Ephraim Hardcastle

SIR Elton John celebrated his 71st birthday with a sumptuous dinner at Rome’s Antica Pesa restaurant on the Via Garibaldi – a favourite with the celebrity crowd – with his husband, David Furnish, and sons Elijah and Zachary. He accessorised his Gucci outfit with a large crucifix hanging from a neck chain. Did Pope Francis, nearby in the Vatican, notice? Elton calls Pope Francis ‘my hero’ and demanded at an Aids benefit in New York: ‘Make this man a saint now.’ His Holiness might not approve of Sir Elton’s gourmandising in celeb eateries. Francis usually dines on simple fare like chicken. When hungry he fills up with bread, according to Jesuit rules.