Ephraim Hardcastle
cLEarLY loving his new job, Foreign Secretary Jeremy hunt has been name-dropping. he says german chancellor angela Merkel bestowed a ‘wry smile’ upon him while President trump favoured him with ‘a manly handshake’. he had dinner in new York with former uS secretary of state henry Kissinger, who told him america needed an independent British voice ‘and without Brexit he worried there wouldn’t be one’. Best of all, Sky’s Kay Burley flew there to interview him.
GOOD Morning Britain’s Piers Morgan attacks John Cleese for choosing to appear on the ITV show on a day when he wasn’t hosting it, calling the comedian ‘a complete and utter k***’. Morgan announces on air: ‘Next time Cleese, when you’ve got something to say about the British media – how awful the country is and all the rest of it – come and do it while I’m here. Gutless little weasel.’ Can Cleese resist such a generous invitation?
REFERRING to chancellor Philip hammond’s personal criticism of Boris Johnson, international trade Secretary Liam Fox says: ‘ronald reagan had an 11th commandment, “never speak ill about fellow conservatives”. i take that commandment to heart.’ Fox was smeared by enemies in the party when he sought the tory leadership in 2005. he blamed david cameron’s campaign chief george osborne at the time.
‘CALL me Sir Rod’ Stewart, 73, whipped out his 2016 Birthday Honours knighthood medal and ribbon on Graham Norton’s TV show, pictured, saying: ‘This doesn’t come from the Royal Family – it comes from the British public.’ Only in the sense that HM (or her honours committee) recognises the public esteem in which he is held. Whither David Beckham’s hoped-for knighthood? He didn’t help matters by calling honours bigwigs ‘a bunch of **** s’ when he didn’t get a ‘K’ in 2013. Or by making public last week a picture himself and wife Victoria celebrating with a £1,300 bottle of Cote de Nuits wine in Paris after dodging a speeding conviction.
NAOMI campbell, 48, is fanatical about sanitary conditions when flying, says uS singer ryan destiny, 23, who appears with the model in an american tV musical drama, Star, adding: ‘She puts napkins down on the entire seat.’ ordered to do five days’ community service (8am to 4pm) in new York’s sanitation department in 2007 after hurling a mobile phone at her housemaid’s head, was this sanitary, as well as a salutary lesson?
THE BBC says it can’t reveal who it invited (at public expense) to be its guests at the Proms this season. Its attitude seems to be, why would anyone want to know? My source says: ‘The information can be a useful guide to whom among the rich, famous and influential are courted by BBC executives – and what their private motives for doing so might be.’