Known as the ‘little black book’, it’s 97 pages long and contains the names and addresses of almost 2,000 world leaders, famous personalities and businessmen including Prince Andrew, Donald Trump and Tony Blair.
Now, Dame Eileen Atkins has discovered that she’s included in convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s infamous contacts book — but has managed to see the positive side.
Famous actress, Jennifer Lawrence has stated that being part of the team is better than being out.
‘I thought you are nobody if you are not in there,’ she declares at The Oldie Gang Show, at the Reform Club in London’s Pall Mall.
In a withering comment on her fellow theatrical dame, she adds, jokingly: ‘And I noticed Judi Dench wasn’t.’
Both are friendly and competitive, with the pair playing sisters in BBC’s popular costume drama Cranford.
Epstein’s book is thought to have been compiled by his friend and supposed lover, Ghislaine Maxwell.
Five charges were brought against the ex-socialite of Britain in connection with sex trafficking.
At the Britweek launch party in Los Angeles at the British Consul Generals residence, Dame Judi dench and Dame Eileen Atkins in 2004, Dame Judi Dench (left)
Jeffrey Epstein (convicted sex offenders) and Ghislaine Minwell (trafficker) pictured together, 2005
This week, however, she filed for a retrial, due to a juror’s possible failure to disclose that he was sexually abused as a child before the trial.
The book includes 301 British contacts and is being reviewed by the FBI after U.S. prosecutors vowed to pursue all those involved in her ‘pyramid scheme of abuse’.
The collection includes a number of well-known names such as Phil Collins and Sir Mick Jagger, supermodel Naomi Campbell, and Jonathan Dimbleby, broadcaster.
It is not possible to prove that they have done any wrong.
Dame Eileen, 87, who co-created the TV classic Upstairs, Downstairs and also played Queen Mary in The Crown, tells me: ‘I have no idea why I’m in there — it’s supposed to be Ghislaine’s address book.’
She says she ‘came to the conclusion that it was just famous people’ after watching this week’s ITV documentary Ghislaine, Prince Andrew And The Paedophile.
Let’s hope that Oscar-winner Dench, 87, finds her friend’s jibe amusing. Atkins once said about Dench: ‘What she was loved for by her fellow actors was the humour that bubbled inside her.’
Their first acting together was when they were 24 years old in 1959’s TV series Hilda Lessways.
Atkins, on the other hand, was granted a damehood only in 2001.
Rees-Mogg can’t mask his Old Etonian pride
David Cameron seemed ashamed about the high cost of his education. However, he promised his children that he would send them to school (before changing his mind after he left office).
Jacob Rees Mogg is still proud that he attended Eton College.
Jacob Rees Mogg seen in Downing Street, October leaving a meeting of the pre-budget cabinet.
So proud, in fact, that the Commons Leader wore a face mask decorated with the blue and white stripes of the £44,000-per-year school when he sat near fellow Old Etonian Boris Johnson at PMQs this week.
‘It is indeed an OE face mask,’ he tells me. ‘How very well spotted.’
Once described as London’s ‘posh wild child’, Lady Mary Charteris is making sure her child inherits her flamboyant fashion sense.
The Earl of Wemyss’ 34-year old daughter has shown off matching swimsuits in leopard print while they were on vacation in Mexico.
Wilde, her eight-month old girl, is named after Wilde. ‘Just a couple of Wilde beasts,’ the model and DJ jokes.
Always bold in her sartorial decisions, she was a shrewd bride who raised eyebrows for the semi-transparent dress she wore to marry Robbie Furze from The Big Pink.
Like her friend Holly Willoughby, Fearne Cotton was once a TV sweetheart, but now she’s slipped into relative obscurity — and insists she prefers it.
‘The other night a bloke came up to me in a restaurant and asked, “What do you do these days?” Because he watches mainstream TV and isn’t aware of what I do — which is absolutely fine,’ says Cotton, 40, who writes books and hosts a podcast.
‘My work might be smaller, but I am happier than ever.
‘When I was supposedly at my success peak, my life was falling apart.’
Sir Anthony Hopkins, a double Oscar nominee, reacted to the suggestion that he may have been once married to Martha Stewart in America. He claimed they only had one dinner.
But she insists they would still have been friends if not for the fact that he was a cannibalistic serial killer in Silence Of The Lambs.
‘I have a big scary house that’s way by itself on 100 acres in the forest and I couldn’t even imagine taking Anthony Hopkins there,’ she explains.
‘All I could think of was him eating, you know . . .’
Is it better to be a man or a woman? This is the real question.
Comedian and actor Eddie Izzard, who recently revealed a desire to be ‘based in girl mode’, has announced a production of Hamlet with just one cast member: Izzard.
It is unknown whether the comic will play all of Shakespeare’s characters, including the Danish prince and Ophelia, with Izzard saying only: ‘I am developing a solo version.’
Eddie Izzard at the Six Minutes To Midnight photocall held at the De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill, March 2013.
The play will be performed at London’s Riverside Studios.
Monty Python star John Cleese is amused by the prospect, remarking: ‘I can’t wait to see the duel.’
Usually ebullient former Strictly star Nancy Dell’Olio is mourning her ex-husband, the Italian property lawyer Giancarlo Mazza, who has died aged 87.
‘He was the most important man in my life, after my father,’ says Nancy, 60, adding: ‘I was so lucky to have shared a part of my journey with him.’
The pair’s journey ended when Nancy had an affair with football manager Sven-Goran Eriksson.
Fiery Nancy moved to London with Sven when Sven became England’s boss.
Sven later explained: ‘Giancarlo said Nancy was expensive and impossible, but still the best thing that had ever happened to him.
It seems he wanted to say that I shouldn’t take his daughter away. I probably should have listened.’
Georgia Toffolo was once again in trouble for her promotion of cryptocurrencies to her Instagram followers.
I hear the I’m A Celebrity winner is in trouble for flouting Covid rules in Mexico, where she’s on holiday.
‘Just got told off for not wearing a mask outside while travelling on a buggy with no windows or doors,’ she wails, adding: ‘We’ve got it pretty good in the UK.’
Sex Education, the hit Netflix show, was originally created for teenagers but is also very popular with older audiences.
George Robinson (24), who portrays a loving man in a wheelchair tells me that he was approached in the street by an 80 year-old fan who thanked him and added spice to her sexual life.
The actor, who was paralysed aged 17 when he broke his neck on a school rugby tour in South Africa, jokingly mimics his awkward response: ‘Ah . . . cool. Great. I’m glad it helped.’
When Caroline Nokes bravely accused Stanley Johnson last year of smacking her ‘on the backside as hard as he could’ at the Tory conference in 2003, the MP thought there might be consequences.
In fact, Boris Johnson’s father, who said he had ‘no recollection’ of Nokes, has been welcomed back into the Tory fold.
He was joined by Environment Secretary George Eustice yesterday at an event hosted by the Conservative Environment Network in Westminster.
Ben Goldsmith, the Government adviser on stage with Eustice, hailed Stanley as the ‘big gorilla of Conservative environmentalism’.
Nokes declines to speak up, but he might refer to him as something worse.