Speculation rages over what The Crown‘s writer Peter Morgan might do next, with rumours circulating that a new show about all the royal scandals left out of the latest series could be next on screen.
However, Prince Andrew, Fergie and the younger royals can breathe easy, as I’m told that now he has called cut on the sixth series of the Netflix drama, that really will be it.
The first series went out in 2016 and Morgan is said to have earned at least £1 million an episode, meaning a total of £50 million over the decade he has been working on the show.
A source says: ‘This is it for Peter. There will be no spin-offs about Prince Andrew or similar. For the sake of his sanity, he will be stepping away from the Royal Family and anything related to them. He is now working on a different project, which is non-royal and a really long way off.’
In 2019, Morgan signed an overall deal with the streamer Netflix, meaning that anything he writes will be for them. ‘It’s a question of waiting for Peter, and for what he wants to do,’ I am told.
Speculation rages over what The Crown’s writer Peter Morgan (pictured with Elizabeth Debicki) might do next
In the final episode, the Queen will be seen with earlier versions of herself — played by the original actresses Claire Foy (pictured) and Olivia Colman
The Crown was always conceived as a six-series show, but Morgan took his bosses by surprise by announcing, before making series five, that it would be his last, as he didn’t want to get too close to the present day.
But he changed his mind while filming, and wrote this current, final series, which has been released in two parts.
The first, out now, covers the period up to Princess Diana‘s funeral; the second (out on Thursday) will close with the wedding of Prince Charles and Camilla.
In the final episode, the Queen will be seen with earlier versions of herself — played by the original actresses Claire Foy and Olivia Colman.
It’s another flight of fancy from Morgan, who drew criticism for scenes in which Diana converses with Prince Charles and the Queen after she was dead.
Morgan defended those scenes by saying: ‘I never imagined it as Diana’s ‘ghost’, in the traditional sense. It was her continuing to live vividly in the minds of those she had left behind.
‘Diana was unique, and I suppose that’s what inspired me to find a unique way of representing her. She deserved special treatment, narratively.’
During an interview with the show’s official podcast, Morgan said he felt ‘relieved’ it was over. ‘I mean, positively, relieved. You know, like when people say: ‘What’s the difference between good pain and bad pain?’
‘I feel good pain. I’m probably not sad that we’ve reached the end. I think it was time.
‘I’m sort of stunned… we did exactly what we said we were going to do, and we got to the end somehow,’ he added.
‘Making a show like this is tough in so many different ways, but I think this is as harmonious and as co-operative as a group of people could be for a decade.’
The billion-dollar Barbie behemoth rolls on — and now you can buy a book of the script of the film. The screenplay, written by Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Greta Gerwig and her husband Noah Baumbach, will be published by Faber and goes on sale next week.
It features an introduction by Gerwig and photos from the film.n THE billion-dollar Barbie behemoth rolls on — and now you can buy a book of the script of the film.
The screenplay, written by Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Greta Gerwig and her husband Noah Baumbach, will be published by Faber and goes on sale next week. It features an introduction by Gerwig and photos from the film.
Peaches Geldof‘s widower Thomas Cohen took some by surprise when he reinvented himself in 2021 as Sylph: a feminine alter ego and musician.
It seems that the change of image is continuing, as Sylph has just released some more new music on the SoundCloud music platform, along with pictures of the artist in a frilly dress.
Cohen, who had two sons with Peaches, says the new material was inspired by a Roland Groovebox — a synthesiser used in electronic music — which he found this summer in an abandoned basement in the South of France.
Peaches died of a heroin overdose in 2014, aged 25 — 14 years after her mother, the TV presenter Paula Yates, suffered the same fate.
Tiger Lily, Peaches’ half-sister and Paula’s daughter by INXS star Michael Hutchence, is also a musician and now lives in Fremantle, Western Australia.
Gwynnie goes red – just for Valentino
Gwyneth Paltrow brought her A-list glamour to the British Fashion Awards in London this week, when she presented an outstanding achievement award to the Italian designer Valentino Garavani, 91, which was accepted by his partner Giancarlo Giammetti.
At the event, Paltrow said of Valentino: ‘He hated that I didn’t like to wear red. So tonight, I wear red for Mr Valentino.’
The dress in question is from Valentino’s 1965 haute couture collection. There has been talk that the British Fashion Council (BFC) laid on a private plane for Paltrow and fellow Hollywood star Anne Hathaway, to encourage them to show up. The organisation did not return requests for comment this week.
Gwyneth Paltrow wore a red dress from Valentino’s 1965 haute couture collection to the British Fashion Awards in London this week
The BFC is certainly not short on funds. Last year’s awards raised £3 million for the organisation, which is a good chunk of its reported £10.9 million income.
It also gets £1.6 million from the Government.
In accounts, however, the BFC declares £6.6 million in unspecified expenses. It pays around £300,000 to its best-paid director.
Gary Barlow may have many strings to his bow but he is a little jealous of Take That bandmate Howard Donald, who starts each day with a handstand, to get blood to flow to his head.
‘It’s like a meditation, but it’s also a visualisation of how you want the day to be,’ Donald said of his morning routine, which also includes stretches, sit-ups and press-ups.
