EPHRAIM HARDCASTLE: Will bullying allegations cost Dominic Raab not only his job but also his front-row seat at the Coronation?
Should Justice Secretary and Lord Chancellor Dominic Raab be overwhelmed by bullying allegations and lose his job, he will miss out on the career high of May’s Coronation. With dozens of peers and MPs elbowing for the 2,000 available Westminster Abbey seats – there were 8,000 in 1953 – Raab in his state robes is guaranteed a front-row seat as the second most important non-royal according to the order of precedence. But he’ll be watching on TV if he is an ex-Lord Chancellor.
Should Justice Secretary and Lord Chancellor Dominic Raab be overwhelmed by bullying allegations and lose his job, he will miss out on the career high of May’s Coronation
Apropos the Coronation, since Tony Blair’s reforms the Lord Chancellor is no longer a peer. This means that Raab – or his successor – won’t need a page to carry his coronet. In 1953, the coronet of the then Lord Chancellor, Baron Simonds, was borne by a young Andrew Parker Bowles.
Has Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby formally agreed to broker a deal between King Charles and Harry? A Lambeth Palace source suggests otherwise. Since Mr Welby prepared Meghan for baptism and confirmation, and guided the couple through their wedding preparations, they seem to have lost their enthusiasm for the Church of England. The informant says that Mr Welby was upset after Meghan told Oprah Winfrey that he had married them secretly in their ‘back yard’ a few days before the wedding – something which was untrue and would have been illegal. Adds the source: ‘It may be that King Charles needs to find another go-between.’
The Shining director Stanley Kubrick wasn’t happy with the prop doors Jack Nicholson, pictured, hacked his way through with an axe in the famous ‘Here’s Johnny’ scene rehearsals. ‘Jack went through them like they were matchwood,’ his daughter Vivian Kubrick tells Empire magazine. ‘So they had to build some strong doors and Jack had to kind of back off, because his technique was quite powerful.’ Kubrick had 30 hefty doors made. Enough surely for a new housing estate.
The Shining director Stanley Kubrick wasn’t happy with the prop doors Jack Nicholson, pictured, hacked his way through with an axe in the famous ‘Here’s Johnny’ scene rehearsals
Tony Blackburn, waving away smoke from his 80th birthday candles, recalls turning up at the doctor with an infected finger. ‘He asked me, ‘How did you do that?’ and I said I was interviewing Basil Brush and then he did his ‘Boom! Boom!’ catchphrase and he nipped my finger and it went septic.’
After discussing Ghislaine Maxwell’s bathtub on Piers Morgan’s TalkTV show, Boris’ ex-paramour Petronella Wyatt sighs: ‘Piers had the cheek to ask me if I had ever made use of a tub myself. I pretended not to understand.’ Piers replies: ‘I’ll take that as a yes.’
Unlike the Andrew representative who sprawled in an empty bath, Jeremy Paxman once submerged himself in a full tub at Malvern College. ‘I was Jeremy’s fag,’ says Dr Steven Hopkins. ‘I well remember him lying in the bath in his Levi jeans, awaiting the perfect fit.’
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