EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: Clooney Made Hugh Bonneville Audition for Role

Having become synonymous with his role as the morally upstanding Earl of Grantham in Downton Abbey, Hugh Bonneville might expect to be accorded some respect in his profession.

So the actor, who turned 62 yesterday, could have been surprised at his treatment by George Clooney.

After all, Bonneville had appeared alongside the Hollywood star, 64, in Clooney’s 2014 film The Monuments Men.

Therefore, Bonneville’s agent was unimpressed to receive a phone call from the American’s office formally requesting he record an audition piece, on video, for another film that Clooney was producing.

‘My agent said, ‘This is a bit awkward… you shouldn’t have to do this because you’ve worked with him’,’ Bonneville recalls.

Admitting he couldn’t resist a spot of mischief at Clooney’s expense, Hugh adds: ‘So I did put myself on tape – one of the questions was, ‘Tell me a bit about yourself and other work you’ve done’. So I said, ‘Hello, my name’s Hugh Bonneville, I’ve been in shows like Downton Abbey, the Paddington films… and actually a film called The Monuments Men which you directed’.’

Adding to the embarrassment, Bonneville told Radio 3’s Private Passions: ‘I didn’t get the part.’

It’s just the latest surprising admission from the actor who separated from his wife, Lulu Williams, in 2023.

Last month, Bonneville revealed that his girlfriend, the ‘vegan influencer’ Heidi Kadlecova, 61, was not a vegan but a keen consumer of fish and dairy products.

She had described herself as a ‘vegan girl’ and posted online: ‘Vegan is the only way.’

Billionaire bash for Caudwell, 73

He may be 31 years older than his girlfriend, but billionaire John Caudwell is determined to show his partying years are still ahead of him.

And to prove it, the Phones4U founder, 73, held a joint birthday party with his lover Modesta Vzesniauskaite, 42, an Olympic cyclist from Lithuania.

‘The party of the year,’ declares Modesta, who sat on Caudwell’s lap before dancing with him on a banquette in Sass’ Cafe restaurant in Monaco, where Birmingham-born Caudwell owns a penthouse.

The tycoon and Modesta have a son, William, four, and a daughter, Isabella, two, and have been together for a decade but have no known plans to get engaged.

Caudwell previously told me: ‘Modesta has never been interested in marriage, and nor am I. We’re too busy with life.’

Jaime looks fierce in matching print with pal Melanie

Ray Winstone is known as a screen hardman and his daughter Jaime seems to have a wild side, too.

The actress, 40, who played the young Peggy Mitchell in TV soap EastEnders and Dame Barbara Windsor in biopic Babs, was positively purring in a £450 leopard-print coat.

Jaime was joined by former All Saints singer Melanie Blatt, 50, in a matching print at the launch of a pop-up shop by fashion label Queens of Archive at Selfridges in London.

Lloyd Webber’s tax warning to Reeves

Evita composer Andrew Lloyd Webber says the Chancellor’s tax-raising Budget risks driving talented people overseas.

‘In all the clamour about non-doms and the rich fleeing the UK’s tax regime, the most important leavers have been ignored,’ the super-rich theatre impresario says.

‘They are the young British entrepreneurs and wealth creators who sadly see no future for them in this country.

‘They may not have fortunes today, but even if there’s only one budding Elon Musk among them, the potential revenue lost to the Exchequer is alarming.’

To misquote a song from the musical – the lady doesn’t have potential, after all.

As a member of the Royal Family, the Duke of Sussex is used to being at the top of the social ladder. 

In Hollywood, however, Harry is learning others are on higher rungs. At the weekend, he and Meghan had to run the gauntlet of the paparazzi outside Jeff Bezos’s Beverly Hills mansion. 

But when they finally arrived at the party, they found Beyonce was already there having been allowed to drive up to the property… with the media unaware. 

Farewell to King Charles’s colourful polo coach. Sinclair Hill died on Sunday following an accident on his farm Down Under, aged 92. 

He was a ‘towering figure in the sport’, according to an Australian Polo Federation spokesman. Sinclair was reunited with the King in Sydney last year. 

He explained: ‘Prince Philip said to me, ‘Will you help the boy?’ many years ago. And the boy’s now King.’ 

The lives of her parents may be in disarray but at least Princess Eugenie’s husband Jack Brooksbank remains in the money. 

I can disclose the booze business he set up ten years ago is flourishing. Published accounts for AEB Consultants reported it had £722,000 in cash reserves and £569,000 in ongoing profits over the year to January.