Ephraim Hardcastle
BILLIONAIRE Sir Philip Green, 66, accused of sexual impropriety, flits between London and taxfree Monte Carlo, where his wife Tina lives. Attractive Italian socialite Nancy Dell’Olio, 57, tells friends that after meeting Sir Philip while exiting a West End club, she formed the impression he sought an intimate relationship, offering £1million by way of compensation. She declined the offer. Surely Sir Philip was teasing.
SKY’S perky presenter Kay Burley, 57, pictured, discusses female matters on social media, opining: ‘Menopause doesn’t mean you have to put men on pause – just make sure you’re ready for the power surge.’ Look out!
WAXING lyrical about the civil service, as his successor Sir Jeremy Heywood stands down because of illness, Lord O’Donnell enthuses on Radio 4: ‘It’s amazing how an independent, impartial civil service can operate that way and it’s a great strength of our country.’ Criticism of civil servants being less than impartial over the UK leaving the EU is ‘crazy’ and ‘ridiculous’, he insists. As 1960s call girl Mandy RiceDavies said in court when told that aristocrat Lord Astor denied having met her: ‘Well he would, wouldn’t he?’
MANHATTAN’S 21 Club is reported to have caught the eye of London club owner Robin Birley, 60. Opened in 1922 during Prohibition, gossip columnist Walter Winchell wrote that it had never been raided. Agents went in the next day but secret levers behind the bar tipped liquor down a chute into the sewers.
APROPOS my note about the Royal Family Order brooch the Duchess of Cambridge received from the Queen, a source says: ‘Despite a ten-year marriage to the Duke of York, the Queen never gave Sarah Ferguson the Order. Princess Diana received it after marrying Charles in 1981. Despite their divorce, as mother of a future king she remained a member of the Royal Family. Sarah didn’t.’
SPEAKER John Bercow, asked by a creepy SNP MP about former EDL leader Tommy Robinson being entertained to lunch in the House of Lords by Ukip leader Gerard Batten and Lord Pearson, replies: ‘I share his assessment of the individual concerned – a loathsome, obnoxious, repellent individual.’ Commentaire n’est pas nécessaire!
SIR Nick Clegg’s $1million appointment by Facebook intrigues New York magazine, which points out the former EU wonk ‘is well-positioned to help the company reset its relationship with sceptical European regulators and politicians. Facebook have reached such a nadir that not even Nick Clegg can make them worse’.
MUCH-missed broadcaster Sir Jimmy Young, who died two years ago, wore a wig. BBC studio manager Bob Nettles admits: ‘People in the control room put a bit of double-sided sticky tape on the inside of his headphones. When removed, not just the headphones came off.’ How cruel.