Ephraim Hardcastle

EFFORTS by cricket commentator Henry Blofeld to secure membership of the MCC for Prime Minister Theresa May annoy some on the club’s 27-year waiting list, one of whom tells me: ‘She’d never be short of an invitation to a box on big match days. They might offer her honorary membership, although you usually have to be royal, or have been a top class cricketer, judging by the honorary members’ list.’ A greater MCC concern is royal patronage. The Queen remains patron but hasn’t visited in recent years. Prince Philip has been honorary life member since 1948 but rarely attends. Ditto Prince Charles, honorary member since 1975. Prince William and Kate are honorary members since 2014 but haven’t appeared. It isn’t cricket, is it? CALLS from supporters for David Miliband, 52, to front a new ‘centre party’ are ridiculed by Mail commentator Ian Birrell who says: ‘There’s a hole in the centre of UK politics but David Miliband – fat-cat charity chief creaming off £497,000 per annum in poverty industry and a poor politician who lost the crown to his brother – is most definitely not the person to fill it.’ Too unkind? OUTSPOKEN movie star Kathleen Turner, 63, asked about her favourite film, mentions Switching Channels (1988) with Burt Reynolds, saying: ‘Burt was absolutely a terrible, terrible person to work with. Awful. And I don’t think it’s a good film, either.’ Perhaps the actress, pictured in the ’80s and now, elaborates on this in her one-woman show, Kathleen Turner: Finding My Voice, opening in London on April 17 and touring the UK from May 6. Miss Turner was once a tour de force, now she is forced to tour, as the late, great actor-manager Sir Donald Wolfit acknowledged of his own career. DUBBED ‘unluckiest man in showbusiness’ for being sacked by The Beatles shortly before they hit the big time, drummer Pete Best requests a meeting with Sir Paul McCartney to find out why. Didn’t John Lennon explain? He once commented nastily: ‘There was this myth being built up over the years that he was great and Paul was jealous of him because he was pretty. We were always going to dump him when we found a decent drummer.’ DISCUSSING rock tour life in his dotage, Sir Mick Jagger muses: ‘You’ve got to conserve a bit of energy. On the last tour [2017] I did make one or two mistakes. I got a bit over-exuberant on the aftershow front.’ The rancid bounder, 74, began canoodling with striking KuwaitiAmerican heiress Noor Alfallah, 22. NIGELLA Lawson, 58, lists Tonio Kroger, a 1903 novella by Nobel Prize-winning German novelist Thomas Mann, as a favourite book, enthusing: ‘It felled me completely when I read it.’ She was struck by ‘the lethal vulnerability of the lover set against the wanton, cruel power of the beloved.’ Don’t you hope still-gorgeous Nigella isn’t speaking from personal experience?