Latest news with #statebanquet
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Oldman quizzed Miller over marriage to Monroe: EPHRAIM HARDCASTLE
Did Prince William use the Macron state banquet to rebel against royal sartorial convention? The Prince of Wales appeared in a plain tailcoat rather than the Windsor uniform, an outfit worn by the King, Prince Edward and Sir Tim Laurence. Loved by his grandfather Prince Philip and created by George III, it is a distinctively cut, dark blue tailcoat with red facings and specially struck gilt buttons. It is only worn by royal men on state occasions at Windsor. As previously noted, William refuses to wear knee breeches, stockings and buckled court shoes at diplomatic corps receptions while his father continues to wear full fig. Alarming for Queen Camilla is Macron's gift to the King of a French Cavalry trumpet. The president was probably unaware that Charles learnt to play the trumpet as a teenager at Gordonstoun, occasionally joining the school's orchestra. Camilla must hope that after a 60-year gap, HM doesn't take it up again. She could, if necessary, adopt a precaution taken by the family when he had a brief flirtation with the bagpipes – they banished him to the bottom of the garden. Once finding himself at a New York dinner party with playwright Arthur Miller, actor Sir Gary Oldman recalls: 'I had enough vodka in me by then and said, 'I just have to ask you a question: Did you ever walk down the street, suddenly stop and pinch yourself and go: F***, I was married to Marilyn Monroe?'' Oldman adds: 'And he looked at me and went, 'Yeah!'' BBC Radio 4 Today show's Anna Foster had co-host Nick Robinson cringing when she told listeners that his wife Pippa had featured in the Mail's Wimbledon royal box coverage, looking 'absolutely radiant' sitting next to Hugh Grant. 'You've been cropped out, Nick,' she said. Doesn't turbo-tongued Robinson possess a face more suited to radio? Shamelessly attempting to bribe police officers when he was caught riding his motorbike while over the alcohol limit in Soho, Sir Stephen Fry confesses: 'I emptied my pockets and out came three audience tickets for Blackadder Goes Forth, which we were recording at the time. I offered the tickets to the three police officers who were booking me in. They said they'd be delighted to come along.' Fry clarifies: 'It didn't work as a bribe though. Still had a court appearance and lost my licence for a year. Heigh-ho. They enjoyed the show at least.' Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, with more time on his hands since losing his seat in Parliament, has been reading PG Wodehouse. 'I am taking a leaf out of his book by keeping quails in Somerset,' he tells The Spectator. 'I bought a few to get started but now want to breed some more. I must see if I can get a pig next.' Be warned Moggy. Plum, who wrote Pigs Have Wings, declared: 'God put pigs on this good green earth to be kidnapped.'
Grazia USA
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Grazia USA
Kate Middleton Wears Princess Diana's Tiara With Givenchy For The French State Banquet
Kate Middleton was a vision of elegance this week, donning crimson and diamonds for a state banquet held in honour of French president Emmanuel Macron and his wife. The occasion saw The Princess of Wales opting for a sweeping floor-length silk gown by Sarah Burton for Givenchy. A British designer for a French label – an apt symbol for the diplomatic occasion. The red evening gown featured a belted waist and floor length cape which cascaded over Middleton's shoulders. A matching red clutch, and black pointed toe shoes complemented the piece. The most notable accessories, however, were the stunning royal heirlooms worn by the Princess. First, the Lover's Knot Tiara, famously a favourite of her late mother-in-law, Princess Diana. The sparkling heirloom, made up of 19 hanging pearls, has also become a favourite of Middleton's since she debuted it in 2015, becoming her most worn tiara. Along with the headpiece, she donned a Nigel Milne three-strand pearl bracelet, which once belonged to Princess Diana, as well as the Greville Chandlier Earrings, which were originally given to the late Queen Elizabeth II as a wedding gift. Alongside her, Prince William wore a crisp navy tuxedo with a white bowtie. The pair also both wore their royal sashes as well as several royal badges. This dinner doesn't mark Middleton's first foray into French fashion and heirloom pieces for the French President and his wife's visit. Earlier in the same day, at their arrival, Middleton stepped out in a pale pink Dior blazer and matching mesh and tulle skirt. For this occasion, she accessorised with a Jess Collet straw hat, nude pumps, as well as her well-worn Collingwood pearl drop earrings, once again belonging to Diana, and a three-strand pearl necklace from Queen Elizabeth II's collection. If the first day of this three-day visit is anything to go by, we are sure to see more sartorial prowess on display by the Princess, with symbolic choices alluding to both countries, as well as the royal family.
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Royal chaos as King Charles is accused of 'slap in the face' by late Queen's personal aide over THIS move at state banquet for Macrons: RICHARD EDEN'S DIARY
When Buckingham Palace announced the King had invited Raymond Blanc to join the royal chefs as they prepared for Tuesday's state banquet in honour of French president , a spokesman claimed it was an example of 'L'Entente Cordiale in the Kitchens'. One horrified former royal cook has, however, declared, 'Sacre bleu!'
