On her track The Black Dog, pop superstar Taylor Swift sings about having ‘new holes’ pierced in her heart by the discovery that her then English boyfriend, Joe Alwyn, was visiting a South London pub without her.
Her rival American singer, Olivia Rodrigo is, however, happy to frequent boozers in the capital with her own English beau — at least until Swift becomes the subject of conversation.
I hear that Olivia, 21, visited The Sun In Splendour pub in Notting Hill this week with her boyfriend, Louis Partridge, 20, best known for playing Viscount Tewkesbury in Netflix hit Enola Holmes.
Olivia even took part in its regular pub quiz. ‘She was dressed in jeans and a T-shirt and looked very relaxed,’ a fellow quizzer tells me. ‘She and Louis were sitting at a table in the corner. They both had pints and were canoodling the whole time, but definitely got into the spirit of the quiz.’
Olivia Rodrigo allegedly made a ‘Swift exit’ from a Notting Hill pub after her rival became the subject of a quiz
Olivia, 21, visited The Sun In Splendour pub in Notting Hill this week with her boyfriend, Louis Partridge, 20, best known for playing Viscount Tewkesbury in Netflix hit Enola Holmes
Rodrigo’s relationship with Taylor Swift, 34, has been the subject of much speculation
Things, however, took a slightly awkward turn when Swift, right, became the subject of the quiz.
Rodrigo’s relationship with Swift, 34, has been the subject of much speculation.
Team Rodrigo scored top marks in the guess-the-song round, which featured works by Swift. However, soon afterwards, she and Partridge left the pub. You could say they made a Swift exit.
Colourful duke separates from his second wife
His immense inheritance includes 11,500 Oxfordshire acres and a stately pile larger than Buckingham Palace or Windsor Castle — a disparity which caused George III to acknowledge that he had ‘nothing to equal’ it.
But it was his second marriage that moved a friend to describe Jamie Blandford — now the Duke of Marlborough and resident of Blenheim Palace — as ‘a very lucky man’.
His bride was the delightful, down-to-earth Edla Griffiths, from Monmouthshire, whom the then Marquess of Blandford encountered while she was living in Chelsea, perfecting her craft as a ceramicist. They married in 2002, at the register office in Woodstock.
But, to the dismay of friends, the union now appears to have run its course. ‘Jamie and Edla have separated,’ one tells me. ‘It’s very sad.’
Jamie Blandford, the Duke of Marlborough has reportedly split up from his wife Edla Griffiths
The Duke, 68, who has a son and daughter, both teenagers, with Edla, 56, declines to comment. But he is not, apparently, bereft of female company. ‘He’s being comforted by a friend, Doune Murray,’ I’m told.
Those hoping the marriage may yet be salvaged mention previous marital squalls. The first was in 2004, when Edla moved out, unamused that Jamie had wandered off for eight weeks — first to Australia, where he watched the Rugby World Cup, then to Switzerland, where he went skiing in Verbier, the resort where his chum, Paddy McNally —Fergie’s first great love — entertained in style at his chalet.
Three years later came a still sterner test when a series of motoring and ‘road-rage’ offences saw Jamie jailed for six months. By then, Edla had already been credited by many — Jamie included — for ‘settling him down’ after his turbulent 20s and 30s, during which, at his lowest point, his desire for drugs regularly led him to the notorious Mozart Estate in North London.
She made it plain that he was going to lose her unless he reformed for good. He duly did — aware that his first marriage, to Becky Few Brown, with whom he had a son, George, now the Marquess of Blandford, had foundered because of hard-partying ways which once saw him shoot out Verbier’s streetlights with a shotgun, perhaps destabilised by McNally’s hospitality.
In recent years, he has done nothing more controversial than form a bond with Donald Trump, in whose honour a banquet was held at Blenheim in 2018. That couldn’t have persuaded Edla to call it a day… could it?
The smart set’s talking about… dowager duchess’s defection down under
Her beauty propelled her into Country Life magazine as one of its ‘girls in pearls’ and to the threshold of a film career, only for her to renounce ‘lights, camera, action!’ in favour of marrying the future 14th Duke of Bedford, owner of Woburn Abbey in Bedfordshire, with its 24 priceless Canalettos, not to mention a safari park.
The Dowager Duchess of Bedford, 84 has taken New Zealand citizenship
But, now aged 84, the Dowager Duchess of Bedford has undertaken her latest transformation. Henrietta’s become a Kiwi — taking New Zealand citizenship.
The Duchess found the initiation ceremony a particular pleasure. ‘I didn’t realise I was going to have to pay allegiance to King Charles,’ she says. ‘Such a lovely feeling.’ Explaining her reasons for emigrating, she says: ‘It feels like England used to. England doesn’t feel like it used to when I was a child.’
As a debutante in 1957, her parents held a party for her at Claridge’s in a room transformed into a nightclub, its walls studded with silk butterflies.
