Will Elle say yes to the Doc?
While researching her role as a deposed sovereign for the TV adaptation of Sue Townsend’s novel
The Queen And I,
was given an insight into how our own dear Queen uses her trusty Launer handbag to signal her wishes.
Says the actress: “I was told that if she’s fed up with someone she takes it off her left arm and puts it on her right. And if she wants to go home immediately she puts it on the table.”
A courtier illustrates the use of the handbag further, telling me that all royal staff are instructed that it’s HM’s most important accessory. He says: “She will place it on a table at events to indicate to aides that she’s ready to leave. Another signal is a discreet twist of her wedding ring, which she uses to emphasise to us that she’d like to be moved on from a conversation.”
Samantha Bond
THE ODD match between Elle Macpherson, the Australian supermodel who devotes her life to wellness, and Andrew Wakefield, the controversial English doctor who has been branded a one-man global health catastrophe, was said to have hit the buffers shortly before Christmas. But, in fact, I learn their relationship is growing ever stronger, with talk that the anti-vaccination campaigner, who is now sharing Elle’s home in Miami, has proposed marriage – despite his divorce from his Irish wife Carmel not being finalised.
The two have been entwined for eight months since they were placed next to each other at a medical awards ceremony in Orlando. Elle, 54, had settled in Florida after being awarded $53million in her divorce from billionaire Jeffrey Soffer.
Just a month before Berkshire-born Wakefield met Elle, the father of four had walked out of his 31-year marriage, telling his wife he wanted to “find himself ”.
A former gastroenterologist at London’s Royal Free Hospital, Wakefield, 62, had fled to America after he was banned from practising medicine in the UK over his fraudulent theory that the combined measles, mumps and rubella vaccine caused autism and bowel disease. His anti-MMR crusade has been linked to steep rises in international measles rates.
In continuing her romance Elle – once known as The Body – has ignored the advice from some of her business colleagues who warned that the reputation of her nutritional products, all based on an alkaline diet, could be damaged by her association with the disgraced doctor.
Wakefield’s fellow anti-vaccination campaigner Polly Tommey confirms the couple are very much together, and insists his marriage was over months before his chance meeting with Elle.
“Andrew is deliriously in love and they are really happy,” she says. “Elle’s a sweetheart – she’s put him on these nutritional shakes so he looks fitter than ever.
“He’s portrayed as some horrible child killer but he’s just a lovely guy who only wants to protect children. He deserves happiness as much as anyone.” Turning 61 has given a whimsical shiver as she looks back at her teenage years – a time seemingly dominated by her desire for sex.
“At 16 I was virginal,” she recalls. “I thought about sex almost every hour of every day; anticipating it, fearing it and longing for it.
“I was at a girls’ school and my brother was at a boys’ school. So I fell in love with each of his friends in turn, mostly misguided crushes; always asking, when will the moment happen? “Before that I’d practised kissing on plums, other girls, pillows...” has been promised a cameo role in Bergerac, which is to return to TV after an absence of 30 years.
But that will mean Nettles, 75, interrupting his retirement in Devon where, he once told me, he had the three things he considered a man needed to be happy: “The first is a large bank account, the second is a beautiful wife and the third is an Indian restaurant not too far away.”
Nick Knowles
is adamant that he will never change his basic mobile for a smartphone. “Life is not about looking down, it’s about looking up,” says the Who singer. “Every app is another step to make you look down and you’re not doing stuff for yourself.
“I was nervous when the internet came along. I used to say ‘I’m not sure it’s going to bring about good, it could destroy civilisation’.
“Once artificial intelligence controls the internet we’ll be in trouble and all those who are addicted to their phones will be brainwashed.”
Terence Stamp, Sir David Attenborough
has encountered plenty of scary situations during his global expeditions, but one of his most alarming experiences was in bed in London.
Sir David had returned home after months in Borneo and was relishing the prospect of his first night in crisp sheets. But he woke up drenched in sweat and his first thought was that he had malaria.
“So I woke up my wife Jane and said, ‘I’ve got malaria, what do I do?’ Then I put my hand on the sheet and it was red hot. While I was away, she had bought an electric blanket with a dual control.
“My side was on all night – I was absolutely parboiled.” That old swinger still rakish at 80, has never been shy about stepping forward when he finds a woman attractive – with the exception of Princess Margaret.
Reminiscing about the “intense chemistry” he felt existed whenever he met the Queen’s sister at parties, the erstwhile lover of Julie Christie and Jean Shrimpton admits he was too reserved to make the first move.
So he asked for advice from his more worldly brother Chris, a rock impresario, who told him to be supremely confident.
Says Terry: “I always liked Princess Margaret and she liked me but I didn’t know what to do. Chris told me to just slam her up against the wall. But I never did.”
Thank goodness.
Olivia
No matter how many plaudits come her way, one thing that won’t be trying is directing. “No way!” she exclaims.
“If I’m not needed for a scene I have a lie down, but directors have to be there, making decisions. The amount of times you see someone going ‘Can I just ask you a question?’ If I was the director, I’d go: ‘No!’”
His first attempt at scriptwriting – a film called The Golden Years – was not a critical success and could have done with an SOS makeover, but is game for another try. “I’m writing a new movie, based on Jack the Ripper,” the presenter of BBC One’s DIY SOS tells me. “It’s bringing out my dark side, which is something I keep in the closet back home and don’t bring out very often.”