As James Bond's new producers carry out their top-secret mission to find Daniel Craig's successor, one rumoured move has left a former star shaken and stirred.
It's been suggested that a black or mixed-race actor could be cast as the next 007, but this prospect disturbs Bond girl Maryam d'Abo.
The actress, 65, was seduced by Timothy Dalton's Bond as cellist Kara Milovy in 1987 film The Living Daylights.
Asked what she'd think if a black actor were cast as the British spy, she says: 'Then don't call it Bond. Call it something else. You can have a wonderful black hero, but then don't call him James Bond.'
Among the leading contenders to win the role is Aaron Pierre, 31, - a Londoner who has Curacaoan, Jamaican and Sierra Leonean ancestry. He provided the voice of Mufasa in Mufasa: The Lion King and starred in Netflix film Rebel Ridge.
'Personally, I would respect Ian Fleming books and keep James Bond being English and working for His Majesty's Secret Service,' says Maryam, who is starring in Spanish Oranges at The Playground Theatre in London W10. But she adds that she would like to watch 'that wonderful Australian guy, Jacob Elordi'.
He plays tortured anti-hero Heathcliff in the new film version of Wuthering Heights released yesterday. 'He's Australian, but so what?'
Bond producer Barbara Broccoli said in 2024 of Craig's successor: 'It will be a man. He'll likely be in his 30s. Whiteness is not a given.'
She and her half-brother, Michael Wilson, sold 'creative control' of the 007 franchise to streaming giant Amazon last year in a reported $1 billion deal, which apparently leaves them as 'co-owners'.
David Heyman, producer of the original Harry Potter films, was confirmed as producer alongside Amy Pascal, known for Spider-Man. The film's director will be Denis Villeneuve, while Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight is working on the screenplay.
Aaron Pierre is not the first black actor to be linked to the role. During Daniel Craig's five-film, 15-year tenure, Luther star Sir Idris Elba was a favourite to succeed him but he's now thought to be too old, at 53.
Roxy Horner's wedding to comedian Jack Whitehall draws closer, and she has already chosen the women who'll stand by her side as bridesmaids.
Among them, I can reveal, is fellow model Sophie Longford, 29, who's posed for fashion houses including Dolce & Gabbana and Gucci.
Roxy says she'll do her 'proud' on her big day.
'We're very close,' Roxy says during their Galentine's pampering session at Backstage Chelsea salon in London. 'It's important to spoil your friends and show love to your girlfriends. They're the ones that are always there for you.'
Roxy, 34, has a two-year-old daughter, Elsie, with Whitehall, 37, but says they'll enjoy a child-free Valentine's evening tonight.
'We're having a lovely, rare date night in, and my mum’s going to babysit for us. I bring out the romantic side of Jack. He’s very sweet, a gentleman.'
Dua Lipa admits that having to spend lots of time apart from her fiance, Callum Turner, because of work is a constant struggle.
'This is something I’ve had to get pretty good at over the years, especially during touring seasons,' admits the pop singer, 30. 'It does get easier with time, but it never stops being hard.'
She and London-born actor Callum, 35, confirmed their engagement last June. But their careers often pull them to opposite ends of the world.
'Relationships do change with distance, but love doesn’t,' adds Dua. 'If anything, it can feel even stronger when you don’t get to see each other all the time.'
Bridget Jones is known for her big knickers, style mishaps and 'frazzled English woman' style. Her creator, Helen Fielding has, however, raised a fashion star.
I hear that the author's daughter, Romy Curran, made her catwalk debut at the Marc Jacobs show in New York this week.
The 19-year-old model wore a strapless pink dress from the label's ready-to-wear spring collection, impressing front-row guests including former Vogue chief Dame Anna Wintour, heiress Nicky Hilton Rothschild and Hollywood star Anne Hathaway.
'Romy worked so hard (and did her college homework), practising fierce scary walk in high heels without tripping over or getting skirt tucked in pants,' says Fielding, 67. 'Trying not to turn into Bridget’s mother, saying “Smile nicely for the camera, darling!”'
Sadly, Romy's father, Kevin Curran, was not around to enjoy her debut. An executive producer of The Simpsons, he died of cancer in 2016.
Nigel Farage called BBC presenter Emma Barnett 'utterly disgraceful' after she linked him with Adolf Hitler on Radio 4's Today programme last December during an interview with his deputy, Richard Tice. Now, the BBC has rejected complaints that Barnett showed bias against his party, Reform UK. It published its ruling this week, claiming: 'The reference to a "relationship" with Hitler might have been regarded as an illegitimate slur if the interviewer had not gone on to specify what that relationship was alleged to have consisted of.' Barnett mentioned claims that Farage, as a schoolboy, had been anti-Semitic and praised Hitler.
Katherine Ryan revealed this week that she underwent a full facelift to 'reclaim her identity' after giving birth to her fourth child, Holland, last October.
Now, the comedienne tells me that she's considering another procedure.
'I got some breast implants in the early Noughties, and I want those to come out because there's no need for them now,' she says at the VIP launch of the Mundo Pixar Experience in Wembley, London. 'I've started doing my research.'
Canadian-born Katherine, 42, says her civil partner, Bobby Kootstra, 44, gets 'nervous' when she goes under the knife. 'He's not pro-surgery,' she says. 'He's smart enough to just let me do whatever I want.'
Wayne Sleep, who memorably danced with Princess Diana at the Royal Opera House to the Billy Joel song Uptown Girl, inspired remarkable devotion from a former boyfriend. I can disclose that the ballet star’s ‘first love’ George Lawson, the colourful London book dealer who died in 2024 aged 82, left a substantial sum to Sleep in his will. Newly published probate documents disclose that Lawson bequeathed £250,000 to Sleep, 77. The pair’s romance was immortalised by David Hockney in his celebrated unfinished double portrait.
Her mother has been holed up in the Middle East, while her younger sister Eugenie last week popped over to Qatar for an art fair.
But Princess Beatrice has been hard at work back here in Blighty, unveiling a website for her advisory company, BY-EQ, whose initials stand for Beatrice York and apparently Emotional Quotient (intelligence).
The site explains that Bea, 37, is driven by a belief ‘that business can and should have a positive impact’. There is, of course, always a danger of being too positive - as even Bea might reflect she was when she agreed with her mother Fergie that following Jeffrey Epstein’s release from prison for child sex offences it was ‘important’ to brief the Press that he’d ‘done his penance’.
Once a Page of Honour to Queen Elizabeth, he’s long been familiar with performing in the public eye. But now, I can disclose, Harry Legge-Bourke is readying himself to advance into territory where even the younger of his two sisters, Tiggy - nanny to William and Harry - has resisted treading.
‘He’s putting himself up for election to the Senedd - for Reform UK,’ says my man in Powys, home to Glanusk, the 16,000-acre Legge-Bourke family estate where Queen Elizabeth stayed in 2012 as did King Charles while at university at Aberystwyth. Former Welsh Guards officer Harry,53, isn’t entering the electoral fray for fun. ‘He detests how badly Wales has been run,’ says a chum.
The award-winning sculptor,62, whose clients include Sir Elton John and Kate Moss,split from his wife,Lady Georgia Byng,60, daughter of the Earl of Strafford,in 2014.
This week,he arrived at the launch party for Rachel Eliza Griffiths's memoir,The Flower Bearers,at Nobu in London with Sudanese-American model Adot Gak,29,firmly by his side.
'They looked very happy together and were inseparable throughout the evening,' says a fellow guest.