Pick of the week’s Gossip

Bridgerton, the Netflix period drama filmed at Castle Howard in Yorkshire, features an abundance of sex – and producers went to great lengths to make sure actors were at ease. They hired intimacy coordinators, and a closed set was “absolutely sacrosanct”, said director Julie Anne Robinson. That is, closed but for the castle’s “room monitors”, who refused to leave their posts – leading to some awkward moments. “We would be shooting a sex scene,” said Robinson, “and they would say, ‘Can you go easy on the bed, go easy on the bedpost?’”

Joe Biden had top billing at last week’s presidential inauguration, but it was a photo of Bernie Sanders looking grumpy in homemade mittens that stole the show. The senator’s pose led to a slew of online memes in which he was slotted into Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper, and stills from TV shows such as Game of Thrones and Sex and the City. Sanders took it all in good heart. “I’ve seen them,” he chuckled, adding: “I was just sitting there trying to keep warm, trying to pay attention.”

Singer Elaine Paige recently recalled getting her break at the age of 20 in the musical Hair. She said she was nervous about the show’s notorious nude scene – until a “handsome and tall” actor called Gary offered her his moral support. When Paige stood next to him for the big reveal, though, he got rather more in return. “He was 6ft 6in to my 5ft and out of sheer fear I put out my hand to grab his,” she said. “Only it wasn’t his hand I was holding.”