Royale flush

Hot on the polished heels of yesterday’s casting announcement that saw Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen chosen as villain Le Chiffre comes word that Eva Green is officially the new Bond girl, Vesper Lynd.

In a statement by Sony Pictures chairman (chairperson, surely?) Amy Pascal, Green was anointed as Vesper. “Vesper is a pivotal role in Casino Royale and it takes much more than beauty to make this role work," said Pascal. "When you think about the great James Bond adventures, of course you think about action and espionage, but you need to have palpable sexual tension in the movie and in casting Vesper, we really needed to up the ante, because this character is very much an equal to Bond and central to our story.”

You’ll likely remember Green as the woman who captured Orlando Bloom’s heart while breaking a million teenaged tickers in Kingdom Of Heaven, and for spending large portions of Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Dreamers sans clobber.

More likely to keep his clothes on is Jeffrey Wright, recently seen acting up a storm in Syriana and Broken Flowers. He’ll play CIA agent and old Bond friend Felix Leiter.