study featured in the report is Lizbeth Crawford, a novelist in multiple genres, including fantasy and romance. She describes working with AI as a writing partner, using it to spot plot holes and trim adjectives.
“Lizbeth used to write about one novel per year, but now she can do three per year, and her target is five,” notes the author of the report, Dr Clementine Collett.
Is there a role for government?
Despite this, the report’s foreword urges the government to slow down the spread of AI by strengthening copyright law to protect authors and other creatives.
The government has proposed making an exception to UK copyright law for “text and data mining”, which might make authors and other copyright holders opt out to stop their work being used to train AI models.
“That approach prioritises access to data for the world’s technology companies at the cost to the UK’s own creative industries,” writes Professor Gina Neff, executive director of the Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy.
“It is both bad economics and a betrayal of the very cultural assets of British soft power.”
A government spokesperson said: “Throughout this process we have, and always will, put the interests of the UK’s citizens and businesses first.
“We’ve always been clear on the need to work with both the creative industries and AI sector to drive AI innovation and ensure robust protections for creators.
“We are bringing together both British and global companies, alongside voices beyond the AI and creative sectors, to ensure we can capture the broadest possible range of expert views as we consider next steps.”
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