EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: King seeks 'talent acquisition manager'

EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: King seeks ‘talent acquisition manager’ to boost new team

Have you got the royal X Factor? King Charles is seeking a ‘talent acquisition manager’ who will command an impressive £55,000-a-year salary, plus benefits. 

The successful applicant must be ‘adept at using different selection techniques’ and will even be given training in ‘psychometric assessments’. 

The advert on the royal website says: ‘The Talent Acquisition team has only recently been established. Leading a small team, you’ll deliver an exceptional recruitment service by managing all activity through the hiring cycle.’ 

Sounds like a promising TV show . . . 

Have you got the royal X Factor? King Charles is seeking a ‘talent acquisition manager’

Middleton’s objection a blow for the neighbours 

He’s become something of a poster-boy for those who, frazzled by the pace of London life, seek sanctuary in rural England.

Indeed, speaking of his move to Berkshire, the Princess of Wales’s brother, James Middleton, has reflected that, whereas ‘in London, you don’t have community’, he and his French wife, Alizee, now feel ‘so lucky to live in a small village with 100 people and two pubs’.

But will the intimacy of village life now feel such a blessing?

The question is prompted by the contrasting fates of the planning applications made by James and Alizee and by their nearest neighbours.

I can reveal that James, 35, and Alizee, who married 17 months ago in the South of France, have just secured permission to make profound alterations to the Grade II-listed farmhouse — close to James’s parents’ house in Bucklebury — which they bought for £1.45 million in 2021.

James Middleton and his French wife, Alizee, now feel ‘so lucky to live in a small village with 100 people and two pubs’

Bucklebury in West Berkshire, the home town of Catherine Middleton

An ‘unsympathetic’ conservatory will now be demolished and replaced with an oak-framed extension. A revamped ground floor will boast a new entrance, balcony and porch, morning room, study, drawing room and boot room. Outside, there will be a new terrace and herb garden, while the driveway will be reconfigured and sealed off from the public road by electrically operated oak gates.

By contrast, their neighbours, who live 130 yards away, have received bleak news: the local council has rejected their appeal to let them demolish their bungalow — their home for seven years — and build a larger, flat-roofed replacement. It’s quite a blow, not only because it’s just the latest in a series of rejections the couple have suffered, but also because their plans prompted a blistering objection from . . . their newest — and closest — neighbours.

Not that the Middletons wrote the five-and-a-half page letter themselves; they hired chartered town planner Lisa Jackson to do so on their behalf. Aside from objecting to the size of the proposed new dwelling, Jackson makes it acidly clear that her clients have no time for the planting of well-spaced ‘instant’ trees, dismissing the suggestion as ‘suburban in character’.

Perhaps James and Alizee can patch things up with their neighbours in one of those two village pubs? Cheers!

Dream trip is a consolation prize for Lily

What better way to get over a string of awards ceremony disappointments than with some winter sun?

Lily James failed to win a prize for her critically acclaimed performance as Pamela Anderson in the television drama Pam & Tommy, even though she was nominated for an Emmy, Golden Globe and Critics’ Choice award.

And now the former Downton Abbey star, 33, has jetted off to the Maldives with her friend and fellow actress Gala Gordon, 31.

‘Found heaven on earth,’ trills Lily, who’s staying at the luxury Joali resort, where a standard villa costs more than £3,000 a night.

Every move you make: Sting on sex

Sting has been plagued by questions about his energetic love life since he once gave an interview in which he boasted about seven-hour tantric sex sessions. He later clarified that the seven hours would include dinner and a movie.

Now, The Police singer, 71, (pictured practising yoga with wife Trudie) has admitted he loves the interest in it. ‘I don’t mind that at all — it’s very healthy,’ he says. ‘We didn’t discuss sex ever with my parents.

‘I’m fortunate in many, many respects, and having my health at this age is something I don’t take for granted.

‘I’ve lost a lot of friends that didn’t make it this far, so I appreciate every day as it comes.’

The Police singer, 71, (pictured practising yoga with wife Trudie) has admitted he loves the interest in sex

Comedian Jimmy Carr appears less than amused by news that Fawlty Towers is to return to our screens, with John Cleese, 83, playing grumpy hotelier Basil Fawlty as he tries to navigate the modern world. 

‘John Cleese is 85, isn’t he?’ Carr asks. ‘Surely, the reboot should be set in a retirement home? That’s the smart money.’ 

Carr suggests Cleese is involved only for the cash. 

‘I think, from John Cleese’s point of view, if he leaves it, he doesn’t get paid. If he reboots it, he gets paid, so reboot away my friend. 

I think they’ve got to write him a cheque beforehand and he’ll be fine. God love him, don’t mess with the man’s money.’

Lord (Charlie) Brocket’s son and heir, Alex Nall-Cain has spoken for the first time about the devastating effects of the freak accident he suffered on a skiing holiday in Val d’Isere, France.

‘It’s true to say I will never be the same after my 12-hour operation,’ the 38-year-old entrepreneur tells me. ‘They had to fight to save my arm. It is unbelievably painful.

‘I’ll never have full range of motion back. My right arm was broken in four places, dislocated and twisted, a lot of ligaments and muscles ruptured.’ The experienced skier, whose former jailbird father once competed on I’m A Celebrity, says his friends were ‘laughing’ because the accident happened not on the slopes but when he slipped while posing for a photograph.

He will spend the rest of the year in rehabilitation, but will be back at work, ‘typing with one finger’ and using voice diction.

The former Labour leader accepted four free tickets and hospitality

He’s known for the two kitchens at his smart home in North London, but Ed Miliband is apparently too tight to pay for a night out. 

The former Labour leader accepted four free tickets and hospitality, worth a total of £350, from the Royal Shakespeare Company for My Neighbour Totoro at the Barbican Theatre in London. 

The show was the capital’s hottest theatre ticket of the past few months and thousands were unable to see it before its run ended.

Miliband has just recorded the freebie in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. 

The RSC is supported by taxpayers, while Miliband, who is now Shadow Climate Change Secretary, is married to Dame Justine Thornton, a High Court judge likely to be paid around £200,000 per year.

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