Pick of the week’s Gossip

Donald Trump has an unlikely obsession: badgers. The president used to grill his former chief of staff, Reince Priebus (who hails from Wisconsin, the “Badger State”) about the creatures during key White House meetings, a new book claims. How do they “work”, exactly? Do they have a personality? What do they eat? “Enthralled” by the animals, Trump would interrupt staff as they tried to steer him back to troop numbers in Afghanistan, say, or health insurance. “Are they mean to people?” the president would ask the beleagured Priebus, “Or are they friendly creatures?”

Victoria Beckham and Stella McCartney have fallen out; they’ve unfollowed each other on social media and McCartney has reportedly uninvited the Beckhams to a family party she is throwing. What on earth could have caused such a rift? Nannystealing, apparently. “Victoria heard on the playground grapevine that Stella’s nanny was one of the best in town,” a source told The Sun. “She got her number and made her a lucrative offer to jump ship. When Stella found out, she went nuclear.”

Comedian David Mitchell used to find Twitter fun. “It was rare for anyone to say anything negative,” he recalls of the website’s early incarnation. “It was people chatting away to each other, saying, ‘Oh I’m just having a sandwich. Cheese and pickle’, and someone replies ‘Cheese and pickle, my favourite’.” What’s changed now? “Now it’s all, ‘Cheese and pickle? You know what the dairy industry does, don’t you?’”