Ephraim Hardcastle
Musical chairs at Kensington Palace as removal vans ferry the last of the Gloucesters’ possessions from Apartment 1 to nearby Old Stables. They were supposed to make room for Harry and Meghan, who opted instead for Frogmore. So, will Princess Beatrice and fiance Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi bag the now empty 21 rooms after their wedding next year? It would delight property developer Ed, whose company Banda boasts on its website: ‘We use our extensive knowledge and network of contacts to source and secure some of London’s most desirable properties.’ They don’t come more desirable than a bivouac next door to William and Kate.
RUMBLINGS of mutiny among the bear-skinned and scarlet-jacketed trumpeters of the Household Division unhappy with having to provide fanfares for Prince Andrew’s Pitch@Palace finale at St James’s Palace next month. Says one: ‘We have to stand around playing the Countdown theme to hurry along finalists’ speeches. It is excruciatingly embarrassing.’
ITV political editor Robert Peston was counselled not to mention his love affair with Charlotte Edwardes before being interviewed by News at Ten’s Julie Etchingham on Monday. He did. She is just as indiscreet, tweeting last December that Peston delivered his down-the-line broadcast to ITV ‘completely naked’.
PROMOTING her book Airhead at a literary festival at Cliveden House, where John Profumo first set eyes on a naked Christine Keeler in the heated swimming pool, Emily Maitlis, pictured, trills: ‘Every festival should start with a run around a stately home where you can point to your bedroom. And then go for a swim in a scandalous pool. It’s made my day!’ Isn’t life grand!
Preposterously tonsured Michael Fabricant recalls playing an extra when Michael Dobbs’s original House of Cards was filmed at Manchester Town Hall, doubling as the Commons, 30 years ago. He had hoped to land a similar role in 2011’s Thatcher biopic The Iron Lady starring Meryl Streep, but was ruled out because his striking blond barnet proved too distracting on camera.
RENEE Zellweger’s Judy Garland recreation prompts former Mail diarist Paul Callan to recall his encounter in a King’s Road supermarket shortly before an overdose led to her death in 1969. Staring at a jumbo haggis, she asked: ‘What on earth is that?’ Callan explained it was a Scottish dish containing a sheep’s heart, liver and lungs encased in an animal’s stomach. ‘She went very pale,’ remembers Callan. ‘Clapping a hand over her mouth, she rushed out of the store.’ Callan was cleared of any blame at the subsequent inquest.
ROMAN Catholic Andrew Parker Bowles will be aware of the hoard of body parts stored as saints’ relics in most cathedrals. Could that explain his admission to Tatler that he keeps a pickled lump of his knee cartilage in a jar, as well as a bottle of stitches preserved in brine? Can Andrew’s canonisation be much delayed?