Scottish Daily Mail

Ephraim Hardcastle

- Email: peter.mckay@dailymail.co.uk

TALKING on Radio 4 about the scandal that destroyed gay film star Kevin Spacey, actor Sir Ian McKellen, 78, says: ‘The only thing I will say about Mr Spacey is he was a gay man and he was pretending not to be.’ Noting Spacey’s previous role as artistic director of London’s Old Vic, McKellen added: ‘I’ve always thought it a bit distastefu­l that such a person could come to our country… that we should have a closeted gay man at the centre of British theatre.’ Sir Ian, who was a closeted gay man himself until coming out in 1988, concludes piously: ‘You get into problems, don’t you, if you lie, if you pretend?’

LIVE And Let Die Bond girl Jane Seymour, 66, pictured, says of husband number three, David Flynn, 67, the business manager whom she divorced in 1992: ‘I was at the height of my career, had earned more than I’d ever imagined and thought everything was fantastic only to find out my ex-husband had lost everything and left me £6.4million in the red and with lawsuits from every major bank. My biggest challenge was waking up one day and realising I’ve not just lost the father of my two children but I was also homeless and penniless.’ Happily her fortune is now estimated to be £50million.

HAS Sir Nick Clegg’s local (Roman Catholic) church, Our Lady of Pity & St Simon Stock in Putney, west London, been influenced by the ex Lib Dem leader’s pro-EU views? Last Sunday they had a bidding prayer about Brexit. A fellow parishione­r tells me: ‘We were asked to pray that those in charge of Brexit negotiatio­ns do what is in the country’s best interests. The sentiments sounded anti-Brexit to me.’ Surely not!

WITH Glastonbur­y taking a break this year, the BBC is organising an ‘alternativ­e Glasto’ over the Spring Bank Holiday with events in Coventry, Belfast, Swansea and Perth. Bob Shennan, director of BBC Radio and Music, boasts: ‘This is the biggest single music event ever attempted by the BBC.’ Really? Since 1927 the money-to-burn BBC has run the Proms – ‘the biggest classical music festival in the world’ – comprising last year 75 concerts performed by thousands of musicians from mid-July to early September.

FAMOUS for championin­g Moors Murderess Myra Hindley, the late Lord Longford would be pleased his grandsonin-law, Edward Fitzgerald, 64, married to the earl’s grand-daughter Rebecca Fraser, has represente­d child killer Mary Bell, Soham murders accomplice Maxine Carr, Muslim hate preacher Abu Hamza and currently James Bulger’s killer Jon Venables, jailed for 40 months this week for child porn crimes. Has do-goodery hindered the career of Fitzgerald, described as ‘a Rolls-Royce in the cab rank of barristers’? His first applicatio­n to be a part-time judge was turned down in 2000.

 ??  ??

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United Kingdom