Ephraim Hardcastle
THOMAS Reilly, 48, HM’s Ambassador to Morocco, was over-excited by the visit there by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Before their arrival he re-tweeted – presumably to earn their gratitude – a comment by the BBC’s Jeremy Bowen about Meghan’s extravagant baby shower party in Manhattan, saying: ‘Lay off Meghan. Her rich friends gave her a party. Lucky her, but it’s not evil.’ Reilly also photographed a number of his suits for Instagram, drolly claiming they were fighting over which should be worn for his royal visitors – as well as an Instagram snap of the colourful novelty socks he hoped to wear during their visit. I hope his friends and family have managed to calm him down since the departure of the royals.
REFERRING to predatory sexual misbehaviour, the gay actor Sir Ian McKellen, 79, pictured, tells the BBC’s Evan Davis during an interview at the University of Westminster: ‘Well, frankly, I’m waiting for someone to accuse me of something.’ Regarding the sex-abuse allegations surrounding actor Kevin Spacey and Hollywood director Bryan Singer, which they deny, Sir Ian says: ‘Both of them were in the closet. If they had been able to be open about themselves and their desires, they might not have been accused of abusing people.’ Sir Ian emerged from his closet in 1988.
LORD Sugar complains that Bafta has never given him an award for hosting BBC’s The Apprentice, recalling he was forced to borrow one of its statuettes as a prop for a TV interview about its failure to honour him. He said Bafta made sure it was returned immediately, adding: ‘They had a motorbike sitting outside my house in case I stole it. It’s unbelievable.’ An understandable precaution, surely.
LA-DI-DA actress Joanna Lumley recalls in The Australian Women’s Weekly being a single mother seeking financial help in a benefits office for her new baby son Jamie, who is now 51, saying: ‘When I opened my mouth I was told, “This isn’t for the likes of you”. I’ve always felt it was up to me to stand on my own two feet and if that meant eating toast and Marmite then that was it.’ A national treasure, not a welfare queen.
THE Queen hosts a big party at Buckingham Palace next week to mark the 50 years since Charles’s investiture as Prince of Wales. On display will be his coronet and regalia. The great and the good of Wales are invited to pay homage to Charles and Camilla, the current Princess of Wales – known, out of respect for Diana, his late wife, as the Duchess of Cornwall.
APROPOS of the Charles shindig, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, head of the Church of England, will make the keynote speech – not, as we might have expected, John Davies, the Archbishop of Wales, arguably a more appropriate choice; or Welby’s predecessor (and Charles’s confidant) Welshman Rowan Williams, the first non-English Archbishop of Canterbury for centuries.