The New York Times may not be on everyone's regular reading list so you may have missed an interesting story about Robert De Niro. It seems that he is in a spot of bother with his neighbours in upstate New York.

Having bought an old farmhouse in 1997 for a mere $1.5m, a recent re-valuation of the property has now decided that it is worth $6m and an annual rates bill of $170,000. The famous actor is querying the scale of the increase, but other local residents have responded: ‘that's how we pay for our schools'.