Pick of the week’s Gossip

Nick Clegg has found the move to Silicon Valley a bit of a culture shock. “There’s lots of sleeveless Patagonia puffa things and shoes with no socks,” he says of his colleagues at Facebook. “I never wear a suit and there’s micro-kitchens everywhere with a mix of healthy foods. Lunch is basically broccoli with some suspect sauce while you’re in a meeting. I stick out like a sore thumb. I honestly think I would blend in more in Sicily or Bavaria.” John Craven has recalled his first celebrity interview for the BBC: during the filming of Get Carter in Newcastle in 1971, he spoke to Michael Caine in a tough nearby pub. Afterwards, he offered the star (pictured) a drink. “It’s a little early,” said Caine, “so I’ll just have a half of lager.” The barman shook his head: they didn’t serve lager. “Why not?” he asked. “Because,” came the devastating reply, “we don’t get many women in here.”

Jackie Stewart reckons he was the first person to celebrate a Formula One victory by spraying champagne. The racing driver was standing on the podium after a Grand Prix when someone handed him a bottle of Moët. “I was surprised, but I thought the least I could do was to open it,” he has said. But the bottle had been in the sun, and when the cork popped, “the champagne foamed out... so I pressed my thumb over the top, but this only increased the pressure, and created a powerful jet.” The crowd loved it, and so did Moët – who offered him a sponsorship deal on the condition that “every time you win, you do this”.