Further evidence reaches us that Quentin Tarantino is approaching middle age. It seems the great man has filed a lawsuit complaining about the noise emanating from his neighbour's birds. The offending macaws, owned by Alan Ball, Oscar-winning writer of American Beauty, are alleged to emit "ear-splitting shrieks and screams".

The suit goes on to argue that “the noise created constitutes a nuisance within the meaning of the California civil code section 3479, in that the exotic birds’ squawking, which occurs daily and continues over a span of seven or eight hours each day, is injurious to Tarantino’s health and offensive to his senses such that it obstructs Tarantino’s free use of his property and interferes with his comfortable enjoyment of life.” How long before he writes to the Irish Times letters page complaining about the amount of litter in our hedgerows?