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Kate Middleton Gets a Wink from French President Macron and It's the State Banquet's Most Talked-About Moment
Kate Middleton and French President Emmanuel Macron sat next to each other during the official state banquet on July 8 While Macron was serious in his official speeches during the visit, he showed off a playful side during the dinner, sharing a wink with the princess The French leader was also chivalrous, helping to pull out Kate's chair before taking a seat himselfKate Middleton and French President Emmanuel Macron clinked glasses during the state banquet at Windsor Castle. The star-studded gala dinner on July 8, held in honor of the first official French state visit in 17 years, saw Macron seated between Princess Kate and King Charles. The 47-year-old politician politely helped to pull out the Princess of Wales' chair and waited for her to sit before taking his own seat beside her. Later, cameras captured Macron winking at Princess Kate during a toast, a moment that was widely circulated on social media in one of the most buzzed-about moments of the evening. The warm gesture between Princess Kate and President Macron began the moment he and his wife disembarked their flight at RAF Northolt on Tuesday. The Prince and Princess of Wales greeted them on the tarmac, and Macron met Kate with a kiss to her hand. While the gesture may have raised some eyebrows, it is not actually against royal protocol. The royal family's official website explains that there are no strict codes of conduct for meeting royals. "There are no obligatory codes of behaviour when meeting The Queen or a member of the Royal Family, but many people wish to observe the traditional forms. For men, this is a neck bow (from the head only) whilst women do a small curtsy. Other people prefer simply to shake hands in the usual way," the website states. The state banquet seating arrangements saw spouses take their places across from each other at the massive table at Windsor Castle. While King Charles, President Macron and Princess Kate were seated together on one side, Prince William, 43, sat next to Macron's wife, Brigitte, 72, who was flanked on her other side by Queen Camilla, 77. Other famous faces at the dinner included Mick Jagger, Elton John and his husband David Furnish, Kristin Scott-Thomas and U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer. The King's speech toasted the official visit, which was also the first by a European Union political leader since Brexit, with a unique detail about the night's menu. "This evening, we have drunk English sparkling wine made by a French champagne house. This would have been scarcely believable to at least some of our predecessors," he said. Can't get enough of PEOPLE's Royals coverage? to get the latest updates on Kate Middleton, Meghan Markle and more! Macron echoed the need for unity between France and the U.K. in his own toast. "On either side of the channel, there is a constant reminder that we must never lower our guard," he said. Read the original article on People
Telegraph
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
How love and taxes made Mick Jagger rock's biggest Francophile
All the usual suspects were present at Tuesday night's state banquet in Windsor Castle's St George's Hall in honour of French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte. The King and Queen and the Prince and Princess of Wales rubbed shoulders with diplomats and dignitaries as they tucked into a Raymond Blanc-designed menu and sipped a special gin and pastis cocktail called L'entente. But one of the more unexpected faces among the 160 guests was that of Sir Mick Jagger, the Rolling Stones frontman, who was seated just five places to the right of Macron. White of tie and flanked by royalty, the rocker who once released an album called Beggars Banquet found himself dining in altogether more salubrious circumstances. It's not the first time Jagger has been part of a high-end Anglo-French nosh-up. In 2023 he was among the celebrities who joined the King and Macron at a state dinner at the Palace of Versailles. The truth is that Dartford-born Jagger is a huge Francophile. Despite symbolising a sort of louche and moneyed Britishness, and in spite of an accent that has steadfastly stuck to its Thames Estuary origins, the 81-year-old's love affair with France stretches back decades. Jagger is fluent in French, as he demonstrated in an impressive 10-minute 2023 TV interview conducted in the language, an exchange in which he talked lucidly about the Beatles-Stones rivalry and extolled the virtues of London rapper Dave. He also owns a French château (obviously), having paid £2.2 million for a 16th-century castle, La Fourchette, on the banks of the Loire in 1982. Jagger quarantined there during the pandemic, and he's often seen shopping in the local shops, or riding a mountain bike through the country lanes. During last summer's Olympics in Paris, Jagger's was a face that regularly popped up on telly. He even attended a reception at the British Ambassador's residence to welcome Team GB as the games started, posing for selfies with the athletes. 