Planning continues for Queen Camilla to stand in for the King should his course of treatment require it. And, as we revealed on March 7, that could see her head to France for the 80th anniversary of D-Day. Unusual? Since she married the King in 2005, Camilla has undertaken only one solo overseas visit – to Paris in 2013.
Similarly, Kate is a reluctant solo overseas traveller. Edward and Sophie regularly split up to share the royal limelight abroad.
This year, Edward has visited the South Atlantic, Uganda and South Africa whilst Sophie went to France and Switzerland. With a paucity of available personnel, are they the ideal duo to keep the flag flying overseas?
King Charles III attends the traditional Easter Sunday Mattins Service at St George’s Chapel
Queen Camilla waves to people after attending the Easter Mattins Service at Windsor Castle
Former Justice of Appeal Sir Christopher Clarke, grand poobah of the Garrick Club’s general committee, should win tomorrow’s vote adapting Lord Paddick’s ruling that women can join the all-male bastion. But should he be denied a footnote in feminist history for retaining his membership of the no-girls-allowed Brookes Club? And what about Simon Heffer, leading the assault on the all-male ramparts? He can always sip humbug at his other club, the women-free Beefsteak.
Lord Brian Paddick, pictured in 2016. Former Justice of Appeal Sir Christopher Clarke, grand poobah of the Garrick Club’s general committee, should win tomorrow’s vote adapting Lord Paddick’s ruling that women can join the all-male bastion
Helen Mirren has never seen her raunchy performance as Caesonia in Bob Guccione’s pornographic movie Caligula featuring a naked Malcolm MacDowell and John Gielgud having sex with both the bride and groom at a Roman wedding. Her 17-minute appearance has been restored to an hour in a new uncut version. Her husband Taylor Hackford attended the LA premiere, declaring: ‘I’ll tell her that I saw it, I loved it, I thought it was great. And that she was great in it.’
Helen Mirren attending the Jeanne du Barry premiere during the 76th Cannes Film Festival
The latest in America’s obsession with Britain’s shambles is an 11-page hatchet job in the New Yorker, pontificating: ‘The only way to think about [British politics] is as a psychodrama enacted for the most part by a small group of middle-aged men who went to elite private schools, studied at Oxford and have been climbing and chucking one another off the ladder of British public life ever since.’ Discuss.
General view of the Oxford University Examination School in Oxford
Reflecting on Olivia Colman’s claim that she’d earn more if she was called Oliver, Mission Impossible star Mark Gatiss recalls Dame Judi Dench’s appearance in The Chronicles of Riddick with Vin Diesel. ‘He discovered she was getting paid about £150,000,’ says Mark. ‘He refused to continue filming until they promised her a million dollars’. Hasn’t gabby Judi remained tightlipped about this windfall?
Reflecting on Olivia Colman’s claim that she’d earn more if she was called Oliver, Mission Impossible star Mark Gatiss recalls Dame Judi Dench’s appearance in The Chronicles of Riddick with Vin Diesel. ‘ (Pictured: Olivia Colman attends a special screening of ‘Wicked Little Letters’)
Chaps, be warned. It might be unwise to provoke Happy Valley creator Sally Wainwright. In her supernatural highwaywoman romp Renegade Nell, she was ‘overly ready and willing to incapacitate’ any male characters, according to director Ben Taylor.
Two are killed early on, and another is nearly ‘lobotomised’. Arch-villain Adrian Lester was defeated, crushed and left bedridden for five episodes, until Taylor pointed out that this ‘wouldn’t work for our big baddie’. Sally relented… but how courageous of Ben to risk his gentleman giblets so recklessly.
In her supernatural highwaywoman romp Renegade Nell, (pictured) she was ‘overly ready and willing to incapacitate’ any male characters, according to director Ben Taylor