With her Channel 4 reality show The Inheritance meeting with unflattering reviews, where next on screen for Elizabeth Hurley? I’m told there are plans for the British beauty to star in a second movie directed by son Damian, pictured with his mother, just over a year since their first collaboration, Strictly Confidential, was sadly savaged by many critics. Liz’s decision to appear in steamy love scenes, directed by Hurley junior, also raised plenty of eyebrows at the time...
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Not content with seeing his bestselling Canon Clement murder mysteries turned into a new Channel 5 drama, canny showbiz vicar Richard Coles jumps aboard another literary bandwagon: I hear the Reverend's joining the now countless number of British celebs flogging children’s books, with his debut out next Easter.
Kerching!
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Curmudgeonly actor Brian Cox, pictured, admits to enjoying morbid viewing habits behind closed doors. Known for his unflattering assessments of rival thespians down the years, the Dundee-born Succession star, 79, now confesses to regularly watching the Turner Classic Movies channel in order to “note the dead actors he’s outlived”.
Brian ghoulishly adds: “It’s a great pastime of mine.”
Charming!
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Esteemed actress Dame Eileen Atkins maintains she has no regrets about once turning down the offer of a fling with Irish movie star Colin Farrell - over 40 years her junior.
Recalling the (now reformed) hellraiser knocking on her hotel door whilst they were away filming 2006 film Ask The Dust, Eileen insists: “I had to say no...I was going to be 70 at the end of the week, and he was 27 or something. It was ridiculous!"
She chuckles: “He was very disappointed.”
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Former Top Gear host-turned-pub landlord James May has been voicing displeasure about “uninvited” morris dancers turning up in the garden of his Wiltshire boozer, The Royal Oak.
Somewhat harshly, Mr May had previously declared this historic English pastime to be banned on the premises.
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Preparing to infuriate the royals with another tell-all book, Princess Diana’s blabbermouth butler Paul Burrell also launches his new podcast next week. A colleague suggests it should be aptly called “Scraping the Burrell”.
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Late British and European heavyweight champ Joe Bugner, an Australian citizen by the 1980s, was ready to go to bizarre lengths to win over fans Down Under.
Hungarian-born Joe, who died this week aged 75, once rashly accepted a challenge from an Aussie circus to spar with a kangaroo wearing boxing gloves. Admitting to sensibly changing his mind when he and the unlikely opponent came face to face, Bugner explained: “It was a beautiful animal. Besides, I took one look at those legs and thought, ‘If I try anything on, he’s going to kick me right in the guts and kill me.’”
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Looking back on a recent luxury holiday in the Caribbean with wife Michele, Gyles Brandreth recalls "standing on the beach in Jamaica and seeing from a distance this little bent old lady coming towards us.” Gyles cheekily clarifies: “Then we realised it was actually Mick Jagger.”
