Ephraim Hardcastle

LIAM Neeson’s remark about going out armed with a cosh hoping to kill any black man who accosted him – allegedly because a woman friend had been raped by a black man – was made in a media interview promoting his new revenge movie, Cold Pursuit. Doesn’t this sound like more of a publicity stunt than a careless indiscretion? Especially after Neeson told his interviewer to be careful how she handled the story because (repeating a line from his Taken revenge movies): ‘I will find you.’ POLITICAL turncoat Shaun Woodward, a former Tory MP who joined the Labour benches and became rich after marrying grocery heiress Camilla Sainsbury, shows off the Long Island, New York, mansion he shares with lover Luke Redgrave, pictured, to House & Garden magazine. ‘It’s filled with books, art and things that mean a lot to me or to Luke,’ he says, adding: ‘At a frenetic time in global politics, this house is a real haven of peace.’ Isn’t life grand? WITH Sky News turning 30 this week, viewers were treated to 1989 footage of its political heavyweight Adam Boulton interviewing Labour’s Harriet Harman three decades ago. Boulton, 59, joined by Ms Harman in the studio yesterday, remarked: ‘She hasn’t changed a bit!’ Who says chivalry’s dead? INSISTING that sexual desire doesn’t fade, Dame Joan Bakewell says she and her late lover, the playwright Harold Pinter, enjoyed reminiscing about their canoodling after his subsequent marriage to second wife Lady Antonia Fraser, whom he wed in 1980. ‘He would occasionally say, “We did have fun, didn’t we Joan?”.’ She adds: ‘And yes, we did.’ Music to Lady Antonia’s ears, no doubt. JEREMY Paxman’s version of the difficult relationship between Princess Diana and her sister-in-law Princess Anne seems to have been copied from a rather sad account Diana gave to her biographer Andrew Morton for his book, Diana: Her True Story, in which she says: ‘I keep out of her way, but when she’s there I don’t rattle her cage and she’s never rattled mine. We get on incredibly well, but in our own way. I wouldn’t ring her up if I had a problem, nor would I go and have lunch with her, but when I see her it’s very nice to see her.’ HEALTH minister Nicola Blackwood, 39, becomes Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford, the only life peer under 40. She’ll receive £305 per sitting day – adjusted for inflation – for the next 41 years. That’s assuming Lord Fowler, the Lord Speaker (81 last Saturday), gets his wish to see peers retire at 80. Many of the Queen’s top team remain in post after their 70th birthdays – once their compulsory retirement age. My source points out: ‘Prince Charles once had a grand vision which involved pensioning off working royals who’d turned 70. However much Camilla might wish it, the age restriction is unlikely now to apply to King Charles and his consort.’