Londoner's Diary: Ed Balls has a blast with the Trumpettes

In today's Diary: Ed Balls parties with Trump supporters / Christina Lamb's faux pas / Mary Beard replaced by Liev Schreiber / Edward Enninful's personalised stationery 
Investigating Trumpettes: Ed Balls
Patrick McMullan via Getty Image
22 January 2018

HAS Ed Balls swapped the cha-cha-cha for the do-si-do? The Strictly star and former shadow chancellor was spotted at Mar-a-Lago, where he joined in the celebrations to mark the first year of the Trump presidency. While others chose to mark the occasion with protest marches, Balls preferred to party on in Palm Beach. His picture was posted by businesswoman Tina Hillstrom, who was enjoying a Balls sandwich with Toni Holt Kramer, a former model and leader of Republican cheerleading squad, The Trumpettes.

So does this mark a swing to the right for Gordon Brown’s old hatchet man? Apparently not. Balls is fronting a three-part documentary series, “Ed Balls: My Deep South Road Trip”, where the ex-MP will embed himself with Donald Trump’s supporters in the Southern states. The plan is to see what stoked the Trump revolution and how his supporters feel one year on.

As a newly theatrical Balls observed, “I’ve always loved visiting the American south — the food and the music are fabulous and there’s so much to learn from its history.”

The show will form part of a series where the talent from the BBC’s stable of stars will explore subjects particularly close to their hearts. We hear that Balls is more of a shocked observer than cheerleader, but at least he is not letting politics get in the way of having a good time. The Londoner was also amused to discover that Balls hasn’t quite cracked America yet. As one starstruck fan commented below the picture Hillstrom posted of the three of them on Instagram: “I can’t believe you know Toni Holt, I love her.”

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SIR Ian McKellen was spotted on Friday on the DLR, with two must-reads: that day’s Evening Standard and Fire and Fury, the incendiary book from Michael Wolff about Donald Trump’s first nine months in office. Is he looking for a new role to play? We think he’d look great with an orange comb-over.

Lamb to the slaughter over error

Mistake: Christina Lamb (Photo by Priyanka Parashar/Mint via Getty Images)
Hindustan Times via Getty Images

THERE has been an unfortunate memory lapse from Sunday Times chief foreign correspondent Christina Lamb. “In 30 years I have never had a female foreign editor, a female news editor, a female editor,” the veteran reporter said on Desert Island Discs yesterday.

Newsnight’s acting editor Jess Brammar tweeted this and The Sunday Times’ highly respected deputy editor Sarah Baxter then added a key fact: the paper now has a female news editor in Becky Barrow, appointed in May. Barrow tweeted: “Er, I think I’m a woman and I’m also news editor of @thesundaytimes,” and updated her Twitter profile to “Used to love Desert Island Discs”. Awkward.

Quote of the Day

‘No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main’

St Paul’s Cathedral’s Twitter quotes a Remain-sounding John Donne, the poet who was born this day in 1572

You can bet your shirt fashionistas love Paul

Sharp suit: Laura Carmichael (Photo by Pierre Suu/Getty Images)
Getty Images

It was stars in stripes at Paul Smith’s show at Paris Fashion Week. Actresses Maxine Peake and Vicky McClure bagged front row seats for the designer’s winter 2019 collection, while Downton Abbey star Laura Carmichael looked every inch the modern muse in a leggy trouser suit.

The lucky few then joined Smith and fellow designer Malgosia Bela for an exclusive backstage lunch where stylish singers Tinie Tempah and Niall Horan chowed down with the beau monde. We hope they didn’t get any garlic butter down those lovely shirts. Bon appetit!

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WHAT’S in a name? Not much. What’s in a title? Quite a lot, actually. The Londoner has previously noted that Vogue’s new editor Edward Enninful is, understandably, pretty proud of his OBE.

Smythson, the luxurious stationers, sent over some items when Enninful got the job as a token of congratulations; they were all engraved with his initials, E.E. Enninful, however, apparently asked for three letters to be added — O.B.E.

Beard gets a dubbing

Replaced: Mary Beard (Photo by Simona Granati/Corbis via Getty Images)
Corbis via Getty Images

CIVILISATIONS, the reboot of the Kenneth Clark original series, is on our screens in March, with British star historians Mary Beard, pictured, David Olusoga and Simon Schama. It is also airing in the US through PBS but there are a couple of key differences. First is that they spell it Civilizations. Second is that PBS must think the US audience is not quite ready for the full Beard experience.

The narration she did for the BBC will be redone by Liev Schreiber, the US actor who played Boston Globe editor-in-chief Marty Baron in the Oscar-winning Spotlight. “Quite a lot of my words will, I think, be spoken by a US actor,” says Prof Beard on her Times Literary Supplement blog. “Do let me know what you think. I rather liked the BBC version but PBS have decided to give it an American spin.”

Liev has a lush voice, it has to be said. For those who want to compare and contrast, you could always watch both.

Tweet of the Day

Bloomberg journalist Robert Hutton sees the parallels with Henry Bolton’s marital strife

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Employee of the day: Fabio, a robot given a job in an Edinburgh shop, was fired after only a week when customers found him too annoying. The owner said, “People seemed to be actually avoiding him.”

They pack a punch on Graham Norton

Can someone call an ambulance? British boxing champion Anthony Joshua has given serial Oscar winner Tom Hanks his famous right hook. But don’t worry: these jokers are just fooling around. A proud Hanks wrote “Met Champ Anthony Joshua in UK on the Graham Norton Sho-oooof!”. Ding ding. Round two...

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