Jeremy Clarkson
(Picture: Nick England/Getty Images)First there was Clarkson’s Farm, now prepare for the Clarkson Arms. Yesterday, Grand Tour presenter Jeremy Clarkson revealed his new venture: running a pub. “I’ve bought one today,” he told The Londoner.
His purchase came just hours after the news that 70 per cent of pubs could shut their doors this winter due to high energy bills.
But before he can start pulling pints behind the bar, Clarkson will first need to find the premises. “I don’t know the name or where it is,” he laughs. Rushing off from an event launching the new series of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, Clarkson added: “I’ve got to go and look.”
Clarkson has been credited with popularising farming since he bought a 1,000-acre plot in the Cotswolds and made a TV show about it.
If he can give a similar boost to publicans, their future might be brighter than the headlines suggest.
Making a murderess
When Kathy Lette, author of How To Kill Your Husband, was mistaken for an actual murderer by a newspaper, she thought “it’s great, critics will be so nice to me!” Lette only threatened to sue when she realised it could jeopardise tea with the Queen. “My lawyer said when you next meet the Queen, her courtiers will Google you and think: oh my God, a murderess! But every time a royal meets an Australian they think ‘convict’.”
Sir Tom Jones soldiers on
His doctor has told him to stop performing until he has replaced his right hip, but crooning legend Sir Tom Jones, 82, says he is determined to complete his tour. “I’ve gotta have a new hip. At the moment I’m bone on bone,” he told us at the launch of ITV’s The Voice. “I’m alright for four songs, then it really starts to hurt, so I sit on a stool. I said it’s either get my hip done and not be there or do it on a stool, and that’s what we’re gonna do.” It’s not unusual!
The struggles of Charles’s biographer
Launching her updated biography of Prince Charles last night, titled Charles: The Heart of a King, Catherine Mayer revealed a downside to writing about the future monarch. “The crazy Diana fans had decided me writing the biography meant somehow I’d been in league with him to murder her.” But she’s relaxed about reactions to the new version: “Meghan and Harry, nobody’s got opinions about them, have they?”
The Lord of the Rings returns
Jeff Bezos walked the red carpet with partner Lauren Sanchez for the premiere of Amazon’s Lord of the Rings series. Bezos said he’s a big fan of the original trilogy: “My kids have become Tolkien fans, too. My son came up to me one day, very sincerely, and said: ‘Dad, please don’t eff this up.’” Also walking the carpet were Sir Lenny Henry and actors Minnie Driver, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Kaya Scodelario and Malachi Kirby.
