Ephraim Hardcastle

ED BALLS whisked his wife Yvette Cooper off to Paris for the weekend, reveals the MP’s Register of Interests. A romantic interlude? Perhaps not. The pair attended the Franco-British Colloque 2015 Conference. Balls accepted £840.75 worth of ‘food, accommodation and transport’ while Ms Cooper made do with a more modest £822.74. So different from their pre-marital flat sharing in Dalston, East London. Ed recalls: ‘It was wild. We had an annual party and Evan Davis turned up in the most amazing leathers and chains.’ Nothing changed there then. ANSWERING a Q&A about travel, ex-rugby star Mike Tindall, 36, says: ‘I’m always late to the airport, and get rushed through security, so maybe you should always be late for a quick passage through the airport.’ Does being married to the Queen’s granddaughter, Zara Phillips, help a little? UGANDA-born Archbishop of York John Sentamu, 65, has not worn a dog collar since dramatically whipping it off on Andrew Marr’s show, cutting it up with scissors and vowing to remain collarless until Robert Mugabe’s rule in Zimbabwe ended. That was almost eight years ago. Colleagues at York Minster are trying to persuade him to resume wearing the collar, saying most people have forgotten the reason for the gesture. A Church House source says: ‘He sometimes resembles a Trollopian cleric who has forgotten to get dressed properly.’ RECALLING bonding with oddball film star Tom Cruise when they appeared in the 2012 movie Rock of Ages, Russell Brand (pictured) says the Scientology believer didn’t try to sign him up to the cult: ‘He was not interested. He couldn’t give a monkey’s about trying to sign me up. I was gutted.’ Even the strange Scientologists have limits, it seems. WHY isn’t the late writer Anthony Burgess considered fit to have a blue plaque erected outside his London home in Chiswick? ‘It was too soon after his death (1993) to arrive at a definitive assessment’, is the English Heritage committee’s implausible excuse. The committee – members include FA boss Greg Dyke and Arts Council chairman Sir Peter Bazalgette – recently approved plaques for Mansfield Cumming, Amelia Edwards, Daniel O’Connell, Fabian Ware, Wells Coates and Raymond Chandler. Apart from detective story writer Chandler, who are these people? BOOKIES Paddy Power have hired Gordon Brown’s former spin doctor Damian McBride to write blogs during the election campaign. He joins another Labour activist working for the bookmaker – Harry Dromey, 32, son of MPs Harriet Harman and husband Jack Dromey. ‘Harry works for Mischief, the team that looks after our marketing stunts,’ says a spokesman. TRAVELLING from Dublin to his native County Mayo for his mother Maureen’s 84th birthday, flamboyant X Factor judge Louis Walsh was congratulated by neighbours on his private helicopter. Says Louis, 62: ‘I travelled there by road. It’s my rich (New Jersey-based) brother Joseph who has a helicopter but everybody thinks it is me.’ Bachelor Louis is too modest. He has a £20million fortune.

E-mail: ephraim.hardcastle@dailymail.co.uk