Ephraim Hardcastle
THE Prince of Wales attends the fourth our ocean conference today to lament the state of the seas. many of those strutting their stuff in malta discussed the same subject at June’s United nations ocean Conference in new York. They meet again in Bonn in november for an annual Un climate change pow-wow. Does anyone calculate their carbon emissions?
APROPOS Charles, he and Camilla are off to enjoy some November sunshine in Malaysia, Singapore and India. They did the Middle East last year, Down Under in 2015 and South America in 2014. However, he will be missing out Burma due to the political unrest there. Uncle Louis became Earl Mountbatten of Burma after he led the wartime campaign to retake the former British colony from the Japanese. So a visit would fulfil a dream. The prince’s hopes of visiting Israel and Iran have likewise bitten the dust.
Today’S the 55th anniversary of the first ever Bond film Dr no, in which Ursula andress, pictured as Honey ryder, emerges from the sea in a white bikini. now 81, she remarked: ‘This bikini made me into a success.’ a morecambe and Wise sketch had shipwrecked Eric replying, when asked by an Ursula lookalike, if there was anything she could do for him: ‘You don’t have a chip pan?’
LIKE other actors, Sir Ian McKellen, 78, loathes mobiles ringing during performances. So what did he do when his phone trilled as he sat in the front row during Alan Ayckbourn’s The Norman Conquests in Chichester? Easing his weight on to one buttock, The X Men star calmly fished the offending phone from a back pocket, flipped it open, peered at the caller, silenced it and slipped it back. His ring tone? Just the boring old marimba.
Fred astaire’s official biographer michael Freedland writes to The Times to say that Fred’s dancing partner Ginger rogers didn’t like the fleet-footed hoofer very much. ‘For example, having lunch with Ginger I dared ask: “What was the magic of the astaire-rogers films?” Her answer was short and pithy: “Don’t you mean the rogers-astaire films? It’s usual to put the lady’s name first, isn’t it?” She seemed more worried about that than dancing backwards in high heels.’
PRETTY Baby star Brooke Shields says that when she was in her early 30s she got a strange call from a brash New York property developer named Donald Trump who had just split with his second wife (Marla Maples). Speaking on the US TV show Watch What Happens Live, Shields, now 52, recalled: ‘He said, “I really think we should date because you’re America’s sweetheart and I’m America’s richest man and the people would love it.”’ What a missed opportunity! Shields, who said her boyfriend wouldn’t have liked it, might be First Lady today. Or, more likely, ex-wife number three.