Pandora
Falkender sees red over Wheen's 'Lavender List'
Published: 17 May 2006
* One of the grandest dames of British politics is dusting down her sword of truth. Lady Falkender of West Haddon has decided to take on the BBC over its docudrama, The Lavender List.
Coming to the West End: Withnail & I... and Jude
Published: 16 May 2006
Twenty years after a booze-addled road-trip spawned the sharpest British film of its generation, Withnail & I is to make the most unlikely of comebacks. The cult film, which launched Richard E Grant's career, is being turned into a West End play which - if all goes according to plan - will star one of our foremost matinee idols: Jude Law.
Chavez stirs up a degree of controversy at Oxford
Published: 15 May 2006
Hugo Chavez isn't just causing political controversy during his tour of Britain, he's also stirred things up a treat in the cobwebby world of academia.
'New Statesman' tells Portillo: 'You're fired'
Published: 12 May 2006
* For Michael Portillo, few public setbacks can match the humiliation of being booted out of Enfield Southgate by Labour's grinning Stephen Twigg, early one morning in 1997.
Identikit press releases for backbench dummies
Published: 11 May 2006
* When Alastair Campbell was fingered cut-and-pasting the notorious "dodgy dossier", New Labour promised it would never happen again.
Keef's tree troubles may cost him role in 'Pirates'
Published: 10 May 2006
* The day that Keith Richards tumbled from a Fijian coconut tree didn't just lead to an impromptu bout of brain surgery - it's also put the kybosh on his final stab at a Hollywood career.
Farmers worry that new minister is a 'semi-veggie'
Published: 09 May 2006
For the green-welly brigade, it threatens to be the final insult: David Miliband, the new minister for the countryside, stands accused of turning up his Blairite nose at the roast beef of old England.
Eat, drink and be merry - Clarke leaves a high-rolling Home Office
Published: 08 May 2006
Charles Clarke has been condemned for presiding over one of the most incompetent Home Offices in history.
Tory chief's latest gamble: helping the disabled bet
Published: 05 May 2006
* On the Conservative front bench, few cats are fatter than David Cameron's party chairman and chief strategist, Francis Maude.
'Bruiser' Reid meets his match in Commons fight
Published: 04 May 2006
* John Reid has perhaps unfairly been billed as the only remaining Cabinet "bruiser" with any of his credibility left.
Mystery disappearance of Prezza's 'cocktail sausage'
Published: 03 May 2006
* John "two shags" Prescott reckons the Mail on Sunday should be carpeted by the Press Complaints Commission for buying up the "excoriating" diaries of his mistress, Tracey Temple.
Broadway star set to scoop up a wicked transfer fee
Published: 02 May 2006
It's the sort of pay deal you'd expect to grease the palms of a Premiership footballer. In a blow for female equality, Idina Menzel is set to become the highest-paid actress in West End history.
So who's telling the truth over Man United grant?
Published: 01 May 2006
The last thing Tony Blair needs right now is for another loyal minister's head to appear on the chopping block.
Paddick's colourful career with boys in blue nears end
Published: 28 April 2006
* Say what you like about Brian Paddick, his glittering career at the top of Britain's police service hasn't often failed to create a stir.
Rickman fights back against Broadway ban
Published: 27 April 2006
Alan Rickman's prospects on Broadway might not be quite as bleak as first thought.
Old soldiers take aim at Dave's green machine
Published: 26 April 2006
* As he puffs away on his trusty push-bike, or risks frostbite on a Norwegian glacier, David Cameron has started to realise that capturing the "green" vote will be harder than he first thought.
Stella's withering attack on galleries
Published: 25 April 2006
Stella Vine used the Sunday newspapers to fire a broadside at the paymasters of the art circuit.
Blunkett's £4m Belgravia pad to be put up for sale
Published: 24 April 2006
Now that David Blunkett has finally vacated his grace-and- favour pad in Belgravia, the huffing and puffing over his refusal to leave has come to an end.
Brown breaks ranks over Queen's birthday present
Published: 21 April 2006
* Call it mischief-making, call it a slip of the tongue, but Gordon Brown is developing an uncanny ability to insert spanners into the works of Tony Blair's well-oiled spin machine.
'Gagged' Prince in U-turn over historic meeting
Published: 20 April 2006
Prince Charles doesn't normally miss an opportunity to climb aboard his favourite hobbyhorse: the "monstrous carbuncles" of modern architecture.
Shades of Watergate as raid rocks al-Jazeera
Published: 19 April 2006
* Here's a tale to launch a thousand conspiracy theories: al-Jazeera, the Islamic TV station George Bush wants to nuke, has been the victim of a Watergate-style burglary.
Hell hath no fury like an ex-minister scorned
Published: 18 April 2006
The sight of David Blunkett hitting the warpath has become the most amusing, not to say commonplace, spectacle in modern politics.
Boris joins England's top squad - in the wrong boots
Published: 17 April 2006
Boris Johnson's standing with the British public may have taken a downward turn of late, but he now has a golden opportunity to go some way towards redeeming himself.
Hughes gets involved in another gay party affair
Published: 14 April 2006
* For the second time in recent months, Simon Hughes has become involved in what down-market newspapers might gleefully describe as a "gay scandal".
The 'red-socked fop' returns to the fray
Published: 13 April 2006
* When Sir Christopher Meyer sticks his impeccably-groomed head above the parapet, important people get hurt.
