Fringe first for Legally Blonde star Jennifer

LEGALLY Blonde and American Pie star Jennifer Coolidge, who played "Stifler's Mom" in the latter film series, will be appearing in a one-woman show at the Assembly Rooms in what will be her stand-up debut outside the United States.

She will be rubbing shoulders in Assembly's 30th anniversary programme with Glaswegian comedy sensation Kevin Bridges, Chris Addision, star of In the Loop and The Thick of It, and impressionist Alistair McGowan.

Award-winning actor Bob Kingdom will be returning to Assembly to perform his celebrated portrayals of Truman Capote and Dylan Thomas, while the veteran impresario Guy Masterson will be staging four one-woman shows – including one about the early life of Queen Elizabeth I – as well as reviving his two celebrated solo shows, Animal Farm and Under Milk Wood, each for one night only.

American producer Marshall Cordell, who staged previous hits One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest and The Odd Couple, will be returning with an all-star cast for new show Gutted: A Revenger's Musical.

Meanwhile the Queen's Hall's music line-up includes an appearance by the veteran American folk singer Arlo Guthrie and the new "Scottish supergroup" Burns Unit, which numbers the likes of Emma Pollock, Future Pilot AKA, Karine Polwart, King Creosote and Kim Edgar in its line-up.

Also at the Queen's Hall in August are The Low Anthem, Capercaillie, Orkestra Del Sol, the Eliza Carthy Band, Dougie Maclean, the Battlefield Band and Bert Jansch.

The Acoustic Music Centre's line-up includes veteran Edinburgh singers Sandy Wright, Dick Gaughan and Tam White, as well as rising new stars such as Kan, Jeana Leslie and Siobhan Miller.

C Venues will be playing host to a brand new musical, Studio 54, which promises to turn Shakespeare's Othello into a 1970s New York disco drama.

Veteran cricket commentator Henry "Blowers" Blofeld will join forces with John Bly, of the Antiques Roadshow, for what is billed as the Fringe's "oldest and newest double act", at the EICC.