Ephraim Hardcastle
REVEALING himself to be a Remainer, Sir Mick Jagger told a French audience that the PM, Theresa May, ‘will need a visa on her next visit to France’. The wrinkled old goat praised Brigitte Macron, 64, wife of President Emmanuel Macron, 39 – ‘a great first lady,’ he smarmed, adding that Madame Macron was present for the Rolling Stones concert in La Defense arena ‘without little Emmanuel’. Surely the French will now give Sir Mick a Legion d’Honneur to add to the knighthood fixed for him in 2003 by Tony Blair.
THE Duchess of Cambridge has had a lucky escape. Photographed with the makers of the film Paddington 2, they didn’t include – because of his new notoriety, perhaps – beastly Harvey Weinstein, whose company distributes the movie. Kate did meet upright Hugh Bonneville, the Downton Abbey star who plays Paddington Bear’s adoptive keeper, Mr Brown, both pictured.
CHRIS Heaton-Harris, 49, the Tory MP and junior whip criticised for asking universities what they tell students about Brexit – he says he’s writing a book – is a vice-chamberlain of the royal household. He sends the Queen a daily summary of proceedings in the Commons, including all the gossip, which HM reads before dinner. Might he follow a predecessor, Labour’s Janet Anderson, who brought out an indiscreet 2016 tome about her duties entitled Dear Queen? Ms Anderson told the Queen that Vince Cable – now Lib Dem leader – was ‘not very clever’, the then Tory backbencher John Bercow was ‘a tiresome little man’, and Labour MP Harriet Harman was spotted in the smoking room ‘buying rounds of drinks’, adding: ‘I can assure Your Majesty this is not a regular occurrence.’
LABOUR’s much-diminished shadow attorney general Shami Chakrabarti, 48, releases a new book, described as a ‘socialist feminist polemic’. Political observer Dan Hodges notes: ‘Jeremy Corbyn and Shami Chakrabarti argued against suspending Labour MP Jared O’Mara (who made a series of homophobic, offensive and sexist comments on online forums). Then they went off to celebrate the launch of her book on gender equality.’
WHILE seven monarchs and two crown princes attended King Bhumibol of Thailand’s £70million cremation ceremony in Bangkok, Prince Andrew represented the Queen. Shouldn’t it have been Prince Charles? ‘Charles doesn’t like the chaotic nature of some of these funerals where his status is sometimes overlooked,’ advises a source. Thailand’s new, thrice-married king, HM Maha Vajiralongkorn, 65, likes tattoos and made his poodle, Foo Foo, an air chief marshal.
SINGER Grace Jones, 69, asked when she was ‘last embarrassed’ by Time Out, says it was meeting the Queen. ‘She was expecting me to be in the same costume that I performed in – but it was cold, so I’d taken my costume off when she came backstage. And she said, “Oh no – you’ve changed” with a disappointed look. And I said, “I didn’t want to meet you with my ass hanging out”. She laughed the biggest laugh, with the biggest grin on her face.’