Friends of supermodel Kate Moss fear that although she has ended her tumultuous romance with Count Nikolai von Bismarck things may not really be over between them.
One tells me: ‘The thing about him is that he always seems to quietly re-emerge. They are forever splitting up and then there is a drift back.
‘Telling Kate: “It’s over” seems to be his way of saying that he is fed up with her behaviour.’
The pair got together in 2015 but split up for the first time five years ago, and have been on and off ever since. They appeared to break up this summer and Kate reportedly moved out of the London home they shared in the run-up to Christmas (her main base is in the Cotswolds).
I’m told Kate, 50, can be ‘rude’ to her teetotal boyfriend, who is 12 years her junior. But he is generally ‘very relaxed’ and lets it wash over him. It’s even suggested that her friends have nicknamed him ‘The Manservant’, because of the way she treats him.
Kate gave up alcohol and embraced wellness in 2018, and has since launched lifestyle brand Cosmoss, which offers ‘skincare and wellness products for balance and rejuvenation’.
However she is said to be still keen to ‘have fun’ and, as a result, not on the same sober path as Nikolai, who stopped drinking in 2017.
A friend said: ‘Kate’s view is that she can do what she likes and that she is in control.
Friends of Kate Moss fear that things may not really be over with Count Nikolai von Bismarck
The pair got together in 2015 but split up for the first time five years ago, and have been on and off ever since
‘She is a very self-reliant person, possibly because she has been travelling the world and in charge of herself since she was a teenager.’
The friend added: ‘Now that her daughter Lila has left [to live in New York and pursue her own modelling career] she might feel more free to do as she pleases.’
The friend warned: ‘She knows he won’t always come back. We are taking bets on whether he will this time. Kate’s dated a lot of men, some wonderful, some not so much.’
In October, Kate admitted on her friend Bella Freud’s Fashion Neurosis podcast that she was attracted to unconventional looking men; and added that she liked to do a striptease for lovers (‘I think I was a stripper in a former life’).
Photographer Nikolai was at her side for her 50th birthday party in Paris in January, but by May she was in Turkey, holding hands with Bob Marley’s grandson Skip on a night out.
At Paris fashion week in June, the couple were back together.
But in July he was spotted at a hotel in Paris with French-American model Camille Row, 34.
Immerse yourself in goop at Gwynnie’s spa
Gwyneth Paltrow is thinking of opening a members-only Goop spa in California.
The move is said to be inspired by her new house in Montecito which has an ‘insane’ personal spa with a sauna, a hot tub lined with handmade tiles and a plunge pool. (Architectural Digest reported that the spa’s his-and-hers shower heads cost more than $30,000… apiece.)
Goop CEO Julia Hunter said: ‘The fun thing that we’re trying to work on for next year is a Goop spa.’ She added: ‘My dream for it is a version of Goop meets Soho House — but more of a wellness experience.
Gwyneth Paltrow (pictured) is thinking of opening a members-only Goop spa in California
‘We haven’t decided if it’ll be membership-based or not, but it’s something that’s very high-end.’ Hunter added: ‘I feel like it also might be able to travel internationally, because other countries also value self-care and spa experiences.
‘Gwyneth [right] is very good at that – she has the spa in her Montecito house. It’s insane.’
Tom’s leaving present for co-star
Tom Brittney, who played Grantchester’s Reverend Will Davenport, gave co-star Robson Green a leaving gift when he (Brittney) left the series after six years – a book of pictures of Green himself.
‘I called it Shades Of Green,’ Brittney joked, ‘and it features photographic portraits I took of Robson during my time on the show. I knew he’d like it… Robson enjoys nothing more than looking at pictures of Robson!’ Green – DI Geordie Keating in the show – agreed: ‘It’s true! I’m a complete narcissist – and I love Shades Of Green!’ Granchester is available as a boxset on ITVX from Wednesday.
Tom Brittney (right) gave his Grantchester co-star Robson Green (left) a book of pictures of Green himself
Rising star’s dangerous new project
The last adaptation of Les Liaisons Dangereuses, the French literature classic about sex, scandal, courtesans and nobles, catapulted a young Uma Thurman to international stardom back in 1988.
Now Anamaria Vartolomei, a 25-year-old French-Romanian actress, is stepping into the spotlight, playing the young Madame de Merteuil (Glenn Close’s role in Dangerous Liaisons) in a buzzy new French language TV prequel titled The Seduction.
German actress Diane Kruger will play her mum.
The show, which is being made by Warner Bros’ streaming service Max, will be about how the young woman lost her innocence and turned into a scheming courtesan; and has been directed by French filmmaker Jessica Palud.
Filming wrapped in December and the show will come out this autumn.
Now Anamaria Vartolomei, a 25-year-old French-Romanian actress, is stepping into the spotlight and playing the young Madame de Merteuil in The Seduction
The streamer described The Seduction as ‘an exploration of the price of emotional and sexual freedom’. Lucas Bravo, who plays Gabriel in Emily In Paris, is among the cast.
Vera Peltekian, the VP of original French productions at Max, said: ‘This ambitious project allows us to revisit the spirit of Dangerous Liaisons through a modern prism, while retaining the intensity and sophistication that made it a timeless masterpiece.’
Vartolomei also starred in Palud’s movie Being Maria, about the actress Maria Schneider and the tragic turn her life took after the making of Last Tango In Paris.
