You won’t BELIEVE what they tell me!
MEMBERS of the fabulously wealthy Ecclestone family are usually found travelling in a fleet of flashy cars, so I couldn’t believe my eyes last week when I spotted one of them jump out of a humble black cab. Jay Rutland, husband of Tamara Ecclestone, was urged by lawyers to arrive for his appearance at Thames Magistrates’ Court in a taxi so he appeared ‘normal’, rather than a man who lives in a £70million mansion. He didn’t fool me… his normal mode of transport is a customised black Range Rover. THE furore over Ghislaine Maxwell’s relationship with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein rumbles on. A US judge has told her to hand over 17 years of correspondence to shed light on claims they were involved in sex trafficking. The daughter of late media baron Robert Maxwell faces a defamation suit from Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who accused Jeffrey of sexually abusing her while she was a minor, with Ghislaine’s help. Ghislaine denies the claim. Virginia also alleged she was encouraged to sleep with Prince Andrew but a judge ordered those claims to be struck from the record. The Duke strenuously denied the allegations. I won’t be going to Paul Allen’s yacht party because I haven’t been invited this year. Not that I’m bothered. Really? The Duchess of York sounded very miffed when she told me, at the Christian Hook private view, that she wasn’t going to the bash of the year aboard Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s megayacht off Vietnam this month. I went down to breakfast at the hotel one day as we were filming Harry Potter and saw Richard Harris. I said, “Oh good morning,” and he said, “Oh f*** off!” Miriam Margolyes revealed to me at the Clapham Omnibus patrons launch that the late star wasn’t quite the Irish charmer we all thought. I’ll probably get a lot of female attention because of this film… I’m looking forward to it now I’m young, free and single! Eddie ‘The Eagle’ Edwards proves to me he’s an eternal optimist, at the premiere of the film about his Olympic glory days, just weeks after wife Samantha Morton left him. They do get some highend items in here and the staff get first dibs. There have to be some perks to working in a charity shop!
The Countess of Wessex tells me about the benefits of helping at The Duchess of Cambridge’s local charity shop – the Geranium store in Kensington – where the cast offs are nearly all designer. A man’s got to do what a man’s got to do – a woman’s got to do what
he can’t. Hollywood star Jennifer Garner, left, sums up the world for me in one sentence. It turned out restaurants weren’t for me. I lost a lot of money on my one in Dubai. I don’t want to talk about Marco Pierre White. Jockey Frankie Dettori admits to me, at the Palatinate Group’s tenth birthday bash, that going into business with Marco was not a good bet.