She just can’t help believing … Duchess of York eyes Oscars date thanks to Elvis family tie

THE Duchess of York is in talks to appear at the Oscars thanks to her links with the family of Elvis Presley, according to reports.

The Duchess, who is in the US, is hoping to hand out an Academy Award at this weekend’s ceremony, it is claimed.

Last year’s Elvis biopic has been nominated in eight categories.

A source told The Sun: “There have been discussions about the Duchess attending and it now looks as though that will happen – the plan is for her to present an award. She has been a very close friend of the Presley family, especially Elvis’s daughter Lisa Marie.

“It’s a big deal to have her there, but it’s a big deal for the Duchess too.”

A different source close to the Duchess, 63, told The Daily Telegraph that nothing had been finalised.

Last month, the Duchess delivered an address at a memorial held at the Graceland estate in Memphis to celebrate the life of Lisa Marie, with whom she had been close since they met in 2007.

She described the only daughter of Elvis, who died in hospital at the age of 54, as her “Sissy”.

The Duchess has been on a publicity blitz in recent weeks to promote her forthcoming Mills & Boon novel, A Most Intriguing Lady.

She has given several interviews in which she spoke extensively about her close relationship with Queen Elizabeth II and her affection for her ex-husband, Prince Andrew, with whom she still lives at Royal Lodge in Windsor.

There has been a flurry of stories about the Duchess in recent months concerning, among other things, her invitation to spend Christmas with the Royal family at Sandringham and her close bond with the Queen.

It was claimed last week that the Duchess had held talks about doing an interview with her friend, Daphne Barak, a Us-based investigative journalist and socialite, which was denied by her spokesman.

Barak has sold several stories to tabloids in recent weeks about Ghislaine Maxwell, whom she interviewed in prison, and Prince Andrew, including the revelation that the King had cut the Duke’s annual allowance.

She told The Sun: “I was told by a source close to him: ‘They didn’t even wait 10 days from the end of mourning the Queen’. That’s when courtiers started to send the bad news.

“One senior member of the family joked about his plight at a Christmas gathering, teasing: ‘We’ll kick Andrew out of that house’.”

Barak also revealed that the Duke was hoping to overturn the reported £16million settlement he struck with his assault accuser, Virginia Giuffre.