SEBASTIAN SHAKESPEARE: Now Madonna brings in the big guns over Rocco 

Desperate times call for desperate measures. Embattled pop star Madonna has turned to controversial PR firm Bell Pottinger to improve her image.

The Material Girl, who is embroiled in a public and very bitter custody battle with former husband Guy Ritchie over their son Rocco, approached the British outfit after a spate of negative headlines.

On tour in Australia last month, she attracted ridicule for swigging tequila on stage during a chaotic show. ‘We have been acting for her in the past couple of weeks,’ confirms an insider. 

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Madonna, who is embroiled in a public and very bitter custody battle with former husband Guy Ritchie over their son Rocco, has turned to PR firm Bell Pottinger to improve her image

‘We advised her to come to the country and see her son. She was concerned by the UK media and reports of her that aren’t true. She offered to cancel her tour to see her son, but that was declined.’

No doubt the company helped orchestrate her outing this Monday to the Electric Cinema in London with 15-year-old Rocco, where they saw Batman V Superman.

Just weeks ago, a High Court judge warned the former couple they could ruin what is left of their son’s childhood if they fail to settle their custody fight. Why Madonna, 57, should favour a company whose clients include Eastern European dictators and arms deal fixers such as Wafic Said is perhaps an indication of how far her star has fallen.

Bell Pottinger was co-founded by Lord Bell, Lady Thatcher’s former media adviser, in the Eighties.

But it was caught out in an embarrassing lobbying scandal in 2011 when its spinners were secretly recorded boasting about their skill in the ‘dark arts’ of influencing government.

At the same time it emerged Bell Pottinger also ‘laundered’ hundreds of Wikipedia entries to make its clients look better. During the Arab Spring, it came under fire for working for foreign regimes such as Egypt and Bahrain.

After the lobbying scandal, parent firm Chime Communications sold most of Bell Pottinger for £19.6 million in a management buyout.

James Henderson, the CEO, also acts as an unpaid adviser to Sarah, Duchess of York, so he has his work cut out.

Chris's new BBC co-star? His seven-year-old son 

He's been branded a tyrant and a timebomb for his dictatorial behaviour on the set of the new Top Gear, so some might say it’s a brave soul who would take on the challenge of working with prickly broadcaster Chris Evans.

So step forward his new co-star — the DJ’s son Noah, seven, pictured above with his dad. The pair are co-presenting a one-hour BBC Radio 2 show about their mutual love of rock ’n’ roll star Buddy Holly. The show was inspired by the times they spend together in the car listening to cassette tapes of the Fifties singer.

Noah is the eldest son of Chris, 50, and his wife, model and columnist Natasha Shishmanian.

Family affair: Chris Evans and his seven-year-old son Noah will be co-presenting a one-hour BBC Radio 2 show about their mutual love of rock ’n’ roll star Buddy Holly

Diners taking snaps of their food have become such an irritant that some restaurants have considered banning the practice. 

Nigella Lawson admits, however, she’s been doing it since the days before smartphones.

‘In the old days, when you had to give your camera film to the chemist to develop, it was always so embarrassing because I’d have one or two photos of my children and everything else was what I ate,’ she says. 

‘At least now, even though I am that very annoying person who says: “No don’t touch it, I haven’t photographed it yet”, I don’t have to shame myself at the pharmacy.’

Francophobe Paxman is insanse, says Eddie Izzard

Europhile comic Eddie Izzard has hit back at Jeremy Paxman, who has described the French language as ‘useless’ and claimed the nation’s achievements are ‘long past’.

After delivering his comic routine in flawless French to an invited audience at Abbey Road Studios, Izzard reverted to English to rubbish the former Newsnight host. ‘Paxman went further to the right than Genghis Khan. I don’t know why he said what he did, but what he suggested is insane,’ said the marathon-running comic.

French comic Gad Elmaleh performed his routine in English at the cultural exchange, attended by rockers Ronnie Wood, Roger Taylor of Queen and Pink Floyd’s Nick Mason.

However, the last to leave the after-show party was the evergreen 81-year-old Dame Judi Dench.