THE SCURRA.
RADIO 2 listeners are still in shock after a daring joke at the expense of Sir Cliff Richard in last week's edition of comedy show The News Huddlines."Cliff Richard has recorded a couple of songs from The Wizard Of Oz," said veteran presenter Roy Hudd. "So that confirms it, he is a friend of Dorothy's."
As every theatrical type knows, the phrase "friend of Dorothy" is a euphemism for a gay man. It was coined in the 1930s to describe members of the camp circle that surrounded American salon hostess and author Dorothy Parker at her celebrated Round Table at the Algonquin Hotel in New York.
Bachelor boy Sir Cliff, 61, rarely discusses his love life but once said: "If every middle-aged man who's single is automatically gay, where does that leave the Pope?"
So what does the Beeb have to say for itself? "We've received no complaints," says Hester Neville in the Radio 2 press office.
"The News Huddlines is Britain's longest-running comedy sketch show and we don't expect the content to be taken seriously."
Is Cliff taking it seriously?
His manager Bill Latham wasn't available when The Scurra called.
TOM Cruise's ex, Nicole Kidman, pulled off an old show-business trick at the weekend by donning a baseball cap at night on her "clandestine" visit to Robbie Williams's Sydney hotel.
The celebrity practice of wearing something ostensibly to look anonymous but really to make them stick out from the crowd reminds me of the time Status Quo star Rick Parfitt took out a girl of my acquaintance.
He turned up in a long sheepskin coat, pink shirt, jeans, cowboy boots and mirrored sunglasses and they went to a bar. As locals looked on in amazement, Parfitt told his date: "It would be nice to go out one day and not be recognised."
If you really want to avoid publicity, Marlon Brando's trick is worth a try - he simply closes his eyes when the paparazzi approach, knowing that it'll make a boring shot.
GOVERNMENT plans to relax cannabis laws look like running into spliff, sorry stiff, opposition if the good people of Worthing have their way.
Cannabis campaigner Colin Davies has told civic leaders he intends opening an Amsterdam-style cafe selling the drug from January 1. But the idea of re-creating the liberal Dutch experience in the more traditional South Coast community has not gone down well.
"We would not want that in Worthing," borough council leader Brian Lynn fumes. "Drug taking is illegal." And a Diocese of Chichester spokesman warns: "Any drug taking will cause problems with people's integrity."
Davies, 44, is unlikely to give up his plans without a fight, however. Last year, he presented the Queen with a cannabis plant as she toured the Lowry Centre in Salford.
IT'S interesting to note that the property developer who has just offloaded two Thamesside flats on Tory defector Shaun Woodward is his old pal Chris Allen. The two men first met when Woodward, now Labour MP for St Helens South, rented a flat in a large house Allen owned in Notting Hill, West London, in the 1980s.
LIZ Hurley attended the launch of a glittering new diamond collection. Now everyone knows she's pregnant she's not worried about being seen piling on all those extra stones.
CAPTION(S):
QUERY: Sir Cliff; BUYER: Shaun
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| Title Annotation: | Features |
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| Publication: | The Mirror (London, England) |
| Date: | Nov 14, 2001 |
| Words: | 554 |
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