The quest to coin an honest shilling has occasionally proved hazardous for Princess Anne’s son Peter Phillips.
Never more so than in 2020 when, as revealed by the Mail, he appeared in two excruciating adverts on Chinese TV, drinking a glass of milk brought to him by a butler and boasting of being nourished on Jersey milk from the royal herd at Windsor.
But now, I can disclose, he faces the most acute dilemma of his career just a year after becoming head of ‘partner acquisition’ in the motorsport arm of CSM Sport & Entertainment agency.
There seemed little danger of any scandal at CSM. But that’s all changed following its acquisition by an American agency, Wasserman, headed by tycoon Casey Wasserman, who, as grandson of Lew Wasserman, ‘the last of the legendary movie moguls’, can claim to be Hollywood royalty.
There seemed little danger of any scandal at CSM. But that’s all changed following its acquisition by an American agency, Wasserman, headed by tycoon Casey Wasserman (left)
The quest to coin an honest shilling has occasionally proved hazardous for Princess Anne ’s son Peter Phillips (pictured)
But that, alas, is not why Casey Wasserman has sent tongues into hyper-drive in Beverly Hills.
Just weeks after celebrating his 50th birthday in June with a ‘Gatsby-level’ party for 600 pals including Bill Clinton and Doug Emhoff, husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, Wasserman has been accused by numerous women of being a ‘serial cheater’ who sleeps with those who catch his eye at work, rewards them with La Perla lingerie, Louboutin shoes and even Range Rovers, and then drops them without a backwards glance.
‘He could go from 100 to zero in just hours,’ one has said, while no fewer than six of his accusers allege that Wasserman had an affair with one of his assistants in 2005 and 2006 when his daughter Stella was just a few months old.
But perhaps most grievous of all is the publication of an email sent by former private jet ‘cabin attendant’ Jenny Chandler to his wife, Laura, in March 2021. ‘Him and I have been together for seven years which he’s lied to you about,’ the email said. ‘He f****d me in your bed.’
Chandler concluded by saying that she’d repeatedly enjoyed Wasserman’s favours on his Gulfstream G550 while Laura sat, oblivious, ‘in the back’.
Laura and Wasserman divorced later that year.
Now Wasserman has suffered a further defection, with singer Billie Eilish leaving his agency.
Phillips, 46, declines to say if he will follow her to the exit. Perhaps he’s noted Wasserman has survived turbulence before – once flying to Africa on Jeffrey Epstein’s Boeing 727, dubbed the ‘Lolita Express’, but otherwise staying untainted by the sex offender.
Bomb narrowly misses Lebanese fashion designer
His gowns are worn by Heidi Klum, Kate Winslet and Nicole Scherzinger, but Lebanese-Italian designer Tony Ward nearly didn’t make it to Paris Fashion Week due to the escalating conflict in Lebanon.
‘We were almost hit by a bomb,’ he tells me at his Paris showroom. ‘I was going to the airport and a bomb went off 50 metres away from the car. So we’re stuck here [in Europe]. We don’t know if we will go back or stay here.’
Ward adds: ‘It’s not the first time they’ve tried to hit us, but what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.’
Life is constant disappointment, says Richard Osman
Former Pointless host Richard Osman insists that his career isn’t a string of successes
He’s sold more than five million books and his novel The Thursday Murder Club is being turned into a film starring Dame Helen Mirren and Sir Ben Kingsley.
But former Pointless host Richard Osman insists that his career isn’t a string of successes.
‘Life is constant disappointment and setback and failure,’ says the author, 53. ‘If I told you every failed television show I’ve been involved with over the past 30 years, you’d need to change your printer cartridge.’
Osman adds: ‘I’m delighted to say that my daily life is a constant failure – of cooking badly and being unable to change a lightbulb properly. If you’re worried that I don’t have enough failure in my life, I can assuage those worries.’
Elton’s off the road but in the money
Sir Elton John, 77, and his husband David Furnish, 61, enjoyed a £12 million payout after fortunes in one of their investment businesses took a pleasing upturn
Sir Elton John, who retired from touring last year, joked this week that ‘there’s not much of me left’ after his various surgical operations and health issues.
But his ability to make money remains undiminished.
I hear that the pop star, 77, and his husband David Furnish, 61, enjoyed a £12 million payout after fortunes in one of their investment businesses took a pleasing upturn.
The pair withdrew the cash from Tekcor Ltd, which manages a portfolio of shares that at one point hit more than £164 million in the 12 months to April this year.
According to newly-published figures, the company sold a hefty chunk of shares, making gains of more than £3.5 million on the way.
David, who is the company director, and Sir Elton have significant control over the company. As a result, the accounts for the company note: ‘During the year the director and his husband withdrew funds totalling £12,062,670.’
Let Gwynnie eat cake
Gwyneth Paltrow shared this photograph online of her posing in a local brasserie with a layered birthday cake
Oscar-winner Gwyneth Paltrow is more interested in style than Hollywood these days, so where better to celebrate her birthday than the French capital during Paris Fashion Week?
The actress, whose lifestyle company Goop sells designer clothing, shared this photograph online of her posing in a local brasserie with a layered birthday cake.
‘Cinquante-deux,’ she comments, referring to her 52nd birthday.
The star has said reaching her 50s was ‘great’, despite having been concerned about earlier milestones: ‘When I turned 40 . . . I really flipped out.’
Sue remembers days with Sir Paul
The Royle Family star Sue Johnston fondly recalls the one that got away – Sir Paul McCartney
The Royle Family star Sue Johnston fondly recalls the one that got away – Sir Paul McCartney. The pair were close as teenagers in the early days of The Cavern Club in Liverpool. ‘Paul and I were good mates, but we were only ever friends,’ says the actress, 80. ‘But he used to drive me home. He used to come to our house. It was good fun and a nice friendship, but then I fell for the drummer in the Swinging Blue Jeans and that was that.’
She adds: ‘The girls in our street used to ask me for his cigarette stubs when he’d gone and I thought maybe I should sell them, but I didn’t.’
Rolling with the punches is Jess’s dream come true
Jessica Raine is relishing the rough and tumble of her current role in The Devil’s Hour
Best-known as nurse Jenny Lee in the first three series of Call the Midwife, Jessica Raine is relishing the rough and tumble of her current role in psychological thriller The Devil’s Hour.
‘Being punched in the face was the dream because I got to learn stunts and fights and I’ve not got to do that in my career,’ the 42-year-old actress tells me at the premiere of the Prime Video drama’s second series at the Soho Hotel in London.
