Ephraim Hardcastle
BROADCASTING folk are talking about an awkward moment on Radio 4’s Moral Maze. Presenter Michael Buerk remarked to panellist Rev Giles Fraser, the trendy Left-wing cleric, that he looked like retail tycoon Sir Philip Green. My source says: ‘Embarrassingly, some wondered if Buerk was referring subliminally to the fact that, like Green, Fraser is, or was, Jewish. Actually Giles converted to Christianity.’ PETITIONS are gathering signatures for ex-Liberal MP Clement Freud to be stripped of his knighthood after being accused of historic sex crimes. His 1987 knighthood, at the age of 63, puzzled his Just a Minute colleague Nicholas Parsons, who got his OBE aged 81 and his CBE at 90. Such was their mutual dislike that Freud demanded that Parsons make no comment on his death and stay away from his funeral. Gentlemanly Parsons paid generous tribute on Freud’s death in 2009 but didn’t attend the funeral. APROPOS Freud, a source was in Mauritius in 2002 for the press opening of the grand Le Touessrok hotel. ‘So was Sir Clement Freud and his son, Matthew, the PR promoting the place,’ she says. ‘Clement approached our table of four female journalists and said: “Ladies, a case of pink champagne has been delivered to my suite and I have selected you all to share it with me in 15 minutes.” The door was open and he called out: “This way, ladies.” Inside, he was standing, completely naked, with a glass of champagne in his hand. We fled shrieking into the night.’ A likely story! HAS never-wed movie star Diane Keaton, 70, pictured in her prime, who complains she’s ‘sexually frustrated’ in private life, been affected by some of the roles she’s played? In the 2013 comedy The Big Wedding, her character, Ellie, is a fan of Tantric sex and ‘nine-hour orgasms’, saying: ‘It drives me crazy when I think about it.’ EX-Tory MP and broadcaster Gyles Brandreth, 68, who has been sharing etiquette wisdom with our readers, says British dogs do not ‘bow-wow’ but ‘woof-woof’. He adds: ‘Malaysian dogs go “gong-gong” and Chinese dogs “wangwang”.’ If he says so! DAVID Cameron’s ‘enterprise tsar’ Lord Sugar, 69, attacks Labour MP and Leave campaigner Gisela Stuart, 60, over her Bavarian heritage, saying: ‘I find it strange that Gisela Gschaider, a 1974 immigrant from Germany, is on the Brexit panel, telling us British what we should do.’ Under attack for this on social media, Sugar has had to deny being of immigrant stock. GRIZZLED movie veteran Burt Reynolds, 80, recalls fondly: ‘I’m still proud of dumping tons of horse s**t on the [scurrilous US magazine] National Enquirer’s huge Christmas tree at their HQ in 1985. They’d been writing c**p about me for years, so my pilot and I loaded my helicopter with manure, flew over and watched it cascade down the tree.’ More original than a lawyer’s letter. THE BBC’s questionable treatment of Sir Cliff Richard, 75, is much debated. A blogger suggests: ‘They should be made to broadcast his records for a full day – or listen to them.’ Now now!
Email: peter.mckay@dailymail.co.uk