EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: Animal rights campaigners are roaring with rage at royal exhibit over stuffed 8ft Bengal tiger
Now, animal rights campaigners are demanding that a stuffed 8ft Bengal tiger from one of George V 's big-game hunts in Asia should be removed from Bristol Museum, returned home and given a respectful burial.
The big cat was shot by King Charles 's great-grandfather during his infamous ten-day hunting trip to Nepal in 1911 when he proudly claimed he killed 21 tigers, eight rhinos and a bear, describing the cull afterwards as 'a record'. He added: 'I think it will be hard to beat.'
The tiger was then shipped back from Nepal for the King and stuffed by a taxidermist.
It can be seen crouching hidden in long grass in front of a painted mural by the wildlife artist Stanley Lloyd.
The mural shows a bearded George V in a khaki safari outfit and pith helmet riding an elephant, with his shotgun poised ready to fire.
Above the cabinet is written the legend: 'Shot and presented by His Majesty King George V, 1911.'
Elisa Allen, from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), says: 'Almost all animals stuffed and mounted were shot for sport or otherwise violently killed, and there are two ways to deal with this shameful past behaviour.
'Bury the dead respectfully, no matter how long it has been [since they died], just as we are returning human remains and artefacts to their countries of origin.'
Failing that, the museum should at the very least 'make sure the plaque describing [the animals] decries their horrific dispatch', she adds.
Dr Mark Jones, of the Born Free Foundation, says: 'Trophy hunting had a devastating impact on the populations of many species.'
Days after Monty Python colleague Sir Michael Palin turned 82, John Cleese mischievously suggests a wager.
The Fawlty Towers star, 85, announces: 'Michael Palin had a birthday. To mark the occasion, I propose a bet: $100 to whoever lives longer. Winner gets it from the other's will.'
Cleese appears to need rather more.
Reflecting on his £15 million divorce from Alyce Faye Eichelberger, he revealed: 'The third wife got two properties, one was in London and one was in New York, and we had to sell the other three.'
Damian's bid to be best dad
Damian Lewis made the Bafta TV awards a family affair by bringing his children along.
The Eton-educated star, 54, was joined on the red carpet at London's Royal Festival Hall by his daughter Manon, 18, and son Gulliver, 17.
Their mother, the Peaky Blinders actress Helen McCrory, died from breast cancer in 2021, aged 52.
Lewis was nominated for a best supporting actor award for his performance as Henry VIII in the BBC's acclaimed drama Wolf Hall: The Mirror And The Light, but was beaten by Ariyon Bakare for Mr Loverman.
Swimwear designer Melissa Odabash will soon mark 25 years in the business, but still suffers from body hang-ups because of working with models.
At the Fragrance Foundation Awards she tells me: 'I did a live casting on Skype with 35 models and it's not so easy.
'They all get their bikinis on in their houses. I'm like, 'Oh my God, I need to go to the gym'.'
How Zara tackled Mike's snoring
Zara Tindall has revealed that she secretly filmed her husband, Mike, while he was asleep to convince him to have surgery on his nose, which he broke at least eight times during his illustrious rugby career.
'When he was playing, there was no point in doing it,' Zara says at the London Sporting Club lunch at Quaglino's in St James's.
'But when I started to film him at night when he was sleeping and stopping breathing, I was like, 'You see where I am coming from now?' '
King Charles's niece adds: 'I am a really deep sleeper and I normally get to sleep before him. It is fixed now, better than what it was.'
The former England captain said his mother-in-law, Princess Anne, asked him to have surgery before he married Zara in 2011. He finally did so in 2018.
Her first major role was in a television drama opposite her mother, Kate Winslet, but Mia Threapleton insists that she's no 'nepo baby'.
'I feel like it's a misconception about me, considering who my mother is, that I grew up going to set or that I would know anything about this world because of her and what she does,' says the 24-year-old actress, whose father is the Oscar winner's first husband, film director Jim Threapleton.
'That is not the case at all. I genuinely can count on not even two hands the amount of times I went to set as a kid. There were never scripts lying around the house.'
Strictly no mention of Dame Arlene Phillips turning 82 next week.
The former Strictly judge tells me: 'My family said, 'Do you just want to skip it?' I said, 'That sounds like a very good idea.' So, I'm skipping my birthday. I've had so many amazing birthdays – I don't need any more.'
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