Ephraim Hardcastle
THE Queen comes second to Angelina Jolie in a YouGov international popularity poll. Of more interest to courtiers – given the rise of republican movements in the Commonwealth – is that HM’s popularity is now at a high in New Zealand, Australia and Canada. Europeans are not so keen. Countries where the Queen’s distant cousins rule – Denmark, Spain and Sweden – are no keener on her than Brazil, Mexico and Argentina. Hence the suspicion that one is a Brexit supporter. WHEN Sadiq Khan joined the Privy Council, in 2009, as a Labour transport minister, London’s new mayor took his copy of the Koran to the ceremony because the Palace didn’t have one. Christian privy counsellors keep a copy of the Bible on which they swear, signed by Lord President of the Council, Chris Grayling MP. Officials considered buying a stock of Korans for future Muslim PCs but found that signing them is considered sacrilege. SCREEN beauty Kate Beckinsale, 42, pictured, with three films due for release, recalls an undignified start to her Hollywood career. Arriving for the premiere of 2001’s flop, Pearl Harbor, she wore a figurehugging white dress, sans underwear. Her stylist fretted that, when photography flashguns went off, ‘we’ll see your landing strip. So she dipped a razor into a glass of champagne and went up my skirt and shaved it off’. Ah, Hollywood. It’ll never lose its glamour, will it? FOLLOWING news that their daughter Laura Gallacher, 27, is five months pregnant by comedian Russell Brand, 40, her parents, ex-Ryder Cup captain Bernard and wife Lesley, say they’re ‘very happy’. No point in saying otherwise. And probably better to ignore that Brand’s ex-wife, singer Katy Perry, has said: ‘My mother thanks God every day for my divorce.’ BEFORE walking onstage to accept his Bafta for Wolf Hall, Mark Rylance, 56, gropes on the floor for his pork pie hat. He always wears one to be photographed or filmed. Is it embarrassment over encroaching baldness? THE Who mark their 50 years as a rock band by launching a champagne named after their frontman, Roger Daltrey. Oenophile Daltrey, now 72, says it’ll sell for a modest £95 a bottle. Not to band member Pete Townshend, 70, though. He used to consume ‘three bottles of brandy a day’, but hasn’t touched a drop since 1994. PRINCE Harry says children are disappointed to meet a real-life prince who doesn’t look the part, adding: ‘So I am going to pack a crown and a cape.’ No need for that. When (if?) he marries he can expect a dukedom, almost certainly of Clarence, which entails a scarlet robe and gold coronet with eight strawberry leaves. WELL-preserved showbiz veteran Dame Joan Collins, 82, complains on Twitter about a flooded drain near her London home, adding: ‘With a few bags of dog detritus included!’ Wouldn’t it serve us right if she exiles herself to homes in St Tropez and Hollywood?
Email: peter.mckay@dailymail.co.uk