Hardcastle Ephraim
CATCHING the eye of the Speaker in the Commons is normally achieved through the simple action of rising to one’s feet, but it seems arch-contrarian Alex Salmond always has to make a show of himself. Proceedings in the House were briefly halted yesterday as John Bercow declared: ‘Well, it’s one thing to play with one’s own hair, it’s another thing to play with somebody else’s’ after he spotted the MP for Gordon running his fingers through the locks of a female Nat. Turns out he was removing a stray piece of paper from Rutherglen and Hamilton West MP Margaret Ferrier’s lustrous locks. Ever the gallant with the ladies.
NEARLY eight years after TV presenter Adrian Chiles, 49, left Woman’s Hour host Jane Garvey, 51, his wife of ten years, the split evidently still rankles with her. While interviewing Hollywood actress and director Jodie Foster, 53, pictured, on the show yesterday, she remarked: ‘You must have known some TV presenters in your time. I’ve known a few to my cost, frankly.’ Sapphist Jodie must have been fascinated!
THE BBC’s Andrew Neil, 67, asks lightweight Tory MP Matt Hancock, 37, about the Prime Minister’s strange appointment of Labour turncoat Lord Sugar as ‘enterprise tsar’. ‘Is he the only businessman you know?’ inquired Neil, adding: ‘What’s his greatest business achievement?’ Hancock lamely replied that Sugar, 69, had started ‘a long time ago’.
JUSTICE Secretary Michael Gove, 48, chooses an opportune moment to bring in a Bill designed to make the lives of female prisoners easier. Many of those most likely to be opposed to any liberalisation of our penal policies are currently gripped by the plight of Helen Titchener in Radio 4’s The Archers, who has just given birth to her baby behind bars after stabbing her abusive partner. Gove also has the support of the Duchess of Cambridge, who received a delegation from support groups working in women’s prisons this week. The PM might sack Brexit-supporting Gove again, as he did from his job as education secretary. Cameron found that easier than standing up to the Gove-hating teachers’ union.
THE photo of Lady Sarah Chatto, 52, the Queen’s niece, lugging her shopping out of Waitrose illustrates that some members of the Royal Family still lead more or less ordinary lives. Also that the store holds all three royal warrants – from the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh and Prince Charles. But they prefer to take advantage of its free delivery service.
YORKSHIRE-born actor Sir Ben Kingsley, 72, the son of an Indian father and British mother, has the birth name of Krishna Bhanji. Auditioning for roles in the 1970s, in Huddersfield and Leeds, he used it at the first one. He recalls an interview: ‘They said, “Wonderful audition, but we wouldn’t know how to place you in our repertoire.” The second I did as Ben Kingsley and they said, “When can you start?”’