RICHARD KAY: Sam has lots to Crowe about: Samantha Barks tells of reunion with Russell Crowe
By Richard Kay
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Samantha, 23, excitedly tells me she and Russell are to have a grand reunion. 'I'm off to Australia to hook up with him in the New Year to sing together,'
Ever since they filmed Les Miserables, perky actress Samantha Barks and hellraising film star Russell Crowe have always enjoyed each other’s company.
So much so that at one time they were even suspected having an affair — despite the 24-year-age gap and the fact she was then dating TV presenter Matt Johnson. They both emphatically denied the rumour.
Now Samantha, 23, excitedly tells me she and Russell are to have a grand reunion. ‘I’m off to Australia to hook up with him in the New Year to sing together,’ she tells me at a reception for her film The Christmas Candle.
‘I can’t wait. Russell and I stayed in touch ever since Les Mis. I do love to sing with him and his friends. They are really good gigs — we did some in New York last year.’
Samantha shot to fame after being spotted by Andrew Lloyd Webber in his BBC show I’d Do Anything in 2008. In the past year she has been working on no less than three films.
As well as appearing with Susan Boyle in The Christmas Candle, she is in a new Dracula movie and has been filming The Devil’s Harvest.
‘That entailed me being submerged in the tank used in the Bond films,’ she says, adding: ‘My career’s going great but really I owe a lot to Andrew.’
Former Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie doesn’t fancy David Cameron’s chances of winning the next election.
After betting Tory MP Brooks Newmark £1,000 that the Conservatives would lose, he says: ‘I am so convinced of the fact I have just doubled my bet with Brooks.’ Speaking at the Christmas party of the Institute of Economic Affairs, MacKenzie read messages he said he had received from Tory MPs.
‘Cameron has a terrible sense of entitlement,’ said one. ‘We are heading for disaster.’ But another said: ‘There is only one thing worse than being led by DC — and that is a party led by Theresa May.’
Oh dear, sounds like the nasty party is living up to its moniker.
Chloe Madeley: Training hard with a new fitness website and a devotion to the body beautiful
She once fretted to me how she was ever going to follow in the footsteps of her parents Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan.
But now it seems Chloe Madeley, 26, has found her forte with a new fitness website and a devotion to the body beautiful which, she admits, threatens to border on the ‘obsessional’.
Last night, she showed off an impressively trim tummy to rival any ballerina she saw at the Christmas party at St Martins Lane Hotel, prior to the celebrity opening of English National Ballet’s Nutcracker. Only last year she lamented how ‘difficult and frustrating’ it was to find a career that matches the amazing success of her TV personality parents. ‘But now I’ve fallen on my feet,’ she says.
And this week she has begun a course in physical health. ‘I’m learning how to torture people,’ she jokes, referring to her study of intensive gym training.
Chloe has had her own issues with weight after she gave up smoking a couple of years ago. But after a stint on Dancing On Ice two years ago she got her figure back — with the help of fitness trainer boyfriend Danny Young — and she has never looked back. ‘Once you see the results you become addicted,’ she says.
It seemed like a good idea at the time when Kit Hesketh-Harvey bought a Chihuahua as a live prop to help him play one of the Ugly Sisters in Cinderella. ‘She is adorable and her name is Angel,’ the entertainer tells me from his dressing room at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre in Guildford.
But there was one problem: his fellow Ugly Sister, radio DJ Peter Gordon, announced that he is allergic to dogs. One of them had to go. Thankfully, Kit, 56, has now found a new home for Angel — and the show can go on.
The Queen’s optician Roger Pope celebrated 25 years at his Marylebone practice with a champagne party for 350 customers and suppliers at St James’s Palace.
Roger, who has held a Royal Warrant since 2006, is naturally discreet about his most famous client, who receives him at Buckingham Palace.
She wore a pair of his specs at Royal Ascot on the day her horse Estimate won the Gold Cup. When it comes to glasses, he says, the Queen ‘knows what she likes and has her own style’.
P.S.
While former BBC boss Mark Thompson may be sweating about ongoing questions over whether he misled the Pollard Review into the Jimmy Savile scandal, there is happier news for him on the domestic front.
According to U.S. reports, he and his writer wife Jane Blumberg have just shelled out over £2 million on a swanky Manhattan apartment. He can certainly afford it — his salary plus bonuses in his new job as chief executive of the New York Times is said to be £3.7 million a year.
His new home is a 12th-floor, four-bedroom property which boasts stained glass windows, and has been on the market since April when it was put up for sale at £2.5 million.
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Elisabeth, somewhere, United Kingdom, 17 hours ago
Wishing her the best...talented young lady.