Matt Damon portrays Marlon Brando in that one.
London’s ready for its close-up as filmmakers flock to the city
All roads lead to London this month, with three huge film projects getting underway in and around town.
Francis Ford Coppola is to direct his untitled take on an Edith Wharton novel, Glimpses Of The Moon, in the capital.
Coppola, fresh from the debacle of his mega-flop Megalopolis, is boldly making a musical film –not his first (that was Finian’s Rainbow, with Fred Astaire and Petula Clark, back in 1968).
He said last year that the new film would have ‘strong dance and musical elements’ and added: ‘I’ve turned it into a very odd confection.’
Unlike Megalopolis, it will be conventionally funded. The 85-year-old remarked that he is now ‘borrowed out’ after selling his vineyard to complete Megalopolis, the passion project which took $13.8 million globally on a $120 million budget.
Margot Robbie at the 2024 Vanity Fair Oscar Party last March in Beverly Hills, California. She will be at Leavesden at the end of the month to make a new adaptation of Wuthering Heights
Speaking on Rob Lowe’s Literally podcast, Coppola said he was making a musical ‘which uses dance to tell a lot of the story’. The cast has yet to be announced. An earlier attempt to make a film of Wharton’s book was to star Johnny Flynn and Dakota Johnson, as Nick and Susy Lansing, penniless drifters in the international set of 1922.
Meanwhile, Tom Cruise is filming in London – again. This time in a movie called Judy, for Mexican director Alejandro Inarritu.
It started production before Christmas and gets going again next week, at Warner Bros’ Leavesden studios.
The picture also stars Brit Riz Ahmed and Oscar nominee Sandra Huller, and involves Mission: Impossible star Cruise saving the world (as usual). It’s been described as a black comedy and an action film.
Last but not least, Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi will also be in Leavesden come the end of the month, making the controversial Emerald Fennell adaptation of Wuthering Heights.
Robbie, who had a baby boy in October, will play Catherine Earnshaw.
Some reports have suggested that Warner Bros were going to make this film in Los Angeles, but I have been told that is untrue. There is silence, though, on the question of whether they will do location work on the Yorkshire Moors.
Some devotees of the novel by Emily Bronte question the casting of the picture-perfect Australian couple as doomed, sickly Cathy and brooding orphan Heathcliff.
Robbie and Elordi can currently be seen together in a campaign for Chanel No 5 perfume.
Tom and Zen’s shared Odyssey
Lovebirds Tom Holland and Zendaya will reunite on screen for the first time since Spider-Man: No Way Home in the new Chris Nolan film, The Odyssey. It will film this year in LA.
Nolan has taken his time after Oppenheimer, which was filmed in 2022, to pick his next project. Matt Damon, a long time Nolan fave, is thought to be playing the titular hero.
The Homeric epic will give Nolan plenty of material for his famously long movies.
It’s a series of 24 books, telling the tale of Odysseus’s ten-year journey home after the Trojan War.
Lovebirds Tom Holland and Zendaya will reunite on screen for the new Christopher Nolan film The Odyssey
No role to tiddly for Brydon
Rob Brydon already knows what he’s doing for Christmas next year: acting in the now annual BBC Julia Donaldson adaptation.
He started out voicing Snake in The Gruffalo in 2009 and has had a part in every short film since, including 2024’s offering, Tiddler.
Sources say a role has already been earmarked for him in the Christmas 2025 adaptation.
Brydon has said: ‘Sometimes – such as Room On The Broom – it’s been no more than a miaow that I’ve contributed.
Rob Brydon has already been earmarked for him in the Christmas 2025 adaptation, after taking a part in the 2024 offering, Tiddler (pictured)
‘But I always enjoy my time on a Donaldson/Scheffler production, because it’s fun.’ Julia Donaldson said: ‘I’m delighted Rob has become such a regular contributor.
‘He has a wonderful voice – and a great singing voice.
‘I always enjoy him being part of one of the adaptations.’
Brutalist to be pitted against Conclave at Golden Globes
The Golden Globes kick off awards season in Los Angeles on Sunday.
In a year where there is no clear favourite in many of the categories – and in advance of the Oscar nominations in January – the event may offer some clues as to what spring will bring.
The Brutalist – a three-and-a-half-hour epic about a Hungarian architect and holocaust survivor moving to New York – will come up against Edward Berger’s adaptation of the Robert Harris book Conclave, about the selection of a new Pope.
Adrien Brody as Laszlo Toth in The Brutalist. The film is expected to go up against Conclave
Ralph Fiennes, the star of Conclave, and Adrien Brody, the star of The Brutalist, are both tipped for Best Actor Oscars and both films are expected to be Oscar nominated for Best Picture.
The Globes, which divide honours into ‘drama’ and ‘comedy or musical’ categories, will also pit the acclaimed black comedy Anora against the mega-budgeted musical Wicked. Again, both films are expected to be Oscar nominated, as are their stars.
Suzanne Collins’ new installment due in March
Fans of Suzanne Collins’s Hunger Games books will have a new installment to look forward to in the spring.
Sunrise On The Reaping will tell the story of Haymitch Abernathy, played by Woody Harrelson in the films, and how he came to win the 50th Hunger Games.
It will be published in March, but already pre-production on a film is underway, with casting to be announced soon.
Fans of Suzanne Collins books have her latest installment, Sunrise on the Reaping, to look forward to in March
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