Less than a year after angrily calling fellow rock veteran Sir Roger Daltrey a “little man” for firing his drummer son Zak Starkey from The Who, Sir Ringo Starr awkwardly backtracks. Having previously claimed Daltrey axed Zak after 29 years for merely “playing two beats wrong” during a show, Ringo now mysteriously says of his oldest son: "He was just having one of those moments we all have. You've done something that wasn't really a cool thing to do, and now I know that. I didn't know that then. I just thought Roger was being crazy."
The Beatle clarifies: “Zak was not in a good space, but he's in a much better space now, and I'd like to tell you and everyone else he’s back to being himself.” Has Roger forgiven Ringo?
While the "love affair" between Edwina, Countess Mountbatten and first Indian PM Jawaharlal Nehru has long fascinated – beginning when husband Lord Mountbatten was Viceroy – granddaughter India Hicks believes the relationship never became physical.
“My mother [Edwina’s daughter Lady Pamela Hicks, 97] maintains it was a very deep relationship of mutual respect, adoration and love,” India now remarks. “But she fundamentally believes Nehru was a man of honour and would never have actually physically been with the Viceroy's wife.”
Strangely deemed a political sage by admirers at the BBC, critics note Succession star and SNP luvvie Brian Cox continues to be booked as a current affairs pundit on Laura Kuenssberg's Sunday morning show. With the actor struggling to convince alongside savvier commentators, my source chortles: “They seem to imagine they're booking [Cox's formidable screen character] Logan Roy rather than windbag Brian!”
Taking it in good humour when American comedian Matt Friend impersonated him at the British Embassy garden party in Washington this week – he quipped "keep trying!" – the King has been a keen impressionist himself.
A diehard fan of The Goons, young Charles would insist on phoning Peter Sellers’ secretary, pretending to be the comedy legend's high-pitched radio alter ego, Bluebottle. In Washington for the King and Queen’s US visit, royal insider and jumper-wearing obsessive Gyles Brandreth claims to have received the ultimate fashion endorsement.
“The big excitement for me was high priestess of fashion Anna Wintour saying she loved my jumper!” he excitedly reports. Is the Gyles look finally about to catch on?
Happy 80th birthday to Dame Joanna Lumley, the one actress in the business to have on-screen romances with everyone from Ken Barlow and Harold Steptoe to Leonardo DiCaprio. Recalling said smooch with Leonardo in 2013's The Wolf Of Wall Street, Joanna dines out on the tale they "had to do 27 takes".
Four husbands down, Jane Seymour reveals current boyfriend, American musician and fellow septuagenarian John Zambetti, prefers to celebrate their anniversary each month. “August 4 will be our third anniversary," the actress, 75, explains. “He celebrates every month on the fourth because he says we are living in dog years at our age.”