Barlow told the podcast Private Parts: ‘I’d just love to be able to do a handstand, never mind doing it every day. Please teach me! I want to be able to.’
News presenter Dan Walker says he imagined he was cycling in France after falling off his bike and being knocked unconscious on a wet roundabout in Sheffield in February.
He told the White Wine Question Time podcast: ‘I was out for the count for 20 minutes. I had a weird out-of-body experience… in my mind, I was cycling along this beautiful tree-lined French boulevard — I’ve never cycled on a French boulevard! — but I was there, with baguettes and jam in the basket.’
Jamie: I never really had a dad
Billy Elliot actor Jamie Bell has opened up about his relationship with his father — who left while his mum was pregnant with him — revealing that he has now met him ‘briefly’ for the first time.
Bell, 37, was informally adopted by director Stephen Daldry as a teenager, after being cast in the film Billy Elliot, and has said in interviews over the years that as far as he’s concerned, he never had a dad — and had no interest in meeting him.
But reflecting on his role as a father in new indie film All Of Us Strangers, he said: ‘I think it’s so complex for me, as I never really had a dad. I met him very briefly once, and it is this messy thing.
‘I haven’t really even gotten into any of that stuff. Some therapist is going to make a lot of money from me.’
In the movie, which is due out in January, he and The Crown’s Claire Foy play the father and mother of actor Andrew Scott. Scott’s character discovers them still apparently living in his childhood home — 30 years after they died!
Billy Elliot actor Jamie Bell has opened up about his relationship with his father. Pictured: Jamie and Kate Mara
Making the picture clearly reawakened some of the emotions Bell felt over the departure of his own father, John, a toolmaker.
Bell now has three children of his own: one with former wife Evan Rachel Wood, and two with second wife Kate Mara (pictured with Bell, right), and said he’d come to accept that ‘you’re never going to be perfect all the time’ as a parent.
‘The thing that most kids are looking for is just that connectivity,’ he said. ‘To hear them; to listen to them; to be there.
‘I’ve only thought about this from a parental point of view,’ he added. ‘I haven’t really considered it from the other side.’
Bell shot to fame in 2000, after starring in Billy Elliot when he was just 14. He’s previously said that after that movie, journalists approached his father. ‘He dealt with it very well and said: ‘Actually, this is very good for him, but I don’t know him and he doesn’t know me. I have a different family now.’
‘He could have been trying to sell a story, which would have been ridiculous, so I respect him for the way he dealt with it, but I have no desire to meet him. It would be literally like talking to a stranger in the street.’
Wolf Hall gives Dana her big break
Her arresting face — pale brows, ice blue eyes — and red hair has led to comparisons with British star Tilda Swinton.
And now German actress Dana Herfurth, 25, has her big break in British television as she’s been cast as Anne of Cleves — the ‘Flanders Mare’ — who was married to King Henry VIII for just six months, before he divorced her.
The BBC is making a six-part adaptation of Hilary Mantel’s The Mirror And The Light, the last book in her Wolf Hall series, with Damian Lewis reprising his role as the King, and Mark Rylance returning as Thomas Cromwell.
Now German actress Dana Herfurth, 25, has her big break in British television as she’s been cast as Anne of Cleves
Spotted at The Crown’s finale event at the Royal Festival Hall this week: actress Gillian Anderson and former Newsnight star Emily Maitlis. The two came within a few feet of each other — though alas not close enough for air-kissing or eye contact.
Anderson is playing Maitlis in Scoop, Netflix’s dramatisation of Prince Andrew’s disastrous interview, based on a book by Sam McAlister.
Maitlis, meanwhile, has her own rival project about the encounter — A Very Royal Scandal — in the works at Prime Video. She and McAlister are former colleagues but definitely not friends.
‘New Star Wars’? It’s a long story…
Among the Christmas television treats this year is the first instalment of Hollywood director Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon.
The space-epic film is about outlaws on a remote planet who battle an evil empire. It stars French-Algerian dancer and actress Sofia Boutella and Sir Anthony Hopkins.
The second instalment — Rebel Moon: The Scargiver — was filmed simultaneously (the pair reportedly had a budget of £130 million) and will be released in April 2024.
Snyder’s wife Deborah, who co-produced, tells me hopes are so high for the Star Wars-type franchise that Part Three is already written — and Part Four planned out, too. The idea came to Snyder when he was 12 and has been at the back of his mind ever since. It has taken him decades to get it off the ground, and he spoke with passion about nailing all the details of his imaginary planet.
Rebel Moon is about outlaws on a remote planet who battle an evil empire. It stars French-Algerian dancer and actress Sofia Boutella (pictured) and Sir Anthony Hopkins
Snyder is best known for blockbusters such as 300, Watchmen, Man Of Steel and Justice League — although he’s never seen the Warner Bros cut of the latter, which clocked in at a tight two hours. (His own director’s cut ran later in cinemas… at four hours and two minutes.)
Unsurprisingly, there’ll be extended cuts of both Rebel Moon films, which as well as being an hour longer will be gorier than the PG-13 versions Netflix plans to show first.
