TALK OF THE TOWN: Eco-warrior Benedict Cumberbatch… and a flying visit to tea at his friend’s country pile in a helicopter

He’s a passionate eco-campaigner who has lectured Hollywood on its ‘grossly wasteful’ practices – but that didn’t stop Benedict Cumberbatch using a helicopter to pop into a friend’s country pile for a cup of tea.

The Sherlock star is a Greenpeace ambassador who’s protested with Extinction Rebellion campaigners and urged film studios to go green.

Yet I can reveal the 49-year-old was recently taking a helicopter flight that took him over Devon, whereupon he spotted the large house belonging to his posh assistant, who he calls ‘Flynikins’, in the pastures below.

While cruising at around 10,000ft, I’m told the actor spontaneously texted his assistant saying: ‘Anyone in?’ 

He then landed on the estate’s manicured lawns and was greeted with a cuppa.

I hope Flynikins’s family served the Doctor Strange star oat milk as Cumberbatch has followed a plant-based diet since 2017. 

He even wore a ‘vegan’ outfit to the Met Gala in 2019. 

And last year, the Leftie luvvie urged Hollywood to become more sustainable, complaining about the waste of on-set catering and giving crew members plastic water bottles, while specifically urging studio bosses to ‘think about transport’.

He admitted celebrities are often accused of hypocrisy when raising such issues… but when using a helicopter that emits around 20 times more carbon per mile than a car, the reason is elementary, my dear Benedict!

Cumberbatch’s representative was approached for comment.

Liam Gallagher’s fancy new £4million pad in the Cotswolds comes with a gypsy caravan – but will the Oasis star follow David Cameron’s lead and use it to write new material? 

The ex-PM famously wrote his memoirs in a £25,000 shepherd’s hut.

Lola’s got top banter

Socialite Lola Bute doesn’t care if people call her crazy – just look at her new T-shirt, boasting ‘I put the hot in psychotic’. 

I hear the daughter of the late John Crichton-Stuart, 7th Marquess of Bute, and fashion designer Serena Bute, is hoping for a proposal from her Dutch model boyfriend, Parker Van Noord. 

I pray the slogan doesn’t put him off! 

Tigerlily Taylor, daughter of Queen drummer Roger Taylor, has a surprising method of spying on her boyfriend of two years. 

The 29-year-old model has taken to poring over footage from her doorbell camera to see exactly what music producer Mkulu Lee is up to. 

After checking the footage one day, Tigerlily saw what Lee was wearing and sent him a curt text asking: ‘Why are you wearing my jumper?’ 

Thinking her snooping was making her like a super-villain, Mkulu replied: ‘This Ring camera has you acting like Lex Luthor.’ 

The wife of Bath is now a London lady

I hear Emma Thynn, the dazzling Marchioness of Bath who rubs shoulders with Mick Jagger and former Vogue editor Edward Enninful, is to join glossy reality TV show, Ladies Of London: The New Reign. 

The fourth season of the series about the lives and rivalries of the capital’s elite was pencilled in for a December launch but has quietly been pushed back and is now expected out on US network Bravo later this year.

Emma will star alongside raging snob and former Made In Chelsea star, Mark-Francis Vandelli, and socialite Lady Martha Sitwell. 

If they are anything like the previous cast, expect tiaras, tantrums and high-society drama!

You couldn’t make it up!

Lady Mary Charteris is holidaying in Kenya – but can’t relax as she’s fretting about make-up parcels she ordered back home. 

‘How are they going to get through my door?’ the socialite pondered. ‘Will they be left on the streets to get stolen? These are the panics and worries when I should be enjoying being in the middle of nowhere with my friends.’ 

Since one of those pals is cosmetics mogul Charlotte Tilbury, she might just be OK! 

Is Emma Barnett taking a leaf out of Margaret Thatcher’s book? 

The presenter of Radio 4’s Today programme has revealed she drinks a little dram of whisky most nights to get through the flu season unscathed. 

‘I’m basically a 65-year-old Scottish man,’ she says. ‘I like Talisker, although we’ve got a nice Glenlivet at home at the moment.’ 

I spy George 

George Clooney claims he doesn’t give a fig about ageing and recently said: ‘If you’re hanging on to any kind of vanity at 64 – you’re chasing your tail, man.’

Well, I can reveal the Ocean’s Eleven star may not be living up to that boast as my spies saw him recently dashing into luxury skincare shop Hermetise in Soho.

I’m told George splashed £335 on an anti-ageing cream for his under-eye bags. 

So perhaps the silver fox does care a little more than he likes to let on…