Hit & Run: Aboard the good ship Twilight

Until now, Hit & Run was convinced that, generally speaking, cruises were for OAPs, and Twilight was for teenagers. So a Twilight-themed cruise seems somewhat oxymoronic. Yet in August 2010 the good ship Oosterdam will set sail from Seattle for the first ever Twilight "Cruise to Alaska and Convention at Sea". And news that Ashley Greene and Kellan Lutz – two stars of the sensationally successful adolescent vampire film – will be aboard should attract an age group unaccustomed to bridge parties and bingo.

Whether anyone else wants to join them on their inescapable, week-long fantasy fête is another matter. And most teens will be priced out of the trip by the cost of a cabin: $1049 per person for a two-person room with no sea view; $3299 per person for a four-person deluxe veranda suite.

Among the highlights of the trip will be autograph sessions with the two stars (who play vampires Emmett and Alice Cullen), a Q&A session and a costume ball. Plus, of course, the stunning natural beauty of the Alaskan coastline. There's even an optional pre-cruise package that includes a daytrip to Forks, the small, wet Washington town where Stephanie Meyer's story is set. What's next? The High School Musical Cycling Tour? The Star Trek Car Rally?

Tim Walker

Join the chain gang

Visit any high street fashion store and you can't fail to spot the glint of chain-strapped handbags – and it's all thanks to Chanel. Coco Chanel created the famous bag – the 2.55 – to be practical, elegant and hands-free. The strap was based on the chain on which the caretaker at her childhood orphanage hung his keys. But it's gone far beyond just trying to find the best rip-off. As long as a bag has a chain strap, whether it's woven with leather, pleather or plain old plastic, any shape and size will do. Cheapness is not an issue either – Peacock's sold more than 100,000 of its £10 neon pink 2.55 homage in a single month, pushing up its handbag sales by 40 per cent. Cashing in on the current trend, the store is planning an emergency delivery of 150,000 later this month.

Gemma Hayward

Sequel rights for unknown writers

As JD Salinger's lawyers rush to slap an injunction on '60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye' by one JD California, an unauthorised sequel to Salinger's 'The Catcher in the Rye', publishers must be dreaming about other cheeky sequels. If Harper Lee keeps refusing to follow up 'To Kill a Mockingbird', can't somebody else write 'To Kill a Hummingbird', in which attorney Atticus Finch, has Rumpole-like adventures at the shabby end of the Alabama legal system (and hums a lot)? If Brett Easton Ellis won't oblige with 'American Psycho 2', what about 'American Psychotherapist' in which a grumpy shrink helps patients work through their inadequacy issues? Should Cormac McCarthy fail to respond to pleas for a sequel to 'The Road', why not ask some hack to knock off 'The Road to Bruges', in which The Man and The Boy find shoots of global recovery in the grey wasteland, as they travel to a trade fair in Belgium. As for 'Portnoy's Complaint'.

John Walsh