Pick of the week’s Gossip

Brad Pitt has emerged as the darling of this year’s awards season, says The Guardian. Over the past few weeks, the A-lister has won plaudits for everything from his humility (he was spotted wearing a name badge at an Oscars lunch) to his newly revealed comedic talent. But according to insiders, all of this is part of a minutely “curated” PR campaign designed to ease Pitt’s way to Oscar glory. Even his various jokes will have been written for him – rumour has it by two of the stars of Saturday Night Live. “They all use speechwriters,” said Anne Thompson of IndieWire. “Carrie Fisher used to do it. This one is good, whoever they are.”

Not content with building rockets and developing electric cars, entrepreneur Elon Musk has entered the world of dance music. He boasts that he “wrote the lyrics and performed the vocals” on his track Don’t Doubt ur Vibe, which racked up 2.5 million plays online in less than a week. But while some fans hailed it as a triumph, others were less positive. “It’s been made by someone with what you might charitably describe as a shaky grasp of musical dynamics,” noted one critic.

Britain’s membership of the EU came to an awkward end last week when Croatia’s ambassador to the EU, Irena Andrassy, chairing a final meeting, addressed her UK counterpart Sir Tim Barrow with the words: “Thank you, goodbye, and good riddance.” Some may have shared that sentiment, but it was apparently not what she meant. She’d assumed “good riddance” meant the same as “good luck”.