Ephraim Hardcastle
AMID parliamentary carnage, Theresa May faces another constitutional headache: the forthcoming Queen’s Speech. It was cancelled last year so the Prime Minister could run a two-year session to deal with Brexit legislation, but it looks increasingly likely that the unresolved issue might sabotage the Queen’s appearance, due in May. Parachuting HM in to deliver a political speech in the midst of the current chaos is something the Palace is keen to avoid. Instead, Mrs May might opt for Lord Chancellor David Gauke reading the speech. Says one royal source: ‘The chances of getting a date for the state opening pencilled into the Queen’s diary are currently zero.’
WITH Mrs May odds on to vacate Downing Street has she considered the make-up of her coat of arms? Nearly all previous PMs chose a shield. Margaret Thatcher – motto Cherish Freedom – included an admiral (for the Falklands) and Sir Isaac Newton (to mark her career as a scientist). Clement Attlee chose Labour Conquers All and Harold Wilson What It Is, while Herbert Asquith was succinct with Immaculate. For Mrs May, my College of Arms herald suggests a shield incorporating an image of the Withdrawal Agreement covered by snakes and ladders, surmounted by crossed leopard skin heels. The motto? Strong And Stable.
APPEARING in tonight’s Comic Relief Four Weddings and a Funeral reprise, Andie MacDowell, 60, pictured, defends the syrupy movie scene where she famously asks lover Hugh Grant: ‘Is it still raining? I hadn’t noticed.’ She says: ‘I think the scene is gorgeous. If people enjoy making fun of that line, that’s fine... the character was so in love, she wasn’t thinking about the fricking rain!’
AND where was David Cameron – widely viewed as the Machiavelli of the Brexit shambles – lurking in the midst of yesterday’s ongoing parliamentary mayhem? Merrily lunching at the discreet Ivy Club in the West End with one of his predecessors as Tory leader, Lord Hague. Oh to be a fly on the wall!
UNLIKE Desperate Housewives star Felicity Huffman – accused of paying a bribe to help get her daughter into a US college – neither the Queen nor Prince Philip could ever be labelled as pushy parents. But Prince Charles did achieve Cambridge’s Trinity College with two Alevels (B, C) and brother Edward, with three (C, D, D), secured Jesus College prompting Prince Philip to tell dinner party guests at the time: ‘What a friend we have in Jesus.’
RECALLING Peter Sellers being taken to hospital after collapsing on the set of 1974’s grim Ghost in the Noonday Sun, director Peter Medak told of picking up a newspaper: ‘In the centre pages there was this photo of Peter having dinner with Princess Margaret at San Lorenzo in Beauchamp Place. I couldn’t believe it. He was supposed to be in a hospital across the road.’