THEY are more used to seeing Hollywood stars on the screen than in person, but this weekend staff at a York cinema found themselves face to face with a movie hero.

Oscar winning actress Emma Thomspon dropped in to City Screen on Sunday, and stayed long enough to have her photograph taken with staff.

Front of house worker Alicia Stabler said: "She came in with a friend to watch Pride. It was our usher Kate Calvert that recognised her and the buzz began around City Screen.

"I managed to catch her after the screening and asked if she would mind having a picture taken with some of us staff members as we're not used to having Hollywood stars coming in. She was lovely and obliged but asked if she could sort her face out in the toilets first as Pride was a bit of a tearjerker!

"As you can imagine we all had big grins on our face for the rest of the day as I can't remember ever having an Oscar winner in our building before!"