What is it with these ageing showbiz knights?
First, Sir Ian McKellen gave an astonishing interview in which the actor, 85, accused the late Queen Elizabeth of being ‘bloody rude’, dismissed Prince Harry as not being ‘bright enough’ for royal life, and described King Charles as ‘damaged’.
Now, Sir Elton John has committed his own act of lese-majeste.
The singer, 77, who is a close friend of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, has publicly boasted that he is a bigger draw than the King and Queen Camilla.
Recalling the day when he entered into a civil partnership with David Furnish, 61, Sir Elton explains: ‘We did it at the same place as Charles and Camilla.’
Speaking in a filmed interview with Hollywood bible Variety, the musician adds, witheringly: ‘We had a bigger crowd.’
David Furnish (left) and Sir Elton John (right) on the day of their wedding ceremony at Windsor Guildhall in December 2005
Then Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles after their wedding at Windsor Guildhall in April 2005
Their ceremony took place in 2005, weeks after same-sex civil partnerships were legalised in this country, at Windsor Guildhall.
Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles, as they were then, were married at the same venue eight months earlier.
There was reported to have been a crowd of some 20,000 in Windsor on the day of Charles and Camilla’s wedding.
Although there were also crowds of well-wishers for Sir Elton and Furnish, it’s not clear how many were there.
The musician is said to have footed the bill for policing costs, so he may have been given a figure.
Charles and Camilla had planned to exchange vows at Windsor Castle, but the ceremony was moved to the Guildhall when it was discovered that the licensing laws for using the castle for weddings would require opening it up to other couples for at least three years.
Furnish remembers their civil partnership, the first for a well-known couple, as having been ‘seismic’ and ‘a big moment’.
Sir Ian McKellen (left) gave an astonishing interview in which the actor, 85, accused the late Queen Elizabeth (right) of being ‘bloody rude’
McKellen also accused Prince Harry (left) as not being ‘bright enough’ for royal life. He attends the wedding of his father Charles to Camilla alongside his older other brother Prince William (right) in 2005
The Canadian-born filmmaker says: ‘The world’s media turned up. We couldn’t believe there were thousands of people on the streets of Windsor.
‘There were TV trucks up and down our street filming and covering the whole event.’
Style king rules out William’s shorts
The Princess of Wales’s intimate family video, in which she revealed that her chemotherapy treatment had finished, failed to win over Peter York, who became a style arbiter since co-writing The Official Sloane Ranger Handbook in the 1980s.
‘I’m not impressed,’ he says at The Oldie magazine’s literary lunch at the National Liberal Club off Whitehall. ‘It was beautifully done, but a bit sugary.’
Catherine and William cuddle up in an intimate video about the Princess of Wales’s cancer journey
Style king Peter York slammed the Prince William for showing ‘too much leg’ in his navy blue shorts
Prince William was seen wearing short trousers. ‘Too much leg,’ wails York. ‘I don’t personally encourage that kind of thing. It was rather like an advert.’
Morpurgo opens bid to name next character
War Horse author Sir Michael Morpurgo will need the help of a fan for his next novel.
To support this year’s Michael Josephson MBE Charity Ball, the author is giving one donor the chance to name a character in his next book.
Sir Michael Morpurgo (pictured) has opened bidding to name a character in his next book in support of this year’s Michael Josephson MBE Charity Ball
Online bidding begins today. ‘I can’t wait to learn the name,’ he tells me. ‘Children are our journey to the future.’
Cheers for Rita… she’s building a pub on her estate
Rita Ora moved 11,000 miles Down Under to New Zealand, but she has come up with a cunning way to make sure she feels at home.
I can disclose that The Masked Singer judge is having a replica pub built in the grounds of her £5 million Auckland mansion.
The pop star grew up in pubs as her father, Besnik, ran boozers and still owns the Queen’s Arms in Kilburn, North London.
Rita, who wed Kiwi film-maker Taika Waititi in 2022, says: ‘Everything was always like a family get-together. I think that made me more confident in my social skills.’
Rita Ora (pictured) is having a pub built in the grounds of her £5 million Auckland mansion
The singer grew up in Kilburn, north London, where her father still owns The Queen’s Arms (pictured)
Quackers at the Proms
Spare a thought for young conductors making their debut at the BBC Proms.
On Monday, Tarmo Peltokoski, from Finland, had to impersonate a duck during an encore from a violinist after her rendition of Schoenberg’s violin concerto at the Royal Albert Hall.
The baton-wielding 24-year-old looked uncomfortable making quacking noises while the virtuoso squeaked her way through the modern piece.
‘He has some style,’ said BBC presenter Kate Molleson. ‘He is up for shenanigans.’
Didn’t look that way to me.
Rushdie gun blow
The Buddha Of Suburbia author Hanif Kureishi reveals that police protection officers were embarrassed when they left a loaded gun on his sofa during a visit to his home by his friend Sir Salman Rushdie.
The Satanic Verses author has had a Met Police guard when in Britain since a fatwa was issued against him in 1989.
‘I felt something under my a*** and it was a gun,’ Kureishi says on upcoming BBC2 documentary In My Own Words.
The Buddha Of Suburbia author Hanif Kureishi at the Literature Festival in Rome in 2017
‘So I picked it up off the sofa and I went out into the street and gave it back to the cop, saying, “Oi, mate, you left your shooter behind.”
‘The guy went absolutely white.’
It’s baby steps for model Alice
Alice Dellal, whose grandfather ‘Black Jack’ Dellal once blew £1.7 million in a Monte Carlo casino in a single night in 2006, has placed a winning bet on motherhood.
Model and photographer Alice Dellal has given birth to her first child
The model and photographer, 37, has given birth to her first child, a son named Buster, whose father is Charlie Birch, 25, a professional skateboarder from Liverpool.
‘Sweet baby Buster Birch has arrived’ says Alice. ‘Christmas has come early, and I haven’t slept since.’
Alice made waves in 2008 when she replaced Kate Moss, who is 13 years her senior, as the face of Agent Provocateur, the luxe lingerie label.
