Ephraim Hardcastle
RUPERT Murdoch’s announcement that he is to marry celebrity Jerry Hall – at 59, 25 years his junior – would intrigue the media mogul’s mentor, the late Express owner, Lord Beaverbrook. He gave Rupert his first job when he came to Britain. ‘He was Rupert’s role model,’ his nephew, the ex-Tory MP Jonathan Aitken, tells me. Aged 84, the Beaver, by then a widower for 36 years, married his companion, Christofor, 53, the widow of a friend, financier and baronet Sir James Dunn, in 1963. Beaverbook told nephew Jonathan: ‘She has 80million dollars (worth over £400million in today’s money). Never be afraid to marry a rich woman, Jonathan.’ Ms Hall is less fortunately placed, having received a settlement of about £10million from Sir Mick Jagger. The daughter of a Cypriot tobacco merchant, Christofor once hired a 227-seat DC8 jetliner to fly herself and two dogs to Canada.
HOLIDAYING in her native Australia, saucy writer Kathy Lette, 57, says: ‘Am down the coast surfing with my three sassy sisters. Always make sure there’s a bloke further out as shark bait.’ Is Kathy referring to her husband, long-winded lawyer, Geoffrey Robertson QC?
PILOT Tracey Curtis-Taylor, 53, pictured, is applauded for her plucky, 14,000-mile flight from Britain to Australia in a vintage biplane, supposedly emulating pioneer British aviatrix Amy Johnson, who made the first solo flight in 1930. But fellow aviatrix Amanda Harrison, 34, who plans making the same journey in a plane similar to Ms Johnson’s, says: ‘Tracey was accompanied by a pilot/engineer and a back-up plane. I will have an extra fuel tank where the second pilot sits.’
ROYAL Shakespeare Company boss Greg Doran, 57, often casts his boyfriend, actor Sir Antony Sher, 66, in top roles such as Falstaff and Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman. Sher’s now to play King Lear in August. ‘Soon it’ll be called the Royal Sherskpeare Company,’ says a source. ‘Doran might not be attracting other top actors to Stratford because they no longer like to be committed for so long to a company in the sticks.’
EVER since Princess Diana was photographed alone and looking wistful in front of the Taj Mahal in 1992, our diplomats there have sought a happier royal visit to this world heritage site. Prince Charles has steered clear on his four subsequent visits to India, as did the Queen on her visit in 1997. Now William and Kate are being urged to include the Taj Mahal on their tour of India this spring. The couple are mediasavvy enough to know that if they’re photographed there – either smiling or otherwise – the doleful snap of Diana is likely to be published alongside.
THE Duchess of Cambridge’s rascally uncle, Gary Goldsmith, inquires on social media: ‘So Jerry (Hall) what was it that first attracted you to the zillionaire Rupert Murdoch #classy’. Texan Ms Hall is too refined to reply: ‘Exactly what your niece found in Prince William.’