Not, perhaps, quite what the Duchess was referring to.
Jeremy Clarkson is unlikely to be raising a glass this weekend to James May, his co-star on The Grand Tour.
May owns the Royal Oak, in Swallowcliffe, Wiltshire, but says he won’t serve Clarkson’s Hawkstone beer. ‘The brewery making his beer is 80-plus miles away from the pub and we do have a policy of trying to use local beers for the same reason Clarkson’s farm shop is supposed to only use products within 12 or 15 miles,’ he explains.
Instead, he serves beers brewed by film director Guy Ritchie. ‘It doesn’t really make sense for us to suddenly have a Cotswolds boutique beer in a pub in south Wiltshire when we’ve got Guy Ritchie’s brewery a few miles up the road that’s producing very good beer for us.’ Clarkson is said to be eyeing up his own pub, the Grade II-listed Coach and Horses, near his Hawkstone Brewery in Bourton-on-the-Water, Gloucestershire.
West End live show for TV’s naked attraction?
Here’s a sign of how much the West End has changed since 1968 when many theatregoers walked out after the cast of the musical Hair appeared from behind a sheet fully naked, chanting the words: ‘Beads, flowers, freedom, and happiness.’
Naked Attraction host Anna Richardson says discussions have begun for a West End version of the Channel 4 show
Now, a stage is to be filled with nude bodies — and there will be no sheet.
Anna Richardson, host of Naked Attraction, says discussions have begun about a West End version of the Channel 4 dating show, in which a clothed singleton is presented with a gallery of six nude potential partners and chooses a date based on their attributes. She tells me: ‘We’re in talks to do Naked Attraction Live as a theatre show, which would be amazing.’
Andi Oliver, who replaced Prue Leith as a judge on BBC2 show Great British Menu, is fed up with the trend for boozers being turned into pompous dining rooms.
‘So many pubs are now essentially restaurants,’ she tells me at the Fortnum & Mason Food and Drink Awards at The Royal Exchange in London.
The chef, 61 this month, explains: ‘You often have to book a table — it drives me absolutely up the wall. They need to stop it. You should just be able to go in, have a game of pool, drink and have a laugh.’
The author of The Pepperpot Diaries cookbook used to run the award-winning restaurant Andi’s in Stoke Newington, and is the former creative director of the Birdcage pub in the East End. She adds: ‘I tried to keep my restaurants very pubby.’
Lumley’s candlelit beauty secrets
Evergreen Dame Joanna Lumley is fed up with the poor lighting in hotel bathrooms.
‘What women hate is a top light in the bathroom because you can’t do your make-up,’ wails the 78-year-old star of Absolutely Fabulous and The New Avengers.
‘So sometimes I come out looking a bit weird because I’ve either been doing make-up by candlelight or torchlight — it’s interesting and a challenge.’
Joanna Lumley has complained about poor lighting in hotel bathrooms
Dame Joanna adds of her television appearances: ‘I am very grateful to viewers who say good things even when I am a bit crumpled.’
Following her father into comedy was always going to be a challenge for John Cleese’s daughter Camilla, but now she’s trying to use it to her advantage.
‘She’s written a sitcom called Nepo Baby,’ reveals the Monty Python star, 84. ‘It’s very funny.’ The term ‘nepo baby’ refers to children of famous people deemed to have used their family connections to succeed in careers similar to those of their parents.
Who says there’s no money in writing books these days?
Paula Hawkins, author of The Girl On The Train, has managed to amass £18.5 million. Newly published figures for her company, Paula Hawkins Ltd, into which she channels her earnings, reveal she snapped up £320,000 worth of art works last year.
The purchases bring the value of the art owned by her through the business to £2.3 million. The professor’s daughter, 51, has also invested her royalties in property at £1.7 million, plus £9.9 million in other investments, as well as retaining £4.4 million in ready cash.
Is that Van the man – or just a cabbie?
Sir Van Morrison enjoyed recording at the Wool Hall so much that he eventually bought the studio near Bath in Somerset.
During one of his many sessions there, the staff mentioned that they were having a party later that evening, and that he would be welcome to come along.
‘Nobody actually expected the famously grumpy musician to actually turn up,’ reports Robin Askew in his new book, The West’s Greatest Rock Shows. ‘But that’s what he did.
‘Alas, when he rang the bell, the door was opened by someone who didn’t have a faintest idea that the man standing before him was the world’s least starry rock legend.
‘So he turned and shouted back into the room, ‘Did anyone order a cab?’
Very modern manners
It’s just as well that Abbey Clancy and the ex-England footballer Peter Crouch can afford airlines’ excess luggage fees.
When the Liverpudlian model, 38, and her husband, who have four children, were asked if they had any plans for the next fortnight after returning from a recent holiday in Dubai, he turned to his wife and asked: ‘You’re just going to unpack, aren’t you, for another two weeks?’