Ephraim Hardcastle
SCREENWRITER Peter Morgan, of Netflix’s The Crown, says he decided against having Prince Philip stray from his marital boudoir because the series is based on ‘meticulous research’. Is it really? The series portrayed the Queen opposing Princess Margaret’s marriage to Group Captain Peter Townsend. Records show that the then prime minister, Anthony Eden, actively helped HM pave the way for Margaret to marry Townsend, subject to giving up her right of succession. It was Margaret who called the whole thing off.
HOW did Admiral Lord West of Spithead manage to get part of the Solent into his title? It’s very unusual for the sea to be used in titles, but a source familiar with this arcane world says: ‘West became aware of a disagreement between Garter King of Arms, then Sir Peter Gwynn-Jones, and Black Rod, Sir Michael Willcocks. So he told Garter that Black Rod was opposed to him getting Spithead. This prompted Garter, who had the final say, to sign it off there and then to annoy Black Rod.’ Surely not.
ACTRESS Thandie Newton, 44, pictured, reveals in an admiring Sunday Times interview that her daughter, Ripley, 16, said to Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, after meeting him in a cinema: ‘Hello Mr Johnson, my name is Ripley Parker and I just wanted to tell you that you’re a ****.’ Ms Newton says: ‘I was so proud of her.’ What would we think of Johnson as a parent if he expressed pride in one of his own children uttered this obscenity to Ms Newton?
DAME Vera Lynn, 100 this week, was made a Companion of Honour in David Cameron’s 2016 Queen’s Birthday Honours list. Quite right, too. George V stipulated that the CH be conferred ‘upon a limited number of persons for whom this special distinction seems to be the most appropriate form of recognition’. Did Cameron spoil this gesture six weeks later by appointing George Osborne to the order?
DID you notice how poorly Admiral Mike Rogers, of America’s National Security Agency, performed alongside the FBI’s impressive James Comey in this week’s big congressional hearing? He failed to understand some questions and answered others poorly. President Obama failed to sack Rogers when urged to do so by advisers last November. Afterwards Rogers somehow endeared himself to president-elect Trump.
NOBEL Prize-winning Ernest Hemingway was courted by Soviet spy Jacob Golos in the 1940s, and indicated that he would cooperate, says Nicholas Reynolds, author of Writer, Sailor, Soldier, Spy: The Secret Adventures of Ernest Hemingway 19351961. Golos, a founding member of the US Communist Party, was impressed by For Whom The Bell Tolls, Hemingway’s proRepublican 1940 novel about the fight against Spain’s fascist dictator General Franco. Hemingway did try (in vain) to persuade President Roosevelt to intervene on the Communist side.