EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: Dame Arlene Phillips says rejecting Ed Sheeran at an audition was ‘one of the biggest mistakes I’ve ever made in my life’
He’s a pop superstar who has sold more than 150 million records worldwide, yet Ed Sheeran was rejected by Dame Arlene Phillips when he auditioned in front of her for a role in a television drama.
And now she has admitted it’s the greatest regret of her distinguished career.
‘That was one of the biggest mistakes I’ve ever made in my life,’ Dame Arlene tells me at a London event.
Sheeran, 32, tried to join the cast of ITV series Britannia High when he was 16.
At the time, Dame Arlene said Sheeran was, ‘not even an option…Ed hasn’t a clue what he’s doing’.
Pop Superstar Ed Sheeran, 32, tried to join the cast of ITV series Britannia High when he was 16
Ed Sheeran was rejected by Dame Arlene Phillips when he auditioned in front of her for a role in a television drama
He overheard the former Strictly Come Dancing judge dismiss him almost immediately.
He said: ‘I walked out of the audition, like, ‘I think that went really well’, and then I saw Arlene Phillips go, ‘Not a chance.”
Time called on Soho’s Posner
One of the ringmasters of bohemian London in the 1990s has died. Robert Posner was Auberon Waugh’s lieutenant-in-mischief, running the Academy Club in Soho for the much-missed journalist.
After a decade at the haunt loved by writers and dreamers, London-born Posner moved to a ‘steading’ at Talisker, Skye, to be a handyman.
In his time he was an Israeli soldier, a kibbutznik and business manager of the Literary Review.
Robert Posner was Auberon Waugh’s lieutenant-in-mischief, running the Academy Club in Soho for the much-missed journalist
He also once hitchhiked to Afghanistan and did five years in a Swiss prison (having been found at the border with contraband).
The spirit never dimmed. Four months before his death from cancer, at 72, raffish Posner bought a motor launch for cruising round Skye in sunglasses with an enigmatic smile on his handsome face.
Georgia May Jagger certainly doesn’t have a pudding face — but she does look as if a jug of custard has been poured over her.
The model, 31, shared this photograph of her in a face mask ahead of the launch of her organic skincare line, May Botanicals. ‘I spent four years perfecting the range and so I am so excited for you all to see it,’ gushes the daughter of Sir Mick Jagger and Jerry Hall.
The model, 31, shared this photograph of her in a face mask ahead of the launch of her organic skincare line, May Botanicals
The model was said to have spent four years perfecting the range for her organic skincare
‘The ethos is to have something that looks glamorous but is made from very simple ingredients —and it’s made in England.’
Chiltern Firehouse is one of London’s most fashionable venues, where Princess Beatrice held her engagement party. Situated in the former Marylebone Fire Station, the restaurant and hotel was the scene of a scare recently when guests were woken at 2am by a fire alarm.
Someone had raised an alert after mistaking a video artwork display for CCTV footage of a real fire. Named Burning Down The House, the work shows fictitious security camera shots depicting guests fleeing flames in the hotel corridors.
Selfie help… Ellie’s glam snap in loo!
What would you do if you bumped into Ellie Goulding in the Ladies’? Ask for an autograph or mutter a quick ‘hello’, perhaps?
Well, one woman who happened to be in a restaurant’s loos with the pop star offered to be her personal photographer.
‘I was sneaking a quick snap of my Stella McCartney get-up in the loos when a beautiful stranger said, ‘Absolutely not — give me that phone,’ ‘ explains Goulding, 36, who sang at the Prince and Princess of Wales’s wedding reception.
One woman who happened to be in a restaurant’s loos with the pop star offered to be her personal photographer
The unidentified woman can be seen with her back turned to the mirror in a selfie with Ellie. In the photo she took of the Love Me Like You Do singer, Ellie is perched on a sink wearing a black knitted dress and a pair of Stella McCartney stiletto boots that cost £1,425.
When actresses hit the age of 40, they were typically pushed into bit parts or sidelined altogether by Hollywood, but Felicity Jones is not worried. ‘I’m going to have a huge party,’ says Oxford-educated Jones, who hit the milestone yesterday. ‘It’s a wonderful moment.’
Asked what she has learned, The Theory Of Everything star tells me at a London party: ‘Be true to yourself. Yes. Eat lots of chocolate. And don’t take things too seriously because it’s not going to last for ever.’
TV chef Rick Stein blames the war in Ukraine for a £1 million loss in his restaurant empire. The star, 76, runs a string of high-end establishments in Cornwall — and one in London.
But he’s just seen a £1.6 million profit turned into a £1.2 million loss in a year. A report with the accounts of Stein’s Trading Ltd makes grim reading, saying: ‘As spring approached, the war in Ukraine had a significant impact on our trading environment.’ The figures help explain why his chip shop has started charging £2 for condiments such as mayonnaise.
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