Ephraim Hardcastle
WHEN for the first time Prince Charles laid the Queen’s wreath at the Cenotaph last year – his parents looking on from a Foreign Office balcony – it was thought this would be the new norm. However I hear HM wants to perform on November 11, the end of WW1 centenary, on condition that Prince Philip – now largely absent from the national stage – decides to attend. HM decided to join him last year when, newly retired, Philip chose to watch proceedings from the FO.
PRINCE Philip arrived at Balmoral on Monday to supervise grouse shooting. He no longer shoots but sometimes follows on in the ‘whisky wagon’, dispensing refreshments. He now prefers fly-fishing, using expensive tackle the Queen Mother amassed in her later years. ‘HRH would cast a line while wearing her pearls, accompanied by a page dispensing food, coffee – and something stronger to fortify the royal frame,’ I’m told.
HOUNDED over alleged sex crimes which he denies, Kevin Spacey is now blamed for the miserable openingnight takings (£98) for his new film, Billionaire Boys Club – he is pictured in character. Yet the film Misconduct, starring Oscar-winners Anthony Hopkins and Al Pacino, netted only £97 – and they received commiserations, not condemnation. So have other floperoo movies featuring seemingly-blameless big stars. William Goldman, who wrote 1969’s monster hit Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (cost £4million; gross profit, £90million plus) said of the movie industry: ‘Not one person knows for a certainty what’s going to work.’
HAVING split from her QC husband, Geoffrey Robertson (they married in 1990) authoress Kathy Lette, 59, often discusses her love life publicly. Her latest dispatch: ‘I’ve got a few hormonal irons in the fire. Yes I do! No fake tans, no surgery, no bikini-waxing. I’m just keeping the lights low. Dim the switch (and I’m) the greatest beauty known to womankind.’ Isn’t exhubbie, ‘human rights’ expert Robertson, disconsolate at losing such a firecracker!
HUMAN rights-supporting movie star Angelina Jolie is ‘insanely jealous’ of actor George Clooney’s lawyer wife, Amal, who she believes ‘has stolen my identity’ as the world’s top fashion-plate humanitarian. So says US writer Emily Smith, who adds that Ms Jolie – a UN special envoy who heads up the charitable Jolie-Pitt Foundation and the Maddox Jolie-Pitt Foundation – thinks that even-slinkier-than-herself Amal is ‘imitating to the point of stalking’. Worse, the Clooneys appear to have sided with Brad Pitt in his bitter estrangement from Ms Jolie.
PRINCE HARRY and wife Meghan will attend the popular musical Hamilton next week. The story of US Founding Father Alexander Hamilton gives ‘Megs’ a sense of deja vu, suggests my source. ‘With her own family taking pot shots at the descendants of George III there’s plenty to talk about afterwards.’