Antisocial climber set to scale dizzy heights of the Big Apple

* Having scaled the British landmarks of Buckingham Palace and York Minster, the headline-prone pressure group, Fathers 4 Justice, is taking its campaign to a global audience.

* Having scaled the British landmarks of Buckingham Palace and York Minster, the headline-prone pressure group, Fathers 4 Justice, is taking its campaign to a global audience.

The group's best-known activist, Jason Hatch - who masquerades as Batman - recently returned from a fact-finding mission to New York, where he "staked out" the Empire State building. It's all part of a plan to start an F4J cell in the United States.

Speaking from the balcony of the Foreign Office, where he unveiled a banner earlier this week, Hatch, above, told Pandora that (despite the obvious risks to his personal safety) he intends to launch F4J's international campaign later this year, with a high-profile demonstration on the US mainland.

"There's no question that I'm being monitored by security services, but that will not stop us carrying out protests in America," he said. "Fathers have a raw deal in many countries and not just in Britain. I might be shot, but then I'm not afraid of dying - I just don't want to."

Hatch's visit, which took place last month, did not escape the attention of the NYPD. A recent visitor to the Empire State Building tells me that his photograph is currently hanging behind the famous skyscraper's security desk. "Bizarrely, the poster had his name down as "Hatcher (Spiderman)" when everyone ought to know that he's called Hatch and dresses as Batman," I'm told.

* JUDE LAW has well and truly fallen out of love with the Oscars, after host Chris Rock described him as a "second choice" actor at Sunday's awards ceremony.

Yesterday, Pandora asked the actor's spokesman why - when the Oscars are supposed to be a highlight of the Hollywood calendar - Law wasn't in the audience to defend himself.

Apparently, he had better things to do. "He's filming in Louisiana, and Sienna [Miller] is with him there on holiday," I was told. "As he wasn't nominated or presenting an award this year, he didn't see any need to go."

It's quite a snub. But after Rock's sour comments - "You want Tom Cruise and all you get is Jude Law. It's not the same thing. Who is Jude Law?" - Law has every right to stick two fingers up at the event.

* HAROLD PINTER announced this week that he'll never write another play; but he's not about to call time on his theatrical career.

The game 74 year-old told me yesterday he hopes to appear in a play at the Royal Court next year. "There's an idea which is totally secret and absolutely can't be discussed that I might do something there next year," he said.

The theatre seems keen. Although nothing's been officially scheduled, a spokesman says: "If that's what Harold wants to do, we're not going to stand in his way."

Pinter, meanwhile, may yet change his mind about retirement. In the late 1980s, he also announced plans to hang up his pen and concentrate on politics - but then relented, and wrote another seven plays.

* BORIS JOHNSON may live to regret this week's Spectator cover, showing Charles Kennedy, Tony Blair and Michael Howard in the shadow of a skeletal hand, representing the Daily Mail .

According to chums, Johnson reckons that - if sacked by the Barclay brothers - he could earn a small fortune writing for Associated Newspapers. But sources at the Mail say that may no longer be the case.

"First Boris fell out with our columnist, Stephen Glover, now he's published this front-page attack," I'm told.

"Paul Dacre is unlikely to help someone who so plainly holds his paper in such low regard."

* A signal honour for Sir Terence Conran: the interior design guru Keith Hobbs - a former business associate, with whom he fell out a few years back - has bought a pet hamster and christened it Terence.

The rodent joins another hamster called Norman (after Lord Foster) in his household menagerie. But friends say it's a backhanded tribute.

"Nasty Norman keeps breaking into Terence's cage, stealing his food, and rogering him senseless," I'm told. "Keith finds it hilarious."

If Sir Terence feels upset, he only has himself to blame. Once asked: "If you could do away with someone, who would it be and how would you do it?", he replied: "Keith Hobbs, slowly."

pandora@independent.co.uk