EPHRAIM HARDCASTLE: Prince Andrew could learn from Meghan

2023-01-31

EPHRAIM HARDCASTLE: Could Prince Andrew get inspiration for his plan to discredit Virginia Giuffre from his first meeting with Meghan?

As Prince Andrew ponders his strategy to discredit Virginia Giuffre’s recollections, might he seek inspiration from nephew Harry’s account of Meghan’s first meeting with the Queen, when she asked Harry to identify HM’s ‘assistant’? ‘I asked who she was talking about,’ Harry writes in Spare. ‘Meg replied, ‘The man holding the purse. The man who walked her to the door.’ ‘That wasn’t her assistant,’ explained Harry. ‘That was her second son, Andrew.’ Could Meg’s non-recognition encourage Andrew to believe his alleged Tramp dancemate mixed him up with somebody else?

Further woe awaits the Duke of York as Andrew Lownie cranks up his investigation apparatus for an expose of disgraced Andrew. Says Lownie, author of ‘Traitor King’ which exposed the Duke of Windsor as a Nazi sympathiser: ‘My next book is a biography of Prince Andrew. Love to talk to anyone, off the record if preferred, who met him, have stories about him or can put me in touch with people who knew or worked with him.’ Lower periscope and dive Andrew!

Normal People star Daisy Edgar-Jones, pictured, remains remarkably sanguine at the Financial Times listing of her as a ‘nepo baby’ whose ‘vertiginous rise makes more sense when you know that her father is Phil Edgar-Jones.’ But her dad, former Big Brother executive producer and now boss of Sky Arts, is not happy with her being lumped in with the likes of Brooklyn Beckham. ‘That’s just silly,’ he snorts. ‘As if Lenny Abrahamson, the Oscar-nominated director [of Normal People], would even know who I was.’

Lord Sugar, midway through his 17th season of The Apprentice and keen to complete 20 years, tells Radio Times: ‘Maybe one of the tasks for my last year is, I announce I’m about to die and can someone design a nice coffin for me? One that has communications built in, in case I wake up. A keyboard and mobile phone connectivity and rechargeable batteries for the funeral parlour.’ How about a Steam Age Amstrad for old times’ sake?

Donald Trelford, who has died at 85, once lunched with JFK’s mother Rose Kennedy after buying her memoirs for The Observer, asking her if she knew Mr Ford. ‘You mean the man who makes the motor cars?’ she asked. Donald explained he meant Richard Nixon’s successor as President, Gerald Ford. ‘No,’ Mrs Kennedy replied. ‘He is a midwesterner. I wouldn’t know a man like that.’

Ice Cold in Alex star Sylvia Syms felt her thespian career was blighted by being constantly confused with Richard Attenborough’s actress wife Sheila Sim. Sylvia has departed to the celestial Pinewood via Denville Hall, affectionately dubbed Dunacting, after her death last week aged 89. Sheila also took her last bow from the home for theatricals. Lots to talk about in the heavenly green room girls!

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