Ephraim Hardcastle
PALACE officials admit a gender pay gap of 12.39 per cent in favour of men. ‘The Queen feels more comfortable with them,’ I am told. When Lord Geidt stepped down as her private secretary last year there was pressure to appoint Samantha Cohen, then an assistant private secretary. Instead, HM picked Edward Young and Ms Cohen has left the household. It’s the same with honours HM dispenses. Currently there’s only one Lady of the Garter and no Lady of the Thistle, its Scottish equivalent. What about the formidable band of women who have the monarch’s ear, follow her around and supply her with gossip? The ladies-inwaiting aren’t paid at all!
APROPOS royal machinations, is the appointment of career civil servant Simon Case as Prince William’s new private secretary – reported here last week – a kick in the teeth for Prince Charles? Case is a creature of Cabinet Secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood, aka ‘Sir Cover-Up’. Ostensibly Case (and Heywood, behind the scenes) – not Charles and his officials – will help William prepare for kingship. However, William has a more important mentor. ‘The Queen has been careful to guide William through protocols and red boxes in quite a detailed way,’ says a source.
CHARLTON Heston, who died ten years ago today, never got over his row with the late writer Gore Vidal, who claimed that Judah Ben-Hur – whom the actor, pictured, famously portrayed – was a secret homosexual. The star wrote to the LA Times, protesting: ‘Vidal’s claim that he slipped in a scene implying a homosexual relationship insults (director) Willy Wyler and, I have to say, irritates the hell out of me.’ Gay Vidal made matters worse by replying: ‘Chuck, just remember that wise saying, “Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practise to deceive”.’
GLENDA Jackson won two Oscars as an actress, a seat in Parliament for Labour and now, at 81, is a hit on Broadway in the Edward Albee play Three Tall Women. ‘The legendary actress still possesses the energy and the clarity that characterised her greatest film and television appearances,’ says New Yorker critic Hilton Als, calling her voice – a foghorn to political enemies – ‘one of the great instruments of the English-speaking stage’.
RESPONDING to a picture of Nigel Farage with a cake inscribed ‘Happy (54th) Birthday Mr Brexit’, Remainer Tory MP Sir Nicholas Soames, 70, snarls on Twitter: ‘Universal prat-winkle aged 10.’ I suppose ‘Many happy returns, Nigel’ would have been asking too much.
MARK Byford, 59, who left his job as deputy director-general of the BBC in late 2011, has written a book, The Annunciation: A Pilgrim’s Quest, published on Monday. He has travelled extensively looking at religious art around the world on a ‘personal devotional journey’ of three years… mercifully cushioned by a £1million-plus BBC pay-off.