Lady Victoria Hervey, a former contestant on Celebrity Love Island, claims ITV should be held more accountable following the tragic death of TV presenter Caroline Flack.
The 43-year-old daughter of the 6th Marquess of Bristol voiced her concerns over the broadcaster’s treatment of Flack, 40, after she was charged with assaulting her boyfriend, Lewis Burton.
‘I was shocked to hear she killed herself. I don’t think she should have stepped down right after the incident with her boyfriend. That was possibly wrong, if she was that unstable,’ Lady Victoria tells me at the launch of her accessories line, Hervey Henshall, at Sketch in Mayfair.
‘Clearly, she was not a stable person. They must have known that.’
Turning heads in a Kolchagov Barba sheer black lace dress, Lady Victoria adds: ‘She was very nice, but it’s often really hyper people that are closeted depressed.’
Lady Victoria Hervey said ITV should be held more accountable. She is pictured at the launch of her brand Harvey Henshall at Sketchon, London, on Sunday
A fee too far for Dame Helen, 74
Even Dame Helen Mirren has sounded the death knell for the BBC licence fee.
‘British TV is amazing, it’s definitely having a moment,’ says the Oscar winner.
‘But I think the licence fee has possibly had its day. What will follow it, I don’t know — there’ll be good things and bad things to come out of it.’
Dame Helen, 74, who was in conversation with Downton Abbey’s Jim Carter at the Kiln Theatre on Sunday, has previously said the proposed scrapping of free TV licences for the over-75s is ‘heartbreaking’.
Perhaps it is no coincidence that Dame Helen’s most recent TV appearance was in Catherine The Great. On Sky Atlantic.
Dame Helen Mirren said she thought the licence fee had ‘had its day’
It’s safe to say the Duke of Beaufort is no fan of veteran Tory politico John Whittingdale, who has just returned to the Department of Culture, Media and Sport as a Minister.
‘It is absurd that John Whittingdale’s responsibilities should extend to anything in the cultural sphere when you only have to look at him to see he has the cultural affinity of a dollop of mustard,’ says Harry Beaufort.
The Duke certainly can’t be accused of trying to solicit a public subsidy from DCMS for his rock band The Listening Device.
Mike can’t mask his amusement
TV comedian Michael McIntyre is trying to see the funny side of Britain’s latest health scare.
‘My builders are doing all this construction work in my home and there’s all this debris everywhere, but they can’t wear face masks since they’re all sold out because of the coronavirus,’ he tells me at the book launch party for Love And Other Thought Experiments by Sophie Ward.
‘I drove past a nail salon the other day and there was a woman in there and I very nearly stopped to offer her money for the face mask she was wearing.’
Novelist Martin Amis has never been grilled by fearsome interviewer Lynn Barber. But she thinks her cult 1975 book, How To Improve Your Man In Bed, might have impacted upon his sex life.
‘The other day at dinner, I met Antonia Phillips, who was once married to Amis, and she said she was a great fan of my book,’ says Barber, ‘so I now have this image of him having been subjected to all this improvement . . .’
Deayton’s got news for you
Former Have I Got News For You host Angus Deayton was an unlikely talking point of London Fashion Week when he attended a Mayfair party at the weekend with a beautiful companion.
I can disclose she is vivacious PR girl Christabel Milbanke, 30, with whom he arrived at the bash. The pair left together after sharing a charcuterie board. ‘We’re not dating, we’re just friends,’ Angus, 64, insisted. At risk of protesting too much, Christabel added: ‘Yes, we’re just friends.’
Christabel, a descendant of Lord Byron, attended a film festival with Deayton last month.
Former Have I Got News For You host Angus Deayton attended a Mayfair party with PR girl Christabel Milbanke, 30. (pictured together)