Ephraim Hardcastle
PRINCESS Eugenie’s wedding, awash with B-list celebrities, lacked the magic presence of David and Victoria Beckham. Why so? Posh and Becks were prominent confetti sprinklers at the Harry/Meghan event in May. A frostiness appears to have developed after Harper Beckham’s sixth birthday at Buckingham Palace last year when the Beckhams posted photos of Princess Eugenie with their children on social media. As a result, Prince Andrew, who had facilitated the party, got a polite reminder of the rules ,with palace officials wondering how such an event could be held at the home of the Queen. Maybe the cold shoulder hadn’t thawed in time for Friday’s nuptials.
APROPOS the wedding: The order of service instructed the congregation to stand for the various Royal Family arrivals but they were advised to remain seated when Fergie arrived. This caused some friction at the planning stage given that she was accompanied by Princess Beatrice, who outranked some of the royals whose arrival had guests up on their hind legs.
TONY Blair’s irritating spin doctor Alastair Campbell recalls in his new diaries how Cherie Blair answered her husband’s mobile. ‘I said “Is he there?” “No.” “Can you ask him to call?” “I might.” Then the phone went dead. Back came the (text message), “This is Cherie you creep. Put that in your diary tonight along with whatever sexist comment you want to add about me.”’
IS George Clooney’s human rights lawyer wife Amal, pictured, more famous than he is after client Nadia Murad, 25, an Iraqi Yazidi human rights activist held as a sex slave by IS in 2014, won the Nobel Peace Prize. The Clooneys missed Princess Eugenie’s wedding so Amal could address the Pennsylvania Conference for Women, where she attacked President Trump to a standing ovation.
SIR Michael Caine rarely misses an opportunity to laud his wife of 45 years Shakira. Recalling how he met the late Stephen Hawking after making yet another turkey, Interstellar, in 2014, he says: ‘This man in a wheelchair blinks out one thing. He said, “I want to meet your wife.”’ Not a lot of people know that!
ATHLETE Usain Bolt adopts a whispery lilt when he describes how he hated reading Romeo And Juliet when he was a schoolboy: ‘“Thou art… winds of winter.” I’m like, “What?” It was too much, I couldn’t get through it. I know the whole story is romantic and everything – that’s cool. But to read the book and to get into it... I just couldn’t.’
WHOOPI Goldberg, spouting during her solo show at London’s Apollo on Sunday night, wondered: ‘Wouldn’t it be nice to have a black princess?’ Was she in the know?