Ephraim Hardcastle
PRINCE Charles approves the appointment of the former Bishop of London, Richard Chartres, to the Lords – the first retiring Bishop of London ever to be ennobled. They’re old friends. The bishop was an executor of Diana’s estate. He preached at William and Kate’s wedding. Some think he’d have been a better choice as Archbishop of Canterbury than the incumbent Justin Welby. Is his ennoblement a consolation prize?
THIS is relaunch week for the Duchess of Cornwall. Yesterday Camilla was at the Women of the Year lunch. Today it’s a reception for the Royal Voluntary Service. Tomorrow it’s a visit to Oxford University. All solo engagements, chosen to put her back centre-stage after her recent seclusion caused by the publicity around the 20th anniversary of Diana’s death.
RE Hollywood’s Harvey Weinstein: former child star Shirley Temple, pictured, describes in her autobiography how, as an 11-year-old, she met producer Arthur Freed in his office at MGM. ‘He pulled out his p****,’ she recalled. When she laughed nervously – having never seen a naked man – he shouted, ‘Get out!’ At the same time, her mother, Gertrude, bolted from film boss Louis B Mayer’s office, saying he had ‘lunged’ at her. Miss Temple concluded that MGM had ‘more than its quota of lecherous old men’ and left it at that.
RADIO 4’s Woman’s Hour boasted it had landed an interview with Hillary Clinton – not hard, since she had a book to plug – but then the former US first lady and senator failed to turn up. Host Jane Garvey told listeners: ‘Hillary Clinton is very apologetic.’ How cringingly pathetic.
NOW ‘very, very disappointed’ to have been voted off Strictly Come Dancing, vicar-cum-broad-caster Rev Richard Coles, 55, confides that his civil partner, David, was very supportive. However, he adds: ‘The other day I did hear a voice shout up the stairs, “Stop dancing in front of the mirror! You’re scaring the dogs!” ’
WITH the Booker Prize winner being announced today, author Jeffrey Archer, 77, with sales exceeding 300million, says: ‘I’ve got seven literary awards abroad but I would love to win one in Britain. I had the great honour in South Africa to meet [the late] Nadine Gordimer. She said, “Jeffrey, do you think I wouldn’t trade my 10,000 sales for yours?” She got the Nobel Prize, dear old thing.’ Dear old thing? Do you share my suspicion that Jeffrey’s not a fan of Nadine’s prose?
IS PORTLY TV comic James Corden, 39 – the UK’s gift to Hollywood – quite as nice as he thinks he is? He’s had to apologise for ill-judged ‘jokes’ about Harvey Weinstein. One involved soap-loving Weinstein being in hot water. He also said it was such a beautiful evening, Weinstein had invited it up to his room. He doesn’t write this garbage, of course, he has a monkey-house of jokesmiths. All he has to do is choose. But he’ll be back entertaining us in the UK soon if he can’t distinguish comedy gold from dross.