Ephraim Hardcastle
SOME old hands at Buckingham Palace fret about the arrival, as Prince Harry’s fiancée, of meghan markle, a feisty american with strong opinions. Her controlling performance in the TV interview with Harry suggests she isn’t shy about expressing her opinions. as an established celebrity who didn’t need a prince to make her famous, she could be the breath of fresh air the royals are said to need. ‘Or, take them off in directions they neither anticipated nor wanted,’ suggests an eeyorish royal source.
FORMER screen siren Bo Derek, 61, says she received a precious piece of movie memorabilia from fellow film sexpot Ursula Andress, now 81 – ‘a camel blanket from [the 1962 film] Lawrence of Arabia. ‘How did Ms Andress – who didn’t appear in the film – obtain the blanket? She enjoyed, ahem, intimate relations with Lawrence of Arabia star Peter O’Toole while making the 1960s film, What’s New Pussycat? pictured.
DWELLING in two-bedroom Nottingham Cottage at Kensington Palace – as they have been doing – is unlikely to suit Harry and meghan, plus one of her rescue dogs, for long. Plans are mooted for the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester to move out of their far more spacious Kensington Palace apartment to make way for them. as for a country pad, The Queen provided homes as wedding presents for her children, anne, andrew, edward and grandson William. Now Hm – or Prince Charles – is expected to do the same for Harry and meghan.
MEGHAN Markle won’t be the first mixedrace member of the Royal Family. Historians say that distinction belongs to George III’s wife, Queen Charlotte. German-born, she was directly descended from the 13thcentury Portuguese ruler Alfonso III and his African bride Madragana. Like Meghan, she is famous in America – there are two statues in (named-after-her) Charlotte, North Carolina.
FRANCE’S state-controlled radio station, Inter – their Radio 4 – comments that meghan markle ‘is living and smiling proof of Britain’s openness. …When Britain leaves the european Union, London will need to defend the idea that it is still an offshore nation. The (Harry/ meghan) marriage is a perfect business card.’ a happy sentiment but meghan’s reported to be anti-Brexit.
JK ROWLING’S support for the Union made her a target for nasty Nationalist social media trolls, but her work has an unlikely fan. Nicola Sturgeon is a Harry Potter devotee and, in particular, rates his inamorata Ginny Weasley. Ginny is a strong female who can use spells to silence opponents – whatever could Nicola see in her?
AFRICAN-AMERICAN movie star Denzel Washington, 62, who earns £15million a picture, says the problem of black men being disproportionately represented in the US prison population has nothing to do with ‘the system’ but ‘starts at home,’ explaining: ‘If the father is not in the home, the boy will find a father in the streets. If the streets raise you, then the judge becomes your mother and prison your home.’