Ephraim Hardcastle

FORMER Harrods owner Mohamed al Fayed is upset by film producer Lord Puttnam’s recent unnecessary claims that he had to throw his late son Dodi off the set of Chariots of Fire for trying to give the cast cocaine. Puttnam, 71, who won an Oscar for the 1981 film, also claimed that Dodi was one of the laziest people he had ever met with ‘the attention span of the average flea’. Says Fayed: ‘When Dodi first came across the script it had been collecting dust on a shelf because no one else wanted to invest in it. But Dodi was a filmmaker of real vision: Chariots Of Fire would never have been made if it hadn’t been for Dodi.’ Following the success of Chariots, Puttnam was knighted and then made a Labour peer. Shouldn’t he be a bit more grateful? ASKED whether he’d take offence if the Prime Minister liked his music, urban rapper Plan B (aka Benjamin BallanceDrew, 28) replies: ‘No, I think it would be cool if he said that. You can’t treat politicians like they’re some alien race. But obviously I wouldn’t go straight back and say, “I really like David Cameron too. Let’s have tea and f****** scones together”.’ Some might say Cameron would probably just as soon entertain another Plan B, Labour’s barmy economic strategy of increasing public borrowing. But that’s another matter. NOW estranged from pop star Seal, supermodel Heidi Klum, 39, pictured, says of domestic life with her four children: ‘We have a rule in the house. Rule number one is always to look cool, and rule number two is don’t forget about rule number one. We have other rules, but the number one rule is always look cool.’ How about rule number three: mum should keep her mouth shut? LATEST accounts for BBC Worldwide, the BBC’s commercial arm, show chief executive John Smith earned £898,000 in the last financial year, making him the BBC’s highest paid executive. Amazingly, they also reveal Smith has time for a second job – non-executive director of fashion house Burberry – which earns him a further £70,000. I wonder if moneybags Smith is on PAYE – or paid through his own company a la Jeremy Paxman and a number of other top BBC stars. UNDER fire G4S boss Nick Buckles, 52, was given a proper going over by MPs on the Home Affairs Select Committee this week over his firm’s role in the Olympics security fiasco. Despite this, his elegantly coiffed hair remained stubbornly unruffled. But would its impressive dark chestnut hue make it through a heavy splattering of rain, I wonder? DEFENDING the practice of circumcision on Radio 4’s Today programme yesterday, I’m not sure it was wholly appropriate for Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain to announce: ‘As we all know, the Queen had Princes Charles, Andrew and Edward circumcised.’ Nor then to inform us: ‘I was actually done by the same chap who snipped Prince Charles.’ Too much information at the best of times, let alone first thing in the morning.