Daily Mail, Friday, August 23, 2019 Page 43Diana: Please
keep an eye on
my lace straps
Star Bake Off fans
cheer Hollywood
DESPITE having a
girlfriend 30 years his
junior, Jeremy Paxman is
already feeling old. ‘There
is a certain sort of
calamity that afflicts you
only once you’re over 50,’
says the 69-year-old
former TV inquisitor.
‘I was wading across a
salmon pool in Scotland
last week. All went well
until I trod on a rock
covered in some sort of
slime. As if in slow motion,
my foot slid off — and I fell
backwards into three feet
of icy water.
‘I was unable to “right”
myself and lay in the water
as my sympathetic —
former! — friends laughed
themselves senseless.’■
GREAT British Bake Off
judge Paul Hollywood
is flattered by the
show’s famous fans.
‘You get people like
Nick Mason, the
drummer of Pink
Floyd, who bakes all
the time,’ he says.
‘Then there’s Taylor
Swift, and Keira
Knightley ... she once
tried to bin off a pre-
miere to go and
watch the final of the
Bake Off.’ The most
impressive of all,
however, is a late
national treasure. ‘I
remember getting a
call from Ronnie
Corbett years ago,’
says Hollywood. ‘He
wanted to speak to
me — he baked a lot
of bread.’ Corbett, as
he delighted in
relating, was the
son of an Edinburgh
master baker.EDITED BY RICHARD EDEN
WHEN Princess Diana attended
the New York Metropolitan
Museum of Art gala, she had a
very special request for John
Barelli, who worked in the security
department.
He now reveals that she asked
him to keep a close eye on the black
lace shoulder straps of her mid-
night-blue Dior dress — and adjust
them if they slipped.
‘I almost told her, “Yeah, right, I
have to touch your dress.” That’s
all I have to do. I think my wife
would be a little upset.’
Barelli tells the story in his
forthcoming memoir, Stealing The
Show. ‘I wasn’t nervous... but the
pressure,’ he adds. ‘We couldn’t let
her dance.’
Happily, there was no wardrobe
malfunction on the night.2016
Stephen
gives up
the fries!
FAMOUSLY rotund come-
dian Stephen Fry has shed
more than 5st in a fitness
regime after fearing for
his health.
The now slimline
broadcaster, 61, attributes
his weight loss to long
walks and eating sensibly,
and says: ‘I’m feeling
proud of myself.
‘I was overweight at 21st
— I was that heavy! Now I
walk a lot and listen to
audiobooks as I walk, and
podcasts, and you eat up
the miles — and talking of
eating up, I’m eating
sensibly, too.’
Last year, Fry revealed
he had his prostate
removed after being
diagnosed with cancer.
Fry, who wed younger
partner Elliott Spencer in
2015, adds: ‘Here’s hoping
I get another few years
on this planet because I
enjoy life and that’s a
marvellous thing to be
able to say.’
He is about to go on tour
with his show Mythos:
A Trilogy, in which he
tells stories of the
Greek myths.PICTURE: MOVI INCPicture: PATRICK McMULLAN/GETTY IMAGESPicture: GORC/GC IMAGES