Ephraim Hardcastle
THE RSPCA’s controversial former chief executive, Gavin Grant, who resigned his £150,000 a year post in February citing ‘medical concerns about his health’, appears to have made a recovery. He is running for town councillor next month in the Wiltshire town of Malmesbury. Grant, a former Liberal Democrat activist, was accused of turning the once-revered charity into a militant anti-hunt lobby. Last year, it emerged he blew £326,000 of the charity’s funds prosecuting David Cameron’s local hunt. Other measured proposals included demands for five-year jail sentences for those caught fox-hunting. ‘Compassion for animals translates to compassion for people, and I want to give something back,’ he announces ominously.
ACTRESS S c arl ett Johansson, pictured, complains to Glamour magazine about her status as a sex symbol: ‘Actresses get stupid questions asked of them all the time, like “How do you stay sexy?” or “What’s your sexiest quality?”’ Be that as it may, Ms Johansson, 29, poses obligingly for the mag in an unbuttoned red PVC jumpsuit.
CHANCELLOR George Osborne has pledged £25 with a message of good luck towards Ed Balls’ sponsorship for this Sunday’s London Marathon. How generous. Despite their Punch ‘n’ Judy theatrics for the TV cameras, it is said that Osborne’s relations with his opposite number are far more cordial than we are led to believe. Not so David Cameron, whose loathing of the shadow chancellor is palpable. The PM joked this week that a picture of Balls in his ‘curious black leggings’ had him gagging on his cornflakes.
STILL perky Jane Fonda, 76, says of her relationship with her socialite mother Frances Ford Seymour: ‘When I asked my mother for the first time about sex, the next day a book appeared. It was all about the plumbing, you know, all that stuff. I wanted to know about f eelings!’ Presumably the book didn’t include a chapter on relationship guidance. Thricemarried Ms Fonda’s love life is more chequered than a chess board.
APROPOS the Chancellor and his charitable nature, wasn’t it big of him to promote Andrea Leadsom, 50, to Economic Secretary to the Treasury this week? Many thought Leadsom, a fearsome former Barclays executive, had committed political hara-kiri in 2011 when she publicly called on Osborne to apologise after he linked Balls to the Libor scandal. Nor was it deemed wise when she was reported to have responded to his plea not to rebel against a government vote on Europe with a terse ‘**** off ’.
SAUCY authoress Jackie Collins, 76, takes issue with the description of her books as ‘bonkbusters’, declaring: ‘I never wrote ‘bonkbusters’ ... I rather like what Vanity Fair named me instead, ‘the Marcel Proust of Hollywood’. I wonder if the great man of letters would have been flattered by the comparison?
THE Queen attends Newbury races today to see her horse Fiery Sunset run. The race was due on last at 5.45 but has been rescheduled earlier to 5.15. Why so? Because HM was unable to wait around until the last race.