Hardcastle

REGARDED as America’s greatest living writer, Philip Roth, 84, has secured an important victory against the often-unreliable online encyclopaedia Wikipedia. He complained of inaccuracies in their description of who inspired his 2000 novel, The Human Stain. When Wikipedia responded by claiming that he was not a credible witness to his own life, Roth wrote an open letter damning the website. Finally they caved in and Roth rewrote his entire entry. Although a formidable intellectual, Roth, whose 1995 divorce from second wife English actress Claire Bloom was acrimonious, is not above using unwholesome material in his books. In Portnoy’s Complaint, the protagonist is an obsessive onanist who makes love to a piece of raw liver. ANNOUNCING Princess Eugenie’s engagement to long-term boyfriend Jack Brooksbank, royal officials make an embarrassing mistake. They say her parents, ‘the Duke and Duchess of York,’ are delighted to make the announcement. But the Yorks are divorced. It should have been, ‘the Duke of York and Sarah, Duchess of York’. Or, Sarah, ex Duchess of York. EUGENIE’S engagement prompts memories of her father’s marriage announcement with Sarah Ferguson in 1986. When asked during an excruciating TV interview for his thoughts about marital life, Andrew predicted: ‘I don’t think there’s any settling [down] in it. It’s a mighty upheaval for most people and I think it will be an upheaval for both of us.’ So it was. They were divorced in 1996. ATTACKED by then prime minister David Cameron in 2012 for his involvement in an alleged tax avoidance scheme, comedian Jimmy Carr, 45, cheekily chooses ‘tax loopholes’ in the February 2 edition of BBC One’s ‘pet hates’ show Room 101. Recalling how Cameron berated him, he points out that ‘there is a large offshore trust in his family’s name which pays no tax,’ adding: ‘There is always going to be a kind of level of hypocrisy in this.’ Carr, pictured, now says ‘get the money, pay the tax… I did a bad thing but I didn’t kill anyone…’ PUBLICITY-prone Tory MP Nadine Dorries savages hopeless Ukip leader Henry Bolton, 54, over his doomed romance with topless model Jo Marney, 25, remarking: ‘Will the day ever come when an ageing, balding dad looks in the mirror and asks himself, why is she with me? Contacts? Career enhancement? Money? Security? Shucks, no – it’s because we have so much in common, I’m a trendy, hot bit of stuff and she SO understands me. Sad dad men.’ Almost makes you feel sorry for Bolton, doesn’t it? LIKENING the notoriously amorous Robert Burns to modern-day sex pest Harvey Weinstein was never going to go unremarked. But former Makar Liz Lochhead seems surprised by the opprobrium poured on her claim that the Bard implied he raped Jean Armour, later his wife. Now Miss Lochhead, 70, says she will give up making speeches about Burns as a result. Ae farewell, alas, forever! as Ayrshire’s heaven-taught ploughman might have put it.