Ephraim Hardcastle
SIR Elton John’s husband, David Furnish, is to have a stand named after him at Elton’s beloved Watford FC opposite The Sir Elton John Stand. The roly-poly crooner, who is honorary club president, tells Soccer on Sunday: ‘David hates football, and yet he’s become a Watford icon. Fans love him. They see him looking down from the luxury box three times a year, and appreciate the trouble he’s taken to helicopter all the way in from Venice.’
ITV’s self-absorbed political editor, Robert Peston, trumpets claims that he ‘scooped’ BBC rival Laura Kuenssberg with the news that Boris Johnson was backing the campaign to quit the EU. Highlighting praise from fellow Twitter creeps that he ‘got there first’, Peston, with mock modesty, responds: ‘ Monkeys and typewriters, in my case. But thanks so much.’ Meanwhile, his former BBC colleague Allegra Stratton, who also quit the corporation for ITV, tweets: ‘Amazing political journalism from Robert Peston – first on telly with news of Gove and now Boris Brexit decisions. Ballsy stuff. Superb reporting.’ Peston: ‘Blimey. Thanks Allegra.’ Pass the jumbo sick bag, Alice.
GORBALS-born breakfast show star Lorraine Kelly, 56, pictured, has been talking about ageism in TV, saying: ‘I’ve never experienced it, but I was never hired for my looks. If you look back at pictures of me, you’ll see I wasn’t! I think the reason there are so many women who are brilliant at their jobs but have been sidelined because of their age comes down to just that. People have grown up with me. And in the eyes of my bosses and producers, that’s far more important than whether I am – or was – a dolly bird. My job isn’t about me – and there are some presenters (I shall name no names!) who I think need to know that.’
DONALD Trump, threatening to sue rival Ted Cruz over his eligibility to be president, once issued Cease and Desist Orders when his neighbours in Aspen, Colorado, mocked his bicycle race Tour de Trump by organising their own Tour de Rump. Says Londonbased former Nixon White House aide and Wall Street banker Bill Cotter: ‘I was one of his neighbours. He boycotted the event after spending thousands of dollars to stop this supposed mockery of him.’
HEIRESS Jemima Goldsmith, 42, says she wants to interview any couples who had an arranged marriage and have been happily together for 25-plus years, adding: ‘Interview not for publication, only research.’ Jemima married Pakistani cricketer/politician Imran Khan in 1995, when she was 21, in an Islamic ceremony. Their marriage was dissolved in 2004. Since then she has had romances with actor Hugh Grant and comedian Russell Brand. It’s too late for Jemima to have an arranged marriage but perhaps she is thinking of her two sons.
THE late comic actor Kenneth Williams, who would have been 90 yesterday, had a difficult relationship with his barber father, Charles. He once reflected: ‘My father and I didn’t get on. He was sport-mad and wanted a son who enjoyed that. He also liked to go to the pub for a pint of bitter. When I was old enough to go with him, I asked for a sweet sherry. He was shocked and said, “You namby-pamby sod.”’
Email: peter.mckay@dailymail.co.uk