For years, the Commission's reaction to made-up stories (eg, the EU is to scrub all mentions of the Queen from British passports) has been to write a polite letter of correction, and after a delay of some days, put a little item on its website.

ECONOMIST: European politics

It also highlighted an offer letter he wrote to Austrian actor Oskar Werner for the title role in the film and a "very polite hand-written inability letter" from Audrey Hepburn, in which she said she had decided not to work for a while, but asked if he would consider her "again sometime".

BBC: Spielberg to develop Kubrick's Napoleon for TV