Ephraim Hardcastle

WILL Prince Harry’s girlfriend Meghan Markle continue with her showbiz career if they marry? Or will she follow the example of Hollywood star Grace Kelly, who wed Prince Rainier of Monaco and retired from acting? And who’ll wear the trousers in a Harry/ Meghan marriage? ‘Meghan could be the fabled breath of fresh air the royals need… or she could usher in a republic,’ observes one courtier. APROPOS Harry: With the Duchess of Cambridge’s pregnancy making her unavailable for royal duties, he’s being pressed into the Government’s EU charm offensive, with an overnight trip to Denmark next month – just the sort of short stint in a UKfriendly country that Kate would normally do solo. It demonstrates just how few headline-grabbing royals there are these days given that the Queen no longer travels and Prince Philip has retired. LABOUR stalwart Lord Prescott, 79, objects to being grilled about the party’s attitude towards Tony Blair on BBC2’s Daily Politics, after host Jo Coburn inquires: ‘So you don’t think anyone in Labour should listen to him?’ Prezza snaps: ‘I didn’t say that… you buggers, you people.’ Language! COLIN Firth, 57, has bagged an Italian passport via his Romeborn wife Livia Giuggioli, 48, pictured. Might Tony Blair be encouraged to follow suit? With Donegal roots on his mother’s side, an Irish passport should not be a problem to be sure, to be sure. VETERAN luvvie Lionel Blair, 88, blubbed copiously when unveiling a plaque to singer Alma Cogan at her Worthing home at the weekend. Alma, his ‘very best friend’, died almost 51 years ago aged 34. Ever the professional, hoofer Lionel unveiled the plaque earlier in the day for the ITV cameras. During the dummy run, I’m told, Lionel’s tears had the telly wallahs calling for umbrellas! PRINCE Charles won’t be amused to see himself attacked in architect Richard Rogers’s new book A Place For All People. He’s described as ‘architecturally ignorant’. But it might raise a royal titter from his cousin Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester. He’s a Magdalene College, Cambridgetrained architect, obliged to abandon his career when his older brother William was killed in a 1972 plane crash. ‘They have had some sharp exchanges of views,’ says a royal source. ARCHBISHOP of Canterbury Justin Welby is unmoved by the fuss over a boy wearing a skirt to school. ‘Not a problem,’ he says when questioned about it. For a man who spends most of his life surrounded by men in long frocks, it might seem perfectly natural. LEE Child, 62, the Coventry-born author of the Jack Reacher novels, says marijuana helps his creativity. ‘I don’t want it to be legal – I want it to be compulsory,’ he says, recalling he was a fan from his first spliff in 1969, adding: ‘I had sex for the first time, with two sisters in quick succession. One of the greatest weekends in my life.’ Fancy!