IT’s a happy Valentine’s Day for actor Juliet Stevenson, who has married Hugh Brody, her partner of 29 years, on December 11 last year, the Londoner can reveal.
The two tied the knot “at a small registry office in Suffolk,” before Christmas Stevenson tells us.
Previously the Truly, Madly, Deeply star, above , has said she has never “seen the point” of marriage, calling it an “old-fashioned idea”.
But she recently explained why she had changed her mind, joking that it was partly for tax reasons.
“If you’re not married, you’ve got children together and you’ve lived together for decades, they take a lot of tax away from you,” Stevenson, 65, said cheerfully.
“You stay with somebody because you love them... why do I need a piece of paper? But I’ve changed my mind. I love him very, very much. We’ve been on a huge journey together and I like the idea of standing up in front of the world... and saying, ‘This is my man; this is my person’.”
There was another factor too. “Once marriage started including same-sex marriage, I thought, ‘Okay, this institution has really changed for the better,’” she told Australian media.
A happy moment.
False flag attack on Labour leader
KEIR STARMER takes a lot of flak from his Left wing, but one salvo over the weekend backfired. The Skwawkbox, a hard-Left website, told its readers that Starmer was trying “desperately” to tell voters he was not Jeremy Corbyn and had even rebranded Labour as New Labour. Accompanying their post was an image of a conference centre near Parliament emblazoned with New Labour flags. One problem: it was the set of the new series of The Crown. Nearly had him…
Knight’s long night with Prince
PRINCE was the king of after-show parties — and Beverley Knight, left, has lived to tell the tale. The British singer once opened for him at the O2, but after finishing “Prince physically grabbed me” and asked her to play his after show. She tells the Full Disclosure podcast that she did it and Prince joined her, with the pair performing for “almost four hours”. Stamina.
Kingsley gets to know his part
THERE’S plenty of footage for actors to study of Theresa May and Gina Miller, the protagonists in Tim Walker’s political drama Bloody Difficult Women, which opens at west London’s Riverside Studios this month.
But Alan Miller, Gina’s husband, is more camera-shy. So Edmund Kingsley — son of Sir Ben — who is playing Alan in the show, invited the investment manager out for a drink to study him. “He’s a lot younger and more handsome than me, so I can hardly complain,” Alan tells us. “About what he will say and do as me in the play, I’m more apprehensive.”
SW1A
ONE of Boris Johnson’s former aides has been offered new work — as a boxing coach. Elena Narozanski, a keen boxer, was formerly of the policy unit but quit during the exodus at the start of the month. Now her old coach at Islington Boxing Club has said he hopes she might work with him. Fewer bust ups than in No 10...
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GARETH THOMAS MP completed a 10k “designed by sadists” yesterday — and the Labour man tells us he kicked back with “a glass or two of Malbec” and the rugby highlights. The Londoner salutes Thomas, not least because he did it in his hilly constituency of Harrow. We’ll just have the Malbec, please.
Chicken Shop Date star’s early bird party
VALENTINE’S Day came early for partygoers at The Standard in King’s Cross on Friday. Amelia Dimoldenberg hosted a Valentine’s Affair party and the Chicken Shop Date star was joined by comic Munya Chawawa. Singer Mabel, the daughter of Neneh Cherry, was also there alongside viral trainspotting phenomenon Francis Bourgeois. Writers Yomi Adegoke and Elizabeth Uviebinené made the bash as well.
