Ephraim Hardcastle
THE Queen was at Balmoral when Lord Mountbatten was murdered in 1979 and Diana died in 1997. Now, another dark moment as she is photographed at nearby Crathie with a smiling Prince Andrew, whose friendship with American paedophile Jeffrey Epstein generates ominous headlines. A royal source says: ‘The understandable decision to smile on the way to church with Andrew as a way of supporting him might be seen by some as a rare mistake. Andrew is reported as having arranged a £15,000 loan for his cashstrapped exwife, Sarah, from Epstein.’ Fergie later said this was a ‘gigantic error of judgment’.
DOES globe-trotting Brexiteer Nigel Farage resent his continuing lack of recognition in the honours list? His mocking of Prince Harry in Australia as the ‘prince of wokeness’ and his barb aimed at Prince Charles – ‘I pray the Queen lives long enough to save the Commonwealth from the tyranny of her offspring’ – certainly suggests so. Although his politics and personality are not to every taste, Farage’s ‘knight starvation’ indicates Establishment disapproval of Brexit.
WHEN she made her first London appearance in decades at the O2 Arena in 2010, The Guardian’s critic Peter Bradshaw gave Dame Julie Andrews’s stage show two stars out of five, writing: ‘Again and again, after some scripted chat... she just wheeled on her five support singers and let them get on with it, while she sang very little or just beamed supportively... a creaky evening.’ Be that as it may, the veteran songbird, pictured, has sold out the 2,900seat Royal Festival Hall (seats £40 to £125) for her November 2 show, A Conversation With Dame Julie Andrews.
PHOTOGRAPHED puffing a cigarette, la-dida actress Joanna Lumley, 73, has defended her nicotine habit by saying: ‘You’ve got to die of something. Personally, through my taxes on cigarettes, I’ve built three hospitals single-handedly. I never stop giving.’
GEEKY Tory life peer and blogger Lord Norton, 68, says Brexit can be compared to planes having to land without landing gear extended, musing: ‘Much depends on the skills of the pilot and crew, the design and resilience of the aircraft and prevailing weather conditions.’ As an old comic quipped, ‘Fasten your safety belts and return the air stewardess to an upright position!’
HAVING announced that her sex life is over – ‘I have closed up shop down there’ – octogenarian star Jane Fonda, 81, now insists: ‘I love men. I’m not done with men.’ She adds that her previous suitors ‘were wonderful but victims of a patriarchal belief system’. Poor wretches!
EXPLORER Ranulph Fiennes elaborates on the story about him sleeping in his car during visits to London: ‘In hotels, bed and breakfast can be more than £300 a night. I have an extremely comfortable car called a Ford Mondeo, which is long enough to sleep in. So I can save the £300.’