Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Jo: I did it my way
It’s an anecdote Patsy
Stone would dine out on...
Ab Fab star Joanna Lumley has revealed Ol’ Blue Eyes Frank Sinatra once chatted her up.
The actress, 74, had just appeared as a Bond girl in 1969’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, when she was invited to a party thrown by legendary Bond director Cubby Broccoli, which she was informed would be attended by Sinatra.
“There were some pretty girls, and I had been a Bond girl, so I was a ‘pretty girl’ and was allowed to go along,” she recalls.
“I put on a nice dress, and I was thinking, ‘I get to see Frank Sinatra!’”
Actor David Niven’s son, David Niven Jr, was hosting the bash, and invited Joanna – then in her early 20s – to meet the star, who would have then been in his mid 50s.
“I went and stood by the door and Ol’ Blue Eyes got out of the limousine and came in with much greeting, bants and chuffing and so on,” she said.
“Niv Jr said, ‘This is Joanna Lumley.’
And Frank looked at me with those great blue eyes and said, ‘Shall we leave now?’”
Joanna has previously said she was “dazzled” to meet him.
Laughing at the memory as she spoke to Gyles Brandreth in an online chat yesterday, Joanna – happily married to conductor Stephen Barlow for 30 years – revealed every year she sends anonymous Valentine’s Day cards to friends.
“Every year you should send a card to someone who really isn’t expecting it, and disguise your writing,” she advises.
“I try to do it every year and pick people at random from my address book.”
My Funny Valentine, as Ol’ Blue Eyes himself might say...
QUEEN Victoria’s mourning jewels - which were found in a drawer - are being auctioned.
A button, a brooch and pendants, some containing locks of hair, “brought solace” to the Queen following the death of her mother and three of her nine children. They belonged to
Victoria’s great-great-granddaughter, Patricia Knatchbull, and are being sold for the first time, with individual estimates of £1,000 to £3,000.
Victoria was famously linked with mourning, wearing black every day for 40 years after husband Albert died in 1861. David Macdonald,
Sotheby’s specialist, said: “You think of Victoria and great jewels of state. These are much more intimate, a deeply personal expression about loss.” They include a pearl button marking the death in 1878 of Victoria’s daughter Princess Alice. They are being auctioned on March 24.