Hardcastle Ephraim
THE spring wedding of Princess Michael of Kent’s daughter Gabriella, 37, at Windsor’s St George’s Chapel will be a much more low-key affair than the Harry and Eugenie nuptials. No carriage ride around town, no public in the grounds – saving a fortune on security, a smaller guest list and just one reception. Having an ‘in house’ wedding means that the costs will be much more manageable than it was ten years ago when Gabriella’s brother Lord Frederick Windsor married actress Sophie Winkleman at Hampton Court Palace. For Princess Michael money was no object. Sophie’s parents footed most of the bill.
LAID low by a cold the Duchess of Cornwall has been missing from the Royal Family’s public appearances over Christmas. But behind the scenes Camilla is having a major influence on Meghan Markle, encouraging her to rebel against some of the royal protocol she finds irritating. Says my royal source: ‘Egging Meghan on gives Camilla, a country girl with an independent streak and a bit of a temper, a vicarious pleasure because as Princess of Wales who will one day be a queen she can’t do it herself.’
TORY leadership frontrunner Sajid Javid stands accused of letting attention go to his head, uttering such excruciating phrases as, ‘Just you watch what The Sajid is going to do about this’ and, ‘the Saj will sort that out’. Journalists at a Parliamentary Press Gallery lunch still cringe at Javid’s joke: ‘I have today agreed to let my name go forward for the leadership of… Oops, wrong speech!’
CHIRPY broadcaster Gyles Brandreth, disclosing how wife Michele tires of his obsession with obscure English words, tweets: ‘Wife: “Are you going in to see [presenter] Jeremy Vine looking like that?” Me: “It’s a radio programme. I’m no prickmedainty [old word for dandy].” Wife: “A ‘prickmedainty’? Oh, FFS, Gyles.’ Doesn’t long-suffering Michele deserve our sympathy?
WHEN Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s musical Jesus Christ Superstar opened in 1970 it was described as blasphemous. Now it’s got a rave review from JC’s representative on Earth, Pope Francis, pictured. He attended a festive performance in Rome and loved the show so much he gave the cast a papal blessing.
LES Miserables writer Andrew Davies, who famously sexed up Pride And Prejudice with Colin ‘Mr Darcy’ Firth emerging from a lake, has added a ‘wet shirt’ moment to Victor Hugo’s masterpiece. Says a BBC executive: ‘We have two very handsome gentlemen immersed in liquid emerging with shirts all ripped. It is the Paris sewage system so maybe this might not be quite as romantic for everybody.’
FORMER Defence Secretary, Michael Fallon, 66, can’t be buried in the family tomb in County Sligo as the local airport used by Michael O’Leary’s Ryanair has made the graveyard inaccessible, saying: ‘There’s a historic ruined church at the end of the airport where the family has a flat tomb – we were so poor and we just chucked them all in there.’ Bit like Ryanair passengers.