'I spoke French from when I was a child, from when I was 11, in school and then I used to travel to France – my parents would take me,' Jagger explained in 2023. The terroir seemed to seep into his early life and career, even if subconsciously. Jagger attended the London School of Economics, modelled on L'École Libre des Sciences Politiques in Paris. And rather than embracing the 1960s clichés of Swinging London, the Stones worked with avant-garde Parisian director Jean-Luc Godard on their experimental 1968 film Sympathy for the Devil, Godard's first English-language film. But the singer's connections with France were really made for a brace of reasons two years later: love and tax. At the end of September 1970 Jagger met 25-year-old Nicaraguan Blanca Pérez-Mora Macías (later Bianca Jagger) at a Stones aftershow party on the executive floor of Paris's Hotel George V. Jagger had recently split up with Marianne Faithfull and it wasn't long before he and Macías, who'd moved to Paris in 1961, were an item. This was confirmed in the eyes of the world's media when the pair enjoyed a fortnight's holiday in Nassau that November. The second reason was more prosaic. Taxes for the rich in Britain were sky-high in 1971 so the Stones, and many other high-earning musicians, left the country. 'The tax rate in the early 1970s on the highest earners was 83 per cent,' Stones guitarist Keith Richards wrote in his autobiography Life, 'And that went up to 98 per cent for investments and so-called unearned income. So that's the same as being told to leave the country.' The band toyed with moving to the Channel Islands (too dreary) but settled on France. With families in tow, they scattered themselves around the south of France in April 1971, just days before the new tax year started. Drummer Charlie Watts went to Vaucluse, guitarist Mick Taylor to St Tropez, Jagger to a château once owned by Pablo Picasso near Biot, bassist Bill Wyman to Grasse and Richards to the sprawling – and soon to be infamous – Villa Nellcôte in Villefranche-sur-Mer. As Jagger's unauthorised biographer Alan Clayson put it: 'The reason for relocating to the Côte D'Azur wasn't the sunshine but because, despite the huge takings for the 1969 North American [tour], the Stones' revenue for the fiscal year had been overestimated. Expenditure exceeded income at a rate that couldn't cover [the tax bill].' With matters of the heart and the wallet drawing him to France, Jagger's residency there coalesced around two key events in the summer of 1971. It was in Richards's rented Villa Nellcôte – all tall ceilings, statues and period furniture – that the band recorded what is widely held up as their finest album, the raggedy Exile on Main St. The band never intended to use the house as a recording studio: they'd looked for facilities in Nice or Cannes to no avail. So a warren of tiny rooms in the mansion's basement became their makeshift studio (the place was a former Gestapo HQ), with leads and cables trailing out of the windows to the band's mobile recording studio parked outside, itself illegally jacked up to the French railway system's electricity supply. Although technically the home of Richards, his partner Anita Pallenberg and their young son Marlon, the villa attracted all manner of guests, including country music star Gram Parsons. It became the smartest sleazy guest house in Europe. A local boy known as Fat Jack was employed as the chef, while Richards kept a 20-foot mahogany Riva motorboat on a jetty at the bottom of some cliffside stairs, enabling the band to nip out to lunch down the riviera. Photos from that summer of Jagger and Richards taken by photographer Dominique Tarlé, who was invited to Nellcôte for a day but stayed for six months, ooze a rakish grandiosity that remains unsurpassed in rock 'n' roll photography. 'Incredible alchemy,' was how Tarlé described what he found there. One week, Jagger and Stones saxophonist Bobby Keys roamed the French coast on Honda 350 motorbikes, having been unable to locate Harley-Davidsons. A helmet-less Jagger is pictured tearing down the bucolic roads in a baseball shirt, local heads turning at the rock star in their midst. The second key event of that summer was Jagger's marriage to Macías. It took place on May 12 in St Tropez with ceremonies in both the local council office and the Roman Catholic church. It was a star-studded event with the likes of Eric Clapton, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and Stephen Stills flying in specifically, most with their partners and kids with them. Pictures, again by Tarlé, show the biggest tower of profiteroles you've ever seen. As Richards noted, somewhat witheringly: 'Mick arranged what he saw as a quiet wedding, for which he chose St Tropez at the height of the season. No journalist stayed at home.' While these two events marked Jagger's highest-profile French escapades, his love affair with the country was far from over. In October 1971, his and Bianca's daughter Jade was born in Paris's Belvedere Nursing Home. The Stones frontman is often seen at Paris Fashion Week (as, these days, are his offspring). And, this being Jagger, matters of the heart are often linked to the City of Light. In the 1990s, he reportedly had an affair with model Carla Bruni, who would go on – years later – to become the first lady of France through her marriage to Nicolas Sarkozy. 'I thought I'd never get over it,' Bruni is quoted as saying in Christopher Andersen's 2012 biography, The Wild Life and Mad Genius of Jagger. Jagger's son with long-term partner Melanie Hamrick is called Deveraux, a common French surname. Yet rather than have Sympathy for the Deveraux, we should embrace Jagger's clear Francophilia. Britain's relations with France have often been strained, as Macron himself has suggested on this visit. So with all his French ties, it's no wonder that Jagger is a willing vessel of soft power to smooth cross-channel bonds. He should keep sipping at the L'entente. Satisfaction guaranteed.
