Ephraim Hardcastle
ORGANISERS of tomorrow’s memorial service for the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire have banned local Tory (but not Labour) councillors from St Paul’s Cathedral. The Prince of Wales, the Duchess of Cornwall, the Cambridges and Prince Harry are on the list. So is local Labour MP Emma Dent-Coad, who described the royals as ‘thick’, accused Prince Philip of infidelity and claimed it was a ‘fact’ that Prince Harry is incapable of flying a helicopter. The Acting Bishop of London, Rt Rev Pete Broadbent, is also expected. He called the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge ‘shallow celebrities’, urging all ‘good republicans’ to boycott the ‘nauseating tosh’ of their wedding. What an intriguing galere!
EDDIE Mair paid tribute to late entertainer Keith Chegwin on his Radio 4 PM show. He included an emotional interview with Noel Edmonds, who said ‘Cheggers’ had faced mockery, adding: ‘People can be terribly cruel.’ Indeed so. Mair himself upset Chegwin after joking in the Radio Times about a frustrating experience with a bank employee, quipping: ‘I considered telling her the cash was needed to cure cancer – or to keep Keith Chegwin off the telly.’ Chegwin contacted him to say: ‘What a rude man you are. I’m very disappointed.’
ENGLISH film and TV star Suzanna Leigh, pictured in her prime, who has died aged 72, had her heyday in the 1960s and 1970s when she starred alongside Elvis Presley (in Paradise, Hawaiian Style), drove a Rolls-Royce and reportedly notched up movie stars Steve McQueen, Michael Caine and Richard Harris as well as royal-connected photographer Patrick Lichfield among her conquests. Born Sandra Eileen Anne Smith in Berkshire, she changed her surname to Leigh, after Vivien Leigh, her godmother. Presented to the Queen at a royal command performance, Ms Leigh said later that all HM wanted to hear about was Elvis.
BROADCASTER Anne Robinson, 73, says in The Oldie that among those keen to have sexual intercourse with her, was a chief adviser to two PMs, who suggested after breakfast during a Labour conference, ‘Shall we go up to my bedroom?’ Another would-be seducer called Clive – then ‘The Observer’s most gifted writer’, she says – asked if sharing her bed was out of the question. And a well-known literary journalist she names allegedly made ‘a full-on grab’ and kissed her on the lips. Who’d have guessed Annie was so much in demand?
FURTHER to my item about Newsnight’s cerebral Kirsty Wark appearing on a celebrity version of ITV’s The Chase, which often features in Private Eye’s Dumb Britain column, a fan points out: ‘In 2013, on Newsnight, the wee hen from Dumfries performed a zombie dance routine to Michael Jackson’s Thriller.’
THE EU’s list of 17 countries it accuses of offshore tax avoidance schemes doesn’t include tax haven Luxembourg, where European Commission president JeanClaude Juncker was PM and finance minister. Also omitted is EU-worshipping Ireland, which Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz says is part of a corrupt global conspiracy of tax avoidance.