Ephraim Hardcastle

THE Prince of Wales’s ‘spider’ letters – he’s still sending them – are sealed inside three envelopes, ‘like a Russian doll’, says my source. Charles writes with his special Parker fountain pen filled with organic ink. On ‘planes it’s removed from his jacket and placed in a special box lined with quilted paper. It’s prone to leak at altitude. So it’s removed from the box on landing, refilled, cleaned and placed back in the Prince’s jacket. ‘Charles never fills his own pen as he dislikes ink on his fingers,’ says my source, adding: ‘Charles did try once to revive the quill pen, but it was judged a step too far, even for him.’ DAVID and Samantha Cameron were filmed entering Buckingham Palace for the newly re-elected PM’s audience with the Queen, but there were no photos of the actual event. After Labour’s 1997 landslide, Tony Blair suggested to the Palace that the audience should be recorded with an official photo. The Palace said No. Ditto in 2001 and 2005, when Blair won subsequent elections. In 2007, Gordon Brown’s bid to have a camera in the audience room as he received the seals of office was refused. Says a Palace source: ‘David Cameron is more deferential. No such requests were made in either 2010 or 2015.’ He might have been aware that it would look bad for the monarch if HM was seen to be honouring a Tory Prime Minister after turning down Labour requests. FANS of movie veteran Al Pacino, 75, pictured, are offered a ‘dine with Pacino experience’ during his one-man stage tour of the UK, in which he discusses his Hollywood career. This includes an ‘exclusive and intimate lunch’ with the Godfather star before the show, along with ‘other benefits’ unspecified. Those who take up this enchanting offer are expected to pay £7,500. Or, Corleonestyle, they might make him an offer he can’t refuse… REFLECTING on the Tory election triumph, ex-deputy chairman Jeffrey Archer announces on his blog: ‘It gave me particular pleasure to see that three of my London Mayoral team, Sajid Javid, Robert Halfon and Priti Patel, have been promoted to the Cabinet.’ No doubt the trio’s pleasure in being so reminded is tinged with regret that Jeffrey had to stand down prior to the 2000 mayoral election due to perjury allegations, for which ultimately he was jailed and suspended from the party for five years. OUSTED MP George Galloway likens the Labour Party leadership race to a donkey derby and, asked by LBC’s Nick Ferrari about Chuka Umunna, says: ‘He’s a snake-oil salesman.’ I am sure Chuka speaks well of George. A new biography of girl-chasing warbler Adam Faith, who died 12 years ago, aged 62, says that after a night of passion with a famous female newsreader, he told her: ‘If you want me tonight, when you’re reading the news, do something with the papers on your desk when you’re on air.’ He added: ‘Anyway, she was reading the news and she started shuffling the papers… I ask you!’ Does any famous newsreader of the Faith era come to mind?