By Tom Bourton BBC News Online

BBC News Online's Tom Bourton pops into the newsagent and onto the web to catch up with what Welsh stars are up to.

With Cerys Matthews back in the news as she returns to perform at a charity concert, Catatonia fans can remember the good old days with the upcoming release of a greatest hits album.

Due out on 2 September, the album will feature tracks from all four of the band's albums.

Catatonia split up in 2001

The collaboration with Space, The Ballad of Tom Jones, and Cerys' duet with Tom Jones himself, Baby It's Cold Outside, will also appear on the CD.

Meanwhile, other Welsh bands the Stereophonics and the Manic Street Preachers were blessed with scorching weather as they headlined the V2002 festival in Staffordshire and Chelmsford.

Speaking of festivals, Welsh director Marc Evans has seen his highly-rated horror film screened at the Edinburgh Film Festival.

The low-budget flick My Little Eye has been attracting intense critical interest for the 41-year-old Cardiffian.

Shot via a series of immobile camera positions, the film is based around a reality TV programme in whith the contestants go crazy, with murderous results.

Evans admitted to the Observer that the movie is designed to be uncomfortable to watch.

On the chin

Moving on to less-highbrow matters, panto fans in south Wales could be blessed with the sight of Big Brother's table-breaker Alison treading the boards in a few months time.

The energetic reality TV star has signed up to play the Fairy Godmother in Porthcawl over Christmas, according to Heat magazine.

Panto star: Alison ready for the stage

Also in Heat, Eastender Charlie Brooks (Janine), from Barmouth, north Wales, has revealed that she does not like the trendy London nighclub the Met Bar much, and that she worries about having a double chin on TV.

Elsewhere, ex-Stepper H (Ian Watkins), from Treorchy, will not be getting hitched to his singing partner Claire Richards - it may be hard to believe, but she has problems thinking of him in a romantic way.

"He's like my little brother. It would be incestuous," said Richards.

And Stereophonics drummer Stuart Cable has been continuing to diversify - according to the Welsh Mirror, he has bought half of Cardiff nightspot V Club and plans to turn it into a life music venue.

Finally, Jeremy Bowen has been causing controversy after turning up to present the BBC's Breakfast programme wearing a pair of brown leather sandals on his feet.

The sock-less Cardiff-born journalist prompted a wave of phone calls from members of the public asking why he had opted for the barefoot look, but was unrepentant over his choice of shoe.