Celebrity Gossip, January 31: Former Dr Who in new Marvel TV series

The Broadchurch star will play the villainous Kilgrave in the show, which will air on streaming service Netflix later this year.

He told RadioTimes.com: “I grew up on Marvel comics, so it’s very exciting to be part of their ever-expanding entertainment empire.

“It’s great. I love the movies, I love the TV shows, so I’m very pleased to be part of one.”

David’s character Kilgrave is also known as the Purple Man and - perhaps coincidentally - the star was wearing a purple tie as he spoke to RadioTimes.com.

But the former Doctor Who teased: “I don’t know what you are referring to,” and asked about playing a villain, he kept schtum, saying: “Who says it’s a villain? Make no assumptions. I’m saying nothing.”

He added: “I grew up an absolute devotee to the worlds of Marvel, so the fact that they’ve expanded now into TV and film is a fact that I fantasised about when I was younger. So now to be part of it, to be on the other side of it is a thrill.”

JOHNNY DEPP has explained why he missed a press conference - he was attacked by a chupacabra.

The 51-year-old actor - who has been making news for his odd behaviour of late - kept 200 journalists waiting at the publicity event in Japan for his new film Mortdecai in Tokyo on Tuesday, January 27.

Johnny showed up a day later, and according to the Associated Press, told reporters: “I was attacked yesterday morning by a very rarely seen or experienced animal called ‘chupacabra’.

“I fought with it for hours. They’re very persistent, very mean. And I’m pretty sure it came into my suitcase. I threw him off the 23rd floor. So we’ll never see him again. Thank you for understanding.”

The chupacabra is a legendary creature rumoured to inhabit parts of the Americas, attacking and drinking the blood of livestock.

Johnny managed to raise a laugh from the room of reporters, and also admitted he had had a cold.

Asked how the title character in his new film would have coped with the creature, Johnny replied: “He would probably say something like ‘How do you do?’. My name is Charlie Mortdecai and I’ve come here to take as much money from you as I possibly can, and jewellery and art and stuff’.”

Mortdecai, an eccentric heist comedy which also stars GWYNETH PALTROW and EWAN MCGREGOR, has faired badly at the box office so far, making an estimated 9.3 million dollars at the weekend (£6.1 million).

EDDIE REDMAYNE may be one of Hollywood’s bankable stars, but he revealed he still loses it when he meets a big name.

The Oscar-nominated Theory Of Everything actor told a US chat show how he and his wife “stalked” JENNIFER ANISTON at a party.

Eddie, 33, told Jimmy Kimmel Live! that he was like a “kid in a candy store”.

The Brit star said: “My wife (Hannah Bagshawe) and I love Friends... and so we saw Jennifer Aniston at a party and we were just incredibly inappropriate.

“We so wanted to meet her that we sort of literally stalked about four meters behind her for an entire evening.”

He said: “Eventually she was like, ‘OK!’ So we got to meet her and she was as beautiful and wonderful as you’d expect her to be.”

He admitted: “She could have turned around and slapped us for being stalkers.”

Eddie also told how meeting JULIA ROBERTS, who presented him with Best Actor at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, almost scuppered his acceptance speech.

He said: “My dad’s favourite film is Pretty Woman, so as a kid, I think at an inappropriate age, I was watching Pretty Woman.

“So this moment happens when your name gets read out and it’s such sort of extraordinary euphoria and it’s kind of white noise, it all goes into a sort of blur.

“Then suddenly, there I was hugging Julia Roberts. And then I was meant to be articulate and all I could think of was, ‘I wanna tell my dad!’ It was amazing.”