Ephraim Hardcastle
JEREMY Corbyn’s Cold War meetings with Communist spies are unlikely to shock the Queen, to whom he swore allegiance as leader of HM’s Opposition. Former Surveyor Of The Queen’s Pictures, Anthony Blunt, was a Soviet spy. Although he confessed to MI5 in 1964, it is said that his treachery was known when he was recruited into the Royal Household in 1945. But the Queen supported Blunt because of the assistance he had given her father, George VI. She is thought to have regretted stripping him of his knighthood in 1979, but had no option when then PM Margaret Thatcher exposed his spying activities in the Commons.
FASHIONABLE restaurateur Michael Chow, 79, celebrates half a century of feeding the famous by publishing a coffee table book, 50 Years. Ex-model Jerry Hall, 61, who attended the launch in Los Angeles, says: ‘I’ve known him 40-something years. When I was 17, my first holiday in LA, I stayed with him and Tina.’ Sadly Tina, a model, left Chow after 17 years’ marriage and took a series of lovers, including actor Richard Gere and French aristocrat Kim D’Estainville, a bisexual who infected her with HIV. She died of Aids in 1992, aged 41.
RUTH Wilson, 36, pictured, famous for her gymnastic-like sex scenes with Dominic West in the TV series The Affair, attracts generous reviews as Alice, a Yorkshire Dales sheep shearer in the film Dark River. Her inspiration? A red-coated collie she met at a sheepdog training course, she tells Time Out. ‘She would refuse to look humans in the eye and was very jumpy, but when she was on the field with the sheep she was in charge. I thought, “OK, I’m going to base Alice on that sheepdog.” ’
ART historian Simon Schama, 73, says he fears coming across as a ‘post-colonial nincompoop’ in Civilizations, the BBC’s nine-part, politically correct remake of the late Lord Clark’s landmark 1960s series Civilization. He is filmed talking about the significance of 18th century Indian paintings, which are held up for the camera by turban-wearing figures. ‘I wanted to sneak out of the way,’ confesses Professor Schama.
APROPOS Civilisations, it also features classics expert Professor Mary Beard, 63. Prof Beard was worried she’d be paid less than Prof Schama. She says: ‘I asked the BBC, “Am I being paid the same?” And I’m happy to say that the answer is yes. I don’t think they’d lie to me.’ No?
PROCOL Harum lead singer Gary Brooker, 72, says rock guitarist Eric Clapton, also 72, deserves a knighthood more than Sir Mick Jagger, 74, whose ‘K’ was fixed by Tony Blair. Clapton ‘has always paid his taxes,’ says Brooker – a barb at Jagger, who reportedly postponed his investiture to coincide with the tax-avoiding days he was allowed to visit the UK. The Queen deputed Prince Charles to hand over Jagger’s bauble in 2003.