Ephraim Hardcastle
ALONG with his partner, Declan Donnelly, troubled entertainer Ant McPartlin had become a royal favourite. In 2016, the duo presented an admiring documentary, plus deferential interview, about Prince Charles. They were a surprise choice to host the Queen’s 90th birthday pageant at Windsor Castle the same year. Although he spent a couple of months in rehab last year for painkiller addiction, McPartlin was in the line-up of ambassadors of The Prince’s Trust greeted by Charles earlier this month. Both received OBEs (One Bottle Each?) in 2017. I wondered recently if the Honours Committee would soon have to consider a double Ant and Dec knighthood. That problem might have receded.
FOLK singing icon Joan Baez, 77, says she’s recording her last album – ‘It’s a big decision but it feels so right.’ Having introduced Bob Dylan, 76, pictured with her, to the business, she adds: ‘I am pleased that I will be glued at the hip to him until we both die.’ In July 1963, then-unknown Dylan performed two duets with her at Newport Folk Festival. ‘Dragging my little vagabond out on to the stage was a grand experiment,’ she said. But by the time he ended their romance in 1965, Dylan had become much bigger than Ms Baez.
ARRIVING yesterday at Buckingham Palace with actress wife Barbara Bach to collect his knighthood, former Beatle Ringo Starr, 77, once remarked cheekily: ‘I’ve had enough of the royal family – it’s about time they went on holiday and stayed there.’ Fifty-three years ago, prior to receiving their MBEs, the Beatles smoked marijuana in a Palace lavatory – to ‘calm their nerves,’ John Lennon boasted afterwards. All forgotten now!
HAVING become a star in his 50s after portraying teacher-turned-drug dealer Walter White in the hit US TV show Breaking Bad, Bryan Cranston, 62, says: ‘I’m very attracted to damaged characters because I am one.’ Brought up by an alcoholic mother, he adds: ‘I’ve been poor, really poor; kicked out of the house, living out of a suitcase, no home.’ Now he’s a multimillionaire star. Isn’t life grand?
ARE we hearing too much of Andrew Lloyd Webber, 69, these days? He has a memoir to promote but has it all become a bit desperate? He complains in Reader’s Digest that his late mother’s monkey never liked him, adding: ‘When Mum got pregnant, her monkey Mimi became horrendously distressed and violently attacked her stomach with bloodcurdling cries.’ Enough already!
NEW Vanity Fair editor Radhika Jones, 44, has sacked 20 staff and produced a first cover (of actress Jennifer Lawrence) which is practically indistinguishable from December’s front of The Hollywood Reporter. Meanwhile industry types here are still laughing about a report that the new editor of British Vogue, Edward Enninful, 46, burst into tears after hearing that he wasn’t asked to meet the Queen at a recent London fashion show. Has Conde Nast’s management lost the plot?