Schoolboy is guest of honour at red carpet premiere in Cannock
SCHOOLBOY film star Ben Wilby was given the red carpet treatment last night when he was guest of honour at a special film premiere in his home town.
The exclusive event was organised by his parents, Jill and Nigel, as a Christmas treat for the seven-year-old.
They took over a screen at the Electric Palace Picture House in Cannock, Staffordshire, and sold 200 tickets to friends and relatives for a screening of Nativity!, the Midland-made comedy in which Ben stars.
He arrived in style in an Aston Martin Vanquish used in the James Bond film Die Another Day, thanks to cinema owner and car collector Fred Pritchard. Ben was able to sit in the same seat warmed by actress Halle Berry.
The screening was followed by a black tie Champagne reception.
Mr Pritchard, who reopened the cinema last month after a five-year closure, said: “Ben is a real star and we wanted to give him the Hollywood treatment.”
Ben invited friends from St Mary’s Primary School and Class One Dance Academy in Hednesford, where he has been taking lessons for three years.
His mother Jill took him to strengthen his legs and coordination after life-saving surgery on his skull at Birmingham Children’s Hospital. He was born with the rare condition craniosynostosis and almost died. His parents were warned he might not ever speak or walk and he did not begin to learn to walk until he was three.
Now Ben is a bundle of energy and his cheeky grin is lighting up cinema screens across the country in Nativity!
In his first acting role, he steals the show from under the noses of adult actors including Alan Carr, Pam Ferris and Ricky Tomlinson.
He plays Bob, a pupil at a Coventry primary school where teacher Martin Freeman puts on a nativity play. When he brags that his ex-girlfriend Ashley Jensen, now a Hollywood producer, is coming to film the production, events spiral out of control.
Ben has already been to two premieres. The world premiere was at the Odeon at Coventry Skydome and the Birmingham-born director Debbie Isitt arrived on a camel.
The second premiere was held at London’s Barbican Centre. Mum Jill said: “He’s getting used to the red carpet treatment now! But it was very special to have his own premiere in Cannock.”
