Hardcastle Ephraim
MIGHT the Duke of york fail to attain the rank of a full admiral, due in 2020? Leaving the royal Navy as a middle-ranking Commander, his mother promoted him at five-yearly intervals to the rank of Captain, rear admiral and, in 2015, Vice admiral. Now it’s whispered that Prince Charles doesn’t think such automatic promotions can be justified in the modern world. Charles, incidentally, received some special gifts from his mother to mark hM’s Diamond Jubilee in 2012 – the ranks of field Marshal, admiral of the fleet and Marshal of the raf. he left the raf as a Group Captain, after crashing a plane in the hebrides in 1994 – although not, of course, as a result of that!
HOLLYWOOD star Robert De Niro’s wife, Grace Hightower, pictured, from whom he has separated after 21 years of marriage, was accused, perhaps unfairly, of bullying servants, calling one ‘a lazy Pole’ and another of coming ‘from the jungles of South America’. Striking Ms Hightower met De Niro while waitressing in London’s Mr Chow restaurant.
SPEAKER John Bercow, interrupting proceedings during the Brexit debate, trumpets: ‘By contrast with experience of earlier periods, during and indeed throughout my tenure, it is my overriding and almost inevitable practise... to call everybody in urgent questions and statements. that didn’t used to happen. It almost always happens with me!’ Cue cheers from Bercow fans in the chamber but don’t his verbose interventions prolong debates?
WHEN Meghan first appeared on the royal stage it was whispered that Prince Harry saw ‘something of his mother’ in her. She has since established a campaigning reputation and a willingness to break royal moulds – like Diana. A word of warning from a royal source: ‘Diana was divorced from Charles when she struck out on her own.’
STRICTLY judge Craig revel horwood, always keen to mention royal contacts, is asked by the BBC’s Gardeners’ World magazine about plans for his eight-acre garden, replies: ‘Building a stumpery full of ferns. Prince Charles and Camilla have one.’ (Of which Prince Philip inquired of Charles: ‘When are you going to burn this lot down?’)
PROMOTING her current tour, British pop veteran Petula Clark, 86, promises to ‘take the audience back’ with her hits through the decades but promises, ‘I won’t be wearing a mini-skirt.’ Be thankful for small mercies!
AN auction of the late Playboy boss hugh hefner’s possessions includes a branding iron, of the type used on Wild West cows, designed to represent the Bunny ears Playboy logo. Shouldn’t the gals at #Metoo investigate?