Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Trials of voluntary digital ID cards start in weeks
Heston’s chat-up as Paul is dressed as Lily Savage
MINISTERS have approved a digital ID card scheme to be run by private companies.
Trials for the card, which would work via smartphones, are to start within weeks at secret locations.
It will include proof of name, age, address and other personal details. Proof of a user’s Covid vaccine record may be added to open access to pubs and restaurants, and holidays once foreign travel restrictions are lifted.
Officials also suggest it could become as trusted as passports or bank statements.
An expert involved in the planning said: “It could be a slippery slope to a compulsory ID card in practice.”
Boris Johnson has opposed any national ID card plan.
A Department for Culture spokesman said: “Draft rules using digital identity technology will help establish trust online and make it easier for people to verify themselves.”
PAUL O’Grady says he was chatted up by Ben Hur movie legend Charlton Heston while dressed as Lily Savage.
The Hollywood icon mistook Paul’s loudmouthed, blondehaired alter-ego Lily for a real woman at an Oscars party, he says. TV presenter and DJ Paul, 65, says he was at the Oscars in 1996 when confused Heston began flirting with him at a finger buffet.
Paul was clutching a sausage roll when he was buttonholed by the actor, who won an Oscar for his title role in 1959 gladiator epic Ben Hur. Paul, then 40, was dressed as Lily for a skit on 1990s Channel 4 show The Big Breakfast, then hosted by Gaby Roslin.
Paul recalled of the odd encounter: “I met Charlton Heston at the Oscars. I was at the buffet helping myself and he came over and started chatting away.
“I’m chatting back and blah blah blah and he was very, very friendly. When
Charlton Heston walked off,
Robin Williams came over and said ‘He’s got a shine on you… he thinks you’re a woman’. Every time Charlton saw me, I got a wink and a nod, and I gave him a wink and a nod back and I thought ‘I’m on here, I hope he’s got his chariot outside’.”
Paul recalled the encounter on his
Radio 2 show. His producer Malcolm Prince chipped in: “Good lord, you got picked up by Charlton Heston.” Paul replied: “Yes, picked up at a buffet by Chuck Heston and I had a sausage roll in my hand at the time!” Heston died at the age of 84 in 2008 after a career spanning almost 100 movies – also including Planet of the Apes, Earthquake and Soylent Green.
He also appeared in TV series Dynasty and spin-off The Colbys.
Heston was wed to actress Lydia Clarke for 64 years. She died in 2018.