Frankie Dettori will be a spectator at Royal Ascot for the first time in his life, but he did take an active part in another big event in his social calendar.
The Italian jockey, 53, who has partnered 81 winners at the meeting, walked daughter Ella down the aisle at her wedding on Monday.
Ella, 22, who rode in the 2021 Magnolia Cup at Glorious Goodwood, wore a dress by Monique Lhuillier to marry jockey Declan Levey in South Devon.
‘I’m so proud,’ says Dettori, who has four more children with his wife, Catherine.
The former I’m a Celebrity contestant, who quit race-riding in Britain to continue his career in the U.S. in the autumn, helped pay for the wedding by renting out his Newmarket mansion for £15,000 a month and auctioning more than 100 pieces of memorabilia including boots and photographs
Frankie Dettori, 53, pictured walking his daughter Ella, 22, down the aisle at her wedding on Monday
Ella, who rode in the 2021 Magnolia Cup at Glorious Goodwood, wore a dress by Monique Lhuillier to marry jockey Declan Levey in South Devon
High And Mighty ban for comedian
Stephen Merchant has told how clothes store staff were issued with a laminated photo to identify him after he was barred from shopping there.
‘I did an interview and I mentioned High And Mighty and I was a bit negative about them,’ the 6ft 7in comedian explains.
At the time, he was appearing in a TV show and the costume department decided to look for clothes for him at High And Mighty, which catered for tall men.
‘The costume woman bought a load of clothes and said, ‘I’m buying these for an actor — I might need to bring them back’.
‘And the woman behind the counter said, ‘Which actor?’ The costume woman said, ‘I’m not at liberty to say’.
And the shop worker said, ‘Is it him?’ And she pulled out a laminated copy of the interview and said, ‘We’re not selling clothes to him’.’
Stephen Merchant has told how clothes store staff were issued with a laminated photo to identify him after he was barred from shopping there
Prime Suspect creator and crime novelist Lynda La Plante says she’s struggling to write her memoirs because she can’t remember much about her personal life.
She sighs: ‘Although I have total recall of all the characters I have created, I have serious memory blanks about where I was, who I was with, even unable to recall when I got married, let alone divorced.’
Lynda, 81, married the musician Richard La Plante in 1979 and they divorced in 1996 — hope that helps!
Daisy strikes back!
The Force is with Daisy Ridley when it comes to subtle sexism on film sets.
‘I was doing something physical in the same way that the male character was,’ says the actress, who played Rey in Star Wars.
‘One of the stunt team was coming to pat the man on the back and I was, like, ‘hello?’. He was thrown by it,’ — and didn’t offer her any praise.
She adds: ‘They were doing the male thing they are comfortable doing and it did not include me.’
Star Wars actress Daisy Ridley pictured at a film screening in London on May 29
I hear that the American boss of magazine empire Conde Nast, Roger Lynch, left students at the Oxford Union disappointed after pulling out of a talk he was due to give on Monday with just hours to go.
His spokesman tells me that Lynch cancelled because of a ‘last-minute travel change’.
This fails to impress staff at Conde Nast.
‘It was a real surprise that he couldn’t attend because he was at his London office during the day,’ a source tells me. ‘It just seems so rude.’