Ephraim Hardcastle
JULIETTE Binoche’s portrayal of Coco Chanel in Apple TV’s The New Look defies the historic conception of the French fashion icon as a Nazi traitor. ‘Her involvement with Nazis is a fact, but you have to know that she didn’t kill anyone,’ Binoche tells Radio Times. ‘It would be easy to say Chanel was a collaborator, full stop, and you have to put her in the bin. But it’s way more complex than that.’ Omitting the fact that Chanel was a Nazi intelligence operative in Paris, Binoche also skirts the question of how Chanel, who slept with a German officer during the conflict, avoided post-war vilification. She offered free scent to US soldiers, with Malcolm Muggeridge noting: ‘They queued up to get the bottles of Chanel No 5 and would have been outraged if the French police had touched a hair of her head.’
ROYAL writer Ingrid Seward claims that the late Queen was ‘startled’ by American bishop Michael Curry’s impassioned sermon at Harry and Meghan’s wedding. But she doesn’t reveal why. Curry hit a raw nerve. Closing his sermon, he invoked the virtues of fire, saying it made human civilisation possible and shouting the word 15 times. Was he aware that the wedding reception was in St George’s Hall which was ravaged by flames during the Queen’s 1992 annus horribilis?
GYLES Brandreth boasts that Joanna Lumley, pictured, is one of three women he’s been paired with on the Channel 4 series Celebrity Gogglebox who have been made Dames. Naming the other two as Sheila Hancock and Maureen Lipman, he adds: ‘My wife says it’s because the Queen was watching Celebrity Gogglebox and thought, “These poor women having to sit on his sofa watching unspeakable programmes like Naked Attraction, we’ve got to reward them in some way”.’ Why didn’t she give fellow sufferer Gyles a gong?
IRKED by daft calls to ban rugby in schools after it was labelled ‘child abuse’, Boris Johnson fondly remembers a 1982 Eton Chronicle report of his exploits as Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson alias the Blond Behemoth, captain of the King’s Scholars against rival team the Oppidans. Evoking the peaceniks’ chants of ‘LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?’, the Chronicle asked: ‘Hey, hey, ABJ, how many Oppidans did you kill today?’
THE final TV appearance of Dad’s Army’s last man standing, Ian Lavender, who has died aged 77, was in EastEnders in 2017. Having battled cancer, suffered a heart attack and been diagnosed with sepsis, Ian glumly suggested: ‘I don’t think they could get me insured now.’ Rest easy Private Pike.
FRIENDS of Fairytale Of New York composer Shane MacGowan claim that his enthuasism for Lucky Jim writer Kingsley Amis inspired the song’s lyrics, including: ‘You’re a bum/You’re a punk/You’re an old slut on junk’. Kingsley’s ditty, sung by the book’s hero Jim Dixon, includes the lines: ‘You ignorant clod/you stupid old sod ... You wordy old turdy old scum/you griping old piping old bum.’ Discuss.